๐๐จ๐ฏ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ง-๐๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐๐ง๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐๐๐๐ง ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐๐ ๐ญ๐ก ๐๐๐ง๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐ซ๐จ๐ฉ๐๐๐ง-๐จ๐ซ๐ข๐๐ง๐ญ๐๐ ๐๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ค๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐จ
๐๐ ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐๐๐ง๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ฒ ๐๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐๐ง-๐๐๐ง๐ญ๐๐ซ๐๐ ๐๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ค๐ข๐ง๐
๐ฉ๐ ๐ฉ๐๐๐ ๐ฒ๐๐-๐ฉ๐-๐ด๐-๐น๐ (๐ซ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฉ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ )
When we look at the nature of the Caribbean African, the first historical fact is that the only
group of African people to take the independence from a European power was Haiti, and while it succeeded in the physical revolution it remained a cultural slave to European French culture after it became self-determined which questions the very nature of its independence because the African process that led to revolution was overpowered by African people who established government under French philosophical principles that smothered the validity of African culture and continues to denigrate that culture within Haiti today under a French cultural boot.
The other African people in the Caribbean who have independence were given that
independence which then questions the validity of that independence when their African populations have been raised with European culture through their educational institutionsw hich may be the source of many problems that Caribbean African people do not discussw hen in mixed Pan-Africanist company. It is also important to remember that those islands/mainland also had other ethnic groups within them when independence was
granted.
If one tracks the headlines in the Caribbean from a western perspective, one is led to
believe the issue of struggle for African people is one of class. If one tracks the headlines or
lack thereof from an African-centered perspective one looks at the western cultural
indoctrination of African people in the Caribbean where education is not oriented towards the cultural nationalism needs of African people to see themselves as one regional collective related to African people in north America and on the African continent.
The European colonial social system has educated African people away from the ideas of ancestor Garvey, Walter Rodney, Maurice Bishop and other Africans in the Caribbean who were "race men and women". This confusion on whether to prioritize class or race keeps white supremacy influence and economics in power in the Caribbean basin at the expense of conversations about Pan-African unity over western nation-state division. So, when African people immigrate to the U.S. from the Caribbean they quickly identify as an immigrant to set them apart from African American struggle.
As a result, many Caribbean African people do not identify themselves with African people
in America so much as they work to identify themselves as immigrants, a code to being
accepted by white supremacy in America. And because African people in the U.S. do not
understand the Caribbean basin outside of tourism destinations, carinval and the pride of a flag, much is never learned about the real economic, poliitical and social conditions of
African people who cannot immigrate to the U.S. or who choose not to immigrate to the U.S.
It is also to be remembered that Caribbean people see themselves from the perspective of an ethnic stew (diversity) which changes the nature of identity to one of western state
nationalism, not Black African nationalism as defined by ancestor Mosiah Garvey.
The reality is that Caribbean people are not just of African descent. They are also of
Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, East Indian, and Middle Eastern descent not to mention the
mixtures of European descent which were prone to a different definition of what constituted Black than the definition whites generated in the U.S. Taking this into consideration as a factor to refer to Caribbean people as a collective group of African people is inaccurate and even disingenuous if one is having this conversation with a self-identified Pan-Africanist from the Caribbean.
The second problem is that African people of the Caribbean are also culturally European-
oriented and their colonial cultural education systems have made it easy for them to adapt
to American cultural enslavement even if their country of origin has flag independence.
Physical independence is not the same a cultural independence.
Finally, buying into the divide and conquer philosophy of white supremacy has led to the
failure of building a bridge between the African American community and African Caribbean communities which was the aspiration of ancestor Marcus Garvey. He saw us as one people, not just as immigrants, but as a one African people between Caribbean Africans and African Americans. His goal was Pan-Africanism not multiculturalism or diversity for the purpose of developing economic power.
The current relationship between African people from the Caribbean and those in the U.S., in most cases it has been a relationship of convenience rather than one of shared Black
struggle as too many Caribbean Africans in the U.S. stand straddled the social divide,
identifying with African Americans in the course of facing police brutality but also separating from African Americans in the face of opportunities offered by white supremacy. All of this will serve to confuse a Pan-Africanist in the U.S. who is not from the Caribbean who
envisions African people in the Caribbean as being African/Black controlled societies that
are culturally independent of European values and standards.
This confuses the conversation because in following an advertising and marketing image of the Caribbean basin (which has nothing to do with the cultural realities of the Caribbean
basin) with the cultural standards internalized by many educated African Caribbean
individuals, it becomes difficult to analyze Caribbean Pan-Africanism from the position of
Black unity.
The actual key to understanding the real African condition in the Caribbean basin is
determined by looking at the living conditions of the Black people and the cultural
orientation of the cultural infrastructure that form it the nationalism of the nation. Whereas
the grassroots people will accept African Americans as being like them, educated
Caribbean African people are programmed to see themselves as different based on their
cultural indoctrination through the systems of education they succeed in. Yet if we look at
the Caribbean of the 21 st century, we know that there still is an issue of race, economics and power being played out to the disadvantage of general African Caribbean populations.
Clearly the east Indian populations in the Caribbean have risen to economic and political
power on some islands or in places like Guyana and Suriname where they dominate
political and economic spheres. Clearly Chinese, Lebanese and other middle eastern ethnic groups have risen to power in local areas of finance and banking. Clearly the Portuguese
and Spanish have always had power in government positions, both national and
international.
Many Trinidadians of east Indian descent have risen to positions of power in that island
nation which needs to be taken into consideration when we include African people of the diaspora in a discussion about the state of Pan-Africanism in the 21st century in the islands.
The French islands in the Caribbean are still French territories so we know that those
African people are still culturally muzzled by France and the same goes for those African
people who live in the Dutch controlled islands.
Educated in western ideas, too many Caribbean Africans assume that the position of class informs the condition of black people rather than race. As a result, there is no black
nationalist ideology to examine how other ethnic groups in Guyana rise to power at the
expense of African people in places like Guyana. And we wonโt even mention the Spanish speaking nations where African people are pretty much invisible, and toothless in government and finance. Most of the English-speaking islands pledge to the King of
England and are proud members of the Commonwealth. Some are still British territories.
However, the main area of Caribbean African enslavement is the educational and
psychological one of the education systems that prevents the rise of major Pan-African
thinking.
When a Pan-Africanist looks at the education systems of the Caribbean, s/he must look at
the content of the social/cultural narrative that is being provided in its soft subjects (history,
culture, language, philosophy, etc.) rather than its hard subjects (math, science,
engineering, trades, etc.) because the soft subjects determine consciousness in the area of Blackness and loyalty to shaping what is done with the hard subjects. The education is
European/western based so African people going through those educations are
programmed to see the world through British, French, Spanish and Portugues eyes, not the
eyes of Black Nationalism as defined by ancestor Garvey, or Malcolm X, or Walter Rodney or Kwame Nkrumah. One cannot promote tourism, resort development or CARICOM relationships with Europe, the U.S. and China before thinking of African Americans and the African continent in terms of global African unity or Pan-Africanism if one is a Pan-Africanist from the region. [๐บ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐: ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ช๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐จ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ต๐๐ ๐จ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฐ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ด๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐บ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ท๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐น๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ต๐๐ ๐จ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ด๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฟ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐บ๐๐๐๐๐].
Anytime I discuss Pan-Africanism with a brother or sister from the Caribbean the first thing I want to know is the social condition of African people in the country they come from, and which ethnic group controls the economics of that nation however I will also check whatthey say against reading the online news that comes out of their local papers in theCaribbean basin. In many cases what they say does not match what is in the headlines.
African people in the Caribbean are in the same social conditions as those in the U.S. and
on the African continent for the most part. They are unemployed, underpaid, faced with high crime, gun violence, rape, poor education and health, gender inequality and judicial systemsthat are heavy on punishment against the poor.
The question to be raised is who is perpetuating this African oppression of African
populations in the Caribbean basin. On the continent it is African leadership. In the U.S. it is direct white supremacy institutions. In the Caribbean it is a combination of ethnic groups at the top perpetuating European standards for African populations at the bottom.
The one thing the Black leaders all have in common is the training, influence and support of western white institutions of supremacy. The true nature of the condition of black Caribbeanpeoples cannot be understood through the distraction of colorful printed currency or nation-state flags. Pan-Africanists must look at the condition of black Caribbean people whether under the leadership of other black Caribbean people or non-black Caribbean people. The Pan-Africanist must always focus on this issue and remember that race supersedes class because without white supremacy, class as we know it might not exist among African people living under the concept of Ubuntu (I am because we are, therefore we are because I am,).
Pan-African intellectualism has never really evolved beyond the European humanism of the 20 th century in the Caribbean. It resisted Garvey who left Jamaica to die of a heart attack in London because young Africans from Africa and the Caribbean were caught up in Trade Union ideologies. Caribbean intellectualism has yet to evolve towards an African-centered concept of Pan-Africanism rooted in classical African philosophy and indigenous African philosophies of human political, economic and social organization that needs to be combined with the best views of ancestor Garvey, Rodney and Bishop not to mention ancestor Malcom and Nkrumah. And until this happens, when speaking about the Caribbean, it needs to be understood that point of reference of a conversation needs to start with the lives of local African people and not the nation-states they live in.
Unless Pan-Africanist from the Caribbean has read Cheikh Anta Diop, Chancelor Williams,
John Henrik Clarke, Franz Fanon, Malcolm X, Molefi Asante, Marimba Ani, Dr. Francis Cress-Welsing in addition to Walter Rodney, Eric Williams, Maurice Bishop, Marcus Garvey,
C. L. R. James, and George Padmore then I really canโt consider that Pan-Africanist to have
the intellectual honesty to look at where we need to go globally in the 21 st Century because s/he is still stuck in 20th century thinking about Pan-Africanism.
*BIOGRAPHY*
Bro. Baye Kesbamera (Duane Bradford), is a native of San Diego, California (USA). He holds a M.S.d egree in Rehabilitation Counseling, B.A. degrees in Political Science, French Language and Human Behavior and an A.A. degree in French Language with extensive studies in the areas of Pan-Africanism, African-centered philosophy, African-centered education, journalism, and 30 years of experience in treating substance abuse, mental health issues, especially as they relate to African peoples in the Americas and on the African continent. He is retired from the California Department of Rehabilitation, a state agency that helps individuals living with disabilities prepare for employment. He is also U.S. Navy veteran.
Bro. Baye is an elder on the Council of Elders for the 8 th Pan-African Congress. His other organizational activities have included the co-founding of the first African-centered pre-rites of passage program for young African American male children called โThe Boyhood to Manhoodโ program. He also served as an elder in another local rites of passage program for African American teens. Bro. Baye has conducted numerous cultural workshops that include โThe Introduction to Afrocentric Philosophyโ.
While working with the Pan-African Movement Worldwide, he returned from the Black Think Tank Conference of that organization to introduce the observance of โNakumbuka Dayโ to the United States in 1993 and created the first Nakumbuka Day Ceremony in the United States. He generated a ceremony for Nakumbuka Day observance in the family and is the leading authority on the holiday in the U.S. He was Kichwa (President) of the Pan-African Associations of America, which takes an African-centered approach to Pan-African organization and continues to administer a Facebook page that focuses on promoting theapplication of indigenous African philosophy as a foundation to Pan-African liberation thinking.
Bro. Baye to Sis. Adande Imashimara (Denise Bradford) and he has two adult children. Bro. Baye lived in Mali from 1964 to 1967 while his parents taught physical education and English at that time in Sikasso and Bamako, Mali. His other time in Africa at various times include Senegal, Kenya, Cote DโIvoire, and
Nigeria, Africa.
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