Door Ali Mazrui

Prof. Ali Mazrui
Barack Obama, de V.S. de Democratische presidentiële aspirant, heeft philosophised over nieuw post-rassenAmerika. In zijn campagne, heeft hij niet slechts de droom van Martin Luther King van rassengelijkheid, maar een geavanceerdere droom van post-raciality benadrukt.

Als Obama de eerste Zwarte President van de Verenigde Staten werd verkozen, zou dat natuurlijk niet het eind van ras-bewustzijn in Amerika, laat staan het eind van racisme zijn. Maar het zou een belangrijke stap naar toekomstig post-rassenAmerika zijn.

Afrika gaf geboorte aan het menselijke ras; Europa gecultiveerde racisme later millennia. Wat zich nu heeft voorgedaan is of Amerika de definitieve rustende plaats van racisme en ras-bewustzijn zal zijn. Als Afrika de tuin van Eden was die geboorte aan het menselijke ras gaf, zal Amerika de tuin van Eden zijn die een wereld voorbij racisme inhuldigt?

Bij het vinden van de overgang van dat eerste Afrikaanse het wiegen van Eden homo sapiens aan laatste Amerikaans Eden dat de post-rassenleeftijd wiegt, houden kort bij de well-trodden weg van de thesis van Francis Fukuyama's over het eind van geschiedenis op.

Fukuyama saw the end of history in ideological terms. He characterised liberal capitalism as the climax of the ideological biography of homo sapiens. He regarded political culture as being at its most triumphant when in pursuit of life, liberty and profit.

Our thesis here is a different kind of ‘end of history.’ We are seeking to trace, not the end of ideological history, but the end of racial history; not soon but hopefully before the end of this 21st century. Perhaps this is what Senator Barack Obama had in mind when he started dreaming about a post-racial America.

Ethnicity in its ‘tribal forms’ started where the human species originated: that is, in Africa. Indeed, Africa invented the human family and therefore the human clan as a unit of biological kinship. But if Africa was the cradle of the human race, the human family and the human clan, Europe eventually perfected colour-prejudice and elaborate racial discrimination.

Is the United States, under the egalitarian leadership of Americans of colour? Is the United States destined to become the final resting place of ethno-racial stratifications?

Francis Fukuyama is almost definitely wrong about the end of ideological history worldwide. But is there better evidence for the proposition that the end of racial history is on the horizon – and its final culmination will occur in the United States of America, led by the struggle of African-Americans?

The United States is still one of the most racist societies in the world. Four policemen can shoot an innocent black man 41 times in front of his own house and be acquitted of all charges.

It is inconceivable that if the policemen had shot a white man 41 times they would have gotten off scot-free. Subsequently in 2007, a black man was shot 50 times on his wedding day by three New York policemen. The victim was unarmed. The policemen have also been acquitted of all charges.

But although the United States is still so steeped in racism, most indications seem to single out this country as the most promising theatre for a racial and ethnic compromise before the end of the 21st century. This is so provided that all Americans join hands and are converted to the dream of a post-racial age.

We might call this entire odyssey from the birth of the clan in Africa to the end of racial history in the United States ‘A Tale of Two Edens’-the African Eden of human genesis, on one side, and the American Eden of human egalitarian dispersal, on the other.

Historical times

There is a sense in which all Americans, of any race, are part of the African Diaspora — since their ancestors all originated in Africa. But there is the other sense of ‘African Diaspora’ when the Diaspora refers to people of colour whose ancestors came from the African continent in more clearly defined historical times.

The generic African Diaspora is the one which makes Bill Clinton an ‘African President’ of the United States. The specific African Diaspora is the one which makes Martin Kilson, Toni Morrison, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., African-Americans.

Africa is where the human species began. A persistent question in world history is whether the United States will become the final post-racial Garden of Eden before the end of the 21st century. Will it evolve into the nearest approximation of a genuine post-ethnic role model for the world? It will need African-Americans to achieve such a moral stature.

The Christian doctrine has had two Adams: the Adam who fathered the human species and the Adam who finally saved the human species. In the words of the 15th chapter of the First Corinthians: “Thus it is written: There was made the first man, Adam, living soul, the last Adam life-giving Spirit.”

In our more secular imagery, the first Adam was Africa-the cradle of human kind. Will the last Adam be the United States, a potential secular savior of the human race? We need to see the Edenisation of the United States as the beginning of post-raciality.

At the moment the United States is far from being a collective secular savior of the human race!

On the contrary, there are times when the United States displays the symptoms of evolving into a collective anti-Christ. Is that what Barack Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright, meant when he said “God damn America”?

But, in reality, the twenty-first century brings the United States to the critical crossroads. Will this country evolve into a collective savior (the second Adam) or a collective anti-Christ? Will the United States realize its potential of becoming humankind’s post-racial Garden of Eden, completing the odyssey from Africa as the first Garden of Eden? Or will this country waste that opportunity through bigotry, prejudice, and conflict?

Our children and grandchildren as homo sapiens are burdened by the gravity of that responsibility, by the weight of that momentous choice.

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Obama at a fundraiser in Miami Beach last night

“A certain segment has basically been feeding a kind of xenophobia,” Obama said. “There’s a reason why hate crimes against Hispanic people doubled last year. If you have people like Lou Dobbs and Rush Limbaugh ginning things up, it’s not surprising that would happen.”

Obama on US-CUBA Policy

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“My husband did not wrap up the nomination until June …… “Bobby Kennedy Was Assassinated In June” — Vince Foster Is Rolling In His Grave!

SPECIAL COMMENT BY KEITH OLBERMANN
Olbermann: Hillary Clinton — ‘You Invoked A Nightmare’…

REACTIONS:

• Time: “Strange And Tasteless”…


• Washington Post: “At Best A Poorly Chosen Example”…


• Andrew Sullivan: Clinton Just Imploded…


• Howard Fineman: “A Campaign That Probably Needs To Be Put Out Of Its Misery Real Soon”…


• New York Times: Clinton’s Reference to Slaying of Robert Kennedy Stirs Uproar

MY SPECIAL COMMENT

[Pending]

REFERENCES:

1. Government Cover-ups: Vince Foster
2. The Death of Vincent Foster — Evidence Of A Cover-up
3. The Cover-Up Of Vince Foster’s Murder Gets Stranger and Stranger
4. Vince Foster on Wikipedia

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By Ali Mazrui

Prof. Ali Mazrui
In January 1808, the US Congress abolished the slave trade. The British had abolished it the previous year. What neither legislature has done 200 years later is pass legislation to compensate Blacks for hundreds of years of enslavement and degradation.

Earlier this week, the US Supreme Court ruled that apartheid victims could sue multinational corporations that facilitated violation of their human rights.

Is this a new chapter in Black emancipation process?

While the abolitionist movement in the 18th and 19th centuries was mainly inspired by benevolent changes in the Western world, the new reparationist movement in the 20th and 21st centuries has been inspired by malevolent continuities in the Black world.

The benevolent changes that favoured the abolitionist movement were partly technological and partly socio-normative. Innovations like the cotton gin made slave labour superfluous to capitalism. The abolitionist movement found a more responsive political establishment as slave-labour became technologically more anachronistic.

Additionally, Western values were getting more liberalised in other areas such as the extension of the franchise to the working classes in the 19th Century, and the beginnings of agitations for women’s rights. More efficient technology and more liberal ideology converged to boost the abolitionist movement in Europe and the Americas.

These were the benevolent changes in the West whose cumulative impact favoured the abolition of slave trade and subsequently slavery itself. Even the political emancipation of Roman Catholics in Britain was a cause that William Wilberforce championed a decade prior to conversion to the more drastic cause of seeking abolition of slave trade and slavery.

But the consequences of enslavement and colonisation are not merely research topics for scholars. They are also the genesis of horrendous civil wars and normative collapse in contemporary places like Liberia, Angola, and even Somalia. Such are the malevolent continuities of colonialism.

The consequences of enslavement and colonisation are not merely themes for plenary sessions at African Studies conventions; they are subjects of malfunctioning post-colonial economies in Africa, and the distorted socio-economic relations in the African Diaspora. These are the malevolent continuities of both colonialism and racism.

The inspiration behind the on-going reparations movement was not from change but continuity. It was from the persistent deprivation and anguish in the Black world arising out of the legacies of slavery and colonialism. The consequences of enslavement and colonisation are not chapters in history books; they are pangs of pain in the poorer parts of Harlem, Washington, DC, and the anti-Black police batons in the streets of Detroit, Rio de Janeiro, London, and Paris. These are some of the malevolent continuities of racism.

The consequences of enslavement and colonisation are not dusty documents in historical archives, but the figures of Black infant mortality in Haiti, Washington DC, and Uganda. Here once more are the malevolent continuities of racism.

While the most historically visible heroes of the abolitionist movement were disproportionately White, the emerging visible heroes of the reparationist movement are overwhelmingly Black.

White historically visible abolitionists in Great Britain included William Wilberforce (1759-1833). The historically visible abolitionists in the US included the martyred John Brown (1800-1859) and, in a special sense of abolitionism, martyred Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865). William Lloyd Garrison (1833-1870) founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society, was for a while among the best known American abolitionists.

This is quite apart from Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1851), arguably the most important female abolitionist influence in the early history of the movement in the United States, alongside Lydia Maria Child.

There were of course also Black abolitionists including such towering and brilliant activists as Frederick Douglass (1817-1895). But by the very nature of the power-structure of the period, Black abolitionists had less influence on their own than did either slave rebellions, on one side, or white abolitionists, on the other.

Wing of Black global opinion

Black slave rebellions sought to challenge the power of the slave system; white abolitionists sought to challenge the legitimacy of the slave system. Black abolitionists attempted to be allies of both, but they were weaker than either. Yet, even in their lonely isolation, Black abolitionists displayed remarkable courage and heroism.

While the older abolitionist movement was disproportionately led by liberal members of the Western Establishment, contemporary reparationist movement has been disproportionately advanced and steered by the nationalist wing of Black global opinion.

While 2004 marked the 200th anniversary of the Haitian revolution, 2004 also marked the 100th anniversary of the Maji Maji war against the Germans in Tanganyika. The Maji Maji war was inspired by an East African version of voodoo.

The warrior’s immersion into water was supposed to provide a magical shield against German bullets. Those beliefs were successful in mobilising the masses with next to no training or organization. In reality the African warriors’ baptism was no match for German bullets.

The Maji Maji war lasted from 1904 to 1906, a much shorter period than the Haitian wars. The Maji Maji war was brutally suppressed by the Germans. In the short run, the Haitian revolution had a happier outcome.

In addition to marking both 200th anniversary of the Haitian revolution and the 100th anniversary of the Maji Maji war, the year 2004 also marked approximately the 50th anniversary of the Mau Mau war against the British in Kenya.

The Mau Mau, like Maji Maji, also invoked a version of East African voodoo. But Mau Mau, unlike Maji Maji, did not emphasise the protective qualities of baptism by water. It invoked ritual use of menstrual blood and worked out elaborate oaths of allegiance for warriors stripped naked for the ceremonies. The warriors fought bravely in spite of the military odds.

Unlike Maji Maji, the Mau Mau did defeat the British politically though not militarily. The Mau Mau warriors fought from 1952 to about 1960. They convinced the British that it was time to pull out of Kenya as an imperial power. The British colonial exit occurred in 1963.

Some Blacks reformers believe that those companies that benefited from Apartheid should pay a price for it. They are on course.

About The Author(s): Prof. Ali Mazrui is Chancellor of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture, Kenya. | More Articles By Ali Mazrui |

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Columnist - John Sammon
Barack Obama unfortunately has got assassination attempt written all over him. I wish I didn’t have to say this, but my clairvoyant sensors are ringing. Before you laugh, I wrote on my blog Sammonsays that “people would drown en mass” five days before Hurricane Katrina struck (titled Doomsday Five). Katrina was also a Category Five storm.

I also accurately predicted the outcome of the Iraq War six years ago, and the death of the TV Crocodile Hunter before they happened.

I could go on.

Obama has got several things about him to make me issue this warning (a new version of the Ides of March).

First, he’s personable and young. A prime target. Anyone promising change or a new direction runs more risk because they represent a threat to the old established business-as-usual moneyed interests. It also goes without saying that as the first African American president, Obama will become a target to every racist nut case.

America is a violent country. A country of haters. The most violent in the world.

Also, Democrats by their very nature consider themselves to be “populists.” That means they seem to like the so-called “common people,” and actually make physical attempts to go out among them and shake hands, which leaves them more vulnerable to assassination.

Republicans on the other hand tend to be more secretive. They believe in secret government. As a rule, they don’t like wading through crowds, “average” people for whom they often have disdain. Usually, the only time you see George Bush is when he waves walking across the lawn from his helicopter.

But it’s Obama’s perceived challenge to the fat cats that has me really worried, and my clairvoyant harp strings chiming.

The oil companies are strangling the American people, raising gas prices. They always explain that their to-infinity profits are simply a result of rewarding stock holders. But they’re killing the golden goose. Without knowing it.

Rising prices will cause Americans to seek other means of travel and boycott gasoline, which in turn will lessen global warming. Rising fuel prices will also cause other, new entrepreneurs to fill the gap by creating hybrid, electric and more fuel efficient cars.

Here’s a historical example. What happened in Prohibition when Americans were confronted with a situation (law) that to them was unacceptable? They found ways around it. They made their own booze.

Can’t you see the irony? In their greed and stupidity, oil company executives are (unwittingly) killing their own industry and helping the environment.

But back to Obama. Obama will try to rein in big oil. He may also attempt universal health care. This will put him on the hit list of moneyed interests.

For if the truth be known, in some ways, the oil company moguls and those in the insurance and health industry games are not that different from the Mafia and organized crime. They have lucrative windfalls they will fanatically protect. Billions are at stake.

Any political leader who attempts real change to the industrial, military, multi mega world conglomerate that America represents…will be viewed as a grave threat.

I’ll warn you all that Obama is a prime candidate for assassination. And it makes me sick to think about it.

I believe Obama will be the victim of an assassination attempt if he’s elected. That’s sad, because he may be the last, best hope we have to retain any semblance of our own humanity.

© Copyright 2008 by SammonSays.com

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