HOME
About the Chairman
Economic Development & International Trade
Kevin John Powell
Artist-in-Residence
UN Quadrennial Report
Pa/Pa Japan
Pa/Pa Core Administrative Group
Robert Pritchard
Pianist/Composer
Student  Exchange
Shina, Inc.
Black History Month
Pa/Pa Links
Slavery Revisited in the Middle East
Ode to Peace
Cultural Exchange
Pa/Pa Executives Appointed to Board of Bedford International Financial Corporation
Origins of the BHMO
Prominent African-American Concert Pianist and Foundation
Artist-in-Residence Free Arab Woman
An Autobriographical Memoire
Circa 40 years old, formerly enslaved Arab servant  with Dr. Robert Starling Pritchard and Mrs. Kumi Yano, Japanese Fashion expert and wife of Pa/Pa Japan Chairman, Kazuo Yano.
Circa 12 years old, at the time that the young girl was indentured into the service of a Middle Eastern family.
Editor`s Note: During the late 1990`s, Dr. Robert Starling Pritchard, the Chairman  of the Panamerican-Panafrican Association and the Foundation`s Artist-in Residence, Kevin John Powell, made a combination good-will, business, humanitarian and Foundation expansive visit to a then high profile Middle Eastern country (name withheld).
 
The following is a personal account given by the indentured Arab servant woman (name withheld for privacy reasons) who worked in the household of the hostess of Dr. Pritchard and Mr Powell, during their stay in the second largest city in that Middle Eastern country. Unbeknownst to Dr. Pritchard and Kevin John Powell at the time that they had been invited to visit their hostess on business matters, the servant woman had remained enslaved from the age of 5 until she had been freed by Dr. Pritchard and Mr. Powell. For it was upon their discovery of the servant`s tragic circumstances, that Dr. Pritchard and Mr. Powell became committed to bring her to America
 
When asked why he agreed to bring his hostesses` servant to America, Dr. Pritchard stated: “It is because my African ancestors were slaves in America from 1608 through 1865 (and that I am but four generations away from the era of the American slavocracy)… I could not morally justify abandoning the servant of my hostess, anymore than I could have abandoned any one of my enslaved ancestors in the USA (or in any part of the New and Old World lands of the African Diaspora)  if I had been in the position to help them obtain their freedom. Moreover, the fact that my hostess` enslaved servant was not Black, did not in any way alter the moral obligation that I felt that I had to assist her in obtaining her freedom. Although (for absolutely understandable reasons) it had been difficult to obtain a visa from my government`s Embassy in her country (which was then dubbed as one of the Middle Eastern rogue states), I succeeded in so doing by informing its visa-granting official that if he refused to grant the visa, that he would leave me no moral alternative but to travel across the border of my host country to another Middle Eastern country where I had previously appeared as a concert artist and where I would make his double-level racialist attitudes known to the world TV listening public. Much to the American official`s credit, he did not bend to the seriousness of my threat, but from his own humanitarian sensitivity, he granted the enslaved servant woman a visa to travel to the USA..”
Formerly enslaved Arab servant (Right) with (from l to r) Mrs. Kumi Yano, Japanes fashion expert; Mr. Kazuo Yano (Chairman of the Pa/Pa Japan); Dr. Robert Starling Pritchard (Chairman of the Pa/Pa-USA International); Mr. Hideo Hironaka (President, ECS Co., Ltd., Japan); H.E. Emmanuel Touaboy (Ambassador of the Central African Republic to the US and to the UN) at the Pa/Pa's Regional Office in Syracuse, New York.
Formerly Enslaved Arab servant afterarriving in America with Pa/Pa's Artist-in-Residence, Kevin John Powell and Pa/Pa Executive Director, HenriGeorges Polgar in Falls Church, Virginia
When I was 5 years old, the friends of a lady in (name of Middle Eastern country withheld) asked my parents if I could go work in the house of the lady who needed help around the house, and my parents agreed. I stayed with the lady until she died a few years later. I didn`t go to school.
 
After the lady died (when I was 11 years old), I was taken to work at the home of a family in  (neighboring Middle Eastern country withheld). A man who worked for the brother of the lady of the house, knew my father and asked him if I could go work for the family (name withheld). When I went to the family`s house, I was told that I would be taking care of an old lady who was sick. The man said that they were looking for someone to take care of the mother of the lady of the house to give medicine to her. She was diabetic and I had to test her sugar by checking her urine samples with a color coded test. If the color wasn`t right on the test, I was supposed to call the doctor. I also helped to give her baths and I took gentle care of her. The mother was a good lady and was kind to me. She lived to be 105 years old, but she was very sick.
 
For maybe the first 4 months, I was given a little bit of money, maybe a total of $50. The mother said that I should go to school, but I couldn`t leave her alone because everybody in her family was always busy and no one was there to take care of her. The school was across the street and I could hear the children playing in the yard. The mother would sometimes give me a little bit of money, but she told me not to tell her daughter that she was giving me money. I would spend the money buying candy, cookies and small things. I also saved some money and I bought some gold jewelry and put it in the bank. When the mother died about ten years later, her daughter (who became the lady of the house), learned that I had money because the boss at the bank was friends with her and he told her that I had money in the bank. He use to come to dinner at her house. When she found out that I had some money and gold jewelry, she told me that she was running out of money and that I should give it to her. I took out everything I saved, maybe $2000, and I gave it to her.
When the mother of the lady of the house was alive, my father and mother would come to visit. But when she died, her daughter would not let them come to visit.
 
The lady`s 2 brothers, also lived in the same luxury apartment building and I use to clean house, wash clothes and cook for their families too. They came to their sister`s apartment and ate lunch and dinner. One of the brothers brought his daughter to live with his sister after his divorce and I use to have to take care of her. She was very jealous and mean to me and I don`t understand why. The lady`s other
Formerly enslaved Arab servant with Mrs. Kumi Yano visiting the White House.
brother, was in jail for 8 years in Istanbul because he was selling petrol and guns to the Israelis. After the mother died, the lady would tell me that when she made big money selling petrol and gold, she would buy me a house and give me lots of money. She kept telling me that for more than 10 years and then I told her not to keep telling me lies.
 
When Dr. Pritchard came to visit, she had no money and she was selling her furniture and rugs, crystal, until no one would buy anymore. I gave her all my money, maybe 1 Million in my country`s money.
 
All the clothes I had were clothes that the lady and her niece did not want anymore. Another niece sometimes would send me clothes from Italy.
 
I kept begging the lady to let me go, that I was not happy at her house and I wanted to go to my family. She threatened to call the police and to have my family killed if I left. She was very good friends with the President of the country and his family. I was not allowed to visit my family and anytime my family came to visit, the lady would tell them that I wasn`t there. I did not see my family for many years.
 
The reason that the lady did not want me to visit my family was because she said that if I did go to visit them, I would tell them that I was raped by her brother.
 
It happened when I was 12 ½ years old. A few weeks after I arrived to take care of the mother, her son was visiting with her and I came into the room. I never talk to men, and I only brought him coffee. He came into the kitchen and asked me if I was married and if my family lived in the city. I asked why are you asking me, I don`t like to talk to men. He made sexual advances to me and he said he was my boss, and I said that he was not my boss, that his mother was my boss. I told him to leave me alone, and I got  very upset and  told his mother. She got very angry with her son and told him to stay away from me. I told her that next time he talked to me I was going to leave. She begged me to stay and said that if I left, she would die, because no one could take care of her like I did.
 
One night, after a big party, I was very tired from fixing the food and serving the guests and I wasn`t feeling well. I went to get some tea for my sore throat and I sat down on the sofa to rest and drink tea. The lady`s brother, without my noticing it, put some medicine in my tea and I went to sleep. When I woke up I was in my bedroom and started screaming because of the pain. I found a pool of blood around me. I had my shirt on but my skirt and cullottes were off. The mother, although she could hardly walk, came into my room with her cane and saw the blood. She fell on the floor and from that day was not able to speak. She was taken to the hospital and stayed there for 2 months. Everyone in the house, including the lady saw the blood and new what had happened. Her brother was told to leave the house and he did not come back for three years.
Formerly enslaved Arab servant (right) with (from l to r) H.E. Emmanuel Touaboy (Ambassador of the Central African Republic to the US and to the UN); Mr. Kazuo Yano (Chairman of the Pa/Pa Japan) and Mrs. Kumi Yano, Japanes fashion expert, at the Pa/Pa's Regional Office in Syracuse, New York.
For about three or four months I was not allowed to leave the house because the lady said that I would go to the police. I could only use the phone in the lady`s bedroom. She said that if I talked to anyone, she would get someone to kill me and that no one would believe me because they would only believe her.
 
After six months I notice that my stomach was getting bigger. I was only around 13. I would get sick in the morning but I didn`t understand what was wrong with me. I thought that I was just full of gas. I did not feel good. One day, when I was moving a table for a birthday party for one of the brothers, I cried out because of stabbing back pains. I was taken to the hospital and went through 7 hours of surgery. The doctor told me that I had been pregnant and that they took the baby out. He also said that I almost died 3 times during the surgery. I did not know, until that time, that I had been pregnant. I saw the baby in a bag - it was a boy and it was small like a little cat.
 
Later, another brother came to visit and said that I did not look happy. He asked me to talk to him. I told him what had happened with his brother. He said that I was a good Muslim woman and he went to get his gun and went after  his brother. He had a big fight with him.
 
When I tried to talk to the lady about it, she said that maybe I was a bad woman and that her brother would never do anything like that. I told her many, many times that I wanted to go and that I was very unhappy, but she always threatened me with the police.
 
After the mother died, I never saw my parents again. I learned about a week before Dr. Pritchard came to visit that my father had died, but the lady would not let me go to the funeral because she was afraid that I would tell about her brother.
 
The only other person I told about what the brother did to me, other than his other brother, was a medical student. He was a friend of the lady`s family and he use to come to visit the lady about a business opportunity. He was studying to be a doctor and had only three more months of study left. When the lady went into the hospital for surgery to remove her breast because of cancer, he would come visit and I would sit and talk to him. We became friends. He would ask me how I was and noticed that I wasn`t happy. I told him what had happened with the brother and that the lady would not let me leave. He was very sad and said that he would help me. He went to talk to a lady who worked in the hospital and to the doctor who took out the baby and found out what had happened. We spent a lot of time together, but wherever I went, there was always a police following me. My friend and I would go out together but the lady said that I would never marry him.
 
I told my friend that I had a hospital record in my suitcase showing what had happened to me and when I went to get it to show it to him, it wasn`t there. I asked the lady what happened to it, and she said that she burned it and that nobody would believe me. My friend was in the room next door and overheard the lady tell me that she had burned the records.
 
My friend said that he would help me get out. He said that he wanted to marry me. When the police come, he said that he would tell them that I was his wife. He went to talk to my father to ask for his permission to marry me. Since he was a Christian, he told my father that he would change to the Muslim religion. My father said okay. My friend came back and told me to call my father from his cellphone. I went into the bathroom to use the cellphone and my father said I could marry him since he would become a Muslim.
 
My friend was from a neighboring Arab country and had lost his whole family when an Israeli bomb hit his house. He was visiting a friend in another city at the time, and that is the only reason why he was alive. He went back to his home country for a short time and he telephoned me when it was my birthday and said he was coming to visit me. On the way back from his country he had a car accident when his car crashed into a train and he died.
 
My friend was my only hope to get out and when he died I gave up trying to get away until Dr. Pritchard and Kevin Powell came to visit.
 
I spent a lot of time taking care of the lady after her cancer had gotten worse. She was so weak, that I had to bathe her and lift her to go to the toilet. No one in the family helped me. She kept getting worse and the doctors would give her more and more medications that I thought made her worse. In fact, I thought she was dying. I became afraid.
 
I told the lady`s brother (who was a former Admiral in the military) that I wanted to go to America with Dr. Pritchard. He and his wife told me that everyone in America were like dogs and tigers and that they would eat me. The wife told me that in America there were black people and that I was white and that I would not be happy there. Friends of Dr. Pritchard told me that the family was lying to me.
 
When I still insisted on going to America, the lady`s brother told me that I could go if I signed a piece of paper. I did not know what was on the paper because I could not read or write and I put my thumb print on it hoping that he would let me go to America. The lady`s nephew had come to see the family to spend the last days with his aunt. He read the paper that his uncle had told me to sign and told me that the paper said that the family had paid me money for working and that I had been treated well. I told the brother that that wasn`t true. There were two copies of the paper and the nephew tore one of them up. The brother of the lady took the second copy and put it in his pocket. I know that Allah knows that I did not get any money.
 
When it looked like I was still going to go to America, the men of the family told  Dr. Pritchard that they would call the police accusing me of stealing. They told Dr. Pritchard that I belonged to the family. Dr. Pritchard and Kevin Powell stood up to the family, who threatened to have me arrested if I left. I saw the lady dying and I thought that they would try to kill me too. I asked Dr. Pritchard not to leave me.
 
The lady died around 12:00 o`clock at night and then I and her niece bathed her and wrapped her in white cloth. Around 7:00 the next morning, I went with Dr. Pritchard and Kevin Powell to Dr. Pritchard`s friend`s house where they made plans to travel to America. The friend was a sculptor who Dr. Pritchard`s Foundation had helped financially. I didn`t have any money in my pocket and I never returned to the lady`s house. I was very happy to leave to go to America.
 
See letter from Dr. Pritchard to
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan below
Enjoying a light moment with Mr. Kazuo Yano (Chairman of the Pa/Pa Japan) and Mrs. Kumi Yano
Enjoying her new life, the former Arab servant joins Dr. Pritchard at an event in his honour at the  Babtist Church of Marshall Heights in Washington, D.C.
Letter from Dr. Pritchard to
UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan
1 April 2002
 
The Honourable Kofi Annan
Secretary General of the United Nations
New York City, New York
 
Your Excellency:
 
At the time of Our letter-of-support which We transmitted to you during the 31 August -7 September 2001 World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance ... it would have never had occurred to Us that that very same issue would become the 'raison detre' for yet another letter-of-concern from Us under circumstances when and where that very same issue would as accurately define the underlying issues in the current War between the Government of Israel and the Governing Authority of Palestine.  
 
Moreover, it also would never had occurred to Us that the Government of Israel (which owes its very existence to the United Nations itself) would so openly and arrogantly defy the recent UN Resolution which called for the immediate withdrawal of its armed-forces from Palestine.  For to thusly undermine the authority of the United Nations (to which Israel owes its very existence) not only undermines the effectiveness of the United Nations ... but also very seriously and negatively impacts upon the credibility of Israel as a respecter of International Law.
 
Lest you have very falsely concluded that Our afore-referenced views even remotely suggest that We are amongst the world's growing numbers of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel racialists ... We particularly take this very internationally-disruptive-occasion to inform you that even since the time that Our then personal friend (i.e. the Honourable Ralph Bunche) participated in the partitioning of what was then Palestine (in order that the Homelandless Jews of Germany and elsewhere in Europe might establish a permanent homeland in that area of The Middle East which the Zionists referred to as Israel) ... despite the fact that We and countless numbers of other American world travelers foresaw the devastations that have persisted in that area since the days-of-partitioning ... We have remained amongst those in the international community who have not only hoped and prayed for an enduring peace in the region ... but also made significant contributions towards that objective.
 
Indeed, even at the time that the former Executive Director of Our Foundation (i.e. Dr. Antoine Polgar [the esteemed published-translator of the African and African-American Poets-of-Le Negritude]) participated in the World Council of Churches and National Council of Churches investigation of allegations of Israeli practices of racialism against Ethiopian Jews and Harlem Jews who had migrated to Israel ... so devastating to the Israeli Government's image in the World's Black Communities, that Our friend and colleague Israeli concert pianist (i.e. David Bar Illan [who later became the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's Chief's Spokesperson]) called upon Us at Our then Park Avenue penthouse residence and accompanied Us to the lower East Side office-complex where We personally spoke to the then Israeli Prime Minister, who literally begged Us to pull Dr. Polgar out of the investigation contingent (because his reports to the New York City newspapers, were severely damaging to the reputation of Israel).  Dr. Polgar's reports included references to the racialist treatment not only of Black Jews in Israel, but also of Arabs in Israel.  Albeit it has been in Our capacity as the founder of both the National and International Black History Month Observance (the founding of which was activistly supported by many of Our nation`s most prominent Jews) ... and albeit We have had the honour of giving Our assistance to both the foreign and on-site founders of the Conservatory of Music in Tel Aviv ... We no more permit Our affection and respect for the world's Jewish people to affect Our ability to effectively assess the racialist-hostile climate between Israel and Palestine than We would even remotely permit Our deep and abiding love of Our own country to affect Our ability to recognize the inarguable fact that the enduring climate of racialism in the United States continues to relegate Americans of African descent to "stasis as a Permanent Underclass" (both racially and economically).
 
Moreover, We regard the Israeli reference to the Palestinians as "Terrorists" as no more relevant than similar epithets were used by the British to describe George Washington; or by Euro-Americans who so described Martin Luther King and Malcolm X; or even those in Our Syracuse, New York area who have on more than a few occasions so described Us (particularly at the time that We made successful ritual-confrontations with the Klu Klux Klan in both Our own area and at Stone Mountain Georgia where We were almost killed before the T.V. cameras of Our nation ... in addition to Our stances against Baldwinsville and Onondaga county racialists who made surreptitious entrances into Our then English Tudor Mansion foundation-estate and left death threats on one of Our mirrors; planted a bomb below Our main terrace; planted a Triple K cross on Our rear piazza; set fire to Our drawing room terrace; made a zip gun attack upon Us as We stepped out of Our shower; made telephone and letter death threats and 'ad infinitum').
 
Unfortunately for this particular area, it has since been regarded by scholars as the 2nd most racialist area in Our country's Northeast (2nd only to New Britton, Connecticut).  We can only hope that Our biography-in-progress will as accurately setforth the truth of the endemic state-of-racialism in this area, as the afore-referenced report by Dr. Polgar, the World Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches setforth in their investigation of racialism in Israel.
 
As racialism in any form is mindless and senseless but not purposeless ... We take this occasion to illustrate yet another occasion in Our own country when and where anti-Palestinian sentiments took the form of an American Jewish contingent's attempt to disrupt one of Our early 1970's Kenneth David Kaunda Awards For Humanism which We sponsored at the UN's Dag Hammersjold Library Auditorium.  It was solely because the PLO Ambassador to its Observer Mission to the UN was one of the several distinguished awardees ... that a Jewish contingent of anti-Palestinian marauders attempted to disrupt Our Foundation's Awards Ceremony.  That was in the early 70's.
 
However, two years ago, We had the very great honour of a closed meeting with Eli Mizrachi (who was reputed to have been the Chief-of-Staff of three successive Israeli Governments).  Mr. Misrachi was introduced to Us by Our Foundation's Washington, DC corporate attorney (who is currently a member of the U.S. Senate's civilian corps of advisors).  Unfortunately, Mr. Mizrachi's untimely death prevented Us from joining him in what We regarded as a very great opportunity for a Private-Sector Contribution towards Peace between Israel and Palestine.  However, We are still committed to completing that project and thusly make a significant contribution to Mr. Mizrachi's legacy, re: Peace in his region.
 
Your Excellency ... in also having served as the advisor to the former PLO Ambassador to the PLO's Observer Mission to the UN ... and having also contributed to the cultural institutions in Israel ... it is thusly in the Spirit of "Mutuality-of-Benefit" (which defines the international business activities of the Panamerican-Panafrican Association's International Trade Consultants Group [i.e. the Pa/Pa's ITCG]) that it is with considerably more information about said region than has been made available to the public by the Print and Sound Media ... that We, with understanding of both sides of the Middle East Conflict, instant ... do herein register Our unqualified opposition to the Israeli Government's arrogant defiance of said UN Resolution.
 
It is then Your Excellency with this expression of Our most high esteem, We also extend to you this expression of Our felicitations of this day.
 
Very Truly Yours 'Sine Cere`,
 
 
 
Dr. Robert Starling Pritchard II
Founder: The National / International Black History Month Observance
The Pa/Pa ITCG: President and CEO
Foundation: Chairman / Board-of-Directors
Advisor-co-chairman: The ZENIT International Corporation Ltd.
Patron: the Pa/Pa ITCG-Japan; South Korea; Indonesia; Benin; CAR; Liberia;
Ghana; Liberia; Haiti; St. Kitts; Europa (Geneva, Switzerland); Italy;
Robert Starling Pritchard Food For Humanity Foundation-Italy
 
P.S. If you have any contact whatsoever with Our Dear personal friend (i.e. H.E. Alex Quaison Sakey [i.e. former President of the UN General Assembly]) and who was also Our neighbor in New Rochelle, NY ... We would very much appreciate your extension of Our expression of Good-Will to both him and his Dear wife Edith.  We would equally appreciate your extension to him of Our two-websites (i.e. papausa.org and bhmfounderscommission.org) from which they can re-familiarize themselves with the global character of the Mission-of-Our-Foundation.  It should be needless for Us to say that We Thank You in advance for this particular courtesy.
 
DR. RSP II
 
"AZUBAHAGAH KAKALABAH DUGA DUGA KUKUMOON"  
papausa.org web site © Copyright 2005. papausa.org. All rights reserved.
Created with The Print Shop Web Site Designer.