>From: Jungle Sunrise

>Subject: Some food for thought.

Is this really some food for thought or food for sleep? As the struggle of
the african peoples enters another critical stage globally ideological
agents of the enemy are sent to the theoretical front line to spread ideas
that disarmed the unseasoned students.


"jungle sunrise",we are are wide awake, read the massage of Ancestor Malcome
X on the impotance of history,pass it on to your "friend".

hope you will repent and find the correct road to home of Pan-Africanism,
the spirit of the Ancestors will embrace you into the African family.the
alternative road you are taking is ideologically risky

"When you deal with the past, you`re dealing with history, you`re dealing
actually with the origin of a thing. When you know the origin, you know the
cause....Its impossible for you and me to have a balanced mind in this
society without going into the past, because in this particular society, as
we function and fit into it right now, we`re such an underdog, we are
trampled upon, we`re looked upon as almost nothing.
Now if we don`t go into the past and find out how we got this way, we will
think that we were always this way. And if you think that you were always in
the condition that you`re in right now, it`s impossible for you to have too
much confidence in yourself, you become worthless, almost nothing.

But when you go back into the past and find out where you once were, then
you will know that you once had attained a higher level, had made great
achievements, contributions to society, civilization, science, and so forth.
And you know that if you once did it you can do it again; you automatically
get the incentive, the inspiration and the energy necessary to duplicate
what our forefathers did."

Malcolm X




>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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