Chairman Omali Yeshitela with Comrade Johanes P. S. K. Tjitjo
By Comrade Johanes P.S.K. Tjitjo, Chairperson of the Pan Afrikan Centre of Namibia (PACON)
The following statement was made by Comrade Johanes P. S. K. Tjitjo, Chairman of the Pan Afrikan Centre of Namibia (PACON) on May 9, 2006 at PACON House, Windhoek, Namibia.
I consider it a pleasure and an honor indeed to have had the opportunity of meeting one of the sons of the African soil in the person of Comrade Omali Yeshitela. On behalf of myself, the Board of Directors of the Pan Afrikan Centre of Namibia, and indeed the all the patriots of the African Revolution in the Republic of Namibia, I welcome you to Namibia and Windhoek in general, and to PACON in particular.
Your courtesy visit to PACON today should forever serve as a Pan Afrikanistic bond between our progressive organizations, whose primary mission is to help Africa and the Africans to stand tall among the nations of the world, and to reject in totality any liberal or imperialistic notion that Africa is inferior.
Comrade Yeshitela, I consider you a brother, an African brother, a comrade, an African patriot, who has taken upon yourself the great responsibility of uniting all Africans wherever they find themselves. Yes, we are Africans, and Africans we shall die.
It is important for all Africans to sit back and reflect on the conscious schemes, policies and systemic laws of the colonizers that made us second class citizens in the countries of our birth, and made us strangers in our own mother continent. Such reflections should make us even more vigilant, and forge our unity of purpose in all our endeavors, as in unity we find strength.
In the words of the poet David Diop, we should not say “yes to the sjambok (whip) of noon.” We should not create conditions which will allow the forces of greed and avarice to penetrate our houses, our villages, our organizations, our institutions, our countries and indeed our beautiful continent of Africa. It is a shame and an insult to Mother Africa, and more so to those gallant African brothers and sisters who perished at the hands of the imperialists and apartheid colonizers, that there are some Africans who are busy on a daily basis, turning themselves into Europeans! We are Africans, we have to remain Africans and fight our battles as Africans.
I wish, Comrade Yeshitela, to pledge PACON’s continued support in your just cause that was pioneered by Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Kwame Nkrumah, W.E.B. DuBois, Madiba Mandela, Sam Nujoma and all other great African men and women who stood shoulder by shoulder in the greater cause and mission of Pan-Africanism. Welcome Comrade Omali Yeshitela, welcome the African way!
Thank you.
