Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Silence


A hundred die in Syria another 40 in Nairobi
Bombs without names, victims without claims
Voided without mention, rhymes out of time
Violence shrouded, forgotten, misbegotten
Silence

Mothers cry, fathers weep, families mourn
Pages turn, papers burn,  taciturn reflections
Lost within spaces too shallow to make graves
Into which we heap the victims of our indifference
Silence.

Blood shed in distant places, tortured remains of our forgetfulness
lives lost from our embraces, forgotten remains of our tortured existences,
Tattered bodies left in ditches, remnants of our forgotten tomorrows
Parts of our insanity, tomorrow’s remnants of our yesterdays that never came
Silence
  

For more of my work please check me out at -



The song that lies silent in the heart of a mother sings upon the lips of her child..
Kahlil Gibran



by Rodney D. Coates
Professor and Interim Director of Black World Studies


The Sacking of Benin

  
Today we were reminded of one of the greatest  crimes of the British Empire- the massacre of thousands of innocents and the looting of the city of Benin in 1897
We went to see the magnificent pieces of Bronzework and carvings  from  the golden age of Benin civilisations exhibited in the Horniman Museum in South London.

This is a marvellous display if you can forget the blood dripping from them.

These cultural artefacts were stolen by the British, the great rogue state of the nineteenth century. (The British  invaded more countries in the nineteenth century  than all the countries of Europe put together.) This massacre was justified on the basis that this was about preventing the  barbarism of  the  regime of  Benin.

So the concept of "humanitarian" wars is not new, many of the wars fought by the British  were justified by "pretend" humanitarian reasons eg.The  Invasion of Sudan 1884
They have always lied about the reality of their wars. Why did they have to lie? Because  public opinion would not support most of these adventures. There was an opposition in Britain. The same workers who were on the side of the slaves in the US civil war in the 1860s  had to be persuaded to support these wars.


Before FESTAC '77 the Nigerians asked these criminals to release these artefacts to Nigeria, at least for the period of the festival but these evil devils refused!! The nerve of these thieves. The British are responsible for most of the injustice in the world yet they  feel  no shame or guilt and continue to hold on to the stolen loot.

While we were at the museum we asked the curator, "when will these artefacts be returned to Nigeria?" The bloke replied that there were no plans for them to be returned!!!!!!!!! We were like WHAT??? This is stolen stuff…

 We decided that the best way to get the young people to connect with the people of Benin and their experience with the British was to reverse the history, turn it round: To get an ideas of what the British did to other nations. So we pretended that the people of Benin invaded London, burn down Buck House (Buckingham Palace) Put the queen on trial although she spoke no Bini and the people from Benin spoke no English. (So the People of Benin become the prosecutor and judge…)

They inflict massive damage and then London's artistic heritage is shipped off back  to Benin to be put in the Museums there.
This is one way to confront the empire…in history


From: Emma Lewis emylou05@yahoo.co.uk





Monday, May 28, 2012

Bougie Negroes v. Real Change, by Mary Neal


A couple of years ago, we received tragic reports from Cynthia Johnson, an online friend and member of Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill (AIMI). Cynthia alleged that she was raped by a New Jersey police officer in 2008 when two officers went to her home to arrest her on false charges levied by a drug addicted cousin whom she had reported for child neglect. Johnson claims the violent sex crime was hushed up in New Jersey just like my brother's murder was hushed up in Memphis, Tennessee. She alleged that she was denied a rape kit when she reported the sexual assault to the duty sergeant upon her arrest and that she was deliberately kept incarcerated until the semen dissolved in her body to prevent prosecution for the offense. Please familiarize yourself with the allegations by reading this article, which cyberstalkers refused to allow me to open on May 23, 2012:  "New Jersey v. Cynthia Johnson for Being Young, Gifted and Black" – at this link http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-jersey-v-cynthia-johnson-for-being.html . Police officers who are rapists and murderers must be prosecuted with the same or greater zeal than average citizens. It is particularly disturbing that black women can be raped by Caucasian police officers and a handicapped black man murdered by police without censure in cities that have African American representatives in major offices.

Unfortunately, the response to African Americans who report major crimes done under the color of law is often censorship and persecution. My online reports about crimes by police officers are censored in Georgia by a team of at least four cyberstalkers at a time who were appointed by and/or are protected in their illegal cyber censorship by officials over justice. In fact, my computer is monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week to interfere with reports about crimes against humanity that are allowed by officials in cities across this country and by the United States Department of Justice, which is also under the jurisdiction of an African American, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. When police officers are not censured for criminal conduct, more crime against citizens is encouraged. It is unacceptable that as more of America's decision makers became black people, respect for the rights of African Americans regressed to the point that unarmed blacks like Kenneth McDade are regularly killed by police, usually without penalty. The brutality and murders of inmates like Larry Neal are covered-up by officials and the media, black women like Cynthia Johnson are raped and elderly veterans like Mr. Chamberlain are killed by police officers who they were commanded to admit into their homes.

It appears that African Americas are relegated back into slavery and that even African American officials who were elected and appointed to positions over justice are actually plantation overseers whose dedication is to slave-catching for prison labor, holding black women still for rape, eliminating harmless handicapped and elderly blacks who cannot contribute to Master's plantation, and killing or incarcerating young black men and women who might have been protectors of our people and are therefore considered threats and enemies. Moreover, documenting and publishing the re-enslavement of African Americans is treated like such reports are being made in a cruel dictatorship in a third world country that victimizes its own people, such Uganda under Idi Amin, where hundreds of thousands of blacks were slaughtered and some eaten by the African ruler. We live in the day of "elite integration," which started on Southern Plantations. House Negroes were slaves like the blacks in the fields, but they enjoyed an elevated living standard slavery provided just as their owners did. See the poem below, called "ELITE INTEGRATION."  
ELITE INTEGRATION, by Mary Neal (all rights reserved)


Elite white people and black people done got together against little people
And they imprisoning 'em and waterboarding 'em and executing 'em

OH, LAWD! OH, LAWD!

Elite white people and black people done got together against little people
They lay 'em off, make 'em bail out banks, laying railroad tracks to concentration camps*

OH, LAWD! OH, LAWD!
___________
*Google "H.R. 645," the FEMA camp bill introduced in January 2009 by Alcee Hastings, a black congressman from Florida, a democrat.

My own reports about Larry Neal's murder under secret arrest, The (Johnnie) Cochran Firm's fraud against minorities throughout America, abuses and murders of the mentally ill, mass incarceration, brutality, and wrongful executions are treated with enmity by officials whose job is to uphold the people's rights to life and liberty. See Wrongful Death of Larry Neal website at http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/ . Offenders include African American officials and police officers who have their jobs only because oppressed black people, liberal whites and Jews in the 1960s faced police dogs, powerful water hoses, public beatings and murders in order to get the Voting Rights Act passed, thinking that such legislation would remove the yoke of oppression off our necks. As a result, African Americans now have black oppressors, which improved the position of racist plantation owners rather than the people. With blacks in federal and local positions over the injustice system, African Americans lack the unity that brought down Jim Crow during the civil rights movement and weakened him for decades. Jim Crow has now recovered and is in the prison gym pumping iron. He struts through black neighborhoods and down the corridors of America's courtrooms and prisons flexing new, bulging muscles, killing, maiming and raping whomever he chooses in full confidence that African American plantation overseers will condone or conceal his crimes. The biggest mistake made by 21st century blacks was forgetting something that white supremacists remember and use against us today: Blacks are useful for raiding and burning villages and bringing out shackled slaves. Blacks are accomplished whipping boys and plantation overseers.

African American voters forgot that Master's strongest allies who helped him and a handful of whites maintain cruel dominance over thousands of black slaves were the Negroes like those in Master's kitchen and carriage house, often Mullatos with whom the master was closely related by blood. The Big House Negroes and their owners shared a common interest in keeping slaves suppressed while they enjoyed the fruits of their labors. House Negroes and supervising field hands were often the masters' offspring, sex partners, or black-skinned slaves who had proved their loyalty to white supremacists by performing acts of deception and cruelty against other human chattel on Masters' plantations. As a reward, they got to ride a horse through the fields and wield a whip, drawing blood from pregnant slave women who dared to stand upright while picking cotton and take a moment to rub their sore backs. The kitchen slaves were allowed to butter their children's biscuits and take leftovers from the evening meal home to their shacks at night. Carriage house Negroes frequently got to leave the plantation when they took their owners to conduct business or to enjoy social events at other plantations. All the other slaves labored throughout their lives and died within a few miles of the slave quarters and fields where they were born unless they were sold. Regular slaves could not even escape the drudgery of their lives through books, as literacy was forbidden. The masters' carriage drivers were envied by slaves working in hot fields who watched them ride by holding horses' reins in hands that had no blisters and calluses, wearing shoes and suits without holes, smiling and whistling with their stomachs full.

Big house workers and plantation supervisors were also slaves, but theirs was a more comfortable existence and elevated status made possible by the suffering and degradation of their fellows. They did, however, incur their owners' waft whenever slaves escaped. It fell to big house Negroes and plantation overseers to learn about escape plans and inform their masters in order to curtail freedom quests and circumvent slave uprisings. The big house Negroes therefore enlisted tipsters in the slave quarters who spied on their brethren in return for small favors like extra biscuits, a bigger garden patch, or lighter duty in the Master's fields. Therefore, slave masters developed a system of "proxy racism" that continues today. Proxy racists use sold-out blacks to suppress other blacks in order to impose and strengthen white supremacy.

This system of racism by proxy did not crumble after slavery officially ended. Many slave owners bequeathed land to their mulatto relatives and former slaves, giving them a distinct advantage over other blacks. Benevolent white churches and organizations helped to establish black schools. Some of the black schools required entrants to pass a "paper sack test," limiting admission to lighter-skinned blacks with close blood relationships to their former owners. Blacks with Caucasian rather than Negroid features and those who carried benign messages were promoted and allowed to make significant educational financial and social gains, while "radicals" were persecuted, arrested, and killed for propounding revolutionary messages that were contrary to the interests of white supremacists. People with the best education and contacts tend to rise in business and government. As a result, African Americans are largely represented by sell-outs who still take their orders from white supremacists like house servants did during slavery. Many black journalists publish what white supremacists tell them to and censor news as instructed. Major civil and human rights organizations follow white supremacists' dictates, and so do many black politicians. Although scores of African Americans excel in business and government and despite large organizations founded on the principle of equal rights for blacks, real progress is hampered by these "gatekeepers" for white supremacists whose order was to "come on in and make America look democratic, but shut the door behind you." Enough sell-outs are in major positions now that average African Americans feel we as a race have "overcome," which is a fallacy. We as a people believe the mirage that has no basis in fact. See the poem "Mass Hypnosis," by Mary Neal below:
Mass Hypnosis


This is how we'll win the game

Let just a few live the dream

Marches, sit-ins all in vain

Make 'em think they overcame


Show 'em an empty Jim Crowe grave

Apologize for making 'em slaves

Rising tempers, we must tame

Make 'em think they overcame.


Let a few experience success

Toms come aboard and control the rest

Millions will be left in pain

But they'll think they overcame.


        ("Mass Hypnosis" - All rights reserved by Mary Neal 11/13/10)

I have had numerous run-ins with house Negroes since my brother's murder, whose death is their responsibility to keep hidden from the public. At first, I was not aware that "civil rights for blacks" was a game. There are so many blacks in decision making capacities that I thought America had nearly overcome prejudice until my handicapped brother was secretly arrested and murdered in Memphis Shelby County Jail in 2003. Memphis is a "chocolate city" with many blacks in decision making capacities. I did not know so many Negroes with titles are merely plantation overseers for white supremacists until I began seeking open disclosure and justice regarding Larry Neal's murder. It surprised me when the "head Negroes in charge" engaged in a cover-up regarding Larry Neal's murder by police. That is when I learned that proxy racism is an issue in local and federal government, the media, and civil rights organizations in the 21st century. House Negroes still do their masters' bidding in order to keep the privileges that go along with their positions and avoid getting on Master's "bad side." Negroes in this century continue being white supremacists' facilitators just as their counterparts in the 1800s suppressed field slaves because doing so provides an elevated living standard. Bougie Negroes get together and compliment each other on what a "credit to their race" they are, give one another awards, etc., and help white supremacists carry forth a false semblance of  American "equality" to the world. Reality for the masses of blacks in 21st century America is quite different from what is projected. We experience runaway rates of unemployment and mass incarceration, unchecked police violence, and endangerment of truth-tellers by blacks and whites who benefit by continuing slavery - under cover.

There is little to no difference between how police violence is handled in America in the 21st century and mob lynchings that occurred immediately after slavery "ended." This is true although numerous police departments, cities and county governments now have blacks in office and the U.S. Department of Justice itself is headed by a black man. Check this blog later this week, and I will provide details about some of the house Negroes I encountered during my justice quest regarding murders and oppression. I do not know if Georgia is more corroded with sell-out Negroes than other places, but some followed me to the DeKalb County Library to take over the computer I am using now for input. Reporting such crimes to police is useless. Last June, Negro police officers came to my home and told me I had better not report that crimes against me are allowed and that I am never to try to see the black CEO of DeKalb County, Burrell Ellis. This happened after police refused to investigate the car tag belonging to a Negro stalker who said he is "paid well" to follow me. Mayor Kasim Reed, another Negro, is mayor of Atlanta, a city with many blacks on the city council. Last month, I received notice from the city that it takes no responsibility for two Negro Atlanta police officers who threatened to Taser and arrest me for telling people about my brother's lynching and the Cochran Firm fraud against Kathryn Johnston's family and other African Americans throughout the country. America continues to enlarge on slavery, and more house Negroes than ever before are performing their duty to ensure that white supremacy reigns. Meanwhile, misguided African Americans continue to envy the well-dressed, well-fed Negro coachmen who ride by oppressive fields in Masta's carriage with smiks on their faces, holding the horses' reins with uncalloused hands. Field slaves promoted those house Negroes they admired after emancipation, especially mullatos, and the beat goes on.  See an excellent dipiction of the Negro coachman by John Carroll Doyle at http://www.johncdoyle.com/repro_detail.asp?repoID=49  .
Mary Neal, human rights advocate against hypocrisy, racism, and injustice in America. Dedicated to Rev. Pinkney and Benton Harbor OCCUPY THE PGA protest on May 26, 2012

--
Mary Neal's Google Profile - http://www.google.com/profiles/MaryLovesJustice - Follow me at Twitter @koffietime - http://twitter.com/koffietime - Current, urgent justice issues from a laywoman's viewpoint at my primary blog http://FreeSpeakBlog.blogspot.com (the name is a joke, believe me).  See also http://MaryLovesJustice.blogspot.com and Mary Neal at HubPages. Recommended articles - http://topsy.com/site/freespeakblog.blogspot.com - Address:  MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com (I am censored, but some emails reach my box)



Get on TheBlackList with the following networks:
       Facebook Page Twitter Ning foursquare StumbleUpon Digg Blogger pinterest




Friday, May 25, 2012

Excerpt from Angela Davis' "History Is a Weapon - Masked Racism: Reflections on the Prison Industrial Complex"


Masked Racism: Reflections on the Prison Industrial Complex


by Angela Davis


Imprisonment has become the response of first resort to far too many of the social problems that burden people who are ensconced in poverty. These problems often are veiled by being conveniently grouped together under the category "crime" and by the automatic attribution of criminal behavior to people of color. Homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, mental illness, and illiteracy are only a few of the problems that disappear from public view when the human beings contending with them are relegated to cages. 

Prisons thus perform a feat of magic. Or rather the people who continually vote in new prison bonds and tacitly assent to a proliferating network of prisons and jails have been tricked into believing in the magic of imprisonment. But prisons do not disappear problems, they disappear human beings. And the practice of disappearing vast numbers of people from poor, immigrant, and racially marginalized communities has literally become big business. 

--
Mary Neal's Google Profile - http://www.google.com/profiles/MaryLovesJustice - Follow me at Twitter @koffietime - http://twitter.com/koffietime - Current, urgent justice issues from a laywoman's viewpoint at my primary blog http://FreeSpeakBlog.blogspot.com (the name is a joke, believe me).  See also http://MaryLovesJustice.blogspot.com and Mary Neal at HubPages. Recommended articles - http://topsy.com/site/freespeakblog.blogspot.com - Address:  MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com (I am censored, but some emails reach my box)

Thursday, May 24, 2012

African Liberation Day 2012: Our Global AfRaKan Unity for A Nu AfRaKan World Union and Beyond



ALD2012: Our Global AfRaKan Unity for A Nu AfRaKan World Union and Beyond

by perankhpress
An elder gave us an assignment during an ALD session recently:  Do an act where you do not focus on always being right.  Essentially, that is hard for most of us and in light of that elder's assignment to those of us working as initiators (agents) for change in our community the shift in our actions are manifesting...womanifesting.
Some believe practice makes perfect; however practice really makes for improvement as perfection is a subjective construct created by man which is another ankhversation.... On the points shared in this thread regarding elitism in the African Revolutionary Movements and to strongly support AFRICAN LIBERATION DAY events globally these draft comments are presented so we may MOVE FORWARD and minimize our complaints of who is what, who is doing what, and how long such and such has not manifested. 
"The major crisis facing African people the world over is that they have not been educated for the new reality.  And the new reality is that African people must be educated to regain the main thing they lost during slavery and colonialism, the control of the state and their own destiny...The main purpose of education is to train the student to be a proper handler of power.  Every form of true education trains the student in self-reliance...Education that fails to equip you to handle some form of power is irrelevant and not education at all...African people need to stop shouting 'nationtime' until they are clear about the responsibilities of running a nation."  Words of Dr. John Henrik Clarke on April 23, 1994 from Who Betrayed the African World Revolution & Other Essays
It is 2012.  Essentially, some folks think the world is ending and are preparing for gloom and doom.  Others are walking in illuminated consciousness while recognizing transformation and accepting change along with "shared values" as practices see opportunities for a shift for AfRaKa and humanity right now.  Let's unite, liberate and ascend for the greatest good and potential for AfRaKa 4AChange! It has become "crystal clear" that PanAfricanism has changed and transformed from the version written and spoken of by Rev. Dr. Edward Wilmot Blyden and Maj. Gen. Martin Delaney and others of the pre-20th century;  PanAfricanism has shifted from the version of Hubert Harrison, the Garveys, DuBois, Washington and others; even more shifts were exhibited in the movements that galvanized ideological engagements and perspectives in action through the UNIA-ACL, NOI and other long standing organizations; fast forward to the streak of revolutionary independence struggles and upliftments via mass organized actions in Africa, Central Amerika, Amerika (us), the Caribbean and throughout the Diaspora inspired by the active work and proactive research, nation building efforts and struggles of ancestors like Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Amilcar Cabral, Azikiwe, Samora Machel, Julius Nyerere, Patrice Lumumba, Malcolm X, George Padmore, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, Medger Evers, Dr. Cheik Anta Diop, Dr. Amos Wilson, Dr. Bobby Clarke, Drusilla Dunjee Houston, Fannie Lou Hamer, Amy Jacques Garvey, Kwame Ture, Ahmed Sekou Ture, Thomas Sankara, Maurice Bishop, Dr. Walter Rodney and many many more; through to the present efforts of organizations like the AAPRP, RNA, NBUF, NBPP, BPP, NBLC, NAADUC, PADU, SRDC, AUDTT, PASG, PAST and the many other organizational entities that are implementing a 21st century paradigm of PanAfricanism that reflects the reality that "change is constant". 
This shift within PanAfricanism as a movement, ideology, pathway, way of life and beyond, is especially the focus exemplified in the organizational sustainability, viability and security made manifest for even the comrades/members cooperative and collective strength to restore real unification, liberation, stable socio-economic institutions & policies along with the truth and harmony of respect, honor, dignity, integrity, accountability blended with secure power of AfRaKa, her people, her resources, her lands and beyond "by any means necessary".  In light of what our enemies are doing to our AfRaKan security, sovereignty and spirit-globally- this is a time for us to "Get Up! Stand Up! Organize" (African Student centered theme for ALD2012 by AAPRP) with Action for a CHANGE beyond the identification of our differences and challenges we all know exist. 
This time of ALD2012 following an annular solar eclipse on May 20th, 2012 that has not manifested in 26000 years may mark a strategic, celestial and RAevolutionary time for our nation's unity without uniformity based on our collaborative, cohesive and collective responsiveness to do more practical work and minimizing  over-ANALyzing our upliftment and the growing labor pains associated with our Rebirth and RAstoration as an AfRaKan nation with dignity in MAAT(truth, justice, order, reciprocity, harmony, righteousness, balance) amongst the nations of humanity.
"It must be proclaimed that there can be no salvation for our peoples unless we decisively turn our backs on
all the models that all the charlatans, cut from the same cloth, have tried to sell us for the past twenty years.  There can be no salvation without saying no to that.  No development without breaking with that...Homeland or death, we will win!"  Speech of President Thomas Sankara delivered in address to the 39th session of the UN's General Assembly in NY on October 4th, 1984.
This is a concise engagement to recommend SOUL-lutions instead of drilling ourselves with what we already know are problems and issues not being done in accordance or alignment as our ancestors, elders, youth and beyond have recommended and directed us to adhere to much less institutionalize. 
"Africans need cultural cross-fertilization of relating to each other without border restrictions.  After two generations of these traitors, it is my belief that there is a growing desire in Africa to put Africa back together again and make it function for Africans both at home and abroad.  There is now a growing movement to adopt Pan-African nationalism as the essential connecting link between African people throughout the world.  There are now some Africans ready to extend Pan-Africanism beyond its narrow base into an African World Community.  In my opinion, when this happens, the spirit of Kwame Nkrumah and George Padmore, and others who dreamt and planned the unification of Africa will be vindicated." Words of Dr. John Henrik Clarke on April 23, 1994 from Who Betrayed the African World Revolution & Other Essays
Let's move forward ever and LIVEUP for a Free, Liberated, Healed and Unified AfRaKa irrespective of the strategies and tactics that many amongst our 1billion and counting populace are engaged in.  Let's share the liberating and unifying work efforts and institutions we are strengthening and building for a Nu AfRaKan World Union and beyond.  (We invite you to add your works and revolutionary institution building efforts within this venue or via email to perankh@gmail.com or within any of the organizational networks we maintain.)  Let's shift the paradigm and not get caught up in "man-made organized or obligatory" institutions or isms.
May we remain ready, active and engaged for RAevolution.
Unity to Power! 
One God! One Aim! One Destiny! Ua NTR! Ua Sep! Ua Shai!
Shem M Hotep M Smai Tawi

Image




TheBlackList.net
PhoneMeYourNews: 646-820-5210
My profiles: Twitter Facebook Page Ning



Occupy the PGA - MAJOR PROTEST IN BENTON HARBOR, MI AGAINST CORPORATE GREED AND GOV'T MISDEEDS

Tuesday, May 22, 2012


Occupy the PGA - Benton Harbor, MI


Rev. Edward Pinkney Protests Injustice in Benton Harbor, Michigan

This is the week of the PGA, a highly contested golfing event in Benton Harbor, Michigan, and Benton Harbor residents are ready to OCCUPY THE PGA. Many residents claim being suppressed and forced to live under America's first dictatorship. Duly elected city officials in Benton Harbor were stripped of their official duties in 2011, and Michigan's governor placed an Emergency Manager over the local government. Many Benton Harbor residents claim cruel and unusual treatment is happening in their city and assert that the government and a huge corporate entity have conspired to oppress them to satisfy the greed of the elite. Much of the golf course where the PGA will be played was once public lands. Michigan is the state Sen. Levin represents, the man who introduced legislation for indefinite military detention without criminal charges, which U.S. Congress passed and the president signed in 2011 (NDAA, Sec. 1021). WHAT IS HAPPENING IN MICHIGAN? (FOUR LINKS ARE IN THIS ARTICLE.) See and support a new petition by fed-up Benton Harbor residents at the link below:

"Whirlpool corporation, Kitchen Aid and the PGA: STOP DESTROYING THE CITY AND RESIDENTS OF BENTON HARBOR" PETITION:  http://goo.gl/JYy1E   

The fight against Benton Harbor's corporate takeover has reached epic proportions in recent months. The fact that Pinkney stands with the people against big corporate interests even led to a legal battle between Pinkney and the NAACP. LISTEN TO Rev. Pinkney discuss his lawsuit against the NAACP during his April 8, 2012 Blogtalk Radio broadcast. It is archived at http://www.Blogtalkradio.com/rev-pinkney/2012/04/08/pinkney-to-pinkney - Rev. Pinkney announced discussed the events that led to the lawsuit in numerous previous broadcasts. Listen to them anytime by accessing the accessing the link http://www.blogtalkradio.com/rev-pinkney at Blogtalk.

Rev. Edward Pinkney is at the forefront of the fight against oppression in Benton Harbor. He helps 99% people around the country to resist oppressive living conditions and human and civil rights abuses without regard to race, politics, and socioeconomic distinctions. I am honored to join the Rev. Pinkney Blogtalk Radio broadcasts most Sundays at 5pm EST. I know him to be a sincere man of principles who cannot be bought and who is unafraid to stand up for what he feels is right. Listen to archived Rev. Pinkney Blogtalk Shows to learn more about the fight for human rights and self-determination for Benton Harbor residents.


Rev. Edward Pinkney, president of the Benton Harbor branch of the NAACP and also B.H. BANCO Organization, published the following press release inviting America to join Benton Harbor residents in a week of protests, including a "death march."


SPREAD THE WORD

Occupy the PGA ! We are preparing in Benton Harbor to Occupy the PGA! May 23 -27 2012.
Wednesday May 23 we will do our Death MARCH with a coffin with the residents of Benton Harbor inside and bagpipes to Jean Klock Park, food will be served. please wear black. Benton Harbor Most Wanted for Crime against Humanity shirts. will be on sale for $10. Every
day we will send out updates.

On Saturday May 26, 2012 please bring a kite ! and wear black!  We are committed to escalating the Occupy Movement. We stand for human rights , democracy, free speech, freedom to assemble, fairness and equality. We stand for education ,health care, and good jobs for all. Get corporate corruption out of Government and get Harbor Shores out of Benton Harbor. Occupy the PGA and Occupy everything! It is not one thing , it is everything . . . 

It looks like Whirlpool's Harbor Shores organization has behaved again with incredible irresponsibility and arrogance. The attacks on Benton Harbor residents continue. The extraordinary control that the Whirlpool Corporation has taken over the community of Benton Harbor, Michigan must have emboldened them to believe they could act with impunity.

Three years ago, Harbor Shores tapped into the municipal water supply of Benton Harbor to irrigate their developing Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course. It is difficult to imagine how the excavation necessary to accomplish this could be done secretly. Somehow, Harbor Shores drew on this water without paying the city, although the residents of BH were metered and paying for water usage. This was happening while the city was bankrupt, and was being run by a despotic emergency manager, Joseph Harris, who answers only to Gov. Rick Snyder. About a year after this tap-in began, a water main break necessitated excavations for repairs, and the Harbor Shores splice was discovered. Back payment for a year of heavy water usage was sought. Harbor Shores responded by drawing irrigation water directly from the Paw Paw River. Over the past two years, water rates for a typical household in Benton Harbor have burgeoned from $30/mo. to more than $100/mo. Apparently, the emergency mgr. has decreed that the water distribution deficit resulting from Harbor Shore's pilferage would be paid for by Benton Harbor residents.
********************
The petition is important to many Benton Harbor residents. People who cannot help Occupy the PGA can sign the petition at Change.org|

NOTE: Stalkers in Georgia, where Mary Neal lives, hid the Pinkney Blogtalk Show link for the April 8th show on a previous article and email I sent out. I have the videotape. Also, they are doing something strange today with the link for the petition. Pray for justice in Michigan and throughout America! "They" understand unity and work together even across state lines. We the People should do no less! It will take unity on our parts to rise above oppression. Please support human and civil rights advocacy.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Mary Neal's Google Profile - http://www.google.com/profiles/MaryLovesJustice - Follow me at Twitter @koffietime - http://twitter.com/koffietime - Current, urgent justice issues from a laywoman's viewpoint at my primary blog http://FreeSpeakBlog.blogspot.com (the name is a joke, believe me).  See also http://MaryLovesJustice.blogspot.com and Mary Neal at HubPages. Recommended articles - http://topsy.com/site/freespeakblog.blogspot.com - Address:  MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com (I am censored, but some emails reach my box)

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

To celebrate African Liberation Day- 25 May 2012 - Sudan in Pan-African context by B.F.Bankie



SUDAN  IN PAN-AFRICAN CONTEXT

Whereas Du Bois stated the problem of the twentieth century was the colour line; the problem for Africans in the twenty-first century is  the Afro-Arab Borderlands.

Abstract

The OAU/AU/AUC  et al is a work in progress. It was noted that Pan-Africanists in general have their own views as to how best to deconstruct neo-colonialism and create Pan-Africanism/African Nationalism. This speaks to the democratic base of the unity movement. No one can claim a monopoly of ideas. As regards pointers to the future, at the First Preparatory Meeting for the 8th Pan-African Congress, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, 7-8 January 2010, the key issue was how to achieve the objective of Pan-Africanism ( ie non-continentalism ).

Another observed characteristic  of the Pan-African movement in these times was that being victims of inappropriate historiography, Africans in general remain in the process of learning their true place in global history. Examples being the de-legislation of Apartheid after 1994 and the admission of South Sudan into the global African  community in 2011, with the implication that in the longer term the history of Sudan and by extension, the Nile Delta, will be re-written from the perspective of the African majority of Sudan. As regards Egypt  an admission in school curricula, that Egypt was originally an African civilisation is long overdue.

These emerging truths effect the architecture of the unity movement. Indeed Sudan was opened up for inspection by the people of Sudan, by their armed struggle and by Pan-African participants such as the AU High Level Panel on Darfur. It is clear that there are others in Africa who seek to undermine African emancipation and liberation in the Afro-Arab Borderlands, witness armed struggle and genocide in Southern Sudan, Darfur, Abyei, Southern Kordofan, Northern Mali  etc.Are these struggles national or ethnic?  It was these types of questions that resulted in the composition and publication of The African Nation, a seminal work, defining scientifically, for the first time, the African national constituency.

This paper addresses the issues of slavery, Arabisation/Islamisation, the Borderlands, the African Eastern Diaspora, OAU/AU, culture and nationality.

Introduction

 The 'Purpose and objectives of the Conference', circulated in the Call for Papers for a meeting  scheduled in Southern Africa to celebrate African Liberation Day (ALD) 2012, referred  to :-

'… the formal ending of the place of colonialism and apartheid'

The convenors of the Symposium were all in southern Africa. Their choice to locate in southern  Africa 'the formal ending of the phase of colonialism and apartheid' raises questions as to what is taking place in Sudan and the Afro-Arab Borderlands today and how they define 'colonialism and apartheid'. Is not the 'Independence' of South Sudan part of a process of decolonisation and is not the system of governance in Sudan and Mauritania, for that matter, not apartheid?  Indeed Garba Diallo called Mauritania 'The other apartheid'.

As Pan-Africanists we should see our constituency as being defined by our Nation and this Nation as being inclusive of the African western Diaspora in the Americas, Carribean and Europe, as well as the African eastern Diaspora in Arabia, the Gulf States and north Africa.

As part of the adjustment, based on the truths learnt from the Borderlands, we need to ask ourselves why has the Sudan been in armed struggle for so long and why is there indifference globally about the loss of life in that part of Africa. Again, the 'Purpose and objectives of the Conference' referred  to those who '…do not have African interests and values at heart'. This would accurately describe those in the Afro-Arab Borderlands,  who pursue a policy of denationalising Africans and are wagging war against ancient African people such as the Nuba in Southern Kordofan.

The unity movement of the Africans is handed down to us through the history of those taken out of Africa  as slaves to the western  Diaspora. Previously the experience of those who underwent slavery in Arabia had been ignored by Pan-Africanists. There were those who were taken out either directly from east Africa to Arabia and points beyond, as well as those who, by forced migration, crossed the Sahara to north Africa and Arabia. Keep in mind that originally north Africa was populated by Black Africans, a point admitted by the late Libyan leader- Gadaffi. The Arab enslavement was the first forced migration out of Africa, following the voluntary migration of the original wo/man out of Africa, to populate the world.

Later the European capitalists, intent on profit via the industrialisation of Europe and north America extracted large numbers of African slaves to the western Diaspora including Europe. As Rodney  states, Africa was underdeveloped in order for  Europe to develop. It was these slave that laid the foundation for the super development of north and  now south America.

It was out of the experience of the enslavement of Africans in the western Diaspora and their exposure to crude capitalism that Pan-Africanism was born, from the political options slavery engendered.  Some choose and did return to Africa. Others remained in the western hemisphere. It was by pioneers such as Henry Sylvester Williams, Du Bois, Garvey, Robeson, Padmore and many others, that leadership was provided  to a people who found themselves exiled in a hostile environment. Born in 'Babylon' their concientisation was subject to western political theory, with African characteristics. They covered the broad spectrum of political options from capitalism to socialism. All were essentially Africanists. As  Mohammad Fayek stated, the Pan-African movement had no place in the Arab experience. From Arabia only Duse Mohamed Ali, the Sudanese Egyptian is, so far,recognised as having played a role in the Pan-African movement, with his sojourns in the UK and USA, settling ultimately in Nigeria, where he participated in the emerging African nationalism. He was at one point Head of African Affairs in Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), which had branches in the various parts of the world, except Arabia, where those of African descent are found.

Historical background

Abdelwahid in his book on Duse Mohamed Ali states at page 23 'There is no doubt that young Marcus Garvey learnt about African history, politics and Islam from Duse Mohamed Ali', whose writings provide insights on Islam and African-Americans in the early twentieth century. In Nigeria Duse had connections with nationalists such as Azikiwe and Herbert Macaulay. He died and was buried in Lagos at the age of 78 in 1945.

Before Christianity arrived south of the Sahara Islam had long been there. The scholarly manuscripts found at that centre of learning that was Timbouctou, centuries ago, were from an Arabised culture, using Arabic as the language of transmission. It is understood that amongst the Africans taken into  slavery in the western hemisphere were those who were Muslims. Arab presence in Africa predates the western penetration by many centuries and the first slavers of Africans on a large scale were Arabs. The history of unequal exploitative relations  between Africa and the outside world begins with Afro-Arab relations.

One of those Africans who sojourned in the United States and drank deeply of its political currents and who was strongly influenced by the struggle of the Africans in north America and the United Kingdom was Kwame Nkrumah. He fulfilled secretarial duties at the 5th Pan-African Congress of 1945 in Manchester, UK. He it was who connected the Congress movement, carried forward by the likes of Du Bois, Padmore and Makonnen, back to Africa. No study of Pan-Africanism is complete without an inspection of it's historical antecedents. Whatever the current mood is in north America or the Carribean – the key link of Africa with it's Diaspora provides the historical root of the unity of the Africans not only those of west, east, south and central Africa, but also for those in north east Africa and Arabia. The strength and weakness of the 'key link'depends on the degree of the insertion of the Diasporas in civil society in America and Arabia. African nationalism as a key factor in African development will  not diminish and will remain the driving force in the destiny of Africans going forward. The Pan-African movement is deeper rooted in the global Black experience than  Black conscientism  to which it became associated in southern Africa. The Pan-African movement is a movement for the unity of the global African community – those in and those out of Africa. That is the historical base and logic of the movement. It does not limit itself to unifying, say those in southern Africa. No. It's mission is brotherhood and sisterhood between those scattered around the world, be they in Argentina or in India and those in Africa, be they Socialist or Capitalist – whatever their political persuasion; be they  Muslim,  Christian, animist or otherwise.

The African people, otherwise put, the people of Africa, due to their misuse in history, as beasts of burden, to create wealth for others, have been the systematic subjects of the falsification of their place in global history in order to justify their gross exploitation. In north east Africa both Arab and European co-operated,via slavery, in this super exploitation of what was called 'Black Ivory'. An example – in Egypt today it is not officially recognised that Egypt was originally an African civilisation until the Arabs arrived in  639/640 AD, crossing the Sinai and points further eastwards, a people described by European historians as Indo-Europeans, who populated north Africa and seek to colonize all of Africa, from Cairo to the Cape, through Jihad. In north east Africa the early African presence and contribution to world civilisation has been denied and deliberately falsified, being expunged from the history books in Arabia and elsewhere.

Having been marginalised as human beings, the 'civilising mission' was used as an explanation and justification for colonialism. Too often the death of an old man in the area means the burying of yet another chapter in African history. The history of Africa from African perspective taught in schools in Africa has yet to come. This explains the changing architecture of the organisation for statist unity, which started in 1963 as the Organisation for African Unity, becoming in 2002 the African Union (AU) and is today the African Union Commission (AUC). Until Africans research, know and write their own history the statist structure of their unity movement will continue to be a work in progress. The current AUC for the past twenty years came under the influence of a north African, from a country now leading Arabia out of Africa towards a north Atlantic alliance.

Observers have noted the many schools of thought amongst Africans about their future geopolitical direction. This is attributed to the varying levels of our understanding of history. Again Egypt is instructive. This is a country where the people are historically living in a time warp and a disconnect with their origins. Dr K Nkrumah, one of the founders of the OAU, included Egypt and north Africa in his supra unity project, even though those advising him on African Affairs, such as Du Bois, the Father of the Congress series, well  knew the origins of the movement to be a movement for Africans, not Arabs. Padmore likewise.

The OAU through to the AUC, was taken up with decolonisation. Apart from in the Borderlands, this  has been achieved, with some degree of success. Economic integration will prove a bigger challenge. Any collection of people – a society – which seeks to strengthen itself has to have a defined cultural identity at its core, be it Chinese, Indian, American or European. Arab identity  built around Islam is not African identity. Besides, historically, in the fairly recent past Africans have been subjugated-  enslaved  - by outsiders, be they Arab or European. Without a meaningful civilisation dialogue within continental Africa there is no basis for peaceful co-existence. This is what on-going events in Sudan  teach us, where the main victims are always the innocent, the poor, the illiterate – those without means of defence.

The Pan-African Conference/Congresses

As stated Pan-Africanism as an approach to African unity and development was built around a series of meetings starting in 1900, with the Pan-African Conference held in London, the UK  in 1900. Sylvester Williams, who convened this meeting sort to obtain for Africans their rightful place in the world order. This was a modest objective and his method ingratiating. It took over 100 years to realize for some Africans in the western Diaspora. In the eastern Diaspora such awakenings are yet to be experienced. In Africa a rapacious elite defined the post 'independent' agenda in collaboration with outside interests  and have yet to be persuaded that African nationalism - that is the unity of the African Nation -  can be achieved without allegiance to the existing neo- colonial states. A move away from the neo-colonial state is a basic requirement if Africans are to unite, achieve equality and cease to be  providers of raw materials to others at knock down prices. The move away from neo-colonialism should be in the direction of Pan-Africanism, not towards the consolidation or reinforcement of the existing architecture of unviable entities resultant from the Berlin  Conference of 1884.

Those who met in London in 1900, including Du Bois, represented the African elite by then. The grass root movement headed by Garvey came some 20 years later. This was a mass movement.  Both the Du Bois and Garveyist tendencies are in the movement today, at least in its statist structures, providing equilibrium between the Left and the Right,to ensure continuity. The triumph of proletarian internationalism as a hegemonic force foreseen by Dr Nkrumah, as the glue for unity, will not be realised, at least not in our lifetimes.

The Pan-African Congresses (PAC) 1-5 were driven by Dr WEB Du Bois. The period they cover  saw Francophone Africa drawn into the movement. The 3rd Congress took place in Lisbon in 1923, bringing in Lusophone Africa. Du Bois worked painstakingly to build the movement.

In 'Sustaining the new wave.  .' your author states (at p. 224 ):-



'Some date the continental project from 1945 and note

that the three principal architects of that project after 1945

were W.E.B.Du Bois, George Padmore and Kwame Nkrumah.

In the self- governing Ghana they convened the first

Pan-African meeting of substance, the All Africa Peoples

Conference (AAPC) in Accra, Ghana in 1958.They formed

the core of the Secretariat of the 5 [Pan-African Congress] PAC'.



At the 5th PAC Kwame Nkrumah was Rapporteur of the two sessions on 'Imperialism in North and West Africa', held October 16 and 19 in 1945. After the 1945 Congress Nkrumah was named Secretary of the Working Committee under Du Bois' presidency, to give effect to the resolutions of the Congress. This was before he left Britain to return to the Gold Coast in 1947. He was to liaise with the emerging movements for self government in the colonies. Padmore in his book 'Pan-Africanism or  Communism' published in 1956 at page 22 had opted for the 'creation of a United States of Africa'. Immediately after the Congress Nkrumah became the leader of the 'Circle', a secret revolutionary organisation dedicated to establishing a Union of African Socialist Republics. It is humbly suggested that this approach to African unity based on socialist principles provided the basis for Nkrumah's continentalist approach to African unity. It is in conformity with an idea of unity – an approach based on proletarian internationalism. However socialist solidarity in Africa, as elsewhere, has often failed close scrutiny, which in no way weakens it's validity as a political ideal. Post –Apartheid South Africa is cluttered with 'Socialists' who found it convenient to abandon the Freedom Charter once in office- a sine qua non for Africanism in South Africa and who were unable to embrace, for example, the idea of solidarity with oppressed Africans in Congo, under Mobutu, due to their class interests.

At the PACs 5-6 the tensions between Pan-Africanism and continentalism did not reach the surface. These meetings rather sort to complete the decolonisation project as a priority and failed to consider in any depth the issues arising from the Afro-Arab Borderlands. The Late John Garang in his address to the 7th Congress presented a definitive statement on the issues arising in his area of Africa, placing emphasis on the concept of the African Nation, drawn from his experience in Sudan. The 7th was where the Sudan issues became visible. The main proponents in the war then taking place in Sudan were in Kampala for that meeting. Not only that but the Khartoum government was present and it provided, along with others, notably Libya, funds for the convening of the meeting. As an astute observer of the African scene Khartoum was interested in the meeting, which was also attended by Riak Machar, who had by then splintered from the SPLM. For the observant a qualitative shift had taken place, with Sudan moving towards centre stage in the contestation around African nationalism, it being a case study for similar struggles in the Afro-Arab Borderlands, such as Mauritania, Tchad, Mali and Niger.

Nyaba's seminal paper 'The Afro-Arab conflict in the 21st century. A Sudanese viewpoint' brings the Sudan issues from the sidelines to the centre, where all indications are that they  will remain for the foreseeable future. To say that the issues of colonialism and apartheid in Africa are gone is disingenuous at best,  dangerous at worst. Due to  distortions and lies in the past, as history was written to serve the purpose of the powerful of those days, many Africans do not know or understand areas outside their immediate purview.

Nyaba's paper subtitled 'The racial and religious dimensions  of the Sudanese conflict and it's possible ramifications in East, Central and Southern Africa in the next millennium' is a pointer to the future of north-east Africa – an area which, apparently escaped the attention of the first generation of 'Independence' leaders in Africa, even thought the war in South Sudan, lead by the Anya-Nya had begun in 1956, one year before Ghana became 'Independent'. Nyaba explains that earlier Sudan, as a member of the Arab League, was considered an Arab , not an African issue, by Arab states within the OAU, so that the fighting in the south was not addressed by the Pan-African body.

On the Sudan issue another important factor is the apparent disinterest of African Americans in Sudan matters. Traditionally African America acted as a lobby in the United States, supportive of African interests. Sudan was to prove the exception. It was noticeable that the Darfur sensitisation campaign in north America had few African Americans in attendance. This was directly related to the deliberate implantation of Islam in North America ( Tourabi had famously stated  'we will Islamize  (black) America and Arabize Africa ').The consequence was to neutralize the interest of African Americans in the on-going Afro-Arab interchange. Of note is the fact that neither the African American community nor Africans in Africa were aware at the time of the long term implications of the implantation of Islam in Black America. We can be sure that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was not indifferent to these goings on.

An illustration of this deception is the following extract from a paper by Luwezi Kinshasa, Secretary General of the US based African Socialist International, in which he inaccurately observes :-

In Sudan, the electoral process was effectively used by US-led

imperialism to balkanise Sudan, transforming ethnic differences

 and peaceful contradictions into antagonistic contradictions

that made it easier for imperialists to further their own interests

in the region.



Your author resided in Juba, South Sudan 2006-8 and observed the Referendum on Southern Independence in Juba in January 2011. In the last year in particular, but even whilst he was still in Juba, he tried to understand Afro-American indifference to the Afro-Arab Borderlands. There is no record of African- American involvement in the area from Mauritania to Sudan on the Red Sea, in which Africans are under attack from Arab expansion. In 2009 this issue was taken up publically at an international Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with Runoko Rashidi, the African American historian, specialist in Diaspora studies, after he had visited the author in Juba around 2007. Whilst Rashidi was in Juba your author observed at close quarters his difficulties in hiding his hostile reactions to the underdeveloped conditions in South Sudan, resultant from marginalisation and the long war. Your author has since come to believe that this hostility or lack of sympathy amongst African Americans to the Sudan reality is in part the result of Islamic  implantation in North America.



The above-mentioned article says 'the electoral process was effectively used by US-led imperialism to balkanise Sudan'. This is incorrect. Rather the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement                            ( SPLM)continues to pursue Garang's vision of a New Sudan, step by step, so that after the war is over in Southern Kordofan, Blue Nile and Darfur, as well as all the marginalised of Sudan, including South Sudan, will unite in a new federal state.



These allegations about Africans in Sudan actively chopping up Sudan into independent pieces is a lie perpetuated by certain circles in North America and other  places, who have their own interests in perpetuating the war in Sudan and who consequently give succour  to the program of ethnic cleansing of Africans in Sudan by way of Arab/Islamic expansion in the Borderlands of Africa.



Africans, internally and globally, have been, caught off-guard by the emergence in April 2012 of the state of Azawad in northern Mali and are in denial in their handling of issues arising from the  Borderlands, be they Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Mahgreb and in Mali/Mauritania, Boko Haram in Nigeria, Al Shabab in Somalia or the National Islamic Front (NIF)/National Congress Party (NCP) in Sudan and it's war today  in Southern Kordofan, Blue Nile and Darfur. In Africa the middle-classes plead ignorance about the Afro-Arab borderlands. In the western Diaspora there is indifference amongst those of African descent, resulting from the miss-direction of their leaders. It is as if Africans everywhere are afraid to defend kith and kin in their struggle in the Borderlands. The NCP represents the radical wing of Pan-Arab ideology. It's interest in Africa south of the Sahara is limited to research and action  ( eg aerial bombardment – South Sudan, Darfur, Southern Kordofan ) in order to keep Black Africa on the defensive. Otherwise Khartoum socially, culturally, at economic level  and politically is aligned to Arabia, having more in common with Saudi Arabia, the heartland of Islamic fundamentalism  than, for instance, neighbouring states such as Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia.

It takes little imagination to understand that the NIF/NCP is the guardian of feudal Arab interests in north east Africa. It is the defender of antiquated perceptions of 'vital' Arab interests in Black Africa, such as the Nile waters et al. As Nyaba states the political tendency in Sudan utilises a survival strategy of fomenting conflict and instability in neighbouring countries. Using punitive measures against dissent and opposition, these fundamentalists have managed to monopolise all sectors of the national economy, pushing out  of business and the markets the traditional social bases of other parties. During the long years of war between Khartoum and the South, Khartoum was not short of allies ( including the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO))  and supplies in the Arab world, where it was seen as 'defending the line'.Arabia continues to perceive Black Africa as a 'slave', to be kept in check by excessive violence, not dialogue.International terrorists such as the late Ben Laden took up residence in Sudan, where he was protected by Tourabi. He fought physically against African nationalism, whilst based in Juba.

Nyaba writing in 1999 foresaw Khartoum as likely to generally  escalate the war in South Sudan, which is the situation  today in Sudan despite the so-called independence of South Sudan. He stated that the Sudanese Islamic fundamentalists would take  their war into East Africa in general. Nyaba notes the contempt Arabs in general  have for Africans, who they see as an inferior race deserving nothing more than enslavement. Arab thinkers and writers believe that Africans do not have a culture and that a cultural vacuum exists in Africa which must be filled with Islamic and Arab culture. In response to this some Africans demand a civilisation dialogue.

Sudan and it's implications for Africans

Africa in general and the AU in particular only became seized of the Sudan issues when the  regional organisation for East African states, The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in Eastern Africa, brough about the Naivasha peace talks, which lead to the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005 and relative peace in South Sudan, giving way to the Independence of South Sudan in July 2011.The Head of the AU High Level Panel, President Thabo Mbeki had stated that Sudan was an African issue requiring an African solution. Prior to that Africa South of the Sahara had treated South Sudan as an Arab issue, from which they were excluded. Now with South Sudan self governing, issues originating in Southern Sudan, such as Southern Kordofan,   receive wider  international attention.

The entering of the AU into the Sudan issues, has brought a new optique into Afro-Arab relations. Previously Africa had been in denial, as witness the attitude of the Founding Fathers of the OAU/AU, as to the existence of contradictions in Afro-Arab relations, which were treated as harmonious and mutually self reinforcing, whereas any body who chose to inspect the relationship was aware that Arab and Islamic pressure had historically been pushing southwards, making the Borderlands an area of low intensity warfare for centuries. The issue was, with the ending of apartheid in South Africa, would the 'other apartheid' be addressed and by whom ? The court remains out on this one, due to vested interests, with African governments unable to take a position of support for the African national struggle in Sudan. Which explains why President Bashir travels more widely in Africa than elsewhere, despite the writ of the International Criminal Court (ICC)  pending against him.

Cognisance needs to take hold that Pan-Arabism has substantially changed from what it was in the mid-twentieth century. These days it is no longer ideologically driven by capitalism v socialism. Pan-Arabism is now firmly anchored in Islam and finds expression in the different tendencies, whether secularist or fundamentalist, within Islam. Africans should be aware that what happens in  Arabia, it's closest neighbour, impacts  and has effect south of the Sahara.

The conflict in the Afro-Arab Borderlands has been with us since time immemorial. It will not go away. It may erupt in one place at one moment and subside in another – but it has been a constant. Sooner or later it will have to be addressed. The traditional solution offered by progressive Arabs has been the civilisation dialogue. The OAU/AU has established units to undertake this work. They have made no difference, so long as the parties remain in denial. Your author is of the view that instead of the OAU/AU/AUC applying band aid solutions on crisis-basis to problems at the north/south border, for instance, that it begin openly the Afro-Arab civilisation dialogue. This interaction is taking place,  but currently it is not within an open philosophical forum. The idea is not new. Sustainable peace will only come to this area of Africa when a critical mass of Africans, understanding the issues of the area, exist within the global African community. At base the issue is one of education, or the lack of it.

Flowing from this analysis would be the thesis of Garang on the African Nation, being that the global African collective of persons of African descent, within and without Africa, is  the correct structural basis for the unity of the Africans. Concomitant with that is the recognition  that this Nation takes precedent over the neo-colonial entities created in Berlin. Haiti is a member of that Nation, as are Cuba ,Brazil  and every state  in which the majority population is of Africa descent.

Other  logical implications would be the  prioritizing of the political agenda to push forward the unity of this Nation – which Diop called 'the cultural unity of Black Africa'. Sudan is the last major obstacle we can see on this road. In fact the logic of Khartoum's aggression and violence can only be premised on it's firm opposition and hostility to meaningful African unity and it's wish to sustain the current continental arrangements.

Concerning the African eastern Diaspora, ignored in the past. The incorporation of this  constituency into the unity movement was the logical conclusion from Garang's presentation to the 7th Pan-African Congress (PAC ) and his paper delivered on his behalf by Dr Mariel Benjamin at the 17th All African Students Conference (AASC) held in Windhoek, Namibia, 28-29th May 2005. Prof Kwesi Prah in his seminal work   'The African Nation: The state of the Nation', has dotted the 'I's and crossed the 't's in defining , the oft talked about ( Garvey, Blyden and others ) African Nation. It is worth pointing out that Garang and Prah shared notes, probably around 1982, in Juba.

The Darfurian freedom fighter Osman Yahya Mohamed said in Juba in 2007, that the African eastern Diaspora would only become a meaningful entity when Africa could hold its own in the community of nations. Duse Mohammed Ali is the only identified Pan-Africanist in the last century coming from north east Africa to have left a recorded contribution for humanity on political level. There must have been millions of his type, from that area of Africa, who shared his view but were unable to travel out of the area to make a contribution to the African struggle, dying in obscurity and frustration, suppressing the African side of their personalities, forced to adopt an Arab identity. We know from recent experience in Libya such Africans exist in Arabia and are subjected to marginalisation, torture and genocide.

Points for immediate action in the current situation in Sudan

Evacuation of Abyei by Khartoum

The cessation of aerial bombardments by Khartoum of civilian targets

Stop the mistreatment of Southerners in the north and the opening of corridors for them to move southwards

The return to negotiations and to peace.

B.F.Bankie, Windhoek, Namibia, May 2012

Mr Bankie, in the period 2007-2008, assisted the work of establishment of The Kush Institution, as the policy research/analysis unit in The Office of the President of the Government of Southern Sudan.

REFERENCES

Abdelwahid, M.2011. Duse Mohamed Ali 1866 – 1945 : The autobiography of a pioneer Pan African and Afro-Asian activist.Trenton,USA: The Red Sea Press, Inc.

Bankie,B.F and Mchombu,K. 2008. Pan-Africanism / African Nationalism. Trenton, USA : The Red Sea Press, Inc.

Bankie,B.F and Zimunya,V.C. 2010. Sustaining the new wave of Pan-Africanism. Windhoek, Namibia. The Polytechnic Press at the Polytechnic of Namibia.   

Diallo,G. 1993. Mauritania: The other Apartheid ? Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.

Fayek,M. 1984. The July 23 Revolution and Africa. In: Khair el-Din Haseb (ed). The Arabs and Africa. Pp 90-91. London: Crolm Helm.

Kinshasa,L. 2012.We are Patrice Lumumba! ( extract from Uhuru News ), in The Southern Times, P 13,Sunday 11 March 2012, Windhoek: Namzim Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.

Nyaba,P.A. 2002. The Afro-Arab conflict in the 21st century : a Sudanese viewpoint. In Tinabantu, Vol 1,No 1, P27,Cape Town: The Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS).

Prah,K.K. 2006. The African Nation : The state of the Nation. Cape Town : The Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS).

Rodney,W. 1972. How Europe underdeveloped Africa. Dar Es Salaam: Tanzania Publishing House.

Sherwood, M.1996. Kwame Nkrumah : The years abroad : 1935-1947. Legon, Ghana : Freedom Publications.


B.F.Bankie
Sudan Sensitisation Project (SSP)
www.bankie.info




*ADVERTISE ON TheBlackList Network
30 days $25.00
For Info: mailto:SendMeYourNews@live.com