Inclusion will not cut it. Africa and all oppressed people need independence from this genocidal system.
On September 26, 2019, African National Women’s Organization (ANWO) members Connie and Lungie, accompanied by the Chairman of African People’s Socialist Party-Azania Tafarie and brother Guilty, an International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) member, attended the Pride Parade that was hosted in Sandton City, the so-called richest square mile in Africa.
As the Uhuru Movement, we felt the need to attend this event as it is our interest to intervene in struggles waged against oppression in order to put revolution on the agenda.
Revolutionaries understand that all African people must be freed from all forms of oppression, including reactionary and backward treatment based on foreign bourgeois moralities.
When we landed on the scene of what was more of a party with alcohol and all sorts of intoxicating beverages, we had to find a way to at least reach those attendants who were interested in a discussion beyond what was happening at the event.
The reality of what all people are faced with is a system that was born from taking away the freedom and humanity of entire peoples.
The Uhuru Movement is interested in intervening in struggles waged against oppression, and that is the reason we ended up in Sandton where we would normally never set foot with the intention of winning anyone.
The parade’s character offered no struggle against oppression
However, it must be said that in Sandton, the Joburg pride parade was no struggle against oppression.
Instead what was demonstrated from all angles was unity with parasitic capitalism—unity with the oppressors.
The parade is an event organized by capitalists and supported by people who the organizers refer to as the LGBTQIA+ME community to advocate for the freedoms of all African “LGBTQIA+ME” identities.
The theme of the event was “celebrating the pride of Africa” with the slogan “there are no borders here—pride is proudly African, and authentically you.”
The parade was endorsed and sponsored by the city of Sandton (the headquarters of the imperialists in Occupied Azania) and a number of other imperialist and capitalist businesses. Those include Google, BP, Steers, Castle Lite and many other companies that flourish on the pedestal of our oppression.
Basically, the event was sponsored by key companies that are responsible for the draining of African resources, both human and material.
The real pride of Africa is in the fight for power for African masses
The real “pride of Africa,” which calls for nothing but revolution, lies in its fight for political and economic power in the hands of the African masses.
No amount of inclusion from the imperialists can ever restore the pride of Africa.
African Revolution is what will guarantee the freedom of all oppressed people, including trans and same gender loving people.
This is the reason that we pointed out to the people, who we were able to talk to, that the reason that in Africa there are over 30 countries where being homosexual is a crime is not because this is African. Rather, it is an indication of the prevalence of colonialism in our homeland.
The countries themselves are a means of population and resource control and oppressing the people who must free themselves.
Even though we are not in unity with the parade itself, we wanted to make it emphatically clear that the African People’s Socialist Party is opposed to all forms of oppression, including the oppression of trans and same gender loving people.
However, the struggles of the so-called African LGBTQIA+ME community should be in unity with the struggles of the African working class and poor peasantry, which cannot be overlooked by any true freedom fighter.
Freedom for African LGBTQIA+ME is in African freedom from colonialism
There is no true freedom for any African under the system of parasitic capitalism.
No struggle can be truly solved without the knowledge of the base that these struggles are rooted in.
True freedom will come as a result of every sector of the African nation organizing to overthrow this social system built on our backs.
Every African must organize for the emancipation of all Africans at home and abroad, under the leadership of the black poor and working class.
African people cannot afford to suffer again at the hands of the cruel imperialists for the sake of inclusion and solidarity.
We don’t need inclusion. We need the total overturning of the system so that all oppressed peoples can be free and not just a sector of it.
African people do not need street-bash parades in the headquarters of imperialism.
Africans do not need funders operating in the big arena of capitalism at the expense of Africa and Africans.
We are revolutionaries informed by the theory of African Internationalism, who understand and unite with the struggles of trans and same gender loving people for the right to be who they want to be without dictation and criticism from anyone.
Trans and same gender loving people, just like all victims of colonialism and imperialism, suffer at the hands of the global colonial-capitalist system where the government feels justified to declare certain things lawful and right and everything else that does not serve it as unlawful and immoral.
Join the Uhuru Movement, and engage in the struggle to tie our individual struggles with the overall struggle to end all aggregations by our oppressors and their backwards ideas and laws.
Uhuru!
