On Aid and Looting

"They switched from the old openly colonial imperialistic approach to the benevolent approach. They came up with some benevolent colonialism, philanthropic colonialism, humanitarianism, or dollarism. Immediately everything was Peace Corps, Operation Crossroads." - Malcolm X.

I felt the need to explain why I have never been thrilled by Western charities. I have been telling whoever would listen that the so-called aids that the Western nations pretend to be giving to Africa are unnecessary.

Various reasons invited these opinions. First and foremost among these is historical: No nation, no society has ever been developed by outside aid however generous and, I believe, none shall ever be. We can make this into Femi's First Principle of Economic Development.

Secondly, foreign-aid presupposes that international relations (relations between nations) are conducted on altruistic or sentimental basis, this is wrong. As the Americans are wont to say, 'It is a jungle out there,' every nation for himself, and God for us all.

If the Albinos are salving their consciences by pretending to be do-gooders, it behoves Africans to stop disbelieving the nonsense. As I have said millions of times, the genius of the Western nations lies in their ability to cloak their selfish interests in humanitarian haloes. Their dogged pursuits of their selfish interests are always portrayed as great philanthropic enterprises for mankind.

Lets us take a short trip back into history.

When the hordes of European invaders descended on Africa with their Maxim guns and their Bibles, they committed unspeakable atrocities. They violated our land and desecrated our gods. They stole and took over one-hundred million of our brothers and sisters to their plantations in their 'New-World' in the Americas. They said it was a trade. Why do you need to come with guns and gun-boats if your intention is to engage in honourable TRADE?

Our brothers and sisters slaved for over four centuries building the wealth of America! They were not paid a dime for their labor. They were treated like the chattel properties of the people who are today the shakers and movers of 'God's own country.' They were whipped and branded like common cattle. The slave masters raped their women slaves and engaged in incestuous sex with their offspring. At the end of it all, when slavery became too odious to be tolerated, the slave owners were compensated for their great humanitarian work; the slaves got nothing! Even the promise of forty acres and a mule that was made to them remained unfulfilled unto this blessed day. It is impossible to read the accounts of their treatment without the blood running cold. How did the Europeans explain all these enormous crimes?
They were on a civilizing mission! The good-hearted, God-fearing European was bringing Christian light to the barbarians of the 'Dark-Continent.' European scholarship went into over-drive, churning out tons and tons of useless theses to justify this patently absurd claim. To anyone who knows history, the notion of Europeans going on civilizing mission to Africa draws laughter of derision, not anger. Even their so-called religion is a plagiarized form of an ancient African religion which their one-track, materialistic minds cannot comprehend.

One instance of history should suffice. England was among the leading European powers that despoiled Africa. Who are the English? Originally called Angle, the English were a sub-tribe of the Saxons. When these Anglos were roaming the forests and swamps of the Island that now bear their name, there were empires in Africa. When the Anglos were still living in caves, Africans were living in cities. We could say that the English did not see the light of civilization until the Normans conquest of 1066. So primitive were the English that one invading Roman general wondered if he could make successful slaves of them!

I do not write this to deride the English; this is simply an historical fact. The first emperor of a modern state in all of Europe was Charlemagne, who ruled most of Western Europe from 800-814. That gives us a history of less than two thousand years old. When we compare that with Ethiopian, Nubian and Egyptian civilisations, we see how hollow Europeans claim as bearers of civilisation really is. After those ancient civilizations were destroyed Africans continue to build: We had the old Ghana Empire that flourished until the 13th century! Ghana is by no means the oldest of African empires. We still have the Malian Empire which lasted until the 16th century. The Songhai Empire was bigger than anything Europeans have been able to forge in terms of empire.

Why did European scholars refused to teach this history? Why are Africans compelled to read about European vain-glories, and not the glories of their own past? Why are student in Africa continue to be taught about Holy Roman Empire, when the Malian, the Ghanaian and Songhaian empires remain untaught. We are Africans, and those were genuine African achievements, why are they denying us knowledge of them. And more importantly why are we denying ourselves the knowledge about how own history?

It is for one single purpose: To lead credence to the Europeans monstrous lies about their 'civilizing' mission in African. If the Ghanaian knows these things, he would be asking of the English, "If my fathers and mothers were building houses, cities and empires when your parents were still living nomadic lives, how come you are here to civilize me?" The Senegalese, the Malian will ask the same of the French.

Dapper was a Dutch traveller in Africa in the 15th century. In his writings, he gave accounts of the type of political and social organizations and institutions he found in the places he travelled. He favorably compared Benin-City in Nigeria with the city of Amsterdam. The British invaded the ancient city, looted the treasures (they are still in the British Museum), what they could not cart away they set on fire. When their mythorians (myth-creators masquerading as historians) came, they wrote about the destructed buildings and wondered why Africans live in such wretchedness! Their works become classics - compulsory study at their universities.

When Europeans (Americans were present too) sat at Berlin and carved up Africa, how did they rationalized it! The White man was carrying the Black Man's burden. The white man was trying, in the spirit of Christian brotherhood to lift the Black man's to the level of the European. Europeans are never motivated by anything except altruistic considerations for mankind.

When colonialism became too odious, the Europeans quickly switched gear. They foisted neo-colonialism on Africa. Instead of European colonial administrators ruling over the colonies, stooges are put in place to carry out the dirty works. We had Mobutu in Zaire whose principal jobs was to guarantee the interests of Euro-American multi-nationals. Who can still remember how many times Belgian and French troops, supported by American logistics, have rescued him from the ire of his people?

The Albinos can therefore beat their chests and say, 'We did our best. The natives are now managing their affairs, and look what a mess they are making of things!'
They will never say that the natives are still being teleguided by the IMF and World Bank Consultants and Strategists. They will never say that there are in Africa at the moment more European administrators (call them, NGOs, 'aid-workers,' 'missionaries,' or whatever have you) in Africa today than at the height of the colonial period. They will never tell you that most of what they call aids were military hardware, given to dictators in Africa to repress their people in the interest of Western multi-nationals. Nigerian police and soldiers continue to wipe out whole villages in order to make the places save for SHELL exploitation. Mobutus forces are routinely pacifying Zaireans for the benefit of Western MNCs. And who give a fig how many African lives are being wasted so long as Western multinationals can continue to steal the resources of the DRC?

It is never bannered that even the so-called economic aid are tied to buying produce from the host country. And the most insulting of all, they do not tell us that the so-called aid is what got us in trouble in the first place. Aids are no charity; they are not gifts, and they are certainly not grants. They are loans, pure and simple. When Westerners make a song-and-dance about aids, they fail to say that under normal circumstances, it is a straight-forward proposition. The economic-aid has to be repaid back. How do you think Africa got into such huge indebtedness?

We are indebted to the West for their 'aid.' If I give you one Euro, and you have to pay me back ten, I am insulting you by claiming to be aiding you. The best you got was a bad deal and, if we have to be fair, I took you for a clean ride.

Then there is the question of self-pride. The notion of aid suggests a giver-taker, master-servant relationship. As people who receive the so-called social-security easily attest, aid dehumanizes the receiver - perhaps that was the original intention. It turns the receiver into a beggar. Little wonder the adage says that “It is better to teach a man how to catch fish and give him the means to do so, rather than giving him fishes.”

The fact of the matter is that the Europeans are lying when they say that they are giving aid to Africa. It is an obnoxious lie to anyone who knows anything about international affairs. Aside from our resources which these historical thieves continue to steal, Africa is yearly remitting to Euro-America more than ten billion US dollars. If anyone is giving aid to anything, it is Africa. This monstrous lies has been so often repeated that even Africans tend to take it as gospel truth. The Europeans claim is like the robbers who make a living by robbing people and, giving back a part of their loot to their victims, claim to be engage in humanitarian affair.

We can also use another analogy: Imagine for a minute a group of fire-fighters who go around setting fire to houses and, putting it out, claiming that their act is benevolent humanitarianism.

This is exactly what the Albinos are doing in Africa and all over the world. Take a part of Africa where there is conflict, any part. What do they do? They take sides, and rushed 'military- assistance' to their stooges. Lives are wantonly destroyed, so are infrastructures. A decade or so later when the combatants are too weak to feed themselves, we see the white people making appeal for donations – ‘We are the World’, ‘Een Voor Afrika,’ ‘Red nose day,’ and other useless jamborees organized to salve the conscience of a conscienceless people

“It might sometime be necessary to cut off the hand that feeds you it is stopping you from feeding yourself.” - Malcolm X

Decolonising the Mind

“Every time I hear the crack of a whip, my blood runs cold. I remember on the slave ships how they brutalized our very souls. Today they say that we are free, only to be chained in poverty.” – Bob Marley, ‘Slave Driver.’

In the articles, ‘The Philosophy of White Supremacy’ and ‘White Power Structures,’ I examined the Eurocentric world we are forced to live in by the White minority of the world, and the structures they have consciously constructed to maintain their unjust stranglehold on us. In this piece, I intend to suggest the strategies we can adopt to counter and overthrow Global White Power.

EDUCATION
“History is not everything, but it is a starting point. History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is a compass they use to find themselves on the map of human geography. It tells them where they are, but more importantly, what they must be.” Dr. Henrike Clarke

I put education at the top of my list because the sad truth is that our low esteem stemmed primarily from the fact that we refused to study our own history. Many (or is it most?) of us suffer greatly from historical\cultural ignorance.

I made it my duty to study my Yoruba and my African heritage. The odyssey was gratifying in more way than one. My education not only enables me to develop my deep sense of consciousness, it enables me to hold my head up very high anywhere in the world. It also made me aware of my enormous responsibility as an inheritor of a very, very rich heritage. My education made me aware that I am the inheritor of the great Egyptian, Nubian, Meroe, Axum, Ethiopian, Ghanaian, Malian, Songhaian civilisations. Through my education, I came to realize that I am the offspring of Khufu (the builder of the great pyramid of Giza), Imhotep (the world’s first physician and whose story became the Joseph story of the Bible), Sundiata Keita, Mansa Kankan Musa, Menelek II, Hannibal, Chaka, Samory, Osei Tutu, Nandi, Nzigha, Moshoeshoe and other great figures of history.
Thanks to efforts by scholars such as Yosef ben-Jochannan, John Henrik Clarke, John G. Jackson, Cheikh Anta Diop, Jacob Carruthers, Chancellor Williams, Adu Boahen, Lao Hansberry, Jacob Carruthers, Lao Hansberry and many others, African history has largely been reconstructed. It behooves us all to honour these pioneers and study their work.
We should bear it in mind that these Africanists relied on materials written by white scholars before racism took over European scholarship. In the words of Professor Clarke, “Most of the old and new Black scholars asking for a total reconsideration of African history, in particular, and world history, in general, are using neglected documents by radical White Scholars who are generally neglected by the White academic community. In African history I am referring to scholars like Gerald Massey and his work, Egypt, Light of the World, (two volumes), The Book of the Beginnings, (two volumes) and Natural Genesis, (two volumes). I am also referring to Gerald Massey's greatest English disciple, Albert Churchward, whose book, The Signs and Symbols of Primordial Man, asks for a reconsideration of the role of people outside of Europe and their role in human development. Your attention should also be called to the work, Anacalypsis, two volumes by Godfrey Higgins, published in 1837. These books deal with the dispersions of African people throughout the world.”
African, do yourself a great favour and read up on your history and you will discover that contrary to what the Arab or the European is telling you, your ancestors were not hopping trees and waiting to be discovered or civilized. My Yoruba people were living urbanized lives in cities long before the British invaded what they now called Nigeria. I have been exposed to many European cultures and in no way do I consider Yoruba inferior to any of them.

Language I always believe hold a key to a people’s civilisation and the Yoruba language is simply outstanding in the depth of its richness. I speak two European languages (English and Dutch) fairly well and in no way is my Yoruba second-rate to either. In one of his books, Professor Ivan Sertima dealt with the complexity and the elegance of the Yoruba counting system, and it clearly shows it could never have been produced by inferior minds.

African languages are rich in proverbs and Yoruba is no exception. African cosmogony thrives on deep sense of not only humanity and spirituality but also a deep sense of justice. I give as an example an incident that happened during the 1983 elections in Nigeria. The federal government made the mistake of awarding the Ondo state gubernatorial to their Ekiti candidate; The Ekitis rose in protest. They had voted for a candidate who came from another part of the state, and they would not have anything to do with their own. I was brought up to (1) consider injustice anywhere as injustice everywhere and (2) that cheating, in any manifestation, is abhorrent.
It is indeed sad that today Africans have been bamboozled into running away from themselves and their rich cultural heritage. An Akan now proudly goes about answering to European names which they tell him is Christian name, and a Yoruba now takes enormous pride in speaking English with his family as this writer (shockingly) witnessed in Lagos. And many brothers and sisters are spending fortunes to bleach their melanin-rich skin.
We need to rediscover our old ways and mesh it with our aspirations for modernity. The tragedy would be to allow ourselves to be consumed by pessimism. Each and every one of us should do her ablest best to help out. In Ghana there’s a movement call ‘Sankofa’ which is trying to teach people to look into their past. Sankofa is an Akan word that means, "We must go back and reclaim our past so we can move forward; so we understand why and how we came to be who we are today."
NO FRIEND OR FOE, ONLY INTERESTS
Any honest observer will attest to the fact we Africans are the most humane and the most accommodating people on earth. Our people would rather starve than let a stranger go hungry. Alas, our generosity and humanity have been used against us again and again. It’s time we start to reappraise how we deal with the ‘others.’

When our people in what is now called South Africa gave accommodation to the Dutch pirate, Riebeeck, and his gang, they thought they were extending a hand of help to fellow humans (even if an albino) in distress. Little did they know that the Dutch had a different concept of humanity, which includes the annihilation of the local folks in order to steal their land. It took over three hundred years of hard struggle before Africans were able to reclaim their lands from the hands of the Dutch conquerors, albeit in a mangled form.

It’s time we learned that (1) the Europeans do not share our definition of humanity and (2) that almost everyone has used our generosity against us. We ought to learn and preach this lesson. We welcomed the Arabs and we welcomed the Europeans, they set out to do us in and today we remain a sad caricature of these strangers we welcomed into our land. Our generosity has led to our being virtually wiped out culturally. The strangers mangled our history and made us into a non-historical people. They mangled our religion and made us worship their furious desert gods and taught us to laugh at the gods of our ancestors.

This has been our history and it is time we learn from the historic mistakes of our ancestors.

RACIAL SOLIDARITY
Everywhere we look in the world every other race safe for the African is practicing racial solidarity. I totally agree that race is a sociological and not a biological term. But the reality is that we operate in worlds of words and symbols. The Albinos we call Europeans (whether they live in Europe, Australia or North America) always present a united front against the rest of us. The Arabs and the Asians are doing the same thing. Or would someone tell me the last time he saw an Indian or a Chinese or even an Egyptian in an African shop?

Cheikh Anta Diop very ably demonstrated in his book, “The Cultural Unity of Black Africa,” that black Africa is culturally homogenous. Sadly, Europeans intruders have succeeded in destroying what should be a natural solidarity of a people who are, in essence, one people. I get irritated when I am asked in Ghana why I choose to live there. For those who might not know it, two of Ghana’s largest national groups, the Ewes and the Gas are of Yoruba descent. I’m still astounded by the sheer number of Yoruba words still found in the Ewe language (ku, enu, agbo just to mention a few). The Akans are the largest national groups in both Ghana and Ivory Coast. The Mossi straddles both Burkina Faso and Ghana. The Fulani (Pula or Peul) and the Hausas are found throughout West Africa, while the Mande (Mandigo) are to be found in large numbers in at least nine West African countries. Zulus are found in South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The Kongo people are found in both Congo and Angola whilst Maasai are to be found in both Kenya and Tanzania


ALLOW NO STRANGER TO MEDIATE IN OUR FAMILY DISPUTE
Even in the most harmonious of families disputes do arise, but it’s courting disaster to invite outsiders to settle your family dispute. This again has been our tragedy in Africa. Ancient Africa was in rupture when European intruders came and took sides in our disputes. The clever European end up suppressing both parties and he became the ultimate winner. He ends up owning our very land.

Even in modern times whichever warfare in Africa we take a look at, the most ferocious and prolonged are those where outsiders (principally Arabs and Europeans) took sides.

Europeans do not allow any outsider to interfere in their affairs; Africa has no business inviting foreigners in to settle their wahala.


KEEP YOUR CULTURE
One only has to travel around to witness the immense beauty and diversity of the African culture, yet I do not know any other people on earth who had such low estimation of their cultural heritage as Africans.
Culture is manifested in music, painting, sculpture and in religion. The more we study our history the more we realize that our ancestors bequeathed to us a very rich cultural heritage. It then beholds upon us to become passionate even animated in enriching and protecting our own culture. Musically we are on top of the world. Our paintings have been plagiarized like no man’s business; example is cubism which made both Picasso and Matisse famous. African religion still continues to awe me with its deep reverence for life and its central humanness. The more I studied the Yoruba Ifa Religion, the more I’m astounded by its depth of its knowledge.
Religion is essentially ancestors worshipping and Africans remain the only people who do not pay homage to their ancestors. Could this lack of reverence for our ancestors be responsible for our current sad state? How ridiculous to see Africans bowing heads in prayer to the ‘god of Jacob or Abraham or a god of Israel?” Space will not permit an exhaustive examination of the Christian religion here, but Africans will do well to know that it owes its origins to the religion of their forebears in Egypt. One needs only to examine the Osirian drama, where the Egyptian redeemer-god sacrifices himself, dies, and is resurrected to save mankind, and see its close resemblance to the Jesus tale. Moses was brought up in the palace of the Pharaoh and the laws he claimed to have received from Mount Sinai was part of the Egyptian legal system. And we shouldn’t forget that Jesus spoke Aramaic, an African language, nor should we lose sight of the fact that the most potent symbol of Christianity, the cross was a copy of the ancient African Ankh.

SETTING UP OUR OWN INDEPENDENT MEDIA
It is absurd to expect oppressors to come and teach us how to free ourselves. I find incongruous the current situation where Western governments and their agencies are sponsoring ‘free media’ practices in Africa – a commodity sorely lacking in the West. African journalists, whatever their political, ideological or other orientations owe it to the motherland to be pro African first and last. We have no reason anymore to be giddy about imperialists and the cheap laurels they keep throwing at us.

CREATING OURSELVES IN OUR OWN IMAGE
The God’s truth is that Africa is stupendously beautiful and Africans can hold their own against the best in sheer beauty, why then do we allow ourselves to be stymied by the negative vibes of the CNN, the BBC World and other White Supremacist media? If I say ‘Black is Beautiful,’ I’m merely making a statement of fact. So why do we abandon the 1960’s slogan and start to view ourselves from the prisms of our historic oppressors.

There is no society created by man that hasn’t got its own earthly problems, why should Africa be different? Of course we face tremendously developmental challenges in Africa, so do Europeans and their American cousins. I have seen pictures of ghettos in the US that would make Ajegunle (a slum in Lagos) looks like paradise. Of course, you will not see such on the CNN.

I say it’s time we start singing our own praises. As Achebe said in ‘Things fall apart,’ “The Lizard that fell from the Iroko tree said if it does not praise itself no one else will.”

If they sing their crap and start awarding themselves ‘Academy’ and other awards, why are we not creating our own laurels for our pool of hugely talented artistes? Gladly, the Nigerians have invented Nollywood and are creating their own images of themselves; other African countries should follow this example.

It is time we stop being apologetic. As Professor Karenga rightly said, we are a non-obligated people. We have done nothing to be ashamed of. If they throw idi Amin at you, throw Stalin and Mussolini and Hitler right back at them.

In order to do this, however, you need to begin the journey in self-discovery. Read up on your history and more importantly teach it to your children.

ET TU Republic of South Africa?

“It takes a million people to build up a reputation
But it takes one stupid fool to destroy everything you have done.”

Lucky Dube

The past few weeks were terrible times for Africans everywhere. And every true Pan-Africanist who watched the events in the Republic of South Africa (RSA) must have seriously belly-ached. That the RSA, a 'Rainbow nation,' the land of the acclaimed Patron Saint of reconciliation, Nelson Mandela, should descend into orgy of mayhem and violence with black Africans as victims is the stuff of the worst nightmares.

The sad truth is that Africa and by extension Africans gave so much to the RSA that it borders on the worst gratuitous ingratitude to see black South Africans armed with cudgels, stone and guns descending on their brothers and sisters from other parts of the motherland with lynching and looting intentions.

Fifty Africans, whose only crime was the colour of their skin, were violently murdered with several thousand more dislocated seeking shelters at Police Stations, churches, mosques and what have you. Many more have returned to their home countries tearfully narrating their ordeals at the hands of people who were previously looked upon as friends and neighbours. A Mozambican was burned alive!

Cry the beloved country! This is the same South Africa that less than two decades ago Africans made tremendous efforts to free from the clutches of the mindless and merciless Albinos from Europe hell-bent on maintaining the last White bastion on African soil?

It appears that the criminals in South Africa failed to heed the sage Mandela's warning that amnesty could not and should not be equated with amnesia. How otherwise could they have so soon and so easily forget that wretchedly poor African countries gave generously to ‘their‘ country’s liberation!

Do those poor and wretched souls unaware of the tremendous battering they are giving to their country's image? This is a country set to hold what its leaders have termed the 'African World Cup,' in two years. And it is towards the republic that many Africans are looking upon to enable Africa takes its rightful place among the comity of nations!

It was Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe, who opined that the problem of Africa is that of leadership. It's difficult to argue with that. Why did most post-colonial African leaders believe that their people would be satisfied with token independence? Why did they assume that their people would be appeased with a sham sovereignty totally bereft of any economic empowerment? Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya, Senegal, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Namibia, Zimbabwe (until recently and South Africa were among African countries that attained nominal independence whilst the economy maintain its rigid colonial structures. The same is true of our beloved Ghana!

Afro-Pessimists and professional African bashers are having a field day. Their call: "Look at what they are doing to themselves! We told you so: black people are simply incapable of self-governing with the guiding hands of we Albinos."

Of course, lost in all the self-satisfied smirks of the racist Albinos is the simple fact they bear some responsibility for screwing up the minds of the blacks of that unfortunate land and elsewhere on the continent. What Afro-Pessimists also signally failed to configure into their inebriated analyses is that the Zulus (they formed the majority of the looters) are also targeting non-Zulu South Africans like the Vendas and Shangaans. Do we define that also as Xenophobic?

There is no hiding from the fact that the riots has given powerful ammunition to those dead set against African unity. The question is asked what hope is there for an African unity when in these times and days Africans are still killing other Africans living amongst them?

My own position is that contrary to what these analysts are saying, the South African incident offers cogent arguments for African leaders to expedite action on forming the African Union Government. I offer the following reasons which have been posited by better minds than mine.

1. A Union government will put an end to the pettiness that is the driving force behind most of African politics. When Africans learn to think continentally, they will stop being exploited by politicians who are forever pandering to primordial tribal sentiments.

2. A Union government will be powerful enough to demand and ensure that Africa gets better prices for her resources. I have argued elsewhere that setting the prices for African resources is a powerful tool at the hands of the Albinos. A united Africa, setting the prices for her products will have more financial resources to cater to her people than the present situation where we remain the world’s beggar despite our huge mineral resources. Ghana and her neighbor Cote D’Ivoire accounts for over half of the world’s cocoa production. The question is what’s stopping the leaders of these two countries from forming and OPEC-like cartel to jerk up the prices?

3. A Union government will ensure a more rapid industrialization pace for the continent. The Late Cheikh Anta Diop (of Senegal) discusses this at length in his book entitled, ‘Black Africa: An Economic Basis for a Federated State.’ Among Diop’s idea was the building of a huge dam on the mighty Congo River that would supply all of Africa’s energy needs. The idea has recently been taken up. We pray that it shall see a successful fruition. Industrialization will create better employment opportunities and ensure that, for once, Africans start to enjoy the fruits of their god-given natural resources

4. A Union Government will take it as a priority the total re-education of Africans with strong emphasis on the cultural, linguistic and history links that binds all Africans. Couple with this will be the decolonization of the African mind that will create the New African Personality that will see himself as a total being instead of as an appendage of the historic oppressors of his race.

5. Many African nations have suffered rebel incursions launched from neighbouring states. A good example is Chad and Sudan which are perennially at each other’s throat. A continental government with a standing army will, for once, ensure that African lives are stopped being wasted like no man’s business. You doubt this, go and read more about how Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe (mandated by SADC) put a stop to the imperialists designs on DRC and how Ghana and Nigeria (mandated by ECOWAS) stopped the carnage in both Liberia and Sierra Leone. The million of African lives wastes in senseless wars would not have happened had African leaders listened to Kwame Nkrumah’s call for an African High Command.

6. A union Government will strive to put a stop to the despicable exploitation of our motherland by Multinationals. Take the case of telecommunication: how good and pleasant it would be if I can use my Ghana-registered mobile phone in Asmara or Casablanca. No, I am not asking for the moon; it’s done in Europe.

From slavery to colonialism to new-colonialism to the new term ‘globalisation,’ the Albinos are forever contriving to keep ahead. They keep stealing Africa’s resources while serving us useless verbiages like their so-called democracy and on-paper freedom (which never includes freedom from hunger and want). To them we should be satisfied with our sham independence while they collared our elite into a cozy arrangement that guarantee them the world’s best goodies whilst we remain solidly mired in our poverty.

The leaders of South Africa have history to guide them; but they refused to learn. I am terribly ashamed by the lack of leadership shown by President Thabo Mbeki during the violence in RSA. He is a man I have greatly admired, but sadly he was found wanting when his nation cried for positive leadership.

Without a doubt there have been tremendous changes in the fortunes of Africans in South Africa. But the intelligent leaders of the rainbow nation should have configured the Theory of Rising Expectations into their strategic planning. It is said that power concedes nothing without strong demand. The stiff-necked Rhodesians played judicial rigmaroles until Uncle Bob got thoroughly fed up with them. After over forty years of independence, the Albinos are still maintaining their rigid control of the Kenyan economy. The Albinos still own the largest tracts of land in Namibia. They are still in control of the South African economy with token handouts to a few blacks here and dare. And they still own over eighty percent of the African land!

The fiction has been maintained that Africa needs the Albino and his Capital. Another myth is that the Albinos in Africa are there for purely altruistic reasons. The truth is that Europeans in Africa enjoy a standard of living that they can never match in their home countries. And Europe certainly does not offer them the vast strategic minerals they are looting from Africa.

Prophets like Nkrumah cried for African leaders to shed their pettiness and embrace a continental government which would have allow Africa to become a global force to be reckoned with. The Albinos conspired and killed the great man. Because Africa remains fragmented, the Albinos can continue to pick us one by one and emasculate us.

Those smirking Albinos should note that today, it is black visiting mayhem on blacks, tomorrow the blacks might decide to once and for all confront their common foe: the Albino sitting on African resources and still unwilling to share. Let see what chorus they would be singing when the oppressed blacks decided that enough is enough.

*To those who would like to know more about why oppressed people everywhere turns against themselves first, I recommend the anti-colonial classic by Albert Memmi, ‘The Colonized and the colonizers.’

Has Nigeria become a MALLAMoCRATIC State?

Government 101 teaches that a government has three branches: Legislature (to make laws); Executive (to implement laws) and Judiciary (to interpret laws).

In modern states with complex socio-ethnic settings, the political elite try to let political offices enjoy as much geographical spread as possible.

That's why when, say in Ghana, the President comes from the Southern part, the Vice President is invariably from the North. And whenever the President is a Christian, you can safely bet that the vice would be a Moslem.

No one says that the world is perfect, but one would be courting serious trouble were one to refuse to balance these delicate socio cum religious cum ethnic settings.

How then do we explain the situation in Nigeria where the heads of all the three branches of government are from the geographic North of the country?

People from the southern half of the geographic hocus-pocus called Nigeria do not find anything funny that the President, Umar Yar'adua; the President of the Senate, Senator David Mark and the Chief justice of the Federation, Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi, are all from the North.

In addition to these powerful positions the awesomely powerful Secretary to the Federal Government is also a Northerner. Ditto the National Security Adviser who wields enormous power in any government. As though that were not enough, the president’s Chief of Staff is also a northerner! And we have not begin to count the Ministers, Special Advisers, Heads of parastatals yet!!!

Nigerians are simply world champions when it comes to word-smithing. The latest coinage from our Alata brothers is Mallamocracy*. It is the word Nigerians coined to describe their form of government whereby almost every important official of state is a Northern Mallam. Democracy is said to be government of the people by the people and for the people (however inane that may look upon close scrutiny). We can thus define ‘mallamocracy’ as the government of the mallams by the mallams and for the mallams.

Southern Nigerians are not miffed for the fun of it. It happened during the madness of Abacha when power-intoxicated Northern Nigerian officials posted to the South start behaving like army of occupation and start treating Southern Nigerians like vassals.

This writer was not at all amused when at the Seme (between Nigeria and the Republic of Benin) border an Immigration officer of Northern extract started asking me questions in Hausas.
He, of course, took offense when I replied him in Yoruba. His colleagues had to take him away when I told him in a very loud voice that as far as I am concern the Caliphate hasn’t extended to Yorubaland.

For those not versed in the history of our giant neighbor, Nigeria, like Ghana, is an amalgamation of diverse and different ethnic and national groupings grouped together to serve British colonial interests. The three biggest of these national groups are the Hausa\Fulanis who formed the majority in the Northern half of the country; the Yorubas occupy the Western half of Southern Nigeria whilst the Igbos are the major group in Eastern Nigeria.

By an act of God or nature or both the rivers Niger and Benue carved the country into three neat parts. However, but by some curious colonial logic, the British decided that what God and nature had put asunder, they are going to put together. In 1914, British Colonial Governor Lugard decided that the colonial interests of her Majesty’s government would be best served by uniting the three parts and his wife, Lady Flora, coined the name: Nigeria (from Niger area; why she forgot the Benue remained a mystery!).

Since that colonial fiat in 1914, the various tribes of Nigeria have been struggling to build a viable nation state. Also by some mystifying logic of colonialism, the British found an ally in the feudal rulers of Northern Nigeria. Recently released Secret British papers informed us about how British colonial officials falsified both census figures and election results to ensure that Northern feudal elite emerge as the rulers of post-colonial Nigeria.

Nigeria gained political independence in 1960 but it has since been battling with gigantic attempt to rectify the anomalies created by British colonial shenanigans. To date, the country has been unable to conduct a credible census. And apart from the annulled 1996 elections, every election in Nigeria has been hotly disputed. Demographers studying Nigeria must be scratching their heads in bafflement: it remains the only place on earth where more people are said to reside in arid, Sahel regions than in savannah and tropical environments

It so happen that in all her forty eight years of nationhood, Nigeria has been ruled by leaders of Northern extraction for about thirty six years. So firm is the Northern grip of the governance of the country that a Northern state, Sokoto, has as its state’s motto: ‘BORN TO RULE.’

Sokoto is the capital of the powerful Usman dan Fodio Caliphate. Usman Dan Fodio was the Islamic warrior who believed that it is the divine call of Muslims to dip the Koran in the Atlantic. The expansionistic drive of the Mohameddans collided head on with British colonial ambitions. The rest, as they say, is history.

General Olusegun Obasanjo, a Yoruba, is the only non-Northerner to have ruled Nigeria for any length of time. His tenure (two of them) were purely accidents of history and has nothing to do with his or the Yorubas calculations.

The Hausa\Fulani who have now come to think of the Nigerian Presidency as their birthright couldn’t wait until Obasanjo’s tenure ended before foisting on the unfortunate nation another northern ruler.

What peeved Southern Nigerians most is that it appears that the Northern rulers are interested in dragging the nation backward. Few Nigerians will complain if the rulers are seen to be making efforts to build progressive, modern technological state. But the country is regressing at a rate that is truly alarming. 1970’s Nigeria boasts of super highways to rival the best in Europe and the USA. Today, due to negligence and mis-management those highways have become death traps daily claiming the lives of Nigerians. The latest casualties were 46 troops of the Nigerian army.

The 1970s Nigeria was an upwardly mobile nation with regional, continental even global ambitions. With collapsed infrastructures, Nigeria is today a sad shell of a dream gone awry.

As mentioned above, Northern Nigeria is still, essentially, a feudal society where armies of beggars are daily singing praises to a few otiose elite in order to earn their daily nourishment. Southern Nigerians, assertive and supremely self-confident believe that their country has no business being in the category of ‘Third World’ or any other negative moniker. Sadly, they are saddled with the albatross of an archaic political system that allows a few elite to steal national patrimony and firmly esconded their nation in the bracket of the world’s wretched.

General Obasanjo first ruled Nigeria in the late 70s (1976-1979). He handed power to Northern Shehu Shagari. On handing over, Obasanjo boasted among other things a sizable foreign reserves, a national airline boasting of some thirty six planes, a national shipping line with some ships. Shehu Shagari five years rule was characterized by colossal corruption. He was followed by General Buhari (a Northerner) who in turn was followed by General Babangida (another Northerner). It was Babangida who annulled the 1992 elections believed to have been won by Moshood Abiola (a Yoruba). To appease the Yorubas, Shonekan (a Yoruba) was installed as Nigerian leader for six month until he was pushed aside by that muscular dictator, General Abacha. Nigeria was thrown into limbo when powerful forces conspired to off both Abiola and Abacha. A Northern General, Abdulsalam, was selected to organize a smooth transition which saw the emergence of Olusegun Obasanjo as Nigeria president in 1999.

During his tenure a visibly irked Obasanjo queried those who criticized the pace of his administration to tell him what happened to all the viable projects he left behind in 1979. When Obasanjo came back to power twenty odd years after he handed over to Shagari, Nigeria Airways with its 36 planes had been ran aground. The Nigerian National Shipping Line was bankrupt and the nation was a pariah state tottering under a 46 billion dollars foreign debt. No one could answer Obasanjo.

Obasanjo’s tenure ended in May 2007 and he handed over to a Northerner Musa Yar’Adua. It is almost one year since ‘Baba Go glow,’ was elected President and Nigerians are asking if they have not got another Shagari on their hand. It was well-meaning but supremely mediocre Shagari who ran Nigeria aground and it was under his rule that Ghanaians (and other Africans) were expelled from Nigeria.

Nigerians have got another alias for their President: ‘President No Motion.’ So pedestrian is Yar’Adua administration that the rule of the former Chemistry Lecturer is virtually inertia. There is absolutely so sense of purpose or direction. From Economic to Financial to Foreign Policies, it has been a succession of flip flops.

Examples: When the Governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank announced plans to emulate Ghana and change the currency (the Naira), his idea was swiftly shot down. When Uncle Sam announced plans to create an African Command, Africans roundly condemned it. Nigerians were badly embarrassed when their President was summoned to the White House where he enthusiastically supported the US plans. On returning home, Yar’dua did another somersault; announcing Nigeria’s opposition. It was the same lack of consistency that characterizes the government’s treatment of the sale of the NITEL (Nigeria’s telecommunication company). Whatever their disagreement with Obasanjo, Nigerians generally agree that his creation of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) was the best legacy he left the country. Headed by the fearless Ribadu, a scion of the famous Ribadu family, the EFCC put the fear of God into the mindless rulers who believed that state’s funds are bounties to be looted with the utmost dispatch. Yar’dua managed to pick quarrel with Ribadu and forced his removal under the pretense of sending him on study leave.


Few months after he relinquished power, Nigerians seem to have forgotten what Obasanjo accomplished. Some commentators even went as far as saying that his was the worst government. This prompted yours truly to write ‘Obasanjo Agonistes,’ a piece that provoked much ire on the Nigerian Cyberspace. I did nothing but listed some of Obasanjo accomplishments which included (setting up the EFCC, total re-payment of Nigeria’s external debt, a 40+ billion dollars foreign reserves, the reintegration of Nigeria into the world’s community etc, etc) and prompted his critic to tell us which other Nigerian leader has accomplished as much. Many replied with verbal jibes but none was able to counter the facts I presented. It might be true that the one-eyed is the king in the land of the blinds, but the truth remains that Obasanjo is the most accomplished Nigerian leader.

In the piece, ‘Nigeria: a curse of reluctant leaders,’ I posited that Nigeria’s woes stemmed primarily from having the bad luck of never having a leader fully prepared for the presidency. Alas, the same is true of President Yar’dua. He was a governor of a backward sate in the North before he was plucked by Obasanjo and foisted on the nation. Yar’dua never had the ambition to rule Nigeria. It shouldn’t therefore be surprising that he hasn’t got the faintest clue about what to do once there.

Aside from systematically dismantling all that Obasanjo managed to build, Yar’dua does not appear to have accomplished much. Aside from his health which remains worrisomely comatose, Yar’dua’s economic, political and foreign policy thrust remains enigmatically opaque.

Another word that has just entered into the Nigerian political lexicon is: ‘Mallamadministration,’ a surely negative moniker that neatly sums up what Nigerians think of their current leader’s style of governance.

*Actually, I made the word up.

White Power Structures

O'REILLY (Fox News host): …what The New York Times wants and the far-left want? They want to breakdown the white Christian male power structure of which you are a part, and so am I. And they want to bring in millions of foreign nationals to basically breakdown the structure that we have. In that regard, Pat Buchanan is right. So I say that you've got to cap it with a number.” Bill O’reilly, The O'Reilly Factor, May 30, 2007.

In this essay I intend to examine the structures of the Global White Power (GWP). In, ‘The Philosophy of White Supremacy,’ I defined and examined the ideology that made the minority white people of the world believe in their manifest destiny to rule and control the world, its people and, especially, its resources for the benefit of white people.

Except for the seriously purblind, it is crystal clear that the world’s Albinos (so-called White people), a minority of the world’s people, exercise tremendous power quite disproportionate to their minority status.

Here I intend to examine the structures the Albinos have erected to uphold and maintain the ideology of white supremacy.

Let me begin by first taking care of the so-called white liberals who like to whine that we Africans do not show much ‘appreciation’ for the work that they (liberals) are doing in our behalf. They mention their donating monies to charities and their sponsoring of orphans in their so-called third world, as some of these great works.
To them I say that they are totally missing the point: Africa is too well endowed to need anyone’s charity.

The only reason Africans remain poor is that we are yet to figure out how to rescue ourselves from the predatory clutches of White Global Power. It is all well and jolly for White Liberals to engage in charities, but while they are interested in cosmetic lessening of the Black man’s burden (caused, in main part, by the ideology of white supremacy), I am committed to its total eradication. While they advocate the maintenance of the current white-supremacy global power structure, albeit with minor adjustments here and there; I’m committed to its complete overthrow.

My position is an uncompromising end to the unjust global system whereby an Albino minority is ruling the majority melanin-rich people of the world. In this struggle, compromise or cosmetic alterations do not exist in my arsenal.

Let me also make it clear that in my writings against racism or GWP, I’m not all concerned by individual pathologies. What I am concerned with are the institutions the Albinos have erected to maintain their ideology of white supremacy. Let it be noted that while it is true that not every white person is racist; every white person is a beneficial of these institutions irrespective of social, political or even ideological persuasion. Except for the liar, everyone else knows that in our world today white skin automatically confers advantages, especially in non-white societies.

Now, let’s look at some of the structures that GWP have built to maintain its stranglehold on the world.

THE MEDIA
The most effective weapon in the arsenal of GWP is the media. Of all the crimes Europe committed against non-Europeans, the most serious and the most egregious is the colonization of information. Europeans not only raped, murdered and plundered but they took it upon themselves to build a complete scholarship based on lies. This was a deliberate and a very conscious effort needed to build a Eurocentric world whereby ancient civilizations will start to look up to the upstart (Europeans) for leadership and direction. The so-called ‘free press’ of the West function always act as a virtual adjunct of Western governments, and about the only thing they do is parrot the lies of western leadership and scholarship. I advice those still deluding themselves about the western media being free to get and read late David Halberstam (may his soul rest in peace) book: “The Powers That Be.” ISBN 0-252-06941-2.

By media, we are not talking not only about the print and electronic journalism but also about the films, theatres and other productions that GWP produces to sell itself. For example, I grew up watching John Wayne movies shown by the information department of the government of Western Nigeria on giant screen projectors in our village square. It goes without saying that we were rooting for the Albino bandits massacring the Indians whose lands they have stolen.

A good example of how GWP uses its vast media power is the speed with which it, almost overnight, transformed the perception of communism being the ultimate menace to Islamphobia being the critical peril. We can also cite the example of Saddam Hussein who was a dependable ally until he was suddenly morphed (by Western media) into a bloodthirsty, world-security threatening ogre, to be stamped out by every means necessary. Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe’s transformation from a darling to an Anti-Christ is also a good example.

THE ACADEMIA:
In “The Mis-education of the Negro, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, wrote: “When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his “proper place” and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His questions of education makes it necessary.” In this ever-green classic, Dr. Woodson correctly opined that: “because the mind has been subjected to control, the ideal of inferiority has become a permanent resident, accepting of discrimination to the point where it seems natural.”

Dr. Woodson was of the opinion that GWP deliberately set out as a matter of conscious policy to screw-up the minds and the brains of Black people of the US of A. The same pattern was established in the colonies in Africa. One of the insults White scholarship likes to spew on us was that ‘education’ was among the glories of colonization.

Methinks that if the purpose of education was to create a literate who will contribute to the development of his\her society, then the education they gave the colonial was an utter failure. The fact of the matter is that the type of education we got was one that produced an ‘educated elite’ completely and totally alienated from his society. This was true not only in the colonies but sadly, with few exceptions; it is still so in much of Africa where the so-called education only produces educated elite completely alienated from their cultural base.

Since the colonial curriculum only set out to train Africans to function in capacities that would ensure the smooth running of the colonial superstructure we can safely assume that this is no accident. Sadly, it is still the same curriculum that is still being followed in much of Africa. That could be the only explanation while Ghanaian children are still being taught today about the achievements of colonial governors, and while Nigerian children are still being told that Mungo Park discovered the Niger.

THE ‘MULTI-NATIONAL’ INSTITUTIONS (IMF, WORLD BANK, IFC, THE UN AND ITS ORGANS ETC, ETC.)
According to article (i) of its charter, the World Bank was set up: “To assist in the reconstruction and development of territories of members by facilitating the investment of capital for productive purposes, including the restoration of economies destroyed or disrupted by war, the reconversion of productive facilities to peacetime needs and the encouragement of the development of productive facilities and resources in less developed countries.”

Article 1 of the IMF charter reads: “To promote international monetary cooperation through a permanent institution which provides the machinery for consultation and collaboration on international monetary problems.”

From its charter, we glean that the: “IFC's purpose is to foster economic growth by promoting private sector investment in its developing member countries. It accomplishes this by providing venture capital for productive private enterprises in association with local investors and management, by encouraging the development of local capital markets, and by stimulating the flow of private capital. The Corporation is designed to supplement, rather than replace, private capital.”

These are noble ideas and ideals indeed and, if implemented, they would have made the world a better place for all its inhabitants to live. This, however, would have run counter to the agenda and the ideology of GWP. So they simply hijacked these institutions and turn them into the instruments of maintaining their ideology of white supremacy whereby non-white would continue to be the hewer of woods, while white people keep going obese by feeding fats on the labour and resources of non-white people.

Firmly in its hand, GWP use the IMF and the World Bank to launch its genocidal policies of Structural Adjustment Policy. Against the advice of African economists led by Professor Adebayo Adedeji, the Bretton Woods institutions imposed this policy which swept through African economies like a hurricane and left in its wake destroyed economies and crippled infrastructures. When the agonizing cries of Africans prickled what is left of their conscience, they changed SAP to ESAP (Enhanced SAP) and this, in turn metamorphosed into Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) which, in turn, transmuted into the insulting Heavily Indebted and Poor Country (HIPC), and later turn to Millennium Development Goals. Whatever name is given to these policies, the agenda remains the same: GWP must be in control of the world’s resources.

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION:
Poser: what is the most effective way to set about destroying a people without militarily wiping them out? Answer: You can do that by annihilating them culturally.
A human being without a culture is simply a non-being. The world would be better off without a person who is not conscious of her own existence. What point is there in living if you do not even know who you are? That is the central problem of the Black man today.

Another poser: who inflicted the worst violence on Africa, is it the European warrior who, armed with his gun, raped, killed and pillaged to his lustful satisfaction or is it the white missionary who, armed with his Bible (a collection of fables, I might add here) set about to systematically strip the African of his history and culture and, in turn, his humanity?

I could be wrong but methinks that the missionary did Africa more violence than his warrior brother. The warrior undoubtedly wrought his fair share of destruction, but it was the missionary who wrecked the African and turn him into a cultural and historical cripple. The White missionary one-track, materialistic mind couldn’t grasp the deep spirituality of the African, so he taught the African to start laughing at the gods of his ancestors. He taught us to poke fun at our gods and our rituals and our traditions and our culture. He taught us to laugh at our history. In this the European succeeded so much so that those Africans that considered themselves educated would rather die than pray to the gods of their ancestors; they would rather perish than answer to their native names or speak their native language, or to partake in the customs and traditions of their own folks! In the name of education, the African has been rendered into a non-person. He is but a caricature of the European; and a sad one at that!

THE MILITARY
There is no debate whatever that GWP is the most heavily armed member of the human race. Yet, White people, with all the awesome weapons of mass annihilation at their disposal, are the most insecure people on earth. This fear of the white people could have its origin in two sources:

i.The fear that should they lose guard the rest of the world would decide to give White People a dose of the medicine they have been dishing to the rest of us since they woke up from their alpine caves, and start to inflict unmitigated and unremitting violence on the rest of humanity.

ii.Since they cannot wipe us out genetically, they should always maintain their military superiority just in case we decide to step out of line. Just as their father’s used to say: “Whatever happens, we have got the Maxim guns.”

This goes only to show that you can buy as much war toys as you will, but you can never buy security. Concomitant to arming themselves to the hilt, GWP tries to deny non-white the means to arm themselves. That explains why they were against their client Saddam Hussein acquiring nuclear weapons and why they have to kill him. It is only explanation why they are using all the tricks in the books (and outside it) to deny Iran the nuclear knowledge.”

“I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys. He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of a sahib. For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life in trying to impress the “natives,” and so in every crisis he has got to do what the “natives” expect of him. He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it. I had got to shoot the elephant. I had committed myself to doing it when I sent for the rifle. A sahib has got to act like a sahib; he has got to appear resolute, to know his own mind and do definite things. To come all that way, rifle in hand, with two thousand people marching at my heels, and then to trail feebly away, having done nothing--no, that was impossible. The crowd would laugh at me. And my whole life, every white man’s life in the East, was one long struggle not to be laughed at.” George Orwell, ‘Shooting an Elephant.’