What is the Maafa?
April 19, 2026
“Revolution moves in a mysterious way, its wonders to perform.” –C.L.R. James “It was the first time in human history that enslaved people had destroyed a slave system, declared themselves rulers, and...
Earth, Wind & Fire, one of the most innovative and critically acclaimed bands of the 20th century, has...
Legend of the Crown: “The Art of African Kings and Queens” is more than a set of striking...
Dr. Umar Rashad Johnson is a Pan-Africanist scholar, certified psychologist, activist, and one of the most outspoken contemporary...
My favourite anthology is Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby, and I am fortunate to have a signed...
Abram Petrovich Hannibal, also known as Gannibal or Ganibal, was kidnapped from his parents in Africa and brought...
“I’ve Come to Take You Home” is one of the most significant political poems of the late twentieth...
“There are no accomplices here other than you and I. You as oppressor, I as liberator, deserve to...
Pemulwuy (c.1750–1802) was a Bidjigal warrior of the Dharug Nation and and one of the most formidable resistance...
Lena Baker, an African American maid, was executed by the State of Georgia in 1945 for the murder...
“A free black mind is a concealed weapon!” Samuel Greenlee, Jr. was an African-American novelist, poet, screenwriter, journalist,...
John Wesley Gilbert was a classical scholar who was the first African-American archaeologist. Gilbert discovered the ancient Greek city, Eretria, and produced the first map of the ancient structure. He was...
“Yaa Asantewaa The woman who fights before cannons You have accomplished great things You have done well” Yaa...
Richard Pryor was one of the most influential stand-up comedians of his generation, and starred in a number...
“Only in the darkness can you see the stars.” ~Martin Luther King Jr.
...
This essay explains how the term Maafa is used across Kentake Page. The term Maafa was introduced by...
“An African…has an undeniable right to his Liberty.” Lemuel Haynes was an influential African-American religious leader who argued...
“Only the BLACK WOMAN can say when and where I enter, in the quiet, undisputed dignity of my womanhood, without violence and without suing or special patronage, then and there the...
Walter S. McAfee was an African-American scientist and astronomer, notable for participating in the world’s first lunar radar...
On January 1, 1923 a massacre was carried out in Rosewood, a town with about 150 residents. Rosewood...
There was the cycle of the mineral, the rock. There was the cycle of the plant. And now we are in the cycle of the animal coming to the end of...
Meserette Kentake, founder of Kentake Page, was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, and is of Yoruba descent (mtDNA). Now based in London, she holds a BSc in Counselling Psychology but is most passionate about…
Meserette! Did you just take a page out of Ntozake Shange’s book? I sure did. Why? Because it...
“Laws in and of themselves will not protect us; laws are words written on paper; laws protect no...
Recently, Substack launched an AI-detection feature, powered by Pangram, which offers readers an estimate of how much of...
People often ask where to begin learning Black history. Usually, they ask for the name of a book,...
The Kentake Page website recently developed internal issues that prevented me from publishing new posts. After the passing...
I have been on a rampage, as we would say in Jamaica. It feels as if I am...
Ryan Coogler’s birth chart features a Yod, a rare astrological configuration often called the “finger of fate” or...
Today is World Bee Day—an opportunity to honor both Blackness and “Beeness”, and to celebrate the long, buzzing...
Can you name ten ships that took your ancestors from Africa to the Americas? No? This question was...
As we approach the final reading of SINNERS, it feels much like bidding farewell to a dear friend....
The number 13 is often regarded as unlucky, associated with skeletons, death, upheaval, and the unknown. However, older...
In my original plan, I intended for this final section of the essay to appear as a single...
