How Europe Underdevelops Africa & African People - Today

Of course, this title derives completely from Walter Rodney's classic book.  If you haven't read it, you should, if you expect to properly understand the process to colonize Africa and her children.  And, if you have read it you should read it again within a political education process and program to enhance your understanding of it.  Its one of the most important books out today, but it was written decades ago.  The subtle ways in which European colonialism dominates the mindset of the entire planet today is not often discussed in any comprehensive way today.  So, this piece seeks to highlight some of the ways the institutional concept that Europe is the creator of all things civilized and worthwhile while Africa and the rest of the world are just dragging along on Europe's coattails is still very much alive, active, and effective today.

The entire purpose of the colonial system is to subjugate oppressed people.  To make us believe we are nothing without Europe and to make Europeans (all people referred to as white) believe that they are the darlings of the universe.  The manifestations of this are institutional and everywhere.  No one anywhere on earth hasn't bathed in the stories of great European civilizations.  We have all learned about the Greek and Roman empires.  The Kings of the Roundtable of Britain.  The ancient civilizations of Germany, France, Italy, etc.  Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of people on earth, including the current inhabitants of Africa and her millions of children scattered everywhere due to colonialism and slavery, Asia, the Indigenous peoples of Central and South America, and the Caribbean, all do not possess enough information about their own cultures to fill a thimble.  None of this is accidental.  The only effective way to promote the concept that European culture is superior is to suppress the truth about everyone else because in reality, no culture is superior to any other.  What European capitalism does is suppress everyone else's contributions, diminishing them to such an extent that we are all led to believe that were it not for our great white fathers and mothers, we would have starved ourselves to death by now due to our complete incompetency.  

You can hear the above racist analysis anytime you want by just traveling through any AM radio dial these days.  Its this thinking that drives comments like "if you don't like it here (in the U.S.), why don't you go back to Africa?"  The inference there is that this society is pristine and advanced because Europeans made it that way while Africa and everywhere else is a "s - - thole" because that's all we are ever capable of producing.  

There is an abundance of information, inside this blog and everywhere else, easily dismissing the racist assumptions indicated above so if you lack concrete evidence to confirm that all cultures contribute to human advancement, we encourage you to investigate this plethora of information dismissing those baseless charges.  The intent here is to bring to the surface some of the many subtle methods that European culture is used to continue to rob African culture in ways that perpetuate the myth that Europe is responsible for all advancements while we do nothing except sit at the table of Europe's greatness.

I'll start with Louisiana, specifically Southern state Louisiana, or New Orleans in particular because that's the place most people are familiar with in that state in the Southern U.S.  My family on both sides come from the torturous legacy of slavery that dominated Louisiana and the stamp of that was the French name that I was forced to be born under that served as a constant reminder that the French dominated the Louisiana region and terrorized my family and many others in the process.  In fact, that's the first subtle method of suggesting European dominance.  Every one of us who walks around today with the European names of our slave masters, acting as if its actually our name and our proud cultural legacy, is in effect - unwittingly - advancing the notion that European culture is dominant.  No one can refute this.  Within earshot to anyone reading this are Africans who will not hesitate to tell you how proud they are of their family name of Thompson, Carter, Johnson, Smith, Duvailiar, Broussard, Sanchez, Martinez, Sosa, etc.  All Europeans names that we hold only because those names were violently forced upon our families at one point and time in history.  Meanwhile, anytime any one of us has the courage and vision to abandon those slave names for one that reflects our true history as proud African people, the vast majority of our people react to that as if we have murdered someone.  The underlining emphasis here is on why anyone would abandon the "benefits" of that European name to voluntarily adopt a savage African name.  This reality is ill refutable coming from someone who has spent the last 35 years hearing these reactionaries responses every time I introduce myself.  Then, to add insult to injury, the glorious African cultural phenomenon known as Mardi Gra, which is without question an African experience, is never referred to as such. Instead, its called "Creole" or even worse, "French" which is a complete insult.  All one has to do is watch a single Second line Mardi Gra parade, which are ironically referred to as Zulu processions, to understand how insulting it is to call this anything else except what it is - African.  Yet, most people today would consider Mardi Gra an African cultural experience.

This same theme is repeated in religion where Christianity is assumed to be a product of Europe all the way from the values promoted in Christian circles today e.g. respect and support for European capitalist and individualist values and ways of life, all the way down to the pictures of a European hippie Jesus.  This is insane when the actual truth is the very first country mentioned in any version of the Bible, whether old or new versions, is Ethiopia or K/Cush - which is the ancient name for Ethiopia.  All of these names derive from a meaning connected to dark skinned people and there is no question, even for someone who failed geography, that Ethiopia is firmly situated in East Africa.  Europe, is never even mentioned in any Bible version until the very end in the book of Revelations when everything starts to fall apart.  

Even professional sports doesn't escape this systemic white supremacy.  African athletes who do everything on the court, field, etc., are credited with accolades that promote Europe.  That's why someone like Giannis Antetokounmpo, an African basketball player who was born and raised in Greece (colonialism again) is nicknamed "the Greek Freak" giving Europe credit for displacing and oppressing African people all over the planet.  

When one thinks about it, even knowledge of food is stolen from African people.  All people get to claim food dishes, even those dishes that are staples for most people on earth like rice.  Regardless of the fact you can eat rice anywhere you go, Mexican rice is awarded it character.  Chinese rice is awarded its character, etc, but the overwhelming majority of people couldn't tell you of any particular African prepared rice.  And, whether people know it or not.  Whether anyone admits it or not, if everyone's else's culture has an accomplishment, but there is a culture, a particular culture, that doesn't, the default in your brain is that those people haven't accomplished anything.  Unless you know about Joffof rice, without question a deliciously prepared African rice, you have no choice, just using this one example, to fall into that pit of believing Africans haven't even created a way to prepare rice that isn't based in the colonial context.  And, if we haven't figured out that one task on our own, then clearly that must explain why we have so many problems governing ourselves and building stability for our people, right?  That's how the white supremacist colonial model works folks.  Keep perpetuating that lack of accomplishment and everyone will eventually submit to it.  The same and similar examples can be provided for all colonized people.  Everyone except Europe.  That's the design.

The final example to be given here is that of the products we use and rely on today.  Automobiles like the BMW, Benz, Tesla, etc.  Cell phones.  Lap tops, etc.  All of these products are impossible to produce without the African steel, zinc, rubber, cobalt, oil, and bauxite they evolve from and the cheap and exploited African labor that produces them.  Yet, when people think of any of these products, the last thing they think of is African people and Africa.  This is even true for African people.  

A very important component of anti-colonial resistance is, as Franz Fanon and others have taught us, is that the colonized people aggressively and without hesitation reclaim our dignity, regardless of the consequences against the colonizer.  So, we encourage you to think aggressively about colonized people in all of the examples provided here and beyond.  What that means is I don't say Japanese, German, or U.S. made car.  I say African car because a part of this decolonization process is getting African and other colonized people to no longer be satisfied to just make payments on and drive the stupid car, but for us to realize that the production of the car is our birthright.  The ability for us to control that production and use the resources obtained by it to solve the problems we face is our destiny.  This is what the anti-colonial struggle is all about and its the real reason why the sham continues.  Our enemies are focused on keeping everyone's attention on absolutely everything except Africa.  Obama.  Trump.  North Korea.  The NBA Finals.  The World Cup.  The Mueller report.  Anything except our mother Africa because they realize that once we become uncompromisingly focused on redeeming our mother without apology, their days will finally and mercilessly start to come to an end.