At
this current stage of history in the Black Liberation
Movement, it is important that key concepts be revisited
and re-discussed in our continued efforts to seek clarity
on certain ideas that are fundamental to the white supremacy
foundation of America.
First,
there is the idea and concept of the �Maafa.� When we
discuss genocide against African People in America,
we must also discuss the Maafa, because it was this Maafa
that has historically created the on-going genocidal conditions
inflicted against African People in America.
When
we use the term �Maafa� we are talking about an African
term used to describe tremendous suffering, indescribable
atrocities, disaster, calamity, catastrophe, or injustice.
This term is used to refer to the protracted suffering
of African people and culture as a consequence of the
Transatlantic Slave Trade System. As the African Maafa
researcher Michael Scott explains - �No African was waiting
as a slave to be traded to the Europeans. In all regions
of Africa, from which Africans were
transported, the African was involved in a brutal war
declared by the European aggressor, interested in exploiting
the human and natural resources of the richest continent
on the earth.�
Further,
Brother Scott reveals, �These Africans who became prisoners
of war were placed in detention camps and then transported
to the Americas to be enslaved by the benefactors of
their captors. No African began his or her ordeal as a
slave. Africans were reduced to slavery by conquest.�
It
is important for African People to understand and internalize
these brief historical facts. Just as the Jews, or any
other group of people in the world, internalize their
holocaust, and act on it, African People must come to
the collective reality of our Maafa and act on it also.
Finally,
Brother Scott instructs us that, �Our foreparents were
innocent victims of these heinous system of forced labor.
They were never able to comprehend being seized in early
morning attacks on their villages by vicious raiding parties.
They were never able to understand why they were being
sold by the avaricious middle men. They could never fathom
why they were being marched in fetters and chains to the
coast where they were bartered for European merchandise
especially rum and guns. They could never appreciate �why
they were being warehoused in hell-like dungeons in Elmina
or Goree.�
So
now that we have some insight into the idea and concept
of the Maafa, it should make it easier to understand the
idea and concept of genocide. In Olumenji�s book, White
Genocide, Black Obsolescence, The Question of Black Survival
In White America, he defines genocide
very succinctly. He says genocide is the �deliberate and
systematic destruction of Black people by white American
socio-economic and cultural forces.�
According
to Brother Olumenji, America has created an ideology that justifies
the annihilation of African people in this country. This
is the function of genocide by those who inflict it on
a mass of people. That is, they create a rationale for
the annihilation and then try to explain that it does
not exist.
This
was the case in the CIA involvement in cocaine distribution
in Los Angeles in which the profits
were used to finance the CIA backed Contra army in Nicaragua.
This involvement of the CIA caused a proliferation of
the distribution and sale of crack cocaine across the
African Communities of America, causing serious devastation
to our communities. The United States Government tried
to downplay the CIA�s involvement in this incident by
saying that this is an isolated situation and in fact
this is not true.
As
a result of the Maafa and the genocide against African
People in America,
we must step up the demand for Reparations as the National
Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America,
N�COBRA, is advocating as are many other African organizations
throughout the world.
Reparations
simply means repair for injuries, harm and damages. As
it has been pointed out, over and over again, we were
made chattel and worked for more than three-hundred years
without pay or other compensation for the value of our
labor. The white man and white woman stole and criminally
appropriated the services and the value of three-hundred
years of labor and then passed it on through inheritance
to their children. This process helped create the United States of America and
this is fundamental to our demands for Reparations.
We
must continue to discuss these ideas in our efforts to
dismantle our mental shackles. Every race and every ethnic
group in the world protect their interests and African
People should and must do no less.
BlackCommentator.com
Columnist, Conrad W. Worrill, PhD, is the National Chairman Emeritus
of the National Black United Front (NBUF). Click
here
to contact Dr. Worrill.
