The first generation of scholars in Africa embarked on considerable groundbreaking researches on the African experience with the white world. In the humanities and the social sciences in particular, scholars like Walter Rodney, Ade Ajayi, Ali Mazrui, Chinua Achebe, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Claude Ake and a host of other scholars attempted a critique of the African experience with the Western world.
In particular Ngũgĩ, in his works titled ‘Weep Not Child’ and ‘The River Between’, examined how the Europeans caused staggering distortion in the social life of the Kikuyu people of Kenya, leading to considerable exploitation of the people, violence, and huge loss of lives. In the same vein, Chinua Achebe in his ‘Things Fall Apart’ examined how the white men engendered violence, caused immense confusion and crisis among the Igbo people of Nigeria. Professor Ade Ajayi, Takena Tamuno, Ebiegberi Joe Alagoa and Obaro Ikime of University of Ibadan did a lot of works on how the history of Africa was distorted by the West leading to loss of self identity and the crisis of confidence.
Walter Rodney however, gave a vivid account of how Europe underdeveloped Africa, suggesting how the continent could liberate itself from its perpetual bondage and exploitation. From the trans-Atlantic slave trade, direct colonialism and the current ravaging neo-colonialism, have done considerable injustice to virtually all races in the world and Africa in particular.
Reading ‘Roots’ by Alex Hailey in 1987 in the middle of the night, I got to a point in the book where Kissy the daughter of Kunta Kinte was sold off her parents by the slave master and they never saw again for the rest of their lives, with the daughter and the parents crying, begging and pleading with the slave master but he never considered their plights and sold off this young girl. It was indeed an emotional moment for me and I was in great pains that night. The book further revealed the inhuman and degrading conditions under which the black slaves were transported from Africa to the Americas, most of them chained and manacled for weeks across the Atlantic. Between 1444 AD and now that Africa had his first contact with the white men, there is no imaginable evil that the whites have not melted out on the blacks.
During the Civil Rights Movement in the United States in the 1960s, the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., Andrew Young, Rosa Parks and millions of African-Americans fought racism and racial discrimination in the United States to a standstill. But over the years, the white supremacists have continued to gather strength and momentum in the oppression of the minority groups like the African-Americans, the Hispanic and the Asian-Americans in that country. The election of Barack Obama, the son of an African immigrant from Kenya to become the American President was a major blow to the white supremacists in the United States and as a result of this they decided to vote for the worst racist in the history of the United States as the current American president.
Donald Trump is openly racist and a Zionist. In concert with Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, the Palestinian Arabs in the Middle East have faced some of the worst forms of dehumanization and oppression in the history of that region. He moved the capital of Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He encouraged the Israeli government to continue to embark on aggressive settlement activities in the occupied territories like the West Bank and the Golan Height, thereby making the advancement of peace to become more problematic in the region. He does not have respect for other races of the world apart from his Caucasian stock. And for him the word starts and ends with the white supremacists. Today, he is an enemy of China, Europe, Asia, Africa and the entire world. Under him the United States is an enemy of the world. And perhaps, one could even submit that given the way he has divided the United States, today America is even an enemy unto itself. And it is a common dictum that ‘united we stand and divided we fall’. No doubt under this demagogue, the United States is on a steady decline. In a bid to impose their racist and supremacist doctrine on the entire world, the White Americans are gradually and steadily digging their own graves which will ultimately lead to the eventual downfall of the United States.
One crucial factor that has given the Caucasians an advantage over other races of the world is their relative advancement in technology. With the initial advantage of gun powder and gums, they were able to conquer and subdue other races in the world with the force of arm. It was with this initial technological superiority that forced most parts of Africa to capitulate to the European colonial forces. The Red Indians that are the native Americans where defeated and killed in thousands by superior fire power of the Caucasians in the 17th century. The bottom line is that for any nation to defeat Western global capital such a nation must acquire credible and intimidating scientific and technological power. Any other approach to liberating the oppressed countries of the Third World from the forces of Western neocolonialism will always be met with repeated failures.
In all spheres of human endeavors, the West and the United States have used the power of technology to subdue, exploit and oppress the World. And if they are ever going to liberate themselves from the forces of oppression or the West, the only weapon at their disposal is modern scientific and technological power. And it is instructive to note that China and Japan have been giving America a good run for its money because of their technological innovation that has made them to be world powers. The attainment of this goal, however, will remain but a fleeting illusion if the funding of education in the Third World is always at the lowest rungs of the development ladder. Only very few African countries today spend twenty six per cent of their annual budgets on education as demanded by the United Nations. A good number of them spend less than ten per cent on this crucial sector and yet they want to be world powers in the realm of science and technology! This is an illusion of immense proportions.
With what is going on in Africa today in which the overwhelming majority of national annual budgets are spent on the rapacious and corrupt politicians and the security vote, there is hardly any way any of the African countries could ever defeat the American and Western oppression and brutalization.
With particular reference to Nigeria, the easiest way to riches and opulence today is politics. This provides an avenue for the crooks and dubious characters to make it to the top, thereby complicating the future prospects of the country. Ethnicity, religion and clannishness have become tools for the oppression of the Nigerian masses. And this will continue to be the case until there are revolutionary masses that are ready to make their corrupt and useless leaders account for their fraudulent practices in governance. So long as national issues are looked at from the standpoint of religion and ethnicity, no country can ever develop in the world.
Objectivity, ability, hard work and Industry must be the defining characteristics both in private and public sectors. And the first step in the realisation of this is the education of the masses to know their rights and be prepared to fight for these rights in the face of the violation by the predatory ruling elite. In as much as religion and ethnicity are major factors in the allocation of resources in government, appointment and access to wealth and resources, Africa should forget about development. Perhaps, apart from Rwanda and Botswana, one could not think seriously of any African country that is ready for development in the 21st century. The overwhelming majority of the African leaders today are such that are the enemies of the people, stealing and looting everything in sight. Funds that are meant for educational advancement and research are diverted into private pockets. And yet they will continue with their lamentation, blaming the West and the United States for their plights. No continent can ever develop with this type of mindset. Charity must begin from home.
With specific reference to racism and racial injustice in the United States, there is the need to intensify efforts to embark on massive protests and resistance as it is currently being done in the case of the death of George Floyd. As of the last two nights, there were violent civil protests in more than seventy American cities. This is highly encouraging. In the past, there had been series of peaceful protests against the murder and killings of the blacks in the United States without any justice being served. The death of George Floyd has once again raised the issue of racial injustice, class and a faulty criminal judicial system in the United States to an international pedestal. How could a police officer knee on the neck of a black suspect until he died in a country that prides itself to be the bastion of world’s democracy and fundamental freedoms? Especially under a racist and a demagogue President whose world starts and ends with the whites. No doubt Donald Trump is a disservice not only to humanity but also to the United States in particular. His own utterances since the death of George Floyd have shown him as one of the worst racists, irresponsible and insensitive Presidents who do not care about the unity, oneness and progress of the United States.
Already the United States is on a steady path of decline and it is being challenged by other world powers like China, Germany, Russia and Japan. No superpower rules the world in perpetuity and in eternity. The end of the United States supremacy in the world is coming to an end and the vote of Donald Trump for another four years of misrule and racial oppression will no doubt spell doom for the United States. And as a matter of fact, given the atrocities of this country in the past, most developing countries are hoping that one day its global dominance and oppression will ultimately come to an end. And the end of the United States as a superpower is now in sight, especially under the most racist, bigot and irresponsible leadership of Donald Trump. Rather than being sympathetic to the loss of life of an American, all Donald Trump has been saying is that the state governors should be tougher on the demonstrators. He has hardly criticised the murder of Floyd. This is indeed disgraceful and those Republicans that are supporting Trump are eventually digging the grave of the United States. No doubt America, under Donald Trump, has lost touch with humanity and God. As for those Nigerians that have lost their sense of humanity and fairness by using the supposed fight against homosexuality to support every action of Trump, I think the time has now come for them to see this man for who he truly is: an enemy of humanity and God.
The death of George Floyd has once again drawn the attention of the world to the ugly side of America in which respect for the minorities, racial Justice and equality have suffered serious reverses. Unless the fair-minded and God fearing Americans address the current structural injustice in the country, it might be heading for the precipice and its fall might be faster than anticipated.
Below is how a British writer rightly describes Donald Trump:
“BRITISH WRITER PENS THE BEST DESCRIPTION OF TRUMP“
“Someone asked “Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?” Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England wrote the following response:
“A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.
“So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
“Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever.
“I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman.
“But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty. Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers.
“And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness. There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface.
“Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain, we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.
“And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead.
“There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless or female – and he kicks them when they are down. So, the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:
“• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and most are.
“• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.
“This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss.
“After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W. Bush look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.”
No doubt, Donald is the modern day Adolf Hitler, an enemy of humanity.
Toba Alabi is a Professor of Political Science and Defence Studies at the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna
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