The Pan-African Flag: Image via Wikipedia

The first part of this piece that I posted a few days ago focused on the definition of Pan-African as well as a few of the political implication of taking a position that is in line with the Pan-African mentality. I want to use this space to talk about what it means to be an Pan-Africanist and how it affects our outlook on the struggle for liberation here in the United States for black people.

In terms of talking about the political and social implications of Pan-Africanism, it is easy for us to discern the place that one would occupy if they were from Ghana for instance. Build organization, unite with Africans from other nations on the continent, overthrow capitalism, create All-African government, and build socialism. The implementation is hard but the theory and idea is easy to grasp. For our brothers and sisters in the Caribbean it also not too hard. Because their nations are 80. 90, almost all people of African descent, people in Haiti and St. Vincent for instance wouldn’t find it too hard how to fit into the fold either. Follow the same steps as the people on the continent and just do the job of connecting politically and socially to the continent and judging by things such as Vodou and Santeria the social part is closer to completion than we think. Now the story for American blacks is much different from those in other nations because of our unique history and our relationships to the people around us in America., BUT the job is there to be done and who ever said it would be easy. Here’s a few thoughts of mines on the issue of Pan-Africanism and American blacks.

Now this conversation needs to be placed in the proper frame. These thoughts are not for the biracial among us (who almost inevitable get thrown in with the rest of us black people) who have a parent whose white or something other than black. I know you guys have a legitimacy built-in that makes some of what I say not apply to you. I also want to let ya’ll know this isn’t a white people bashing space and any “white people” comments are more so about the dominant mentalities that dives their thinking versus any hatred of the people themselves. Lastly before anyone makes the statement that “We are all Africans in the end” or has the “we are all just people and this is divisive/distracting us away from the real enemy/ 99%! 99%! 99%!” sentiment,  those arguments and ideas are based on not really understand what I’m saying in this piece and even though I want to make it as simple and direct as possible if you don’t get it feel free to email me at willrich354@gmail.com and I’ll be happy to have that discussion. With that said let’s get into it.

The issue of Pan-Africanism and black people in America has usually never gotten past the first barrier that is always set out in front of us, the issue of “black” vs “African-American” vs “African”. The issue is that many black people feel that either they don’t share enough “Africaness” to call themselves such or that they feel they are truly “American” at this point and thus find no common interest in calling themselves African only. Many of our famous black leaders were Pan-Africanists and have dealt with these arguments at various timed during their political careers. Marcus Garvey (given he was from Jamaica but spent most of his political years in America), Stokely Carmichael aka Kwame Ture, WEB DuBois, Paul Robeson, and Malcolm X were all proponents of Pan-Africanism and to varying degrees considered themselves African int he direct sense.

To the argument that we don’t share enough Africaness to consider ourselves African there are many ways in which we are still part of the African story and the African people. The obvious is our genetics and our skin color. Remember save for a few of our generations all of us are still mostly African in our genetics and most of our family lines lead not to Britain or France but West Africa most likely. As my dad puts it “where you think you get that broad nose, big lips, and dark skin from?” Also we can look at language as a connection to the continent and our past. “Ebonics” or as it’s properly know in linguistics, African-American Vernacular English, is considered by some linguists to be a creole language (a language that develops out of the mixing of two other ones, in this case english and most likely a number of West African ones). The implication of this being that the way black people typically talk to one another is the result of the our ancestors’ language and the need to understand their captors. Other than that, many cultural and social activities and features of black people are actually common those seen among many African people. In the end we are still attached to our homeland, the issue is that the separation has rendered us unable to see the connections and commonalities.

Now to the second part, our connections to America overpowering any commonalities we have with Africa, I’ll let Malcolm X handle this:

(the video has some other blurbs (which are all good) but focus on the first statement made)

For those who aren’t keen on listening to his words here is some quotes on his position on Africans and America:

“I’m not going to sit at your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner. Sitting at the table doesn’t make you a diner, unless you eat some of what’s on that plate. Being here in America doesn’t make you an American…. No I’m not an American, I’m one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the 22 million black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy…. I’m speaking as a victim of this American system. And I see America through the eyes of a victim. I don’t see any American dream; I see an American nightmare.”

“We’re not Americans, we’re Africans who happen to be in America. We were kidnapped and brought here against our will from Africa. We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock – that rock landed on us.”

“One of the things that made the Black Muslim movement grow was its emphasis upon things African. This was the secret to the growth of the Black Muslim movement. African blood, African origin, African culture, African ties. And you’d be surprised – we discovered that deep within the subconscious of the black man in this country, he is still more African than he is American.”

“Twenty-two million African-Americans – that’s what we are – Africans who are in America.”

“When I’m traveling around the country, I use my real Muslim name, Malik Shabazz. I make my hotel reservations under that name, and I always see the same thing I’ve just been telling you. I come to the desk and always see that ‘here-comes-a-Negro’ look. It’s kind of reserved, coldly tolerant cordiality. But when I say ‘Malik Shabazz,’ their whole attitude changes: they snap to respect. They think I’m an African. People say what’s in a name? There’s a whole lot in a name. The American black man is seeing the African respected as a human being. The African gets respect because he has an identity and cultural roots. But most of all because the African owns some land. For these reasons he has his human rights recognized, and that makes his civil rights automatic.”

Now assuming you get his point, the identity of African America loses it’s flavor in that why would you take an identification that’s attached to a place that you’re still oppressed in and “black” is also out because where is Blackland? Black is devoid of any historicity and doesn’t give one any place in the world except being “not white” or “the opposite of white” as in whiteness and white people. African give us a grounded history and place in the world (and in America, a history of our suffering here and where we was stolen from) and it affords one a billion plus new brothers and sisters across the globe.

From this perspective then, the primary goal of Africans in America is survival and contributing to the freedom of Africa. Now why do I say survival instead of freedom in America? The issue of freedom in predicated on the fact that one has the free space to be free and determine ones own destiny as a person and as a people. Considering that American society is European in origin and that it is the nerve center of global capitalism the chances of us securing a truly free space that is socialist and African is slim here. Although we should still try to do so along with all the other oppressed people in America, we can’t be like American whites and treat this place like it’s our homeland because it’s not because it belongs to these people.

Our freedom must be one where the base for our liberation is the African continent (and in the case of the Caribbean, those places too since the indigenous people of many of those places are completely gone). Our skills, knowledge, and political power that we can derive from this nation ought to be used to prevent America’s interference in Africa. In return as Africa grows stronger in its independence it will be better able to help us over here fight for our human and civil rights in America. The relationship is two ways and mutually beneficial.

Now when it comes to “larger struggles” such as the worldwide socialist movement and Occupy Wall Street for instance, our place ought to be to stand in solidarity with these movement with a special focus on pushing these movements to recognize the right to self-determination of Africans and all other oppressed people within America and in the wider world. For socialism in particular the contribution of the Pan-African project is that by freeing Africa, one of the richest pieces of land on this Earth we help accelerate the demise of capitalism by denying the capitalists the continent’s resources and people.

Pan-Africanism for the American black person, if they chose to accept it, places the struggles of America and black people in its proper context. It shows us that we are not a “minority” but a nation of 1 billion people spread across the earth, all with a thirst for freedom and liberation. Pan-Africanism is not a rejection of our experiences and “benefits” we have in America but the affirmation of our contributions to America and using those contributions for the benefit of our people. Most importantly Pan-Africanism takes us from being just a stolen people on a stolen land, without a history, and identified as simply not-white and not worthy, to a people with thousands of years of history, culture, and contributions to humanity, and a people who strives to continue to further humanity along by doing our part to destroy the systems of oppression that bind all of us in its web. As Kwame Nkrumah, first president of Ghana and one of the fathers of modern Pan-Africanism said: “Forward Ever, Backwards Ever!”

Related articles

• Pan-Africanism and American Blacks Part 1: What is Pan-Africanism Exactly? (redsociology101.wordpress.com)