The black community was shocked on August 14 by the news of the untimely death of Dr. Jason Arday, the 41-year-old African lecturer of sociology at the “prestigious” Cambridge University.
His death followed just weeks after a July 21 Substack press publication by Nathan Cofnas, an obscure white colonial nationalist, that accused Dr. Jason Arday of plagiarism and set the white bourgeois colonial press wild in their attacks against the African scholar every day, to the point that he resigned on August 5.
Arday stated in his poignant letter that, “This decision should not be interpreted as a loss of faith in scholarship or in the values that first brought me to Cambridge. Nor should it be mistaken for an acceptance of the narratives that have surrounded me. It is simply the decision of someone who has reached the limits of what any person should reasonably be expected to endure.”
Between Cofnas’ attack and Dr. Jason Arday’s resignation, there have been about 250 vitriolic press articles and stories against Dr. Jason Arday.
He was abandoned by Cambridge University, which announced on August 5 that it would hold an internal inquiry after claiming it received “new information” about his academic qualifications and honorary appointments, as well as what it described as “a number of ongoing complaints regarding academic misconduct.”
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Jesus College, of which he was a member, said it would also hold an inquiry. Glasgow University followed suit and said it would also investigate Arday’s academic credentials.
Dr. Kehinde Andrews, a black professor who also lost his position at Birmingham University was one of the few academics who openly voiced support for Dr. Jaosn Arday when he needed it the most, saying: “Since he was appointed professor at Cambridge the level of scrutiny and nitpicking has been unbearable for him, and this is because he is black and in a position that some people do not believe us capable to be in.”
Arday’s family statement said that they were “in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son.”
They added, “The campaign of misinformation was too much for Jason, who was a gentle man and who always wanted to see the best in everyone.”
The whole UK colonial press—from the respectable broadsheets to the tabloids—who relentlessly hounded Dr. Jason Arday are also guilty of his death.
Hypocrites line up to express sorrow; colonial mode of production killed Professor Jason Arday
Professor Deborah Prentice, Cambridge’s vice chancellor, said in a statement, “We are desperately saddened to hear this tragic news. Our heartfelt sympathies go to Jason Arday’s family and friends at this incredibly difficult time.”
African people felt the immense pain caused by his death. In fact, we feel this pain every day, everywhere.
There is no place on earth where we don’t experience multiple forms of the same colonial pain. Our oppressors, through their lying media, call our pain whatever they want—Ebola virus, racism, black on black violence, tribalism, etc.
The truth is, as African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) Chairman Omali Yeshitela explains, the colonial mode of production—the single world economy that replaced feudalism—requires world production at the expense of Africa, black people and all colonized peoples everywhere.
The colonial media and British academics are the “respectable” white mob that mobilized and united the white public for the destruction of Dr. Jason Arday.
Colonized people never die naturally; we always die due to our colonial conditions created by our relationship with colonialism.
After decades of relentless struggles by our Chairman and Party, December 12 and other black anticolonial forces around the world, we have won the UN resolution that declared “transatlantic slavery as the gravest crime against humanity.”
This is not a bad start to the dispute with Cambridge University and white colonial academics. Cofnas and other colonial thinkers can say whatever they want—it is colonialism that propels Europe forward in the world.
Every success in Britain—scientific, musical, literary or otherwise—came from the immense colonial wealth and talent extracted and stolen from the backs of Africans, Indigenous peoples of the Americas and other oppressed nations around the world.
Everything that determined the success of Europe was based on genocide, land theft and stolen centuries of African labor.
A study carried out by the Legacies of Enslavement Advisory Group and published in September 2022 on the BBC’s website reported that “Researchers found that fellows from Cambridge colleges were involved with the East India Company, while investors in the Royal African Company also had links to Cambridge, with both companies active in the slave trade.
“The university also received donations from investors in both companies, and directly invested in another company active in the slave trade, the South Sea Company, the study revealed.
“Such financial involvement both helped to facilitate the slave trade and brought very significant financial benefits to Cambridge.”
We can’t allow white academics, a creation of the colonial mode of production, to set the terms of engagement.
The role of African intellectuals in the world
As we wrote in a previous Burning Spear article on the role of African intellectuals: “To be a genuine African intellectual, you have to speak of the particularity of the African revolution defined by the necessity to end colonialism as the mode of production.”
Fighting for a multipolar world is alright, but it does not go to the core of the question. Russia, India, China, and even possibly Iran can fight for a multipolar world. But Africans can’t do that.
The real question is how to take advantage of the multipolar struggle to advance the African revolution and worldwide unification of the African Nation.
The freedom, the integrity, the prosperity and genuine national economy of Africa require all of Africa’s sons and daughters to be engaged in a struggle for Africa’s national liberation.
This is one primary reason why we must build the African Socialist International everywhere to take on the fight for the rise of the African working class and the African revolution.
To defend the life and legacy of Dr. Jason Arday is to advance the African national liberation struggle, which is not the same thing as the fight against racism.
Observe that Iranians are not fighting against racism, but for access to real power—technological, military, maritime power and more. Iranians want power over Iran and Iranian lives. They make sure no one can hurt them without immediate consequences!
Africans have to fight for Black Power and the ability to advance and defend our people and interests!
