Is There a Place for Europeans (Whites) in the African Struggle?

We believe the answer to that question is technically yes, but not in the way you would necessarily think.  Historically, whether we are talking about Whites aligned with our struggle for liberation in Azania (South Africa) or in the U.S., etc., the model being discussed has always been around the question of multi-racial organizations.  This line has been certainly promoted within white left socialist formations.  Their position has been that the primary contradiction is with the capitalist system so only when people unite across racial lines to form a multi-racial class struggle socialist party will we see collective progress.

We believe the above analysis is far to simplistic.  Its wishful thinking on the part of white leftists who are unwilling to face the racist history of white left organizing efforts.  The reality is a major component of white supremacy, the core appendage of capitalism and imperialism, is its assertion that European culture is the driving force for the universe.  This thinking, which is dominant within every community on the face of the earth today, by extension suggests that no people can ever dream of addressing anything without a strong dose of European culture and European people.  By default, white people believe this and African, indigenous, etc., people believe this, whether its admitted or not.  

For us, a mutually respectful relationship between African revolutionaries and European revolutionaries must be centered around an anti-colonial analysis that respects the necessity for Pan-Africanism as African people's contribution to the struggle for justice for humanity.  You can count on one hand the number of European formations that are willing and active in supporting this requirement.  So, with this uneven level of respect dominant, even within so-called progressive and revolutionary circles, it is impossible for us to see how we can ever trust our future in the hands of multi-racial organizations where any agenda item focused on African self-determination will come down to a vote dominated by white people.  A clear example of this is the history of the Communist International during the 1920s.  The white left, anxious about the growing influence of the Garvey movement of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, came up with the idea, initially advanced by Russian revolutionaries (maybe Joseph Stalin or Leon Trosky), that a black belt South strategy in the U.S. should be supported by white left parties.  Yes, this means the idea of Africans getting the Southern U.S. came from a European and that idea wasn't even rooted in any real commitment to African self-determination, but an insincere desire by white leftists to attempt to control our movements.  This to us is a classic example of white revolutionaries subscribing to the most basic racist inclinations.  As Public Enemy said "can't truss this!"

Eighty years later, you cannot even find a dominantly European organization that even studies African liberation movements unless they make an effort to redesign our contributions within the framework of European focused struggle e.g. labeling Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Ture, Amilcar Cabral, etc., as Marxist-Leninists, ignoring each of those ideologues clear statement declaring their dedication to Pan-Africanism.  

No, the answer isn't multi-racial organizing for us, although we are not against anyone who chooses to follow that pathway because we stand supportive of any organizing work designed to bring progress to humanity.  We just believe that the role of white people in the African liberation struggle is in those Europeans working to bring revolutionary organizing to white communities.  Our question, which is the very same question the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee asked 50+ years ago, is where are the white people willing to organize among white people?  Where are the white people willing to de-colonize their people, educating them about the white supremacist system, and providing them an analysis that permits them to abandon their shock troop status for the capitalist system?

There are some groups active today who seemingly are attempting to engage the work we implore is needed.  Those groups should continue to build upon their work.  By doing so, they make a significant contribution to our struggle.  A conscious white working class is a major obstacle removed from our path for liberation.  Historically, whether on this continent, Africa, or wherever, every step we make forward, it is white working people who step in front of us to protect the capitalist system, despite their shared lack of access to the system alongside us.  So, we definitely welcome the efforts of white activists who are sincerely working to stem this tide.  We even look forward to the day when we can work alongside these organizations, coordinating our work - them in white communities, us in African communities - to advance our agendas for revolutionary organization and progress.  This type of reality is real solidarity that respects our self-determination as colonized peoples. Anything else, especially any insistence that multi-racialism is the only organizing way forward, is dysfunctional and heavily slated towards the wants of white activists, not the needs of African people.  And, we believe wholeheartedly that any white activists that truly want African liberation would not only respect this, but insist upon it. 

In 2019, there is no reason for white people to continue to come to us asking how they can become a part of our work.  Instead, go to your communities and start there.  If you need help organizing we are always happy to provide our experience, etc. to help you.  

I just released my third novel which is a story where a white woman is accepted into a revolutionary African organization.  Its a very interesting story line to me which stems from my imagination spouted from Kwame Nkrumah's statement in the "Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare" that "foreigners" who take a genuine interest in the African liberation struggle can be accepted as comrades in arms.  Don't be confused though.  Just because I expanded upon this concept in the fictional realm doesn't mean I see this happening in the real world.  The character in my book is someone I've never come close to meeting in real life.  In fact, if such white people really existed in real life, we probably would be much farther along in our struggle for justice than we are.  That's why that's fiction.  In real life, we have to be scientific in how we advance our work.  In this present world, that means we desperately need to work within our communities and grow to coordinate that work across communities. The more we do this work now, the better positioned we will eventually be to reach potential for that post-race society some people are so desperate for that they insist upon imposing their fantasies on our current reality.

We are a long, long, way from that point.  For now, we will continue building our Pan-African work and we implore white activists groups to continue to build for the massive amount of work needed in white communities.  We also implore them to continue to provide material support to African, Indigenous, Palestinian, Filipino, etc., organizations.  Our comradeship should be judged and based solely on our mutually respectful work to attack capitalist ideology at all tender points possible within each of our respective communities.