At
this current stage of history in the African (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.
African People must come to the
collective reality of our Maafa and act on it also.
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 Olomenji
�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 Olomenji, 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.
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 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.
