Thank you, Mr. Chairman and thank you Mr Rapporteur-General and Distinguished Delegates.
We Afro-Americans are very glad to be here. We send brotherly and sisterly greetings to all African peoples around the world and we are very glad to have participated in the process called FESTAC which is occurring now. We think along with other participants that the heart of FESTAC is the Colloquium and that is where we've done most of our work. We came here not with illusion or expecting miracles. We thought it was a beginning, a necessary beginning and here we are for that.
We came especially for three basic things. First, we came to establish contact and relations which could be the foundation for future co-operation and exchange between African peoples. Second, we came to correct misrepresentations by others who preceded us but did not, in fact, represent us so to clarify misconceptions and to tell you who we are and why and how we struggle. Thirdly, we came to engage in a scholarly exchange that we hope will contribute to a foundation for real and relevant theory and practice for the liberation of African peoples and a higher level of human life. Crucial to this is the topic I've chosen to speak on, "Relations Between Africans on the Continent and Africans in the Diaspora : History and Possibilities".
Of all the issues which have been and will be raised here, none is more critical than the one of the history and the possibilities of relations between Continental Africans and Africans in the Diaspora. The history of our relations point to and partially determine the possibilities inherent in them and thus if we .are concerned with developing and strengthening these relations, we must study their history well. It is recognition of this fundamental fact that caused our ancestors to offer the following proverb-Mkijua mwanzo vizuri, mwisho huwatataabisha (if you know the beginning well, the end will not trouble you). Unavoidably, we must confront the question of what is the character and composition of the African world. Is it continental or global, is it racial, geographical, cultural or political? Again history becomes the source to which we must inevitably turn for clarity.
For the purpose of this paper, we can argue that Africa has passed through three historical phases of identity and challenge, and stands on the verge of a fourth which is by far most important one. At the beginning Africa was no more than a formative possibility, a continent in itself but not conscious of itself, not for itself. It was a continent without self-consciousness, a land shared by peoples whose ethnic identities formed the parameters of their practice and projections. It was a land of peoples who spoke similar languages, held similar values and views of the world due to similar socio-economic levels of development but did not and could not at that time share a common concept of a common identity, history and future.
Thus, in fact, there were no Africans, only Zulu, Xhosa, Ohwaqhwa, Y oruba, Asante , Somali, Galla, etc. Large formations were established by empire builders, but none were continental in actualization or intention. This might bother those who want Africa always to have existed, but in fact, Africa is a historical process, a phenomena which came into being as a result of certain socio-historical processes. This, of course, was a direct result of the lack of objective conditions not only for such practice, but also such conceptualization. This also can be argued as the case of Europe, Asia and Latin America at early stages in their histories.
In the second phase, Africa as an identity and challenge became an imperialistic imposition, a conquered continent, integrated into the European world capitalist system. As Amilcar Cabral stated, imperialism "brought new worlds into the world". By 1885 imperialist forces had united the continent through conquest and then divided it among themselves to exploit and rule it more effectively.
Slavery, racism, colonialism were various forms of exploitation and oppression they imposed, turning Africa into a peripheral economic unit, a source of almost unlimited cheap labour, raw materials and a market for trivial and other products. It was a period when whether ethnic groups liked it or not, they were all defined and treated as "niggets". It is in this period that the diaspora is accomplished on a large scale and the basis laid for a dialectical reaction to imperialism and racism by Africans in the Diaspora and on the Continent.
Everything produces and implies its opposite. Thus, there is no surprise that where there is oppression there is also resistance. Thirdly, then, Africa became an oppositional alternative, a socio-historical context of theories and practices which challenged the established order and its assumptions. It became, in fact, a dialectical reaction to imperialist and racist exploitation and oppression, a defiant acceptance of self and an ideological and practical rejection of imperialist conquest and racist contentions. It is in this period that theories of Pan-Africanism, both global and continental are developed and Pan-African gatherings are held, first by Afro-Americans then later by Continentals.
Also, it is the period when liberational parties and movements are formed to fight for freedom and independence and Pan-African structures are attempted. Finally, it is in this period in which ideological formulations are created to counter racist assumptions and projections of imperialism-among which are Negritude, Africanity, African personality, Soul, Ethiopianism, and a host of other ideological assertions to say, "I defiantly accept myself and I reject your definition of me". Here is, then, defiantly self-conscious Africa , idolizing aspects of itself it had once shamefully rejected and using its culture to mobilize the masses for struggle and development.
The fourth and current phase Of African history finds Africa an historical project, again a formative possibility, but at a higher level of self and human awareness. And this current identity and challenge comes at a time of great chaos and contradiction both in the world and Africa , but it is also a time of great possibility. For crises contain with them not only great risks, but also great possibilities. Thus, what is needed now is not a cultural withdrawal to the first phase of African identity and history, but theories and practices out of which can be created a new Africa, a new African world which will self-consciously and significantly contribute to a new world and a higher level of human life.
We meet here as a world community of Africans, not just as a continent. The African world, if it is anything, is a community which shares a common origin, a common experience at the hands of capitalism and racism and thus, a common need to free ourselves of their various forms of rule and ruin. Thus, although the African community is based on origin and experience, its most definitive basis must be the historical practice we pursue to reclaim and reconstruct our history and humanity self-consciously and in our own image. This self-consciously historical practice requires more than anything the mobilization and organization of the masses of African people to take their destiny and daily lives in their own hands push their lives forward and create a new future.
This is what Fanon meant when he said that the world is looking for something new and great from the African world, something more than an obscene caricature of Europe and America , something new and deserving the name Africa . The completion of such an awesome historical task requires our capacity to be self-critical and self-corrective, to attack even most cherished myths, to rip off even the most hallowed masks and to initiate a historical project that will not only transform ourselves and our societies, but also the world.
To carry out the struggle against imperialism and our own internal collective weaknesses, Pan-Africanism must focus on and find concrete solutions not only to the spiritual needs of the African peoples, but also their material needs. Pan-Africanism as a theory and practice of liberation must stress satisfaction of material needs, because it knows that until African men, women and children get beyond the basic three-food, clothing and shelter until they are assured of survival, they cannot turn their attention and efforts to higher levels of human activity. Hunger and homelessness are definite limitations on thought, and philosophy and philosophers come into being only after there's a surplus to support them.
No, we don't live by bread alone, but we can only come to this conclusion after we've eaten. Words won't feed us ; ideas aren't meat, milk or vegetables; and hope is not the kind of material of which houses and clothes are made. The appeal for the exodus to Africa popularly called "returning home" can be a negative as well as positive proposal. It's nice to say "come on home, brother". It's nice to say "come on home, sister".
But that invitation can be negative as well as positive. If it is a call to common struggle, it is positive, but if it is a form of political escapism and culture withdrawal, of running away from the fight at home, then we must oppose it. Pan-Africanism informs us that our ultimate objective is the freedom and liberation of African peoples wherever they are and that crucial to our struggle is an independent socialist and unified Africa .
But it is important here to stress the dual emphasis of Pan-Africanism which makes fundamental the struggle for liberation of African people wherever they are. Pan-Africanism is not limited to allegiance to the Continent and it is not nor can it be a substitute for national struggles and the liberation of African peoples in the countries in which they find themselves. Therefore, it is a clear contradiction and counter-productive to advocate wholesale exodus or engage in long-distance simulated struggle for African liberation and abandon the real struggle in one's own country.
Often, when the Diaspora African comes to the continent, the continental African has all kinds of criticism of their values and behaviour. But the fact is that those who are brought over here with a dream are obviously dreaming when they reach here. They are sold dreams and condemned for holding fantasies when they get here.
They are made to believe that all will be well when they return "home". But what home are we talking about, given the differences and diversity in Africa? Things have obviously changed even for the continental Afri cans who go to Sorbonne, Harvard and Cambridge . They don't really return "home". Things have changed since they've been gone, including them. And obviously Africans who have been away for over 400 years are bound to have changed, as is Africa when they return.
All our struggles for freedom and fulfilment are dialectically linked, inseparable and complementary, not only those of Africans but those of all people who struggle against oppression. And if we are really Pan-Africanists, we owe it to ourselves and African to build a power base in the U.S. , to occupy and control crucial economic and political institutional space, and to build and strengthen African support committees and a liberation lobby as effective as any other in the western world.
We may sit here and talk about culture, but in fact all Mrican countries have concrete needs-money, materials, skilled personnel, support committees, liberation lobbies, preferential trade and we cannot simply offer tired and tattered assertions of brotherhood, sisterhood and racial solidarity. Let me tell you this: I am your brother in culture, but more important in struggle. And you can talk all you want about how good it is to see and embrace me, but your embrace would be stronger if I had something concrete to offer.
How beautiful and beneficial to continental and all other Africans if we in diaspora, especially in the USA could guarantee them that troops won't ever land in Azania, that the racists in Azania, the Boers, will get no military support, that the development loans they are getting will come without strings and at the lowest rates of interest and that the technicians they need on a given project will arrive on a specific date? This is real unity, concrete unity. This gets beyond cultural conversations in air-conditioned halls.
Yes, I like it when a continental African calls me "omawale", "mtoto aliyerudi". But I remain convinced that the struggle I must fight is in my own country and that regardless of the cultural conclusions you come to now, you need concrete help with the concrete problems of this continent and your countries.
Thus, the full liberation of all African peoples begins with each people's struggle for its own liberation right where it finds itself. Especially is this true for Afro-Americans who live in a key country whose corporations control the bulk of Africa 's and indeed the world's wealth. It is absurd and/or intellectually dishonest to deny that the U.S. is a key country regardless of one's dislike or distaste or disagreement with its internal and external policy. Equally absurd and dishonest is to deny that Afro-Americans are a key people in this key country and that their liberation will not only free themselves and that country, but bring the whole of humanity closer to liberation.
Thus, again we must stress that the real contribution to African liberation and indeed to human liberation is the struggle we wage and win to liberate the African peoples among whom we live and struggle. Therefore, our relationships with African and all struggles for freedom from oppression and eXploitation must be a liberational struggle that is simultaneous and complementary. As an African proverb in Zulu says-izandla ziyagezana-one hand washes the other. Let us have the courage and commitment to stop posturing and admit this. Then we can begin to build the real and mutually beneficial relations we ought to and must have with continental Africans.
To this end I have a few practical suggestions with which I'd like to close. First, I propose the institutionalization of Pan-Africanism, concrete programs and structures to turn theory into practice. In this regard, there should be permanent observer and ex-officio status for Diaspora Africans on all OAU Committees. Next there should be a supra-continental plenary body such as Kwame Nkrumah proposed, i.e. an All African People's Convention.
Thirdly, there should be erected in Africa a Pan-African University with student, faculty and staff from all over the African world dedicated to providing conscious, capable and committed African women and men to solve the problems of the African world. Fourthly, studies on Africans in Diaspora should be established in all major African universities to parallel and complement the African Studies programs we have initiated and support in the major universities of the West. Finally, Swahili should be adopted as the Pan-African language and taught in every university of Africa as we have introduced it in every Black Studies program in the U.S.A.
The second set of practical suggestions I offer are those to deal with continental African cultural chauvinism. Since we arrived we've had to struggle to insert ourselves in this process and even to sit here in this position. Each day, as you remember, we had to intervene to put ourselves on the agenda. If we are to undermine the cultural chauvinism of Continentals, we must begin by recognizing and respecting the contributions which Pro-Americans and other Africans in the Diaspora have made in the liberation and building of this continent.
In the accomplishment of this goal, continental Africans must stop labelling and generalizing about Afro-Americans and their loyalties and motives. It is unfortunate that these generalizations and labels include wide-spread suspicion of Afro-Americans as CIA agents. There are, in fact, CIA agents in every one of your countries. And if you don't know that, it only shows how effective they are. Moreover, they are not Afro-Americans, but continental Africans, citizens of your own countries. Afro-Americans haven't set up current reactionary regimes in African, nor have they initiated the coups you've suffered. They are internal problems, you must solve and will solve, if you have the courage to be self-critical and the strength to be self-corrective.
Secondly, to aid in the elimination of this continental cultural chauvinism, you must stop arrogating to yourself the right to define what an African is and is not, and raising unwarranted questions about who in Diaspora is in fact an African. It will no doubt be a humbling experience to remember that before Dubois and Garvey called out " Africa for the Africans", continental Africans for the most part were calling themselves by ethnic names. It was, in fact, AfroAmericans like DuBois and Garvey who first defined Africa, and who stood beyond and above ethnic divisions of the continent and demanded " Africa , for the Africans, at home and abroad".
Whether continental Africans think we're African or not means very little in the final analysis. They don't, in fact, have the right to decide that. I'll never surrender my right to self-definition and self-determination. A lot of this cultural chauvinism was aided by starry-eyed Afro-Americans who came here idolizing anything that was Black. But I'm not impressed with Blacks because of their color, but because of their social practice. It is in rejection of such an idolization, that I resolved never to come to Africa as a mesmerized tourist with a Kodak camera, taking pictures of people who look just like me. Afro-Americans, I'm inclined to believe, spoiled continental Africans, clapping anytime they did, anything, whether it was right or wrong. And now the task is to change that if we are to establish real and viable relationships.
In the final analysis, we are what we say we are and what our practice proves we are. That is why we always argue here that the most definitive identity is that which is determined by historical practice. .
The fourth suggestion to eliminate continental cultural chauvinism is for continental Africans to learn more about and respect the Diaspora African's contribution to the African world. DuBois, Garvey, Padmore, Blyden, Delaney, Garnet, James and Sylvester Williams are names and histories all continentals should know and respect.
Moreover, continental Africans should recognize and respect the fact that Pan-Africanism was an Afro-American theory and practice at its inception, that Negritude and Africanity drew ideological inspiration from the Harlem Renaissance and the Encyclopaedia Africana was conceived in the Diaspora by an Afro-American named DuBois who dedicated his whole life to the liberation of African peoples.
Finally, we must stress the point that the Honorable Brother from Brazil , Abdias Nascimento made concerning the use of Portuguese at Pan-African gatherings as a working language. Not only is this important to the millions of Diaspora Africans who speak Portuguese, but also to those millions of continental Africans who speak it also.
The third and final set of suggestions which I'd like to make deals with the need for us to recognize, respect and respond creatively to the fact that the history and struggles of African peoples, not only converge but also diverge. We have to cultivate mutual respect for the various socio-historical forms that each of our struggles takes.
Therefore, when we talk in terms of color, or of national consciousness and commitment, continental Africans should not be surprised. The concern with our national identity and culture is reflective of a certain stage of our history and struggle as it was and remains in yours. If you seem less concerned with color, it's because of the advantage you have being the majority in your own society whereas we are the minority in a dominant society. Thus, you never had to talk in color terms, only demand majority rule. But in fact, majority rule meant and means Black rule. You, thus, should not look surprised when we call for Black Power, for in one sense it's the same demand and grows out of a racist, capitalist context which denies and deforms such a demand.
Criticize us when we are isolationists, when we're exclusivists, when we talk vulgar racist contentions. But how can you have the audacity to criticize us for loving our people, for wanting to build our people, for wanting to liberate our people and talking in terms of national consciousness, commitment and struggle? Again, this assessment comes because what you do has been automatically designated as right and what we do has been held up for question. And thus, we must make this conference a turning point that ends such an unequal arrangement.
Let me close by saying we are a proud people; we are a new people and we will liberate ourselves. No one can liberate us from the social ills, evils and injustices we suffer but ourselves. Guinea freed itself; Cuba freed itself and every other country which is free freed itself. And we as an Pro-American people must free ourselves. This doesn't mean we'll do it in isolation, but we must take the initiative ourselves. We can form all the alliances we want, but the historical initiative must remain in our own hands. We've said and continue to say, a people that cannot save itself is lost forever. No people can turn its history and humanity over to alien hands and expect social justice and respect.
Here then is the history of what has happened and these are the proposals we have advanced as correctives and possibilities. Let us learn our lessons well then and begin to build a new world as we struggle. Let us face the future boldly and shape it in our own image. Let us, in mutual respect reclaim our history and humanity from alien hands and reconstruct our lives in correspondence with the values, visions and strengths we've gained in struggle. Thank you.
27th January, 1977.
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