Originally published June 01, 2012

Social Network for African Descendants Launched

A new social network has been launched with an eye toward bringing people of African descent together.

Africland.com is a “community space” for Blacks from Haiti, Colombia, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Africa, United States, Jamaica, Dominica, Venezuela, Trinidad, Cuba, France, and elsewhere, to connect and share their experiences, customs and culture, the website states.
“We believe that this tool will be instrumental in bridging the gap that has been put between us all through different events, and it's time for us to re connect (sic) and become one again,” it continued.

Founder Lorenzo Were said the site was created after he noted how out of touch people of African descendants were, and the level of misconceptions and even suspicion that existed between them. He hopes to foster better understanding and cultural awareness, and to boost professional and business relationships to foster development among the Africans on the continent and abroad.

"I chose the name Africland because I wanted something people may relate to easily and not seem too alien," he said.

Hailing from a Nilotic tribe that's found all over East Africa, Were holds a degree in electrical engineering and is currently pursuing masters in the same field.

"I love technology, and my dream job would be to work for NASA,” he said. “If I was to do it all over again, I would want to be an astro-physicist, because I am obsessed with how the universe works, our place in the universe, [and] what/who may be out there in the space. I day dream of space all the time, if NASA came to my door and told me that there is a one way ticket to go to Jupiter’s moon Europa, with no chance of coming back, I would take it and die a happy man."
And he has other aspirations. “[I am] hoping to be able to return to East Africa in the next two years to participate in creation of our own model of Silicon Valley,” he said. “I believe my continent has too many resources that if we put our minds together, every African can live a middle class lifestyle that is more rewarding than the West.”

This is the type of sharing Were hopes users will undertake on his website. Signup is free, and he urged members to use their real names so friends, colleagues and family could find them more easily. While the site encourages free speech, the creator also asked that users practice respect and civility to foster a strong sense of community.

Were said since the site’s debut in April public response has been good, but he urged members to promote the network.
“The foundation has been laid, but it is going take each and every individual user to put the pieces together to build this site into what we would wish it to become."

For more information or to sign up, visit: www.africland.com.

The oddah day, I met up with an African from Africa and he said a thing to me. I din know that those Africans distance themselves from those that boarded ships to foreign land under bondage. 

Then I looked at this Youtube thing on Indentured servants from Indian to Jamaica. The Negro woman sey dem INdian National think lowly of dem indentured Indians.

She say, when she visited Nigeria, she experience de same kind a thing. She was shocked to find out that Africans kinda look down on other blacks not from Africa.

Most Indians from India and Sri Lanka see us Indians from the Diaspora as being subhuman darks.  That is why I have as little contact with them as possible.  I prefer to deal with Pakistanis from Pakistan and people from Bangladesh. 

Why would Continental Africans identify with TRansAtlantic blacks when it was they who sold the latter into slavery. When Africa asks for reparations its quite funny, given that those who were sold into slavery no  longer remained in Africa, and indeed more than a few who remained grew wealthy fom the trade.  Maybe Africa AND Europe ought to be BOTH held responsible for reparations.

Those Enlglish, Irish, Scottish people despised and persecuted by the British became something more powerful and the envy of the world: Americans. You can tell similar stories about the Indian and African diasporas.

Apparently you dont know that it was their very ability to merge with Americans of English and German ancestry that enabled their rise within US society.  The USA remained in the hands of the WASPs until well after WWII.  One can argue that the USA remains Anglo dominated in its cultrure and values and the abiliuty to negotiate this is what determines the success of a group beyond being niche players in ethnic enclaves.

Africans will never respect TransAtlantic blacks until we have some thing to offer and celebrating "blackness" is of no interest to them.

Looks like you finally ketch sense, years ago you claimed that Indians were responsible for reparations. 

Africans celebrated Obama's rise to the presidency. Africans like Indians want to migrate in mass to the US.

I think he meant American Indians.

Druggie I NEVER SAID that.  You deliberately lie to hide YOUR racism, and that of your family and other rich Indians towards blacks. No wonder they punished the PPP by stomping them in Linden, Gtwn and elsewhere.  So the PPP is in govt but has little power.

I said that Indians ought to own up to their CONTEMPORARY racism towards Africans as they used to whine that the PNC hated them.  Well the PPP has done to blacks what the PNC did to Indians so either both are racist or neither are.

To show what an idiot you are how can Indians be responsible for slavery when they came AFTER blacks.  There is not one person who demands reparations from Indians. They demand to be treated fairly by Indo economic and political elites in 2012.

What was indeed a fact however is that the British plantocracy used both Indians and blacks (Guyanese and Islanders/African indentures) against each other.  Indentures/immigrants (Indians,Chinese,Portuguese, Africans and Islanders) were used to undermine the efforts of Guyanese blacks to fight for better wages in 1848.  Subsequent to that Guyanese and Bajan blacks were used as scabs when Indos started to fight for the SAME rights in the 1880s that Guyanes eblacks fought for 40 years before.  Indeed Walter Rodney reported Indians attacking Bajan migrants in an incident in the late 19th century as they saw the latter as undermining their fight for better wages and conditions.

As I noted, you change your tune, the knowledge that I pounded into your brain over the years has changed your outlook. Initially you were in the black victim mentality mode, now you beginning to see the light. 

The Blacks will vote race regardless, even thought the PPP give them milk and raised their standard of living to unprecedented levels. Blacks today in Guyana enjoy a much greater economic prosperity due to PPP milk than under PNC black tea time. 

And now you expect us to believe that Indians bullied Bajan Blacks?  hahahahahaha

No need to argue with me about assaults by Indians on Bajan scabs. Go and argue with Walter Rodney.  Given his credentials in Guyanese hsitory and yours, I suggest you dont make yourself look stupid.

I am glad that you finally admit that racism by the Indo political/ecopnomic eliutes are a scourge on black Guyanese in 2012.  This is my point.

Can you tell us when Indians didnt vote race?

Blacks voted for Cheddi in 1952.  Cheddi was an Indian, wasnt he? Druggie there is at least one ocassion when blacks voted for an Indian, Cheddi, when a black man, John Carter, was available but didnt receive much of their support.  Now discuss when Indians voted for a black man when an Indian was available.