Centuries of Continued Attacks against African Identity

Since the first European invasion into Africa centuries ago, and the institutionalization of colonialism and slavery in the process, the logic of African people understanding and identifying with Africa has always been under attack.  As Europe normalized stealing and selling Africans into slavery while also controlling African territories to exploit the human and material resources there, a vicious assault against the ability of African people to connect with our true history and culture has been relentlessly perpetuated.

Many Africans in French colonial territories like Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, etc., identified as French.  Their highest aspirations becoming visiting and/or living in France and advancing through the highest stages of French life available to them.  For Africans in the British, Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, etc., colonial territories, the same reality exists whether in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, or wherever.

The U.S. is somewhat of a unique situation because unlike Africa and the Caribbean nations, Africans within the U.S. have always been a numerical minority to the Europeans.  Consequently, the efforts by Europeans to disconnect Africans in the U.S. from everything Africa was a much more effective process then similar efforts elsewhere in colonies in Africa, or throughout Central, South America, and the Caribbean. 

As a result, Africans everywhere on earth are systemically encouraged through political, educational, faith, and social institutions to relinquish any connection to Africa and this is even more true within the U.S.  Despite the ill refutable truth that the first organizations Africans established within the U.S. proudly expressed African identity i.e. the Free Africa Society (one of the first documented social justice organizations for African people in the U.S. which formed immediately following the so-called American Independence war in the 1700s) and the African Methodist Episcopalian Church (AME), which was the first organized and documented church organization established by African people in the U.S. in 1816, today in 2025, there are a number of African people in this country who flat deny any connection to Africa whatsoever.

Presently, one of those trends are Africans who claim to be Native to the Americas.  This argument takes bits and pieces from African historical documentation of Africans who traveled to the Western Hemisphere before colonialism and slavery to formulate a position that a significant portion of Africans here today are direct descendants of people who have been in the Americas always or at least are distant descendants of people who immigrated from Africa thousands of years ago to the Americas.

Besides the historical efforts to sabotage our connection to Africa, there are other reasons why people advance these types of notions.  In the case of the claim of being Indigenous to the Americas, there is a hope by some that the possibility of legal recognition as Indigenous people will bring qualifications of tribal monies from the federal government.  For the people hoping for this to happen, the concept of monetary reparations for Africans being enslaved is still just a conversation while monies for so-called recognized Indigenous ethnic groupings is already a current reality.   

A larger reason for this is simply shame at being African.  The capitalist/imperialist/colonial system has done such a masterful job painting Africa as a hapless, ineffective, useless, burden on the European world.  And, Africans have, at least up to this point, demonstrated little desire to engage in the type of collective study necessary to deconstruct those mythical narratives.  Consequently, there are many Africans today who see value in creating fictitious identities rather than acknowledging their real one.

The latter statement is easily verified because the overwhelming majority of Africans within the U.S. have direct ties (literally no more than one or two generations removed) to Southern slave states within the U.S.  With family from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, etc., all slave states, and surnames that are French, British, German, etc., there isn’t a logical argument that refutes a connection to slavery ala to Africa.  Plus, DNA testing is popular within the U.S., including among Africans.  Scores of people are getting, or have received, results confirming their physiological connection to Africa.  Even the “we’re Native American” crowd hasn’t produced rebuttals to challenge any of this strong evidence.

For those genuinely interested in the forward progress of African people everywhere, this problem must be understood within context.  Anyone reducing a connection to Africa to purely a psychological desire demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of why colonialism and slavery happened in the first place.  Similar to how the zionist movement uses faith as a cover to justify the theft of Palestinian land, the subjugation of Africa, and the chattel slave system that it produced, serves to justify the continued exploitation of Africa’s human and material resources.  This is the reason why reactionaries keep talking about the “benefits” of slavery and colonialism.  Its also the reason such consistent efforts have been systemically applied within every institution within these capitalist countries, to drive Africans to look in all directions except at their mother.  That is an essential element of their strategy because Africans being conscious about who we are threatens to create a vision for us about where we want to go.  That type of vision greatly challenges the capitalist system because instead of demeaning and fighting each other, many Africans will start to ask why we come from the richest land base in the world, yet we are some of the poorest people in the world?  This is the question imperialism cannot risk African people connecting the dots around.  That’s why a simple scroll through Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, produces so many anti-African identity videos, aimed exclusively at Africans in the U.S.  There are 50 million Africans living within the most powerful capitalist country in the world.  We are well positioned to engage in active sabotage against this system once we have the consciousness to see doing so as our role and responsibility (as opposed to integrating into the capitalist system). 

The good news for conscious Africans in the U.S. and everywhere is that this latest confusion about being Native to the Americas, although completely disrespectful to the real Indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere, and our African ancestors, is nothing more than the latest stage of these attacks against our culture and identity.  In the 1920s and 30s, after economic collapse in this country, the militancy and African focus of the Garvey movement was largely replaced by the escapist evangelism of the Daddy Grace and Father Devine periods.  In the 1980s and 90s, the 5% Nation of Islam did a great job influencing hip/hop culture/music thus launching constant claims that Africans were not Africans, but were instead Asiatic Black people.  Ten years ago there was the proliferation of the Foundational Black American (FBA) and American Descendants of Slaves (ADOs) xenophobic identities. 

Like the Asiatic Black identity, ADOs, FBA, etc., the Native to America identity will play for a while, but it won’t last.  It won’t because like the others, its not based in reality for the masses of our people i.e. there are certainly a handful of us who can trace back thousands of years in this Hemisphere, but without question, the overwhelming majority of us are descendants from Africa and all the evidence clearly points to that. 

The capitalist generated identity that has lasted in various forms through all of these periods, and will continue to be the most important threat aimed at convincing our people that we are Americans above all else.  This one is much trickier because it has a much stronger basis than the others.  Its rooted in the concept that we have been here for centuries (true).  And, we have done a lot to contribute to this society (also true).  And, since the U.S. is still the strongest country on earth, there is always going to be that emotional desire from oppressed people to relate to the winner.  So, because of these factors, unlike the others, this American question will not just play for a while and begin to fade.  This one will require a much more dedicated, sustained, and consistent propaganda effort to demonstrate to our people that where Africa goes we go.  That, not only should we not see ourselves as consistent with U.S. identity, but we shouldn’t even want to go where this country goes because each and every time, this country is on the wrong side of history where it will stay because of its foundation of theft and repression.  The class struggle over American identity overwhelms all of other false identities combined.  The struggle for African identity must continue and it must be refined and clarified to mean a connection to the land base, whether we live there or not, whether we like the name Africa or not.  The land and what happens to her is our salvation. 
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Its no coincidence that over the centuries since Africans have been in the U.S. the two identities we have struggled around the longest has always been some variation of  – “are we Africans or are we Americans?”  Although class drives everything, this identify contradiction is the strident one i.e. who’s interests do we identify with, Africa’s or the U.S.?  The American versus African is a simple question.  Are you for the masses of our people everywhere or are you only for empire?  And, unlike the other cursory/false identities, this one every African everywhere is already being forced to choose a side.