WHO IS AFRICAN WARLORD X ?

The Pan-African community; not people, our community is a World. African Warlord X

THIS ENTRY WILL BE A RARE ONE, DUE TO MY LOVE OF LIVING A PRIVATE LIFE ( Yes, I realize that the privacy that I enjoy is slipping away. In some places, it's already been lost. Nonetheless, this entry will give curious minds some insight as to who I am, and what has molded me into the person that I am ).

My life has been exceedingly colorful and complex. I only knew one of my grandparents, and I greatly envy anyone whose had the joy of speaking to a grandfather while he's still living in the flesh. My paternal grandmother was ( and is ) a Cherokee Indian. She lived with the intense fear that tension between the Native American and Black side of our family would be eventually cause an eventual split, and irreconcilable relations. Although this hasn't fully transpired, very few efforts to re-strengthen our ties are being pursued. I must admit that me enthusiasm for doing so is lukewarm, for personal reasons.

Among my fondest childhood memories are one when my father would take me and my " full-blooded " brothers fishing. He taught me how to use twigs, leaves, and flowers to make things that looked like insects, and the fish bit them if you made these fake insects wiggle in shady water as if they were alive. Additionally, we went on regular hunts for arrowheads in the Upstate of South Carolina. I found a small ruby at the bottom of a creek bed once, but I lost it before we arrived back home. Even though my father has passed into the realm of Ancestry, he is probably still pissed off about that..lol !!!!!

My paternal grandfather was the son of a slave ( my great grandfather ) than ran away from a plantation in the Upstate of South Carolina, and joined a nearby Cherokee tribe. South and North Carolina slaves, when given the chance, would eagerly flee to so called " maroon communities " in swamps to escape the horrors of living amongst whites. He ( my great grandfather ) would later marry a Cherokee female within the tribe ( he ran away as a teenager ). In fact, laws were passed in the Upstate of SC that banned plantations being built within vicinity of Native American tribes, because despite what's taught in many history books, Cherokee tribes eagerly welcomed runaway Black and African slaves ( usually young, healthy black men ), because they both hated the same oppressor, and the black runaway slaves were great soldiers. Here's an interesting excerpt that adds flavor to my narrative :

In the 1780s, certain white Virginians began to agitate for the termination of the Gingaskin Indian Reservation in Northampton County... In 1812 it was argued that: 'the place is now inhabited by as many black men as Indians... the Indian women have many of them married black men, and a majority probably, of the inhabitants are blacks or have black-blood in them... the real Indians [are few].' The reserve was divided (allotted) in 1813 and by 1832 whites had acquired most of it. ( Africans and Native Americans: The language of Race and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples....http://www.colorq.org/meltingpot/article.aspx?d=America&x=blackIndians

Equally as interesting is the following excerpt : A 1742 ad reads that there was a " Runaway on the 20th of September last... a very lusty negro fellow... aged about 53 years, and had some Indian blood in him... he had with him a boy about 12 or 13 years of age... born of an Indian woman, and looks like an Indian, only his hair... they both talk Indian very well, and it is likely they have dressed themselves in the Indian dress and gone to Carolina. 2 ( References cited at the bottom of the page attached to the above link ). "

In another 1778 advertisement, it is stated that " Was stolen from her mother, a negro girl, about 9 or 10 years of age, named Dianah, her mother's name is Cash, was married to an Indian named Lewis Wollis, near 6 feet high, about 35 years of age. They have a male child with them, between 3 and 4 years of age. Any person who takes up the said negroes and Indian... shall have the above reward."3

Unfortunately, such advertisements ( including bounty rewards ) were very common. In fact, the " sport " of present-day hunting in the deep South has it's roots in whites hunting runaway Black and African slaves, sometimes accompanied or abetted by Native Americans. Fierce efforts have been made to keep the public ignorant of this sad part of American history. Emphasis IS placed upon forceful efforts to " civilize " Cherokee tribes by making their Black relatives slaves.

My grandfather is referred to by some as having been a so-called " black Indian ", a term that I find extremely offensive. In what few cherished photographs I have of him, the you'd think that he was a Black man with " conk " in his naturally wavy hair. However, he was first and foremost a black man who had a Native American mother. This strong view, passed down within the family, greatly contributed to the " fears " I mentioned above regarding my grandmother. Nonetheless, my FULL family heritage will always be something I cherish, and no ignorant Negro, family, friend, or foe, will ever change that.

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