The following is an excerpt from a recent speech by Ibrahim Traore (Burkina Faso), one of the Lions of the Sahel confederation (AES), which also includes Assimi Goita (Mali) and Abdourahamane Tchiani (Niger).
Traore discusses various youth initiatives and managing the inevitable human failings that arise when facing formidable, ruthless adversaries intent on maintaining global, capitalist power.
This excerpt deals with fear and brings to mind clear parallels throughout global capitalism. Afrikans in the Scattering (diaspora) take note!
During the speech, Traore discusses the institutional failures that severely handicap Afrikans efforts to escape capitalist imperialism. The Afrikan Union is heavily criticized for failing to expedite development and peace on the continent.
In like manner, late great political analyst Glenn Ford thoroughly analyzed the massive failures of the “black misleadership class” (BMC) while addressing the continued dismal material realty of Afrikans in America. Hell on earth continues to be an apt characterization of life inside the cathedral of capitalism for most Afrikans.
Traore doesn’t mention the Burkinabe equivalent of America’s BMC in this speech, however, there’s no doubt that the problem exists there just as it does in the Americas and West Europe.
Let’s hear from another courageous freedom fighter:
“Anytime you beg another man to set you free, you’ll never be free! Freedom is something that you have to do for yourself and until the black man lets the white man know that we are really ready and willing to pay the price that is necessary for freedom, our people will always be walking around here as second-class citizens, or what you call 20th century slaves…The price of freedom is death!” – Malcolm X
There is not doubt that the inability of Afrikans to achieve peace, sovereignty and prosperity in the Scattering and Afrika is tied to the transformations forced upon the minds, bodies, and souls of Afrikans during centuries of enslavement and colonization.
Volumes have been written discussing the intellectual, physical and cultural changes forced on the Afrikan People by European capitalist men. Inhuman mental and physical abuse and forced cultural indoctrination have taken a terrible toll.
Perhaps the most destructive strategy still in use today by the criminal capitalist ruling class (CCRC) is what Dr. Amos Wilson termed “Falsification”. According to Dr. Wilson, Falsification fills human consciousness with false and/or irrelevant Eurocentric information, dislodging true, relevant Afrikan centered information.
Thus, severely damaged psyches run rampant among Afrikans throughout the Scattering and Afrika. Mass political organization appears to be almost impossible. Institution building is on life support. Afrikan centered education simply does not exist for most Afrikans in the capitalist West. And, sadly, Afrikans still swell the ranks of capitalist armies around the globe, enforcing the wishes of ravenous capitalist overlords.
However, this does not excuse continually making the same mistakes, perhaps the worst being ignoring the teachings of our MANY great ancestors that left us magnificent intellectual and fighting legacies to emulate on the road to sovereignty.
One of our greatest ancestors, Kwame Ture, often said, “Everything changes all the time!” This is THE most important scientific discovery of mankind! The success of human civilization relies on the ability to adapt in response to environmental changes. And, since the environment changes continuously all the time, TACTICS AND STRATEGIES MUST CHANGE ALL THE TIME! Clearly, the People must be well organized and scientifically adept to meet this challenge.
Ibrahim Traore and comrades in the AES are doing just that right before our eyes! Those of us in the Scattering need to pay close attention.
We got a lot of catching up to do!
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“A coward is always afraid. When we are afraid, we become slaves. We bend. We lick our boots. Our ancestors were not cowardly. If we are cowardly our children will ask us questions.”
“Imagine that in Burkina Faso we refuse to fight and accept to live in slavery! Tomorrow our children will grow up and ask questions, “Have our parents been cowardly to leave us in slavery?”
“The imperialists are trying to scare the leaders so that they become cowards. They come to our palaces and threaten us directly or with veiled threats.”
“They tell us, “You know, Thomas Sankara tried to do this but he is dead! Gaddafi tried to do this but he is dead! They do this to scare us!”
“But, they didn’t understand one thing. When we say country or death, we win! We are not afraid and we will never be afraid! They probably scare many Afrikan heads of state.”
“We often call on Afrikan heads of state to wake up and take care of our youth to start real development. Some have publicly opposed us. But, I can assure you that when we find ourselves in the “corridors”, these same heads of state tell us that we are on the right track and this is what needs to be done so that Afrika can rise again.
So we ask them why don’t you support us? Some say they don’t have the means and some tell us they can’t.” – Ibrahim Traore (Burkina Faso)