My original idea was to try and get as many All African People's Revolutionary Party work study members in Portland to go to Ghana as we could. When we started the fundraising in October of 2014, the idea was that several of us would go, but I don't think more than a couple of people besides myself had a real commitment to go as evidenced by the fact I was the only person who raised any real money for the trip. So, I decided to buy my ticket out of my pocket and make the money raised available for at least one other person in Portland to go and that happened. Although it wasn't what I had envisioned, it was great that the comrade sister Adrienne was able to go with me. In fact, I was more excited for her going than even myself. The reason for this is I spend all my time organizing around African liberation. A major aspect of that work is attempting to convince Africans (all people of African descent are Africans and belong to the African nation) that Africa is central to our identity and our quest for dignity, justice, and forward motion. This is no small task because capitalism/imperialism, and it's organizational appendage - white supremacy - have spent the last 500+ years convincing Africans in the U.S. that we are Black, Americans, anything that isn't directly connected to Africa. This is so prevalent today that it is becoming more and more common to find people who identity as Black who will argue that we even have a historical relationship to Africa. I have written on this topic many times in different posts so I won't reiterate some of the reasons for these enemy tactics, but I will stress again that a major underflow of their strategy is to unconsciously convince us and everyone else that Africa is inferior and insignificant. Thus, the blatant contradiction where there are 50 million Africans living in the U.S. today, yet the overwhelming majority of the 350 million people in this country, including most of those 50 million Africans, know very little about Africa. Obviously, the best medicine and solution is to provide Africans with empirical evidence of our connection to Africa and what better way to do that than to expose people physically to Africa? That's why I wanted our organizers/members to go and it's why we will embark upon another mission to plan a trip home to Africa this year (new people, new energy about going, especially after our trip this month).
Adrienne's experiences, which she will express, accomplished my goal in an overflowing way. I knew that as soon as she stepped off the plane in Accra, Ghana, much of the uncertainty about Africa would be immediately erased. For example, Africans in the U.S. spend a lot of time talking about whether Africans on the continent accept us as a part of the African family. Anyone who goes to Africa realizes instantly that this concern is disconnected from material reality. Once you touch down in Africa, you realize that the people there walk the same way you do. They stand the same way you do. They make commentary in the same spirited and cultural way, even if doing so in other languages. Everything you observe makes it plain that Africa is definitely where you come from and if you look closer, it's equally as clear that Africa has a lot to do with where you should be going. I have already debriefed these realities with Adrienne numerous times during our stay in Ghana.
Since this truth is so easily exposed, the imperialists have to insure that their efforts to keep us disconnected from Africa are still fused with fresh energy. They do this by attempting to westernize Africa and remove the cultural manifestations that make Africa uniquely ours. What I mean is the imperialists are on a campaign to make Africa a satellite U.S./Europe. This is done by promoting the values of the U.S and Europe at every turn. That's why everywhere you go you see Western style Christian salvation promoted in the most colonial terms imaginable. This message is everywhere. On billboards, tro tros (the public transportation) and taxis. Church leaders are afforded rock star treatment in how they appear on billboards and how their presence in Ghana is promoted. Equally stunning, the imperialist flags of the U.S., Britain, and even zionist israel, are seen everywhere in Ghana. I expressed while being interviewed on Ghana television Saturday night that this is the equivalent of a person breaking into your home, robbing you, raping your family, and you responding to that by going out and getting a tee shirt and bumper sticker with that person's picture on it and displaying that picture in every facet of your life. Yet, that's what we do in Africa. Also, European styles of dress are aggressively promoted. One of the most insidious ways this is done is by the mass shipment of second hand (knockoff) Western clothes that are dumped in large supplies in Africa. You know, the brands that were deemed not good enough to be made available to you in the U.S. and the West because a stitch was off or something. Since they are in such large supply and demand, these clothes can be bought much more cheaply than traditional African clothes. For a country where the overwhelming majority of people live in poverty, this makes Western clothes extremely popular and it insures that they become the norm, not African clothes that promote our pride in our culture and dignity as a people. Another method is how Western celebrities are used as the primary models for a large variety of hair, skin, and other products. The pictures of people like Chris Brown, Ludacris, and Common, are seen all over town in these adds for local products (which also actually serves as yet another clear example of how absurd the "they don't like us" argument is). Finally, the cultural expressions of the West are widely promoted. Radio station DJs sound the same as the ones in the states and more and more of the music, although still retaining an African style and flavor, also incorporates the new pop styles that are so universally promoted in the West today. Last, but certainly not least, Ghana is now home to a large U.S. Naval installation, compliments of Bush/Obama's "AFROCOM" military strategy to recolonize Africa.
Everyone knows that the most obvious ways that people promote their culture and distinguish themselves from other people is through their forms of expression, either through dress, art, song, etc., and their food. African food, as it relates to West Africa we are talking about banku, fish stews, jollof rice, foo foo, etc., and music like highlife, are some of the most prideful and enjoyable things about being in Africa so there should be considerable concern that we are seeing such an advance of fast food and culturally generic music in Africa. If this continues, as time goes by, it will become increasingly difficult for Africa to maintain it's distinctive flavor in these important areas. This is essential because whether we know it or not, everything we do as Africans in the West we learned from Africa (and again, all you have to do is get off a plane there and you will realize that if you disagree), so as those things are diminished in Africa, our ability to be influenced by them in the West will also be diminished which will actually complete the process of colonization and the elimination of the (Revolutionary) African personality. If you want to see what that looks like, just look around the U.S. today. What manifestations of Indigenous culture are dominant in the U.S. today? In fact, people who come to the U.S. today could very easily have no idea that a different culture and people were dominant in that country at one time in recent history. Now, many of you will respond by countering that Africa is full of Africans so the comparison to the U.S. is not realistic, but we know that Carter G. Woodson was correct when he said "if you teach the Negro that he should go through the back door, eventually you won't even need a back door. If there isn't one, the mis-education of the Negro will demand one!" Think about that next time you call African clothing "garb" (as if it's a costume).
Adrienne's experiences, which she will express, accomplished my goal in an overflowing way. I knew that as soon as she stepped off the plane in Accra, Ghana, much of the uncertainty about Africa would be immediately erased. For example, Africans in the U.S. spend a lot of time talking about whether Africans on the continent accept us as a part of the African family. Anyone who goes to Africa realizes instantly that this concern is disconnected from material reality. Once you touch down in Africa, you realize that the people there walk the same way you do. They stand the same way you do. They make commentary in the same spirited and cultural way, even if doing so in other languages. Everything you observe makes it plain that Africa is definitely where you come from and if you look closer, it's equally as clear that Africa has a lot to do with where you should be going. I have already debriefed these realities with Adrienne numerous times during our stay in Ghana.
Since this truth is so easily exposed, the imperialists have to insure that their efforts to keep us disconnected from Africa are still fused with fresh energy. They do this by attempting to westernize Africa and remove the cultural manifestations that make Africa uniquely ours. What I mean is the imperialists are on a campaign to make Africa a satellite U.S./Europe. This is done by promoting the values of the U.S and Europe at every turn. That's why everywhere you go you see Western style Christian salvation promoted in the most colonial terms imaginable. This message is everywhere. On billboards, tro tros (the public transportation) and taxis. Church leaders are afforded rock star treatment in how they appear on billboards and how their presence in Ghana is promoted. Equally stunning, the imperialist flags of the U.S., Britain, and even zionist israel, are seen everywhere in Ghana. I expressed while being interviewed on Ghana television Saturday night that this is the equivalent of a person breaking into your home, robbing you, raping your family, and you responding to that by going out and getting a tee shirt and bumper sticker with that person's picture on it and displaying that picture in every facet of your life. Yet, that's what we do in Africa. Also, European styles of dress are aggressively promoted. One of the most insidious ways this is done is by the mass shipment of second hand (knockoff) Western clothes that are dumped in large supplies in Africa. You know, the brands that were deemed not good enough to be made available to you in the U.S. and the West because a stitch was off or something. Since they are in such large supply and demand, these clothes can be bought much more cheaply than traditional African clothes. For a country where the overwhelming majority of people live in poverty, this makes Western clothes extremely popular and it insures that they become the norm, not African clothes that promote our pride in our culture and dignity as a people. Another method is how Western celebrities are used as the primary models for a large variety of hair, skin, and other products. The pictures of people like Chris Brown, Ludacris, and Common, are seen all over town in these adds for local products (which also actually serves as yet another clear example of how absurd the "they don't like us" argument is). Finally, the cultural expressions of the West are widely promoted. Radio station DJs sound the same as the ones in the states and more and more of the music, although still retaining an African style and flavor, also incorporates the new pop styles that are so universally promoted in the West today. Last, but certainly not least, Ghana is now home to a large U.S. Naval installation, compliments of Bush/Obama's "AFROCOM" military strategy to recolonize Africa.
Everyone knows that the most obvious ways that people promote their culture and distinguish themselves from other people is through their forms of expression, either through dress, art, song, etc., and their food. African food, as it relates to West Africa we are talking about banku, fish stews, jollof rice, foo foo, etc., and music like highlife, are some of the most prideful and enjoyable things about being in Africa so there should be considerable concern that we are seeing such an advance of fast food and culturally generic music in Africa. If this continues, as time goes by, it will become increasingly difficult for Africa to maintain it's distinctive flavor in these important areas. This is essential because whether we know it or not, everything we do as Africans in the West we learned from Africa (and again, all you have to do is get off a plane there and you will realize that if you disagree), so as those things are diminished in Africa, our ability to be influenced by them in the West will also be diminished which will actually complete the process of colonization and the elimination of the (Revolutionary) African personality. If you want to see what that looks like, just look around the U.S. today. What manifestations of Indigenous culture are dominant in the U.S. today? In fact, people who come to the U.S. today could very easily have no idea that a different culture and people were dominant in that country at one time in recent history. Now, many of you will respond by countering that Africa is full of Africans so the comparison to the U.S. is not realistic, but we know that Carter G. Woodson was correct when he said "if you teach the Negro that he should go through the back door, eventually you won't even need a back door. If there isn't one, the mis-education of the Negro will demand one!" Think about that next time you call African clothing "garb" (as if it's a costume).
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