Pan-Africanism - A Blessing Or A Curse?

recently saw a video on social media promoting a version of Pan-Africanism.

Pan-Africanism as we know speaks to the ideology or movement that is focused on uniting Africa or Africans both in Africa and within the African diaspora around the world, with a view to ending colonialism and perceived white or Caucasian supremacy in Africa.

I must state here that this article is not written to promote or attack the Pan-African views or ideology, but rather to take another look at why we have been plagued by some recurrent issues in Africa.

I am definitely for the unity or unification of people of Africa and for the advancement of our unique sociocultural identity. However, I do not believe that I must be against any other sociocultural group and their unique identity in order to promote mine. I truly believe that we can co-exist peacefully and also that we can even help each other to advance.

Properly handled Pan-Africanism can be the blessing Africa desperately needs. However, badly handled or mishandled Pan-Africanism can in fact be the curse that sends Africa and us Africans further away from maximizing our potentials and being the best we can be.

The video I watched accused the Caucasians of being the reason for the problems in Africa. It painted a picture of corrupt and greedy colonialists who invaded Africa for our treasures, such as precious metals, oil, and ivory etc.

It then went on to say that these colonial masters destroyed our very stable society and imposed corrupt and greedy leaders upon us to ensure that they kept enriching themselves from Africa's precious resources.

The video went on to show that as a result of Africa's destabilized state (following the "destruction" by the colonial masters) Africans are now choosing to emigrate to these colonial lands of the colonizers which have not been so destabilized. The Caucasians however, are now wondering why Africans are coming to their lands when they know fully well that they destroyed our stable society. They have further insulted us by imposing strict immigration laws that make it difficult for us to join them in enjoying the wealth that they have stolen from us.

The most interesting part for me was that though the video was shared by an African, the main people featured and giving these analyses regarding Africa's problems were Caucasians. Yes, the key speakers and theorists were all Caucasians.

After watching the video my first response was "Hmmmm".

Watching the video caused me to reflect and these are my thoughts from that reflection.

The Blame Game Continues.

Generally, humans often look outwards when they face misfortunes. They look to fix the blame on someone or something rather than fix the lame. Has anyone noticed the professional lawn tennis player who thugs on the strings on his/her racket or even goes ahead to break the racket after hitting a bad shot. How about the drunk man who wonders why the road can't seem to stay straight so he can walk properly without stumbling.

It is so sad that at this stage of our so called development in Africa, we continue to blame Caucasians for the problems in Africa.

Does anyone remember that there were hardly any wars fought by the Caucasians to establish colonization of the countries they colonized? It is interesting to note that even the movies on the negativities of slavery and colonialism promoted by proponents of ideologies featured in the video, hardly or rarely show us that colonial masters had any major struggles in their quest to colonize Africa. What we see mostly is that they tricked us into contracts or covenants. Hardly do we see movies in which Africans fought hard to protect their lands from the colonial masters.

Though some battles happened after colonization was already established, but they were not generally fought to establish it.

What does that say about our so called civilization before the colonial masters came?

Was Pre-colonial Africa Really A Stable Society?

The idea that the colonialists created wars to destabilize our stable societies is an interesting but weird take on the situation.

A look at precolonial Africa would show a picture of a multi-tribal land where the individual tribes hardly trusted each other. They fought amongst themselves even when they knew that their neighbours only spoke a slightly different dialect from theirs. They enslaved each other even before the Caucasians arrived.

This obvious fragmentation was one of the main things that the colonial masters capitalized on.

If we were "stable" then how were they able to easily destabilize and colonize us?

Today, despite the millions of African immigrants living in developed countries we have not destabilized the lives of our former colonial masters enough for them to start leaving their countries.

We must remember that the numbers of Caucasians who came to our countries have never been in such large proportions as the number of Africans now living in their countries. Yet, they were able to destabilize our so-called stable societies. We must even remember that most of the earlier Caucasian settlers died from the tropical diseases that we were relatively immune to. Yes, in the Americas many locals died from the diseases the Caucasians came with but that was not the prevalent situation in Africa or even India.

My Rational Conclusions Are:

1) We are clearly a diverse people with very different cultures and religions.

This in itself is not bad but it was fraught with instabilities that were exploited by the more unified Caucasians whose society was less diverse than ours.

While we credit them with the expression "divide and rule" or "divide and conquer" that was clearly our operative mantra before they came to us. We were already divided along tribal, cultural and religious lines. They on the other hand spoke one language and had one culture.

2) We were never really a "stable" society especially but not exclusively because of our cultural and religious diversity.

This is evident by our divisive pursuances and the ways in which we relate to each other in our multi-tribal societies. The results of the last national elections in Nigeria showed that clearly, especially in many of the Southern states.

Even today, as you go across Africa, the level of xenophobia seen is frightening despite the fact that the people are essentially one race. The instability caused by tribal and sociocultural divides are heavily underrated.

One of my childhood friends was killed in South Africa by a xenophobic gang that attacked Nigerians at will.

As a young man in Nigeria I saw the government send home Ghanaians who were living in Nigeria with chants of "Ghana must go" being shouted by xenophobic Nigerians. To date we still have locally made travel bags in Nigeria referred to as "Ghana must go" bags because they looked like what the Ghanaians used when traveling home.

Ghanaians who remember those days are today resisting the modern day influx of Nigerians into Ghana.

3) We still fail to take responsibility for our woes.

Until we take responsibility for the ills in our land and face our challenges to fix it we will continue in our present predicaments.

An often "understated" aspect of what made the slave trade and colonization successful is that corrupt and greedy African leaders "signed deals" with the Caucasian slave traders to enslave their "own African brothers or people" especially those from different tribes.

This is a fact that we must own up to and appreciate. We cannot emphasize "half of" the story only and ignore the "other half". There is no way we can accomplish wholeness if we do not bring "the halves" together.

Even the Caucasians took responsibility for preserving their stability when their societies were being governed by corrupt and greedy dictators. When we read about the French Revolution, for example, we see this.

Yes, Europe as we know it today, was not always like this. They did not have Africans or Asians going over there to "save" their societies. They rose to the challenge and by the help or grace of whatever they believed in, they freed themselves and became the land many of us are now striving to enter today.

There is no messiah coming to free us in Africa. We have our problems, and we must wake up, smell the proverbial coffee, and do what we have to do to fix it.

Change must occur and we must say as in one of the church choruses: "let it start with me".

4) Our primary problems are within us and not from "without".

These problems are notably:

a) Our intolerance of each other (tribal, cultural and religious intolerance).

Please, remember that traditional religions of the Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa etc. are not the same o.

Yes, though we use the blanket term traditional religion for our spiritual practices, no two Nigerian tribes, let alone African tribes have the same religion. Our "traditional gods" and cultures are very different.

We still have African Americans and Africans in the diaspora hating on each other, and the story is much the same between Afro-Caribbeans and Africans in the UK.

b) Our Monarchial systems or societies, produce within us ruling classes that can easily take advantage of the others in the land.

This has created the foundation for the corrupt leadership and governance that is prevalent in the African society and other third world nations.

Even the Bible tells us that Monarchial systems of men produce corrupt and greedy dictators. The Bible's view is captured in what the prophet Samuel told the Israelites when they demanded for a king to rule them just like the other nations.

"And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.

And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.

And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.

And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.

And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.

And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.

He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.

And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day.

Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us;" - 1 Samuel 8:10-19.

Doesn't the above excerpt depict our societies even today?

c) Our socioeconomic and sociocultural class or caste systems -

This is prevalent in many African societies. The talk of "royal or blue blood" is even tossed around by some as their claim to certain rights and privileges.

The East Indian caste system, the Osu caste system in Igbo land and a host of others across African and south east Asia depict this long standing trend.

These often pitch brothers against brothers even within the same tribes.

I can go on and on but I believe you see the point I'm making, so I'll not belabour it.

Look Within.

To solve our problems we must start by "looking within". I honestly believe that no one can make you feel inferior without your help. People can do all they like for example, they can beat you, terrorize you, intimidate you etc. all in the bid to make you feel inferior to them. However, until you yield or succumb to these pressures they cannot succeed in making you inferior to them.

All they can do is try to make sure you "yield" to their pressure.

Hence, the choice remains yours whether to yield or not to yield. Irrespective of the reason or reasons you give to yield, the choice still remains yours.

Esther in the Bible said "…if I perish I perish." - Esther 4:16. She determined to take a course of action irrespective of the consequences. She exercised her CHOICE irrespective of the results. This brings me to the issue of "origins and effects".

Origins And Effects.

These two phenomena are very related because one often leads to the other. However, the truth is that they are really not always related. The problem is we sometimes like to lump things together even when it is obvious that they are not ALWAYS associated or related. Yes, "origins" are different from "effects".

"Origins" speak about a natural state or a natural progression, and are generally intrinsic. On the other hand, "effects" generally refer to an unnatural progression related to an extrinsic stimuli.

When studying the problems of Africa, many have often focused primarily on the role of the Caucasian colonial masters. They refer to how they believe that these colonial masters destroyed great African leaders for example Lumunba of Congo (Zaire) Sankarra of Burkina Faso and Gaddaffi of Libya because of their selfish interests in the wealth of Africa.

They show us documentaries that not only accuse but actually show the colonial masters plotting against great African leaders and imposing on our societies their puppets who helped them loot away our wealth.

They also show us that corrupt African leaders have their stolen loot (wealth) stashed away in foreign bank accounts in Europe and other developed countries and that the governments of those countries do nothing to help Africa get rid of these corrupt and greedy leaders.

The truth as we stated above is that we should be asking ourselves what made the colonial masters succeed in reaching and maintaining their hold on these African leaders?

We must recognize what we see today as the vestiges of the colonial domination of Africa are actually its effects. These are not the origins of our problems.

The Lumunbas and Sankarras that we speak about are effects, not origins. They came in to help salvage something that was wrong due to the effects of the influence of corruption and probably westernization. These men came into power and tried to address the corrupt and injustice in their lands and were sadly executed whilst in office.

Our issues have to be dealt with at the level of the origins and the effects will simply fall into place. If we are going to thrive in the world we have to adapt or make the needed adjustments to do so.

Yes, Life Is Actually Balanced.

The average Nigerian is aware of the expression "dis life no balance at all o", an expression often used to describe an unfortunate situation.

However, it is important to note that life is actually designed with "balances", hence, nothing that is lopsided can last forever. Some examples of balances -

• no funeral home would survive if people do not die and their families do not need their services. This is generally called the principle of "reverse fortune". It is the situation in which the misfortune of someone becomes the base or trigger for the fortune of another.

• Humanity cannot survive if they are only males or only females. We need both.

• If only carnivores existed and there are no omnivores nature would be out of balance.

• Even the planets around including the sun, moon and stars are there to help maintain balance on the earth.

Life always presents us with a flip side to whatever we are dealing with.

Along with "heads", a coin also has "tails"; every paper has two sides; for every disability there is actually a different ability (hence, people now prefer to use the term "differently abled" rather than "disabled".

Origins and effects are sometimes nature's way of producing balance. If we had never had corrupt systems or weak systems, there is no way that someone would have come from outside and successfully exploited us.

We should therefore, focus on strengthening our systems by eliminating things within our cultures and traditions that promote injustice and greed. As we do this no one would again be able to destabilize us.

Please, do not lose sight of what's happening to Africa right now with the "invasion" of the Chinese. Our corrupt and greedy leaders are "signing deals" without due diligence as they did centuries ago.

The last result was Caucasian colonization. If we do not pay attention and deal appropriately with this our children would not be dealing with the so called problem of Caucasian colonization, but rather with one of Asian colonization.

I see history repeating itself if we do not deal with our issues. I dare say that we all would be "turning in our proverbial graves" when centuries from today, our generations are blaming the Chinese for our problems in Africa.

In summary, the video I watched was a true reflection of how messed up we are as a collective people where many believe that the best thing to do is primarily to blame the white man for our problem. The ironic thing is that they also believe it is right to "go as immigrants and serve" the people that they believe are responsible for our unfortunate lot in life, as a way of getting back our lost wealth.

Yes, I hear you saying "hmmmm" like I did when I first watched the video I spoke about.

Overcoming Our Negative Past.

This article was not written for us to deny the effects of our past. For everything we are today is the product of our collective past. This past obviously includes the colonial past and the damaging effects of slavery.

Yes, though our fathers played a horrible role in our past colonial experiences, we cannot deny that the Caucasians who enslaved and colonized us are not without blame. I do not believe that our fathers in their quest for power and wealth simply sold out their brothers. I do however, believe that they also felt that they were doing something for their collective good and the overall betterment of the land and society.

In some cases, they simply felt that they were getting rid of their enemies, while in other cases they felt they were removing the "bad eggs" from amongst them. This is because it is a historical fact, that some were sold as slaves because their people felt, for whatever reason, that they would not have amounted to any good for their collective society.

Towards the end of the slave trade, my grandfather, actually helped to free some people from his village, who had already been sold and heading to the west via the port in Calabar, Southeast Nigeria.The truth is that the slave trade was supposed to be officially over but the Caucasian slave masters continued their trade secretly. Grandpa being a police officer, used his privileged position to help many of these people come back home to our village in Umuahia. The account was not only verified to me by elders of our land, but also by those whose grandparents were freed and brought home by my grandfather.

If you thought that this article was to declare the Caucasian slave masters and colonialists innocent then you thought wrong. They were most certainly culpable. However, we cannot in this twenty first (21st) century continue to focus on what they did to us. The present Caucasians with whom we have to deal, though beneficiaries of the evils of their forefathers were not directly involved in harming or destroying our land and our vulnerable fragile societal units. These as you know were already fragmented by inter-tribal and intra-tribal wars.

There is also enough blame to go around for everyone, but that would not make our lives better. We cannot stop the hemorrhage by simply blaming those who caused the wound. We must attend to the wound and stop the bleeding.

Let us begin the healing process by forgiving ourselves and those who have hurt us. Forgiveness is not denying the hurts or their consequential damages. However, it is the way to halt the progress of the negative effects and transition us into the direction of recovery.

We must forgive those who preyed on us by covenants or contracts they never intended to keep. We must forgive them for killing thousands of our people through hard rigor, hunger and unwarranted prejudice and wickedness. We must forgive those who dehumanized us and who even in many places today, still regard us as inferior and less than human.

Yes, we must forgive them so as to break their hold over us. We must carry ourselves with pure God-ordained human dignity as God's image bearers, in our interactions with them. The truth is that we have seen and continue to see great relationships amongst the different races that make up the collective human race, when people have found common grounds that unite them to a cause. For some, it is their religion, for some their professions, for some others their passion for sports and the list goes on. I do believe that we can co-exist by destroying the hold of our negative past through forgiveness.

We must also forgive ourselves; starting with our fathers, for the role they played in our collective enslavement and consequent colonization. Fathers are to give children feathers to fly, not to clip their growing feathers.

We must also forgive ourselves for keeping ourselves back by holding onto our negative past and practicing "reverse prejudice" which has only harmed us. This has greatly harmed us by ensuring our inability to look within and make the needed adjustments for progress. Do not be fooled, many corporations and first world nations are where they are today because of qualified and certified Human Resources from the so called underdeveloped or third world nations. If they can benefit from what we have, so can we.

We must forgive even our current corrupt and greedy leaders who have exploited our ignorance and the vulnerable fragility of our societies by cashing in on our tribal and sociocultural divisions. Yes, they have exploited us and treated us even worse than the slave and colonial masters have. We must forgive them but reject their continual abuse by refusing to be used as instruments of oppression against our brothers and sisters.

When they cannot use us they would leave us.

People hold onto those that they believe will promote their cause. So, when we stop being instruments of their unrighteousness, they would certainly leave us alone. They would fizzle into oblivion once we recognize that their power over us is actually our power. This realization would help chart a course of progress and complete the healing from the evils of our past.

We must also remember that our past was not only filled with evil. Yes, our past also has some collective good which we must harness not only in order to heal but to thrive. Yes, though our societies were fragmented by sociocultural divisions, they are strong and stabilized by traditions and even sociocultural beliefs that have withstood the test of time. Our passion for family, brotherhood and general societal wellbeing should be embraced. We have a lot of good in us that we can use in order to be who we were ordained to be. Diverse as we may be in our sociocultural practices, we must remember that there is strength in diversity. We do not have to forego our sociocultural diversity, all we have to do is embrace a unifying cause that will benefit all our peoples.

Let us play our individual part by following three golden rules:

1) Start Where You Are.

Stop whining about where you could, should or would have been.

The "shoulda, coulda, wouldas" of life cannot help you at this point in time. So we have to start from where we are as a people. The best place to start from is where you are.

2) Use What You Have.

We are laden with resources. The truth is that we have all we need in order to start. Nothing we lack can prevent us from starting once we choose to use what we have.

I dare say again that what we have is all we ever need to start. So, use what you have.

3) Do What You Can.

Too many of us are fixated on doing what we believe is the best thing to do. This often paralyzes us especially when we realize that we do not have what it takes to do what we think or believe is the best thing to do.

Please forget about what is the so-called best thing to do and do what you can. The only thing you can do is what you can. The only thing you can do best is what you can. So, get up and do just that. Yes, do what you can.

Africa is blessed with enough human and natural (material) resources to head onto the path of success. As an African, I believe this and so should you.

Many of you who are not Africans also believe this, so join us and be part of our path to a better Africa.

Yes, not only can we survive our colonial past, but "deep seated" in us is the evidence that we have largely survived our colonial past. So, let us go and manifest that success to the world.

Copyrights © 2024 by Bishop Dr. David Ibeleme, MBBS; DFMPC; MSc; MPH
Victorious Faith Ministries,
P.O. Box 4378, St. Ann's, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago. W.I.
Tel/Fax: +1(868) 223-7159 / 384-9230
Email:[email protected] Website:www.vfmwo.com