Social media is crowded with drop in your feed videos of luxury houses, apartments, and condominiums for sale or rent in Ghana, Tanzania, and other parts of Africa for alarmingly low asking prices compared to comparable properties in Europe, Canada, the U.S., etc. At the same time, many so-called progressives and revolutionaries are celebrating the murder of the Chief Executive Officer of United Healthcare – one of the largest private health insurance companies in the world – by an alleged lone assassin.
What are the common trends between these two situations? In each case the underlining assumption is that our collective problems as African and exploited/oppressed communities can be solved through individual actions taken within the capitalist system.
In the example of marketing these properties throughout Africa, the strategy is clear. The segment of the world’s population naturally inspired to consider moving to the African continent are the descendants of those Africans kidnapped and transported to the Western Hemisphere. And it is within certain geographies in the West i.e. the U.S. Europe, Canada, Australia, that a considerable percentage of the Africans living in those countries possess access to the financial resources to follow through on that dream to move to the motherland. The contradiction here is that this push to have Africans from the West move to Africa isn’t motivated or centered around any genuine and collective Pan-African struggle to revitalize Africa. Instead, this work is centered around a collection of Africans, most of whom were not born in Africa themselves, who have mimicked the investment models of the capitalist systems. Models that encourage investment rooted in exploitative practices that raise your individual financial portfolio without regard for the impact your actions have on the masses of our people and humanity. The end result of this strategy is the creation of an elite class of primarily Western born petti-bourgeoisie Africans, with some locally born petti-bourgeoisie Africans thrown in, that grows to represent a new type of settler colonialism in Africa. We say settler colonialism because none of these transplanted Africans have any plans or intentions of getting involved in anything designed to collectively uplift Africa. In fact, their best contribution is one of offering low paying exploitative jobs to local people to work on their properties (while their individual financial portfolios continue to grow). An objective continuation of the colonial model that has kept the majority of Africans throughout the continent poor and dependent for centuries. For these individual African investors, Africa is merely a means to an end, just like the capitalists and colonists who are responsible for the condition of Africa and African people today.
Regarding the death of the U.S. healthcare executive, many people on the left within the U.S. are lauding this action as if it represents some triggering consciousness that speaks to the awakening of the masses of people to the need to take up arms against the capitalist class. The cold reality is an individual was most likely distraught about one of millions of examples of mistreatment and disrespect the U.S. money over people healthcare system practices daily. As a result, that individual took an action that will ruin the rest of their life while United Healthcare will hire another Chief Executive Officer who will more than likely be just as bad a human being, if not worse, than the one who was killed.
Unfortunately, the left in the U.S., particularly the white left, has a long history of this type of idealism and fantasy. There is this unfortunate and consistently misguided belief within those communities that individual acts can blossom into mass revolutionary change despite the lack of one single example in history where this has happened. At least, not one successful example.
The best example of change in a society in 2024 and beyond is the Cuban Revolution and this is objectively true. Far from perfect, because no one who knows anything about revolution has ever claimed that revolutions are perfect, the Cubans have demonstrated for everyone who is willing to pay attention how a successful revolution can be carried out. Despite the crippling impacts of the 62 year old U.S. economic blockade against Cuba, that small island nation of 11 million people has managed to develop what even the capitalist supported World Health Organization has called the most accomplished healthcare system on earth. They are the only country to effectively neutralize mother to child HIV infections while also stunting cervical cancer. They have accomplished so much more in the health field while being prevented by the blockade from purchasing pharmaceuticals on the international market. Their education system has been praised by the capitalist supported United Nations as being among the best on earth. They have accomplished this by including curriculum on African and Indigenous histories and LGBTQ communities in their core learning. Their objective behind this approach is without question revolutionary. After this level of mass education for multiple generations and the subsequent dying off of backward ideas, in a few short years, they will be best positioned to have raised the collective level of consciousness in their society while the U.S. is still denying stealing these land from Indigenous people while continuing to attempt to deny the devastating impacts of the transatlantic slave trade on Africa and African people everywhere.
The absolute truth is Africans buying lands in Africa without those efforts being connected to a concrete plan for collective revolutionary Pan-Africanism is nothing more than another capitalist scam to build wealth for a few on the backs of the many. Equally true is that our existence cannot be solved by action movie sequences where the good guy vanquishes the villain. Its only when the masses of people are properly politically educated and organized, like they are attempting to accomplish in the Cuban Revolution, where we will create a qualified population that will reclaim Africa and all of her resources for collective use and advancement. It is also this model that will create an organized force that can topple the collective and exploitative corporate machine in a way where it cannot be replaced instead of just an individual leader of one entity who will be immediately replaced.
The collective approach is always harder, but history has shown us that there are never any shortcuts. Not for collective advancement. The shortcuts like buying land in Ghana or sentimental actions against symbols of state power only serve to make some of us feel better and others of us convince ourselves that we are making a contribution. For people genuinely concerned about collective forward progress this could never be enough.
What are the common trends between these two situations? In each case the underlining assumption is that our collective problems as African and exploited/oppressed communities can be solved through individual actions taken within the capitalist system.
In the example of marketing these properties throughout Africa, the strategy is clear. The segment of the world’s population naturally inspired to consider moving to the African continent are the descendants of those Africans kidnapped and transported to the Western Hemisphere. And it is within certain geographies in the West i.e. the U.S. Europe, Canada, Australia, that a considerable percentage of the Africans living in those countries possess access to the financial resources to follow through on that dream to move to the motherland. The contradiction here is that this push to have Africans from the West move to Africa isn’t motivated or centered around any genuine and collective Pan-African struggle to revitalize Africa. Instead, this work is centered around a collection of Africans, most of whom were not born in Africa themselves, who have mimicked the investment models of the capitalist systems. Models that encourage investment rooted in exploitative practices that raise your individual financial portfolio without regard for the impact your actions have on the masses of our people and humanity. The end result of this strategy is the creation of an elite class of primarily Western born petti-bourgeoisie Africans, with some locally born petti-bourgeoisie Africans thrown in, that grows to represent a new type of settler colonialism in Africa. We say settler colonialism because none of these transplanted Africans have any plans or intentions of getting involved in anything designed to collectively uplift Africa. In fact, their best contribution is one of offering low paying exploitative jobs to local people to work on their properties (while their individual financial portfolios continue to grow). An objective continuation of the colonial model that has kept the majority of Africans throughout the continent poor and dependent for centuries. For these individual African investors, Africa is merely a means to an end, just like the capitalists and colonists who are responsible for the condition of Africa and African people today.
Regarding the death of the U.S. healthcare executive, many people on the left within the U.S. are lauding this action as if it represents some triggering consciousness that speaks to the awakening of the masses of people to the need to take up arms against the capitalist class. The cold reality is an individual was most likely distraught about one of millions of examples of mistreatment and disrespect the U.S. money over people healthcare system practices daily. As a result, that individual took an action that will ruin the rest of their life while United Healthcare will hire another Chief Executive Officer who will more than likely be just as bad a human being, if not worse, than the one who was killed.
Unfortunately, the left in the U.S., particularly the white left, has a long history of this type of idealism and fantasy. There is this unfortunate and consistently misguided belief within those communities that individual acts can blossom into mass revolutionary change despite the lack of one single example in history where this has happened. At least, not one successful example.
The best example of change in a society in 2024 and beyond is the Cuban Revolution and this is objectively true. Far from perfect, because no one who knows anything about revolution has ever claimed that revolutions are perfect, the Cubans have demonstrated for everyone who is willing to pay attention how a successful revolution can be carried out. Despite the crippling impacts of the 62 year old U.S. economic blockade against Cuba, that small island nation of 11 million people has managed to develop what even the capitalist supported World Health Organization has called the most accomplished healthcare system on earth. They are the only country to effectively neutralize mother to child HIV infections while also stunting cervical cancer. They have accomplished so much more in the health field while being prevented by the blockade from purchasing pharmaceuticals on the international market. Their education system has been praised by the capitalist supported United Nations as being among the best on earth. They have accomplished this by including curriculum on African and Indigenous histories and LGBTQ communities in their core learning. Their objective behind this approach is without question revolutionary. After this level of mass education for multiple generations and the subsequent dying off of backward ideas, in a few short years, they will be best positioned to have raised the collective level of consciousness in their society while the U.S. is still denying stealing these land from Indigenous people while continuing to attempt to deny the devastating impacts of the transatlantic slave trade on Africa and African people everywhere.
The absolute truth is Africans buying lands in Africa without those efforts being connected to a concrete plan for collective revolutionary Pan-Africanism is nothing more than another capitalist scam to build wealth for a few on the backs of the many. Equally true is that our existence cannot be solved by action movie sequences where the good guy vanquishes the villain. Its only when the masses of people are properly politically educated and organized, like they are attempting to accomplish in the Cuban Revolution, where we will create a qualified population that will reclaim Africa and all of her resources for collective use and advancement. It is also this model that will create an organized force that can topple the collective and exploitative corporate machine in a way where it cannot be replaced instead of just an individual leader of one entity who will be immediately replaced.
The collective approach is always harder, but history has shown us that there are never any shortcuts. Not for collective advancement. The shortcuts like buying land in Ghana or sentimental actions against symbols of state power only serve to make some of us feel better and others of us convince ourselves that we are making a contribution. For people genuinely concerned about collective forward progress this could never be enough.
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