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Frizzell "Pee Wee" Gray changed his name to Kweisi Mfume. Kweisi and mfume are words from Ghana, in West Africa. Kweisi means conquering. Mfume, son of kings. Ghana is the home of the Ashanti, a war like people who did conquer their neighbors and did have kings. The Ashanti were heavily involved in the slave trade. Ashanti war parties would invade villages in the interior and return captives to the coast for sale in the new world. When the British stoped the slave trade, the Ashanti continued their raids and brought their captives back to the king.

The locals who were losing men to the Ashanti raids complained to the British who sent Lord Robert Baden-Powell to lead a campaign aginst the Ashanti. After a successfull campaign in which the Ashanti capital was captured, a large ceremonial bowl was discovered. Baden-Powell, who after some time in the jungles needed a bath, decided to take one in this large ceremonial bowl, until he was informed of the bowl's purpose. It seems that the Ashanti would fill the bowl up with the blood of their captives and wash the bones of their ancestors (kings only) in this particular bowl. Needless to say, Baden-Powell decided not to bath in the bowl, however, he did bring the bowl back to England where it was on display in 1967, which is when I saw it.

Yes, Kweisi Mfume is the conquering son of kings, the kings of slavery. The kings who sold their fellow Africans to the slave trade. And when they could no longer sell their captives, they killed them and washed the bones of their ancestors in the captives' blood. I think Kweisi Mfume is an appropriate name for the head of the NAACP.