By the Ballot or by the Bullet was a question posed to brother Malcolm X by agents provocateur. Do you know how Malcolm answered? He did not blink an eye before recommending the ballot as the most powerful tool with which to defend the right to equal freedom and justice. Nonviolence is not wishful thinking. After years of fighting, Sparta defeated Athens but we know more about Athens today because of their intellectual properties whereas the strongest men of Sparta remain relatively unknown.
Militarism is a wasteful parasitic institution that Africans should shy away from. especially because we do not manufacture the weapons of mass destruction that some foreigners wish to impose on us as foreign aid. After WWII, the victorious Allied Forces imposed pacifist constitutions on Germany, Italy, and Japan. The result is that those three defeated countries are among the most powerful economies today. China borrowed a leaf from them and invested heavily in the economy while relatively decreasing the share of the resources by the military on average. The rest is history. The victorious allied forces of Russia, US, and UK did not get the memo and continued with the arms race and war mongering at the cost of depressing their economies. Africa can learn from their errors.
Militarism is yet to deliver the final solution to any conflict situation. Militarism tends to make such situations worse. ZThat is probably why Gramsci theorized that a more effective leadership comes through intellectual and moral leadership or hegemony rather than through violent force alone. Whenever the dominant group tries to rely mainly on force or the imaginary monopoly of violence, it is an indication of hegemonic crisis. Similarly, Rosa Luxemburg warned against German imperialism in Africa and predicted that such greed would pith European workers against one another in a blood bath. Du Bois made similar warnings after WWI. Marx and Engels called for the formation of a Party of Social Democracy and not for guerrilla armies or suicide bombers.
For similar reasons, Fanon concluded that what we need urgently is revolutionary literature for the education nd mobilization of the Fellas to join the party and ensure with their votes that the comprador classes do not take over the repressive tools of the colonizers and use them to dominate the people militarily. Unfortunately, scholars who specialize in writing books instead of shooting missiles continue to believe that Fanon was calling for violence against Africans by African phantom bourgeoisie. Fanon was a psychiatrist who saw violence as a sign of mental illness
Military dictators in Africa used to bel;ieve that power flows through the barrels of a gun but Ruth First proved that the pen is mightier than the sword given the fact that no military regime lasts forever even whil;e holding on to guns. Apartheid also beleived that having the strongest military in Africa with nuclear weapons made them invincible but the anti-apartheid movement proved that the people united will never be defeated.
Democracy is not wishful thinking. It is the system of government preferred by the masses. The electoral process would not be enough to prevent violence. However, combined with heavy investments in education, infrastructure, and industrialization, there is likely to be significant increase in happiness and civility, making militarism obsolete. Yes, the Middle East crisis would be more effectively solved through a single state solution for all residents to share the territory on the basis of one person one vote and the right of refugees to return. The decades of relying on militarism have proven that War is good for absolutely nothing.
Biko
On Saturday, 27 December 2025 at 12:13:28 GMT-5, John Onyeukwu <john.onyeukwu@gmail.com> wrote:
Dialogue matters, but it is not a substitute for security. Every conflict cited combined force, containment, and negotiation, none ended through dialogue alone, and none began by legitimising armed groups while they were still killing civilians.
Politics requires a minimum monopoly of force. You cannot hold elections with groups whose primary language is coercion. Negotiation becomes meaningful after violence is constrained, not while it escalates.
The real debate is not militarism versus dialogue, but how force is governed, limited, and transitioned into politics. Pretending violence dissolves by recognition alone is not history, it is hope without strategy.
On Sat, 27 Dec 2025 at 14:51, Cornelius Hamelberg <corneliushamelberg@gmail.com> wrote:
Re - "There is no example of the defeat of terrorism through militarism. All the armed conflicts in the world tend to be settled through dialogue around a conference table…recognize the militants as legitimate political parties. Let them run for office nonviolently…" ( Wishful thinking flying in the face of "Me Gun Must be Heard !" and " Stand Firm -or you're gonna feed worm, but in tune with Capleton and Yami Bolo - Put Down Your Weapon but ostensibly in conflict with "There is nothing in our book, the Qur'an, that teaches us to suffer peacefully"
After checking out - in alphabetical order
I daresay what a brilliant idea : "Let them run for office nonviolently" etc.
Has the author of such wishful thinking ever thought of selling this idea to Israel and the Pals? Iran and the Great Satan? The warring parties in Sudan? Those aspiring to be awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize ?
--On Saturday, 27 December 2025 at 05:44:17 UTC+1 Biko Agozino wrote:Imperialism by invitation is a rare sign of neocolonialism under phantom bourgeois rulers. Maybe the US will invite Africa to come and strike their domestic terrorists too. There is probably more killing of Christians in the US than in Nigeria and there is definitely more kidnapping in the US than in the whole of Africa.
Kidnappings per Country 2025
Data pertaining to the number of people kidnapped around the world, sorted by the country in which the kidnappin...
There is no example of the defeat of terrorism through militarism. All the armed conflicts in the world tend to be settled through dialogue around a conference table - Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Ghaza, Lebanon, South Africa, Sudan, Congo, Sierra Leon, Liberia, Columbia, Northern Ireland, Ukraine, you name it. On the contrary, everywhere the US intervenes militarily, tends to be ruined.The solution to silencing the guns, according to AU, is to recognize the militsants as legitimate political parties. Let them run for office nonviolently and if they win a local government area or a state, let them govern without corruption to show that they can govern better than the corrupt politicians; let there be gender parity is all offices; and let there be ranches where the cattle will be kept and food and water brought to them insterad of fighting feudal wars over land at a timer that the economy is evolving into a capitalist one thaty depends on knowledge and not land ownership.Let the African states that committed genocide against theri own citizens apologize to the victimized and offer reparative justice and let Africans erase the colonial boundaries for a united Africa. Never again should any republic of ants try to swallow the African elephant without belly aches. Donald Trump pardoned those who attackerd law makers, he has no business bombing African youth - al Shabab - even if some African crooks invited him to do so in order to protect their looting of the economies.The Nigerian govt described itself as working with the Americans--On Fri, Dec 26, 2025, 9:07 PM 'Patrick Effiboley' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> wrote:--In a principle basis, can state/country enter a territory of another state in the name of fighting terrorism without the agreement of the latter?Dr Emery Patrick EFFIBOLEYMaître de conférences, Histoire de l'ArtChef, Département d'Histoire et d'Archéologie, Université d'Abomey-Calavi, BéninAndrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Wits University, RSA,(2014-2016)Le vendredi 26 décembre 2025 à 17:15:43 UTC+1, 'Victor Okafor' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> a écrit :Why the choice of North western targets in Nigeria? Is the North West, rather than the North east, the main source of the scourge of Boko Haram/Islamic terrorism all these years in Nigeria?Can someone enlighten us about these questions?Sincerely,Victor O. Okafor, Ph.D.Professor, Department of Africology and African American StudiesEastern Michigan UniversityCoordinator, Alpha Esquires Black History and Cultural Identity SeriesEmail: vok...@emich.eduTel: 734.487.3463Food for Thought:"I myself do not judge a man [or a woman] by the color of his [or her] skin. The yardstick that I use to judge a man [or a woman] is his [ or her] deeds, his [her] behavior, and his [or her] intentions. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth. And, every time you let someone stand on your head and you don't do anything about it, you are not acting with intelligence and should not be on this earth—you won't be on this earth very long either." -- Malcolm X.
--On Fri, Dec 26, 2025, 4:12 AM Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:U.S. strikes ISIS in Nigeria after Trump warnings on Christian killings - The Washington Post--
https://apple.news/APaWS_L5KQ9e3NfmCG1G45Q
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John Onyeukwu
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