Brothers and sisters,
May 25th is the day that was set aside by the fathers of this
continent as the day to "mark each year the onward progress of the
liberation movement, and to symbolize the determination of the People
of Africa to free themselves from foreign domination and
exploitation."
Seeing that Africa is not exactly free from foreign domination and
exploitation, it is clear that the people of Africa are still engaged
in this struggle that will see them free themselves from horrid
conditions they face as their everyday realities. That is why the ALD
is as important today as it was 53 years ago when Kwame Nkrumah and
the other concious leaders at the first Conference of Independent
African States evoked in it the spirit of freedom.
The power in this day is immense, for in the simple act of all
Africans meditating upon themselves and towards the same cause lays
the potential for creating the ultimate freedom in man. Therein also
exists the ability to develop tools and knowledge that far surpases
the materialistic and destructive ideas that currently dominate the
world.
It is for this reason that foreign powers through their proxies will
go to any length to ensure that the common African is unaware of the
significance of this day. These foreign powers have worked hard at
containing and co-opting all rising panafrican leaders, and for sure
with very little exceptions, looking at the email contacts of todays
panafricanists is like reading a list of donor and multi-lateral
organizations operating around the world. Our so called panafricanists
are all found @unmc, @oxfam, @fordfound, @actionaid, @fahamu, @undp
among others.
If you ask them they will tell you that they are working from within
the system to change it. The truth is that the system is changing
them!
Unfortunately, it doesn't end there... the system is now using them to
change the struggle and its meaning. Two examples:
We have a panafrican "something" program that is being run by a
network of these donor-funded organizations where, apart from one or
two exceptions, the members of the program have absolutely no interest
in issues of Panafricanism and spend all their time pushing the gender
and gay & lesbian agenda all around the continent under the banner of
"Panafrican Fellowship program." This pushes away true panafricanists
who have refused to be associated with this divisiveness and decadence
and by this, thoroughly weakens the movement.
Two. I believe this is the most insidious. There is this ongoing
process of reducing the African Liberation Day to be a footnote under
events that happened in the late Tajudeen's life, especially as the
day of his death. If you interrogate the circumstances of his death,
then you will have much more respect for the African Liberation Day
and the spirit of Africa and hopefully realize your folly in trying to
make the late Tajudeen to be greater than the day that made him.
Africa is alive!
It feels, it thinks, it acts! It is a higher consciousness that plans
things at such high and complex levels that even the most intellectual
of minds is left far behind, locked in the limited world of time &
space.
There are those who care nothing about the plight of the people and
are only driven by the greed to make more and to expand their empires.
Well, their judgment is set.
But, I speak to you. You who find yourself caught up in a
contradiction between what you know and what you do. Sometimes it
requires an act of faith to make a leap into what you feel is true. To
listen to what your entire education system has taught you not to
perceive. To believe in the truth that is inside of you. To eventually
bring together what you know and what you do. And, to finally listen
to the voice of the living spirit of Africa.
Let us be mindful of our higher obligations to the people of Africa
and to Africa in itself.
As we "mark this year the onward progress of the liberation
movement...", we all need to ask ourselves at a very personal level,
"where have I been in the struggle towards liberating my people from
the oppression and exploitation of foreigners!"
Happy African Liberation day!
Mulialia.
3:46am, 25/05/2011
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