Say Brother National Edition; African Liberation; 113; Say Brother National Edition: African Liberation

Many people have heard of pan-Africanism as a particular philosophy expounds by many blacks today. Do you know what is Pan-Africanism and what does it hope to achieve for blacks like you and me here and in Africa. Tonight our guest in dealing is my booty. One of the foremost exponents of Pan-Africanism and a well known black poet. Some of his most recent publications are from plan to plan a book of life and we must walk the way of the new world. When we speak about pan-Africanism is very important that we move it out of the room of ideas which are. Concentrated in the heads of a few men and women. And tried to make it become a living reality in terms of people not only in this country but also in the world. Pan-Africanism. As I conceive it conceive of it is that pan of course means one in Africa the oneness of Africa and its people worldwide. A brother by name of our mouth in a book

or two thousand seasons has a very important call with I think speaks to to what I mean. He says that. We the black people are one people we know. Destroyers would travel long distances in their minds and out to deny you this truth. We do not argue with them. The food let them presume to instruct us about ourselves that is in their nature. That too is in the flow of the 2000 seasons against us. One of the best ways to control the people is to control their minds you control the Meiers you get their bodies and of course we have moved essentially from chattel slavery to scientific slavery from open raw slavery to Neo slavery in a sense and you can the minds of people have been controlled mainly by the mass media the mass media. Television is about the most dangerous weapon of the 20th century and therefore has instructed us into becoming Americans are

Americanised. So we talk about pan-Africanism. We're trying to at one level begin to speak much more in depth about our blackness and blackness in a sense is not just a color black and all this very but also speaks to a certain culture a certain way of life and a culture if it is to be a revolutionary culture must give a people a sense of identity that will allow them to of course connect up with other parts of the world and allow them to begin to move with other black people in the world. Culture also gives you a sense of purpose. Why are we here. Are we here to be a doormat for Europeans are we here to to to to work in kitchens to work in bottom management positions in terms of our international corporations. If again that Mozambique and Angola are now moving toward independence it's also significant that in Angola

Three military groups liberating groups cannot come together. And a final show of brotherhood and try to deal with the internal problems. But see it must be understood. That. There exists nowhere in the world today a black man or woman in a position of power influence who has not been trained or educated by white people. So therefore the whole frame of reference is a white frame of reference rather than an African frame of reference and this is important. We have two ways of dealing with people of color. One they either limit you and that is essentially what has happened to the Indian in this country feel or reservation i.e. the date on the back of a nickel. Are there some late you make us white as possible and that is what has happened to us and that is what has happened to many of our brothers and sisters on the continent that were trained in these European American schools. So therefore we've come to try to solve our own problems and make our own decisions.

We are thinking as you were pinned rather than Africans bring in a European frame of reference rather than an African frame of reference to try to solve our problems. So Pan-Africanism as we see it. Is very important because Africa. It is a land base and we speak of people you speak of land Europeans Europe the French France English England and so forth. But when you talk about Negroes How do you speak of. So therefore by the mere fact that we say we are Africans in America. Recognizing that we are part of America too and that cannot be denied it cannot be denied that the culture of America the coach of the white West does not infuse itself in us and therefore we act in many cases like white people. But doesn't that does not mean it is correct and is what we are trying to define for ourselves the correct way to move as a people. So therefore the land becomes very important. Now one of the things that has not been realized in terms of Africa is the potential for food production. You know

why boys talk about our population in the world. Underpopulated eight point five. People per kilometer. When we talk about you every time I point something you talk about if you're talking sixty five point something for kilometers. So Africa is actually under populated. There's no population problem there. There may be problems in terms of food production in certain areas but we talk about the totality of Africa the potential for the production of food is unlimited as well as all the other natural resources. So everybody else in the world has something to say about that except African people in Africa and in the diaspora. And so therefore we start talking about the future everybody else in the future in Africa set ourselves. We see the future in a single dual inhouse on a lot of too small and maybe drabness of pan-Africanism speaks for self-determination at every level of human involvement politically economically and

culturally at every level and this is where we have to begin to move toward not only in the international level but the local level and we're not satisfied needs and aspirations at the local level. It is futile to talk about the national level or the international level and that must be made very clear that we have to always keep our eye on what is happening locally. We're satisfied locally as a people and then begin to move nationally and then internationally. I think this is what kind of isn't me. We begin to talk about it in a very substantive way. Three hundred eighty five freed slaves of Virginia planter John Randolph came to

Mercer County Ohio and 1830 to. Declaim the tracks of land he promised them in his will only to find that his relatives had seized the land and to face the hostility of white settlers in the area. However. Other white settlers a nearby peak Well Ohio decided to split the ex-slaves transportation cost among themselves and provide work for them. Many of the ex-slaves stayed in Ohio while others migrated to Indiana each year they held a reunion in 1901. Their descendants formed the roundoff slave society. In one thousand one in one thousand No.2 Jimmy Winkfield was the last black jockey to win the Kentucky Derby. The sport of horse racing had long been dominated by black jockeys but by the early 1900s as the sport became big business the whites who controlled it insisted that only whites ride the horses. The last black empire in Africa before British and Dutch colonizers came was located in South Africa. For years. Shaka and a Zulu

armies held off British takeovers the last rebellion by the Barway peoples and 19 0 2 was unsuccessful. The United States government and African nations have had a multitude of ties over the years going back to the establishment of Liberia as a country for emancipated slaves. With many international alliances being altered it is important to look at America's position on a number of issues. Well finally important to black Americans Africans and all men of good will. The desire for self determination will continue to be of the most important until all of Africa is free. The struggle in Angola Mozambique and Guinea Bissau are examples of successful wars of national liberation. As is Vietnam the United States government through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

supplied Portugal with napalm and phosphorous bombs planes and helicopters that were used in an attempt to quassia the liberation movements in Portuguese controlled parts of Africa. At the same time our tax dollars were going to put down these movements. The U.S. official position on paper was one of self-determination for the Portuguese colonies in Angola. The United States government also allowed more than 250 million dollars worth of investments by American businesses. It is hard not to believe that the U.S. weapons and business ventures did not help to prolong the bloody fighting in that country. In the diplomatic world of the United Nations the U.S. voted no on a resolution commending Guinea-Bissau on gaining its independence. There are many differences of opinion between countries in Africa but one subject

can always gain consensus and that is the end of the white supremacist governments of South Africa and Rhodesia. In the case of these countries the United States was one of a handful of countries voting against a United Nations resolution declaring apartheid a crime United States business investments in South Africa now total more than 900 million dollars. Yet in 1974 the United States House of Representatives feel to enact legislation which would have enabled poor African nations to borrow from the World Bank. We must begin to see ourselves as the 30 million person plus lobbying group. We need to pressure Congress and the president to develop a new policy toward Africa and the developing world which will aid in their advancement

not in their destruction. You know one thing is this as the sun comes up in the morning is that the world is being drawn closer together. You my SO and I why should I really have much concern about Africa because I don't know any African or whatever it may be. We are as a concept in the end. And why this must be so easy.