President Barack Obama on his current visit to Ghana, Africa, in his address speech, said, “Africa is not the crude caricature of a continent at war. But for far too many Africans, conflict is a part of life, as constant as the sun. There are wars over land and wars over resources. And it is still far too easy for those without conscience to manipulate whole communities into fighting among faiths and tribes. These conflicts are a millstone around Africa’s neck. We all have many identities – of tribe and ethnicity; of religion and nationality. But defining oneself in opposition to someone who belongs to a different tribe, or who worships a different prophet, has no place in the 21st century. Africa’s diversity should be a source of strength, not a cause for division. We are all God’s children. We all share common aspirations – to live in peace and security; to access education and opportunity; to love our families, our communities, and our faith. That is our common humanity. That is why we must stand up to inhumanity in our midst. It is never justifiable to target innocents in the name of ideology. It is the death sentence of a society to force children to kill in wars. It is the ultimate mark of criminality and cowardice to condemn women to relentless and systematic rape”.
He continued explaining more about the honesty, transparency and good governance in all African countries that will undoubtedly lead to respect for humanity and prosperity for the entire nation.
He said, “Repression takes many forms, and too many nations are plagued by problems that condemn their people to poverty. No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or police can be bought off by drug traffickers. No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top, or the head of the Port Authority is corrupt. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is not democracy, that is tyranny, and now is the time for it to end.”
As I have said so many times in my previous written comments, our problem, no matter how and when should be resolved and reconciled in our own traditional way without copying western political styles which will not blend in the African way of life.
The President asserted that notion when he said “We must start from the simple premise that Africa’s future is up to Africans”. No one can clean up and fix our own mess in our back yard, but ourselves. The President reitrated my word on that one when he reminded the Ghanaians his election winning truism ‘YES WE CAN’ He said, “Here is what you must know: the world will be what you make of it. You have the power to hold your leaders accountable, and to build institutions that serve the people. You can serve in your communities, and harness your energy and education to create new wealth and build new connections to the world. You can conquer disease, end conflicts, and make change from the bottom up. You can do that. Yes you can”.
Don’t we know that we need not be reminded that we take responsibility for our own destiny and country’s future? Well, it is easier said than done. Sometimes we need somebody to be stimuli for our innate wisdom to come to the fore. Here is what Mr Obama said to remind us, “Things can only be done if you take responsibility for your future. It won’t be easy. It will take time and effort. Opportunity won’t come from any other place, though – it must come from the decisions that you make, the things that you do, and the hope that you hold in your hearts. Freedom is your inheritance. Now, it is your responsibility to build upon freedom’s foundation”. I Also made a comment about those people who wrote letters to the President and prominent figures that it will not change the policies regarding the atrocities being committed by our own government, I feel sorry for them that their applications fell on to deaf ears from what Mr Obama emphasised here, “it is our own responsibility”.
He told the Ghanaians, “Make no mistake: history is on the side of these brave Africans, and not with those who use coups or change Constitutions to stay in power. Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions. America will not seek to impose any system of government on any other nation – the essential truth of democracy is that each nation determines its own destiny. We have a responsibility to support those who act responsibly and to isolate those who don’t, and that is exactly what America will do. As I said earlier, Africa’s future is up to Africans.
The people of Africa are ready to claim that future. In my country, African-Americans – including so many recent immigrants – have thrived in every sector of society. We have done so despite a difficult past, and we have drawn strength from our African heritage”.
The culprit: Africa, more or less, has inherited foreign culture, become largely westernized or asianized. Almost 90% of Africans today continue to buy, sell and wear western outfits, rather than African traditional clothes, and all that it has to impose or offer. We no longer care about our roots, villages, languages, cultures and inheritances. We despise ourselves, despise and denigrate our fellow Africans if they exhibit themselves wearing their cultural outfits and aspire only to compare ourselves with all that is not us or to be like those who are not like us.
No wonder everyone is scrambling to grab pieces of Africa because we are not prepared and committed to treasure and protect our own backyard and our own brothers and sisters and allowing foreign aids to corrupt us and not being recognized as equals in the eyes of those who render their alms.
This brings me to the question of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which is a good model for the administration of international justice beyond the borders of sovereign states, western double standards and arrogance have made it irrelevant and this in-turn has made it possible for Africans to go soft on our despots.
The western society, Americans, wouldn’t allow or permit even their lowest citizen to be tried by the ICC. How come they want African leaders to be tried by the ICC? One has to ask the bigger question we are facing today: why are the indictments mainly against African leaders and/ or rebels? Africa doesn’t have a monopoly on atrocities. What about “the three stooges”, George W. Bush, Britain’s former Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Australian counterpart John Howard, who have created axis of evil reigniting the sixteen century “triangle trade” or the transatlantic slave trade era of slavery rule of law in the twenty-first century; lied to the world community about what they called weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in order to silence, oust and kill those who opposed their policies; they committed unforeseen atrocities against humanity, displaced so many families, murdered, tortured and incarcerated millions of children, men and women around the world. Why wouldn’t they be persecuted and appear before the World’s Court? Who are the governing body of the so called world court, “ICC”?
“I don’t admit that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia by the fact that a stronger race, a higher grade race, has come in and taken its place”-Winston Churchill to the Palestine Royal Commission, 1937.
What comes out, of all of this, is what most Africans see as organized hypocrisy, selective justice, orchestrated double standards, and a refusal by the western world to see and treat African blacks as equals and responsible.
Don’t get me wrong that I am not complacent, approving or taking pride in the abuse of law, justice and freedom committed by the leader in my country and leaders of some African countries but besides living through it in my daily life, this injustice brings tears to my eyes that how in broad day light the principle on which the ICC was formed categorically ignored.
Alike Iraq or the Middle East, it seems that the primary motive underpinning the cries of Darfur’s genocide is not a concern for humanity but to seek control of Sudan’s oil or to ensure the breakaway of South Sudan and Darfur. If the concern was highly motivated to save human lives, one would genuinely ask, what about the genocides committed in Rwanda, Uganda and Congo where millions of lives perished in an oil free country? Alternatively, this is to instigate a regime change that will impose a US- friendly government at the helm where Darfur to be used as justification by South Sudan to secede, China, Malaysia and India would lose significant sources of oil and investment. With all my conscience, I am regrettably forced to say that everyone is taking a free ride and profiteering at the expense of developing country’s genocides. One can only presume if Africa as, labeled “the Dark Continent”, a black country being ignored by the living opposites.
When people with different cultures and views live side by side, in the absence of effective interaction, it’s natural for them to make assumptions about the other. When such neighbouring groups compete over resources, or when there is conflict of interest, those assumptions develop into prejudices and bigotry.
Therefore, assumption, prejudices and bigotry are present in any diverse society and they often die out as interaction and interdependence among communities increase. But if and when one group dominates the other and imposes its cultural, political and economic will, those pre-existing assumptions and prejudices become fertile ground for dehumanization, discrimination and exploitation.
In other words, what we call racism today is a situation in which the powerful suppresses the powerless based on those pre-existing social differences. We cannot simply wish away bigotry and ethnic hatred; we must face it head on and deal with it.
The man we all admire or we either hate him or love him, for his ingenuity and conceptual contribution to today’s relative warfare, Albert Einstein said, “It is hard to crack a prejudice than an atom”. The Western democracy or and Australian practice has never been fair to black people; hopefully one day, like President Barack Obama, election of a black person as Prime Minister of Australia would finally be an audacity of hope being realized.
The recent Walk for Harmony, in July 2009 in Melbourne, Australia, was a tale of same, same but different! A lot of community and ethnic organizations have been left out because of the government’s failure to tackle racism issues and unfair deal in its judicial system.
All ethnic community groups in Melbourne should have taken part and allowed to address the crowd rather than being used to satisfy Victorian Premier’s political propaganda. The attacks against Indian students were the initial motivation to persuade the Premier to call “Walk for Harmony”.
Australia still remains to practice implicit racism cannily operated and very hard to amplify for those least affected and even harder when others imply hypocrisy and diplomatically character assassinate others because they are different. Former Telstra CEO, Sol Trujillo aggravated Australians for telling the truth on his departure when he said, “Australia is racist and backwards”. ( www.news.com.au/business/story/0,27753,25539478-462,00.html )
Mr Trujillo was not the only person who honestly revealed the truth about Australian racism. Sandy Gifford is a professor in the school of social sciences, La Trobe University and director of the La Trobe Refugee Research Centre who said on a Melbourne newspaper, “Australia is a racist society. There, I've said it. I've wanted to say this for the past 24 years — from the time I arrived here”. ( www.theage.com.au/opinion/lifting-the-veil-on-our-ingrained-racism-20090612-c637.html?page=-1 )
Another Victorian prominent figure, Waleed Aly, is an Australian lawyer, Muslim community leader, frequent 774 ABC Melbourne guest standing in for regular host Richard Stubbs, grew up in Melbourne's eastern suburbs and is a former student of Wesley College. He studied Engineering and Law at the University of Melbourne and an academic lecturer in politics at Monash University exposed his analysis of racism in areas of employment. ( www.watoday.com.au/opinion/no-equal-opportunity-in-job-losses-20090130-7u0r.html?page=-1 )
The issues of race, class and identity are broad and I will not attempt to tackle them here, except the agreement we should all bear in mind that racism is not limited to color of one’s skin, but about shared values, cultural diversity, striving for social, economical, political, equality, justice and creating national and international solidarity for the disadvantaged. We are obsessed with the politics of race- a clear sign of inhumanity and disunity instead of discussing solutions on matters regarding unity, security, political progression and stability or the impact of globalization on the cultural dislocation of families.
One thing black people ought to know for sure that we can’t be free until we free ourselves. This can only be achieved through the power of learning and attaining knowledge, and pushing our self up as Obama, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and others have done. Life will never be fair to all of us, if we just sit there and contemplate negative thoughts about everything, rather than directing our energy toward accentuating positive attitude and looking forward to a bright future.
Like many of our heroes, we need to persevere, be courageous and keep on fighting racism, prejudice and inhumanity until we turn things emulating the philosophy of Obamology- yes we can. Rejection or racial discrimination should not dissuade us. Instead, we should stirrup our dormant potentials and face any adversity without fear, of course, given the opportunity, allowing, accepting and welcoming us in the mainstream participation. We can be better and make our children’s and humanity’s better future if we wake up and start doing something now.
Let me share with you a story a friend told me. A man came across an old lady searching outside her house for a needle she lost inside. The man asked her why she was looking outside if she lost it inside. Her response was that there is no light inside. The man asked “what is easier, finding light for your house or searching outside where you know the needle is not there?" The situation in our day-to-day living with racism or and any adversity is similar, there are too many problems, but needless to say, the pertinent solution must come from inside not outside.
Let’s, therefore, motivate our people, people of the world, to become great achievers and tolerant instead of focusing on what those who don’t wish us well are doing.
Long live! Humanity before ethnicity. Remember, we all are African origin.
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