Pan-Africanism : WHY HAS PAN AFRICANISM FAILED TO DELIVER

We still stand divided. It's hard for us to even trust each other here. We all agree that the answer is in unity. Yet we can't agree on any one starting point. Few of us take the time to even learn about our Black-Latinos in this hemesphier. Many of us are at odds even within the states. True we all have many things we need to overcome for ourselfs, at home. But not even Bet is placing much interest toward this unity.:lift:
 
Corvo said:
We still stand divided. It's hard for us to even trust each other here. We all agree that the answer is in unity. Yet we can't agree on any one starting point. Few of us take the time to even learn about our Black-Latinos in this hemesphier. Many of us are at odds even within the states. True we all have many things we need to overcome for ourselfs, at home. But not even Bet is placing much interest toward this unity.:lift:
Peace Corvo, I hope the following comments are not too redundant as far as what has already been alluded to.

There have been several long threads dedicated to exploring the struggles, lives, cultures, and histories of diasporic African-Latinos all over the Caribbean and South America. And at one time it seemed there were several very socio-politically minded African Latinos posting here around that time, be they agreed or disagreed with what was being posted, also, many of the threads were merely full of articles and historical documentation rather than opinions and debate.

I think that there is still a lot of division around the diasporic language barriers, diasporic cultural differences and identities, between diasporic Africans in the US or North America, and the Caribbean as well as South America. Sometimes there is too much socio-political and cultural arrogance concerning what defines “African culture”, “African-consciousness”, “Blackness”, or the proper way to struggle against the oppressors. There is also the same “gulf of reasoning” between continental Africans and Africans in the Diaspora as a whole.

The Pan African movement at this time is more academic, intellectual and theoretical more so than it’s really resonating at a grassroots level in most Black communities. Somehow there has to be a unifying and overlapping of ideas and reasonable objectives. For some see Pan Africanism as a “back to African” movement, some see it as Black nationalism where we are (and this is divided between socialist and capitalist thinkers), there are others who see it as expressing their African cultural empowerment while still respecting their own unique diasporic African culture and community, (such African-Cuban, African-Puerto Rican, African-Brazilian and even the Black Freedmen of the indigenousness nations).

People of African descent worldwide even have varying opinions on what should deem one to be “truly” Black or African as it's been discussed amongst continental Africans and diasporic people with African ancestry regardless of nation or culture.

Today we have so dogmatically romanticized and misconstrued what the early Pan Africanist were developing and what previous revolutionary groups like the "original" Black Panthers were actually standing for, we are more and more isolating our movements with misguided and meaningless rhetorical reasoning instead of philosophically broadening the scope of our objectives to be more inclusive in regard to the struggles, as well as the many unique but also many times distorted realities that all Africans have found themselves in, in this post-colonial and diasporic world.


Peace
 
Sun Ship said:
Peace Corvo, I hope the following comments are not too redundant as far as what has already been alluded to.

There have been several long threads dedicated to exploring the struggles, lives, cultures, and histories of diasporic African-Latinos all over the Caribbean and South America. And at one time it seemed there were several very socio-politically minded African Latinos posting here around that time, be they agreed or disagreed with what was being posted, also, many of the threads were merely full of articles and historical documentation rather than opinions and debate.

I think that there is still a lot of division around the diasporic language barriers, diasporic cultural differences and identities, between diasporic Africans in the US or North America, and the Caribbean as well as South America. Sometimes there is too much socio-political and cultural arrogance concerning what defines “African culture”, “African-consciousness”, “Blackness”, or the proper way to struggle against the oppressors. There is also the same “gulf of reasoning” between continental Africans and Africans in the Diaspora as a whole.

The Pan African movement at this time is more academic, intellectual and theoretical more so than it’s really resonating at a grassroots level in most Black communities. Somehow there has to be a unifying and overlapping of ideas and reasonable objectives. For some see Pan Africanism as a “back to African” movement, some see it as Black nationalism where we are (and this is divided between socialist and capitalist thinkers), there are others who see it as expressing their African cultural empowerment while still respecting their own unique diasporic African culture and community, (such African-Cuban, African-Puerto Rican, African-Brazilian and even the Black Freedmen of the indigenousness nations).

People of African descent worldwide even have varying opinions on what should deem one to be “truly” Black or African as it's been discussed amongst continental Africans and diasporic people with African ancestry regardless of nation or culture.

Today we have so dogmatically romanticized and misconstrued what the early Pan Africanist were developing and what previous revolutionary groups like the "original" Black Panthers were actually standing for, we are more and more isolating our movements with misguided and meaningless rhetorical reasoning instead of philosophically broadening the scope of our objectives to be more inclusive in regard to the struggles, as well as the many unique but also many times distorted realities that all Africans have found themselves in, in this post-colonial and diasporic world.


Peace


Brother Sunship,

You make some interesting points, one especially in regards to some of my own recent thinking, in regards to the "Original" Black Panthers.

So, let me go to Alabama and the Lowndes County Freedom Organization.
http://www.alabamatv.org/alex/studyguides/lowndes.htm
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=1103

Again, we are faced with acknowledging Elder Ancestor Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael).

During my recent research it came to me the connection with the Black Panther as a symbol. And this, understanding brother Kwame's own familial roots.

http://myfwc.com/panther/handbook/natural/whatname.html
"The panther is thought to be a favorite of the Creator and to have special powers."

While there are many who speak of the Panthers as a failed movement, they still stand out for their heroic SYMBOLISM, and also for their ACTIVISM for they were no mere armed chair revolutionaries. And, regardless of the criticisms waged against brother Kwame and Eldridge Cleaver, it was the Internationalist faction of the Panthers which developed relations with the Algerian revolutionaries, the Cubans, and the MPLA in Angola, when most other Black "Nationalist" oorganizations in the united snakes threw their support to the FNLA and UNITA, both of which were backed by the Chinese AND the CIA.

The Black Panthers followed a History of resistance and rebellion, and community servie to their Black "Nation" as did Silas jefferson, James Coody Johnson and John Myers, several generations before them. And this rebellion was firmly rooted in the heroic struggles of Diasporic Africans who successfully DEFENDED themselves, and their families against united snakes imperialist aggression.
 
OmowaleX said:
Brother Sunship,

You make some interesting points, one especially in regards to some of my own recent thinking, in regards to the "Original" Black Panthers.

So, let me go to Alabama and the Lowndes County Freedom Organization.
http://www.alabamatv.org/alex/studyguides/lowndes.htm
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=1103

Again, we are faced with acknowledging Elder Ancestor Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael).

During my recent research it came to me the connection with the Black Panther as a symbol. And this, understanding brother Kwame's own familial roots.

http://myfwc.com/panther/handbook/natural/whatname.html
"The panther is thought to be a favorite of the Creator and to have special powers."

While there are many who speak of the Panthers as a failed movement, they still stand out for their heroic SYMBOLISM, and also for their ACTIVISM for they were no mere armed chair revolutionaries. And, regardless of the criticisms waged against brother Kwame and Eldridge Cleaver, it was the Internationalist faction of the Panthers which developed relations with the Algerian revolutionaries, the Cubans, and the MPLA in Angola, when most other Black "Nationalist" oorganizations in the united snakes threw their support to the FNLA and UNITA, both of which were backed by the Chinese AND the CIA.

The Black Panthers followed a History of resistance and rebellion, and community servie to their Black "Nation" as did Silas jefferson, James Coody Johnson and John Myers, several generations before them. And this rebellion was firmly rooted in the heroic struggles of Diasporic Africans who successfully DEFENDED themselves, and their families against united snakes imperialist aggression.
Thanks for the links....

Brother OmowaleX, though the Black Panthers were some of the most powerful revolutionaries we have produced in our most modern times they weren’t political, ideological, or socio-cultural isolationist. They weren’t just single dimensional monolithic thinkers. This is why they could connect with Cuba and the Algerians. And they were destroyed before they could fully develop.

Everybody’s posturing and rapping now and saying nothing and doing nothing! They don’t have a tight grip on the culture (right here), the legacy, their mandate, or what directives are most important for liberating their communities.

Our diasporic African ancestors and elders were “as wise as serpents”; they operated skillfully within the context of their environments, using applicable knowledge and skills to develop self-sustainable constructs; and even what they were doing was eventually destroyed, stolen, or even worst ignored and left to rot away in the grave by their children, and now their children's, children!

This relates to what was talked about in the last thread. Though we have looked at the lives of the Black Freedmen mostly as ex-slaves of indigenous people, that was only a small part of much larger picture of what the lives of Black Freedmen like, as well as that of Native American and African relationships. Most of it was either about, two groups of proud and noble people functioning and sustaining a reality outside of the imperial power of colonial America, or it was about collective armed revolutionary action against the imperialist, as you see in the picture I posted in the other thread showing Seminoles and African warriors splittin’ open the heads of the white colonizers and oppressors in the state of Florida! Whites were originally enslaving both Amerindians and Africans!

A lot of the Black men living with or near the Indigenous people were fiercely independent maroons, not slaves of any man! And they were real about who they were and what they had to do!

African centrism, African religiously, and revolutionary politics are all taking on more of a "self-stylized cult-like identity" or life-“style”, being more encapsulated in detached realties and romanticized visions of Blackness, Pan Africanism, and African culturalism; like it’s a “rap video” or something. There is no continuity between our ancestors’ introspection, hard work, applicable skills, mother wit, wisdom, and natural reasoning. Even the rhetorical reasoning of Brother Malcolm has been misconstrued both by misguided overstated Black radicalism on one-side and the socio-political views of pacifistic assimilationism on the other. Too many prefer one of these two sides instead of a more balanced and thought-out approach to our collective circumstances.



Peace
 
Sun Ship said:
Thanks for the links....

Brother OmowaleX, though the Black Panthers were some of the most powerful revolutionaries we have produced in our most modern times they weren’t political, ideological, or socio-cultural isolationist. They weren’t just single dimensional monolithic thinkers. This is why they could connect with Cuba and the Algerians. And they were destroyed before they could fully develop.

Everybody’s posturing and rapping now and saying nothing and doing nothing! They don’t have a tight grip on the culture (right here), the legacy, their mandate, or what directives are most important for liberating their communities.

Our diasporic African ancestors and elders were “as wise as serpents”; they operated skillfully within the context of their environments, using applicable knowledge and skills to develop self-sustainable constructs; and even what they were doing was eventually destroyed, stolen, or even worst ignored and left to rot away in the grave by their children, and now their children's, children!

This relates to what was talked about in the last thread. Though we have looked at the lives of the Black Freedmen mostly as ex-slaves of indigenous people, that was only a small part of much larger picture of what the lives of Black Freedmen like, as well as that of Native American and African relationships. Most of it was either about, two groups of proud and noble people functioning and sustaining a reality outside of the imperial power of colonial America, or it was about collective armed revolutionary action against the imperialist, as you see in the picture I posted in the other thread showing Seminoles and African warriors splittin’ open the heads of the white colonizers and oppressors in the state of Florida! Whites were originally enslaving both Amerindians and Africans!

A lot of the Black men living with or near the Indigenous people were fiercely independent maroons, not slaves of any man! And they were real about who they were and what they had to do!

African centrism, African religiously, and revolutionary politics are all taking on more of a "stylized cult-like identity" or life-“style”, being more encapsulated in detached realties and romanticized visions of Blackness, Pan Africanism, and African culturalism; like it’s a “rap video” or something. There is no continuity between our ancestors’ introspection, hard work, applicable skills, mother wit, wisdom, and natural reasoning. Even the rhetorical reasoning of Brother Malcolm has been misconstrued both by misguided overstated Black radicalism on one-side and the socio-political views of pacifistic assimilationism on the other. Too many prefer one of these two sides instead of a more balanced and thought-out approach to our collective circumstances.



Peace


Brother Sunship,

I HEAR you, loud and clear.

Hotep!
 

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