Chen:
Very interesting article indeed.. Thanx for the piece.
Matek
Note: forwarded message attached.
Note: forwarded message attached.
Yahoo! Mail Mobile
Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Check email on your mobile phone.
--- Begin Message ---
In Defense of Pan-Africanism and Socialism
By Chen Chimutengwende
Centuries after the abolition of slavery and decades
after the end of colonialism in most parts of the
world, black people all over the world remain more
oppressed and exploited than any other peoples of the
world. Africa, the main centre of the Black World, is
one of the richest regions of the world and yet most
of its people are the poorest on earth. As a result,
Africa remains a social, cultural, political and
economic catastrophe which is continuously and
dangerously getting worse!
The reason is that Africa’s resources are used
mainly for the benefit of European and North American
capitalist whites and their local African quislings.
In most African countries today, this system operates
mainly through the western local quislings or puppet
allies who are the collaborationist, oppressive,
corrupt and capitalistic African ruling elites. These
elites include politicians, business people and
professionals who consciously or unconsciously, and
directly or indirectly support the global white system
of anti-black racism, capitalism and imperialism.
The answer to slavery, racism and colonialism was what
may be termed as the First Liberation Struggle of
Africa and the Black World was based on Pan-Africanism
and was victorious. But the enemy came back with more
sophisticated forms of racism, neo-colonialism,
imperialism, class exploitation and globalisation. The
only answer to all this is for black people to
continue the struggle in the form of an equally
sophisticated Second Liberation Struggle of Africa and
the Black World. This should be based on revolutionary
Pan-Africanism and socialism as advocated by Kwame
Nkrumah.
The immediate objective of the Second Liberation
Struggle should be the urgent establishment and the
speedy socio-economic development of a Socialist
United New Africa which is sometimes referred to as
the United States of Africa. This will transform
Africa into being the main base for the total
liberation of the rest of the Black World. Africa
should also serve as a major and secure base for the
new global socialist revolution. Its past and present
circumstances give it a great potential for playing
such a historic and revolutionary role.
If black people want to be progressive and move
forward, they should not forget their past which is
rich in revolutionary experience, heroism, wisdom and
dedication. It also fully exposes the evils of
capitalism and imperialism. Black people should
therefore fully use their past as a source of
knowledge, wisdom, identity, confidence and
inspiration. It is always wise for human beings to
learn from their past experience. Lessons from past
experience are useful when planning for the future.
Black struggles in Africa and all other parts of the
world have always been inter-linked and
inseparable-hence the existence of and the need for
Pan-Africanism which is mainly concerned with global
black unity and liberation. International imperialism
and capitalism of the modern era require a Second
Liberation Struggle which is aimed at transforming the
continent of Africa into a fully liberated zone. This
will be a powerful and dependable base for both the
current and future struggles for total global
liberation from racism and capitalism. This takes into
account the fact that the enemy of black liberation is
both internal and external.
In the black liberation struggle, Pan-Africanism is
there to continuously re-inspire and re-energise the
process. It continuously inculcates the spirit of
international black nationalism among black people as
a discriminated and oppressed people internationally.
This is essential to their unity in the struggle.
Pan-Africanism served as the dynamic and driving force
for the black liberation struggle during the colonial
era.
If revolutionary Pan-Africanism is fully adhered to,
it can also be a very effective guide and
mobilisational instrument for the current and future
struggles against anti-black white racism,
neo-colonialism and imperialism in Africa and the
Black World. This struggle will bring about economic
and cultural independence from western imperialism,
and it should also be for socio-economic human rights,
democracy and socialism.
The Second Liberation Struggle gives strong and active
support to, and also seeks effective and maximum
solidarity from the international movement of
anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist and socialist
forces. It also needs to give unwavering solidarity to
anti-imperialist governments in any part of the world
like those of Zimbabwe, Cuba and Venezuela. It should
strongly fight against the demonisation, ostracisation
and the regime-change measures by the West which are
targeted at such governments.
The proposed Socialist United New Africa will fully
incorporate and involve Diasporan Africans in its
organisational structures, socio-economic development
processes and all other programmes of action. But
these have to be people who are committed to
revolutionary Pan-Africanism and anti-imperialism. The
same criterion should also apply to continental
Africans who work for or are involved with the African
Union.
Africa needs Diasporan Africans in its liberation and
development processes. Diasporan Africans also need
Africa as their ancestral homeland and global base.
They need such a base at the international level. This
global base is essential to their own liberation and
socio-economic empowerment where ever they may be
residing in the world. Therefore the best way forward
to the true and practical Pan-Africanist unity is to
increase the regions of the African Union by one or
two which would be allocated to the African Diaspora.
Revolutionary Pan-Africanists need to tirelessly and
unflinchingly promote the speedy development of the
African Union and its transformation into a Socialist
United New Africa. The envisaged United New Africa
will be powerful, anti-racist, anti-capitalist,
anti-imperialist, socialist, independent,
self-reliant, incorruptible, prosperous and
democratic.
It will be totally committed to a full comprehensive
human rights system which includes cultural,
political, gender and economic rights. This is opposed
to the capitalist human rights system which is
selective and is there to largely protect the
interests and allies of capitalism internationally.
In order to reach this revolutionary destination, the
Second Liberation Struggle must therefore be based on
Pan-Africanism, socialism and class struggle as
advocated by Africa’s foremost revolutionary and
modern Pan-Africanist theoreticians and practitioners
like Kwame Nkrumah. His numerous published works are
very clear on these issues.
This is why revolutionary Pan-Africanists believe, and
correctly so, that total black liberation and
comprehensive socio-economic human rights cannot be
fully achieved in a country which is under the
capitalist system. This is because capitalism, by its
very nature, essentially depends on racism, class
exploitation, bribery and all other forms of
corruption, neo-colonialism, imperialism and
militarism for its survival and growth as a system.
Therefore true liberation can only be fully achieved
under a socialist system that is based on class
struggle.
It is true that socialism is the only serious
alternative to capitalism. It is also the only force
that can defeat neo-colonialism in economic,
political, cultural and in all other relevant fields.
Socialism is the system which can seriously be engaged
in a planned and systematic movement for the speedy
reduction and eventual elimination of mass poverty,
squalor, unemployment, illiteracy, corruption,
injustice, rural neglect and ethnic wars. It can
decisively confront HIV/AIDS and other endemic
diseases.
Socialism has the capacity and the will to solve these
problems because it is based on state or collective
planning for the public good. But contrary to this,
capitalism promotes and protects selfishness and
individualism. It is based on individual planning for
personal or private profit. Capitalism has therefore
no capacity nor the genuine intention to solve such
problems.
Indeed the experience of black people in their
struggle against slavery, colonialism, racism,
capitalism and imperialism show that Pan-Africanism is
essential as a guide and a mobilisational instrument
in that liberation struggle. But the issue that arises
is how to prevent the exploitation of blacks by other
blacks after the First Liberation Struggle, that is,
during the post-colonial era. The blacks who exploit
and oppress the rest of the black population are the
ruling elites which control the state machinery and
are therefore protected by that state machinery. They
operate usually as allies of international imperialism
which also protects them at the international level.
After independence, the question of a black
capitalistic class controlling the state and
exploiting the people for its own benefit and that of
international imperialism has to be addressed. The
objective is to ensure that liberation remains true
liberation. The nature of capitalism as a permanent
enemy requires a permanent revolutionary process and
that permanent revolutionary process can only be
socialist.
Some of the issues that are central to socialism are
the ownership and control of the means of production,
distribution, exchange, and who controls the state and
the socialisation process, and for the benefit of
which class interests. Socialism also upholds the
principles of class struggle and proletarian
internationalism.
These issues are crucial in any society but they are
not handled by Pan-Africanism because of its
nationalist focus which is for the unity of all
classes against the external enemy. At the same time,
and in this age of racism and imperialism,
Pan-Africanism and socialism are complementary to each
other in the black liberation struggle.
Pan-Africanism, for historical reasons, is a necessary
stage in the black liberation process. In other
words, Pan-Africanism must lead to socialism if
liberation is to remain a true and permanent
liberatory process.
Where Pan-Africanism does not lead to socialism,
capitalistic elites will be free to take-over the
state, empower themselves and consolidate their power
to oppress and exploit their own people. This is what
has happened in most African states. These elites
govern the countries concerned usually with the
support and protection of western imperialists.
Indeed some will say that socialism is a discredited
and an out-dated ideology. Historically, such people
have never said anything positive about socialism. It
shows who they are and on what side they are.
Obviously socialism has been ruthlessly vilified by
its enemies who are capitalists and advocates of
capitalism. Naturally, true socialists do not listen
to or take the advice of capitalists and their allies
and puppets.
It is also the duty of socialists themselves to
continuously and thoroughly expose the evils of
capitalism. However, it is important to note that
capitalist forces currently control more mass
communication media systems internationally than
socialists. This is indeed a temporary historical
phase which is advantageous to capitalists. But this
will certainly come to pass sooner or later.
There are some leaders or countries which at one stage
or another may have described themselves as socialist.
But they may have failed to implement socialism. This
may be because they were defeated by internal
counter-revolutionary forces and/or external
imperialist forces, or it may have been due to other
circumstances beyond their control, or because some of
them were simply pseudo-socialists who, in the first
place, were
never sincerely committed to scientific socialism. It
is therefore totally illogical to say, as a principle,
that if some other people failed in doing something in
the past, nobody else can succeed in doing the same
thing in future.
If a socialist leader or a country fails, or is made
to fail to implement socialism or simply betrays it,
that does not mean socialism itself as a system has
failed or that it is an ideology which is impossible
to implement. Socialists take all that as battle
defeats which does not mean the whole war has been
lost. The socialist journey is indeed a long march
with many ups and downs, deviations, betrayals and
battle defeats. But that does not stop the march of
socialism. In fact it is the very existence itself of
racist oppression, exploitation and imperialism that
guarantees the victory of the socialist war against
capitalism.
Therefore the collapse of the Soviet Union and the
change of course by some other countries or leaders is
taken in this context. It is also important to note
that an extensive re-grouping and the resurgence of
socialist forces world-wide are currently taking
place. They are re-strategising for major global
revolutionary initiatives.
But it must also be emphasised that like with any
other system, socialist theory and practice need to be
continuously developed and adapted to the ever
changing times or circumstances for socialism to
remain alive and relevant. It is therefore not meant
to be a dogmatic ideology.
It is important to carry out extensive research,
debate, networking and mass communication work dealing
with both theoretical and practical lessons which
should be learned from the negative and positive
experiences of the international socialist movement.
There are many organisations all over the world like
the United New Africa Global Network (UNAGN) which are
seriously concerned with these issues. (Please visit
its website at: www.unitednewafrica.com)
Many black people seriously suffer from mental
colonisation. They need to be freed from this bondage
so that they may be able to make an objective analysis
of and thus be free to accept Pan-Africanism and
socialism. This means a strong fight has to be
mounted against colonial mentality or the brainwashing
of black people by the West, especially the
“educated”.
Colonial mentality results in self-hate, inferiority
complex, lack of confidence, political hopelessness,
apathy, cynism, confusion, conscious or unconscious
pro-white puppetism and political parroting. This
makes them support capitalism consciously or
unconsciously. Propaganda, brainwashing and colonial
mentality are an essential instrument of the West in
the oppression and exploitation of black people, all
peoples of the developing countries and the working
and professional classes internationally.
It also makes it difficult for them to understand who
the enemy is and the nature of that enemy, which is
capitalism. It further makes it difficult for them to
understand and accept the real alternative to
capitalism which is socialism and the need for
Pan-Africanism. Colonial mentality simply makes them
have a mental blockage when it comes to these issues.
The blockage has just to be removed. This must also to
be done as one of the starting points of the Second
Liberation Struggle.
The only answer to mental colonisation is a process of
mental de-colonisation which requires a massive
re-education exercise together with specific
information and mass communication campaigns in Africa
and internationally.
This also requires the urgent creation of a powerful,
pro-black, patriotic, anti-capitalist,
anti-imperialist and socialist mass media system which
will be exclusively funded and controlled by
revolutionary Pan-Africanists internationally, and
without any involvement or influence of the West or
the white “donors”. The proposed
Pan-Africanist media system will have to be
well-funded and highly sophisticated in order for it
to be able to effectively counter the propaganda of
the anti-black white racist, capitalist and
imperialist international media.
It is crucial that the African Union should support
the Second Liberation Struggle. The African Union has
to play a role that is supportive of this struggle if
it is going to be part of the solution. It is
important for the African Union to work in conjunction
with the effective, numerous, varied and independent
groups, organisations and institutions which are
Pan-Africanist and anti-imperialist.
It is out of such Pan-Africanist and anti-imperialist
forces that a global movement for the Second
Liberation Struggle for Africa and the Black World
will emerge. It will be an independent movement of
independent movements. This will also need a highly
efficient international research outfit as a back-up
structure and a secretariat which will encourage and
facilitate research, the flow of information,
communication, networking and co-ordination.
(Feedback: [EMAIL PROTECTED])
Discover Yahoo!
Have fun online with music videos, cool games, IM and more. Check it out!
http://discover.yahoo.com/online.html
Mwananchi is an open forum that discusses/updates you on the latest news in Africa. It is a group that is made up of 900 members worldwide. To join it simply go to http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/mwananchi
Yahoo! Groups Links
- To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mwananchi/
- To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
--- End Message ---
_______________________________________________ Ugandanet mailing list [email protected] http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
