- Nov 2, 2009
- 8,801
- 5,870
- Occupation
- independent thoughtist thinker, context linker
As the UN-sponsored “International Year for People of African Descent” (2011) gradually comes to an end, historiography suggests that African people must deal with these fundamental questions: “Who am I here and now?; Am I all I can be?”, Am I really who i am? (and) Why am I here?”
In this specific regard, people of African descent need to confront the issues of originality versus nationality. For “a people limited in their view point and without a collective vision going into the 21st century will, indeed perish.”
As deceased Afri-centric African-American scholar/historian Dr. John Henrik Clarke opines: “There is no solution for African people, except for some form of Pan African Nationalism, no matter how you cut it. No matter what island you’re from, no matter what state you’re from, no matter what religion you belong to, we must develop a concept of Pan African Nationalism that cuts across all religious, political, social, fraternity ,sorority lines and allows us to proudly face the world as one people.”
And as the deceased African-Trinbagonian Pan-Africanist Kwame Ture once warned: “If you don’t know who you are, you would not know what your interests are.”
The fact of the matter is that a people without a sense of history are ill-equipped to visualize and plan a future because of an unclear and distorted/mis-educated picture of their past. A people without the knowledge of “having done” will have grave difficulty acknowledging the motivation of “can do.”
In essence, originality refers to our inherited Africanness; it is a gift from Mother Africa – “the cradle of civilization.” It also represents 99.9 per cent of the totality of the history of African people on the planet.
On the other hand, nationality is an accident of birth as a direct result of the European enslavement of African people or the European slave trade. It represents an indictment from Father Europe. It also represents only 0.1 per cent of the totality of the history of African people on the planet.
In other words, the only reason why Africans here are Trinbagonians is simply because their European slave ship landed and unloaded their forefathers on the plantations in Trinidad and Tobago. That’s it. Ergo, their nationality is a mere accident because if their European slave ship had landed and unloaded their forefathers on plantations in another Caribbean country, then, they would have a different nationality today.
The stark historical reality is that Africa is our Home, our Originality; Trinidad and Tobago is our Destination, our Nationality. As such, the descendants of our African forefathers are African-Trinbagonians, period. The ahistorical, Euro-centric label “Afro-Trinbagonian” does not apply. It does not even compute. We are Africans, period.
Our African forefathers were brought from the Continent of Africa. According to the annals of world history, there has never been a Continent named “Afro” or Afro-Land. We are Africans first—our Orignality, then, we have been transformed into being Trinbagonians, Jamaicans, Cubans, Brazilians, etc, by accident— our Nationality.
To read the rest of the article and also some interesting rebuttals go to http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=5919
In this specific regard, people of African descent need to confront the issues of originality versus nationality. For “a people limited in their view point and without a collective vision going into the 21st century will, indeed perish.”
As deceased Afri-centric African-American scholar/historian Dr. John Henrik Clarke opines: “There is no solution for African people, except for some form of Pan African Nationalism, no matter how you cut it. No matter what island you’re from, no matter what state you’re from, no matter what religion you belong to, we must develop a concept of Pan African Nationalism that cuts across all religious, political, social, fraternity ,sorority lines and allows us to proudly face the world as one people.”
And as the deceased African-Trinbagonian Pan-Africanist Kwame Ture once warned: “If you don’t know who you are, you would not know what your interests are.”
The fact of the matter is that a people without a sense of history are ill-equipped to visualize and plan a future because of an unclear and distorted/mis-educated picture of their past. A people without the knowledge of “having done” will have grave difficulty acknowledging the motivation of “can do.”
In essence, originality refers to our inherited Africanness; it is a gift from Mother Africa – “the cradle of civilization.” It also represents 99.9 per cent of the totality of the history of African people on the planet.
On the other hand, nationality is an accident of birth as a direct result of the European enslavement of African people or the European slave trade. It represents an indictment from Father Europe. It also represents only 0.1 per cent of the totality of the history of African people on the planet.
In other words, the only reason why Africans here are Trinbagonians is simply because their European slave ship landed and unloaded their forefathers on the plantations in Trinidad and Tobago. That’s it. Ergo, their nationality is a mere accident because if their European slave ship had landed and unloaded their forefathers on plantations in another Caribbean country, then, they would have a different nationality today.
The stark historical reality is that Africa is our Home, our Originality; Trinidad and Tobago is our Destination, our Nationality. As such, the descendants of our African forefathers are African-Trinbagonians, period. The ahistorical, Euro-centric label “Afro-Trinbagonian” does not apply. It does not even compute. We are Africans, period.
Our African forefathers were brought from the Continent of Africa. According to the annals of world history, there has never been a Continent named “Afro” or Afro-Land. We are Africans first—our Orignality, then, we have been transformed into being Trinbagonians, Jamaicans, Cubans, Brazilians, etc, by accident— our Nationality.
To read the rest of the article and also some interesting rebuttals go to http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=5919
