The following article, from the Viewpoint of the Daily Observer newspaper by
Baba Mohammed, had to be re-typed by me. As a result, all typos are mine and
are deeply regretted.


PAN AFRICANISM TODAY – by Baba Mohammed – 23/11/01.

When slave labour was no longer very profitable on American plantations as a
result of the invention of machines, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was
abolished. This led to serious social problems, as ex-soldiers could not
fend for themselves. They were homeless, jobless and hungry. They became
vagabonds, outcasts and thus an inferior social class. This sorry state of
affairs necessitated the emergence of black radicals such as Marcus Garvey
who organized blacks into the Universal Negro Improvement Association
(UNIA). There was also WEB Dubois, George Padmore of blessed memory, and
later came others like James Brown (who sang “Say it loud, I’m black and
proud”). In fact, several groups of Black Consciousness Movement sprang up
in the 50s and 60s.

This wind of consciousness, protest and defiance that was blowing across
America, naturally had some influence on the black students from the African
continent who had gone to the US and Europe to study. Prominent among them
were Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Leopold Sedar Senghore, etc. These were
later to become not the first group of leaders of the independent African
states but they also became the precursors of the Pan-African movement,
which was also referred to, in Francophone literature “Negritude”.

It can be seen from the above that Pan-Africanism is a concept that is
limited primarily to the black race – those on the continent as well as
those in the Diaspora. In this regard, one may liken Pan-Africanism to other
race based groups like Zionism, Pax Romana, the Arab league etc. They are
concepts or groups dedicated to the interests of only their members.

THE COLOUR SMOKESCREEN.

As has already made explained above, the roots of Pan Africanism is traced
to the condition of the newly freed slaves in the Americas. Let us assume,
for the moment, that they faced all those hardship because of their colour.
The snag however is whether today we can say it is the same scenario. Is the
cause of our problems today fundamentally “colour”? I think not. Let us
consider just a few cases. In the DR Congo (formerly Zaire), Mobutu
unleashed untold suffering on the citizenry by embezzling all their money.
In fact, he was said to be richer than Zaire. There was also Bokassa of the
Central African Republic who spent millions of Dollars from state coffers on
his coronation as emperor and yet the ordinary people of his country could
not afford a decent meal a day.

When Jerry Rawlings and his NDC party came to power in the 80s, they sold
off all state property to their friends in Europe and the US at give away
prices. As expected, it was the Ghanaian populace who bore and continues to
bear the brunt of such deliberate mismanagement of public wealth. Last but
surely the least, is the current debacle of the ANC and the “honorable” Tony
Yengeni in particular. Yengeni, the chief whip of the South African
Parliament had to resign because of the role he played in a multi-billion
dollar arms deal. Millions of South Africans do not have access to clean
drinking water, electricity and other basic necessities yet the government
is wasting billions of dollars to purchase submarines, fighter jets etc,
when the country is not at war!!!

The problem remains the same with many of those blacks in the Diaspora. Can
you imagine the current US secretary of state, Collin Powell (a black),
ordering the US delegates at the Durban conference in South Africa to walk
out just because Africans were for reparations for the brutalities of the
Atlantic slave trade?

Whereas there are blacks who mostly for economic reasons inflict suffering
on other blacks, there are ‘Toubabs’ (Caucasians) who use their wealth to
cater for the needs of blacks. Here, there are many youths who would not be
in school if they were not having white sponsors. In fact there are even
whole families who are being taken care of by ‘Toubabs’.

Can we therefore be justified be blaming our woes of today on colour? Colour
is used as a smokescreen to camouflage, conceal and confuse the real cause
of suffering in general. There is a deeper cause than the black/white ruse.

THE WORLD ECONOMIC ORDER

It was not by accident that the Europeans came to Africa. They were looking
for trade routes to the East as well as Markets. It was business. It was
also not by mistake that they started the slave trade. They needed free
labour for their plantations. It was business. It was also not out of
humanitarian considerations that they stopped the slave trade and freed the
blacks. Slave labour had become obsolete and a fetter on production. The
industrial revolution had made it possible for machines to be used in the
production process so slaves were no longer needed. Therefore, the real and
fundamental cause of the freed slaves (which, as we have seen above, led to
the rise of Garvey, Dubois, etc and Pan Africanism) was the world economic
system.

Interestingly, the problems that newly freed black slaves are still the same
problems confronting us (not only blacks but other races too) today. These
are hunger, poverty, disease, illiteracy, joblessness, homelessness,
insecurity, etc. If we consider that these same problems are afflicting many
non-blacks in Asia, Latin America and even Europe and the US, then we can
understand why it is not a matter of colour. They are a direct result of the
economic system in operation in the world. This economic system is based on
private ownership. This means that the means of production and distribution
of wealth (lands, factories, transportation, etc) are owned by an
insignificant minority whilst the majority of humankind owns nothing. The
majority is therefore forced to work for the rich minority under un-human
conditions.

These few rich owners of the means of production determine what to produce.
Since their primary objective is to make profits, they readily prefer the
production of commodities, which are not necessarily needed by the masses.
For instance armaments and weapons of mass destruction, land mines,
cigarettes, hard drugs and pornographic materials, etc are produced because
they bring in huge returns. Yet food, medicines, textbooks, housing are
always in short supply because though they are necessities, they are not
profit-yielding as weapons, drugs, etc. This type of economic system (call
it the money-system, the profit-system or the capitalist system) was
responsible for the coming of the Europeans; the slave trade; colonialism;
and for today’s unjust world of crushing poverty, disease, insecurity, war,
etc.

With the majority of people having nothing and constantly under pressure,
tension is built and can, at the least provocation, explode into real
violence such as is happening in many countries today including those in
Europe and the American continent.

THE RELEVANCE OF PAN AFRICANISM.

From the above, one can see clearly that Pan Africanism can only remain
relevant if it seeks to address issues from a much wider perspective. Pan
Africanists have transcended the narrow scope of seeing things from the
point of view of colour or black people. Take The Gambia as an example:
there are Lebanese-Gambians who only a few months ago met President Yahya
Jammeh at State House; there are German-Gambians like Samba, hero of that
prize winning documentary on Gambian Tourism; we even have British-Gambians
etc. Also check out the Cuban (white) doctors who are rendering invaluable
services in our healthcare domain. In fact many countries in Africa are
multi-racial and Luck Dube’s “One people different colours” sums it all up.
Therefore Pan Africanism can only worth a concept if it acknowledges the
universality of humankind and the global nature of its problems. To continue
to harp on the black race is tantamount to tackling the symptom of the
disease instead of the cause.

A conscious Pan Africanist must understand the profit-system and analyze the
issues from the angle of the haves and have-nots. The whole world is
everywhere divided into two antagonistic groups: the owners of capital and
the exploited majority.

WHAT IS TO BE DONE.

To conclude, I would like to answer a question that will be on the lips of
any genuine Pan Africanist after reading this piece – “what do we do then?”.
The answer is simple and short – “acquire knowledge and practice it”. This
is the letter and spirit of the socialist adage that “theory without
practice is empty and practice without theory is blind”.

Acquiring knowledge means raising our consciousness and consciousness has a
number of stages. The lowest form of consciousness is self-centeredness or
egoism. Immediate it is the familiar type where a person only considers
family members as the focal point. Next come the tribalists who see
everything from the tribal perspective. Many people have developed past
these stages of consciousness. They love their national flags. These are the
nationalists or patriots. Above these groups are the ones who think their
race is superior to all other races or at least they discriminate against
others. These are the racists to which belong Pan Africanists, Zionists, the
supporters of apartheid (in former South Africa, Europe and the Americas).

But the highest stage of consciousness is the type which views people as
being the same regardless of tribe, race, nationality, religion etc. This is
internationalism. The artificial boundaries separating nation-states from
each other mean nothing to an internationalist. Wherever they are they
consider it their home.

However it is not enough to declare oneself internationalist or to use a
better word a socialist. It is important to understand the theory and how to
usher in socialism. This fundamentally involves grasping the fact that the
international community is divided into two camps today. On the one hand
there are the few privileged owners of all means of lively-hood whilst on
the other hand there are the property-less majority who fail to ensure the
comfort of the propertied few.

Secondly, one must understand that a socialist must strive for the
establishment of a socialist society in which there will be common ownership
of the means of production and distribution of wealth. Such a society
ensures the free access by all to the products of labour and as such the
concept and use of money will cease to exist.

(For further debate on the issue please contact [log in to unmask],
preferably copied to [log in to unmask]).


I apologies for the long post and also for any typos. As it is a long post,
I have exhausted myself, especially my fingers. I shall however be giving my
take on some of the issues raised.

Have a good day, Gassa.






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