The Honorable Marcus Garvey, Pan Africanism and The Africanhttp://mathaba.net/x.htm?http://www.mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=90208Posted: 01/26
From: Mathaba
By Lester Lewis (a.k.a. Prince Ntum ba Azah)
A lecture delivered to the All Around the World Museum and the Lansing Chapter of the National Black United Front (USA)
At The Sankofa Academy
4817 Bristol Road
Lansing, Michigan M1 48911,USA
INTRODUCTION
“In death as in life, I shall come back to serve you as I have served you before. I life I shall be the same. In death I shall be a terror to the foes of liberty. If death has power, count on me. Be assured that I shall never desert you and make your enemies triumph over you.” (The Honourable Marcus Garvey).
I would like to offer Honour, Glory, Praises and Thanks to The Most High God, to The Lesser Gods and to The Ancestors for all the Blessings they have showered upon us over the Ages of the world. I would like to thank them for sending their son, our Brother and our Redeemer, The Honourable Marcus Garvey as our One True Liberator who has put us back on the upward path of our development within the cycles of time.
Those of you who are familiar with the evolution of time would be aware that we now live in the Age of Aquarius, the Water carrier. You are aware that at the beginning of every Age (a time period of 2155 years), The Most High God sends his son, THE EVER COMING ONE, He who comes in Peace, to bring peace on earth and in Heaven.
You are aware that in the Age of Taurus, THE COMING ONE was manifested as a calf or a bullock; that in the Age of Aires, the SON OF GOD was manifested as a The Lamb. So you have our Christian Brothers and Sisters singing about THE LAMB OF GOD.
When we look at the Age of Pisces, we see Jesus being born as Ichtus, the Fishman, as the “Bread of Isis and the Fish of Nephtys.” That is why he could walk on water and he wanted to make his disciples “Fishers of Men.” We need to get inside the symbolism, the sign language in which certain parts of the Bible are written so that we can truly come to appreciate that:”Christianity is the Glorification of African Culture.”
Some of you may be aware of the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus. This teaches us “The Love of God is manifested in flesh twelve times throughout a Great Year of the World. You know that there are twelve Ages throughout the Great Year. Well in this, the AGE OF AQUARIUS, Atum Ra, The Most High God, sent his son T.H. Marcus Garvey, to bring peace in the war being waged against the Africans. That is why Marcus Garvey waged war against all those who are waging war against the Africans. So as Disciples, Sons and daughters of T. H. Marcus Garvey, we too must wage war against all those who are waging “war against the Africans.” That is the only way we can have peace, by defeating those who are waging war against us.
It is my contention that throughout the 2155 years of the Age of Aquarius, no other human being will be born of the stature of Marcus Garvey; and that when we move from Aquarius to the Age of Capricorn in 4045, African peoples on earth will still be celebrating the birth, life and work of T. H. Marcus Garvey.
Every people in every culture determine their High Days and Holy Days. In 1998, we organized the United Kingdom Pan African Congress, in celebration of the 111th birthday of Marcus Garvey. One of the Resolutions that we adopted called on Africans everywhere to make Marcus Garvey’s birthday, the 17th day of August every year, an African Holy day. We must celebrate it as a Global African holiday.
This year in Britain, the African United Action Front has called on African peoples living in Britain, to take the day off work to celebrate Marcus Garvey’s birthday as a Pan African holiday. We are not asking anybody or any authority for a holiday. We are taking it. If you had not heard this CALL before, now that you have heard the CALL, you have to consider whether on 17 August 2005, you will be taking the day off work to celebrate Marcus Garvey’s birthday, and whether you will encourage others to do the same thing.
If we continue to do this year after year after year, more and more people will take the day off work, Parliaments will start legislating to make 17 August a public holiday and this day will become an African Holy day, a Global Pan African holiday for all Africans, where ever we live on earth.
Many of you will be familiar with the writings of Professor Tony Martin on Marcus Garvey. When Garvey came, he found us in the gutter after nearly 3,000 years of decline. We had been at the top of the mountain, the first to see the light. We gave the world civilization. You don’t have to take my word for it; you can read Count C. F. Volney’s RUINS OF EMPIRES where he tells us that while others were yet barbarians, we discovered the civil and religious systems that still govern the universe. Yes indeed, civilisation is a gift that Africans gave to the world.
Our decline began with a war that John Henrik Clarke reminded us of. That was around 700 BCE when Senecharib, the Assyrian King of Babylon was beating up on the Jews. The Kemetic Pharaoh Taharka intervened on the side of the Jews but his armies were smashed by Senecharib’s forces. This defeat is recorded in the Bible at 2 kings 24:7 which tells us, “The king of Egypt did not leave his land any more every thing he possessed, from the river of Egypt to the river of Babylon, was taken by the king of Babylon.”
Yet, Taharka has come down to us as one of the most brilliant generals in history. I beg to differ. For me Taharka was one of our biggest disasters in history. You can date the decline in African power and influence in the world from that disastrous military intervention to save the Jews. It was that defeat that opened the door to the foreign invasions of Africa; from the Persians under Cambyses the Greeks under Alexander, the Romans, the Arabs and finally the Europeans.
GARVEY’S VISION
So when Garvey came, he met us living, indeed existing under the most terrible conditions. We had just come out of slavery. The Europeans had carved up Africa among themselves, sharing it out like a sliced cake and making it their colonies. Everywhere we lived on earth we were suffering. You remember that Garvey made a journey through Central America where he observed the miserable, inhuman conditions under which we lived in that part of the world.
He saw us suffering and dying building the Panama Canal. That was when he posed the question, “WHERE IS THE BLACK MAN’S GOVERNMENT?” I will return to this question later. However, since there was no BLACK MAN’S GOVERNMENT, Garvey set out to create one. That is why with Amy Ashwood Garvey, he built the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League.
The UNIA was built as an instrument, a vehicle for building a united African nation, for Africa for the Africans, “those at home and those abroad.” And what a magnificent job he did in building the UNIA into a Global Pan African Organisation. Its principal objective was and remains building one government for the whole of Africa that embraces Africans everywhere they live on earth. Its membership stretched across all continents including Asia.
C.L. R. James calls Garvey’s success “a propaganda miracle. Just imagine, with no TV or press coverage, no international telephones, no satellite transmissions, no Email, and yet, within a very short time, the UNIA encompassed not only North, Central and South America, but all the Islands in the Caribbean, it encompassed East, West and Southern Africa.
Who can build a similar Movement at this time? Garvey was on time. He came at the right time, just when we needed him most. I say, that of all me and women of all races and nations on earth, T. H. Marcus Garvey was the most successful human being of the twentieth century. And yet, he saw none of his magnificent victories. All the victories we have one from the 1950s right up to the present day, have their origins in the teachings and the vision of Marcus Garvey.
In his lifetime, “Men of History” such as W. E. B. Du Bois and George Padmore opposed him. But both came to embrace Pan Africanism and the vision of Garvey of building one single united African nation.
When we look at African leaders who emerged in the second half of the twentieth century, we find that they were all students of and influenced by T. H. Marcus Garvey. Look at the leading light of Pan Africanism on the continent, Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, he was voted “African Man of the Millennium” in a poll carried out by BBC World Service. He plainly stated hat he was influenced by Marcus Garvey.
Last year, Walter Sisuli, one of the leading lights of the ANC died. He recalled that he first got into politics after he had read Marcus Garvey’s newspaper in his home village. Staying in Azania-South Africa, and we find Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe, founder of the militant Pan Africanist Congress also influenced by Marcus Garvey. Go to Nigeria and we find Nnamdi Azikiwe, who became the first President of Nigeria.
Go to Kenya and we find Jomo Kenyatta. Go to Guinea-Bissau and the Portuguese colonies, and we find Amilcar Cabral, the great Son of Africa, influenced by Marcus Garvey. So Men and Women of history come in the tradition of T. H. Marcus Garvey and they all fight for the same purpose, the total liberation and unification of Africa, for Africa for Africans. Those at home and those abroad.
PAN AFRICANISM
The Pan African idea came out of the African Diaspora in the person of Edward Wilmot Blyden, born in St.Thomas in the Virgin Islands in 1832. He it was who said, “WE MUST HAVE AN AFRICAN NATIONALITY.” We cannot have an African nationality until we have Pan Africanism and Pan Africanism will be meaningless without an African nationality.
In our Congress in 1998, we called for Pan Africanism and the creation of an African passport that must be available to all Diasporan Africans. That includes you and me (See Resolutions of the UK Pan African Congress at
www.globalafrica.com).
I say that Pan Africanism is a Project of Africans born in the Diaspora. Consequently, when we come here to praise Garvey and celebrate his birth, life and his wonderful achievements, we come with the knowledge and the determination that we have a duty and a responsibility to continue the struggle until Garvey’s vision is fulfilled. All of the men I have spoken about so far, they all struggled until they died. And as disciples, daughters and sons of T. H. Marcus Garvey so too, we must struggle until we die.
THE BLACK MAN’S GOVERNMENT
Now, we can come back to the question, “WHERE IS THE BLACK MAN’S GOVERNMENT?” I am asking you, when you look around the world today, do you see a BLACK MAN’S GOVERNMENT? I see only one and that is the government of Comrade President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. Comrade Mugabe’s government stands up and fights uncompromisingly for the Black Man.
In Zimbabwe, the White man came and took the land by force. Comrade Mugabe has made reparations to the Africans in Zimbabwe. He has taken the land back and given it back to its rightful African owners.
When United States imperialism in the person of President Bill Clinton sought to capture the vast mineral wealth of the Democratic republic of Congo, He sent his Messenger Boy the Reverend Jesse Jackson to tell President Laurent Kabila what to do. Kabila rightly told Jesse Jackson to “get lost.”
That was when the plot was unleashed for Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi to invade the DRC to build an American organized and protected TUTSI HEMA EMPIRE, similar to what US imperialism is doing in Iraq today. It was the armed forces of Zimbabwe, tested in the fires of the armed struggle for national Liberation, together with forces from Angola and Namibia that defeated the American proxy war fought by Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.
Some of you may be aware that in this US proxy war, over 5,000,000 million Africans were killed in the DRC? I heard no voices raised on this side of the Atlantic denouncing the SILENT GENOCIDE IN THE DRC and calling for the unconditional withdrawal of Ugandan, Rwandan and Burundian troops from the DRC. I heard no North American African voices offering sympathy to their fellow Africans in the DRC who lost their loved ones.
But come 11 September 2001, less than 3,000 people are killed in the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York, and I see so many organizations that were silent on THE SILENT GENOCIDE IN THE DRC now expressing their horror that white people had been killed and offering their sympathy to those who had lost their husbands, wives, sons and daughters etc.
I replied to one piece sent to me by the Black Radical Congress, pointing out that “ALL LIVES ARE EQUAL” and questioning their silence on the DRC. Their response was to abuse me. It is this same Black radical Congress which teamed up wit a bunch of Black Collaborators and launched a bitter personal attack on Comrade Robert Mugabe BLACK MAN’S GOVERNMENT on 1ST June 2003.
Zimbabwe is in THE EYE OF THE STORM. The struggle between imperialism and Pan Africanism is manifested in the battle for the future control of Zimbabwe. The USA, Britain, the European Union and Australia have all imposed economic, financial and travel sanctions against Zimbabwe. Imperialism has set up and funded its own Black political party in the so-called Movement for Democratic change. We have traitors in our midst in Zimbabwe just as we had traitors in the Garvey movement and just as we had traitors who betrayed toe Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah.
Shingai Rukwata Ndoro examined THE SECRET RIGHT WING FORCES AGAINST ZIMBABWE. He found that four Jewish families are trying to control the world, and that most of the money that has gone into Zimbabwe to oppose Mugabe and oppose the Land Reform Programme, comes from Jewish sources. Many of you will have heard of the Jewish Billionaire George Soros. He has pumped Millions into Zimbabwe in the attempt to overthrow Robert Mugabe’s BLACK MAN’S GOVERNMENT.
Now, if you agree that Comrade Mugabe has done the right thing in taking back the land that was violently stolen from the Africans; and if you agree that Mugabe’s government is truly a BLACK MAN’S GOVERNMENT, then surely you must agree that this is a government that the daughters and sons of Marcus Garvey must protect and defend with all our being. We must demonstrate our practical support and solidarity with the government and the people of Zimbabwe in the confrontation with Western imperialism.
REPARATIONS
Currently, there are big campaigns for Reparations in Europe and the USA. But, as Kwame Ture said, “There can be no Reparations without Repatriation.” This means of course that those of us are born and live in the Diaspora must have an absolute right to African citizenship; we must have the right to return to our home on the continent of Africa, to any city, town, village or mountain or oasis that we choose.
Reparations mean, “repairing the damage.” In my view, the current focus of the Reparations campaigns IN Europe and Anmerica is wrong. To me, the principal focus of the Reparations campaign must be to “repair the damage” caused to the African way of life, African society and culture, by slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism.
In other words, our focus must be on the African continent. Africans on the continent have endured untold suffering from the ravages of slavery, colonialism, neo-colonialism, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the host of International charities marauding over Africa. These international charities are fifth colomnists, agents of neo-colonialism and instruments of the new colonialism. Ngugi Wa Thiongo said it and I say it, “AFRICA DOES NOT NEED CHARITY, AFRICA NEEDS LIBERATION.”
Let me refer you to Walter Rodney’s WEST AFRICA AND THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE. African society was organized in such a way that the needs of all were catered for. Edward Wilmot Blyden wrote about this in his brilliant little book. AFRICAN LIFE AND CUSTOMS. It is WRITTEN in the Holy Bible at St. Matthew 25:31-16 that those who would inherit the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world are the ones who had fed the hungry, clothed the naked, housed the homeless and given water to the thirsty.
You will find it in Karenga’s THE HUSIA and you will find it in E. A. Wallis Budge’s EGYPTIAN BOOK OF THE DEAD and Gerald Massey's ANCIENT EGYPT THE LIGHTOF THE WORLD.If you are seeking eternal life, then you must feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, give water to the thirsty and minister unto the sick.
These are the high principles of our African culture around which we constructed our societies. In this, the African way of life, no one was in want of the basic necessities of life for life. Everywhere we live on the earth today, we are in want of the basic necessities of life. That is why we must fight to restore African culture and return to the African way of life.
We have to campaign, both on the continent and off the continent for African leaders to repair the damage caused by slavery and colonialism. African leaders must make reparations to the hundreds and thousands of millions of Africans who are in want of food, clothing, shelter, educations and basic health care on the continent. They must break with the ways of THE WHITE MAN, reject European culture and rebuild African societies according to the High Principles of our African culture.
So when the government of Zimbabwe takes back the land and returns it to the African population of Zimbabwe, they are making the type Reparations that I am talking about. Once you begin this process, one cannot tell where it will lead. As daughters and sons of Marcus Garvey, we have a vested interest in ensuring that the process leads us back to living the African way of life in a united African nation.
I have often quoted the African historian Femi Biko. He is fond of saying, “Everything above ground comes from below the ground.” The wealth of Africa is in the ground; all our gold diamonds, precious metals and oil are in the ground. So he who controls the land exercises wealth, economic and political power. Consequently, we must support the government of Namibia where Comrade President Sam Nujoma has embarked on a process of taking back the land and returning it to its rightful African owners. At the same time, we must vehemently campaign to reverse the decision of Nelson Mandela and the ANC that allowed the Whites in South Africa to keep all the land they stole from the Africans before 1913.
I was in South Africa in 2000 up in the North in Mphumalanga. An African woman told me, “All this land belongs to the Pedi. The Whites came and took our land and we want our land back.” So we must individually and collectively call on the ANC government of South Africa to REPAIR THE DAMAGE caused by “White settler colonialism” and apartheid. Take the land back and give it back to the Pedi people to whom it rightfully belongs.
There is also a problem in Kenya where the English went and displaced the people from their land. Not long ago, one British Diplomat told the Kenyans that they must forget their history, that they must forget that the English came and stole their land. But the English do not forget any aspect of their history.
They will never forget that Blacks first came to Britain as invaders, conquerors and rulers; that we were the first Knights of Chivalry on which their aristocracy was built; that we were the first to impose a “head tax,” that was originally known as “Watch Money” or “Mail Money.” Because this was originally imposed by Blacks, it eventually became known as “Blackmail.”
That is where the term “blackmail” comes from. We were respected, loved, feared and admired. It was only after the descendants of Scotia, the daughter of an Egyptian Pharaoh from whom Scotland got its name and who ruled Scotland or almost 500 years were defeated in 1445 that the term “black” was transformed into its opposite and given all these negative connotations.
But Kenyans will not forget their history. Just last Friday (12 August 2004); the Maasai staged a demonstration in the Kenyan capital Nairobi demanding their land back. They said, “We want the British to hand over our land as a way of addressing historical injustices that have been wrought upon the Maasai community.”
The Kenyan government has a duty and a responsibility to repair the damage caused by British land grabbing injustices in Kenya. They must take the land away from the British and return it to the rightful African owners. We, the daughters and sons of Marcus Garvey must individually and collectively, call on the Kenyan government to take the land back and give it back to its rightful African owners.
Now you can understand why Robert Mugabe is being demonized in the British, American and European media. If the land can be taken back and returned to its rightful owners in one country, then it can be taken back and returned to its rightful owners in all countries.
When we look at Namibia again, we see that Comrade President Sam Nujoma and the government of Namibia are making Reparations to the African people of Namibia and to Africans in the Diaspora. A few years ago, Namibia passed a law to set aside land for Diasporan Africans. Now, the Namibian government has embarked on the process of taking back the land that was stolen by the Germans. They have invited officials from Zimbabwe to come to Namibia to advise them about how the process should be conducted.
Some of you may be aware of the Herero people who live in Namibia. In the early part of the last century, they staged a rebellion against German settler colonialism. Over 80,000 Herero men, women and children were killed. The Germans practiced their love for killing people in the then South West Africa and in Cameroon before they visited mass slaughter on their fellow Europeans.
I was at the ASCAC conference in Chicago in 1985 when John Henrik Clarke told of one of the epic battles the Herero fought against their German settler colonizers.
In traditional Herero mythology, they walk the earth carrying the Sun. Had they not won that particular battle, as their Chief said, they would have had to “put down the Sun, the light would go out (plunging the world into darkness) and mankind would never see a flower again.” Thanks to the Most High God Atum Ra, the Hereros are still walking the earth carrying the sun, mythologically speaking.
Now, the Hereros are suing the Germans for Reparations of $4 billions. Three weeks ago, the German Ambassador in Namibia told the Herero that they must withdraw their claim and drop the lawsuit. And I say NO! The Herero must pursue their claim for reparations for the CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY that the Germans perpetuated against them. The Germans have paid out hundreds of $billions to the Jews and our Herero Sisters and Brothers are entitled to the $4 billions they are claiming in Reparations.
And I urge all of you, individually and collectively, to write to the Namibian Ambassador expressing your support for the Hereros claim for reparations from the Germans, and to encourage the government of Namibia to embrace the claim and push it forward.
It is not only on the African continent that we are having problems getting back and retaining our land. We are also having problems in Central and South America. In Colombia, the Africans who have lived on the Pacific coast for centuries are being driven off the land and right wing death squads are killing Africans in increasing numbers. In Honduras, the Africans there face similar problems. They are being driven off the land that they have lived on for centuries.
That is why we need a strong, powerful, united African nation, that can protect her children whereever they live on this planet. If Africa does not unite, begin to flex her powerful economic muscles and punch her weight in international affairs, we will always be oppressed by those who think they are stronger than us and more powerful than us. Pan Africanism, a united African nation is the solution to the problems we face everywhere.
We have problems of slavery and racial oppression continuing in Mauritania and in the Sudan. The problems in Darfur 9is a struggle for the oil wealth of that area. The oil is in the ground and the minority Arab regime that still riles Sudan is massacring and displacing Africans so that it can control the oil wealth of Darfur. Make no mistake, the minority Arab regime that oppresses Africans in Sudan is being slowly but surely defeated. We must ensure that the same fate is met by the anti-African racially oppressive regime in Mauritania.
THE GLOBAL PAN AFRICAN CONGRESS 2005 Zimbabwe
Now you understand why Robert Mugabe is a dangerous man, dangerous to settler colonialism and imperialism. The triumph of the Third Chimurenga, the current stage of the African revolution in Zimbabwe will eventually lead to the unraveling of the imperialist settlement in Azania-South Africa and throughout our great continent. Indeed, it has been said, that the imperialist war against Zimbabwe is a pre-emptive strike against Land restoration in South Africa.
We, the Africans who live in the Diaspora, have a crucial role to play in protecting the BLACK MAN’S GOVERNMENT in Zimbabwe.
As I said, the idea of Pan Africanism came out of the African Diaspora. All the great warriors who wrote their names in history, from Edward Wilmot Blyden, Henry Sylvester Williams, T.H. Marcus Garvey, George Padmore, Kentyatta, Azikiwe, Chiek Anta Diop, Amilcar Cabral, Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah and Kwame Ture; they have all done so as warriors for Pan Africanism.
Now, we are being called upon to write our names in “The Glorious History of the African Peoples of the World.” The way in which we can do this is by making the GLOBAL PAN AFRICAN CONGRESS, being held in Zimbabwe from 13 – 17 August 2005 as a GLOBAL AFRICAN FAMILY GATHERING, into an earth shaking, epoch changing event.
The theme of this GPAC is RE-UNITINHG THE AFRICAN FAMILY – COMPLETING THE PAN AFRICAN PROJECT.
In a letter to Africanias, a Spanish language magazine published in Venezuela, I observed that Africans are scattered throughout North, South and Central America. We did not choose to scatter ourselves in these regions of the globe. That is a legacy of the crime against humanity, the forced enslavement of Africans and their transportation to these regions of the world against our will. Now, we can take steps to re-unite the African family through the struggle for Pan Africanism.
The idea of a Global Pan African Congress came out of the 1998 United Kingdom Pan African Congress that was held in celebration of the 111th birthday of T. H. Marcus Garvey. Then, we called for the 17th day of August everywhere to become a Global African Holiday (see Resolutions of the UK Pan African Congress at:
http://www.globalafrica.com/UKPACRes.htmThis year, the African united Action Front in Britain is calling on Africans everywhere to take the day off work on August 17 as a Pan African Holiday.
If you did not hear this call before, you are hearing it now. Take the 17th day of August off work every year and make it into Pan African holiday to celebrate the birth, life and work of T. H. Marcus Garvey.
We called for the creation of an African Passport so that Africans, whether they are born on the continent or in the Diaspora, can travel freely throughout the length and breadth of Africa, with the right to live, to work and to die anywhere in Africa that we choose. You may have noted that a number of Diasporan Africans are relocating to our great continent and choosing the place where they want to die.
Kwame Ture went home to Guinea to die. Mawina Kouyate went home to Gambia to die. A survey carried out in London in 2002 found that two-thirds of all blacks living in London want to relocate to their home in Africa. So we need the African passport and for this, we need Pan Africanism, united African nation embracing the whole of Africa, and as an African family, all the countries that have a majority African population like the Caribbean Islands, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Venezuela, and Brazil.
Some of you may have read a book entitled AFRICAN GLORY. It was written by J. C. de Graft Johnson. He was one of he delegates at the 1945 Pan African Congress. In the introduction, he quotes John o’ London who, writing in 1935 said, “Africa and Asia will seize economic and military leadership from Europe.”
United States imperialism, despite all its banter and bluster is scared of China. They know that in this century, China will overtake them as an economic and military power and there is nothing they can do about it. When they went to war against Iraq, New Zealand refused to join them since it recognized that China is the coming power.
Indeed, I say, United States imperialism is a declining power. It is armed to the teeth and powerful, but it has gone over the top and the motor is heading down hill. If nothing else, Iraq proves that. The result of the referendum in Venezuela is further proof of this. Gone are the days when United States imperialism could walk into Venezuela and do what it likes.
When I look at the USA with its military forces all over the world, it reminds me of the Roman Empire. Where is the Roman Empire today? Where is the Holy Roman Empire? They are trying to recreate it in the European union. At one time, Portugal was the strongest power on earth. Where is Portugal today? It was said, “The sun never set on the British Empire. Where is the British Empire today? It is playing the role of junior Lieutenant to United States imperialism in the new colonialist wars in Yugoslavia and in Iraq.
So, having seen that empires rise up and decline over time, we see China as the coming power and we see US imperialism as a declining power. So where is our beloved Africa. No one should harbour any doubts that Africa will become the Economic and Military Power on earth.
A few weeks ago, Alpha Omar Konarie, Head of the Commission of the African Union told a Conference in Addis Abba that Africa can become a world power by utilizing its economic power.
Mr. Konarie is a very interesting man. He is a former president of Mali and a dedicated Pan Africanist. I was at a Conference in Libya in August 200. He told the audience, “The problem facing Africa is either Africanisation or globalisation.” He, he said, “is for Africanisation.” He is the right man in the right job at the right time. Some of us may have problems with the African Union, calling it the OAU mark 2.
I see the African union as a stepping-stone on the road to Pan Africanism. That is why I say, “Africa is on the road to victory over her enemies.” T. H. Marcus Garvey put us on this road, and no force on earth can take us off this road. When Garvey came, he found us in the gutter. He took us out of the gutter and put us at the foot of the mountain. He told us, “you see the top of this mountain, that is where you belong and that is where we must go.” And, we are slowly and surely climbing back to the top of the mountain.
Grace walker, an African woman living in Chicago, has shown how the structures created by the African Union can be utilized to transform Africa scientifically and economically within a relatively short period of time. So the Global pan African Congress in Zimbabwe has as one of its tasks, working out the politics, strategies and tactics of how to achieve Pan Africanism and then implementing them.
When we set out on the road to GPAC 2005 Zimbabwe, one of the tings that we set out to do is to involve the African family in Central and South America in all stages of organizing the GPAC. We have made some successes on this. ONECA, the Central America Black Organization will be participating in the GPAC. We expect some of the major black organizations in Colombia to participate. We expect Africans in Mexico to be involved from the beginning. I have no doubt that Africans in Brazil, Venezuela and other countries in Central and South America will be involved in organizing and participating in the GPAC.
A representative of ONECA said that they will participate but their organizations are poor. So I want to make an appeal to all of you here today and to others who will read this presentation, to make a financial donation tom the GPAC, to allow us to help with the traveling costs of representatives from Central and South America to travel to Zimbabwe in September for a PLANNING MEETING of the International organizing Committee for the GPAC. We are appealing to all individuals and organizations who can do so to sponsor the GPAC. Your sponsorship will be recognized.
During the armed struggle for National Liberation, one of the slogans of the Zimbabwe African national union was, “WE ARE OUR OWN LIBERATORS.” In organizing this GPAC, WE MUST BE OUR OWN FINANCIERS.
We have said that each country with a significant African population must set up a GPAC National Organising Committee. The Pan African Movement in Spain has said that they will do so. We received a letter from the Pan Africaniste Youth Organization of Senegal saying that they would help to set up such national Organising Committees in Senegal, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Benin, Togo, Cote de Ivoire, Burkina Fasso, Niger, Mali, Rwanda and Guinea Conakry.
So this GPAC is alive, breathing, kicking and gaining momentum. So I am inviting all of you to get involved in organizing and mobilizing for this GPAC and to come to Zimbabwe in August 2005 to participate with the Global African family and celebrate the 118th birthday with the Global African family in Zimbabwe.
The Africans in North America have always participated in Pan African Congresses. You have played an outstanding role in building and sustaining Pan Africanism and the ideal of Africa for Africans. As sons and daughters of Marcus Garvey you have to continue to play that invaluable role.
Collectively, Global Africans must become doers so that the vision and ideals of T. H. Marcus Garvey and the tasks he left bus can be accomplished. As we celebrate T. H. Marcus Garvey’s 117th birthday today, we must rededicate ourselves to carry out the tasks that he left for us in order to accomplish his noble mission.
As Kwame Nkrumah said, “Our philosophy must find its weapon in the environment and living conditions of African people. It is from those conditions that the intellectual content of our ideology must be created. The emancipation of the African continent is the emancipation of man. This requires two aims: first, the recognition of the egalitarianism of human society, and second, the logistic mobilization of all our resources toward the attainment of that restitution.”
And so, as I close, I offer Honour, I offer Glory, I offer Praises and thanks to The Most High God, to The Lesser Gods and to the Ancestors
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