Protestgroep tegen Zwarte Piet start campagne 2015

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Op zondag 22 februari 2015 11:40 schreef aloa het volgende:
Jerry Afriyie

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AUTOBIOGRAPHY FOUNDER
Life of a Soul Rebel:
The Official Autobiography of Kno’Ledge Cesare (Jerry King Luther Afriyie)

Jerry King Luther Afriyie (born on April 30th, 1981), better known by his stage name Kno’Ledge Cesare, was born in Bechem, Ghana, son of Felicity Amofa and Christian Samora Afriyie.
21 months after his birth, his mother received another child. Right after the birth of Kno’Ledge’s younger brother, his father skips the chance to attend university to try his luck in Europe. Life became unbearable for the young mother to raise two boys on her own.
His grandmother from his father’s side decided to take Kno’Ledge with her while she was moving from Bechem to live in Kumasi, the second capital city in Ghana. Kumasi is also the home of the Ashanti tribe and their King of Kings, Otumfuo Osei Tutu 11. The household in Kumasi consists of his grandmother, two aunts and their kids who were respectively two and three years old.

As a child, Kno’Ledge was a quiet boy. He observed his surroundings and stores the livid pictures in his mind. At the age of six, Kno’Ledge developed a vivid imagination. To escape the hardship of his environment he envisioned a whole different life in his head. He envisioned a life were everyone was equally rich and women was respected. A life with no hunger and no one was better than the other. An inhumane living condition is part of life in the gutter. As an infant, in the late eighties, Kno’Ledge was exposed to hunger and poverty. His grandmother, who was selling traditional clothes to make a living, saw her business going downhill. Soon her family found themselves in extreme poverty.
Yet Kno’Ledge never really acknowledged his habitat condition. His worries went to his neighbours and the people who found themselves trapped in the street. He wished he could have been of some kind of help. It frustrated him to see people struggling. He felt hopeless and at times useless. As he continuously had these day dreams, he started to cherish the idea that maybe one day he could convince people to live together, respect one and another, stand up for themselves and the people next to you. At the age of six, the idea of the Soul Rebel Movement was born and Kno’Ledge found his purpose in life. By the age of 9, Kno’Ledge was passionate about two things; football and school. Kno’Ledge wanted to use his hobby as an investment to help the world. He hoped football would bear him enough money one day that he could use it to finance the Soul Rebel Movement and help others. For the rest of his lifetime on this earth Kno’Ledge will work on many ways to realize his vision.

While living with his grandmother and aunts, his mother visited whenever she could. Kno’Ledge desperately wanted to leave with his moms every time she passed by, but it was still impossible for his mother who was now attending school to take care for two children. Every time she visited him, she promised him that one day she will come and take him with her. Especially after seeing the condition in which her son was situated. In the summer of 1989 Kno’Ledge went to live with his mother in Bechem, his place of birth. A whole new world opened up to him. Although he was once again in a poverty stricken era, his mother was determined to show her sons a far more positive life. She embraced him whole heartily and he felt mother) love for the first time in his life. He loved her forwardness and sincerity. She taught him responsibility and discipline. She taught him to believe in himself and never to look down on himself, he was a young king. Kno’Ledge refers to his mother as a queen of queens in his songs. He will later proclaim “The 3 years of my life I spent with my moms has been a great contribution to my manhood.”

In 1992, Kno’Ledge’s father visited Ghana to take his sons to live with him in The Netherlands. Kno’Ledge was sceptic, therefore his approach was more like ‘let’s wait and see’. To his surprise, it was true. His father took him and his brother to Accra and on the 4th of January 1993 they left Ghana and touched down at Amsterdam Schiphol airport the next morning.
As pragmatist as Kno’Ledge is, he never really believed what many Africans believed at that time, that Europe was a gold mine. That you could actually pick up gold off the streets. The rumour many people took for a fact was spread by the first Africans who travelled to Europe to seek happiness. They lied about their real situations. Some of them even had a worse life in Europe than in Africa. But they took pictures in the boss’ office like they were the boss instead. Kno’Ledge did not believe those tales. If these tales were accurate and the Africans were really as rich as they said they were; why did it take them years to complete their houses? As he heard from the elders, a house was build at the pace of your investment.
So when Kno’Ledge arrived in Europe he was not surprised that many tales of the west were lies.

Kno’Ledge and his brother went to live with his father and their stepmother in Utrecht. After his father and stepmother broke up, they moved to the South-East part of Amsterdam, the Bijlmer, in 1997. Due to disappointment and hardship persuading his football career, Kno’Ledge decided to quit football at the age of 16 after all. The decision came as a surprise to his pears since they could never imagine him without football.
But before he could quit, he needed a new investment to support his movement one day. At this time he has become really fond of rap music. Although what MTV mostly showed was derogating messages, he saw that rap music could move people if the right message is send out. He saw the power of lyrics and what rap music could do and football could not. He could speak his mind and send his message to the people directly. He decided to give it a try for a while and see. After receiving positive feedback, Kno’Ledge fully abounded the football and persuaded a rap career. He was realistic about his chance of making it but that did not stop him. He considered himself as a student and put himself at work first. He used to listen to everything he could put his hands on, from mainstream artists to underground artists. Kno’Ledge used to get up at 2 o’clock in the morning to record MTV’s popular Hip-Hop show YO! MTV Raps.

Maybe Kno’Ledge would have never considered a rap career if he received a higher mark in sixth grade as he hoped for. Nearly 18 months after he arrived in the Netherlands, he was placed in the final year of elementary school. It was hard to compete or reach his level since the material was in Dutch. The language was disadvantaged, but until this day he still feels that he was cheated on. The degree was not bad considering the circumstances. But he needed a higher mark to persuade higher education. He totally disagreed with his teacher’s advice and was shattered. Kno’Ledge was interested in school till the sixth grade. “Everything after that was just hanging on”. This was another reason why he put so much effort into a rap career. Besides writing lyrics, he also started making beats due to lack of a producer. He hated making beats. After all, he wanted to rap and not produce. In 1996 a friend took him to visit Arch-E-Tek and the two men got acquainted. Arch-E-Tek had a homebuilt studio and was a producer as well. Kno’Ledge used to come and collect beats. As the two worked together, Kno’Ledge used to do performances in and outside of Utrecht and the northern part of the Netherlands as well. When Kno’Ledge moved to Amsterdam, he and Arch-E-Tek kept in touch.

By 1999 Kno’Ledge was getting professional in his writing. Since he wanted to spread the Soul Rebel message, writing has always been and still is his main focus when writing a song. Increasingly he was thinking of moving to US and if not England maybe, to broaden his English vocabulary. He also wanted to attend writing classes which could develop his writing skills and help his rap career. Kno’Ledge met Gramifi at college, the class of 1998. The two connected because rap music was their hobby. A mutual friend started floating around the idea the two should work together. Soon after Kno’Ledge and Gramifi became the founding members of Apo-clipZ and Arch-E-Tek was the assigned producer. They labeled their music style as “Rebel Music” to set themselves apart from others. After a short briefing on how to approach things, the two rappers started making tracks and spread them on the streets to promote themselves. In the following years Apo-clipZ has expanded to seven members, including J. Sparx, Sino, Nemesis and Dirrty Angel.

In the summer of 1999 the unthinkable happened. While collecting papers for college, Kno’Ledge found out that he no longer possessed the Dutch nationality at the city hall. According to the Dutch government he was illegal. And the funny part of it all was the fact that he was holding a Dutch passport. It was like someone erased him from the system. Even lawyers around the country were puzzled. Kno’Ledge obtains the Dutch citizenship through his father who has the Dutch nationality. At the age of 18, Kno’Ledge was put through ordeals which will last 10 years to solve. The ordeal immediately put his dreams and high hopes to a halt. At this state, he relied on his music more than ever. Kno’Ledge started a rebellion lifestyle and decided to move out of home at the age of 19, to avoid influencing his younger brothers.

From 2001 until 2005, Kno’Ledge was caught up in the streets, doing whatever it took to survive. He attended a college for Business in 2001 but as years passed by, college also became a burden on him. School costs money and he had rent and fixed costs to pay. Early January 2003 Kno'Ledge's long time girlfriend became pregnant with his son, raising further concern about his street lifestyle. Kno’Ledge felt he could not abound the streets, he was cornered by the government and he had to make a living. He was not allowed to work. He had his back against the wall and he had to box his way out of the corner. As college started fading, he managed to keep his student grant of 400 Euros for some time. It was his only legitimate income and he decided to save up the money for the needs of his unborn child. He did not want to raise his child with street money. Instead, he used the money he made by running the streets to pay his other debts, which were rising to the roof.

In 2003 months before his son was expected, he got arrested for drug peddling. The initial sentence was 3 months in jail and 2 to 3 years parole due to lack of evidence. Kno’Ledge was very disappointed in the performance of his appointed lawyer, the second on the case. The first lawyer had already dropped the case after reading the police report. The one who attended the trial showed up and left. After the trial he told Kno’Ledge to take the sentence and be happy he didn't have to do years behind bars.
The lawyers never really looked into the case, were ill prepared and took everything as it was the truth. Kno’Ledge shot back at his lawyer saying he wanted to appeal. In return the lawyer said ‘good luck’ and handed over the case to him. Posing as his own lawyer alongside the lawyer who is helping him to obtain his residence permit, he convinced the judges to throw out the case. His lawyer later proclaimed “it was your performance that won the case". But the problem did not stop there. The government wanted to undo their mistake and he was a perfect target. His lawyer informed him they were watching his every move. The government was gathering information to deny his request for the Dutch passport. If Kno’Ledge would make a single mistake and gets sentenced, he will not only lose his freedom and miss the chance of seeing his son grow up, but he will forever miss any chance of obtaining his Dutch passport, once again. But the irony is, since he was not allowed to work, he had to be in the streets to maintain. He also needed money to invest in his music career and Apo-clipZ. At this point of his life, he felt like everything was falling apart. “It was like there was no end to this nightmare”. Surprisingly, as he grew increasingly frustrated, he never really lost his sight on the goals he set out for himself early on. He walked a fine line.

In 2005 Kno’Ledge received his residence permit and was told he will be eligible for a Dutch citizenship in 2007-2008. To Kno’Ledge this was a personal victory, since he had to fight back many deportation attempts by the government. The passport debacle was a huge set back in the growth of Kno'Ledge. Following to the good news, Kno’Ledge decided to change course with his crew Apo-clipZ. First they needed an official release and they had to establish Apo-clipZ as an independent record label. He was fed up with major labels and execs that were killing creativity in the music industry with their one way formulas. In 2006 Apo-clipZ Records became official. Kno’Ledge thought of the song ‘Keep Ya Fist Up’ as an appropriate song to launch the new record label. He was also thinking about making their very first music video, to promote ‘Keep Ya Fist Up’ and the newly found record label. Now with a new single, new music video and a street Mixtape ‘The Unsigned Hype’, Kno’Ledge hoped to flood the streets with Apo-clipZ and force a breakthrough. Due to lack of dedication by some members and cooperation of radio stations, Kno’Ledge’s plan did not fully succeed. One thing is for sure though; the name Apo-clipZ was set on the map.

In 2008 Kno’Ledge saw a decrease of involvement by members of Apo-clipZ in the label’s activities. He felt that the crew, who was going through adulthood, has let their personal struggles get the best of them. Kno’Ledge took a drastic measure saying he will only invest in people who are focused and willing to give their full submission. The new approach resulted to J. Sparx’ Mixtape and the video and single of ‘The Miracle Boys’, which features Kno’Ledge and J. Sparx. Before the end of 2008, Kno’Ledge set the goal to release two discs in 2009. One was to be the already critical acclaimed EP ‘The Surge’ and the other was Apo-clipZ’ first official album: ‘Young, Black & Strapped.’ ‘The Surge’ was recorded in 3 months time and he recorded the exact tracks required for the album. On his first solo effort, he opens ‘The Surge’ with a spoken word by the talented U.N.O.M. After hearing the unusual intro you know Kno’Ledge is in the building. ‘The Surge’ is a story of a young black man with a vision, hope and dreams. The EP was pre-released to honor freedom activist and Kno’Ledge’s mentor Steve Biko, who was born on the 18th of December. The outro of the EP is a tribute and respect to the late great freedom writer as well.

During the summer of 2009, due to his ever growing ideas and schedules, he decided to push back the official album to 2010. With the album on hold, he worked tirelessly for Youth Development and Support Services (YDSS) to promote the young organization to the youth and his fans. In August 2009 Kno’Ledge travelled to Africa together with 13 youngsters and young adults to give workshops to orphans in Accra, Ghana’s capital city. While he was in Ghana he took the opportunity to get to know the state of mind of his fellow Ghanaians. He saw a new developed mentality by Ghanaians. Ghanaians were at the point of moving from their turbulence past, while creating a better future for themselves.
He was very happy to see the grasp of reality by his fellow country men and women; that no one should wait for miracles to happen, but to create miracles themselves. He also took the opportunity to discuss about politics and African leadership in general with folks he met on the streets. Being at the orphanage made him realize YDSS and his effort are more than necessary. Later he wrote: “This trip was really meaningful and I’m thankful. You should try it once in a lifetime. Keep up the great work, YDSS.”
In December 2009 Kno’Ledge was asked and agreed to participate in the local elections in Amsterdam, with Hip-Hop platform Bijlmer Style. According to their party program, their goal is to advance the youth and get people back to work. The party set up a massive campaign, which is unleashed in February 2010.

The next time he grasps the pen and passionately let his hands ride the paper, we can only guess; “what life lesson or personal secrets would he share with us next?” We can only guess what situation he will point out for us to see, which direction this gifted person will lead the freedom fighters of tomorrow to. For now he is a man, just a man, who whole heartily rejects any form of injustice. So much, he would sacrifice his life for it. Whatever this young man may do or undertake in the near future, you know the best is yet to come.

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Op zondag 22 februari 2015 11:51 schreef NotYou het volgende:

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Op zondag 22 februari 2015 12:28 schreef Ser_Ciappelletto het volgende:
Nou nou, wat een drama. Een stel mensen zijn het ergens niet mee eens en proberen dat op een geweldloze manier te veranderen door voorlichting. Dat dat kan in een democratische samenleving als Nederland!

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Op zondag 22 februari 2015 12:35 schreef Jigzoz het volgende:

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Dat Piet-geëikel is een beetje zoals Frans Bauer: prima dat het bestaat, maar ik wil het verder niet zien of horen.

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Op zondag 22 februari 2015 12:32 schreef Schunckelstar het volgende:

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Dan mag je dat toch ook best belachelijk maken?
persoonlijk kan ik altijd wel lachen om dit soort figuren. Al is beeld nog vermakelijker, op dezelfde manier dat probleemwijken ook vermakelijk was

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Op zondag 22 februari 2015 12:35 schreef Jigzoz het volgende:

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Dat Piet-geëikel is een beetje zoals Frans Bauer: prima dat het bestaat, maar ik wil het verder niet zien of horen.

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Op zondag 22 februari 2015 11:46 schreef aloa het volgende:

twitter:

TPOnl twitterde op zaterdag 21-02-2015 om 18:19:41 Verslaggever TPO zojuist bij 'Zwarte Piet Niet'-bijeenkomst bedreigd door 5 man en gedwongen foto's te wissen. reageer retweet

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Op zondag 22 februari 2015 12:42 schreef Jigzoz het volgende:

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Nee. Ik weet pas wat er staat als ik het gelezen heb.