17 July 2010 By Reason Wafawarova PAN-AFRICANIST writers and nationalist activists
who take on the evils of Eurocentric imperialism
sometimes leave the unintended impression that
Africans are a passive people who are totally
manipulated by a Eurocentric structure, and who are
created totally by the white devil. There is a need for us Africans to examine
ourselves and see to what extent we have participated
in the creation of this monster we call imperialism
today. We must look at the type of leadership we have
provided and how it has complemented in the
maintenance of the imperial status quo. We must look at the responsibilities that we have
avoided, disregarded or ignored, and we must look at
the opportunities that we have missed and continue to
miss as a people. We need to look at the assimilationist leadership
that we have permitted to lead post-independent Africa
and to represent us in the world of today. This is a kind of leadership that has for long had
its face turned outward, towards the European, towards
the white man — a leadership that pays scant attention
to the education of the re-socialisation of our
people. It is a leadership that believes that it can
convert the white man for the better of the African. We are here talking of a leadership that not only
misguidedly seeks assimilation into the Eurocentric
system, but is also madly involved in the alms race
that has seen all manner of donor agencies scrambling
for Africa in the post-Cold War era. In fact, all but one of the African states that are
lauded in the West as "emerging democracies" have
their annual budgets made up of more than 50 percent
in donor aid. The only exception is South Africa. Ghana, Malawi, Kenya, Botswana, Ethiopia, Burundi,
Rwanda and Mozambique are just some of the examples
that come to mind. We have an African leadership that commits all its
energy in trying to convert the white man to be a
better partner with Africa, and doing all in their
power not to offend the Western donor and investor —
instead of, in part, using that energy for converting
ourselves as a people. There is power in self-transformation as noted by
Chancellor James Williams (The Destruction of Black
Consciousness), and the way we think, the way we
behave, helps in creating the kind of victimisation
from which we suffer. Amos N. Wilson (The Falsification of Afrikan
Consciousness), writes, "The oppressive configuration
the White man has assumed in relationship to the Black
man is in good part the result of the fact that we
have permitted ourselves to remain in a complementary
subordinate configuration conducive to his oppressive
designs." The imperialist Westerner cannot be what he is in
Africa today unless we are what we are as a people. The best way to transform the imperialist Westerner
is through self-transformation on the part of us the
victims of this imperialism. We must take responsibility for that part of our
personality, that part of our community, and that part
of ourselves over which we have control. We need to
change that part for our own good. We must not even worry about changing the white man
because he can only change for his own interests; not
for ours. If we change those parts of ourselves that
allow the white man to dominate us, then we will be
able to change this man. African leaders who engage the white man with a
view to convert him for our own better are the biggest
problem Africa has today. The practice has misled us
for the past 54 years and it is time we gave it up. Meles Zenawi is confronted with threats of
withdrawal of Western aid for failing to impress
Western opinion over elections in Ethiopia, Bingu wa
Mutharika is threatened with withdrawal of Western aid
for allowing Malawian values to precede over a Western
sponsored campaign for homosexuality, and Zimbabwe is
told to get rid of its leader, President Mugabe, if
ever Western aid is to flow into the country. This is
the Africa we live in today. Zenawi tells Western donors to keep their money if
they will, Mutharika capitulates and pulls out
convicted homosexuals from jail, and President Mugabe
maintains that Westerners can go hang because Zimbabwe
is a sovereign country, and will not allow the West to
impose its preferred leadership on the people. But where is the African Union’s voice? Where is
the African blueprint for economic independence from
these unrepentant subjugators? When are we going to be
free from Western aid? When are we going to realise
that the alms race is no different in effect to the
race for African slaves and the race for colonies that
followed it? The rehabilitation of the African into a
self-respecting and self-reliant global citizen will
only be realised by giving up the Westerner and
forgetting about him and his influence. Social workers
and psychologists deal with abused children and crazy
people who often blame their parental backgrounds for
their predicament. You see people sobbing on television and saying,
"my parents never loved me, they rejected me, they
never hugged me, they never provided for me, they
preferred the other child..." We see these people together with television
presenters blaming abusive parents and waiting for
them to change. Reality is that even if abusive
parents changed, the victims will still remain abused
or crazy, whatever the case. All that happens is that energy dissipated waiting
to change abusive parents has been diverted, and the
energy needed for self-change has atrophied, and
therefore, even when the opportunity to get over the
whole predicament presents itself the personality is
unable to take advantage of it. It is time we Africans must examine ourselves and
see to what extent we have contributed to our own
madness, demise, oppression and powerlessness. If Zimbabwe has a potential to generate over US$2
billion per year in diamond trade alone, what excuse
other than stupidity can be given for failing to take
advantage of this opportunity? Part of the problem of African dependency is not
what the Westerner has done or continues to do in the
former colonies. A part of it is how Africans react to
the actions of the Westerner. The problem is not so much that the Westerner says
we are inferior, and that we are hopeless; that the
European maligns our character, or demeans our
collective personality. It is the belief on our part
that what the Westerner says is true that drives us
crazy as a people. We trade back a crazy reaction for the abuses that
come with imperialism. Sometimes we engage ourselves into an insane and
unthinking kind of approach to dealing with the
actions of the Westerner. The crazy reaction is a reaction of rage, and we
find a lot of rage in our students, in our youths, and
in most of our people: and this is a rage that
distorts reality, it distorts our capacity and our
creativity. It distorts our potential to unite and it
kills the very mechanism that can get us out of our
sorry economic predicament. We are faced with a situation where our people are
smitten by this Herculean image of the white man that
they often are limited to the options solely provided
by the actions of the Westerner. We have our people who think they can only become
what the imperial Westerner says, or they can become
better just to prove the imperialist Westerner wrong. Both reactions are tied up to the Westerner. To
this end, the African bourgeoisie is as much a
creation of the Western legacy as the African criminal
or vagabond. They are all products of reactionary styles, and
they are all a means by which various people try to
deal with imperial oppression. Often we have our people thinking that there are
only two options to deal with the perception of the
imperial Westerner; it is either you confirm his
stereotypes or you overachieve to prove him wrong. If reactions of rage, of hatred, and of vengeance
are not permitted to capture our personality, to
consume our consciousness and attention, then perhaps
we can assume other workable alternatives — and these
must be alternatives that ignore and disregard the
existence of the imperial Westerner. We cannot continue to deny our own shortcomings; to
deny the criminality on a certain segment of our own
people, and we cannot keep helping in maintaining
Western hegemony by subscribing to the doctrine of the
alms race targeted at our own continent. There are no less than 2 500 Western NGOs stationed
in Zimbabwe alone today, and their calling is in the
name of philanthropy and human charity, but their
mission is to maintain the African position as
dependant on the Eurocentric imperial system. For failing to confront forthrightly the issues and
circumstances we find ourselves in economically as
Africans we must hold ourselves responsible. We have
been independent for decades now, with South Africa as
the youngest nation at 16 years old, and Ghana as the
oldest at 54. Our situation is not getting any better in terms of
economic development for our people. We have a
leadership that seems to refuse to confront the
circumstances right before our 53 member countries. We must hold ourselves responsible for the madness,
disorganisation and apathy that flows from our
leadership. We have to hold ourselves responsible for not
capturing economic and social control of our
communities, and for abandoning the vision of Pan-Africanism
that was started by the founding fathers of African
independence, for failing to build up our brains, for
failing to study, to read, to write, to organise, to
develop and to provide for ourselves. We must hold ourselves responsible for our own
madness. The issue is not a diagnosis of the imperial
West and its evil nature. Rather, we must begin to do a diagnosis of
ourselves, and more importantly, to get on with the
revolution that the founding fathers of African
independence started when they established the OAU. Africa we are one and together we will overcome. It
is homeland or death! Reason Wafawarova is a political writer and can
be contacted on
wafawarova@yahoo.co.uk or reason@ rwafawarova. com
or visit
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