JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA–This trip differs from the two previous ones we made at the invitation of the Panafricanist Congress of
Azania in 2002 and 2004, for various reasons:
1. This time we are going there to forward the 2013 African People’s Socialist Party’s 6th congress mandate to build the Africa Socialist International (ASI) in critical areas across the African nation.
2. The forces on the ground we are now dealing with are the post-apartheid generation—now living under neo-colonialism—who were about 10 years old on our first visit. It is their coming into political consciousness that we are dealing with.
3. The imperialist crisis in South Africa has worsened since our last visits.
4. The balance of power in the world has been shifting away from white power to the benefit of China, India, Russia and other countries.
5. The African National Congress’(ANC) daily loss of credibility is threatening the stability and future of neocolonialist regimes in the whole of Southern Africa.
6. The rise of African Internationalism in the world.
We went there with a clear mission to engage all outdated philosophies and wrong concepts that have been pushed into the people’s brains by either the white bourgeoisie or the African petty bourgeoisie.
We as African Internationalists are opposed to the Pan Africanism of Jacob Zuma, Museveni and others as we are fighting for black political power in the hands of the African working class and not the African petty bourgeoisie.
It came as no surprise that the question of Pan Africanism was one of the issues consistently raised and discussed during our organizing efforts.
Here are summaries of some of the points discussed in the Mini Intensive Study and the public meetings we conducted in South Africa.
We were asked, “Why don’t we consolidate power in one country, like in Ethiopia for example, then you can build from there? The idea of one Africa will not work, because Europe did not consolidate in one state when they successfully attacked Africa. They came separately.”
First, Ethiopia was not and is not a black power State. Europe’s assault on Africa was not an isolated work of a single European entity.
The whole white people in the west joined forces in the conquest of Africa, the Americas and other places.
Europe’s assault on Africa is how the concept of white people emerged.
It was a collective work, it does not matter if at different points it was led by Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, etc.
Europe’s assault on Africa is how the world economy was hooked up and how industrialization came into being in Europe, North America, etc.
Europe’s assault on Africa is how the white nation States were born.
It was slavery and the colonization of Africa, the Americas, the Middle East and other places that gave white people a common purpose, identity and economy.
That sense of sameness requires white unity against the rest of us even today.
History teaches us that all imperialist white power States attacked Haiti to punish her for militarily defeating French slavery.
We can only regain our freedom as one people, since we lost our freedom as one people—not as one ethnic group or a country, but as a people.
When we win freedom in one place, it is only valid if it is a conscious ASI front of one African revolution.
Our freedom must be a qualitative black freedom that brings the demise of white power imperialism.
What is the difference between Nkrumah and Gaddafi? Are you seeking a Continental State or Black Africa State?
When Gaddafi came to power, Nkrumah was already overthrown.
Nkrumah came to power as a panafricanist through the power of the people.
He won every single electoral contest from the 1950s until he was overthrown. Gaddafi came to power in a coup. Nkrumah lost power in a coup.
Nkrumah was a panafricanist who died as a socialist.
He led the struggle against direct white power in the ‘50s and ‘60s.
He made Ghana the transit point off all freedom fighters against direct colonialism when he was in power.
He wrote a lot on how to move the process of African liberation and unification, particularly after he had lost power. Gaddafi was not a socialist.
He is remembered for being a promoter of Arab unity, before becoming a strong advocate of African unity.
He supported anyone he could win to increase his own influence. This included Bokassa, Idi Amin, Charles Taylor, Compaore (Sankara’s murderer), Mandela etc.
He promoted Arab unity before becoming a panafricanist who called African heads of States to unite and build the United States of Africa.
Nkrumah and Gaddafi are both victims of white imperialists’ continuous assault on Africa self-determination.
The fundamental difference between the two is that Nkrumah after he lost power began calling for a struggle led by African workers and peasants.
Gaddafi never called for the African workers to lead the struggle for unification and liberation.
Gaddafi came to power in the era of neocolonialism, and never contributed on how to advance the struggle against neocolonialism.
Nkrumah wrote a book on neocolonialism: “The Last Stage of Imperialism.”
We are seeking a continental State
Africa is our homeland—not just the sub-Saharan Africa. The whole of Africa is our land.
Anyone who lives in Africa has to fight for a liberated and unified Africa as an African.
That is true for Arabs, whites and Indian peoples too! There is only one Africa—One African revolution!
Minority populations have to commit national suicide
Our mission is to bring a new world order that will allow the emergence of a world rid of the split between oppressors and oppressed, slaves and slave masters.
Our struggle is not about race, but national liberation
We understand the contradiction that exists between us and Arabs. Contradictions between oppressed peoples, however, are secondary contradictions compared to contradictions between the African nation and white power imperialist nation.
A victory over oppressed Arab peoples will not free African people. A conflict between oppressed African and other oppressed peoples would weaken the both of us to the benefit of white power.
How to deal with the fact that most of leaders in the world are men?
The truth of the matter is that you are looking at the bourgeoisie and African petty bourgeoisie leaders in an imperialist world order. Their role is to maintain a worldwide oppressive/exploitative order built and maintained on genocide, slavery and colonialism.
There cannot be equality in a system where men, women and children of oppressed peoples are routinely executed under the guise of law and order.
The struggle against imperialist order addresses the equality between men and women.
We believe in equality between men and women in our organization. That is why I travelled to Occupied Azania with comrade Makda Johannes who is a leader of the in the African People’s Socialist Party.
Comrade Makda is the ASI Europe leader
Just as women are leaders in our Party, they will be leaders in our new world order. It was she who presented on the role of Africa women in the revolution, at one of our meetings.
The struggle against the oppression of African women is different from the struggle of Hillary Clinton for women rights.
Clinton is a feminist. She is fighting for the right to lead the worldwide imperialist system, the right to be in charge of F16, drones and Apaches, to murder oppressed peoples in Africa, Afghanistan and Syria etc. We are opposed to that!
Build the African Socialist International!
