Africans, more than any other member group of the human race, are the least aware of who they are, what has happened to them, and who their true friends are. They are the least aware of their common destiny.
It is said that if you do not know who you are, you are not likely to know where you have been and indeed where you are going. The Igbo of Nigeria say that if you do not know when you got in the rain, you are not likely to know when you got out of it. It is little surprise that the African race is the most colonized, enslaved, and dominated by other races and their economics, politics, and religion.
Many Africans are oblivious of the history and its lessons. The more history one knows, the wiser the one is, the less confused and deluded the one is, and the better the choices that the one is more likely to makes. International relations must not be practiced without regard to historical experience.
Chinweizu is bang on the money. He is an informed student of history. His opinion should be taken seriously.
oa
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Pius Adesanmi
Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2011 9:49 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Chinweizu on Libya and Pan-Africanism
Mwalimu Bangura:
You are killing Moses the messenger along with his message. What about what Africans like Moses, Deopka Ikhide, and yours truly have been saying about your lunatic Afrikan brother, Gaddafi? Or must we do sex change and become Afrikans like you before we can see what exactly it is that you see in your great Libyan hero? The Afrikan brotherhood you say you share with Gaddafi reminds me of the Yoruba proverb: "ore afin o tan afin, afin l'on tan ara re". Literal and clumsy translation for English cannot carry the weight of Yoruba genius: "the albino's friend does not deceive the albino, it is the albino who deceives himself". Let me illustrate that proverb for you, having translated it. Mr Albino is strolling casually in the village. Some villagers hail him, "oyinbo (white man)! oyinbo (white man)!! oyinbo (white man)!!!" Mr. Albino acknowledges the greetings and responds happily: "yeah, that's me alright". Now, if his friends do not know that he is not a white man, shouldn't the albino at least know for a fact that he is no Caucasian? When he responds happily to salutations calling him "oyinbo" (white man), who is deceiving who - albino's friends or Mr. Albino himself? Mwalimu Bangura, if there is anybody hailing you as the Afrikan brother of a racist Arab lunatic who may wash his hands a hundred times after shaking hands with you for fear catching diseases from a black macaca and you respond to such greetings in ecstasy, just remember this: ore afin o tan afin, afin l'on tan ara re!
Pius
From: Abdul Bangura <theai@earthlink.net>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com; "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, 27 July 2011, 8:17
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Chinweizu on Libya and Pan-AfricanismMwalimu Pius Adesanmi, thanks for educating our young, pompous and occasionally rude brother Prophet Moses/Anabi Musa, despite your cynicism. May be the following URLs may educate both of you and others who know nothing about the significance of spelling the oyimbonized "Africa" with a K:
From The Great Afrikan Mother Dr. Marimba Ani:
Enjoy your day!
In Peace Always,
Karim/.
----- Original Message -----
From: Pius Adesanmi
Sent: 7/27/2011 7:49:44 AM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Chinweizu on Libya and Pan-Africanism
"For those Africans like Nwalimu Abdul Bangura..."
Moses, Moses, Moses:
You must tender an apology to monsieur Bangura for the great injury you have done to his spelling bee pan-Africanism. Please note that monsieur Bangura and his buddy, Gaddafi, are Afrikans, not Africans.
Pius
From: Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com>
To: USAAfricaDialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, 26 July 2011, 18:35
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Chinweizu on Libya and Pan-AfricanismI am not sure that this post (below) by Abdul Salau made it onto the list, so I am reposting it. I don't always agree with
Chinweizu's insular, puritanical racial Afrocentrism but I agree with his characterization of the current pan-African obsession with Ghaddafi as an African icon deserving of African support and sympathy in his face-off with NATO. It's vintage Chinweizu and is a little harsh. However, those who insist on venerating and projecting Ghadaffi as a symbol of Afro-Arab solidarity and pan-Africanism in spite of all the evidence of his racist Arab condescension and the indifference of his regime to the perennial violence against African immigrants (not to mention his indifference to other theaters of racist subjugation of black Africans) deserve Chinweizu's harsh critique. I understand the position of those who offer Ghadaffi sympathy only on account of their opposition to imperialism in ALL circumstances. I don't agree with it, but I respect it because such a position leaves room to acknowledge the racial hypocrisy of Ghadaffi and Arabs and the inherited/learned racism and sense of superiority that mark their attitude to those of us from the other side of the Sahara.
For those Africans like Nwalimu Abdul Bangura who still see Ghadaffi's as a deracinated Afro-Arab statesman, use this erroneous claim to argue that he deserves the sympathy of Africans, or/and want proof of his offensive racism towards Africans, see this revealing Newsweek interview with
his Ukranian nurse: http://www.newsweek.com/2011/04/10/my-years-as-gaddafi-s-nurse.html.
See the following excerpts:
"The job of the nurses was to see that our employer stayed in great shape—in fact, he had the heart rate and blood pressure of a much younger man. We insisted that he wear gloves on visits to Chad and Mali to protect him against tropical diseases."
"When we drove around poor African countries he would fling money and candy out the widow of his armored limousine to children who ran after our motorcade; he didn't want them close for fear of catching diseases from them. He never slept in a tent, though! That's just a myth."
Chinwezu on el-Qaddafi: Letter to Jerry Johnson and David Comissiong by Chinweizu
Hello Jerry,
Wonders will never cease! As the Ancient Romans said: "Out of Africa always something new!" Here are some very confused Africans and Afro-descendants who talk as if they are Arab-descendants and have a duty to defend the Arab lands. They have issued a call for people to join them on what they call a "Freedom Ride to Africa (Libya)!" They intend to go to Libya to defend their Arab patron, Gadafi, from attack by Europeans! They want to bring freedom to the Libyan Arab colonialists who are white settlers on land conquered from Africans. Yet we have never heard these 'Pan-Africanists' talk of going to Darfur orMauritania to bring freedom to their fellow Africans--freedom from vicious Arab colonialists, land-grabbers and enslavers.
These A-APRP 'revolutionaries' are echoing Stokely Carmichael, their founder who, just before he died in 1998, declared: "Hell Yes, We are going to Libya!". They are reviving his death-bed mission. I hope they do actually go and get wiped out by NATO cruise missiles or Arab racists, [Gadafi's troops will gladly use them as human shields, and the anti-Gadafi rebels will call them mercenaries and happily lynch them]. These confused Niggers can't keep themselves emotionally out of a war between Arabs and Europeans-- the two white racist and colonialist oppressors of the black race. It is said that fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Even great powers like Russia and China have wisely chosen to be spectators watching this unfolding phase of the 14-centuries-old war between Arab Jihadists and Western European Crusaders. Yet these utterly impotent niggers want to go and bodily intervene.
I wish the entire membership of the A-APRP a jolly "Freedom Ride" to Libya. And I urge them to take along with them all those Blacks who believe in Afro-Arab Continentalist Pan-Africanism, including every pro-Arab Nigger Tom, every pro-Arab Traitor-at-the-top, and every black facilitator of Arab colonialist expansionism in Africa, and including especially Thabo Mbeki, Olusegun Obasanjo, Abdou Diouf, Abdoulaye Wade, Oumar Konare, Jean Ping and his gang of AU Commissioners, Dudley Thompson as well as Maulana Karenga, David Comissiong, Cynthia McKinney and the official "AU Intellectuals." Good and speedy riddance to that whole lot; to all those who condone Arab racism and colonialism, or aid and abet the anti-African interests of the Arabs. Let these wannabe-Arabs depart with one-way tickets to Tripoli and Benghazi where they can happily resettle among their beloved Arabs; and may the Black race be forever freed of their accursed misleadership.
In the service of the African/Black race,
ChinweizuDear David Comissiong
You have posed several important questions.
1] "Am I to understand that one is not entitled to denounce a criminal, terroristic assault on Libya because the phenomenon of Arab racism towards Blacks exists?"
2] "What really is the game that is being played here?"
3] "What is the real purpose behind this dishonest and diversionary debate?"
4] "Whose interests is it serving?"I will gladly answer them even though you have arrogantly refused to answer my questions.
My reply:
1] One is entitled to denounce whatever one feels like denouncing. You have exercised your right. But likewise, others are entitled to take issue with and denounce your double standard in not denouncing the terroristic assaults by Arabs on Black Africans in Sudan and Mauritania, assaults that have been going on for the last 50 years.2] This is not a game. It is a serious and long overdue exposure of the anti-Black African consequences of Afro-Arab Continentalist Pan-Africanism.
3] Is this a diversionary debate? Diversionary from what? This is not a diversionary debate. It is a debate about one of the monumental failings of Pan-Africanism since 1958: the refusal to include among the concerns of Pan-Africanism the victims of Arab enslavement and colonialism.
Is the debate dishonest? I don't think so. What is dishonest is a dogged and willful refusal to address the issues of 50 years of Arabophilia and its damaging consequences for millions of black Africans.4] You seem not to know whose interest is being served by this debate. Well, let me give you a clue. There are two interests being served by this debate. First of all, it is serving the interests of the millions of Black African victims of Arab racism and enslavement in Sub-Sahara Africa and the eastern diaspora. It is drawing attention to their harrowing plight and drawing attention to the responsibility of Pan-Africanists everywhere to include them among the beneficiaries of their campaigns against racism, colonialism and enslavement.
The second interest is that of democracy within the Pan-African Movement itself. As Pan-Africanists, we have a duty to criticize and judge the organizations that purport to be Pan-Africanist. As followers, we can't abdicate our duty to supervise the organizations that speak and act allegedly on our behalf. Followers are entitled to express concern when their leaders leave undone those things which they ought to have done, and do those things which they ought not to have done. Accordingly, this debate serves the interest of popular democracy and responsible leadership within the Pan-African Movement.5] You conclude by saying: "The clear duty of Pan- Africanists is to come to the defense of Africa." The pertinent questions that I am raising are, firstly: which Africa is Pan-Africanism about? The Africa of the African race or the Africa of the Arab enemies of the African race? Secondly, the defense of Africa from what? Exclusively from attacks from the Western imperialists, or from attacks from any quarter whatsoever? These are the fundamental issues being aired in this debate. So let's address them.
May I draw your attention to the agenda of Pan-Africanism as set forth by its founders back in 1897, the year Pan-Africanism formally began. In June of that year, a London-based Trinidadian lawyer, Henry Sylvester-Williams, organized the first ever Pan-African Association. Its constitutional mandate was to enable Africans and their global descendants, to achieve
"their true civil and political rights, to ameliorate the condition of our oppressed brethren in the continents of Africa, America, and other parts of the world, [emphasis added] by promoting efforts to secure effective legislation, to encourage our people in educational, industrial and commercial enterprises, to foster friendly relations between the Caucasian and African races, to organize a bureau, a depository, for collections of authorized writings and statistics relating to our people everywhere, and to raise a fund to be used solely for forwarding these purposes."
--quoted in Prah, The African Nation, Cape Town: CASAS, 2006, p.10Please note that the commitment is to people of the African race, wherever found, whether in Africa, America or other parts of the world. It was a racial movement not a landmass movement. Why not a continental landmass movement? Obviously, it was not the continental landmass that was captured and transported for enslavement across the Atlantic Ocean, the Sahara desert or the Indian Ocean. It was the black people of Sub-Sahara Africa, those called Negroes by their European enslavers, and called the Zanj by their Arab enslavers. Pan-Africanism was chartered as a movement of the African race; its Africa is that part of Africa from where the Negroes enslaved by the Arabs and Europeans had been taken, i.e. Negro-Africa or Sub-Sahara Africa, and not the whole continent. Accordingly any continental landmass Pan-Africanism is fraudulent, especially when it goes out of its way to concern itself with the plight of the Arab enslavers of our people and expropriators of our land. It is not the business of Pan-Africanism to concern itself with the plight of European settlers in any part of the African continent. It is likewise not the business of Pan-Africanism to concern itself with the plight of Arab settlers in any part of the African continent. We should never forget that these Arab settlers invaded Africa from their homeland in the Arabian Peninsula.
Since Pan-Africanism came into being to ameliorate the conditions of the African race, it has to ameliorate the conditions imposed by all the alien peoples who have debased or attacked the African race. It cannot therefore limit itself exclusively to those conditions that were imposed by the Western imperialists. It cannot then, in good conscience, turn its back on or refuse to take up the cause of those under enslavement and colonialism by Arabs. If the Chinese were to attack the African race, Pan-Africanism, by its founding charter, is duty bound to do something about that; if Martians were to attack the African race, Pan-Africanism is duty bound to do something about that too.For Pan-Africanism to merit the "pan" in its name, it must address the plight of all sections of its legitimate constituency: the African or black race; and it must do so without being partial and without ignoring some sources of the plight. Any Pan-Africanism that limits its concerns to the plight of the western diaspora, is parochial; any that ignores the plight of the eastern diaspora is truncated. Any that ignores the Arab enslavement and colonialist cruelty to millions of Black Africans on the homeland is also truncated and unfit to be called Pan-Africanism. And, I dare say, any Pan-Africanism that is guilty of all three deficiencies is colluding with the Arabs in their terroristic assault on millions of Black Africans in the homeland and the lands of the eastern diaspora, and is therefore a fraud. The horrible consequences of these 50 years of double standards demand that these parochialisms and truncations be criticized and rectified.
The movement, by this present debate, is finally beginning to do its duty of self-criticism. Those who opt out of this cleansing process, thereby opt out of Pan-Africanism.In short, David, you cannot ignore the fact that we have two white enemies—the Arabs and the Europeans. You cannot be blind to the crimes of our Arab enemy and focus exclusively on the crimes committed by Western imperialism.
We must tackle head on the issue of double standards even in the matter of crimes committed by Western imperialism. You say that Libya and Cote d'Ivoire are the current frontlines of imperialist attack. Good point. We have seen what the PEP urged CARICOM and AU governments to do about Libya. But what has the PEP, thus far, urged the CARICOM and the AU leaders to do about Cote d'Ivoire? We should note that the Libyan crisis began in February 2011. On March 17, the UN Security Council voted for the no-fly zone over Libya, triggering the NATO attack on Libya. On March 30, i.e. within two weeks, the PEP and the Pan African Movement of Barbados issued their statement urging the CARICOM and AU governments to make a stand against Western cruelty to the Libyan people. But the Cote d'Ivoire crisis began two months earlier in December 2010. What statement has the PEP put out, thus far, calling on the CARICOM and AU countries to stand up against the Western crimes in, and cruelty to the people of, Cote d'Ivoire? I, for one would like to see such a document. If they do not re-circulate it on this listserve, they will, by that failure, convict themselves of neglecting the Western cruelty to Black Africans in their unjustified pre-occupation with the Western cruelty to Arabs.
Besides, one would like to see evidence of what the PEP asked CARICOM and AU governments to do when the West attacked Somalia in the early 1990s, or when the West attempted regime change in Zimbabwe a few years ago. They may indeed have done something, but how many of us have heard of it? Only when we do hear of what the PEP did can we believe its implicit claim that it is concerned with Western cruelty to all the peoples on the African continent, and not just the cruelty to Arabs. But regardless of whatever stance the PEP has publicly taken against Western imperialism, what has it done against Arab colonialism specifically? That sin of omission is the issue. The PEP members probably think the issue will go away if they do not address it . But we must do our duty and hold all Pan-African organizations, including the PEP and the AU, answerable for their actions and inactions. That is our democratic duty.We must seriously ask: Why should Pan-Africanism confine its attention exclusively to the crimes committed on the African race by Western imperialism? What is the motive for such silence on the crimes of the Arabs? Whose interest does it serve? I argue that it serves the anti-African interest of the Arab criminals. Let me point out how it has done that. Since 1958, that silence has given the Arabs a free hand to harm the peoples of the African race in Sudan, Mauritania and the lands of the eastern diaspora. It has prevented us from defending the sections of our race that Arabs have attacked. This criminal complicity by Continentalist Afro-Arab 'Pan-Africanism' deserves to be exposed and attacked. We have, since the 7th century AD, been under assault by two criminal peoples, those of Europe and those of Arabia. However, the PEP and the AU and their fellow Continentalists hide the issue of Arab crimes against the African race. But they do not say why they do so. It is our duty to insist that they come clean and explain their double standard and their motives, if they are not to be viewed as the pro-Arab part of what Garvey called the traitors-at-the-top.
Some may think that Libya is a stepping stone to a NATO assault on Zimbabwe. It is not. The NATO criminals attempted regime change in Zimbabwe before, without first attacking Libya. And we can rest assured that Zimbabwe remains on their hit list, and will be attacked whenever the devils find it convenient. Imperialism never forgives or forgets those who defeat or defy it. Would our supporting Libya help deter a renewed assault on Zimbabwe? Not bloody likely. So the two issues should not be linked. We should therefore start now doing whatever we judge necessary to support Zimbabwe and not waste our energies on Libya.
Of course, I understand some people's concern to show international solidarity with all other oppressed peoples. Fair enough. But solidarity and sympathy, like charity should begin with one's own people. When it does not, something is deeply wrong. As Marcus Garvey taught us:
"Bestow charity upon your race first. Every Negro helped from the ground to stand up, is another man set on the road to racial responsibility. . . . Every Negro's interest must come first in all the things of humanity. Not until you have served every Negro in the world should you seek to be kind to others. Charity begins at home."
--Marcus Garvey, Message to the People (1937) Dover, Mass.: The Majority Press, 1986. pp. 148, 27. Available from www.tonymartin.net.tt or www.themajoritypress.comI don't suppose the PEP lot would agree with Garvey on that, since they are addicted to showing solidarity preferentially with non-Blacks. But it is for the Black race to judge them for racial disloyalty in not putting the black race first.
And furthermore, as Malcolm X taught:
"I believe in the brotherhood of man, all men, but I don't believe in brotherhood with anybody who doesn't want brotherhood with me. I believe in treating people right, but I'm not going to waste my time trying to treat somebody right who doesn't know how to return the treatment."
As the historical record shows, for 14 centuries the Arabs have not been treating our people right. Why should you want to show brotherhood to them, whether in Libya or anywhere else? Why do some of us refuse to get these Arab "brothers" of theirs to show brotherhood to Black Africans as a pre-condition for our showing brotherhood to them? Why do you want brotherhood with Arabs who don't want brotherhood with your people?
Finally, David, I urge you to take a detached and clarifying review of your stand on these matters. Some criminal is burning the house of your brother; then some other criminal sets fire to the house of the criminal who set fire to your brother's house--- and all you can think of is to rush to put out the fire in the house of the criminal who burnt your brother's house. Is that brotherly behavior on your part?
That is at the root of what this debate is about.
In service to the African/black race,
Chinweizu
--
There is enough in the world for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed.
---Mohandas Gandhi
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