Afrosphere
The Afrosphere refers to all Black blogs working toward Black political, cultural, economic self-determination internationally. There is also a membership group within the Afrosphere called the AfroSpear, which includes over 150 Black blogs.[citation needed]
History[edit]
The genesis of the AfroSpear/afrosphere movement involves many bloggers of African descent throughout the African Diaspora, and their blogs and websites. In early 2007, Black bloggers in the U.S. such as AfroNetizen, African American Political Pundit, Jack and Jill Politics, Black Commentator Booker Rising, Prometheus 6, Mirror on America and Francis L. Holland were expressing the need for the inclusion of Black bloggers in the majority blogosphere discussion on issues in the United States.
Former President Bill Clinton met a group of white bloggers in Harlem, New York, to discuss politics, without any Black bloggers in attendance. That this event took place in a historically Black community with only white participants was considered by many Black bloggers as an insult,[citation needed] given that black voters are a critical base of the Democratic Party, prompting early discussions of change in the Blogosphere.
Black Internet social and political activist Francis L. Holland wrote a post in MyDD: Blackosphere & Whitosphere: Silence is Never Golden on February 15, 2007, calling for a convening of bloggers of African descent to further discuss issues of importance to the African diaspora. His article, entitled "White-News" vs. the Blackosphere", became a topic of conversation in the Black blogger community, and coined the term "whitosphere", referring to the white blogosphere.
Bloggers including The Field Negro, Jack and Jill Politics, African American Political Pundit, Asabagna, Aulelia, P6, Skeptical Brotha, Republic of T, BygBaby, Culture Kitchen, Angie, The Free Slave, and others continued the discussions at Republic of T's blog following his blog post "The Republic of T. Blogging While Brown, Part III" on March 30, 2007, with bloggers Rikyrah, ecthompson, Electronic Viillage, Mark Bey, Dr. Lester Spence, Bronze Trinity and others contributing to the discussion. The name AfroSpear was agreed on through further discussions on other Black blogger platforms such as The Free Slave.
The overall the origins of “AfroSpear” started from a discussion group of Black bloggers from around the world who had an interest in developing a community of African/Black progressive minded bloggers. The word AfroSpear came from black blogger discussions regarding a name for a group of Black bloggers who did not want to limit their engagement to the continent of the United States, but also wanted to connect with bloggers from throughout the African Diaspora.
Seeing the need to water of the AfroSpear seed, and take it to the next level, a smaller ad hoc black blogger group moved forward and began planning beyond the creation of a name and concepts into a baseline model of the AfroSpear. It developed into an idea to create a diasporic-wide think tank type blog with six bloggers: three women and three men. The vision was that it would focus on discussing issues, exchanging ideas and creating strategies, with the objective of developing concrete and viable solutions to tackle the concerns relating to those of African descent worldwide.
The 6 who initially started the AfroSpear blog had developed a relationship by exchanging ideas and having discussions and respectful debates on each other’s blogs. They didn’t always agree, but what they had in common was their love for their community and a commitment to the progress of those of African descent, both near and far. They came from 4 different countries on 3 continents. They brought a variety of experiences, perspectives, ideas, beliefs and values in an effort to foster understanding, wisdom, knowledge and strength.
The Afrospear is a part of, connected to and add a collective voice to the variety of other Afrocentric/Black individuals, conglomerations and collectives out in the AfroSphere. To the best and the brightest for the progress of people of the African diaspora. Original moderators and Contributors of the Afrospear included, Adrianne, Asabagna, Aulelia, BelizeBound, Field Negro and Kizzie.
The Afrospear and the afrosphere of bloggers worked on organizing The Jena 6, and Shaquanda Cotton and have helped spread word about the Jena6 while at the same time AfroSpear Members Mark Bey and Bronze Trinity organized the African American Bloggers Association and its Solutions Blog.
On August 2, 2007, the Afrosphere Bloggers Association was launched[1] as an organization to help the Black community to grow and prosper and became the first organisation to use the word in its company name.
In 2007, bloggers, and podcasters of the Afrosphere played a significant role in publicising and organising activism in response to the Jena Six[2]
In 2008, the Democratic National Convention credentialed several AfroSpear and afrosphere bloggers to cover the Convention in Denver, Colorado.
Participation in the 2008 Democratic National Convention[edit]
On May 16, 2008, AfroSpear member Atty. Francis L. Holland broke the story of the Democratic National Convention's (DNC) virtually all-white state blog pool, where some 53 of 55 state blogs chosen to sit among the delegates on the floor of the Democratic National Convention were white, with only two Black or Latino blogs chosen. The DNC state blog corps story was first covered in the mainstream media by reporter Karen Brooks of the Dallas Morning News. Atty. Francis L. Holland and D. Yobachi Boswell, both coordinators of the Afrosphere Action Coalition issued a series of press releases and gave a series of interviews to the mainstream media on the issue, after which the story was covered in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Washington Post, USA Today, The Chicago Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle, and Politico.
Partly as a result of these actions, as well as a generalized afrosphere campaign of e-mail contact with the DNC and intense media attention, six AfroSpear blogs and an additional three afrosphere blogs that had applied for credentials were allowed to cover the 2008 Democratic National Convention as part of the Convention's "general pool" of blogs, but not as part of the state blog corps, which remains virtually all-white.[3]
AfroSpear blogs admitted to cover the 2008 Democratic National Convention in the general pool were L.N. Rock's "African American Political Pundit"; Pam Spaulding's "PamsHouseBlend"; Shawn Williams' "Dallas South"; Gina McCauley's "What About our Daughters?"; Jill Tubman and Baratunde Thurston's "Jack and Jill Politics". Additional afrosphere blogs selected included "Culture Kitchen" and "Georgia Unfiltered".[3]
In 2012, credentialed bloggers at the Democratic National Convention will include Leon N. Rock of the African American Pundit blog and Adrianne George of the Black Women in Europe blog.
Afrosphere bloggers' recognition as a force in American journalism[edit]
The Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism has taken notice of Black bloggers' presence at the 2008 Democratic National Convention as one of the significant trends 2008, citing Francis L. Holland's advocacy to see Black blogs credentialed for the convention.[4] and "notable credentialed African American blogs" including: African American Political Pundit, Jack and Jill Politics, Pam’s House Blend and Dallas South.
Tracking[edit]
Sites such as Afrigator, KenyaUnlimited, Muti and Global Voices Online track the interconnections between African bloggers through the use of RSS feeds.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ "bronzetrinity.efx2.com/view/98661/Announcing-the-Launch-of-the-Afrosphere-Bloggers-Association/". bronzetrinity.efx2.com. Retrieved 2017-08-26.
- ↑ Afrosphere Bloggers Ask Media To Cover Jena Six Story « THE SOLUTIONS BLOG Archived October 24, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 DemConvention.Com Archived 2008-06-25 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ "The Obama Factor". Retrieved 2009-04-20. The State of the News Media: An Annual Report on American Journalism (2009)
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