A Stinging Indictment from Native Black Africans

Is he right or is he wrong?

"In North America, black Americans constitute the only group of blacks in diaspora with sufficient clout, credibility and experience to help their black brothers and sisters in Africa in their struggle forfreedom. The experience gained in the civil rights struggle in the 1960s could have been helpful to black Africans but, in practice, turned out to be more of a hindrance.

"Black Americans HELPED with the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. They tended to see the campaign against apartheid as an extension of their own civil rights struggle. This was understandable since the oppressors and exploiters in both cases were white, theoppressed and exploited, black. But many Africans saw apartheid as merely a special case of the oppression that was rampant across the continent. Further, the analysis of African problems in a rigid "civil rights" or black-white paradigm was not appropriate. In black Africa color was not the issue. Blacks ruled themselves. Although in the past their oppressors and exploiters were white colonialists, today they are black. Perhaps, the innocent oversight of this fundamental difference rendered many black Americans extremely hostile to the notion that some black African leaders head more ruthlessly oppressive regimes than the apartheid system in South Africa, notwithstanding the fact that apartheid is institutionalized.

"It is also true that in the 1950s black Americans provided vital support to Africans in the liberation struggle against colonialism. In recent times, black Americans have been indefatigable in the campaign for one-man, one-vote for blacks in South Africa. But to the blacks in independent Africa fighting for the same political rights, black Americans have offered little or no support....

"... While black American leaders were at the forefront of calls for immediate democratic reform in South Africa, when it comes to black Africa those same black Americans say it is not America's business to interfere -- even when the victims are Africa's black masses.

"...But no one in that congregation of civil rights leaders, which included Coretta Scott King and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, talked about the rising slaughter of blacks in West Africa and the senseless civil wars which had produced mounting refugees and grisly spectacles of emaciated bodies of famine victims. Not one single black American civil rights leader condemned Arab apartheid in Mauritania and Sudan and the present-day enslavement of blacks by Arab masters.

"Unfortunately, black Americans are not well informed about events in Africa and myths and misconceptions about the continent still persist in the black, as well as the white, American community....

"Asked about political turmoil and carnage in these black African countries, Benjamin Hooks, director of the NAACP--the world's largest civil rights organization, replied that 'there is little black Americans could or should do directly to help foster or affect political change in Sub-Saharan Africa . . . I don't think it is our business to meddle in their affairs.' Said one incredulous Ivorian student: 'I wish some of these (black) Americans would take to the streets with us instead of supporting the old order' (Washington Post, April 18, 1991; p.A41). A more searing query came from a Liberian exile in the Ivory Coast: 'Why have you black Americans let us down?' (Washington Post, April 20, 1991;p. A18).

"We as Africans need to take a hard look at our relationships with the leadership of the African Americans . . . The African must necessarily become his own advocate. To date, the advocacy of issues relating to Africa has been carried out by groups of African Americans who least understand the issues, or present them from a historical perspective and only as it relates to the issues of racism in America, or from their narrow business interests.

"There are four psychological differences between black Americans and black Africans. The first pertains to the nature of the "enemy." Throughout their historical experience, black Americans have only seen white oppressors and exploiters, whereas black Africans have seen both white and black oppressors and exploiters. Therefore, black Africans have no difficulty condemning the white racists of South Africa as vehemently as the black tyrants of independent Africa. Black tyranny is something black Americans have never experienced and therefore cannot relate to.

"Second, most black Americans tend to see racism as their primary obstacle against advancement. This is not the case in black Africa where blacks rule blacks and there are few whites. Tribalism is the problem in black Africa -- a scourge which black Americans do not understand.

"Third, having been shut out of the white government in American for centuries because of alleged racial inferiority, black Americans obtain the vicarious gratification of seeing a black president ruling a black African nation. This explains the tendency of some black Americans to embrace black African despots -- even Idi Amin -- regardless of their misrule.

"Fourth, in their civil rights struggle in the 1960s, black Americans looked up to the government (or Congress) for political emancipation. Congress passed the civil rights act and enacted various legislative measures (affirmative action, welfare, desegration laws, etc.). Thus, while most black Americans tend to see the government as the solution, most black Africans tend to see their corrupt, brutal and incompetent governments as the problem.The attitudes and perspectives of black Americans are understandable, as well as their emotional need to re-connect with their ancestral Motherland. But their monopolization or appropriation of the African agenda creates enormous difficulties for those black Africans struggling against tyranny. Perhaps a solution to this problem is to let black Africans speak for themselves and for black Americans to do the listening. If black Americans wish to help Africa today, they should side or work with the African PEOPLE, not the corrupt and tyrannical leaders. This is where the distinction between leaders and the PEOPLE is important.

Go to http://www.edofolks.com/html/pub161.htm

Well, Brothers and Sisters. What is the next step to fix the situation? How much love to we have for Black Africans?