THE AFRICAN DILEMMA:IDENTITY CRISIS
I will start by dissecting a historical aspect that is very much dear to my heart because if we do not understand how come we are here then we are definitely on a path to self-destruction. We must all stand united side by side in solidarity with any member of our kind, kin or group from any part of the world. We are African no matter how you prefer to call yourself i.e. Afro-Brazilian, Afro-Turk, Black or African American, Afro-British so it is about time that whatever affects our brother also has an impact on how we behave because the White man is failing to understand that we did not come to the New World or America on our own accord but we were taken as slaves, treated as chattel.
We still find ourselves in a world that justify white supremacy ideals which long existed and led to the slave trade by which I still cannot phantom ‘why’ if the supposed Whites are superior then should they steal intellectually crafted artifacts from Africa, these artifacts were the soul of Africa. It is this unity between people of African descent across different parts of the world that will really make the West make room for them and see them as their co-equal, it is about time that we step into the skin we find ourselves instead of acting like one with a Black skin but with a white Mask overshadowing it.
As Kwame Ture once said, ”I don’t even use the term African American, I use the term Africans because that’s what we are” and also as a rejoinder in the words of Kwame Nkrumah, “Divided we are weak; united ,Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world”. These are a big part of the project these great Pan-African personalities started, a lot of measure had to be put in place to make achievable, a typical example will be to emphasize the need for a study about the African Diaspora and their experiences which will help bridge the existing gap between those of the diaspora and those on the continent by helping them to understand more about each other and appreciate their experiences. Such a body of knowledge and ideas will help put in place what Casely Hayford propagated that there was “the need for African –Americans to learn more about African Institutions and traditions, as they had lost touch with the past of their race and were helplessly grouping in the dark for affinities that were not natural” thus the need for an African centered study of political theory and ideas.
It is a very true fact and an important one as such, that if we do not take charge of our own history and examine it especially of those in the diaspora and those on the mother continent that is really being something that got me thinking about the history of both the diaspora and the main African continent how the interconnect and complement each other. It is a challenge and task we those who are Africans have to take on to really appreciate it.
Op-ed by:
Derrick Kojo Nyamedi
