by Dr. Conrad W. Worrill
During the month of May, African people around the world celebrate African Liberation Day (ALD).
In preparation for ALD it is important that we remind ourselves of our Pan African duty and responsibility to support the struggles of African people everywhere. Of course, the key struggle that we have supported is the struggle of the African majority population to win their land and country back in South Africa. Although it is historic that Nelson Mandela has become the President of South Africa, we must continue to call for the total liberation of South Africa.
There is no question that the Pan African spirit is alive and well throughout the world. When we use the term Pan Africanism. as Dr. Anderson Thompson instructs us, we are talking about the "Belief that people of African descent throughout the world have the same racial and cultural characteristics—and the same social and economic conditions as a result of our African origin."
Therefore, in the tradition of this worldwide Pan African spirit, given to us by our African ancestors, we have a historical obligation to intensify our support for our brothers and sisters in South Africa who now face trhe awesome challenge of national reconstruction.
It makes no sense for other people to lead a struggle that belongs to African people. We must accept their support and work with them. but the struggle in South Africa should inspire us to greater levels of support for African people throughout the world.
In developing our on-going support for our brothers and sisters in South Africa, we must understand the nature of the United States domestic and foreign policies. The United States domestic policies have always been racist, even though from time to time, historically, there have been reforms.
The United Stales foreign policies have always been racist from the standpoint of protecting United States interests and white supremacy. The call for a "New World Order" is a vivid example.
South Africa and its historically blatant racism depended on the support of the United Stales and its western allies to continue its control of that region of the world. This is why we see the western powers backing the shared power arrangement in South Africa to protect the white supremacy interest in that region of the world. We must not be duped by this scheme.
The historical South African racism, propped up by United States racism, has represented the foundation of white supremacy in the development of their foreign and domestic policies that aid in the continued oppression of African people.
In this context, when we use the term racism and white supremacy, again as Dr. Thompson explains, we are speaking of the "direct and overall physical and psychological subordination and subjection of one racial group over another for the purpose of maximum political, cultural and economic exploitation
Since the Berlin Conference of 1884. when the former slave- trading nations came together to divide Africa up for themselves, the Pan African spirit of the African Liberation Movement worldwide had been tuned into the plight of our brothers and sisters In Africa, our ancestral homeland. The stream of the African Liberation Movement, we receive our inspiration from, has always fought against colonial and white supremacist political and economic configuration in Africa. Since the first pan African Conference meeting in London in 1900." the worldwide African Liberation Movement has gone on record in opposition to white rule and apartheid in South Africa. Our movement should take great pride in the contributions we have made to the South African struggle.
Through the Garvey movement, the subsequent Pan African conferences, the Black Power movement of the 1960s, the Black liberation movement, through the spirit of Pan Africanism, has played a leading role in exposing and clarifying to the world the nature of the colonial presence in all of Africa and specifically its worst case, South Africa. We must continue this role.
The Pan African spirit has tied us to the independence movement in Africa that led to Ghana's independence in 1956, under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah, which ushered in an end to French rule in Guinea, under the leadership of Sekou Toure.
Thus, the independence movement swept through Africa and gained our support against Portuguese rule of Guinea Bissau, Mozambique and Angola. We demonstrated in the streets of this country, through our African Liberation Day (ALD) activities, denouncing Portuguese rule in Africa.
Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) has fallen. South West Africa (Namibia) has fallen and South Africa has reached historic heights in the recent elections: the mandate of the ANC victory in South African masses.
As the great African American scholar Dr. Henrik Clarke has repeatedly reminded us: "History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is also a compass that people use to find themselves on the map of human geography."
Professor Clarke further states. "History tells a people where they are and what they are. Most important, an understanding of history tells a people where they still must go and what they still must be."
We must keep the Pan African spirit alive! Get prepared for ALD in May, 1999.
(Dr. Conrad Worrill is the National
Chairman of the National Black United
Front (NBUF)
located at 700 E. Oakwood
Blvd., Chicago, IL 60653,
phone (312) 268-7500 ext. 144)
