5/09/2010
Dear Kwasi,
Thanks.
I want to recognize that amongst the North Americans
of African descent, you were amongst the first I came across to
actively support the struggling people in the Afro-Arab
Borderlands.
In the early 2000’s the reaction we came across from your
area was one of indifference and a belief that the
advances made on the reparations issue was to be
piggy-backed by people such as the Southern Sudanese,
exploiting the work done in the US.
You were the first I saw, amongst the African descendants
in North America, actively promoting the cause of
Southern Sudan. I dare say you have done more to advance
understanding about North East Africa, from an African
perspective, in North America.
We need to be mindful, as we proceed that the early years
of the Bashir administration in Sudan were lead by Tourabi,
whose mission was, amongst others, to Islamise North
America(n) blacks and to Arabise Africa. This is what informed
Tourabi’s policy of educating over 2000 Northern Sudanese
post graduate students in the US, with instructions to
form friendships with African Americans ( learnt from
Lumumba Kau, Deputy Head of Sudan Permanent Mission to the UN),
friendships which endure to this day. Were not artists such as
Pharoah Saunders, and writers like Amiri Barraka earlier, products
of this type of penetration in our communities in North America.
Tourabi at one point vowed to take Kampala.
The current opening in North-East Africa to Africanism is
perhaps the most important development in Afro-Arab
unequal relations for a long time, certainly since the
Fith Pan-African Congress of 1945.
It will take some time for people to understand this
and its implications, but I think the course ahead is irreversible,
but will be painfull and difficult for many. For those of us on
the mainland we will need to adjust to a new paradigm,
something our governments in general will not want to accept.
Best regards
Bankie Foster Bankie
Windhoek, Namibia
https://theblacklist.net/
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