When
one hurts, we all hurt. That should be the mantra of Black people and
people of African descent across the world, wherever they may find
themselves. Given that sentiment, what if the Black diaspora, Black
nations and Black folks — wherever they find themselves in the
world — came together on the global stage for the purpose of
political and economic power and the betterment of us?
A
few recent news items point to the need for a united front of Black
folks throughout the world. While Africa has some of the
fastest-growing
economies
in the world, often they are regarded as charity cases or a rich
continent of vast raw materials to exploit, like the old days of
colonialism and slavery. We see you, China, Europe and America.
Wealthy
white nations are hoarding
the COVID vaccine
and banning its exports, creating a “vaccine
apartheid”
where wealthy white nations control over 82% of the world supply of
life-saving vaccines, and low-income nations have secured less than
1%. Fewer than 4%
of Africans have been fully immunized, and they cannot purchase the
vaccine.
Meanwhile,
the linkages between slavery and immigration policy were in full view
when we witnessed the harsh treatment of Haitian
migrants
in Texas, as Border Patrol on horseback, like overseers, whipped
these already desperate and traumatized people like Kunta Kinte or a
scene out of 12
Years A Slave
or Django
Unchained.
The
Haitian people, who paid a heavy price for daring to overthrow French
colonial rule and the shackles of enslavement, have been paying a
helluva price ever since. Haiti had to pay France $21
billion in debt
as the price of its independence, keeping the Caribbean island nation
impoverished and exploited. The specter of the Border Patrol's
mistreatment of Haitian migrants was triggering to Black Americans,
summoning up memories in our collective DNA of those horrific days of
the slave patrols.
Black
people around the world felt a deep connection to that inhumanity
because we have been there before — shared experiences and
shared suffering.
Anti-Black
racism is universal. In Europe, Australia and elsewhere, white sports
fans
taunt Black athletes,
call them apes and throw bananas on the field. In the U.S., Black
athletes are ridiculed or penalized for taking a knee in protest
against systemic racism. And then when we are off the field and out
of the game, they taunt us by playing “Lift Every Voice and
Sing.”
Our
suffering is universal. Black people in the Caribbean and in the U.S.
are seeking reparations. And whether we’re the Gullah-Geechee
people in the sea islands of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, or
in the Quilombos
of Brazil, our land is being stolen and threatened by climate change.
Black Lives Matter — for Black people in America, in Israel
and Palestine,
in Britain,
and in West
Papua,
where Black people are still colonized and called monkeys.
Meanwhile,
what if the Black diaspora united not only as a reaction to our
trauma but in the name of power? Consider what would be unleashed if
the Black diaspora — including African nations, the Caribbean
and Black populations in America, Brazil and beyond — created
some version of a European Union, or an African Union for that
matter, except for the Black diaspora.
Consider
a world where all members of a global Black union would have
membership without borders, including an e-passport with citizenship
and free travel throughout the bloc, and the unlimited exchange of
goods and services across the diaspora. A Black Diaspora Union
headquartered in Accra, Salvador de Bahia, Kingston, Havana, or
Atlanta would have a parliament with representation by all the member
states. Respect and tribute to our ancestors, the land and human
rights are codified in the founding document, the Diaspora
Declaration. The vast natural resources of our indigenous lands would
no longer be exploited for profit by others, as they have been for
centuries — so the Vibranium stays in Wakanda.
A
green tech economy would help preserve the Amazon and the Congo and
promote a clean future for our children. We are building wealth for
everyone. A universal basic income across the Union would mean no
poverty or deprivation wherever Black people live. Students can
attend the University of Cape Town, the University of the West
Indies, Spelman College or Morehouse College free of charge.
The
Union invites the nations of the world for collaboration, cooperation
and mutually beneficial projects and initiatives. However, non-member
nations who disrespect Black people invite sanctions slapped on them,
with cookout privileges revoked. Because we said so.
Those
who came before us understood the need for Africans, people of
African descent and Black people throughout the diaspora to get
together and build a future. Marcus
Garvey
formed the Universal Negro Improvement Association, and Malcolm
X formed
the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) modeled after the
Organization of African Unity (OAU), the forerunner to the African
Union (AU), with this in mind.
Malcolm
wanted to bring together the Black people in North America, South
America, Central America and the African continent. "We must
unite together to go forward together. Africa will not go forward any
faster than we will and we will not go forward any faster than Africa
will. We have one destiny and we've had one past," he
said in 1964,
calling for Black people to seek allyship among themselves.
The
need for Black unity on a global scale could not be any clearer. The
21st-century whippings of Haitian people in Texas are proof of that.
This
commentary was originally published by The
Grio
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