African (black) and other colonized parents are good parents doing the best we can for our children while living under capitalist-colonialism.
The African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) defines colonialism as “a condition of existence where a whole people is oppressively dominated by a foreign and alien State power for the purpose of economic exploitation and political advantage.”
Surviving, putting food on the table and caring for our children in the time of the coronavirus—or “the colonial virus” as the APSP’s Chairman Omali Yeshitela has named it—is harder than ever no matter where colonialism has dispersed us, from Sierra Leone to the United States.
We are the “essential workers” experiencing higher levels of exposure to the virus, or we are jobless and unable to pay the rent. In the U.S., the number of children being required to attend schools in person is increasing rapidly, resulting in the number of students contracting the virus rising by 90 percent, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Black children are kidnapped from their families and our communities, and forced into the colonial prison system. Of the 48,000 youth locked up in the U.S. on any given day in 2019, 42 percent of the boys and 35 percent of the girls are black according to PrisonPolicy.org. Of this number, 4,535 children are held in adult prisons.
The APSP believes that “colonial domination is the primary basis of the problems of African people within the U.S. and that we shall know neither peace, prosperity, nor human dignity until this colonialist domination is overthrown and the power over our lives rests in our own hands.”
Power over our lives includes the power to protect our children.
The white power ruling class is starving our children to death in the name of COVID-19
According to a July 27 article from the Associated Press:
“All around the world, the coronavirus and its restrictions are pushing already hungry communities over the edge, cutting off meager farms from markets and isolating villages from food and medical aid. Virus-linked hunger is leading to the deaths of 10,000 more children a month over the first year of the pandemic, according to an urgent call to action from the United Nations shared with the Associated Press ahead of its publication in The Lancet medical journal.”
The Associated Press is a tool of white power. Our communities are not “hungry;” our communities are being starved. Saying “the coronavirus and its restrictions” veils the fact that the ruling class is murdering our children and using COVID-19 as an excuse.
The Associated Press article continues:
“….more than 550,000 additional children each month are being struck by what is called wasting, according to the UN—malnutrition that manifests in spindly limbs and distended bellies. Over a year, that’s up 6.7 million from last year’s total of 47 million. Wasting and stunting can permanently damage children physically and mentally, transforming individual tragedies into a generational catastrophe.”
What the Associated Press deems “individual tragedies” is murder and “generational catastrophe” is genocide.
This genocide is inflicted against all colonized people. The Associated Press says:
“From Latin America to South Asia to sub-Saharan Africa, more families than ever are staring down a future without enough food. The analysis published Monday found about 128,000 more young children will die over the first 12 months of the virus.”
The article elaborates on the restrictions of movement enforced on colonized people by the colonial ruling powers, keeping us from accessing food, work and healthcare. It uses Afghanistan and Yemen as examples. It states:
“In Afghanistan, restrictions on movement prevent many families from bringing their malnourished children to hospitals for food and aid just when they need it most … Four in 10 Afghan children are already stunted. Stunting happens when families live on a cheap diet of grains or potatoes, with supply chains in disarray and money scarce. Most stunted children never catch up, dampening the productivity of poor countries, according to a report released this month by the Chatham House think tank.”
The Associated Press continues, “In Yemen, restrictions on movement have also blocked the distribution of aid, along with the stalling of salaries and price hikes.”
On another front, according to Time magazine, in the U.S. “At least 120 children remain in detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), more than two weeks after the July 27 deadline set by a court order requiring the agency release them because of the health risk posed by COVID-19.”
As the leading power in white power capitalist-colonialism, the United States “holds the rest of the world at gunpoint,” as Chairman Omali Yeshitela says. Chairman created the political theory of African Internationalism, summing up that “capitalism was born parasitic,” coming into life from the white world colonizing and feasting on the blood of African people and from the people of the so-called Americas, Asia and the so-called Middle East.
The African Revolution is key to ending colonial domination around the world.
As the last point in the African People’s Socialist Party’s 14-Point Platform states, quoting African revolutionary Kwame Nkrumah:
“We believe that ‘the total liberation and unification of Africa under an All-African socialist government must be the primary objective of all Black revolutionaries throughout the world. It is an objective which, when achieved, will bring about the fulfillment of the aspirations of Africans and people of African descent everywhere. It will, at the same time, advance the triumph of the international socialist revolution, and the onward progress toward communism, under which every society is ordered on the principle of — from each according to his (her) ability, to each according to his (her) needs.’”
“African people have to resist in order to live!” says Omali Yeshitela
Already experiencing genocide, our conditions under colonialism are only growing worse as white power uses COVID-19 against us. As usual, imperialism attempts to solve its crisis by imposing the brunt of its impact on colonized peoples.
According to the BBC, in Occupied Azania (South Africa), “the unemployment rate— already at 30 percent—is expected to rise significantly by December, with some economists suggesting it could hit 50 percent.”
Already suffering from the destruction of economic development in our communities, even the jobs we have serving white people are under assault by white power.
An August 15 article on AfricaNews.com raises that:
“Sierra Leone already had a dire record on children’s health before coronavirus struck. According to the United Nations, one in five children dies before reaching age five. Malnutrition, which leaves children more vulnerable to disease and infection, is a leading cause of death.[…] ‘Sixty to 80 percent of the patients we treat are malaria positive,’ says MSF doctor Mamadu Laine during a visit to the village of Manokortuhun. […] He added that the health system is strained and needs more investment to fight malaria. ‘ It continues to cause suffering and dismantle families,’ he stressed.”
White power is torturing us and dismantling our families and communities. We have no choice but to resist!
The African Socialist International, the association of African People’s Socialist Party organizations around the world, has assumed the tasks of:
- Liberating and uniting Africa under a single, all African socialist State.
- Uniting, coordinating and giving general assistance and direction for the revolutionary struggles of all African people wherever they occur and whenever the aims of such struggles are consistent with the aims of the international socialist association.
- Achieving the objective consolidation of African nationality for all African people wherever we are oppressed and exploited throughout the world due to the machinations of imperialism.
These tasks put into practice the APSP slogan “Black people united will never be defeated!”
We are defending our children and our entire people!
The African People’s Socialist Party is building our capacity to “feed, clothe and house ourselves!” and create our own economic development, education, childcare and healthcare systems.
Our programs, and the programs of our sister organizations, include over 50 economic institutions, and are far from limited to:
- Black Power Blueprint economic development and community programs in St. Louis, MO
- Project Black Ankh emergency response organization and tele-health program by the All African People’s Development and Empowerment Project
- Virtual homeschool curriculum and after school programs
- Community gardens across the U.S.
- Buy Black Power program for African-owned businesses that contribute to empowering our community
- African National Women’s Organization addressing the special oppression of African women and families
- Uhuru Foods & Pies building “black community control of food, food production and distribution.”
We are already building the base of a new and liberated African State, providing us with the power to govern and defend ourselves and our children. We must seize this opportunity if we are to see freedom in our lifetime and create a future for our children!
Join the African People’s Socialist Party at apspuhuru.org
Long live the African Revolution!
Defend our African children!
Uhuru!
