The challenge we face as Africans in the diaspora is to heed the
call of Garvey, Nkrumah, Malcolm and countless other African leaders
to assist in the process of liberating, resurrecting and unifying
Africa as a global base of Black Power and human liberation and a
source of a new African renaissance. This is in part the challenge
which the organizers of the first African Liberation Day assumed in
mobilizing/organizing the massive demonstrations in support of the
liberation movements in Guinea Bissau and Southern Africa in 1972.
The question is, thirty years later, how far have African people on
the continent and in the diaspora progressed towards fulfilling the
Pan-Africanist vision of Garvey, Nkrumah and Malcolm? What is the
future of Africa in the 21st century?
The official Call of the State of the Black World Conference
convened in Atlanta last year incisively stated the tragic state of
affairs in Africa today: “In the motherland, the continent of
Africa, our people have been ‘liberated’ from colonialism, but
the voice of Nkrumah speaks to us from the grave - Africa is neither
genuinely free or united. The motherland is still in the clutches of
the former colonial powers who control much of the land, wealth,
natural resources and the economies of our new nations, rendering
our ‘liberation’ an exercise in ‘flag independence.’”
One need only look at South Africa, where Nelson Mandela went from
“prisoner to President” to understand the veracity of this
assessment. Black majority rule is now a fact of life in this
nation, but the dismantling of apartheid has not changed the reality
that the same individuals and corporations that controlled the
diamonds, gold and disproportionately owned much of the best land,
still maintain control over these vital areas of economy - a reality
which has meant that the redistribution of wealth and opportunities
in South Africa for the indigenous Black majority will be painfully
slow. A similar situation prevails in neighboring Zimbabwe where the
landless masses of African peasants are locked in a struggle to
reclaim the land stolen by a wealthy and privileged White minority
which has grown fat off its ownership of the best lands in this
nation.
In addition to these maladies, much of Africa also suffers from
fratricidal ethnic conflicts, the ravishes of poverty and disease,
particularly AIDS, and corrupt, self-aggrandizing leaders who are
more interested in obtaining and clinging to power to enrich
themselves than in utilizing the resources of the continent to solve
the problems of the African masses. “Where there is no vision the
people perish.” In the motherland the interests and aspirations of
the masses are being sacrificed by the blind ambitions of false
leaders.
This is a bleak and sobering picture – enough to plunge a less
sturdy people into a state of perpetual despair. But the people who
gave life to humankind and bequeathed to the world its first gifts
of civilization, must not despair. Rather it is our sacred duty to
heed Garvey’s exhortation, “up you mighty race, accomplish what
you will.” This is the challenge we face as we struggle to rescue
and reconstruct Africa and the race into the 21st Century. People of
African descent must vow that Africa will be “free and
self-determining!”
Copyright © 2002 The Black World Today.
All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.
http://athena.tbwt.com/content/article.asp?articleid=953
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------- WHAT CAN BE DONE
ABOUT 419 SCAM ARTISTS? -------
Not much. We don't want to sound fatalistic, but the
reality is that the scam artists hide behind untraceable email
addresses, sending their scam letters from pay-by-the-hour Internet
Cafes. The governments of Africa are generally in a survival mode,
with little interest in dealing with some Internet scam artist in a
local village. There are always bigger fish to fry.
Plus we have actually talked with West African
government and business officials about their perception of these
419 scams. They have expressed amazement that anyone could be fooled
by the empty promises contained in emails from a stranger in
Africa. In their eyes, the culpability goes both ways. "Who
could be such a fool to give money to someone they have never
met?" This is a valid question for all of us to ponder...
What we have done at The Freeman Institute is to
provide a free service to warn individuals who may be flirting with the
idea of great wealth coming their way. Our motto is: Run, don't
walk, away from these scams and then do what you can to warn people
about this pervasive problem. Feel free to provide a link to www.freemaninstitute.com/419.htm
-- so that more people can see the truth about these 419 scams.
***************************************************************
For hard numbers, the Australian
Institute of Criminology article and the US Dept. of State pub.
10465 will prepare you better than this site will. Really good
backgrounders. From these you will get an idea of the scope of this
scam. There are already inter-governmental relationships established
over this issue.
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