Perspectives

It's time for some Black Power

By Gerald A. Perreira -Guest Columnist- | Last updated: Aug 13, 2012 - 8:24:29 AM

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There is much reporting of the atrocities committed against Black people North, South, East and West of this world, and much in-depth analysis of the evils of White supremacy. And there can be no doubt that to disseminate information and engage in the battle of ideas is a vital weapon in our arsenal. However, we cannot achieve our aims as a race if the talk is not accompanied by some concrete action—any action is better than inaction when faced with forces who aim to destroy us. Remember the words of George Bush Sr., “We need Africa, but not with Africans.”

Black people are going to suffer until we find a way to do what we must do. And what we must do is realize our own potential and power. The Hon. Elijah Muhammad warned us long ago that “no nation will ever respect us as long as we beg for that which we can do for ourselves.” 

All over the world we suffer as we have done for centuries. It is hard to come to terms with the complete disrespect that Black people experience and the humiliation steeped upon us. Recent examples on the continent and in the Diaspora are no exception. The United States, France, Britain and Canada, having forced Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide, a leader with mass support among his people, out of office, literally putting him on a plane at gunpoint, used the 2010 devastating earthquake as a pretext to effectively occupy Haiti before our eyes. Up to today, the Haitians are living in inhumane and repressive conditions, having received no real assistance to rebuild their country. Last year in Cote d’Ivoire, President Laurent Gbagbo was scandalously removed from office by insurrectionists armed, trained and financed by France. Also last year, the U.S., Britain, France, Canada and the Netherlands led the charge which resulted in an obscene and criminal invasion of the Libyan Jamahiriya, which left the most prosperous nation in Africa and indeed in the global South, in a state of chaos and destruction. They murdered Muammar Gadhafi, the leader of the movement for a united and truly independent Africa, and televised it for all to see. And sadly, this is not new. Remember Dedan Kimathi, Patrice Lumumba, Eduardo Mondlane, Amilcar Cabral—the list is long and they continue with their barbarism because they can get away with it.

Amazingly, it is only with access to Africa’s resources that modern day industrial and high-tech empires can be built, and yet still we languish in poverty and disarray, marginalized in a world which would quite literally come to a halt within a few weeks if Africa were to cut off supplies.

Democracy-NATO Style

Farcical elections were just held in Libya and while the corporate media talked about “free and fair,” the truth is that NATO’s newly-installed “democrats” are  implementing a policy of ethnic and ideological cleansing. It is estimated that well over 100,000 Libyans were killed in the NATO led invasion, with an estimated 600,000, including Libyans and foreign workers, fleeing to neighboring countries.

Following the fall of Tripoli and Sirte,  the corporate Media, that was beaming reports of NATO’s “humanitarian mission” into our living rooms on a daily basis were then ordered to turn their cameras off so that the Al-Qaeda/Salafi operatives could  carry out their very inhuman revenge campaign. Tens of thousands of Libyans have since been rounded up, imprisoned, tortured and killed. According to the Committee for Justice for the Disappeared, “More than 35,000 Libyans are being held secretly by militias outside the control of the NTC.” Black Libyans are being imprisoned simply for being Black in retribution for Gadhafi’s pro-Africa policies. Herded into cages like animals, they have had the Jamahiriyan green flag stuffed into their mouths, while being made to jump as high as they can to avoid bullets being sprayed on the ground inside the cages. When questioned about the huge number of extra-judicial killings, an NTC commander said, “We had to kill them because there was no place to hold so many Gadhafi supporters.” Anyone who is suspected of being pro-Gadhafi lives in fear for their life. Academics including the world renowned Dr. Ahmed Ibrahim and Dr. Rayab Abu Dabus,  religious leaders including Sheik Khalid Tantoush,  former diplomat Dr. Omar Ahmed Sodani, the former Secretary of the General People’s Committee Dr. Mahmoud Baghdadi are currently imprisoned, subject to torture and constant abuse, and are being tried in kangaroo courts. It is all too reminiscent of the ideological cleansing that took place in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, where hundreds of thousands were killed with the tacit support of the U.S., Britain and France. 

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Muammar Gadhafi
The NATO installed regime in Libya is openly hostile and racist towards Black Africans. They hated Gadhafi’s affirmation of his Africanity and his vision for Libya as part of a United States of Africa. One of the first things that these Arab supremacists did upon entering Tripoli was to destroy the murals of great African leaders. Paintings of Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah, Haile Selassie, Kenneth Kaunda, Sekou Toure, Jomo Kenyatta, Ahmed Ben Bella and others were defaced. And still, with all of this, a number of African governments offered the new Libyan regime their congratulations and diplomatic recognition. There is something radically wrong when any one of us, even a neo-colonial surrogate, can endure this kind of degradation. SWAPO’s founder-leader Sam Nujoma, recently lamented on the African Union’s failure to come to Libya’s aid, stating,“They had woefully failed to mobilize militarily to stop the bombing of Libya.” He added, “Africans should talk war—the language best understood by Western countries … the imperialists understand no other words than fighting. We dislodged them from our continent by fighting them. If we did not fight in Namibia or in Zimbabwe or elsewhere, we would not be free of them today. We must now prepare to fight them again.”

As I was writing this, I heard mention of the London 2012 Olympics on the radio. I recalled the U.S.-led cry for the world to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games, following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. West European nations lined up behind the boycott. The games suffered. It was a show of power, a flexing of their muscles and a way of demonstrating to the world that they were not to be messed with. All over the continent and throughout the Diaspora, in every corner of the world where Africans are located, we find ourselves in wretched conditions as a direct result of the continued genocidal policies forced upon us economically and militarily by our erstwhile colonial masters. Despite this, we still play ball with them. In fact, we can’t wait to get to London to participate, never mind the racism and police brutality meted out to our African brothers and sisters in Britain. We so love the trinkets they hold in front of us as they buy and sell us and our sporting champions, that we are going to play sport for and with the very people who are slaughtering and oppressing Black people worldwide. The same people who murdered Muammar Gadhafi primarily because of his vision for us and our homeland. I can’t help but delight when I imagine their games without a single African participant—what games? If only we could realize the power we possess.

Frederick Douglas surely observed a fundamental truth when he said,

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blow, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”