The World African Diaspora Union (WADU) 2012 Annual Executive decision calls for the African Diaspora, particularly those in the Northern Diaspora (USA) to support the below nominees for representation in the African Union/Economic, Social and Cultural Council (AU/ECOSOCC). Since 2005, the African Union (AU) has proposed for the African Diaspora to finally play a formal and significant role in the restoring and rebuilding of our beloved Motherland, Africa, after centuries of enslavement, worldwide.
According to Baba Khafra Kambon “ECOSOCC is a highly significant, historical development within the Pan African movement and we should all recognize and treat it as such.” Khafra Kambon (Trinidad and Tobago) and Marta Johnson (Costa Rica) are representatives of the African Diaspora to the African Union ECOSOCC. Khafra also advised WADU leaders that ECOSOCC mainly serves as an advisory body to the African Union and will have great influence in pan African affairs and the AU in an unprecedented way, particularly as a key instrument to strengthen ties between the African Diaspora and the AU.
The WADU Declaration of support is in accordance with the African Union constitutive act declares that it shall -“invite and encourage the full participation of the African Diaspora as an important part of our continent, in the building of the African Union."
The WADU Declaration of support is in accordance with the ECOSOCC Statutes, Article 2 objectives states “ECOSOCC shall amongst other things, and in conformity of objectives of the AU Constitutive Act perform functions such as promoting “continuous dialogue between all segments of the African people on issues concerning Africa and its future.” It also called for forging “strong partnerships between governments and all segments of the civil society, in particular women, the youth, children, the Diaspora, organized labour, the private sector and professional groups.”
The Declaration of support is in accordance with the work of the premier leadership of WADU and others representing major Pan African organizations such as the late ambassador Baba Dudley Thompson, Dr. Leonard Jeffries, Dr. Julius Garvey, Dr. Joyce King, Minister Akbar Muhammad, Mr. John Watusi Branch, Queen Mother Dorothy Lewis, Mr. Joe Beasley, Dr. Georgina Falu, and many others.
We Therefore urge all to support the Declaration calling for the following key African Diaspora leaders to immediately represent the USA African Diaspora in the AU/ECOSOCC: Dr. Malauna Karenga (West/USA); Minister Akbar Muhammad (Central/USA), Dr. Joyce King (South/USA); Dr. Julius Garvey (Northeast/USA); and Mel Foote (East/USA). We also support a rotational list of names such as Dr. Leonard Jeffries (NE), Dr. Georgina Falu (Latina), Viola Plummer (NE), Dr. Molefi Asante (East), Dr. Shelby Lewis (South), Dr. Wade Nobles (West), and Dr. Conrad Worrill (Central).
John Watusi Branch,
Chief Secretariat
World African Diaspora Union (WADU) 1/21/2012
Center for Culture 176-03 Jamaica Ave Jamaica, NY 11432-5503
Contact: Chief John Watusi Branch 718-523-3312 http://www.wadupam.org/ <http://www.wadupam.org/>
NOTE: SEEE SRDC RESPONSE:
https://theblacklistpub.ning.com/group/whoamiforafricaandafricans/forum/topics/the-sixth-region-diaspora-caucus-working-with-pan-african
https://theblacklist.net/
Replies
Dear Pan African Activists of The Black List:
When members of the World Afrikan Diaspora Union (WADU) first sent out the public letter titled Declaration Urging Support for AU Diaspora Representation, originally dated January 21, 2012, in which the Pan-African community was urged to support the nomination of several hand-picked Pan-Africanists as Representatives of the African Diaspora in the African Union, we initially chose not to respond to it. It was surely a concern to us, but we thought it would simply fade away, as have other such missives. Sadly, however, the piece found its way to The Black List this week, and we are now forced to make a definitive response.
In the spirit of operational unity, and with all due respect for the writers and distributors of that WADU letter, we will take the position that their intention was honorable in sending out that letter. However, regardless of the intent, the actual damage done by the massive misinformation in the letter, and the potential for even more damage to result from it, is a very strong motivator to engage this issue at a high level.
To begin with, the WADU letter states a falsehood and promotes it as truth. The ECOSOCC Statues of the African Union (anyone can search for that document using Google on the Internet) do not state in any Article, Section or Subsection that African Diaspora representatives can be appointed or recommended by petition. The Statues mention the African Diaspora at least 11 times in its 12-14 pages. On page 5, Article 5, number 3, the Statues state explicitly that African Diaspora representatives (numbering 20 in all) must be elected, and they must be elected by an approved process. The Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC) has been working alongside other Pan-African organizations toward that end.
The ECOSOCC Statues do allow for CIDO (the ECOSOCC Citizens Directorate, the AU agency directly responsible for the Diaspora's coming into the AU) to appoint two ex-officio representatives from the African Diaspora -- those two have been appointed since 2008, and are Khafra Kambon from Trinidad-Tobago and Marta Johnson from Costa Rica. Except for their actual work inside the AU, these two have nothing to do with electing the 20 designated African Diaspora representatives chosen to join the AU as voting members as is specified in the ECOSOCC Statutes.
The WADU letter lists a number of people who have collectively and individually done great things for the Pan African community. Each of them can easily qualify to be elected as an AU African Diaspora representative from a community that supports them. However, not one can be appointed as part of the 20 designated seats in ECO SOCC for the Diaspora. (The long list of Ph.Ds among the nominees in the letter also suggests that one has to have an advanced academic degree to be an AU African Diaspora representative, and that is patently untrue.)
On December 16, 2011 , the African Union Ambassador to the United States , the Honorable Amina Salum Ali, speaking to the diverse gathering of African Diaspora groups she had invited to a Unity Symposium, said more than once from the podium that the African Diaspora representatives to the AUmust be elected through an AU-approved process. In his last public speech, WADU President and Honored Ancestor Dudley Thompson (may he rest in peace and satisfaction for a job well done) spoke to Ambassador Ali's gathering and answered several questions from the participants, and three other WADU representatives attended the Ambassador's Unity Symposium, so it was not as if the organization was unaware of the facts.
This point makes it much harder to understand why the WADU letter of January 21, 2012 was distributed broadly when the writers certainly had accurate information to the contrary available to them.
The WADU letter spreads confusion and misinformation to hundreds, even thousands of people. The AU-African Diaspora process is already confusing enough to those who are interested in learning about it. This letter severely compounds that confusion and at a time when the African Diaspora needs to be clarifying its assets, strategies and readiness for the upcoming May 25, 2012 African Diaspora Summit in South Africa. The African Diaspora should not and cannot show up to that international Summit unorganized and ill-informed. The WADU letter has already had a chilling effect on several Pan African activists we have talked with who had been working diligently toward organizing portions of the Diaspora, and doubtless many more who have been stunned into silence and non-participation. The letter has also been read by several AU members -- some of whom do not desire the African Diaspora as participants in AU proceedings. For those AU members who were already opposed to the Diaspora’s participation, the WADU letter gives them fresh ammunition to argue for the rescission of the AU’s invitation to the African Diaspora. Even for friends of the Diaspora inside the AU, the letter makes the Diaspora appear arrogantly uninformed and significantly unready for AU diplomatic engagement. The letter, along with some previous missives from this same group (“... the Diaspora's responsibility is to save Africa ...”), revives a long-standing stereotype within African diplomatic circles that the African Diaspora, particularly its African American portion, simply cannot raise itself to the appropriate diplomatic level needed to participate in discussions to determine Africa's future.
A few months ago, The Black List posted a PADU Ma’at article which elucidated a code of honorable Pan African conduct expected of leaders and participants in the ongoing 21st Century Pan African Movement. We strongly urge the writers and distributors of the WADU letter to re-visit that Black Listposting, and to refrain from doing further damage to the integrity and reputation of the African Diaspora as its members try to move forward positively.
Forward Ever, Backward Never,
The National Secretariat
Office of Public Relations
Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus
E-mail: srdcpub@gmail.com; organizingsrdc@aol.com
February 2, 2012
Hotep M Greetings:
In light of all our current movements for a New AfRaKan World Union...in honor of the invitational call from the African Union...For those ready and willing to move forward in AfRaKan Unity in Maat in the best interests of our people within the AfRaKan Diaspora and our ancestral continental homelands...These words from our honorable ancestors are being shared to shift and transform the methods, strategies and tone in which we interact, engage, discuss, work and organize amongst one another...For healing all of our relations amongst our youth, future generations, families, communities, nations and A Nu Humanity-these quotations are shared...It is beyond time to move forward, use these networks of communications for our higher engagements and transform our realities as "we are the ones we have been waiting for..." Dua
"We first have to define what exactly is a revolution. Our crisis today is that we do not seem to understand that a revolution means a complete change. In a revolution you do not patch an old society. You replace an old society. When a society has grown old, weal, fat, and flabby and fails to serve its people, the conscious role of those who have suffered from that society is not to prop up that society, but to change that society in such as way that will will never be the same again.-[Malcolm X Speaks-Dr. John Henrik Clarke]
"What all Africans should have done at that moment (Ghana's Independence in March 1957), in Africa, the Caribbean islands, and the United States is to develop an operation and definition of Pan-African nationalism that could be flexible enough to be applicable to all Africans everywhere. At that point there was a need to seriously plan the structure of an African world community that would bridge all religious lines, cultural lines, and geographical lines, in this 500 year struggle against slavery and colonialism, all Africans have had one enemy, no matter the geography, the religion, or the culture. A redefinition of Pan-African nationalism and development of the concept of an African world community would have given all of us a bridge where we could STAND and COMMUNICATE with one another. That would have been the common denominator of Pan-African nationalism...
Because our origin is Africa, our political heartbeat should be in tune with Africa. No matter where we live on the face of this earth, we should PROCLAIM OURSELVES AN AFRICAN PEOPLE. That is our nationality, no matter what nation we were born in and what nation we choose to live in. This is the ultimate vindication of the betrayal of the African world revolution. We must be bold enough to look back and re-echo the words of Marcus Garvey: 'One God, One Aim, One Destiny!' Then we must say to every African person on the face of the earth with the shadow of a doubt about him or herself in the future, 'Up, Up You Mighty Race, You Can Accomplish What You Will.'...
...By One God, I do not mean that all African people on the face of the earth should be bound to one spiritual system...The fight for African liberation can be carried on under any belief system...What I mean by One Aim is that all African people one way or the other should be committed to African liberation, unity and preservation, irrespective of religious, cultural or political commitments...By One Destiny, I mean the unification and the development of African people...
In calling attention to the African world revolution and its betrayal, I am asking African people to reclaim those vital assets that have always been a part of their history, culture and politics. As a people, we have always been revolutionary, creating and adjusting to change...We are a revolutionary people...With the restoration of self-confidence, we can boldly say to ourselves and to the world, 'If we did it once, we can do it again!'"-From Who Betrayed the African World Revolution Speech on June 10, 1992 by Dr. John Henrik Clarke
"It is no longer enough to call oneself a revolutionary. We also need to be absolutely clear on the profound meaning of the revolution we fervently defend. This is the best way to defend it from the attacks and distortions that the counter-revolutionaries will not fail to use against it. Knowing how to link revolutionary theory to revolutionary practice will be the decisive criterion from now on in distinguishing consistent revolutionaries from all those who flock to the revolution under motives that are alien to the revolutionary cause."-From President Thomas Sankara Speech on Building A New Society, Rid of Social Injustice and Imperialist Domination on October 2, 1983
This is humbly shared for us to move forward in Maat as truth, justice, order, reciprocity, righteousness and harmony for the liberation, unification and social ascension of our AfRaKan nation-"at home and abroad"
Shem M Hotep
Ankh Udja Snb-Life Strength Wellness
Nswt Dr. ChenziRa Kahina Herishetapaheru of Per Ankh M Smai Tawi