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By Ras Jahaziel rastafarivisions.com April 03, 2007
Beyond the ill-defined concept of Repatriation that is driven by religious euphoria, fear, and millennium hype
The anguished cry for repatriation goes far back to the day when the first captives were taken from the shores of Africa. At that time the Africa from which they had been so brutally removed was a land where, though the Black man was under pressure from countless invasion forces, his spirit was not yet trapped in a bottle, and his strength was not yet abused in order to build White wealth.
The memory of Africa was therefore comparatively a joyful one, and those African ancestors held in bondage on western plantations could justifiably sing songs like "By the rivers of Babylon we weep when remembering Zion." This is a memory that has been handed down unchanged from generation to generation, creating a psychic time-capsule that has served as a spiritual place of refuge in the very darkest moments of oppression.
But today, that Zion cannot be found anywhere on the physical plane, and the very opposite exists, because the social, political, and economic conditions that have been imposed on African peoples WORLD-WIDE by the forces of White racism have created a global black hell everywhere.
This means that as an African in the homeland or an African in the west, wherever one seeks refuge, the same hell exists in one form or the other. That is unless one has been sufficiently favored or schooled to gain a pass over the wide gap of economic segregation. In that case, one may exist fairly comfortably with a mortgaged lifestyle on the other side of the gap by helping the Slave-Owner to keep the plantation running.
However, for the ordinary unschooled, un-adopted African, wherever he is today, it is common to find that he wants to be somewhere else, and the hell that one African is running from, another African is running to. The common urge is to mobilize resources to exchange the hell that you are familiar with for the hell that you are not familiar with, and the question in everyone's mind is always, "Where is there less hell, or where is there a better hell?"
What is needed now is a consciousness that recognizes that as an African, wherever you are on planet earth, you have a common problem that is constantly putting you on the run. You are being stunted by the burden of social, political, and economic forces that are presently forcing you out of alignment with your own natural internal disposition, and this has serious psychic consequences.
One major consequence is the "dog-eat-dog" and "crabs-in-a-barrel" attitudes that have proliferated in every Black community including the Promised Land. Personalities that have been altered by the oppression begin to prey on each other because their spirits have been damaged, disfigured, and disoriented by the FORCES of global White racism that govern all political and economic arrangements that affect Black life EVERYWHERE.
Not even a people's spirituality remains exempt from the effects of the economic PRESSURE that is being manipulated unscrupulously in this new phase of disguised and improved colonialism. The society that is so dominated by the invisible hand of unscrupulous economic forces can therefore be expected to implode on itself and be ripped apart by internecine warfare. In many places, people are even being driven to sell their very own children to survive, and child-sex tourism is becoming a major industry.
This explains the economic desperation that continues to force Blacks on the continuous road of migration, and it explains the brain-drain and THE ESCAPE MODE OF THINKING that is so prevalent everywhere. What we are really witnessing in the 21st century is a continuation of a long affliction that has forced Black civilization to be constantly on the run from south to north, from east to west and from west to east. Reflect on the words of Chancellor Williams in his book "The Destruction of Black civilization":
If the Blacks were among the very first builders of civilization and their land the birthplace of civilization, what has happened to them that has left them since then at the bottom of world society, precisely what happened? Almost all of the true answers will be found in the study of THE CAUSES OF THE MIGRATIONS and the tragic results stemming directly from those seemingly endless movements of fragmented peoples. How was the art of writing lost by one of the first peoples to invent it? STUDY THE MIGRATIONS. How and why did a once-great people with a common origin splinter off into countless little independent societies and chiefdoms from which 2,000 different languages and dialects developed? STUDY THE MIGRATIONS. What caused the brother against brother internecine wars, hatreds, slavery, and mutual suspicion among the various Black societies? Again STUDY THE MIGRATIONS.
As Chancellor Williams has described, all of these migrations that have lasted for centuries were driven by certain main elements: Crisis, FEAR, PANIC, AND THREATENED SURVIVAL. They have for the most part been refugee-like in nature and they are still going on.
Against this background, these are some thoughts that Rastafari people ought to reflect on today: After considering this history of countless years fleeing in fear from the scourge of the oppressor, should Repatriation be characterized by the same spirit of haste, panic, and fear? Is that not the same spirit that characterizes today's refugee who is fleeing from place to place in Africa today?
In an age when the oppressor's hypocritical pretense of democracy is causing him to outsource his concentration camps in third-world countries, as in the case of Guantanamo, is there some place to run from The White World Order if they want to put you in a concentration camp? Don't we understand that if he wanted to, the oppressor can just as easily build his secret concentration camp in Ghana or Ethiopia and he has Black men who would help run it?
Should a people who claim allegiance to THE TRUE GOD OF JUSTICE reduce the sacred issue of repatriation to one of how fast they can get thousands of dollars to move to another state where there still is no justice, and where their rights are still not recognized?
Should true allegiance to The God of Justice not shield one from fear and place one in the forefront of the struggle for justice?
Think about it, instead of fighting for the establishment of your rights as a people you are actually seeking thousands of dollars to pay the same spirit that brought you on the slave-ship to take you and your ancestors back home minus your rights. That is frightening, because any people who easily put off their rights are doomed to live in even darker denial of their rights.
If a people, by this type of thinking, place a no-confidence vote in the God of Justice they are unwittingly proclaiming that the God of the slave-master is the only real God that they recognize. When a people accommodate themselves to minus-the-rights thinking that is exactly what they can expect.
If a people are truly in tune with The God of Justice they will be anointed to speak truth to power. They will storm the high places of learning and the high places of government holding aloft the truth of Black reparations as their banner. They will utilize their education, their skills, and their talents to make Black reparations a burning issue that cannot be avoided. They will not be vainly thinking about finding safe places in the midst of this universal Armagiddeon.
Slavery and Colonialism were historical occurrences that created the White heaven and Black Hell of today that give logic to the call for Black reparations. Through these exploitative vampire-like processes, Africans were robbed and placed in this present position of pitiful need and destitution where many barely survive on food-aid and pity.
Those who have inherited the reins from their slave-owner forebears are easily able to stay in control, simply by tightening the economic screws and manipulating the vulnerability of the desperate and the needy. Deeper thinking will show that the Zion that Black slave-descendents seek is therefore a slave-owner's greatest fear, for it means the loss of stolen property.
This is why today throughout the Black world we see daily strife that pits brother against brother and tribe against tribe in a desperate scramble for survival that has been externally engineered to perpetuate Colonialism. In a situation where even the educated ones are predisposed to scrambling for a few privileged positions in exchange for their soul, honesty and integrity have long become strangers, and the interests of invisible slave-owners continue to be served.
That is the matrix of Social Cannibalism that has been orchestrated by today's INHERITORS OF SLAVE-OWNING POWER who have long reasoned that imperialism is best maintained when its victims are kept in the streets of insecurity, constantly on the move, and their minds perpetually caged and confined to the grim struggle for temporary survival.
Religious euphoria will cloud your judgment, dooms-day thinking will make you a refugee, and millennium hype will profit no one except those that have money invested in the tourist industry.
There is not one African nation today that is not enmeshed in the world-wide net of White power. Because Rastafar-I is The Head of Creation, and because the stone that the builders refused must become the head corner-stone; the resurrection, the power and the glory has to start with Rastafar-I. Exclusive and dogmatic fixation on the historical I has to levitate to the realms of THE LIVING CREATIVE INTERNAL I. Through this inspiration I and I will build the edifice of power whose main cement is the principle of COLLECTIVITY. Collective security for surety.
Contrary to popular belief, while this White World Empire exists, Black survival does not depend on exchanging one spot in this global Black hell for another corner of hell where others are running from the same hell. When religious euphoria meets hard reality, it will be seen that hasty migrations that are characterized by the spirit of fear and religious euphoria will not solve THE SURVIVAL PROBLEM. You cannot escape your problem by going to someplace else where somebody else is facing the same problem. If they are having the same problem you must first solve your problem and then go there with solutions.
So what then is the answer to the survival Problem?
What is the five-year plan?
Survival depends on the people's ability to creatively put together the organizational framework that will enable them to COLLECTIVELY embark on the project of WEALTH CREATION that brings independence and the power to shape one's own destiny.
Look all around the world and see that when one Black brother is going to another's house to ask for a loan, most often he will find that the other brother was thinking the same thing and just about to come over to his house to ask for the same. Everybody is in the same boat.
If our people's development is being strangled universally through economic deprivation, then beside the movement for external reparations, the challenge before Zion seekers is LET US COLLECTIVELY EMBARK ON THE PROJECT OF WEALTH CREATION. Let us collectively institute the model of economic development that offers hope to our people. Marcus Garvey's vision of collective ownership that enabled the establishment of The Black Star Line must be studied and resurrected, AND IMPROVED. Within the strength of collectivity there is wealth. A million people investing one dollar each is a million dollars in investment. Let the bright minds amongst us develop the organizational and administrative structures that can take a million dollars and make it ten million or more. This pathway will place the Rastafari nation in a better position to demand respect and influence the direction of Africa's destiny. Let us not squander the potential support of the masses by rallying them around ephemeral goals that offer no lasting solutions.
Wealth creation should not be seen solely in terms of dollars, but also in terms of building CONSCIOUSNESS to counteract the flood of unconsciousness that gives colonialism longer life. The national organizations must be comprised of smaller local groupings THAT ARE ACTIVELY AND AGGRESSIVELY PROMOTING CONSCIOUSNESS. Why is this so important? Because ONLY THE TRUTH SHALL SET US FREE.
The success of the wealth empowerment mission is inextricably linked to the spreading of consciousness. Survival depends on it, and wealth creation will be generated by it.
When a local grouping holds its programs it will not only be educating the masses about THE TRUTH OF BLACK REPARATIONS, but very importantly, it will, at the same time, initiate the process of internal reparations by increasing participation in the project of wealth creation. This will be achieved by unfolding before the people these collective solutions of wealth development so that they may join in and increase the capital base.
The cart should not go before the horse, nor should the pyramid be started from the top. So too the establishment of the city of habitation has to start from right there in the city of estrangement.
This is the process of internal reparation that will generate the power to demand external reparation. This is the process from which repatriation must start.
Now that we have soared like a satellite above the earth and looked down on our universal situation we are better able to establish priorities in their right order. From this vantage point, it is clear that the main thing that conscious Africans ought to be doing is fighting for the right by establishing the truth. This is the type of perspective on the struggle that should inform one's decision when it comes to the choice between right-now immigration and properly-planned repatriation.
Under the present system of universal Babylon, the question that one must therefore asks of oneself is: "If this is a many-sided battle, where are my particular talents most needed and best suited in this global struggle at this present stage?" This is the freedom-fighter's mode of thinking: not where is the safest place, but where am I best equipped to make my unique contribution. The answer to these questions will vary according to the individuals.
However if immigration is the preferred choice right now, one should be aware that by purchasing a plane ticket to get out of hell, one is exercising a privilege that many in the other hell over there cannot afford. One should also be aware that the carried-over things and the nice house that one plans to build are also privileges that distinguish one from the local community. Therefore, until the time that the standard of living of the local community is drastically improved one should be prepared to protect ones privilege with barbed wire, strong locks, and security lights.
Against this background, religious euphoria should be tempered with the realization that the Zion that is being sought must be preceded by THE COLLECTIVE SELF-EMPOWERMENT WEALTH-BUILDING INTERNAL REPARATION PROCESS that enables I and I to also make the drastic changes in the standard of living of the people who dwell in the places of our destination.
The millennium hype should be converted to a higher level of thinking that sees the dawning of I and I millennium as the dawning of that age when I and I rights will be restored. But the millennium of I and I rights is not guaranteed by any religious spell in the Bible. It has to be made, and whether it will be characterized by the enjoyment of justice will depend on the diligent liberation works that are done in this time.
ALL POWER TO THE TRUTH!
Comment:
Re: The Way Forward for Africans by I-Ku on Tuesday, April 17 @ 12:46:30 EDT
Give yanks and Ises, Haile Sellassie I lives!
Give yanks for this well written article I. The topic is very relevant with the millenium now approaching, and I find a lot of Rastafari with the blind thinking of "year 2000 repatriation" and a vision of a perfect Afrika as soon as InI get there. Many fail to look at the situation now facing those who currently reside in Shashemane, and the "pressures" they come under from the current government - land rights disputes and so on.
InI need to realise that Repatriation is not an overnight "one walk across the red sea when 'Jah' sends 'moses' to part it" process, and that it will take careful planning and organisation to actually make 'true' Repatriation a reality. And by true Repatriation I mean, repatriation that is beneficial to Afrikan development and posterity.
InI in the West, should rid InI minds of the notion that InI will magically depart fromt he west, and within a few short years, InI presence will become a fading memory. There are many more "slave descendants" who are to be born and grown here in the west, many of whom will be influencial in the reshaping of Africa's destiny.
InI need to ORGANISE AND CENTRALISE and establish InI selves through and with long-standing profitable ventures, that will secure InI economic future. Open and support InI own (black) businesses, networking, credit unions, re-education centers, black health organisations. As the I mentioned, Marcus Garvey and the UNIA created a wonderful model of the kind of organisation InI need to pursue.
It will demand much self-sacrifice, livication and discipline. It will demand us to become "greater than we have ever been".
"There will be little festivity and few celebrations in these years. Our task is now to prove Ourselves worthy of the lot which We have claimed as Our own, capable of employing Our talents and resources in the cause of Africa and the African peoples. The way will be perilous, sacrifices will be demanded of Us, Our labours may go unobserved and Our triumphs unnoticed except to Ourselves. And, in the ultimate sense, this is wholly as it should be, for We are men, and this is man's lot. Let Us work together, arm in arm as brothers, that Our progeny may live in peace and well-being, that posterity will honour Our names and Our achievements. This will suffice. This will be Our victory. May Almighty God grant it to Us." - Emperor Haile Sellassie I
Give yanks and Ises. One Perfect Love.
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