In times past all Afrikan Mapokeo [Kiswahili: Traditional] communal
organizations utilized an Itikadi [Kiswahili:
Ideology] that was similar to the concept of MЗ‘T/Maat employed by Utamaduni Mkubwa ya Kush/Kemet. The Itikadi created by the Wahenga na
Wahenguzi on behalf of the Beautyful Ones Not Yet Born to be implemented by the
NIWT/Niu.t [Kush/Kemet:
City] in contemporary times is an Afrocentric Pan-Afrikanism to be
differentiated from the coopted contemporary pseudo-Pan-Afrikanism which is an
abortive attempt to integrate the neo-colonial economies of the continent. An Afrocentric
Pan-Afrikanism is the Pan-Afrikanism of Mhenga Marcus Mosiah Garvey c. 6128-
6181 KC [c. 1887-1940 CE] adapted and adjusted to 62nd
Century KC [21st Century CE] Afrikan concerns.
A
powerful theorist, orator, organizer and mobilizer Mhenga Marcus Mosiah Garvey
constructed, organized and mobilized the largest mass movement ever of Waafrika
Weusi of the Afrikan Continent and of the Utawanyika
wa Waafrika Weusi Duniani [Kiswahili: Afrikan
Diaspora]. Active early in
his life in the British colony of Jamaica's nationalist movements which pressed
for Jamaican independence from British colonial control, Mhenga Marcus Mosiah
Garvey traveled extensively throughout the Caribbean, Central and South America,
and lived for a time in the United Kingdom where he worked with the Sudanese
nationalist Duse Mohamed. To further his political and economic goals, in c. 6155
KC [c. 1914 CE] Mhenga Garvey organized the Universal Negro Improvement
Association and African Communities League [UNIA-ACL] in Jamaica. The unifying
adage of the UNIA-ACL of “One God, One Aim, One Destiny” had deep roots in the
socio-spiritual experience of Waafrika Weusi and the objective of the
organization was Weheme
Mesu ya Afrika [Kush/Kemet: Afrikan
Re-awakening, Rebirth, Resurgence, Re-generation, Renewal, Renaissance], an Waafrika Weusi redemption of Afrika
from Eurasian conquest and colonization and to carry out the socio-cultural, socioeconomic
and socio-political reconstruction of the Global Waafrika Weusi population. The UNIA-ACL emphasized conscious
satisfaction in Blackness, Waafrika Weusi solidarity, Afrikan self-reliance and
the socio-political and socioeconomic independence of all Waafrika Weusi, where
ever in the world they may be under the adage “Afrika for the Afrikans, those
at home and those abroad!”
In
c. 6157 KC [c. 1916 CE] Mhenga Garvey journeyed to the United States at the
invitation of Mhenga Booker T. Washington to study Mhenga Washington's program
for Waafrika Weusi socio-political economic development as it was being applied
at the all Afrikan learning institution the Tuskegee Institute, but unfortunately
Mhenga Garvey arrived just after Mhenga Washington's mysterious death. Mhenga
Garvey’s interest in Mhenga Washington's program stemmed from his analysis that
the industrial economic program of Mhenga Washington was one cog in the grandiose
plan for Weheme
Mesu ya Afrika. The other necessary components of Weheme
Mesu ya Afrika were
an Afrikan-centered Pan-Afrikan socio-political program designed to free all Waafrika
Weusi from Eurasian domination and a Pan-Afrikan military apparatus which would
support and protect Waafrika Weusi revolutionary political-economic goals from Eurasian
counter-revolutionary policies and actions. Mhenga Marcus Mosiah Garvey sought to resurrect in the Waafrika Weusi of the Afrikan
continent and the Afrikan diaspora the basic tenets of millennia old Mapokeo Afrikan
Nation-building so as to allow all Waafrika Weusi to engage knowledgeably and
successfully in the socio-political, socio-economic and military reconstruction
of the NIWT/Niu.t [Kush/Kemet: Community] of the
Afrikan continent and in the Utawanyika wa Waafrika Weusi Duniani.
Following
the horrific racial pogrom- the East St. Louis Massacre of c. 6158 KC [c. 1917
CE] and after traveling extensively throughout the United States of south and
central America, Mhenga Marcus Mosiah Garvey established a branch of the UNIA-ACL
in the United States. The purpose of his
travels both in the United States as well as throughout the southern portion of
the Western Hemisphere and in Europe and of his conversations with Afrikan
Nationalists like Duse Mohammad and his extensive reading on the Afrikan continental
situation, was to study firsthand the conditions and the causes of those
conditions of Waafrika Weusi on the Afrikan continent and throughout the Utawanyika
wa Waafrika Weusi Duniani and to design, implement and evaluate for further
corrections, a proper course of action for Afrikan reconstruction, development
and expansion.[1] To support the programmatic objectives of the
UNIA-ACL Mhenga Garvey established a provisional Afrikan government in exile, a
Waafrika Weusi economy in the United States the centerpiece of which was the
newspaper publication The Negro World,
an authentic Black media voice and the Black Star Steamship Shipping Line,
which was an international shipping company and an assortment of businesses
under the Negro Factories Corporation and the Black Cross Trading and
Navigation Corporation as well as agricultural land throughout the United
States and extended negotiations for the acquisition of large tracts of land in
Liberia, West Afrika for resettlement. Furthermore, Mhenga Garvey organized
international conventions on Afrikan continental and Utawanyika wa Waafrika
Weusi Duniani development and published The
Negro World weekly providing Waafrika Weusi with an Afrikan owned and
controlled media source which provided a decidedly Afrocentric or Afrikan
oriented Waafrika Weusi viewpoint on global issues of specific importance to
Waafrika Weusi. No other Afrikan
organization on the Afrikan continent or in the Utawanyika wa Waafrika Weusi
Duniani in contemporary times has had the impact of the UNIA-ACL. At its height
the UNIA-ACL had branches throughout North, South and Central America, the
Caribbean, Africa, Europe and Australia.
Throughout
colonized Afrika in the period between c. 6157-6171 KC [c. 1916-1930 CE], The
Negro World was banned by every colonial power. In places such as Kenya The
Negro World newspaper would be smuggled in by sailors and then it would be read
by a Waafrika Weusi, who were literate in Eurasian languages, to large
groups. The paper would also be
memorized verbatim by Afrikan youth who would then travel to the Vijiji [Kiswahili:
Villages] of rural Afrika and recite the whole of the paper to the majority
rural populace. The fear on the part of the colonial powers was that the
Itikadi of Mhenga Garvey and the UNIA-ACL would provide a necessary unifying
element to the many disparate counter-colonial movements occurring in Afrika at
the time.
Mhenga
Marcus Mosiah Garvey, was a 61rst Century KC [20th
Century CE] link in the millennia long Afrikan chain which stretches back into Kale [Kiswahili: Antiquity] to the first nation-builders of the earliest
Utamaduni Mkubwa in the world in Classical Afrika: the Utamaduni Mkubwa ya Kemet
and Utamaduni Mkubwa ya Kush beginning
conservatively c. 8759 KC [c. 13000 BCE] continuing through the Classical Empires
and states of West Afrika, such as Wagadu [Ghana], Neni [Mali], and Songhai, c.
4541-5832 KC [c. 300-1591 C.E.], extending to the Maroon NIWT/Nu.t of the Americas, i.e., Waafrika
Weusi who escaped from enslavement and founded militarily protected Afrikan
socio-economic and political NIWT/Nu.t
and on into the founding of the Ayitian Republic c. 6045 KC [c. 1804 CE] during the early contemporary
era of the Maafa Mkubwa c. 5685-6129 KC [c. 1444-1888 CE].
The
tradition of nation-building of which Mhenga Garvey is but a link reaches us
today through the Pan-Afrikan nationalist programs, policies, writings and
speeches of such great Afrikan Wahenga na Wahenguzi as:
1)
Mhenga Malcolm X assassinated by the United States government and American
Afrikan neo-colonial compradors in c. 6206 KC [c. 1965 CE],
2)
Mhenga Walter Rodney of the Caribbean assassinated in c. 6221 KC [c. 1980 CE]
by the United Kingdom government and Jamaican Afrikan neo-colonial compradors,
3)
Mhenga Mwalimu Julius Karambage Nyerere revolutionary independence leader and
first President of the East Afrikan nation of Tanzania 6202-6226 KC [1961-1985
CE], whose programs and policies have been significantly betrayed by Afrikan neo-colonial
compradors with the aid of Eurasian powers,
4)
Mhenga Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah revolutionary independence leader and former
Prime Minister of the West Afrikan nation of Ghana c. 6192-6201 KC [1951-1960
CE], and then President of Ghana c. 6201-6207 KC [c. 1960-1966 CE] who was
removed from power in a coup de tat by Afrikan neo-colonial compradors working
with the United States and the United Kingdom governments,
5)
Mhenga Patrice Okit’ Asombo Lumumba c. 6166-6202
KC [c. 1925-1961 CE] revolutionary independence leader and first Prime Minister
of the Republic of the Congo c. 6201 KC [c. June 1960-September 1960] who was assassinated
by Belgian, and US colonialists with the support of Afrikan neo-colonial
compradors and
6) American
Afrikan historians and social scientists, such as Mhenga Drusilla Houston,
Mhenga Chancellor Williams, Mhenga John Henrik Clarke and Mhenga John G.
Jackson.
Mhenga Garvey while being a prolific writer of
legal, political, economic, poetic, historical and opinion pieces was also an
avid reader, student and analyzer of Utamaduni Mkubwa ya Afrika history and
drew inspiration and programmatic policies from the ideas of the Wahenga na
Wahenguzi during his studies. For
example, Mhenga Garvey advocated what he called ‘Civilized Capitalism’ whereby
a cap was placed on capital earnings and then all additional earnings above the
cap would go to the grassroots of the society, the cap being set at 50,000 USD
in c. 6162 KC [c. 1921 CE] or
approximately 2,000,000 USD in c. 6254 KC [c. 2014 CE]. His prolific studies
and the influences of Henry Hubert Harrison and Duse Mohammed,[2] took him into the political, economic and spiritual
system of Utamaduni Mkubwa ya Kush and KMT/Kemet and he utilized this in
forming the well-known Tri-colors of Afrika flag of the Garvey Movement. The
red, black and green colors of the Tri-colors of Afrika flag of the Universal
Negro Improvement Association and Afrikan Communities League [UNIA-ACL] were
taken from the Temples of Utamaduni Mkubwa ya Kush and KMT/Kemet. The
philosophical ideas behind the Garveyite Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the name of
which was almost immediately upon its founding changed to the Afrikan Orthodox
Church were based on his studies of the Kushite and KMT/Kemet Deity, HRW/Heru
the divinely conceived son of ЗWST/Auset and ЗWSЗR/Ausar. Mhenga Garvey
determined that Christianity was merely a rough carryover of the worship of HRW/Heru
given that at the Temple of Denderah the story of the Immaculate Conception,
death and resurrection is recorded in engravings in the stones of the Temple
walls. Having studied this and the Moral Laws of MЗ‘T/Maat from the Kushite/Kemetic Spiritual Texts in the PRT M HRU: Book of Coming Forth By Day,
his notes show that Mhenga Garvey incorporated the ethical laws known as the forty-two
Admonitions of MЗ‘T/Maat, which are
the origin of the ‘Ten Commandments’ of Judaism and Christianity, into the
Afrikan Orthodox Church as well.
Realizing the importance of the Utambuzi [Kiswahili: Consciousness] shaping
subjects of history, education and power Mhenga Garvey wrote extensively on the
subjects and made them a central part of his work. On the importance of
history, Mhenga Garvey stated:
“The history of a movement, the history of a nation, the
history of a race is the guide-post of that movement's destiny, that nation's
destiny, that race's destiny.”[3]
With regards to the importance and life enhancing
prerequisite of power as force Mhenga Garvey wrote quite eloquently that:
“The powers opposed to
Negro progress will not be influenced in the slightest by mere verbal protests
on our part. They realize only too well that protests of this kind contain
nothing but the breath expended in making them. They also realize that their
success in enslaving and dominating the darker portion of humanity was due
solely to the element of force employed (in the majority of cases this was
accomplished by force of arms. Pressure of course may assert itself in
other forms, but in the last analysis whatever influence is brought to bear
against the powers opposed to Negro progress must contain the element of FORCE
in order to accomplish its purpose, since it is apparent that this is the only
element they recognize.”[4]
On
education as a result of his extensive studies of Utamaduni Mkubwa ya Kush and
KMT/Kemet and his readings and study of the work of Mhenga Booker T. Washington
Mhenga Garvey concluded:
“Education
is the medium by which a people are prepared for the creation of their own
particular civilization, and the advancement and glory of their own race…To be learned in all
that is worthwhile knowing. Not to be crammed with the subject matter of the
book or the philosophy of the class room, but to store away in your head such
facts as you need for the daily application of life, so that you may the better
in all things understand your fellowmen, and interpret your relationship to
your Creator. You can be educated in soul, vision and feeling, as well as in
mind. To see your enemy and know him is a part of the complete education of
man; to spiritually regulate one's self is another form of the higher education
that fits man for a nobler place in life, and still, to approach your brother
by the feeling of your own humanity, is an education that softens the ills of
the world and makes us kind indeed. Many a man was educated outside the school
room. It is something you let out, not completely take in. You are part of it,
for it is natural; it is dormant simply because you will not develop it, but
God creates every man with it knowingly or unknowingly to him who possesses
it—that's the difference. Develop yours and you become as great and full of
knowledge as the other fellow without even entering the class room.”[5]
From this philosophical foundation Mhenga Garvey
advocated and implemented plans designed to achieve the development of an
Afrikan spiritual, political, economic and military power. A global power
developed, organized and administered by Watu Weusi protecting the interests of Global Afrikan people. The Garveyite
Movement was a Pan-Afrikan mono-racialist movement predicated on Waafrika Weusi
agency given the horrendous position of Waafrika Weusi people at the time. There was no confusion over who was Afrikan
for no White Supremacist Eurasian settler colonialist, no Eurasian migrant
opportunist businessperson or worker from India,[6] no racist settler colonialist from the
Arabian Peninsula and no mentacidal Blacks or mulatto of Black and other racial
mixture chose or wanted to be called Afrikan, let alone Negro, Black or Black
Afrikan, they labeled themselves as anything but generally melding their
personal identity with citizenship in the Imperial country. That being the case with the social and
racial stigma being attached to any and all things Afrikan, and with Black and
Afrikan being used interchangeably with Negro, Native, primitive and indigenous
the Garvey Movement was mono-racialist[7] and composed of people who self-identified spiritually,
cognitive-culturally, affectively, psycho-motor physiologically and
socio-political economically as Black or Afrikan, holding communally defined
personal identification with any of the multitude of Afrikan Mabila such as,
Wazulu, Waswahili, Waigbo, Waumunankwo, Wayoruba, Wafulani, Wanath, Wanyakusa,
Wahehe, Wafulani and Wasan, irrespective
of the degree of epidermal pigmentation.[8] The actions of Mhenga Marcus Mosiah Garvey
were designed to lead to the DD WЗT N ‘NX/ Djed Wat en Ankh [Kush/Kemet:
Stability and Resurrection] of Afrikan people creating an Weheme
Mesu ya Afrika under the protective
guidance of a Black Afrikan ruled territorial state in the manner of the Black
ruled Utamaduni Mkubwa ya Kush and KMT/Kemet, Wagadu, Neni, Songhai and Bakuba
to name only a select few of the multitude of Afrikan founded and culturally
organized states. With regards to Mhenga Marcus Garvey, Mhenga Malcolm X taught
that:
“It was Marcus Garvey’s philosophy of Pan-Africanism that
initiated the entire freedom movement, which brought about the independence of
African nations. And had it not been for Marcus Garvey, and the foundations
laid by him, you would find no independent nations in the Caribbean today…All
the freedom movement that is taking place right here in America today was
initiated by the work and teachings of Marcus Garvey.”[9]
Given this background, an Afrocentric Pan-Afrikanism
is considered Afrocentric to emphasize the required spiritual, cognitive/mental,
affective, psycho-spiritual and psycho-motor constructs of behavior due to the
fact that in order for the Afrikan to be Afrocentric they must conceive and
interact in the world on Afrikan Utamaduni terms. To put the point more
succinctly just as the Wahenga na Wahenguzi stated that one must be, think and
do MЗ‘T/Maat exemplified in the concept MЗ‘XRW/Maa-Kheru [Kush/Kemet: True
of Voice, Speaking Truth] so here to be Afrocentric one must be, think and
do as an Afrikan defined by Afrikan cultural thought moving according to the
best interests of Watu Weusi as defined by Afrikan Mapokeo. As Mzee Molefi
Asante informs us:
“In her book, The Afrocentric Paradigm, Ama Mazama
explains that Afrocentricity is not merely a worldview nor even a theory as
such, but rather it is a paradigm that results in the
reconceptualization of the social and historical reality of African people. Actually, what she suggests is that the
Afrocentric paradigm is a revolutionary shift in thinking proposed as a
constructural adjustment to black disorientation, de-centeredness, and lack of
agency.”[10]
On the other hand, Pan-Afrikanism is a
socio-cultural, socio-political, socio-economic, socio-military liberatory,
unification movement of Afrikans on behalf of the Beautyful Ones Not Yet Born,
and it is a Wahenga na Wahenguzi inspired socio-political economic and cultural
grassroots movement of Afrikan people:
“…for
effecting salutary changes in the lives of the persons and societies of the
Black race; a movement whose mission is to liberate the Black race from its
alien conquerors and exploiters and humiliators…a movement whose task is to
organize and lead the Black race to victory in the race war that Caucasian
aggressors (both Arab and European) have inflicted on the Black Race for
several millennia now.”[11]
Therefore, an Afrocentric Pan-Afrikanism involves
the cognitive recalibration of the Afrikan to ensure NIWT/Nu.t cohesiveness and
continuation where by the Afrikan in order to constantly maintain a path guided
by the Wahenga na Wahenguzi and infused with MЗ‘T/Maat poses to themselves the following questions which
illustrate operationalized applied Afrocentric critically analytical thinking:
Have I as an Afrikan who is conscious of myself
as a Black Afrikan substantively located the Afrikan problem in Afrikan
spiritual, cultural, social, historical, political and economic context?
Have I as an Afrikan who is conscious of myself
as a Black Afrikan approached the Afrikan problem with the Afrikan as
subjective independent agent operating from Afrikan cultural paradigms?
Have I as an Afrikan who is conscious of myself
as a Black Afrikan defined and defended the Afrikan cultural basis for Afrikan
agency?
Have I as an Afrikan who is conscious of
myself as a Black Afrikan thoroughly refined the lexicology utilized so as to
reflect a respect for Afrikan cultural reality?
Have I as an Afrikan who is conscious of myself as a
Black Afrikan unambiguously delineated the utility of the act under
consideration to the solving of Afrikan problems?[12]
[1]
“I asked,
"Where is the black man's Government?" "Where is his King and
his kingdom?" "Where is his President, his country, and his
ambassador, his army, his navy, his men of big affairs?" I could not find
them, and then I declared, "I will help to make them." Becoming
naturally restless for the opportunity of doing something [for] the advancement
of my race, I was determined that the black man would not continue to be kicked
about by all the other races and nations of the world, as I saw it in the West
Indies, South and Central America and Europe, and as I read of it in America.
My young and ambitious mind led me into flights of great imagination. I saw
before me then, even as I do now, a new world of black men, not peons, serfs,
dogs and slaves, but a nation of sturdy men making their impress upon
civilization and causing a new light to dawn upon the human race. I could not
remain in London any more. My brain was afire. There was a world of thought to
conquer. I had to start ere it became too late and the work be not done.
Immediately I boarded a ship at Southampton for Jamaica, where I arrived on
July 15, 1914. The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African
Communities (Imperial) League was founded and organized five days after my arrival,
with the program of uniting all the Negro peoples of the world into one great
body to establish a country and Government absolutely their own. Where did the name of the organization come
from? It was while speaking to a West Indian Negro who was a passenger with me
from Southampton, who was returning home to the West Indies from Basutoland
with his Basuto wife, that I further learned of the horrors of native life in
Africa. He related to me in conversation such horrible and pitiable tales that
my heart bled within me. Retiring from the conversation to my cabin, all day
and the following night I pondered over the subject matter of that
conversation, and at midnight, lying flat on my back, the vision and thought
came to me that I should name the organization the Universal Negro Improvement
Association and African Communities (Imperial) League. Such a name I thought
would embrace the purpose of all black humanity. Thus to the world a name was
born, a movement created, and a man became known.” Marcus Garvey, "The Negro's Greatest Enemy", Current
History (September, 1923)
[2] Duse Mohamed, In the Land of the Pharaohs: A Short
History of Egypt from the Fall of Ismail to the Assassination of Boutros
(London: Stanley Paul & Company, 1911)
[3] Marcus
Garvey, The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey Ed. Amy Jacques-Garvey
(New York: Athenaeum, 1969)
[4]
Ibid, pp. 10
[5] Ibid,
pp. 11
[6] An example of the
general Indian opportunistic attitude is best summed up by the life of Mahatma
Gandhi in South Afrika 6134- 6155 KC [1893-1914 CE]. Gandhi, a high caste Hindu and a
committed British subject and imperial loyalist who wanted to achieve the
rights of British citizens for Indians was not and never would be a racial
egalitarian, even his policy towards the Black Dalits of India were tame to say
the least. He was committed to racial
purity and in 6147 KC [1906 CE] fought in the derogatively labeled ‘Kaffir
Wars’ for the British against the Zulu Empire, offered to organize an Indian
Brigade and recieved the Victoria War Medal for his service against the
Zulu. Consider this excerpt: “Gandhi was
not a whit less racist than the white racists of South Africa. When Gandhi
formed the Natal Indian Congress on August 22, 1894, the no. 1 objective he
declared was: “To promote concord and harmony among the Indians and Europeans
in the Colony.” [Collected Works (CW)1 pp. 132-33]...Addressing a public
meeting in Bombay on Sept. 26 1896 (CW II p. 74), Gandhi said: Ours is one
continued struggle against degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the
European, who desire to degrade us to the level
of the raw Kaffir, whose occupation is hunting and whose sole ambition is
to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with, and then pass his
life in indolence and nakedness. In 1904, he wrote (CW. IV p. 193): It is one thing
to register natives who would not work, and whom it is very difficult to find
out if they absent themselves, but it is another thing -and most insulting -to
expect decent, hard-working, and respectable Indians, whose only fault is that
they work too much, to have themselves registered and carry with them
registration badges... Clause 200 makes provision for registration of persons
belonging to uncivilized races (meaning the local Africans), resident and
employed within the Borough. One can understand the necessity of registration
of Kaffirs who will not work, but why should registration be required for
indentured Indians who have become free, and for their descendants about whom
the general complaint is that they work too much? The Indian Opinion
published an editorial on September 9 1905 under the heading, “The relative
Value of the Natives and the Indians in Natal”. In it Gandhi referred to a
speech made by Rev. Dube, a most accomplished African, who said that an African
had the capacity for improvement, if only the Colonials would look upon him as
better than dirt, and give him a chance to develop self-respect. Gandhi suggested
that “A little judicious extra taxation would do no harm; in the majority of
cases it compels the native to work for at least a few days a year.” Then he
added: Now
let us turn our attention to another and entirely unrepresented community-the
Indian. He is in striking contrast with the native. While the native has been
of little benefit to the State, it owes its prosperity largely to the Indians.
While native loafers abound on every side, that species of humanity is almost
unknown among Indians here. Nothing could be further from the
truth, that Gandhi fought against Apartheid, which many propagandists in later
years wanted people to believe. He was all in favour of continuation of white domination and oppression
of the blacks in South Africa.” From: Fazlul Huq, Gandhi: Saint or Sinner?
(Bangalore: Dalit Sahitya Akademy, 1992); See also: Richard Grenier, “The Gandhi Nobody
Knows” Commentary (March 1983) pp. 59-72. Indian society is rife with a White
Supremacist attitudes and policies towards the Black Dalits or so-called
Untouchables and Indians when they come to Afrika they in general bring and practice those same
attitudes. They came and come to Afrika
for economic exploitation only generally opposing egalitarian none capitalist
exploitation measures given that they profit from the current system. If in
their own land they treat Afrikans [Dalits] horrifically and subhumanly it is
wishful thinking to believe that they will do otherwise in Afrika. Even those
few who do not fall into this generalization, are exceptions which prove the
rule.
[7] Chinweizu, ‘‘Neo-Garveyism or Continentalism—the
Pan-Africanism for the 21st century’’ (Festac Town Lagos, Nigeria: Chinweizu, 2010)
[8] The situation is slightly reversed now as those who
benefited to differing degrees under colonialism and were joyfully non-Black
Afrikan have attempted to carve out a space for themselves in the
‘post-independence’ era by universalizing the name Afrikan to include the
descendants of colonizers and enslavers and dissociating Afrikan from Black and
accusing anyone who advocates Black control in the ‘Land of the Blacks’,
Pan-Afrikanism or Black Consciousness of reverse-racism. Mhenga Stephen Bantu Biko provided a poignant
response to such fallacies: “Those who know, define racism as discrimination by a
group against another for the purposes of subjugation or maintaining
subjugation. In other words one cannot be a racist unless he has the power to
subjugate. What blacks are doing is merely to respond to a situation in which
they find themselves the objects of white racism. We are in the position in
which we are because of our skin. We are collectively segregated
against -- what can be more logical than for us to respond as a group? When
workers come together under the auspices of a trade union to strive for the
betterment of their conditions, nobody expresses surprise in the Western world.
It is the done thing. Nobody accuses them of separatist tendencies. Teachers
fight their battles, garbage men do the same, nobody acts as a trustee for
another. Somehow, however, when blacks want to do their thing the liberal
establishment seems to detect an anomaly. This is in fact a counter anomaly.
The anomaly was there in the first instance when the liberals were presumptuous
enough to think that it behooved them to fight the battle for the blacks.”
From: Stephen Bantu Biko, I Write What I Like, (Oxford: Heinemann
Educational Books, 1987) I disagree however with Stephen Bantu Biko on one
point, as we are in the position that we are in due to our loss of power, and
failure to recognize the sadist pathological nature of the whites as well as
their use of racism/White Supremacy to maintain a dominant position of power.
To say that it is because of ‘our skin’ places the issue with ourselves at the
biological level and thus makes it inherent to us and that is a fallacious
argument to say the least for it implies that if we were not Black we would not
be in this position. Therefore we should change our skin and the problem would
be solved. This position is obviously erroneous.
[10]
Molefi Kete Asante, An Afrocentric Manifesto: Toward and African Renaissance
(Malden, Mass.: Polity Press, 2008) pp. 9; Ama Mazama, The Afrocentric
Paradigm (Trenton: Africa World Press, 2003)
[11] Chinweizu, “Let’s Study Pan-Africanism- The
Pan-Africanism Study Project [PASP]” (Festac Town
Lagos, Nigeria: Chinweizu, 2011) For
Additional information on the Pan-Africanism Study Project- Chinweizu, P.
O. Box 988, Festac Town, Lagos, Nigeria. sundoor999@gmail.com
[12]
Molefi Kete Asante, An Afrocentric Manifesto: Toward and African Renaissance
(Malden, Mass.: Polity Press, 2008) pp. 31-54.
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