Category: Uhuru

Wars and Rumors of Wars

Can you hear that sound? That drumming?

Those are war drums being beaten.

Do you see who’s playing them? Do they look familiar to you?

They should. That’s the Western, capitalist elite. For them war, chaos, terror, and death is just a business opportunity. That’s for them. The dying part, that’s for you.

Can you see those lines? The ones being drawn between different blocs of allies?

Notice how former alliances are dissolving and new ones are being forged; how fading powers, desperate to cling even to the shadow of power, have grown more and more desperate–more and more bellicose.

Can you see that sign up ahead? The one that reads “Caution”? The one that’s being ignored because avarice and hubris are a dangerous combination?

We are being ushered into a world where danger and uncertainty will crest, giving rise to one where suffering and destruction become general, rather than particular conditions.

This is the world born of the savagery of colonialism and slavery and the avarice of their progeny–capitalism. This is the world as is it and as it will be, that is, until we decide to do something about it.

The Fashion of Pseudo-Radicalism and the Myopia of Contemporary Social Movements

I am continually intrigued by the “activism” of the last decade with its emphasis on an imagined purity, either of the ideological or of the blood quantum variety. These corresponding movements generally failed to either forge novel criticisms of or strategies against any forms of structural oppression (i.e., racism, capitalism, colonialism, imperialism), to provide the kind of political education that truly revolutionary movements require, or to effectively marshal the masses in opposition to these forces.

For example, has the preponderance of “anti-racist” activism or writing served to illuminate paths to reform which were not solely reliant on either a sympathetic administration or the largess of white liberals or institutions? Did these movements articulate an end goal short of structural integration within a settler colonial state or the cultural assimilation of all elements within their communities to white progressive views, values, and objectives? Both questions can be answered definitively in the negative. And how could they when their end goals consisted of puerile ends such as “representation” in corporate mass media or “delineation” from other African and African Diasporic populations. As such, these movements captured mental energy and material resources which should have served more revolutionary purposes, yet in the end either expended such potentiality into the ether or enriched their figureheads.

Though they failed in substantive ways, these movements did succeed in advancing the cause of atomization (i.e, division) in spectacular fashion. This atomization has been so thorough that it has served to estrange elements among us in the present-day, as well as severing vital linkages to our past struggles which could serve to guide our actions.

The lesson which I maintain should be learned from this period and its myopia is captured by and Ewe proverb which states, “Ŋkuagbãtɔ mekplɔa aʋa o,” that is, “The blind does not lead in a battle.” This teaches us that those of limited vision should never be entrusted to guide others. Further, it illustrates the fallacy of seeking to conceive of any liberatory project de-linked from the dynamic history of revolutionary struggle which has been forged by our ancestors. In my book,Jacob H. Carruthers and the Restoration of an African Worldview, I discuss the failings of these contemporary movements in contrast to the victorious Haitian Revolution.

“These contemporary movements do not seek to avenge the wrongs perpetrated against African people over centuries, or to ‘conquer or die,’ and in so doing to topple the oft-lamented system. Instead, they seek reconciliation with that system or inclusion within it. They reflect [Jean Jacques] Dessalines’s critique of the various elements who vied for power in the course of the Haitian struggle yet were all hobbled by their ultimate allegiance to the European model [of social development].
‘The always recurring factions . . .
toyed, each in turn with the
Phantom of Liberty which France
displayed before their eyes.’ (quoted in Carruthers 1985, 30)” (Rashid 2024)

Let us draw upon the sobriety of history and find inspiration and wisdom required to envision and engage in Black struggle.

References

Carruthers, Jacob H. 1985. The Irritated Genie: An Essay on the Haitian Revolution. Chicago: The Kemetic Institute.

Rashid, Kamau. 2024. Jacob H. Carruthers and the Restoration of an African Worldview: Finding Our Way through the Desert. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

W.E.B. Du Bois on war and empire

One of the things that I noticed as I was writing my dissertation about Du Bois was his participation in the peace movement. In fact, when I was at Fisk doing research, his opposition to militarism was indelible. To be sure, he viewed war as an instrument of empire, one ultimately incapable of securing the surety of peace and human well-being. Further, war and militarism were linked to capitalism. Hence, for all its horror, warfare is exceedingly profitable.

At any rate, he might say of our present moment that humanity stands at the precipice. I agree. Militarism is increasingly the preserve of dying empires. Moribund powers whose folly will result, not only in their annihilation, but ours with it.

Read “There Is No Such Thing as a Small Nuclear War” by Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research: https://thetricontinental.org/newsletterissue/nato-ukraine-nuclear-crisis/

Our petty bourgeois strivings

I know that many of us continue to celebrate African/Black people being installed as agents of the state apparatus, the same state that kept Africans in shackles during the era of chattel slavery, suppressed Black voting rights for nearly a century, sabotaged Black movements for sovereignty, assassinated Black leaders, and has consistently sought to inflict “on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

I am reminded in the midst of these celebratory moments of the wisdom of Malcolm X, who stated, “Racial unrest never occurs among the satisfied, bourgeois class of Negroes. They can easily be appeased and controlled and influenced just by continuing to drop crumbs on their table—the crumbs of tokenism. And this type of Negro that the so-called Negro leadership represents is a type that can be appeased and can be controlled with the crumbs of token integration.”

I think that Malcolm X’s criticism highlights the inadequacy of integrationism as a political strategy and ideology. In many ways one might say that he anticipated its devolution from appeals for structural integration to the present bifurcation of the African/Black community in the US, where the petty bourgeoise class continues to aspire to enjoy the bounty of capitalist exploitation, which the masses are increasingly dislocated by. 

Ultimately, the performance of representation by powerful institutions is a paean to the aspirations of the Black elite. Such strivings do not equate to the imperative of self-determination for the masses, a self-determination whose actualization dismisses the very legitimacy of the dominant system itself.

On Cruses’s Two Streams

The notion that Africans/Blacks in the US can advance by asserting their “Americanness” & denying their “Africanness” is an old idea, visible in the poetry of Phillis Wheatley in the 18th Century. Wheatley and many who would come after her reflect Cruse’s integrationist stream.

Cruse also acknowledged another stream, the Black nationalist stream, which many say begins with Martin Delany, but I think saw its inception within the traditions of insurrection, maroonage, and the earliest examples of repatriation with Paul Cuffe in the early 19th Century.

When one considers the intellectual legacies of integrationism and Black nationalism, they seem irreconcilable. Assimilation results in African people’s subordination to white domination. Whereas nationalism rejects the legitimacy of African life under alien subjugation.

The history of these streams remains unfinished, but as ever, the integrationist stream is presented as the singular expression of Black political thought, while the nationalist stream is decried as folly. However, all evidence suggests that integrationism is not possible, nor is capable of solving all of the problems of our people–problems that result from our lack of control over our lives.

On the expansive meaning of Malcolm X

Malcolm X’s ideas contributed greatly to the formation of cultural and territorial nationalism among Africans in the US. He famously stated, “Revolution is based on land. Land is the basis for all independence. Land is the basis of freedom, justice, and equality.” This idea greatly informed the New African Independence Movement that called for the formation of an independent Black nation in the US states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina.

He also was a proponent of revolutionary struggle. He spoke at length about the myopia of Black leaders.

Revolution is bloody, revolution is hostile, revolution knows no compromise, revolution overturns and destroys everything that gets in its way. And you, sitting around here like a knot on the way, saying, “I’m going to love these folks no matter how much they hate me,” No, you need a revolution. Whoever heard of a revolution where they lock arms….singing “We Shall Overcome?” You don’t do that in a revolution. You don’t do any singing, you’re too busy swinging. It’s based on land. A revolutionary wants land so he can set up his own nation, an independent nation. These Negroes aren’t asking for any nation — they’re trying to crawl back on the plantation.

Thus, he had a profound influence on the revolutionary discourses in the 60s and beyond, as well as on the Black Power formations that advocated revolutionary struggle.

Further, Malcolm’s Pan-Africanism made his message resonate with African peoples the world over. He would often remark on the impact of anti-colonial leaders on the African continent, such as Patrice Lumumba and Kwame Nkrumah. He remarked on the exploitation of Congo as a consequence of US imperialism, noting that the same settler colonial state responsible for the oppression of Africans in the US, was responsible for the oppression of Africans abroad.

His anti-colonialism continues to be drawn upon as an example of international solidarity between oppressed peoples. Whether it was Africa, Asia, or Latin America, he recognized the folly of subdividing the struggle against western domination, instead emphasizing that “We have a common oppressor.” His remarks on the Bandung Conference expressed focused on the coming together of revolutionary forces to forge a future for themselves de-linked from the hegemony of the West. In a related vein, socialists have emphasized Malcolm’s anti-capitalism, emphasizing that Malcolm recognized that capitalism lay at the foundation of Western imperialism.

Malcolm X’s icon has been used variously to promote Islam in the Black community, as some have sought to link Malcolm’s faith with his politics, and in so doing have promoted Islam as a vehicle of both political consciousness and spiritual awakening. Further, his thinking doubtlessly contributed to religious nationalism among Africans/Blacks in the US across the theological spectrum.

Finally, he provides an ideal of African/Black manhood, whose righteous character and convictions were the driving forces in his life.

In short, the meaning of Malcolm X is rich and varied. His life is replete with lessons that have informed the consciousness of African/Black peoples and many others in the decades since his assassination. He lives on as an exemplary ancestor, whose good character and commitment to African freedom and social transformation endure as an example worthy of both study and emulation.

Agents

I watched and participated in a Zoom discussion of Judas and the Black Messiah tonight. One of the points that I raised is that William O’Neal exemplifies the betrayer archetype. Men/women such as he have been an ever-present menace for African people. They are a recurring response of Europeans to the struggle for African freedom.

We cannot delude ourselves into thinking that agents and traitors will disappear or cease to be consequential at any point in our movement. Quite often, much like O’Neal himself, such persons will rise to prominence within the organizations and movements that they have been set against. We should even consider that such individuals will fabricate movements so as to sow seeds of confusion, discord, and facilitate misdirection.

At best, we can carry out our work in a such a manner that limits the destructive capacity of traitors. One partial solution to this is to engage in struggle in a manner that is highly decentralized, characterized by independent yet ideologically aligned collectives, groups working towards a common aim, yet who maintain localized organizational structures characterized by collective forms of governance.

This is perhaps easier said than done. Dynamic work often coheres around a visionary mind. Their genius is an asset to our struggle, yet in our adversary’s aim to maintain our oppression, they are often targeted and imprisoned or killed in the hopes that their deaths will destroy the movement. There will always be people like Chairman Fred Hampton who animate the imaginations of the people and who articulate a vision of a future free from the fetters of oppression. Such individuals will also be targeted by the state. The key, the principle challenge is to ensure the survival and expansion of the movement beyond the deaths of inspiring leaders, beyond the acts of sabotage by traitors, and beyond the machinations of our enemies. To demonstrate through work and determination that “You can kill the revolutionary, but you can’t kill the revolution.”