Our history of resistance to colonialism and slavery as Africans extends far beyond just the experience of the Amistad. And, sadly, most of us wouldn't even know about that had the enterainment industry in the capitalist U.S. not made a movie about it.
Over the last 528 years, capitalism as an economic system has evolved over the last couple of centuries or so to become the unquestioned dominant economic system on earth. It has accomplished this objective by prying on the entire planet through colonial intrusions and the manifestation of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The capitalist system continues to maintain its dominance by relying on exploiting precious African (Africa) human and material resources. Profitable capitalist industries that carry the economies of the world’s largest capitalist countries – the U.S., Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Israel, Australia, etc., are built upon, and based off of exploiting African resources. Examples of this are rare earth minerals/foods like gold, diamonds, uranium, bauxite, cobalt, zinc, other hard metals, rubber, phosphates, cocoa, etc. Products that are produced from those resources include anything aluminum, any device that gives or receives a signal, anything chocolate, any automobile, all gold/diamond jewelry, heating oil, and many, many other things that are rooted in this exploitative relationship between the industrial developed capitalist countries and Africa.
In order to justify this continued exploitation, the early capitalist exploiters created the myth of white supremacy. This myth claimed that Africans were inferior, had never created and/or contributed any concrete contributions to humanity, and that all we are worth, wherever we are, is that of a burden to the great European (white) capitalist world. A byproduct of this systemic myth is a great respect for European societies, cultures, and advancements. Meanwhile, knowledge about Africa and the civilizations of the people of the Western Hemisphere are nonexistent, from the schools, churches, entertainment resources, and everywhere else.
The subsequent result of this psychological and sociological attack against us (that is carried out 24/7/365 overtly and covertly) is that Europeans by and large possess absolutely no knowledge about Africa. And, Africans, whether born in Africa (same colonial education there) or in the diaspora, possess an equally nonexistent level of knowledge and information about Africa. The exact same can be said about the civilizations of the actual Indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere.
This reality has created some very stunning and devastating dysfunctions. We are not surprised that most Europeans are racist and unable to see Africa/Africans as anything beyond props to their worlds (whether they know and/or admit it or not). Even most Europeans who claim to be anti-racist, even those involved in social justice work, most often know slim to none about African resistance movements in the countries they live in like the Nation of Islam for example (beyond what the racist capitalist media says about them) not to mention the Bakongo, Mandinka, Fulani, Ashanti, Maroon, Quilombo, and general Pan-African movements of today. Nothing at all. In fact, most of these Europeans view independent African liberation movements (that operate outside of the white left) through the vision of racist European chauvinism i.e. since nationalism has been bad for Europe (which they of course know about), it must be bad for Africa and Indigenous people (which they know nothing about). This is a result of white supremacy – the chief appendage of capitalism (along with patriarchy). White supremacy has always, and will always, provide cover to justify the horrible conditions of African and other oppressed people because it blames the victims for our suffering (we aren’t blessed by the great European God, or we don’t work hard enough, and similar garbage).
The other insidious and disgraceful attack that white supremacy wages is against the colonized masses. Since Africa has been systemically displayed as incompetent, primitive, as essentially the loser in every conceivable way, a large percentage of African people, wherever born and wherever they live, really want absolutely nothing to do with Africa. And, since we have unfortunately permitted our enemies to shape our perception of our mother – Africa – very few of us have any desire to learn anything about Africa. Consequently, what has begun to happen (in a very dysfunctional way) in recent years, is many Africans, adverse to any real committed and disciplined study of our history, have resorted to fantasy tales about our history. Those tales claim that most, if not all of us, have always been in the Western Hemisphere and that we are the true Indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere.
This development is tragic because as was previously stated, we have yet to meet one of these people advancing these fantasy notions who knows a single thing about African history. They haven’t read a single book about it, nor do they have any interest in doing so. This is distressing to us who are revolutionary Pan-Africanists. We witness these fake movements like the so-called “American Descendant of Slaves (ADOS), other so-called “Moorish” tendencies, Hebrew Israelites, etc. Of course, not all of the people advancing those notions are of the same tendencies, but most of them possess some element of this anti-Africa sentiment in their fable rhetoric.
This entire phenomenon is so extremely disrespectful to our people (and the actual Indigenous people of the Western Hemiphere), especially our loving ancestors who sacrificed so much so that we could be here today. There are so many critical sources that have documented in clear and certain terms that at a bare minimum, no less than 30 to 50 million Africans were lost in the middle passage from Africa. Of the millions who arrived in the Western Hemisphere, we have spent 528 years re-populating, expanding, etc., so you do the math. Yet, there are so many youtube videos (the primary “study” source for most of this foolishness) that raises stupid questions such as “where are the slave ships?” This is the most amateur example of analysis. A basic conversation with any structural engineer and historian would educate you on the process of material erosion because there is again, ample scientific data to illustrate what happens to those ships over time, especially the ones lost at sea (due to countless successful slave revolts that some of you foolishly don’t believe ever happened).
The central problem here is that there is a wealth of credible and accurate information about our proud African history, but within capitalist societies, READ is the dirtiest four letter word. There is a shameful and dominant attitude functioning out here today where people actually think reading titles of social media articles (not even the often worthless articles themselves) and/or watching portions, or even all, of somebody’s youtube video, is superior research to actual comprehensive study of volume books on this subject matter. We have so many outstanding historians who have written with clarity and accuracy about our African history. Africans from all over the world. Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Ture, Amilcar Cabral, Walter Rodney, Franz Fanon, Cheik Anti Diop, Ivan Van Sertima, W.E.B. DuBois, Amy Jacque Garvey. The list goes on and on like the books they produced, yet we can sadly state comfortably that none of these people have truly studied this material. If they had, they would know the outstanding history and contributions Africa has made to humanity (study, not skim through). They would know our contributions to religion i.e. without Africa, there would be no Christianity, Islam, or Judaism, as we presently understand them. They would know that the first universities in the world were in Africa in Mali (Timbuktu), Kemit (Egypt), and other places. They would know that our people for 528 years – from the Tigranian and Kikuyu in East Africa to the Shona, Zulu, and Xhosa in Southern Africa, to the Bakongo, Mandinka, and Wolof in the West, organized relentless struggle to repeal European colonialism and slave raids. The La Bodi in Ghana were so strong in resistance that the Europeans learned the hard way to leave them alone. Knowledge of this type of history flies in the face of this consistent ignorance “we are not our ancestors.”
Those of us who have a strong command of African history are clearly aware of two things. First, we know instantly when you don’t have that command. And, we know that because we know that if you did have knowledge of self you wouldn’t have to make up these fantasies. Anyone who knows African history has to respect and be proud of Africa. No disrespect to the actual Indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere, they have a very proud history in every sense of the word, but I have zero desire to be Indigenous to the Western Hemisphere because I have such a strong love for Africa. And, all the studying, traveling there, and most importantly, Pan-African organizing work I’ve done there, has completely solidified my connection to Mother Africa. Its solidified it by helping me understand things about myself that you will never understand being completely focused on integrating into the slave plantation. This is exactly what’s lacking with these folks who are stuck in the United States with no experience with and/or knowledge about Africa beyond any random conversations they may (or may not) have had with random Africans born on the continent who are here who know even less about Africa then they do. Surely, you know people around you where you are who are completely ignorant of the history of your city, town, this country, etc. So, stop acting like just being born somewhere is all the qualification that is required to articulate something about places. These anti-Africa folks (wherever born) can get mad (they often do) at us talking this way, but what they absolutely never do is respond with any type of comprehensive and critical analysis of African history because they haven’t done that work. Its obviously much easier to watch videos and read social media article titles than it is to engage in concrete and comprehensive research. And, there is clearly no comparison between the two. Its like comparing a fully prepared gourmet meal to Top Ramon noodles in the cup. You would look like a fool sitting there with Top Ramon arguing that it is a higher source of nutrition, flavor, etc., than an expertly and deliciously healthy gourmet meal.
We are not meaning to insult anyone, but we keep pushing for ideological struggle, sources, and analysis on these fictional historical accounts and all we get in return is “we have always been here.” Even this article will generate the same hollering and personal insults directed at me, with no refutation of the information contained here. How is that any different than the millions of Trump zombies who believe whatever he says with absolutely no critical analysis to articulate their points? We can tell you how it’s the same. Both segments are relying on easy and quick sound bite information instead of actual research. As adults, we have the right to be ignorant if we are satisfied with that, but for the safety, development, and positive future of our children and subsequent generations, we have just got to do much, much better family. There are many of us out here who desire nothing further than to help you in learning who we are as African people displaced on these plantations. There is absolutely no shame in our people being enslaved for those of us who know how valiantly our people always fought back. To suggest otherwise is to say that if you are attacked by five people with weapons and you have none, and they get the best of you, but you courageously fight back with every bit of energy you could muster, that you have something to be ashamed of. That is clearly absurd thinking yet that is unfortunately what many of us believe about our history and people when in reality if the analogy was our experience, we would never tire of letting the world know loud and clear that we fought back. Well, those of us who know are history are doing exactly that. The reality is the only shame about us being enslaved is so many of us refuse to liftup the honor of our people by getting serious about finding out what exactly happened instead of taking the word of our enemies because you mistakenly believe the U.S. to be the winner and you want to ride with those you consciously or unconsciously perceive to be on top (at least for now). Stand up African and unleash that Mother Africa inside in you that is struggling to be free from this oppressive experience that so many of us unfortunately keep struggling to discover some creative and dysfunctional way to integrate into. As far as I’m concerned, they can have all of that back. I stand proudly on Africa and in being a strong African who will organize to walk right over their chest. And, there is no doubt whatsoever that when we organize and Africa is united and socialist, no matter where they are, these Africans who are today claiming to be everything except what they actually are will be pushing us out of the way to join the African freedom experience. Every African reading this knows this to be true because at the root of this foolishness is opportunism, not a serious desire to liberate our people. Some, like this Antonio Moore, Yvette Carnel, and Tariq Nasheed, push this nonsense for opportunist economic advancement while most who follow them, or have some other fantasy version of our history, do so out of complete ignorance. Either way, you will never win. Africa is on the rise and no force on earth will stop her so as we get stronger, we will see you then – African.
In order to justify this continued exploitation, the early capitalist exploiters created the myth of white supremacy. This myth claimed that Africans were inferior, had never created and/or contributed any concrete contributions to humanity, and that all we are worth, wherever we are, is that of a burden to the great European (white) capitalist world. A byproduct of this systemic myth is a great respect for European societies, cultures, and advancements. Meanwhile, knowledge about Africa and the civilizations of the people of the Western Hemisphere are nonexistent, from the schools, churches, entertainment resources, and everywhere else.
The subsequent result of this psychological and sociological attack against us (that is carried out 24/7/365 overtly and covertly) is that Europeans by and large possess absolutely no knowledge about Africa. And, Africans, whether born in Africa (same colonial education there) or in the diaspora, possess an equally nonexistent level of knowledge and information about Africa. The exact same can be said about the civilizations of the actual Indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere.
This reality has created some very stunning and devastating dysfunctions. We are not surprised that most Europeans are racist and unable to see Africa/Africans as anything beyond props to their worlds (whether they know and/or admit it or not). Even most Europeans who claim to be anti-racist, even those involved in social justice work, most often know slim to none about African resistance movements in the countries they live in like the Nation of Islam for example (beyond what the racist capitalist media says about them) not to mention the Bakongo, Mandinka, Fulani, Ashanti, Maroon, Quilombo, and general Pan-African movements of today. Nothing at all. In fact, most of these Europeans view independent African liberation movements (that operate outside of the white left) through the vision of racist European chauvinism i.e. since nationalism has been bad for Europe (which they of course know about), it must be bad for Africa and Indigenous people (which they know nothing about). This is a result of white supremacy – the chief appendage of capitalism (along with patriarchy). White supremacy has always, and will always, provide cover to justify the horrible conditions of African and other oppressed people because it blames the victims for our suffering (we aren’t blessed by the great European God, or we don’t work hard enough, and similar garbage).
The other insidious and disgraceful attack that white supremacy wages is against the colonized masses. Since Africa has been systemically displayed as incompetent, primitive, as essentially the loser in every conceivable way, a large percentage of African people, wherever born and wherever they live, really want absolutely nothing to do with Africa. And, since we have unfortunately permitted our enemies to shape our perception of our mother – Africa – very few of us have any desire to learn anything about Africa. Consequently, what has begun to happen (in a very dysfunctional way) in recent years, is many Africans, adverse to any real committed and disciplined study of our history, have resorted to fantasy tales about our history. Those tales claim that most, if not all of us, have always been in the Western Hemisphere and that we are the true Indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere.
This development is tragic because as was previously stated, we have yet to meet one of these people advancing these fantasy notions who knows a single thing about African history. They haven’t read a single book about it, nor do they have any interest in doing so. This is distressing to us who are revolutionary Pan-Africanists. We witness these fake movements like the so-called “American Descendant of Slaves (ADOS), other so-called “Moorish” tendencies, Hebrew Israelites, etc. Of course, not all of the people advancing those notions are of the same tendencies, but most of them possess some element of this anti-Africa sentiment in their fable rhetoric.
This entire phenomenon is so extremely disrespectful to our people (and the actual Indigenous people of the Western Hemiphere), especially our loving ancestors who sacrificed so much so that we could be here today. There are so many critical sources that have documented in clear and certain terms that at a bare minimum, no less than 30 to 50 million Africans were lost in the middle passage from Africa. Of the millions who arrived in the Western Hemisphere, we have spent 528 years re-populating, expanding, etc., so you do the math. Yet, there are so many youtube videos (the primary “study” source for most of this foolishness) that raises stupid questions such as “where are the slave ships?” This is the most amateur example of analysis. A basic conversation with any structural engineer and historian would educate you on the process of material erosion because there is again, ample scientific data to illustrate what happens to those ships over time, especially the ones lost at sea (due to countless successful slave revolts that some of you foolishly don’t believe ever happened).
The central problem here is that there is a wealth of credible and accurate information about our proud African history, but within capitalist societies, READ is the dirtiest four letter word. There is a shameful and dominant attitude functioning out here today where people actually think reading titles of social media articles (not even the often worthless articles themselves) and/or watching portions, or even all, of somebody’s youtube video, is superior research to actual comprehensive study of volume books on this subject matter. We have so many outstanding historians who have written with clarity and accuracy about our African history. Africans from all over the world. Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Ture, Amilcar Cabral, Walter Rodney, Franz Fanon, Cheik Anti Diop, Ivan Van Sertima, W.E.B. DuBois, Amy Jacque Garvey. The list goes on and on like the books they produced, yet we can sadly state comfortably that none of these people have truly studied this material. If they had, they would know the outstanding history and contributions Africa has made to humanity (study, not skim through). They would know our contributions to religion i.e. without Africa, there would be no Christianity, Islam, or Judaism, as we presently understand them. They would know that the first universities in the world were in Africa in Mali (Timbuktu), Kemit (Egypt), and other places. They would know that our people for 528 years – from the Tigranian and Kikuyu in East Africa to the Shona, Zulu, and Xhosa in Southern Africa, to the Bakongo, Mandinka, and Wolof in the West, organized relentless struggle to repeal European colonialism and slave raids. The La Bodi in Ghana were so strong in resistance that the Europeans learned the hard way to leave them alone. Knowledge of this type of history flies in the face of this consistent ignorance “we are not our ancestors.”
Those of us who have a strong command of African history are clearly aware of two things. First, we know instantly when you don’t have that command. And, we know that because we know that if you did have knowledge of self you wouldn’t have to make up these fantasies. Anyone who knows African history has to respect and be proud of Africa. No disrespect to the actual Indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere, they have a very proud history in every sense of the word, but I have zero desire to be Indigenous to the Western Hemisphere because I have such a strong love for Africa. And, all the studying, traveling there, and most importantly, Pan-African organizing work I’ve done there, has completely solidified my connection to Mother Africa. Its solidified it by helping me understand things about myself that you will never understand being completely focused on integrating into the slave plantation. This is exactly what’s lacking with these folks who are stuck in the United States with no experience with and/or knowledge about Africa beyond any random conversations they may (or may not) have had with random Africans born on the continent who are here who know even less about Africa then they do. Surely, you know people around you where you are who are completely ignorant of the history of your city, town, this country, etc. So, stop acting like just being born somewhere is all the qualification that is required to articulate something about places. These anti-Africa folks (wherever born) can get mad (they often do) at us talking this way, but what they absolutely never do is respond with any type of comprehensive and critical analysis of African history because they haven’t done that work. Its obviously much easier to watch videos and read social media article titles than it is to engage in concrete and comprehensive research. And, there is clearly no comparison between the two. Its like comparing a fully prepared gourmet meal to Top Ramon noodles in the cup. You would look like a fool sitting there with Top Ramon arguing that it is a higher source of nutrition, flavor, etc., than an expertly and deliciously healthy gourmet meal.
We are not meaning to insult anyone, but we keep pushing for ideological struggle, sources, and analysis on these fictional historical accounts and all we get in return is “we have always been here.” Even this article will generate the same hollering and personal insults directed at me, with no refutation of the information contained here. How is that any different than the millions of Trump zombies who believe whatever he says with absolutely no critical analysis to articulate their points? We can tell you how it’s the same. Both segments are relying on easy and quick sound bite information instead of actual research. As adults, we have the right to be ignorant if we are satisfied with that, but for the safety, development, and positive future of our children and subsequent generations, we have just got to do much, much better family. There are many of us out here who desire nothing further than to help you in learning who we are as African people displaced on these plantations. There is absolutely no shame in our people being enslaved for those of us who know how valiantly our people always fought back. To suggest otherwise is to say that if you are attacked by five people with weapons and you have none, and they get the best of you, but you courageously fight back with every bit of energy you could muster, that you have something to be ashamed of. That is clearly absurd thinking yet that is unfortunately what many of us believe about our history and people when in reality if the analogy was our experience, we would never tire of letting the world know loud and clear that we fought back. Well, those of us who know are history are doing exactly that. The reality is the only shame about us being enslaved is so many of us refuse to liftup the honor of our people by getting serious about finding out what exactly happened instead of taking the word of our enemies because you mistakenly believe the U.S. to be the winner and you want to ride with those you consciously or unconsciously perceive to be on top (at least for now). Stand up African and unleash that Mother Africa inside in you that is struggling to be free from this oppressive experience that so many of us unfortunately keep struggling to discover some creative and dysfunctional way to integrate into. As far as I’m concerned, they can have all of that back. I stand proudly on Africa and in being a strong African who will organize to walk right over their chest. And, there is no doubt whatsoever that when we organize and Africa is united and socialist, no matter where they are, these Africans who are today claiming to be everything except what they actually are will be pushing us out of the way to join the African freedom experience. Every African reading this knows this to be true because at the root of this foolishness is opportunism, not a serious desire to liberate our people. Some, like this Antonio Moore, Yvette Carnel, and Tariq Nasheed, push this nonsense for opportunist economic advancement while most who follow them, or have some other fantasy version of our history, do so out of complete ignorance. Either way, you will never win. Africa is on the rise and no force on earth will stop her so as we get stronger, we will see you then – African.
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