JANUARY 15, 2020

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DAILY HERITAGE WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2020
The Year of Return: Re-discovering
us for the Africa we want
BY BENING AHMED
THE DIGNITY of
blacks is inherently
linked to the ability of
the African continent to
lift itself out of poverty,
disease, armed conflicts, hunger and
deprivation unto the path of prosperity
and economic progress. The deplorable
conditions and economic
dejection of the majority of our
African citizenry inadvertently translates
into the standard measure of
black dignity in totality.
Black people ever ywhere in the
world have their umbilical cords interconnected
to Africa. It is the
oasis from which we blossom and
the drinking pot of us all. “A people
without the knowledge of their
past history, origin and culture is
like a tree without roots.”
Marcus Garvey.
The journey to self-respect, dignity
and the status of us all is intrinsically
linked to the narrative and condition
of our black continent, be it African-
American, Caribbean as long as you
are black, the disposition of Africa
defines your social standing and dignity.
The responsibility therefore to
uplift our continent is collective, we
all have a responsibility to break the
shackles of under development and
expose the systematic design to under
develop and exploit our race in perpetuity.
“I am not African because I was
born in Africa but because Africa
was born in me.”
Kwame Nkrumah. Africa is our
roots, in fact black is Africa and irrespective
of our feelings, disappointments
and agony we all have a duty to
make it better, not for anybody but
for our own sake. The fight against
racial subjugation begins with re-writing
the African narrative, defeating
stereotypes and repositioning.
Africa remains the epitome of
wealth, civilization and the cradle of
life, this is exactly the reason the English,
the French, the Germans, the
Belgians and Portuguese all join forces
to keep us divided and subjugated.
The challenge therefore is our realization
and unification against an order
that balkanize to suppress us. We
must come to the admission that
Africa is one big unit and those that
seek to appropriate the huge wealth
under the belly of our lands to their
greed and brutal savagery remain alive
and consistently devising sophistication
to keep us divided.
The diaspora and those of us on
the motherland must come to the realization
that, our prosperity and selfworth
lies in our oneness, not in our
segregation along colonially imposed
systems and lingua-franka. Our pride
and dignity lies with us not in our association
with those that have worked
against us for ages. The liberation of
the mind and hearts of ourselves, and
the relegation of sellouts who continually
work with the oppressors to acculturate
our masses must be booted
out of power and influence.
“Some people, with a certain nostalgia,
the worshippers and admirers
of the colonial system, cherish and
nurse its structures instead of smashing
them. This is typical of a mentality
in bondage to decadent values,
negative values - counter-revolutionary
values”-Samora Machel
The Africa we want cannot be
built on the idiosyncrasies of other
cultures and civilizations. Just like the
Chinese our potential and capacities
are imbedded in our self-realization
and identification. We must rediscover
us, the black race, define our priorities
and confront our utilitarian realities.
The age old paradigm of alienating
the black race from our originality
through rapid acculturation must
teach us how to use this new appetite
for our socio-economic well-being
and benefit.
Black consciousness
Black consciousness must awaken
us to reinvent our sociology to address
our utilitarian realism. “The
basic tenet of black consciousness is
that the black man must reject all
value systems that seek to make him a
foreigner in the country of his birth
and reduce his basic human dignity”-
Steven Biko.
Africa is regarded a paragon of
wealth but a paradox to reality occasioned
by a combined force that is
committed to undermine the development
of the continent coupled with
our lackadaisical disposition. The begging
question we all must address
honestly is, weather blacks are of inferior
intellect, simply negligent or irresponsible?
In my opinion, our crisis has nothing
to do with inferior intellect, it has
everything behavioral inconsistencies
and socio-cultural distortions influenced
by religion and education, exacerbated
by greed. A succinct analysis
of leadership, mindset and other consequent
actions simply makes us complicit
in compromising our broader
goals for parochial interest of a few
sellouts.
Secondly the moral ineptitude of
•Some diasporans in a pose
the entire global order is what has visited
the greatest injustice ever witnessed
on the black race. But should
we keep throwing our hands in the air
in despair without action? Certainly
not.
We, after the realization of these
massive crimes and violation of our
humanity must look at our actions in
retrospect. “Action without thought
is empty. Thought without action is
blind.” Kwame Nkrumah.
We must take well thoughtthrough
and coordinated actions in
our best interest to build the Africa
we want. By doing so, we systematically
lift the status of the black race to
a more dignified standing.
The rest of the world must equally
know that, a stable and prosperous
Africa implies a safer and sustainable
planet. The quality of life in Africa
will automatically translate into a secured
environment for every race.
The systematic marginalization will
only defeat global peace and security
efforts.
While the African Union has an
ambitious plan of Agenda 2063, the
relevance of this agenda is only feasible
if the entirety of the black race
identifies with the vision and work
hand in hand for its realization. The
contribution of blacks everywhere
will substantially trigger impetus to
drive socio-economic transformation.
History has vindicated us, as a race
that contributed significantly to technological
revolution and scientific discoveries,
the difference is simply that
our heroic display remains untold.
We require both the black human
capital and their economic resources
to boost our growth prospects. We
need to translate the huge wealth
under the belly of our continent into
human security and quality of life for
our inhabitants.
The Democratic Republic of
Congo alone is estimated to possess
over 33trillion dollars’ worth of mineral
wealth, the implication is that, if
we can transform that wealth into tangible
industrial products, Africa would
be a net receiver of migrants from
Europe and the Americas. However,
to achieve this we need leadership,
solidarity, unity and skills which I believe
we are more than capable to
offer.
Eliminate corruption
We must eliminate corruption
In my opinion, our crisis has nothing to do with inferior intellect, it has
everything behavioral inconsistencies and socio-cultural distortions influenced
by religion and education, exacerbated by greed. A succinct
analysis of leadership, mindset and other consequent actions simply
makes us complicit in compromising our broader goals for parochial
interest of a few sellouts.
which is the major tool use to exploit
and under develop us. We must teach
ourselves solidarity and unity. This is
the only way to eliminate war and
armed conflicts. Our power-hungry
politicians and other black brothers
used to fuel conflicts must learn to
love us and appreciate black. We must
kill greed and be patriotic to black.
African states are more than capable
of building thriving societies
based on commerce, service delivery
and manufacturing, we have seen
sprawling cities like Addis Ababa,
Nairobi, Johannesburg, Abuja, Accra,
Abidjan, Dakar, Cairo to mention but
a few, many more are emerging.
This year the government of
Ghana initiated the “Year of Return”,
an initiative that coincides with the
400 years of Trans-Atlantic slave
trade and was patronized by thousands
of our kinsmen and women
from the diaspora. This serves as an
avenue to bond with the Africa diaspora
to ignite a transformed relationship.
The enthusiasm to return home
must be sustained and redirected into
economically viable and strategic actions
mutually beneficial for both the
returnees and the continent. It must
reconnect the entire African race and
trigger a consciousness that awakens
us.
These actions should lead to investments
in productive resources,
services, trade as well as retention of
relevant skills and human capital. The
exploitation of our natural resource
by us, will economically empower,
embolden and prompt a new wave of
blossom, wealth and quality of life.
This is dignity.
We must begin to tell our own stories
with music, arts and culture.
Africa is the repository of art, culture
and music in its originality, we must
make it flourish and generate wealth.
We have seen the remnants of
African culture culminate into hippop
in America and Reggae music in
the Caribbean, but these hybrid cultures
though of African origin have
not told our story in a vivid and beneficial
manner.
The new Africa that we envision
must encompass our ability to tell our
own story, sourced from the originality
of our African culture, art and
music. This is what distinguishes us
from the rest of the world.” You cannot
control all the events that happen
to you, but you can decide not to be
reduced by them- Maya Angelou
The African has been the most violated
race in history but our tenacity
and resilience is unsurpassed. No
other race in human history has been
exploited, violated and visited with violence
as we have, yet we remain
strong and forging on.
In our pain and frustration let’s
not forget our prosperity lies in our
uniqueness and unity.
God Bless!
The writer is the Deputy Secretary
General of the Pan African
Youth Union