The voices against proposed land reform in Azania (South Africa) are loud, consistent, and dominant as the process unfolds in that country around this question. Those voices, as can be expected, are coming from imperialism e.g. the capitalist media outlets, thinkers, and apologists for neo-colonialism and the continued exploitation of Mother Africa.
What these voices are focusing on is how hard the descendants of European colonizers have worked to cultivate and develop agricultural land in Azania and therefore, how unfair it is for them to have their land taken away. Consequently, these arguments conclude that land reform is morally wrong and will devastate Azania's economy. The people promoting this racist analysis are kind enough to use land reform in Zimbabwe as proof of their argument. Since land reform was initiated as policy in Zimbabwe in 1990, these same voices of reaction have pointed to the struggles of Zimbabwe to implement land reform as their rationale for why land reform in Azania must be opposed. To make their racist points, these people lied, misrepresented, and completely maligned Zimbabwe's program from the day it was initiated. What these reactionaries and racists forgot to tell you is that any program, especially land reform, is going to take time to successfully implement. Especially since they never ceased placing their foots on our collective necks. Today, almost 30 years after being implemented, Zimbabwe is seeing unprecedented economic growth from the over 200,000 African families who have benefited from the land reform program there. For example, maize, a primary food and agricultural product in Zimbabwe, is being grown, cultivated, and sold in these newly owned African farm lands at paces that are significantly raising the medium incomes for Africans across the country. Of course, the imperialist voices are quiet about all of this progress because they want to keep us confused. They do this by bringing your attention to the baby struggling to walk, completely ignoring that baby once they learn to walk upright with pride and dignity.
The situation in Azania is no different. The focus of imperialist analysis, as is always the case with white supremacy, is in centering the experiences of the Europeans (because whatever they experience is all that matters, right?). Just like Zimbabwe, where they claimed for years that Africans were violently forcing Europeans off of lands (proven to be nothing more than racist propaganda), they are predicting gloom and doom for Azania. Organizations dedicated to preserving racist white traditions in Azania, such as the reactionary "AfriForum" which is a lobbying group for Boers in Azania, are alerting the world market of the proposed program, although its not projected to be approved and/or implemented for several months. Newly installed President Cyril Ramaphosa is serving as the new mouthpiece for neo-colonial alleviation of white fears in Azania these days.
The truth is these land reform programs taking place in the former settler colonial territories of Africa are simply the beginning stages of our revolutionary Pan-African movement to take back all of Africa from the exploiting classes. Azania is called Azania (instead of South Africa) by Pan-Africanists because the name reflects the actual history of the country e.g. "land of the Black people at the tip of the continent." Like the name, this land reform is about reclaiming our dignity. When Azania was under racist apartheid rule, the racist Parliament implemented a national law in 1913 that no land could be owned by Africans in Azania. As a result, all the fertile/arable land was given to European settler descendants. Of course, all of this took place under the backdrop of the institutional apartheid system where African movement was physically restricted. Africans were prohibited from entering and occupying European spaces, gain education, having productive jobs, and physical terror and intimidation were daily practices against the African populace. So, any talk of European/whites being mistreated under land reform today is laughable. We as African people have absolutely no responsibility to protect any interests of these shameful people when their interests have been held up by our systemic oppression. And, anyone who cries for these Europeans, just like the ones who cried for those in Zimbabwe, is by that very act, proclaiming their support for neo-colonialism, racism, and the continued exploitation of Africa and African people.
Plus, even if you have absolutely no knowledge of Azanian history, everyone reading this would have to argue completely that theft is wrong. And, without question, these Europeans came to Africa to conquer it. And, in the course of their efforts in Africa, Australia, occupied Palestine, and the Americas, they systemically murdered and oppressed the Indigenous populations in all of those places. So, guess what folks? That means those Europeans are thieves. This is equally true for the descendants since they benefit from the original theft e.g. they hold the land today. They are tilling, working, and living on stolen land. No different than if you saw the child of the person who stole your car driving down the street in it. You wouldn't say "well, that's the child...The person who stole it is dead now and the child had nothing to do with the original theft so..." Besides, these settler Europeans have proven to us that they at least believe rhetorically in the concept that theft is wrong. Their prisons are filled with millions of people, especially people who look like us, who are there because the capitalist system said they stole something from somebody. And, if you multiplied whatever accusations were/are being waged against every African in prison in every capitalist country, you wouldn't come close to equaling the amount we lost from settler colonialism and the theft of land in Azania, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and all of Africa.
Now, just to be crystal clear, we are not advocating land reform policy. We are revolutionary Pan-Africanists which means we are advocating for the total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism. In other words, we are opposed to any negotiations surrounding our freedom and dignity and our sister parties in Azania such as the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania/South Africa (PAC) and the Azanian People's Organization (AZAPO) have published clear positions around this question. So, as we said, land reform is just the beginning of this process for us to achieve Pan-Africanism all over Africa. By summer, the Azanian (South African) Parliament is promising to have completed its research on moving forward with land reform. I'm telling you now that the masses of Africans in Azania want it. The key to European capitalist and bourgeois classes maintaining their dominance over Africa and African people is controlling our land in Africa. They never had a right to it. They obtained it only through terrorist and inhumane methodologies, and we have every right to get that land back to use to raise our people out of poverty and to advance us. If the Europeans there don't like it, they should do what they are always so quick to tell us to do in this settler colony, they should go back to Europe.
Actually, what they really should do is get down on their hands and knees and give thanks that there is even a legislative process to facilitate this process because one day, they won't have any say and what they think won't matter, as it shouldn't. We clearly should only be concerned about anyone else's welfare to the extent they are concerned about ours. Azania's history is as clear as can be that these Europeans crying today have never exhibited any concern for us. We are simply getting our feet under ourselves to reclaim our dignity. It's long overdue.
What these voices are focusing on is how hard the descendants of European colonizers have worked to cultivate and develop agricultural land in Azania and therefore, how unfair it is for them to have their land taken away. Consequently, these arguments conclude that land reform is morally wrong and will devastate Azania's economy. The people promoting this racist analysis are kind enough to use land reform in Zimbabwe as proof of their argument. Since land reform was initiated as policy in Zimbabwe in 1990, these same voices of reaction have pointed to the struggles of Zimbabwe to implement land reform as their rationale for why land reform in Azania must be opposed. To make their racist points, these people lied, misrepresented, and completely maligned Zimbabwe's program from the day it was initiated. What these reactionaries and racists forgot to tell you is that any program, especially land reform, is going to take time to successfully implement. Especially since they never ceased placing their foots on our collective necks. Today, almost 30 years after being implemented, Zimbabwe is seeing unprecedented economic growth from the over 200,000 African families who have benefited from the land reform program there. For example, maize, a primary food and agricultural product in Zimbabwe, is being grown, cultivated, and sold in these newly owned African farm lands at paces that are significantly raising the medium incomes for Africans across the country. Of course, the imperialist voices are quiet about all of this progress because they want to keep us confused. They do this by bringing your attention to the baby struggling to walk, completely ignoring that baby once they learn to walk upright with pride and dignity.
The situation in Azania is no different. The focus of imperialist analysis, as is always the case with white supremacy, is in centering the experiences of the Europeans (because whatever they experience is all that matters, right?). Just like Zimbabwe, where they claimed for years that Africans were violently forcing Europeans off of lands (proven to be nothing more than racist propaganda), they are predicting gloom and doom for Azania. Organizations dedicated to preserving racist white traditions in Azania, such as the reactionary "AfriForum" which is a lobbying group for Boers in Azania, are alerting the world market of the proposed program, although its not projected to be approved and/or implemented for several months. Newly installed President Cyril Ramaphosa is serving as the new mouthpiece for neo-colonial alleviation of white fears in Azania these days.
The truth is these land reform programs taking place in the former settler colonial territories of Africa are simply the beginning stages of our revolutionary Pan-African movement to take back all of Africa from the exploiting classes. Azania is called Azania (instead of South Africa) by Pan-Africanists because the name reflects the actual history of the country e.g. "land of the Black people at the tip of the continent." Like the name, this land reform is about reclaiming our dignity. When Azania was under racist apartheid rule, the racist Parliament implemented a national law in 1913 that no land could be owned by Africans in Azania. As a result, all the fertile/arable land was given to European settler descendants. Of course, all of this took place under the backdrop of the institutional apartheid system where African movement was physically restricted. Africans were prohibited from entering and occupying European spaces, gain education, having productive jobs, and physical terror and intimidation were daily practices against the African populace. So, any talk of European/whites being mistreated under land reform today is laughable. We as African people have absolutely no responsibility to protect any interests of these shameful people when their interests have been held up by our systemic oppression. And, anyone who cries for these Europeans, just like the ones who cried for those in Zimbabwe, is by that very act, proclaiming their support for neo-colonialism, racism, and the continued exploitation of Africa and African people.
Plus, even if you have absolutely no knowledge of Azanian history, everyone reading this would have to argue completely that theft is wrong. And, without question, these Europeans came to Africa to conquer it. And, in the course of their efforts in Africa, Australia, occupied Palestine, and the Americas, they systemically murdered and oppressed the Indigenous populations in all of those places. So, guess what folks? That means those Europeans are thieves. This is equally true for the descendants since they benefit from the original theft e.g. they hold the land today. They are tilling, working, and living on stolen land. No different than if you saw the child of the person who stole your car driving down the street in it. You wouldn't say "well, that's the child...The person who stole it is dead now and the child had nothing to do with the original theft so..." Besides, these settler Europeans have proven to us that they at least believe rhetorically in the concept that theft is wrong. Their prisons are filled with millions of people, especially people who look like us, who are there because the capitalist system said they stole something from somebody. And, if you multiplied whatever accusations were/are being waged against every African in prison in every capitalist country, you wouldn't come close to equaling the amount we lost from settler colonialism and the theft of land in Azania, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and all of Africa.
Now, just to be crystal clear, we are not advocating land reform policy. We are revolutionary Pan-Africanists which means we are advocating for the total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism. In other words, we are opposed to any negotiations surrounding our freedom and dignity and our sister parties in Azania such as the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania/South Africa (PAC) and the Azanian People's Organization (AZAPO) have published clear positions around this question. So, as we said, land reform is just the beginning of this process for us to achieve Pan-Africanism all over Africa. By summer, the Azanian (South African) Parliament is promising to have completed its research on moving forward with land reform. I'm telling you now that the masses of Africans in Azania want it. The key to European capitalist and bourgeois classes maintaining their dominance over Africa and African people is controlling our land in Africa. They never had a right to it. They obtained it only through terrorist and inhumane methodologies, and we have every right to get that land back to use to raise our people out of poverty and to advance us. If the Europeans there don't like it, they should do what they are always so quick to tell us to do in this settler colony, they should go back to Europe.
Actually, what they really should do is get down on their hands and knees and give thanks that there is even a legislative process to facilitate this process because one day, they won't have any say and what they think won't matter, as it shouldn't. We clearly should only be concerned about anyone else's welfare to the extent they are concerned about ours. Azania's history is as clear as can be that these Europeans crying today have never exhibited any concern for us. We are simply getting our feet under ourselves to reclaim our dignity. It's long overdue.
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