Africa without African Americans

By Ezrah Aharone
There's an upsurge of high-level Asian activities in Africa that Africans
in America should note. Most recently President Hu Jintao of China
visited Nigeria in late April to sign a $4 billion deal to develop
oilfields and infrastructure. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
brought an astonishing 121-member delegation of political and business
leaders to Ghana on a 3-day visit in early May. A South Korean
delegation then arrived in Ghana shortly afterwards to solidify a
multimillion dollar infrastructure contract.

Why is this relevant? Well, as so-called "African Americans," why aren't
we heavily involved in African affairs? What do Asian leaders know about
Africa that Black leaders don't know? These questions resonate being
that Africa is nowhere incorporated within the Covenant with Black
America blueprint. Yes, being besieged with poverty and destabilization,
on the surface Africa certainly seems more like a calamity than a remedy.
But such thinking overlooks Africa's strategic importance to Western
expansion and the fact that we are native to the resource-richest
continent on earth, of which all industrialized nations are partially
dependant.

There is no other historical instance of a formerly enslaved people who
valued integration with their former captors to the point where they
completely abandon the superior wealth of their own homeland. If
Euro-Americans were native to Africa instead of Europe, you can bet that
Africa would be "fully developed" today. And there's no way they'd
neglect Africa and all its richness just to integrate with us. It's
therefore altogether backwards to prioritize our attachment to
Euro-Americans above rapprochement with Africa. The disconnect of Black
America's human and economic resources from Africa's human and natural
resources, contributes to the poverty and powerlessness of us both.

Meanwhile, Europeans (and now Asians) entrench themselves deeper and
cling to Africa for dear life because their economic and military might
cannot otherwise be sustained without Africa's strategic resources.
Instead of being spectators as foreign governments and multinationals
heist daily tons of resources from our homeland, we should be integral to
the production, management, processing, and international distribution of
African resources.

This is easier said than done since Western "brands of democracy" operate
in concert to forestall such arrangements … Colonialism was the graduated
continuation of slavery. Colonialism thrived by virtue of slavery's
success. Together they comprised a singular force to fuel the dual
process of European development and African demise. The interrelation
and long-term impact of these "bookend institutions" explain why
Europeans reign spaciously atop the present world order, while Africans
are scrunched down at the bottom fighting for survival.

It's urgent and imperative therefore that all leaders of African descent
understand the "geo-strategic economics" of how the world was fashioned
into this current state. Otherwise they are, by default, perpetuating a
world system rooted in unresolvable inequities.

To maintain the current "balance of power," the U.S. government has
historically sought to minimize Black America's interactions and impact
in Africa. To make sense of this, you must understand that the Civil
Rights and Black Power Movements ran concurrent with African Independence
Movements. Since resistance to Western injustices was the common
denominator to these movements, the U.S. government regarded Black
activism in America and the revolutions in Africa as fractional particles
of the same struggle – differing only in location and expression.
America guarded against the fractions from operating in parallel, so that
no rubbed-off African influences would possibly (God forbid) augment the
"Civil Rights Movement" into a "Sovereign Rights Movement."

America did experience uncertain moments in 1957 when both Dr. King and
Malcolm X attended Dr. Kwame Nkrumah's inauguration in Ghana. It was a
frightening omen to see two of the most visionary Black men in America
interfacing ideals with the president of the first African nation to
seize independence. This unprecedented meeting-of-the-minds between the
"formerly enslaved" and "formerly colonized" should have opened a new
advent in "world history." But here we are nearly 50 years later, still
(psychologically and economically) detached from Africa and still
preoccupied with notions of equality, while Asians now prosper from our
homeland's wealth.

With or without the Covenant, we must fast awaken to the "geo-strategic
economics" of this world, or we risk self-induced political extinction.
Regardless of how many non-Africans invest in Africa or how far Black
America assimilates into Americanization, we'll still face joint-related
issues with Africa that require joint-related solutions. The Government
of Ghana realizes this fact, and as part of its 50th independence
anniversary in 2007, Ghana is subsequently launching the "Joseph Project"
(recognizing the Biblical Joseph who triumphed after being enslaved and
reunited with his brothers). Among other things, this historic and
multifaceted initiative aims to reconcile Diaspora relations and generate
wealth for ourselves.

Although the unknown and uncharted course of African relations is not a
cure-all, the known and well charted course of Americanization is not a
cure-all either. Certainly our collective long-term interests as African
people would be advanced if we mended both history and relations. Based
on the singularity and common origin of our struggles, our
interdependency for parallel movements will not vanish with time.
Undoubtedly, a nucleus of us will reestablish a significant presence in
Africa and ensure that unlike 20th century-Africa, 21st century-Africa
will not be an "Africa without so-called African Americans."
~~~~~~~~~~

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