Fighting against white supremacy and fighting for power, Africans must make the right choice.
The world’s history is written with blood, it is a history that speaks about victories and defeats, conquerors versus conquered people, and the only motive that drives nations today is to, either conquer other nations or free themselves from oppression. Essentially, these two options are applicable to the African nation worldwide, in the face of our predicament, whether we call it white supremacy, racism, imperialism or neo-colonialism, the question remains, are we prepared to fight against these evils or are we fighting for power? Indeed, it appears that we have been fighting against so and so for a long time, maybe now it is time we have to begin fighting for power. In the following lines we are going to briefly question the nature of our past and present struggle against things, after we will argue that fighting for power is our last valuable option for a better future in 21st century.
The past and present struggle.
Firstly, the current struggle of African people globally is mainly based on fighting against many isms that create suffering of the masses. Not long ago in 2020, the world witnessed a global demonstration against racism or white supremacy, triggered by the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in the United States of America. George Floyd murder triggered an international protest movement championed by Black Lives Matter (BLM), not just in America, but in Europe, Africa and Asia, people marched, protested and demanded that the rights of Black people must be recognised and respected. Also, many of the statues around the world considered as symbols of white oppression over black people were demolished as a result of Black Lives Matter movement. Actually, this movement (BLM) is not alone in the fight against white domination of black people, there are endless anti-imperialist, anti-colonialism, and anti-racism movements around the world fighting against many things. Interestingly, we are seeing the rise in the intensity of violence against Africans worldwide. For instance, according to cbsnews.com in May 2020 two days after George Floyd murder, another black man named Modesto Reyes was fatally shot by a Jefferson police officer because he attempted to flee. According to the same report, 164 black people in the first 8 months of the year 2020 were killed by police officers in the US, and many more to this day in Europe, Asia and Africa despite all the many organisations in the fight against violence toward African people. Even further in history, most of our true leaders were gunned down one after another; we protested, and the cycle continued. In the US, When Malcom X was killed, people cried and protested, a short while after Dr King was killed, people cried and protested. In the continent, when Patrice Lumumba was killed, people cried and protested, after a while Thomas Sankara was killed, people cried and protested, to this day we are still fighting against racism, imperialism and neo-colonialism but people are still dying, our resources are still controlled by foreigners, and Africa is still subject to discrimination and oppression. Essentially, from the precedent overview we can argue that our strategy of fighting against all the above isms is not productive, based on the fact that it has not been able to deliver Africa from the yoke of foreign dominations, and the main reason is discussed below.
How did we fall?
Secondly, even though many of the pro-African organisations in the world are focused on fighting against racism, imperialism, neo-colonialism, all these isms are a systemic consequence of the global power balance. It suffices to ask many Africans something they would want to eradicate in the world if they had the power, many people have told me that they would get rid of racism, this answer is in line with our global strategy of fighting against external factors, which I am trying to disapprove of in this essay. The underlying perspective of this strategy can be summarised as, it is because of our darker skin that the world does not like us, hence we are subjected to racism, discrimination, imperialism and neo-colonialism, to which indeed credits must be given for our suffering as black people. However, a deep study can reveal that all these factors are just the consequence of the world power balance not in our favour. Maybe, we must revise the history and understand the cause of our defeat as a people, in doing so we will be able to realise that we have been fighting, for the most part, the wrong fight. For instance, according to the works of many scholars such as Cheikh Anta Diop and Dr John Henrik Clarke, the first time Europeans came in contact with Africans they worshiped them. Stated differently, in the early days of our contact with Europeans there was no racism in the world nor such a thing as the white supremacy, they are all recent inventions. For example, there was a time when the Roman empire was ruled by black emperors, this could not be the case if black skin was a symbol of inferiority and subject to humiliation. Now, the reason why Africa fell in the hands of her yesterday’s worshippers and today’s oppressors, is because we lost our historical initiative; we resigned from our initial vocation of working to remain the centre of global power. Primarily, the world worshiped and envied us because we represented the global powerbase, we were the centre of science, spirituality and civilisation from whatever angle you consider the ancient African societies. Quickly, the Persians discovered around 500 BC that we had lost the will to power and we had become ritualistic religious, they waged wars and conquered Africa, since then, Africa has been weak and defenceless. Consequently, we are subject to many isms today, not because we are black people or an inferior race, it is because we do not have the power to do for ourselves, and every time a weak entity dwells in the same space with a strong entity, the strong entity must dominate on the weak entity. Actually, the state of powerlessness is remarkable in the treatment reserved to Africans in the world compared to the way people deal with, for instance, Chinese immigrants. Whenever a person of Chinese descent misbehaves anywhere in the world, he is treated with dignity and respect in the same proportion that people treat China, because China represents power. On the other hand, an African descent is treated with no dignity and respect, because nobody respects a weak Africa without power to enforce its will.
New strategy of the fight
Moving forward, Africa must fight, not against the isms, but to regain her position of power. Properly understood, you can agree that power is the essence of life, without it you will always depend on others for your own basic needs; can you relate to that? You see, we have in Africa 60% of the arable land in the world, but we are dying hungry, poor, and sometimes in the Mediterranean water trying to join the land of our nightmares. This is because we do not have the power to work our land and produce from it whatever we need. Moreover, we have the natural resources and manpower (65% youth in the continent), but we lack the power to utilize what we have in solving our own problems. Interestingly, our leaders will campaign for power at every election, after we have elected them, they all run to China, Russia and India for help; it shows how weak and ineffective our institutions are. Essentially, power is the ability to do the work, it is a combination of economic, political, scientific, technological and military power. Especially, in today’s context, before power can be economic, political or scientific, it must first be the ability to inflict a higher degree of violence upon your adversaries, thus military power, and that is what Africa must be longing for. For example, the US is considered a powerful nation, not because of its economy, politics and culture, the US is considered a powerful nation and respected because they have the capacity to bring violence to other nations through their weapons of mass destruction. Equally, if Africa must restore her power she must begin first with this dimension of power, which is the only language the world listens to, and the day Africans restore their power, blackness will be envied by all nations, because it will symbolise excellency. It is good to fight for economic power, but without military power our economy will be within the reach of our predators. Remember, in 2011 Muammar Gaddafi had lots of money, and Libya was amongst the most advanced nations in the world, but he did not have the power to protect his economy, his fate was sealed by NATO with the blessing of Barack Obama. Arguably, protests and marching movements of the marginalized people are essential tools that worked in the past, but they have become almost inaudible voices to today’s power structure in the world, the only option we have now is to fight for our own power, the only language respected in the world.
In conclusion, we can argue that power is the only dimension responsible for restoring African freedom and triggering her emancipation without which there cannot be peace and prosperity in Africa and the world at large. It is time to reconsider the nature of our fight, to slow down with fighting against external factors and go inside ourselves to tackle the many factors contributing to our weakness. For as long as we are weak, we will remain under the domination of other people, and the domination itself, whether it is ordained by God or by devil, always paves a way to oppression, and nothing can prosper under oppression.
If you are interested in finding out how to rebuild this power with some organisations in Africa that are working, not against, but for the restoration of Africa as global powerbase, we are inviting you to consider the following:
African Continental Unity Party– www.africanacup.org
Free-Minded Panafrican Acadamy– www.freemindedafrica.org
Organic African Paradigm- https://t.me/+0cEy6qSiLf9kY2Yx Ubuntu Solidarity Society– https://chat.whatsapp.com/DKiGkVDDB7OFAoVwKgwebB