1619 project

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Harrow, Kenneth

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May 30, 2021, 7:03:30 AM5/30/21
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could one of you historians explain to me why the 1619 project wants to make the claim that the first slaves brought to the u.s. was in 1619 when the spanish had done so earlier?
here's a piece of the wiki reference on this:

In Spanish Florida and farther north, the first African slaves arrived in 1526 with Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón's establishment of San Miguel de Gualdape on the current Georgia coast.[38][39] They rebelled and lived with indigenous people, destroying the colony in less than 2 months.[40] More slaves arrived in Florida in 1539 with Hernando de Soto, and in the 1565 founding of St. Augustine, Florida.[39][40] Native Americans were also enslaved in Florida by the encomienda system.[41][42] slaves escaping to Florida from the colony of Georgia were freed by Carlos II's proclamation November 7, 1693 if the slaves were willing to convert to Catholicism,[43][44] and it became a place of refuge for slaves fleeing the Thirteen Colonies.[44][45]


ken


kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

Yahaya Danjuma

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May 31, 2021, 6:38:07 AM5/31/21
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Not me. This was far from the only problem with it. The project seems to be an example of why historians wince when reporters try to write history, even if they have sometimes done so well. 


On May 30, 2021, at 10:10, Harrow, Kenneth <har...@msu.edu> wrote:

could one of you historians explain to me why the 1619 project wants to make the claim that the first slaves brought to the u.s. was in 1619 when the spanish had done so earlier?


Harrow, Kenneth

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May 31, 2021, 2:04:40 PM5/31/21
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i completely agree that if you want to real, valid, effective, meaningful history of events, reporters are mostly not where to go. i discovered this when reading coverage on the rwandan genocide, esp the first books, which brought tons of information, but ascribed the situation to a fixed historical account that was composed for the naive. a fixed, teleological account. anyway, i recented went back to Re-imagining Rwanda by Pottier, and appreciated how a solid historical account brings enormously more than these newspaper accounts that purport to give in 5 lines 200 years of history. soundbites vs depth.
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu


From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Yahaya Danjuma <yahaya....@gmail.com>
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Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - 1619 project
 
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Biko Agozino

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May 31, 2021, 5:42:13 PM5/31/21
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The 1619 project won a major award for journalism but it was not entirely journalistic. Many scholars from multidisciplinary backgrounds were invited top contribute to that project. The date is significant but the project also acknowledged that Africans came before Columbus and definitely before the Mayflower that is celebrated by Euro Americans while hardly anyone memorializes the pirate ship, The White Lion.

Those interested in reading more about the 1619 project should check out the book, 400 Souls edited by Ibvram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain with contributions from 90 authors, including the 1619 curator. The book acknowledges that 1619 was not the beginning of African history in the Americas but rightly recognizes the significance of the date.

C.W. Mills warned that journalists may be the best sociologists if the sociologists do not move away from grand theory and abstract empiricism to narrate the links between biographies and contemporary troubles. 

Historians who are knocking the 1619 project should commend the project for popularizing the under-represented history.  If you do not like the historiography of the 1619 project, go ahead and write your own proper history.


Yahaya Danjuma

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Jun 2, 2021, 7:30:18 AM6/2/21
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I hope you are not implying that the many historians who have criticized the 1619 project have not written proper history themselves. 

The project may have helped popularize African American history, but it has also provided a convenient target for those who would ignore more well researched history to focus on the mistakes of the project as an excuse to return to propagandistic history. The ultimate effect of the project remains to be seen. I do hope for the best. 


On Jun 1, 2021, at 03:49, 'Biko Agozino' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Historians who are knocking the 1619 project should commend the project for popularizing the under-represented history.  If you do not like the historiography of the 1619 project, go ahead and write your own proper history.



John Edward Philips  
International Society, College of Humanities, Hirosaki University
"Homo sum; humani nihil a me alienum puto." -Terentius Afer



biko...@yahoo.com

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Jun 2, 2021, 12:16:24 PM6/2/21
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Everyone knows that history is never written once and for all because history continues to be made and we continue to be made by history. Keep researching and keep writing. The 1619 project is well researched for a newspaper project and critics who expect it to read like a doctoral dissertation miss the point that all written history is instructive to some.

Biko

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Connor Ryan

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Jun 2, 2021, 12:16:58 PM6/2/21
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Have folks read Laila Lalami's novel The Moor's Account? Not her best work, but the book's premise alone is enthralling. In a way, she writes the history the 1619 project overlooks. The novel is framed as the (fictional) memoir of Estebanico, an African slave mentioned in historical records from the 1527 Spanish expedition lead by Cabeza de Vaca through, among other places, present-day Florida. 

I found the novel intriguing for how Lalami interrogates what "slave" entails in the context of the expedition, and how the slave's bondage dissolves as the Spanish masters wander further from everything that once enshrined their authority. The novel also reflects what the wikipedia note mentions about rebellion and falling in with indigenous communities.

Connor

Harrow, Kenneth

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Jun 2, 2021, 2:09:06 PM6/2/21
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to add to connor's point, who has read toni morrison's magnificent novel Mercy. it paints quite a surprising picture of those who arrived and settled early in the 17th century. it focuses not on slaves, but indentured peoples, who included whites and native people and blacks. by the end of the century, she tells us, that situation had changed, no doubt as plantation slavery started to be implemented. at that point slavery had become racialized, with laws dictating that slaves would be black. we all know morrison was an historian before turning into a novelist.

i admit not to knowing the history of the u.s. well. we all know the spanish came to florida first, etc., and they had slaves. when i googled spain and slavery in the new world, i was amazed to learn that in latin america spain legally barred it. it got complicated, goes in all directions. they were conquistadores, etc., with lots of blood on their hands. but their rules on slavery amazed me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_colonial_Spanish_America

Slavery in the Spanish American colonies was an economic and social institution which existed throughout the Spanish Empire including Spain itself. In its American territories, Spain displayed an early abolitionist stance towards indigenous people although Native American slavery continued to be practiced, particularly until the New Laws of 1543. The Spanish empire, however was involved in the ...
here's one part of it, from 16th century spanish laws: "Technically, the indigenous people held in encomienda were not slaves, but their unpaid labor was mandatory and coerced,[4] and while in theory they were "cared for" by the person in whose charge they were placed (encomendado), this might mean offering them the Christian religion and other perceived (by the Spaniards) benefits of Christian civilization"

also, i am curious about the french, who preceded the brits in america. i know they were mostly trappers, and had alliances with native people. but did they not also have slaves? anywhere? seems improbable, since by the 17th century they had become a big part of the slave trade, and had come down to what is now the u.s. from the north. e.g.detroit was french, so was part of NY. the french had native indian allies, and various tribes still practiced slavery. were the french not part of that too?

these are questions not intended to oppose the political storm of the 1619 project, where i am perfectly happy to silence my questions and support the politics that promotes it. we are living a tense political moment over race where even old political/literary/sociological theory used 30 years ago, called critical race theory, is now being legislated out of existence by the most racist political movement in my lifetime.

i trust that this group of scholars and friends can discuss academic and intellectual matters, and even learn more from each other--especially as we have lots of historians on the list.
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu


From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Connor Ryan <connor...@gmail.com>
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Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: 1619 project
 
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Gloria Emeagwali

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Jun 2, 2021, 5:06:16 PM6/2/21
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First of all, I actually prefer the term captive or enslaved Africans, depending on the context. To use the term slave indiscriminately and across the board may be inaccurate.

The humans involved (minus the kidnappers and traffickers) were victims of human trafficking in all cases. They were taken aboard a ship, perhaps rat infested, and packed like sardines.
At this point they were kidnappees and captives.They landed in Virginia , and at that point,  the purchaser of the trafficked victims offered a price.
The process of enslavement on a tobacco  plantation was about to begin.
A new form of human rights violation, brutality and terror awaited them. Those who liberated themselves from the shackles ( the so-called “runaways“) were no longer “slaves.”Some analysts have a hard time using an appropriate term for those Africans that were no longer enslaved whether from self- liberation or from judicial intervention.


So when did the first African arrive in the US, in 1619 or 1526? I suspect that if the author had started from the earlier date, critics would have argued that the United States, in the context of British colonialism started in the 1600s, and that going earlier than than undermined the true initial Anglo roots of the US as a British colony.
I don’t necessarily agree with the argument but it has some merit.
The land purchases made later were to consolidate the initial structure.

Bear in mind also Van  Sertima’s proposition that Africans were in the Americas before the Columbine invasion,  and we can even go back to the beginning to Brazil’s Luzia, to complicate the discourse- 
but I will leave it at that. This is
in reference to the era before terror.

Brazil’s Luzia:


By the way I hope the Wikipedia note is there exactly as Harrow and Ryan cited it. It is now 3.26 Eastern Time.


Gloria Emeagwali 

On Jun 2, 2021, at 12:16, Connor Ryan <connor...@gmail.com> wrote:

Have folks read Laila Lalami's novel The Moor's Account? Not her best work, but the book's premise alone is enthralling. In a way, she writes the history the 1619 project overlooks. The novel is framed as the (fictional) memoir of Estebanico, an African slave mentioned in historical records from the 1527 Spanish expedition lead by Cabeza de Vaca through, among other places, present-day Florida. 
--

Ibrahim Abdullah

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Jun 3, 2021, 5:01:47 AM6/3/21
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European slavery is strictly speaking chattel slavery—humans as property. Those who were referred to as Recaptives or Liberated Africans who were freed on the high seas and settled in Freetown were also slaves to the extent to which they had become someone’s property.

Ajayi Crowther was abducted with his family in march 1821—he landed in Freetown on 17th June 1822. He was sold and re-sold and then separated from his mom and siblings. By the time he got to Lagos to be shipped out he had worked for several masters who truly “owned” him——this was slavery but NOT plantation slavery.


—————————

Harrow, Kenneth

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Jun 3, 2021, 5:02:04 AM6/3/21
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well, what gloria is saying makes sense. but i wonder if we could also think about it from another angle. the "america" that emerged from the east coast had become an anglo, that is british, colony, as you say. but consider for a moment that that vision of the united states excludes other colonizing peoples whose imprint mattered greatly. if we leave aside the native americans for a moment, we still have the french and spanish. the spanish impact on the east coast became negligible, i think. the french traders got pushed out, eventually; new orleans came a century after jamestown, and even became spanish for 40 years, before they took it back and it got "purchased" by the u.s. but what about the spanish side in the southwest. i scanned it and notice desoto, who had come to florida, also came to arkansas, and most important, to texas.
texas.
the spanish conquered mexico, and eventually that included the whole southwest, and even the west. i don't know anything about whether they brought enslaved people, and especially if africans were involved since, as we know, slavery became a vast enterprise in the caribbean and central america, as well as brazil. i think most slaves brought to the u.s. were sent up in ships from the caribbean. the portuguese ran that slave trade initially, but spanish colonies purchased many enslaved people, enormous numbers. and eventually the portuguese ships got supplanted by the british, the french, and the dutch....
the dutch...  don't forget, before it was new york, it was new amsterdam....(1609, henry hudson)

anyway, if we stick to one version of u.s. history, marked by africans and african enslaved people, we might want to focus on the british, but i would also want to ask about the french and spanish whose imprint on that history was more significant depending on where we are standing (i.e.new orleans or the american southwest). we have a habit of starting on the east coast, and when i learned u.s. history as a child, they left out the spanish side, the entire theft of vast stretches of the country, mostly taken from mexico. but if we lived out west, i bet we'd see this country through other eyes, and construct a different history.
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu


From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Gloria Emeagwali <gloria.e...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 2, 2021 3:26 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: 1619 project
 

Akwasi Osei

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Jun 3, 2021, 11:36:55 AM6/3/21
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So, when did the current USA begin?  

1587?
1607?
1619?
1620?
1776?
1787?

All these dates can put in a claim in answer to the question.  

The 1619 Projects makes an excellent case for the institution of this new, African ethnic group we have come to call African American.  It does not try to erase nor negate any other earlier African presence in these parts.  

And Biko is correct.


Gloria Emeagwali

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Jun 3, 2021, 4:07:21 PM6/3/21
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We can also say that it started around
12000 years ago with the first  Native American in North America. After all,  more than 20 states are of Native American origin in name, and the agricultural expertise of the Native Americans provided the basis for the colonists to  feed themselves, grow and survive- from tomatoes, corn, potatoes, beans, all the varieties of berries, corn, squash,
and more, to medicaments and the pepper drinks and the proto-Coca Cola beverages.The soft drink industry, anesthetics and the food snack industry, from popcorn to 
chewing gum, are all inherited from 
that historical era.

We don’t have to leave out the Native Americans.



Gloria Emeagwali 


On Jun 3, 2021, at 05:02, Harrow, Kenneth <har...@msu.edu> wrote:



Harrow, Kenneth

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Jun 3, 2021, 4:07:21 PM6/3/21
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i would resist answering the question "when did the current usa begin." the answer constructs a beginning, and serves the kind of thinking glissant called "originary." if africans arrived before 1619, nothing denies them the right to claim descendancy dating back to the spanish arrival.
to fix an origin is to construct a history, with all its priorities. i want to resist an anglo priority, as if all the others didn't count. dutch presence in new york preceded the anglo presence in virginia, and even if it were a century later, it still involved an impact. the usa began as a human entity millenia before the arrival of europeans. it makes no sense to me to seek an originary point for their arrival, as if it were the defining mark for the entire populations and cultures that followed.
it makes no sense, also, to imagine a virginia entry point as having a priority over, say, the french and spanish in new orleans, even if that came later. and most of all, no sense to omit the southwest and its history apart from the east coast entirely.

this is an african listserv. nothing grates more than the presentation of african histories that attempt to present them as beginning with the arrival of europeans. even the south africans attempt that ploy. but once you deny that originary approach you then have the  difficult task of dealing with all the peoples who had been there "before." can there be nothing but befores  for us humans, i.e., histories that can only date back and back?

i am trying to say that once we establish a fixed point of origin, it begins its exclusionary and priority thinking that always excludes and denies Others.  perhaps some here might remember the nefarious politics of the "Daughters of the American Revolution."
or the french "joke,"  their history teaching in africa, back to the gauls. nous les gaullois.
why? for them, africans had no history; for sarkhozy, africans are still waiting to enter history. Glissant spelled that history History; and, i believe at heart, that is where my hesitation before any project that has a fixed date for its point of origin is that it points in the direction of History.

i don't want my remarks to be misunderstood. The politics of the 1619 project are important and valuable. it ignited a storm that we have to navigate along its positive wake. but it is still animated by History, not what we might call histories.
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu


From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Akwasi Osei <aosei...@gmail.com>
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Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - 1619 project
 

Harrow, Kenneth

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Jun 3, 2021, 4:17:24 PM6/3/21
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with or without the coke, agreed 100%


kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu


Sent: Thursday, June 3, 2021 2:04 PM

Toyin Falola

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Jun 3, 2021, 4:18:44 PM6/3/21
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Ken:

Unfortunately:

 

i.                    “originary” is tied to identity—difficult to do without it, not impossible but difficult.

ii.                  “originary” is tied to a notion of indigeneity. Alas! indigeneity ultimately links with the politics of power and identity.

iii.               “originary” forms the basis of all sorts of mythologies, including the construction of patriarchy.

Adam sinned in the Bible—an “originary story”—but I. Toyin Falola, born millions of years later, will now burn in hell for its consequences. And when God asked Adam, in that brilliant faith-based mythology, “where are you?” he answered:

I am naked.

Instead of saying he was on a tree or in the bush.

He confessed, creating an originary sinhood!!!

Harrow, Kenneth

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Jun 3, 2021, 4:47:33 PM6/3/21
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that's beautiful toyin, but really when read mythically, i.e., not literally. the beauty of myth expands instead of narrowing us.
imagine how we conceive our identities as expanding, not narrowing.
exclusive, until made porous. then we can say, like joan baez, we are a bit of everything and everyone.
imagine the power of reconstructing a matriarchy or patriarchy without resorting to its confinements, but rather its commands of love, like loving your father, loving your mother, then being your father and your mother.

i think of abraham expelling ibrahim, but in tears, and at god's behest. then at home, at night, unseen by his wife, crying for his lost son.
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu


From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu>
Sent: Thursday, June 3, 2021 4:17 PM

Toyin Falola

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Jun 3, 2021, 4:54:07 PM6/3/21
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Ken:

Why can’t we invest a lot of time constructing “oneness”, unity of humanity, and peace, as all these are possible, I think. The name of my latest grandson is

Themistocles Kostantinos Falola

There is a reason!

TF

Emmanuel Babatunde

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Jun 3, 2021, 5:01:31 PM6/3/21
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Dear Professor Harrow Kenneth,

Thank you for enlightening us on the time line of this savage trade in humans created in the image and likeness of God.  It is gratifying that in Florida, when slaves convert to Catholicism, they are freed.  In Brazil where their numbers were much larger and their organizational ingenuity was most sophisticated, such that aspects of Yoruba culture became so dominant leading to the fear that the European culture and language would be overrun,  the Catholic Church Responded by sending a good number of Catholic Priests to sustain the superiority of the European language and culture. 

Let us get in touch brother Kenneth.

I am,

Emmanuel Babatunde

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Harrow, Kenneth

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Jun 3, 2021, 6:02:57 PM6/3/21
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dear toyin, what a beautiful greek name, themistocles. my son played on the local soccer team, 30 years ago, with themis on the team. my granddaughters--two of them--have turkish names, ayla and evren, and gudjarati middle names. i hope our children keep this alive, this jah world of one-name for all of us. we look backwards while looking forward, like eshu, no?
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu


Sent: Thursday, June 3, 2021 4:51 PM

Toyin Falola

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Jun 3, 2021, 6:05:08 PM6/3/21
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And I call my oldest daughter Ajara, an Islamic name!

Harrow, Kenneth

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Jun 3, 2021, 6:11:51 PM6/3/21
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hi emmanuel, there is an endless supply of topics and interest in what linked to the terrible slave trade. i hope this 1619 project's goals are really served by all the commentary that follows. nowadays, in this country, it is a fight since any projects intended to advance the interests of the black world are being politicized and condemned by the republicans, especially in places like texas. the notion of barring approaches like critical race theory makes plain where we, as academics, have our work carved out for us.
best
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu


From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Emmanuel Babatunde <babemm...@gmail.com>
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