Over at Afrospear, there is a post by Aulelia entitled “Is Mugabe a real African?” Lubangakene, during this conversation has brought up a “real” good question: “What can WE do about it?”…. referring to the actions of Mugabe against the people of Zimbabwe. As I read his comment, it dawned on me that it’s difficult to create strategies, whether new or old when, as he states: “Mugabe is not someone I’ve studied deeply, nor do I know much about the situation in Zimbabwe.”
The first thing we need to do therefore, those of us in the diasporic West, the North American AfroSphere, is to educate ourselves on the situation in Zimbabwe and other concerns of Africa. This may also include researching the historical dynamics of how these current situations and/or problems developed. That is what I believe is one of the functions and hopefully, the strength of AfroSpear. Give those who are close to the situation, those from the continent or the country itself, the forum to bring it our consciousness, a voice to educate us, provide us with an opportunity to understand the various dynamics from the voices on the ground. AND as we discuss these issue(s), hopefully we will be able to offer viable solutions which are “relevant” to that particular environment. In Zimbabwe, I am not sure that the dynamics of R/WS (racism/white supremacy) from a North American perspective is as relevant as the aftermath of neo-colonialism. Maybe it is. Maybe they are one and the same dynamics. I will not automatically make that connection. BUT there are other perspectives, voices that I am open to hear from, to help me shape my perspective. And also listen to what “THEY” may need from “us” – those of African descent here.
I do know this though. Here in the diasporic West, the issues concerning Africa are not foremost in our minds, nor in our action plans. How many of us have taken part in demonstrations, rallies or informational seminars, organized and convened by the African/Black community in our cities or towns, concerning Darfur? Zimbabwe? Vulture Funds? I do know that in the AfroSphere I have read much more about the sufferings of the people of Iraq, than of the people of Darfur or Zimbabwe. I have read much more on the evils of American foreign policy in the Middle East, than on the negative effects of Western foreign aid and Chinese foreign policy in Africa. I have read much more about issues concerning democracy (or lack thereof) in America and Iraq, than the lack of or fight for democracy in Africa.
Sure, there may not much we can do from here. We are concerned with our own daily struggles and issues as African/Black people in the diaspora. But maybe that’s the plan. Divide and conquer. Keep us with our heads down and our eyes fixed on our own problems, so that we don’t see the BIGGER picture. So we don’t understand our connection to the struggles, issues and situations facing the Motherland. That way it’s easier to pick us off, one by one.
If you don’t care about your Mother, you will care less about your brothers and sisters. Which ultimately leads you not to care much about yourself.
Asabagna
The Second Book of Asabagna 
April 21, 2007 at 10:06 am
What about Ayiti? I read nothing about Haiti! I wish we could also help our brother and sister that lives next door, they are right here. Most good mothers would refuse help for herself and beg help for her children!
Just a thought.
April 21, 2007 at 10:17 am
I’m feeling you on Haiti too Ensayn! I forgot about them and the Dominican Republic too. I saw a documentary on the conditions of those of African Descent in Central and South America. It was eye-opening and disturbing! We’re cathing “hell” all over the world.
April 21, 2007 at 11:25 am
Apreciate you Brotha, for real. I guess we all have to work on different front to set us all free.
April 21, 2007 at 3:46 pm
“I do know that in the AfroSphere I have read much more about the sufferings of the people of Iraq,”
mark bey: Good point I believe we should focus our attention on programs, intiatives and deep study and relevant spiritual development. The best thing about something like this is not the individual ideas, innitiatives and programs created but the fact that different afrospear cells will be able to take the best most relelvant and most applicable ideas and replicate them in thier individual locations. That is very exciting indeed. The sky is the limit.
April 21, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Mark, you have captured the essence of what I see as the primary vision of AfroSpear.
Blessings.
April 21, 2007 at 9:57 pm
When I was younger, I started and anti-apartheid group and wrote a resolution to divest our city from South African and from purchasing from counties doing business with the Apartheid Government in South Africa. Obviously, that was a very long time ago.
Ignoring Africa is part of the white-news paradigm that also ignores the fact that, in many part of the United States, the infant mortality rate is three times as high among Blacks as it is among whites.
April 22, 2007 at 1:19 am
Sarah Bartman & other herstories of South African women
Women in South African History by Nomboniso Gasa (Ed) published by HSRC Press, 2007.
Women in South African History traces the lives of South African women from the pre-colonial, pre-union period (mid 18th century) through to the post-apartheid begin…
April 22, 2007 at 9:14 am
Thanks, always good posts on your blog!
April 22, 2007 at 4:28 pm
What is particularly disheartening about African problems is the way tribalism and political affliations are just causing this cancer of dictators to spread. Why are African politicians doing nothing? I think power is just too strong which may explain why that man is still leading that country.
Yet I think that even being concerned from afar is enough and almost beyond that because it shows compassion, the one element that is lacking in modern day African politics.
I love this diasporic vision because only then are we ever going to lift the continent out of her troubles.
–A
April 24, 2007 at 9:40 am
Yo Asa I typed in the words black history blogs at wordpress into google. And some of your post came up, apparently you are star my friend. Here is the link your name poped up in. http://wordpress.com/tag/black-history/
May 5, 2007 at 10:05 pm
I fully agree with you. We need to much more concerned with the events going on in Africa. We need to lobby
Western governments on issues that affect Africa, as well as invest in the development of Africa. If we actively help in the economic liberation of Africa, we are creating potential markets for our own business, as well as a job market.
Writing more articles on various political situations in Africa, and becoming part of a larger Pan-African movement is essential to black liberation worldwide.
In my opinion, one of the largest obstacles that we face as a people around the world, is the fact that we do not know our history. I’ve spoken to so many black people about this but they can’t seem to grasp the importance of knowing who your ancestors were and what they accomplished. As an Asian friend of mine so eloquently put it: “How can you know yourself, if you don’t know your history?” By controlling our history, the white man controls. If you’ve read George Orwell’s book “1984”, you’ll remember one of the slogans of the totalitarian government: “He who controls the past, controls the present. He who controls the present, controls the future.”
Do we know of the city of Carthage & its famous general Hannibal? Or the ancient history of the black man in countries like Somalia, Ethiopia, Egypt. Or the fact that the Nubian civilization of Sudan/Egypt is older than Egypt and essentially gave rise to Egypt. Or the fact that West Africans were known to have visited and settled in the South and Central America? Arabic historians chronicle Mansa Musa, who left his West African kingdom and sailed to the Americas, never to return. Or that South African cultures, like the city-state of Mapungubwe, (as well as other African cultures from other parts of Africa), traded with the Chinese and Indian cultures. As well as a host of strong African female and male leaders.
There is so many of these facts, and yet our children are not taught them. How can they combat the incredible number of ‘false historical’ images that bombard them. Africans are not portrayed in a favourable light in Western societies. When I was a kid, not knowing my history made me feel inferior to other cultures. And our children feel the same way too, even if they can’t really express it in words.
The gods we worship, are another problem. How many African people worship the blonde haired, blue-eyed Jesus? How could he have been born in the Middle-East, to the parents that he supposedly had, and be of European descent? Is it healthy to have these images of white gods and angels, considering the hostile, genocidal environment we’re living in? The first Christian churches were built in North Africa, where Chrisianity began before being co-opted by the Romans, under Constantine. Should black people be reading a version of the bible approved by King James. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church reads an more ancient and original form of the bible, yet we know nothing of this.
A common language would be a great start. Not English or French. We can only be truly black when we express ourselves in an African language. Frankly, I believe that, the revival of a dead language, like ancient Egyptian or Nubian, or Ethiopian Ge’ez should be the way to go. But in the meantime, I am planning to learn Kiswhahili, which is an African language (not Arabic), it is supposed to be easy to learn, and is spoken by over 100 million Africans. Language will do wonders, in terms of binding people together and keeping outsiders, well, outside.
We should also be prepared to, as a united group, organize ourselves to pressure governments like China if we see their investment strategy in Africa as being harmful to African people.
In order to do these things, we need to invest in ourselves; that is to say, buy from African owned businesses, and establish business networks on a communal, national and state level. And we need to act now.
Until the next time..
lala salama,
Pianki
May 17, 2007 at 6:42 am
I posted this message with “Kizzie in your blog ring and I’m posting also posting it with you.
I’ve become very suspicious of all the “Sudan Genocide” media hype from Western officials who didn’t give a damn about Rwanda, the Congo or Uganda. I’m quite sure they are after the oil, and gold and it would appear that they are trying to also deceive the African Diaspora into helping to promote their insidious agenda.
This should be discussed on Afrospear and within the blog ring to determine if this is true. If you reach this conclusion, then there should be an effort made to remove these “Save Darfur” ads from Afrospear and other African blogs. The next discussion probably should be: How to mobilise the pan-african organizations in North America (probably internationally) to pressure the UN to remove UN troops from Sudan immediately and to give further aid to the African Union troops. Perhaps even pressure the Sudan government, if they are seen as abusing human rights.
It would also appear that some rebel groups have close ties with Washington. A similar situation appears to exist in Zimbabwe, where the wrongdoings of the opposition party, (also a benefactory of Western support) scarcely go reported. This is another Western scramble to wrest Africa’s hands from the rising Asian powers and to suppress the Africans from ever truly developing self-rule.
Please note, that I am not saying that Al Bashir or Mugabe are saints, but it would appear that their governments are being sabotaged by Western powers. It is known that the West does not like the growing African trend of increased trade with Asian countries like China and India. Believe me, if the UN and US troops start a war in Sudan, they’ll probably start the real genocide.
That being said, it is important that we determine the fact from the fiction and get involved in lobbying for Africa so that we dont’sit around and watch our own holocaust.
Please note that I bet most of you haven’t seen a picture of Omar Al Bashir on television. Kinda reminiscent of North American media coverage of Africa that never shows the city, only the rural villages and abject poverty. In my eyes, it’s all smoke and mirrors. However, it’s up to the Afro-spear community to determine where the real truth lies.
These are just a couple of the websites that I’ve come across that have had articles/webcasts on this topic:
http://www.alternativeinsight.com/
http://www.finalcall.com/
http://www.thefilter.ca/
May 25, 2007 at 11:03 pm
I’ve also posted this comment as a reply to your China Olympics 2008 post on Afro-Spear.
Here is an extremely interesting article that I found about the Ogden people of Ethiopia.
I first heard of them bombing a Chinese factory and kidnapping a few Chinese workers, apparently in attempt to prevent the exploitation of their land by the Ethiopian government in a manner that would not benefit them.
Anyway, here is a link to the article:
http://www.mathaba.net/0index.shtml?x=554569&all_ids=1
It shows the doublespeak employed by the West for their own interests. This story exposes horrible oppression of the Ogden people by the Ethiopian government, a staunch ally of the US in the “fight against terrorism”. In my opinion Ethiopia’s Menes Zelawi is a puppet of the US government; after the Islamic groups wrested control from the corrupt war lords and restored order to the cities, Zelawi ordered the invasion of Somalia (with the help of US air support).
This presents yet another reason to not support the “Save Darfur” campaign, it should be obvious that the West has no real interest in saving the people of Darfur. The West (US/Europe) will say nothing when their African allies, like Ethiopia, commit atrocities. Quite often they are more horrible than in the countries, Sudan and Rhodesia, that they attempt to condemn. We hear nothing about the atrocities of the “Lord’s Resistance Army” in Uganda, for example, which killed indescriminately and kidnapped young children and forced them to serve in their army.
Again, I say, let us not be swayed by these lies about Sudan “genocide’ being spewed forth by the media until we can corroborate the facts for ourselves where the ‘real’ truth lies in Sudan. I will try to gather more sources on the web and possibly contact a Pan-African organization to get more feedback on this issue. Sudan must remain free of Western invasion disguised as humanitarian intervention.
I’m not stating that Al Bashir and Mugabe don’t have issues but an African solution must be sought for Africa’s problems. Believe me, history will show that they have never truly cared about the state of Africa. China and Indian have done much more to encourage infra-structure development in Africa in recent years that America or Europe. The “Save Darfur” campaign is one huge farce, and we should not be a part of it. We should seek an alternative forum in which to voice our concerns about events in Darfur to the government in Sudan.
To allow this “Save Darfur” campaign to locate UN troops on Sudan soil and to allow them launch their media campaign of disinformation will only lead to the destabilization and exploitation of Sudan for the profit of Western corporations.
Sudan, has a glorious and ancient history, the Nubians of Sudan created a more ancient culture than Egypt and are now thought to directly influence the development of Egypt. The Nubians also have the oldest known monarchy. The reason why they won’t show the picture of Al Bashir on television is because Western historians have attempted to paint a picture of White Arabic Northern Sudan (who created all of the important civizilations) and a barbaric, pagan black African population in the South who were separated from them by the Sahara desert. It is an established fact that the ancient Nubians were an African people. (The Arabs of Sudan are also black Africans). For various reasons, this myth has been disproved, but is still pertuated in popular media outlets.
This historical myth was created in order to again disassociate African people from their history, which, is of course the oldest in the world. Believe me, you won’t hear much about ancient civilizations in Sudan like the Nubian, Meroe and Kush in the media. And if you, do they will try to accord our historical achievements to another non-African peoples. By depriving us of the historical achievements of our ancestors we can never truly reach our full potential as individuals or as a people. The questions we should ask ourselves is: Why are they working so hard to remove us from history and what are we doing about it?
Maybe the ‘Field’ should look into the lack of historical knowledge that we as a people possess when he discusses the phenomenon of black on black violence. Lack of control over our own images and stories would be another issue he could look into.
INTERESTING HISTORICAL FACT:
Sudan is referred to as Ethiopia in modern versions of the bible, not to be confused with present day Ethiopia which, in English, was historically known as Abyssinia.
This historical myth was created in order to again disassociate African people from their history, which, is of course the oldest in the world. All I can say is: We need our history if we are to evolve and “emancipate ourselves from mental slavery” as Bob Marley beautifully sang it. peace…..
so long
tutaonana
May 27, 2007 at 12:40 am
In my efforts to discover more of the reality of Sudan rather than be spoon fed corporate propaganda, I’ve dug up a couple of articles from alternative news sources.
Here are the links:
http://www.counterbias.com/883.html
http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=240
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/186571E4-8AAC-4FB2-925B-EDCBA9645092.htm
Here are more compelling reasons for not being pawns in the “Save Darfur” campaign. I firmly believe that the Afro-Spear and AfroSphere should come to a decision on this issue and act accordingly. This campaign has nothing to do with helping the people in Darfur, and everything to do with destablizing the Sudanese government in order to prevent China from stopping its dependence on US sources of oil. In fact, it was felt that this was one of the reasons for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan: China’s agreement to build a proposed Central-Asian pipeline, guaranteeing it an external source of oil. Cheated of Afghanistan and Iraq, with another proposed partner Iran coming under the gun, China will be very reluctant to permit too much interference in the affairs of Sudan. And anyway, it seems the ‘genocide’ is false, simplified version of what is going on. The US has supplied arms to one the rebel groups, the SPLA who have committed atrocities against innocent civilians. China has supplied arms to the Sudan army who have also attacked innocent civilians in their attempt to stamp out the rebel movement which wants to separate from Sudan.
Sudanese Janjaweed have committed attacks across the border in Chad, soldiers from Chad have crossed the border to attack targets in the Sudan, both countries have accused each other of arming each other’s rebel groups….. So you can see, it’s not as simple as the Western portrays it, but the solution must come from Africans and from the African Diaspora and definitely not from Britain and White Coporate America.
I hope we can have some discussion on this extremely important political solution in order to get to the truth and then to do something about it. Again, I can only hope that we can reach an agreement on what the reality of the Sudan really is and to divest ourselves of the groups who are not working in Sudan’s interest.
thank you
asante