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In 1983, Audre Lorde wrote <https://lgbt.ucsd.edu/education/oppressions.html> that, "among those of us who share the goals of liberation and a workable future for our children, there can be no hierarchies of oppression," and that the act of placing oppressions on a scale of hierarchal importance is an oppressive act in itself. Of course, most on the left -- particularly those in Western countries who espouse anti-imperialist, antiwar, anti-colonial politics -- would agree with this in theory, but many seem to fall short of this analysis of anti-hierarchal political sentiment when it comes to the continent of Africa. There seems to be a deficit of caring -- or rather, caring enough to self-educate, research and act -- within the Western left on the current movements, histories and activism within African countries. …………….. As we begin to peel back the layers of this hierarchical placement of importance and solidarity, we must understand that it involves not only the current events that are allowed to dominate public leftist discourse, but also the histories and movements commonly studied and revered as well. While many can name the works of Marx, Gramsci, Foucault, Luxemburg, Lenin, Trotsky and other big-name left thinkers, few on the broader US left can name more than a handful of African revolutionaries. Similarly, few take the time to self-educate on the revolutionary uprisings and states which flared in places like Benin <http://www.socialist.net/history-peoples-republic-of-benin.htm>, the DRC <https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jan/17/patrice-lumumba-50th-anniversary-assassination> , Ghana <https://blackopinion.co.za/2017/01/23/revolutionary-lessons-ghana/> , Zanzibar <http://allafrica.com/stories/201201120789.html>, Algeria <http://africasacountry.com/2017/03/the-algerian-revolution-55-years-later/> or Senegal <https://aeon.co/essays/how-cesaire-and-senghor-saw-the-decolonised-world>, and rarely are they familiar with the decolonization work of people like Walter Rodney <https://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Walter-Rodney-Revolutionary-Intellectual-Socialist-Historian-20161013-0021.html> , Frantz Fanon <http://www.aaihs.org/on-frantz-fanon/>, Thomas Sankara <https://thewire.in/13258/remembering-thomas-sankara-the-african-che/> (known as "the African 'Che'"), Patrice Lumumba <https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jan/17/patrice-lumumba-50th-anniversary-assassination> , Steve Biko <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/0/steve-biko-important-south-africa/> , Julius Nyerere <http://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/15/world/julius-nyerere-of-tanzania-dies-preached-african-socialism-to-the-world.html> , Sékou Touré <http://www.blackpast.org/1959-sekou-toure-political-leader-considered-representative-culture> , Kwame Nkrumah <https://www.globalresearch.ca/ghana-and-the-1966-coup-against-kwame-nkrumah-the-role-of-african-americans-in-the-african-revolution/5508043> or Winnie Mandela <http://africasacountry.com/2014/01/winnie-mandela-on-the-exceptionalism-ascribed-to-nelson-mandela/> . The vast histories of modern movements, struggles, revolutionaries and politics on the African continent are nearly erased by the Western left, rarely spoken of except when used to make a cross-point. That is, African countries and their politics are often used and weaponized when making points about imperialism, or China, but never in conversation about the country itself. The lessons we can learn from them and the need to bring attention to their plight are seen as less important, placed lower on the hierarchy of oppression. This lack of caring, or lack of caring enough, reproduces the same white supremacist logic that cast them into their exploitive plights in the first place. As leftist academics and organizers, we have failed our African siblings. http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/42275-does-the-western-left-have-an-african-problem _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
