View source for USofAfrica, NO!!! USofBLACK-Africa, YES

USofAfrica, NO!!! USofBLACK-Africa, YES
by Chinweizu

In Accra on Sat, 12 May, 2007 the PANAFRICAN GLOBAL ROUNDTABLE ON DURBAN PLUS 5 IN ADDIS ABABA(19-22 APRIL,2007) ACCRA, (10-11 MAY 2007) submitted its report, including 5 recommendations, to the Forum of NGOs of the 41st session of ACHPR for onward submission by the Forum to the African Commission for Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR), then to the AU Council of Ministers and the AU Summit; for onward Submission of the Report to the OHCHRC Prep Comms. for Review of the UN World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) and Programme of Action on or before 2009. 

One of these recommendations was that the black slavery in Arab lands must end before we embark on the "United States of Africa" project. 

The background to this recommendation follows:
USAfrica & Arab Colonialism Series: Introduction, the Arab Agenda, Action Program, Contents

Do black Africans really want to integrate into a USAfrica with Arab states that practice racial  apartheid and still enslave blacks? That are committed to Islamising and Arabising Black Africa? 

Learn about 

    Apartheid & black slavery in Mauritania TODAY
    Colorism and Arab enslavement of blacks in Sudan TODAY
    Ethnic cleansing of Nubians in Egypt and Sudan TODAY
    The centuries-old Arab quest for Lebensraum [living space] in Africa
    And many other shockers your schools and media didn’t tell you about all these 50 years! 

    Get the facts from this series on USAfrica & Arab colonialism! 

    READ ON .

     

Wise parents do not let their daughter marry a stranger without thoroughly investigating the character of the suitor and of his lineage.

Wise parents will look into the promises with which the suitor has been wooing their daughter and find out if they are credible.

If the suitor is already married, it is the business of the girl’s parents to look into how he has been treating his other wives.

All of black Africa is being wooed today by the promoters of the so-called USAfrica that aims to unite the entire continent, Blacks and Arabs together, under one federal state.

So, before this wedding takes place, we of this generation, need to do our parental duty towards all the future generations of Black Africans before we give them into marriage with the Arabs. Here are some fundamental questions we must answer correctly:

Who are these Arabs?

{mosgoogle}What do we know about their pedigree, their character and their ambitions in making this marriage with us?

Why should Black African states integrate with the Arab states into this USAfrica?

What would this USAfrica accomplish for Black Africa that the OAU could not and the AU cannot?

Have we studied the Arabs like we should, particularly through our dealings with them in the last 50 year?

Are there any black Africans already living with Arabs under one state?  What has been the experience of such blacks? Something we should all gladly wish to experience?

What are the promoters of this USAfrica promising it will do for Black Africa? And should they be believed?

Who are these promoters? And who exactly is sponsoring them? Who is the godfather of this their USAfrica? And what is his motive?

Now, we need to examine our long history of living with Arabs on our continent, since they invaded Egypt in 640 AD. From that initial incursion, they have conquered and expropriated and settled on some 1/3 of the African continent.

How have they treated the blacks they overran? 

Have they not enslaved and Arabized the countless millions who came under their power?

What is the attitude of Arabs to Blacks in general and to black Africans in particular?

Is it true that Arabs are given to color discrimination against blacks and hold blacks in automatic contempt and view blacks as subhuman?

Is it true that Arabs for many centuries raided and enslaved black Africans?

Is it true that Blacks are still being enslaved in Arab ruled countries like Mauritania and Sudan?

Why would black Africans want to integrate with states that still enslave blacks?

Is it true that Arab leaders have vowed to Islamize and Arabize Black Africa?

What would Arabization do to Black Africans? Are there examples to learn from?

How would non-Muslim blacks, Christians and polytheists, fare in this USAfrica?

Is it true that Arabs are ethnic cleansing and seizing land from Black Africans wherever both populations live together under one state, as in Sudan, Mauritania and Egypt?

{mosgoogle}If you are a black African, would your being Muslim protect you from Arab enslavers and ethnic cleansers? -- i.e. protect you from the treatment inflicted on your Christian and polytheist fellows?

If any of the above is true, would the same treatment not, predictably, be meted out to all of Back Africa by Arabs under this USAfrica? If not, why not?

The essays and stories in this special series on Arab colonialism present evidence to help us answer these and other vital questions.

As for the alleged economic benefits to come from this USAfrica, we shall examine them. The promoters of this USAfrica are voluble on these benefits, and would like us to focus only on them in deciding about this USAfrica. In doing so, let us not be like the stupid child who was lured with sweets into a kidnapper’s bag and hauled off into slavery.

Please read on and find, in the rest of this series, material to help you answer these vital questions.

The survival and security of future generations of Black Africans depend on you and your answers.

If any of the above is true, would the same treatment not, predictably, be meted out to all of Back Africa by Arabs under this USAfrica? If not, why not?  

The essays and stories in this special series on Arab colonialism present evidence to help us answer these and other vital questions. 

As for the alleged economic benefits to come from this USAfrica, we shall examine them. The promoters of this USAfrica are voluble on these benefits, and would like us to focus only on them in deciding about this USAfrica. In doing so, let us not be like the stupid child who was lured with sweets into a kidnapper’s bag and hauled off into slavery. 

Please read on . . .

and find, in the rest of this series, material to help you answer these vital questions. 

Slavery In Sudan: The New Holocaust: http://mirrormax.i8.com /custom3.html

Rape of Sudanese Boys: http://mirrormax.i8.com /custom2.html
Click Next for Part 1 #2 :AU Leaders Gear Up For A United States Of Africa At July Accra Summit By Basil Okafor{mospagebreak}

AU Leaders Gear Up For A United States Of Africa At July Accra Summit

By Basil Okafor

As the July Accra African Union, AU, Summit draws near many Pan-African commentators are variously concerned about the outcome of the future summit.

{mosgoogle}The sole agenda item for discussion at the summit is the proposed merger of all African states into one nation-state, to be known as the United States of Africa, USA.

Although a majority of commentators from all around Africa and the Black diaspora advise caution in approaching the proposed merger of all countries on the continent into one nation-state, there are equally, enthusiasts.

Already, campaigners for the utopian state, notably the Wood brothers, of Greenwood, California, United States, co-founders of the USA4USAfrica lobby, among others, are busy painting numerous advantages that await such merger.

On their website, for instance, the USAfrica campaigners already display such items as a flag of the proposed new nation-state and even the photograph of the immediate past Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, whom they want “installed” president of the new USAfrica.

“Our Mandate is for the African Union, in 2007, to form an official United States of Africa with Kofi Annan, (whose term ended December 31st 2006) departing UN Secretary General, being installed as the United States of Africa’s First President in much the same fashion George Washington was ‘installed’ as the first U.S. American President. God willing.’’

In his own reaction, USA4Africa’s Mark Wood, comments: “In a United States of Africa, a citizen could freely travel anywhere on the continent to seek education, opportunity, commerce, or the simple pleasure of tourist travel within their vast country.

“A common African currency much like the EU model affords the ability to buy and sell throughout the continent with a reliable backed currency.”

Furthermore, he stated, “Much of Africa's debt could be relieved if freedom and capitalism were able to thrive in any African state from taxes paid by companies involved in business in any African location.”

However, in a February 2007 forum on the subject of a USAfrica, organised by the BBC World Service, many Pan-African commentators have expressed their reservations about the merger.

{mosgoogle}In response to the Forum’s topic, “Is African unity a dream worth pursuing?” a majority of the respondents broach the question with caution.

Of the 32 contributors, writing in from 14 countries in Africa, Europe and the Americas, two-thirds of them either express caution in embracing the concept of the new Africa, or are downright sceptical about the whole idea. On the other hand, a minority one-third show enthusiasm for the project, with no concern for its pitfalls.

Writing in from Khartoum, Sudan, John Moi, while drawing attention to the situation in his own country and the rest of North Africa, raises the fundamental question of the identity crisis that has continually plagued the continent, of who an African really is. He explains:

“A majority of people will accept that the question of who is an African is still problematic. Culturally, the guys in North Africa including our own Sudan consider themselves as Arabs.”

He further explains, “In secondary school days we learned about the map of the Arab world to really emphasise that my country belongs to that part of the world.

“Pan-Africanism and Pan-Arabism oppose each other to the effect that North Africans have very little to do with the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. We cannot subscribe to the idea of United States of Africa without answering this genuine identity question in clear terms.”

But Dennis Turner of Middlesex, England, thinks otherwise. He prescribes unity as the only panacea for the survival of Africans:

“It's time Africa united. With Africans putting aside selfishness and greed, religious, tribal and cultural differences, then a united Africa would be one of the most powerful states on earth. Otherwise, I foresee an extinction of the African race purely because of selfishness and greed.”

But how could the ideal of African unity be attained without addressing the very fundamental human problems pointed out by the sceptics, by purely dreaming, without confronting the pitfalls?

On a cautious note, Clement Kuol Biong of Mahe, in the Seychelles Island refers to the anecdote of a Sudanese politician, to buttress his point:

“A veteran Sudanese politician, once compared the Sudan Socialist Union of Jafaar Numeiri's rule to a shadow tree where we come just to share the shade but what each person under the tree is thinking about is not necessarily the same.

“So how can Africa be united when we are still tribally fragmented and no African leader is interested in uniting his own people? How can African unity become a dream come true when different groupings of the AU have their own hidden agendas?”

He concludes: “The Arabs have never stopped their dream of imposing Islamic culture on African masses by the sword, a practice which is still widespread in Sudan up to today.”

However, despite the caution advised, and the arguments and concerns raised by equally well-meaning Pan-Africanists about the feasibility of a United States of Africa, the continent’s leaders, it would seem, are determined to ignore the dangerous pitfalls.

It would be recalled that on the 31st of January, 2007, African leaders, at the Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, summit adopted as the sole agenda item for discussion at the forthcoming July Accra summit, the theme, "An AU Government: Towards the United States of Africa”.

The proposal was referred to the heads of state and governments of the African Union, by President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal who, himself, was absent at the summit.

President Wade’s proposal was carried to the summit and presented on his behalf by that country’s foreign minister, Cheikh Tidiane Gadio, with the support of Nigeria. 

According to Gadio, "President Wade suggested that the heads of state seize the opportunity offered by their next summit in Accra to devote a special session to the issue of the United States of Africa", while adding that it is necessary to prepare a new roadmap to better determine the next steps to be taken towards African unity.

{mosgoogle}While Nigeria and French-speaking countries as a whole were in favour of it, South Africa and the Southern African countries were not convinced of the necessity to root for the United States of Africa, an AU official who took part in the working session revealed.

According to one delegate, South African President Thabo Mbeki told his peers at a closed-door meeting that, "Before you put a roof on a house, you need to build the foundations".

President Wade’s proposal was finally accepted after two days of discussions and will be the sole item on the agenda of the Accra summit, a fact described by Cheikh Tidiane Gadio as a real "historic victory", considering that the summit will convene in Ghana, the country from where Kwame Nkrumah championed Continental Union Government.

Ghana's President John Kuffuor, who was elected the new AU chairman after member states rebuffed Sudan and will host the Accra meeting, said in closing remarks at the Addis Ababa meeting that African states had much to gain by forging closer ties.

"Divided, we are weak," he said, "united, Africa can become one of the world powers, for good."

In the mean time, President Wade has suggested, according to his Minister of External Affairs, that non-governmental organisations, women’s associations, the media, among others, reflect on the subject so that each country will come to Accra with clear suggestions.
Click Next for Part1 #3 :Black Africans Must Tred Carefully Over The USAfrica Project By Basil Okafor

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Black Africans Must Tred Carefully Over The USAfrica Project

News Analysis By Basil Okafor

In the past nearly five decades since the formation of the Organisation of African Unity, OAU, many Africans have consistently called for closer ties between the nation-states that make up the continent.

{mosgoogle}After 38 years and feeling it had attained its main goal of African liberation, the 53-nation OAU transformed into an African Union, AU, on October 15, 2001, to ostensibly give the body political and economic teeth, as a first step to greater continental integration and unity.

In furtherance of this ideal, there is a new suggestion to use the forthcoming July 2007 AU summit, to raise the stakes even higher. At the Accra gathering, proponents of the new African continental enterprise are to push for a United States of Africa. In the new arrangement, the entire continent, if the purveyors of this concept have their way, the entire continent would fuse into one sprawling nation, with one army, one currency (much like the European Union) and free movement of people and goods, with no international borders, as they presently exist.

Clearly, the idea of a “United States of Africa” resonates with the aspirations of Africans everywhere, (both at home and in the diaspora) who desire a better Africa. And predictably, the decision to push for a USAfrica at the July summit has drawn spirited responses from the Pan-African public. But it is also instructive to note the respective tones of the varied responses.

In the first ten days of February, following the January 31announcement of the AU decision, Africans wrote in to a BBC World Service Forum on the topic: “Is African unity a dream worth pursuing?” Of the 32 contributors to the forum, none is actually opposed to unification.

However, they fall into 3 main camps in their attitudes and expectations, namely:

{mosgoogle}(A)   The enthusiasts (12)—who so desperately want unification that they appear blind to, or uninterested in the landmines on the way to it;

(B)   The sceptics (5)—who don’t believe it will happen and, for assorted reasons, dismiss it as a ‘mirage’; and

(C)    The cautious (16)—who want it, but point out some serious problems that need to be disposed of before unification can succeed.

The 32 contributors to the Forum wrote in from: USA 8; Sudan 6; UK 4; Uganda, Ghana, Tanzania 2 each; and 1 each from Cote d’Ivoire, Canada, Cameroon, Liberia, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria and Seychelles.

It is significant that two-thirds of the contributors draw attention to the obstacles to its attainment. Even more significantly, every Sudanese contributor highlighted some obstacle to be overcome. And Sudan is where the attempt to unite Arabs and Black Africans within one state has caused a bitter race war that has lasted more than 50 years. Perhaps the rest of Black Africa has much to learn from Sudan. Sudan has been an experiment in Afro-Arab unification: its experience augurs badly for the USAfrica project.

A key issue raised by the two-thirds majority of the contributors who constitute the sceptics and the cautious, is that of identity. The issues they want to see addressed are as follows:

    Who is an African? Do Arabs in North Africa identify with Black Africans or with their white kith and kin in Arabia and the Middle East?
    Other obstacles to the idea of USAfrica they raised are:
    Colourism: the ingrained Arab contempt for Blacks; the conflict between Pan-Arabism and Pan-Africanism and Arab ambitions to impose Islam on Africans and to Arabise Black Africa. 
    What principles will this USAfrica follow? Would it be Christian, Muslim or other? Will Muslims accept to be ruled by non-Muslims in the USAfrica? How will obstacles to unification – including tyranny, tribalism, mutual distrust and corruption – be removed?

Contributing from Mahe, the Seychelles, Clement Kuol Biong writes, “A veteran Sudanese politician, once compared the Sudan Socialist Union of Jafaar Numeiri's rule to a shadow tree where we come just to share the shade but what each person under the tree is thinking about is not necessarily the same.

“So how can Africa be united when we are still tribally fragmented and no African leader is interested in uniting his own people? How can African unity become a dream come true when different groupings of the AU have their own hidden agendas?

“The Arabs have never stopped their dream of imposing Islamic culture on African masses by the sword, a practice which is still widespread in Sudan up to today.”

Atina Ndindeng, from Manchester, England, summarises: “African unity is just a mirage because of greed, dishonesty and corruption among the executive whom we hold in such high esteem and should be setting an example, but they are all failures and political demagogues. Shame to most African heads.”

{mosgoogle}On their part, the enthusiasts, who constitute one-third of the contributors, rest their hope on a dream that, “the United Africa will be a Green Superpower as opposed to a military superpower and eventually be a key player at the table of world affairs instead of a beggar.”

And, as Mark Wood, co-founder of USA4USAfrica, of Greenwood California, puts it, “A United States of Africa can prevent an African apocalypse on the horizon if unification does not happen NOW!”

But what good is any Green Superpower (if ever such utopia is possible for a united Africa) without the military muscle to even defend its farmlands from the sort of marauding invaders that the continent has known since the Arabs conquered and settled in North Africa between 640 and 1400 AD?

Some of the promoters of the USAfrica regard their project as an already done deal. They insist that, despite opposing views, “Africa WILL unite, as one nation. As a matter of fact, it will happen this July at the upcoming African Union summit in Ghana.”

“The tide,” they maintain, “cannot be turned at this point as the unification of Africa is undeniably in motion…all arguments opposing a united Africa are rendered moot at this point because Africans have finally mandated themselves that they will unite and work out the details from a united position as opposed to being divided.”

These promoters have already designed a flag for the USAfrica and chosen its first president for us:

“Our Mandate is for the African Union, in 2007, to form an official United States of Africa with Kofi Annan, (whose term ended December 31st 2006) departing UN Secretary General, being installed as the United States of Africa’s First President in much the same fashion George Washington was ‘installed’ as the first U.S. American President. God willing.’’

As the promoters see it, all that is left for them to do is to propagandise and manipulate us like sheep to acquiesce. How? By, according to them:

1. “Organizing Town Hall meetings to get public support for the Federation and to get ideas on how it could be created.

“Town Hall meetings should begin soon inside Africa and outside Africa. Town Hall meetings are [to] provide suggestions on how to implement Continental Union Government (United States of Africa). Not a discussion about the Federation, but how to implement it.”

2. “Recruitment of celebrities to join the cause and give support and voice to the United States Of Africa.  From America: recruit Oprah, Obama, Angelina Jolie, Danny Glover.” 

3. Contacting “top hip-hop superstars to mobilise for the United States of Africa”.

By proceeding without a known and public mandate from the people of Africa and, especially, by drawing attention only to what they naively consider the potential benefits of USAfrica, and by trying to restrict their town-hall discussions to implementation alone, these promoters are behaving like a used car salesman who doesn’t want the customer to raise awkward questions about faulty aspects of the car.

However, the issues raised by the sceptics and the cautious, the two-third majority on the BBC Forum, suggest that it is time for Black Africans to wake up and do the hard thinking and ask--and honestly answer--the tough questions we have avoided for 50 years about the sanity of unifying Black Africans and Arabs under one continental government.

For example, why is a USAfrica necessary? What problems will it solve for Black Africa that the OAU could not and the AU cannot, solve?

Who are the shadowy godfathers of this USAfrica project and what is their hidden agenda?

The Forum comments indicate that many ordinary Black Africans are doing some of this hard thinking. The AU presidents should follow suit and do, and be seen to do, the same. They should not rush to implement this shady project before they and the public have, together, thought things through and in the greatest detail.

There was no popular debate before the formation of the AU and the adoption of NEPAD by Africa’s presidents. Will there be a full and free debate by the people before this USAfrica project proceeds any further? Will the promoters, seen and unseen, of this USAfrica, allow it?

Regardless of the promoters, let us all debate it, every aspect of it, not just how to implement it. Let us all debate the merits and demerits of continental government and do so for the next five years, or till we arrive at an enlightened consensus.

Let us debate it in light of Black people’s experience in Sudan, Mauritania and the rest of the Afro-Arab borderlands. And, in light of the four decades of the OAU/AU, too. Let the AU summit on it be postponed for at least five years, while the people debate it.

Before we, the Black African people, instruct the AU presidents on how to vote, let us examine the motives, objectives, sponsors – overt, as well as covert – modalities and feasibility of this USAfrica and do so in the context of what Black Africa needs to survive and prosper in this century.

{mosgoogle}Caution should be our watchword for, as Abednego Majack – a contributor from Rumbek, Sudan – puts it, succinctly, “United States of Africa? The phrase sounds good but the question is, do we really see ourselves as African, regardless of our colonial boundaries, religions and regional groupings?

“The AU must be very serious when considering how to make African unity attractive otherwise the continent will still remain in two halves, sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa and problems will develop along that fault line.”

Before this dream of continental union turns into a nightmare for us and our descendants, let us investigate its likely consequences for us, Black Africans. Prevention is better than cure, as they say!
Click Next for Part1 #2: USAfrica?: Red alert on Arab Colonialism in Black Africa! by CAACBA{mospagebreak}

USAfrica?: Red alert on Arab Colonialism in Black Africa!

Fellow warriors for Black African liberation, Greetings!

We are sure you are very busy, each and every one, coping in the belly of the beast, and battling, as best you can, the local manifestations of the Race War. But an emergency crisis has arisen. Hence this red alert and call to action stations.

While we have been campaigning for Afrocentrism, reparations, repatriation, Darfur, South Sudan, Mauritania etc, our Arab enemies have stolen a march on us and are poised to trap all of Black Africa in the net of Gadhafi’s USofAfrica, and from there drag all Black Africans under Arab colonialism and, from there, carry us off into captivity, slavery, Arabisation and worse. Sudan since 1955 has been a prototype of Arab colonialism masquerading as Afro-Arab unity. Blacks there, under the Arab minority colonial government, have been subjected to oppression, exploitation, war, mass rape, sex slavery, mass murder, Arabization and enslavement. A united Afro-Arab Sudan is a terrible example of what Black Africans can expect under a continental Afro-Arab Union government like Gadhafi’s USofAfrica.

{mosgoogle}In our opinion, this new development is very dangerous; and addressing it should become our top priority, starting yesterday. If we lose this battle, and this Arab colonialist USofAfrica is inaugurated, all the local crises we have been dealing with so far, will together be like child’s play compared to what the Arab colonialists will inflict on all of Black Africa. And all our other struggles will have failed. For instance, why would any sane black want to repatriate into an Africa that has fallen under Arab colonialism and slavery? And even if you got  $1bn each in reparations money, can you enjoy it as a slave of the Arabs?

Once this Arabist USofAfrica is enacted by the AU, in Accra this July-- and is, predictably, quickly implemented-- it would be treason to advocate or struggle against the new Federal state. Arabs will, of course, control it as they have controlled the OAU/AU. Then the stage will be set for the Islamization and Arabisation of all of Black Africa. And we'll all be in the same stew where—without much understanding or help from the rest of Black Africa-- the blacks in Mauritania and Sudan have long been. And then it will be too late for regrets and protests.

If we don’t mobilize and get the AU presidents to kill Gadafi’s USofAfrica in July, then, just as 1955 was the accursed year when the Black Sudanese were handed over to Arab colonialism by the British, the year 2007 will be the accursed year when Black Africa stupidly handed itself over to Arab colonialism!!

So you can understand the urgency of the matter, and why we must do everything we can, between now and July, to kill this enemy project. We all need to shift focus to this task of the immediate future, if we are to have any future at all.

We have formed a Committee Against Arab Colonialism in Black Africa (CAACBA) which is mobilizing black Africans everywhere for two tasks:

{mosgoogle}(A)      To defeat Gadafi’s USofAfrica in Accra in July; and

(B)      To promote the Garveyite project of a Black African superpower by 2060.

These two mobilizations are intimately related. The best way to wean Black people from Continentalism is to give them a better project in which to invest their emotions and energies. It’s a bit like the methadone treatment for heroin addiction. Our people, for 50 years have been hooked on Continentalist Afro-Arab Pan Africanism (CAAPA). We need to substitute a Garveyite Black Power Pan Africanism (BPPA) for that Continentalist disaster. And now is our last chance to do that.

Please read and deliberate on this alert letter and the attached files.

And pass them on to every Black African that you can. As soon as we hammer out a program of action, we shall let you know, so you can play your part in this all-important fight.

Yours in struggle,

The CAACBA