There are no reasons
for airlines to charge African passengers 4 to 5 times higher fares
than passengers of Europe, Asia and
the Middle-East for the same-duration flights. It is apparent that the
prohibitive airfares are to limit African passengers from crossing frontiers
where they can explore, personally, environments so far denied them
by white racists and their institutions under so-called immigration
laws.
Also,
beneath the veneer of the language of public relations used by these
airlines, which has fitted in very well with the sordid hypocrisy practiced
by whites or their corporations since their incursions into Africa,
no one should wonder now that free circulation of people, free trade
and globalization are but meaningless statements shown to be false,
not in some, but in all respects.
It
is not only the racism of whites we should condemn, but the unbridled
greed of directors behind their corporations, left to operate on our
soil and defraud our people.
Delta
Airlines, North American Airways, Air France,
Iberia, Luftansa,
Belgian Airlines, TAP of Portugal
and British Airways are charging African passengers for cross-Atlantic
flights between $1,200 to $2,200 for economy passengers, while these
fares would have been First Class between North America and Europe.
Fares between North America and Europe
can be as low as $200.
It
would be spurious for anyone to talk about market forces, since as many
as 30 cities in Africa, and to name a few: Dakar, Banjul, Freetown,
Monrovia, Accra, Lagos, Abuja, Douala, Bamako, Libreville, Addis Ababa,
Kampala, Nairobi, Mombassa, Harare, Luanda, Maputo, and Johannesburg,
serve as gateways to as many as 200 million potential customers. That
is, only if they are not Africans or rather, except they are Blacks.
It
seems that more than 10 years later, the legacies of Apartheid have
yet to vanish, since the notorious South African Airlines, the carrier
of these renegade racists who are still important shareholders, cannot
adjust its fares, in spite of having a CEO who is Black and Black managers
posted in all but symbolic positions. Illogically, the fare from New
York to Dakar is the same
as the fare New York to Johannesburg. You will be
amused at the reasons Ghost SAA experts give, in the computation these
fares.
Alas,
some combatants of the liberation struggle, in the hierarchy, have forgotten
the sacrifices in lives, of entire generations, so as to be cozy with
their oppressors for crumbs of a pay check, a bonus…and sometimes
bribes. That is not to say the hand that gives is not as corrupt as
the hand that takes. Betrayal is painful, and costly.
Beside
that, we have, in every metropolis in Africa,
the embassies of these whites, expropriating entire roads or avenues,
under their schizophrenia that some dialysis-ridden Bin Laden will terrorize
them, while our people queue before their consulates, to suffer indignities
of rejection and the extortion of their money, for some cracked-up application
fee. Meanwhile hordes of these Europeans and white North Americans do
not pay for visas when entering African countries.
Instead
of whining or complaining, it is time for Africans on the continent
as well as in the Diaspora to begin targeted boycotts, airline by airline,
until their fares are reasonably lowered or until these corporations
leave our continent. For once, let there be a generation of men and
women who will not allow that more than 500 years of brutal exploitation
and inhumane slavery continues in Africa.
Firstly,
a global campaign has begun with advice to the management of these airlines
they are being monitored and advised to lower their air fares.
Secondly,
public protesting will begin before their local and regional offices
as well as the homes of their senior staff until their total operation
ceases or fares are lowered.
Conscious
African Brothers and Sisters are called to adhere strictly to the boycotts
which are to be announced and to use every media possible to spread
the word.
Send
a copy of this campaign to the following:
- Travel agencies
- Churches/Mosques/Temples
- Local organization
- Friends and relatives
- Black Radio Hosts
- Local Newspapers
- Broadcast on webcam/internet sites
- University bulletin boards
- Internet forums
- Conference/Seminar/Workshop Venues where Blacks
meet.
Jacques
Sotero Agboton is the author of Philosophy of Engagement (An ideological
basis for the liberation of African people). His Website is www.jsapublishing.com.
