Dealing with Chinweizu Again
Why do some people spend so much time and energy trying to discredit Pan-Africanism? I mean, I can understand why the enemy does it. But, what about Africans doing it? Clearly, discrediting Pan-Africanism does not benefit Africans. In fact, the opposite is true. In fact, I fail to understand how anyone, be they Africans or non-Africans, can benefit by discrediting Pan-Africanism.
Be that as it may, we once again find ourselves confronted with Chinweizu and his well-known opposition to Pan-Africanism. Why do we take such nonsense seriously? I do not give it much credence. But, I fear that such nonsense harms the development of our youth and retard African Development, socially, economically and politically. So, one again, let us patiently go through this nonsense, expose it and ask ourselves if it makes any sense at all.
Above, the question is asked “is there an African nation?” Of course Osagyefo Comrade Dr. Kwame Nkrumah thought so. He defined it thusly: all Africans and people of African descent all over the world are Africans and belong to the African nation.” But, people like Chinweizu avoid dealing with this definition directly. Instead, they go and dig up all kinds of divide and conquer confusion from various European, zionist and Jewish sources. What kind of sense does it make to quote those sources to an African audience?
Next, he jumps into trickery. I mean, give me an ever loving break. Does he really think Africans are dumb enough to fall for this nonsense? Get this: “Why is it important to determine whether or not Black Africa is a nation? Pretending that Black Africa is a nation when it is not would be as delusional as leaning on a walking stick without noticing that it is made of ice.” “…Black Africa is a nation?” I have a better question: is there any such thing as “Black Africa”? Of course there is no “nation” based on “Black Africa” precisely because there is no “Black Africa”; and there never has been as far as can be determined is scientific sources. It is always hard to dissect such non-sense. But, let us start here and show just how ridiculous this whole thing really is.
Africa: the Motherland from which we came. Africa is a geo-political reality. But, can we scientifically define it in terms of being “Black”? The quick answer in a most emphatic NO.
Take a few examples. Let’s start with Southern Africa to get right to the point. Are Southern Africans “Black”? Not in terms of being Southern Africans. Some tribes have a black complexion. But many if not most, do not. Go to this site for a picture of Zulu people: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zulu. Clearly these are a brown skin people, not a Black one such as are the nearby Bantus.
Let us take Madagascar, off the coast of Southern Africa: “The Malagasy (French: Malgache) ethnic group forms the vast majority of the population of Madagascar. They are divided into two subgroups: the "Highlander" Merina, Sihanaka and Betsileo of the central plateaux around Antananarivo, Alaotra (Ambatondrazaka) and Fianarantsoa, and the côtiers ("coastal dwellers") elsewhere in the country. There is also a population of afrodescendents in northern Peru that are of Malagasy descent and call themselves Mangaches or Malgaches and there is a section of Piura called la Mangachería. (
This division has its roots in historical patterns of settlement: the original Austronesian settlers arrived between the third and tenth centuries and established a network of principalities in the central highlands region conducive to growing the rice…” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malagasy_people) There are three important facts to be noted here. One, Africans traveled to virtually all parts of the world, including the Americas, in prehistoric times. Two, the Asians who came to Africa during the same times blended with the local Africans just as the Africans in other regions blended with the locals. This is only natural. Three, there were no invasions in the sense that Europeans invaded Africa and set up colonies. Those Africans who have brown complexions arrived from Asia and other regions long before there was the alleged Arab invasion with the spread of Islam. In Madagascar, this occurred beginning in the third century, hundreds of years before Islam.
The bottom line is no part of Africa can be adequately described or defined in racial or even ethnic terms, much less in skin color terms. So, let us just forget about Mr. Chinweizu’s racial nonsense in this discussion. It is totally and absolutely out of place here. Likewise, we can disregard Mr. Chinweizu’s apparent sectarian hatreds because the issue of skin color has nothing, repeat NOTHING, to do with any major religious sect, least of all Islam.
Fools love company. Now, Mr. Chinweizu would have us take note of others misguided spirits such as Uncles Julius Nyerere and Cheihk Diop. But, apparently fearing that folks would not accept the opinions of these two nitwits, he offers us his white masters, namely Jacques Barzun and Robert Ardrey. Really? Well, if we learn nothing else, let us learn to never, repeat NEVER, accept European opinions about Africans. At least take the time to do some research to verify and substantiate whatever they have to say about us.
“The African nation, though talked about in some Pan-Africanist circles, remains only an aspiration. The languages are diverse; there is no shared body of myths, legends, epics, songs etc; and the historical consciousness has never been fostered.” Every single country in Africa has been colonized by Europeans. Every second grader knows this. But, Uncle, I mean Mr., Chinwiezu apparently slept through second grade. Plus, many of us were enslaved by the same Europeans. It don’t take no rocket scientist to see that All-Africans have a shared trauma from oppression, exploitation and abuse. What African in America is not familiar with “myths” about slavery times and the plantation mentality? This is why Mr. Chinweizu reminds us so much of Uncle Tom: his “songs” come from the “legends” and “epics” of the slave trade and colonization.
Now, let us take a further look at what is meant by African Nation, capital “N”. All have common institutions, namely the African Union, the Pan-African Parliament, the African Unification Front and a few political parties that subscribe to Pan-Africanism. Arabic is used to some extent in every, repeat EVERY, African country in the world. Even the remote islands of the Caribbean have large Muslim populations who use Arabic. This is not because “Islam invaded” these islands. It is because the slave traders brought so many Muslims into slavery. Many of these slaves were not “Black Africans” at all. Many of them were Muslims from West Africa, North Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa. Many had Asian ancestry and Arab ancestry. The simple fact of the matter is that many of these slaves were kidnapped at night and the slave traders could not determine their skin colors or races until the next day. So, we all ended up in the west as slaves regardless to our skin colors, our races, our ethnicities and our religions. Muslims prayed with Christians and Jews. “Black Africans married Arabs, etc. Now, we all form parts of the African Nation, capital “N”.
But, there is one more fact to consider. The “Arabs” of North Africa did not “invade” Africa. In the case of the spread of Islam into Africa, it came as a liberating force, to liberate Egypt, for instance, from European domination (http://fudaa.blogspot.com/search?q=ibn+al+as). In the case of the Berbers of Western Sahara, for instance, they have already been in Africa for at least as long as 200,000 years (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamazight and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berbers)
These are a few facts. What intelligent Africans must do is study and learn how to study African history. Indeed, the African Nation is defined as having a common history. This common history is a history of our shared heritage of Africa and our suffering and pain for being Africans. Thus, Pan-Africanism is a geo-political ideology and a social and cultural one. Pan-Africanism defines the African Nation. Again, it includes all people of African descent, regardless to religion or skin color.
Is there an African nation? Yes. It is within the Queendom of Wafrakan. It is found within the people who have been scattered globally or held in borders on the continent without regards to ethnicity, culture or language. It is within these same people who work for self determination and unification as a nation within nations. Within the Queendom of Wafrakan these people have arrived at sovereignty and interdependence. We are yet to be acknowledged and recognized. Our people still react to slavery and colonialism, both of which are great obstacles to Black people getting to know thyself. As tribes and nation states we are embodied in systems of which we have no control and thus are forced to follow whether it is in our best interest or not. The sad part is that the majority remain in the comfort zone. Our nationalities are based on skin colour within nationalities. I do submit that the African nation exist and will be found when we decide to know about ourselves and are willing to work together to defend our interest not as individuals, but as a group of people.
Nefertari Ahmose.
one thing that comes to mind is frantz fanon's works, which are very profound pieces of literary material. he notes that we have to remove from ourselves the psychopathic nature of europeanism that afrikans have internalized. i, myself, have come to ask the question of whether or not we can kill that nigga in us? the language may be offensive, as it is not my intentions to offend, but the fact is is that afrikans have become so saturated with the disease of whiteness that we find ourselves believing in things that we think are or project as afrikan, when they mimicry european psycho-dysfunctionalism. the arabs, under their psychology of mohammedism, just preceded the european beast that has left afrikans in a double state of dysfunctionalism, which should allow us to see how non-afrikan we have been and continue to be, in terms of defining an afrikan nation from the three positions mentioned above. in the end, what it seems to boil down to is violence as a scientific method of applied force to achieve an end to a means, the same ideology that both the arab and the christian has employed with tremendous success at the behest of the colonialization and exploitation of afrikans.
I think that because you can list and contrast major events , trends , and historical developements in Africa's 'post-colonial' socio-political environment , with the evolutions of societies out-side of black-africa , the 'answer' to this question becomes more apparent ... and because africa's post-colonial experience has been relatively brief , to compare her lack of progress and solidarity (as a nation) , with most any other society of individuals would result in a very skewed comparison , at best .
https://theblacklist.net/
Replies
Why do some people spend so much time and energy trying to discredit Pan-Africanism? I mean, I can understand why the enemy does it. But, what about Africans doing it? Clearly, discrediting Pan-Africanism does not benefit Africans. In fact, the opposite is true. In fact, I fail to understand how anyone, be they Africans or non-Africans, can benefit by discrediting Pan-Africanism.
Be that as it may, we once again find ourselves confronted with Chinweizu and his well-known opposition to Pan-Africanism. Why do we take such nonsense seriously? I do not give it much credence. But, I fear that such nonsense harms the development of our youth and retard African Development, socially, economically and politically. So, one again, let us patiently go through this nonsense, expose it and ask ourselves if it makes any sense at all.
Above, the question is asked “is there an African nation?” Of course Osagyefo Comrade Dr. Kwame Nkrumah thought so. He defined it thusly: all Africans and people of African descent all over the world are Africans and belong to the African nation.” But, people like Chinweizu avoid dealing with this definition directly. Instead, they go and dig up all kinds of divide and conquer confusion from various European, zionist and Jewish sources. What kind of sense does it make to quote those sources to an African audience?
Next, he jumps into trickery. I mean, give me an ever loving break. Does he really think Africans are dumb enough to fall for this nonsense? Get this: “Why is it important to determine whether or not Black Africa is a nation? Pretending that Black Africa is a nation when it is not would be as delusional as leaning on a walking stick without noticing that it is made of ice.” “…Black Africa is a nation?” I have a better question: is there any such thing as “Black Africa”? Of course there is no “nation” based on “Black Africa” precisely because there is no “Black Africa”; and there never has been as far as can be determined is scientific sources. It is always hard to dissect such non-sense. But, let us start here and show just how ridiculous this whole thing really is.
Africa: the Motherland from which we came. Africa is a geo-political reality. But, can we scientifically define it in terms of being “Black”? The quick answer in a most emphatic NO.
Take a few examples. Let’s start with Southern Africa to get right to the point. Are Southern Africans “Black”? Not in terms of being Southern Africans. Some tribes have a black complexion. But many if not most, do not. Go to this site for a picture of Zulu people: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zulu. Clearly these are a brown skin people, not a Black one such as are the nearby Bantus.
Let us take Madagascar, off the coast of Southern Africa: “The Malagasy (French: Malgache) ethnic group forms the vast majority of the population of Madagascar. They are divided into two subgroups: the "Highlander" Merina, Sihanaka and Betsileo of the central plateaux around Antananarivo, Alaotra (Ambatondrazaka) and Fianarantsoa, and the côtiers ("coastal dwellers") elsewhere in the country. There is also a population of afrodescendents in northern Peru that are of Malagasy descent and call themselves Mangaches or Malgaches and there is a section of Piura called la Mangachería. (
This division has its roots in historical patterns of settlement: the original Austronesian settlers arrived between the third and tenth centuries and established a network of principalities in the central highlands region conducive to growing the rice…” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malagasy_people) There are three important facts to be noted here. One, Africans traveled to virtually all parts of the world, including the Americas, in prehistoric times. Two, the Asians who came to Africa during the same times blended with the local Africans just as the Africans in other regions blended with the locals. This is only natural. Three, there were no invasions in the sense that Europeans invaded Africa and set up colonies. Those Africans who have brown complexions arrived from Asia and other regions long before there was the alleged Arab invasion with the spread of Islam. In Madagascar, this occurred beginning in the third century, hundreds of years before Islam.
The bottom line is no part of Africa can be adequately described or defined in racial or even ethnic terms, much less in skin color terms. So, let us just forget about Mr. Chinweizu’s racial nonsense in this discussion. It is totally and absolutely out of place here. Likewise, we can disregard Mr. Chinweizu’s apparent sectarian hatreds because the issue of skin color has nothing, repeat NOTHING, to do with any major religious sect, least of all Islam.
Fools love company. Now, Mr. Chinweizu would have us take note of others misguided spirits such as Uncles Julius Nyerere and Cheihk Diop. But, apparently fearing that folks would not accept the opinions of these two nitwits, he offers us his white masters, namely Jacques Barzun and Robert Ardrey. Really? Well, if we learn nothing else, let us learn to never, repeat NEVER, accept European opinions about Africans. At least take the time to do some research to verify and substantiate whatever they have to say about us.
“The African nation, though talked about in some Pan-Africanist circles, remains only an aspiration. The languages are diverse; there is no shared body of myths, legends, epics, songs etc; and the historical consciousness has never been fostered.” Every single country in Africa has been colonized by Europeans. Every second grader knows this. But, Uncle, I mean Mr., Chinwiezu apparently slept through second grade. Plus, many of us were enslaved by the same Europeans. It don’t take no rocket scientist to see that All-Africans have a shared trauma from oppression, exploitation and abuse. What African in America is not familiar with “myths” about slavery times and the plantation mentality? This is why Mr. Chinweizu reminds us so much of Uncle Tom: his “songs” come from the “legends” and “epics” of the slave trade and colonization.
Now, let us take a further look at what is meant by African Nation, capital “N”. All have common institutions, namely the African Union, the Pan-African Parliament, the African Unification Front and a few political parties that subscribe to Pan-Africanism. Arabic is used to some extent in every, repeat EVERY, African country in the world. Even the remote islands of the Caribbean have large Muslim populations who use Arabic. This is not because “Islam invaded” these islands. It is because the slave traders brought so many Muslims into slavery. Many of these slaves were not “Black Africans” at all. Many of them were Muslims from West Africa, North Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa. Many had Asian ancestry and Arab ancestry. The simple fact of the matter is that many of these slaves were kidnapped at night and the slave traders could not determine their skin colors or races until the next day. So, we all ended up in the west as slaves regardless to our skin colors, our races, our ethnicities and our religions. Muslims prayed with Christians and Jews. “Black Africans married Arabs, etc. Now, we all form parts of the African Nation, capital “N”.
But, there is one more fact to consider. The “Arabs” of North Africa did not “invade” Africa. In the case of the spread of Islam into Africa, it came as a liberating force, to liberate Egypt, for instance, from European domination (http://fudaa.blogspot.com/search?q=ibn+al+as). In the case of the Berbers of Western Sahara, for instance, they have already been in Africa for at least as long as 200,000 years (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamazight and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berbers)
These are a few facts. What intelligent Africans must do is study and learn how to study African history. Indeed, the African Nation is defined as having a common history. This common history is a history of our shared heritage of Africa and our suffering and pain for being Africans. Thus, Pan-Africanism is a geo-political ideology and a social and cultural one. Pan-Africanism defines the African Nation. Again, it includes all people of African descent, regardless to religion or skin color.
Nefertari Ahmose.
one thing that comes to mind is frantz fanon's works, which are very profound pieces of literary material. he notes that we have to remove from ourselves the psychopathic nature of europeanism that afrikans have internalized. i, myself, have come to ask the question of whether or not we can kill that nigga in us? the language may be offensive, as it is not my intentions to offend, but the fact is is that afrikans have become so saturated with the disease of whiteness that we find ourselves believing in things that we think are or project as afrikan, when they mimicry european psycho-dysfunctionalism. the arabs, under their psychology of mohammedism, just preceded the european beast that has left afrikans in a double state of dysfunctionalism, which should allow us to see how non-afrikan we have been and continue to be, in terms of defining an afrikan nation from the three positions mentioned above. in the end, what it seems to boil down to is violence as a scientific method of applied force to achieve an end to a means, the same ideology that both the arab and the christian has employed with tremendous success at the behest of the colonialization and exploitation of afrikans.
uhuru!