EDITORIAL
Why should Afrika unite? Why should nation states federate? Why should regions and territories secede?
In the past we at Nubiart have been accused of giving succour to Afrikan secessionists without any regard for the tragedy such upheavals would inevitably cause. In truth all we have been doing is asking questions and reporting the answers given about the socio-economic and political basis that underpin the ideology of the movements and individuals who make secessionist demands. We want to know how secession will improve the quality of life for Afrikan people. Will it improve their income, health, education or environment? Will secession prevent genocide, increase racial pride or preserve important aspects of Afrikan culture?
Recently Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi, who also doubles as head of the African Union, has suggested that Nigeria should split in two along northern-southern lines that are meant to reflect the alleged Islamic-Christian divisions in the nation-state. While this does not acknowledge any existence of indigenous Afrikan spirituality and culture the fact that such a high profile ‘player’ is voicing out loud statements that contravene the founding policy of the Organisation of African Unity (that the borders created by western colonialism were sacrosanct) raises the opportunity to really take a look at what Afrikans want, what Afrika is and where is the continent really heading – as oppose to where we fantasise it is at.
If Nigeria split in two it would be just as likely to split into 57 or 257 nation-states as every cultural, political or marginalised group could also claim the right to secede. However there would be no guarantee that any of the newly formed states would be any more equitable, any less brutal or any less corrupt than the nation-state that is currently rebranding itself to mark the 50th year of alleged independence.
There are three core reasons for secession demands across Afrika: the failure of political, social or economic relations with immediate neighbours within the nation-state; mismanagement of resources and marginalisation by central government; and histories of brutality by army and police. The main secessionist groupings are in Nigeria (Delta, Yoruba, Igbo, Northern, etc), Sudan (South Sudan, Darfur and smaller scale movements in eastern Sudan and Nuba mountains), DR Congo (various regions including eastern DR Congo and the BaKongo nation) and Somaliland’s de facto split from the rest of Somalia. Secessionists are also active in the Cabinda enclave of Angola (as the Togolese football team found out to their fatal cost); Cote d’Ivoire; the Casamance region of Senegal; Polisario Front’s Western Sahara; Tuareg regions of Mauritania, Niger and Mali; the Chad-Sudan border; Zanzibar; the Comoros Islands; and even some European racist secessionists in South Afrika.
The most recent Afrikan secession accepted by the UN was Eritrea’s split from Ethiopia in 1991-93. At the time the leaders of the two rebel movements that came to power, in what would be two countries after the overthrow of the Derg, were on good speaking terms. The situation has deteriorated drastically since then with an ongoing border dispute leading to skirmishes and full-scale war with tens of thousands dead. Eritrea’s political basis for secession was based on differences that emerged as a result of Italian intervention in the region at the end of the 19th century. While the Ethiopian ruling class was the Amharic dynasties of Haile Selassie’s lineage all the peoples of Ethiopia not in the Highlands or of the same religion were marginalised under a feudal land tenure system. The Derg who replaced them, being communist ideologues, were no more efficient at governing but with the support of the then Soviet Union were a more efficient killing machine in what became known as The Red Terror.
The economic basis for Eritrean secession was that the port of Massawa was one of the best deep ports in the Red Sea, Horn and east coast of Afrika. If it was developed as a main container port for the countries in the region it would bring enough revenue for Eritrea to be a viable nation-state of 4 million people with a development agenda. On paper the plan was fine. In reality all the neighbouring IGAD countries boycotted the port preferring to use Djibouti, Mombasa or Port Sudan. This problem was compounded by the fact that the headquarters of the African Union (formerly OAU) and the UN in Afrika are based In Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. Being at war with Ethiopia thus left Eritrea isolated in international politics. At the time of writing it is reported up to two-thirds of the population are dependent on food aid and Eritrea faces economic and political sanctions for its alleged involvement in gun running for Al-Shabab in the chaos of Somalia. Eritrea has now considered fish processing and more recently Red Sea hotel tourism although they seem to have missed out the crucial step of actually having a tourism industry first. Sanctions also tend to decrease tourism unless you have the credentials and contacts of the Cuban revolution! We call this the Eritrea question - what to do when you secede from a powerful, well-established nation-state but the neighbouring countries don’t respect you as an equal nation and consider you ‘a bit uppity’?
So we return to Nigeria. Last summer we interviewed the barrister Aliyi Ekineh on the Niger Delta independence struggle. He is a former editor of the Nigerian Bar Journal and secretary of Liberty, the Nigerian section of the International Commission of Jurists. His television show, Viewpoint, was broadcast in Nigeria. He told us his biggest regret was when Katanga was fighting for secession from the then Congo he had opposed it because of his respect and support for Patrice Lumumba and Kwame Nkrumah’s vision of a united Afrika. He only changed his mind when it came closer to his door and he saw how the Niger Delta was being treated within the Nigerian Federation. He then took a strong interest in secessionist struggles. We asked Aliyi Ekineh and Godfrey Arumoh, of the Niger Delta Republic Movement, if they thought the rest of the Nigeria (and the rest of Afrika for that matter) would happily let the Niger Delta secede given its economic importance to Nigeria’s balance of payments and Nigeria’s alleged centrality in the Afrikan world. They repeatedly told us they were not at war with the Nigerian state but would rather be left alone to develop their economy and practise their culture without the interference of genocidal soldiers, sharia law, gross corruption and environmental degradation. They felt the Niger Delta could cut their own deals with the oil companies and give the rest of the federal state of Nigeria access to oil and port facilities.
While the answer was heartfelt we felt it didn’t fully address the main reason for the demand for Afrikan unity. Not the similarity of cultures, languages, etc, but to have a strong bloc in resisting the ongoing colonial exploitation and the rampant imperialism that leaves Afrikans disadvantaged and impoverished in every sphere of business despite the fact that the whole world economy is dependent for the mineral and agricultural wealth of Afrika. Secession may make you feel happier about your relations with your immediate neighbours but it also makes you easy pickings for unscrupulous investors and modern-day buccaneers. Stories are legion of the dubious alliances Afrikans have made in order to avoid co-operating with their immediate neighbours. Apart from personal aggrandisement the continent does not have much to show for foregoing regional solidarity and dealing with outsiders as a bloc with acceptable commodity prices, wages, environmental, educational, health and safety standards. Instead a prestige project comes to a nation-sate at the expense of impoverishing their neighbours usually for the benefit of non-Afrikan interests.
However, while many secession demands are often made for honourable reasons they are not always practical. Anjouan is part of a three island federation in the Comoros Islands. Its move to secede in 2007 was stopped by the rest of the federation with a big dollop of help from the French whose dogs of war mercenaries used to regularly engage in coups on the islands. Not many pan-Afrikanists paid much attention to a small chain of islands in the Indian Ocean. One of the drawbacks with secession is that it can make a nation so small and weak in these days of globalisation that it can easily become a playground for foreign corporate and military interests.
Another cause of friction is where disparate groups were joined together by colonists and told they were a nation. One example is nomadic or semi-nomadic peoples who would find it hard to fit in to a so-called ‘Westminster-style democracy’ model given the strengths of their own traditions. When the nation-state capital is far away and the government is not of your culture or brand of religion then scope for differences to become grounds for secession arises. Many nomads want the central government to provide education, healthcare and other ‘modern social benefits’. The government reply is that if they do not become sedentary then the government don’t know how much demand there is for those services and thus how much finances and resources to devote to addressing their demands. While some governments have made genuine attempts to engage with nomads’ concerns others just consider them no better than wild dogs worthy of extermination. Where shade comes into play, as at the Arab-Afrikan borderlands across the Sahara, some nomads don’t have an affinity to anything Afrikan, looking to Arabia for their creation myth and military inspiration to undermine Afrikan-led governments. European ‘counter-culture’ activists may champion these nomadic groups as anti-government rebels without realising the racial / racist subtext to their secession demands.
Across central Afrika the political party and cultural group Bundu dia Kongo want a federation of the BaKongo peoples of Angola, DR Congo, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Central African Republic, Zimbabwe and Zambia. While this is a plan to rejoin the people in the lands that were designated as the Kongo Empire in pre-colonial times today it cuts across so many borders that the central governments in virtually all the countries named want nothing to do with it. The biggest loser would obviously be DR Congo given its overall land mass, the fact its capital, Kinshasa, would come under BaKongo control despite the fact people have moved there from all over the central Afrikan belt and it would be an encouragement to every other secessionist movement in the unwieldy nation-state. Although BdK have representation in parliament there have been several government clampdowns against them with several hundred BdK supporters killed and thousands exiled or gone underground in the last decade.
In the Caribbean, Guadeloupe and Martinique have continued to remain French dependent territories with representation in the French parliament. The people on these majority Afrikan islands took a long look at the destruction the French wreaked on the Haitian economy, political class and psyche over two centuries and decided not to even chance independence and becoming part of a Caribbean federation. While having higher salaries than the neighbouring islands everything in Guadeloupe and Martinique is priced in euros, the currency of western Europe, so they are actually the poorest part of the European Union rather than among the richest islands in the Caribbean. A growing independence movement made inroads during strikes at the start of 2009. But how much racial solidarity there is remains to be seen.
Given the porous nature of Afrikan colonial borders, the communities (nations) straddling multiple nation-states and the propensity for certain border guards, police and soldiers to demand ‘dash’ for even the smallest move across borders there is a strong need for Afrikan economic and military solidarity at least at a regional level as wars, trade, relationships, food security and environmental issues spill across those borders. This implies a genuine willingness to assess when there is a greater good. We don’t think that as Afrikans we have lost the capacity to problem solve. But at the same time we would never deny anyone the right to ‘yad’ when they really don’t feel there is any progress to be made in an alliance.
FORTHCOMING NUBIART PROFILES
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MAR PROMOS
~ ‘WORLD TRAVEL: AFRICA’ – Adzido [ARC Music – Out Now] Another quality travel through the songs and dances from across Africa delivered by one of Britain’s foremost pan-Afrikan dance ensembles.
NUBIART LIBRARY – MAR MEDIA
~ ‘We Who Are Black: The Philosophical Foundations of Black Solidarity’ – Tommie Shelby [Belknap Harvard. ISBN; 0-674-01936-9] “One is vulnerable, at almost any time, to an antiblack attitude, action, social practice, or institutional policy.” [p245]
This book is an overview of the core philosophical principles that have underpinned activism among Afrikans in America over the past 150 years. Shelby explores in-depth the writings and activities of Martin Delaney, W E B Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Booker T Washington, Malcolm X (NoI), Kwame Ture and Charles Hamilton, Paul Gilroy and Kwame Anthony Appiah. The focus is not so much a who said and did what to and with whom but how their interventions affected race consciousness. Given the book’s Americo-centric focus there is also an analysis of the roles of Marxism, Liberalism, and the Democrat and Republican parties.
The book attempts to look at most of the controversies that have arisen in the movement in America. At the core of the book though is who are these Afrikans in America? Are they a separate nation within a nation with all the dysfunctions of any ‘Third World’ colony? Do they want a separate nation or are they too devoted to the American Dream? When do you have racially exclusive organisations and when do you engage in broad front politics? What role is demanded of the educational and financial elite in helping to uplift other Afrikan-Americans, especially those struggling to make it out of the projects? What effect do racial and class segregations have on political mobilisation and effectiveness? Given the individualist nature of western societies can you force an Afrikan-American to express racial solidarity if they see national, class, occupation or other non-racial signifiers as their major identity? Or as Shelby puts it not all people identified as racially Afrikan will self-identify as culturally Afrikan. Thus cultural nationalists find themselves in conflict with those who advocate freedom of association.
Shelby outlines the Eight Tenets of Afrikan Cultural Nationalism: a distinct Afrikan culture; a need to rediscover and collectively reclaim their culture; Afrikan culture is seen as an invaluable collective good that should be reproduced and creatively develop; Afrikan culture provides a stable and rich basis for feelings of community and for the construction of positive and healthy individual identities; Afrikan culture is an essential tool of liberation with the role of Afrikan artists and cultural critics to produce works that represent and affirm the authentic Afrikan experience; the state should refrain from actions that prevent the reproduction of Afrikan culture; Afrikans must become the primary producers, and beneficiaries (financial or otherwise) of their culture; and Afrikans are and should be regarded as the foremost interpreters of the meanings of their cultural ways.
You know you are in for a challenging read when within the first dozen pages Shelby has outlined the feminist critique of the patriarchy prevalent within many Afrikan movements. However, his conclusion rejecting the cultural nationalist position and a belief that an effective solidarity can be forged based only around Afrikan-Americans as ‘victims of antiblack racial oppression’ seems to rest more on wishful thinking than a solution to overturn entrenched white supremacy and the hubris that makes them promote their most random opinions as a worldview and solution to the current challenges facing the Afrikan world.
~ ‘Philosophy of Engagement: An Ideological Basis for the Liberation of African People’ – Jacques Sotero Agboton [JSA Publishing. ISBN: 0-9632616-4-9] Originally written as a presentation for the World Congress of Pan Africans held in Dakar in Dec 2007 this wide-ranging pamphlet addresses many of the same issues as ‘We Who Are Black’ but comes at it from what Tommie Shelby would call the cultural nationalist perspective. Agboton highlights the seven prerequisites and core needs: food self-sufficiency, housing, health, education, clothing, employment and communication. However he points out that no Afrikan or Caribbean country has been able to solve their problems despite all the supposedly expert advice from the IMF, UN, World Bank, etc. Instead countries were forced to switch from agricultural sustainability to mono-culture and export dependent production that leaves them at the vagaries of the prices of the externally controlled commodities market. “The salvation of our people lies on the control and management of our resources with creative energies tapped from within.” [p48]
NUBIART DIARY
~ BLACK MUSIC CONGRESS: ‘Copyright + Music Industry + Music Industry Education - 2010, Where Are We At?’ A free conference with Minister for Higher Education & Intellectual Property David Lammy, MP, and stakeholders covering legal, consumers, musicians, music industry and education. On Mar 23 at 12-2pm at Houses of Parliament, London, SW1. For more info: editor@britishblackmusic.com
- AKOBEN AWARDS: Messrs Coleridge-Taylor & Pine. An audio-visual presentation and discussion on the lives and works of African British classical composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and jazz musician Courtney Pine. On Mar 23 at 6.30-8.30pm at the Council Chamber, Harrow Civic Centre, Station Road, Harrow, HA1 2XF. Adm: Free. For more info: akobenawards@gmail.com
~ AFRICA-ASIA COMMITTEE present ‘Japan’s Whaling Diplomacy: African Support?’ Professor Jun Morikawa from the Department of Regional Environmental Studies at Rakuno Gakuen University in Sapporo, and a visiting research fellow at the University of Adelaide is one of the pioneers of the study of Japan-Africa relations and the author of ‘Japan and Africa: Big Business and Diplomacy’ (Hurst, 1997). His most recent publication in English is ‘Whaling in Japan: Power, Politics and Diplomacy’ (Hurst and Company, 2009). On Tues 23 Mar at 5:30pm in the Upper Meeting Room, London International Development Institute, 36 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PD. RSVP: AAC@SOAS.AC.UK
- Books For Sudan: Launch of the campaign to donate books to Juba University Library on Wed 24 Mar at 6-8pm at Brunei Suite, School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh St, London, RSVP: bda@soas.ac.uk web: http://booksforsudan.soasunion.org
~ HAITI FIRST! HAITI NOW! REPARATIONS CAMPAIGN demo invites you to support Justice for Haiti under the slogans: ‘End the Occupation! End the Kidnapping! Reparations: Haiti First! Haiti Now!’ on Wed 24 Mar at 2-7pm at the US Embassy, 24 Grosvenor Square, London, SW1A 1AE. For more info contact the Pan-Afrikan Society Community Forum, 44-46 Offley Road, Oval, London SW9 0LS. Tel: 07940 005 907. E-mail: Panascf@yahoo.co.uk Web: www.pascf.org.uk
~ 198@45 invites you to the 1London Collection launch. For two weeks young people will transform 198@45 into a pop up shop showcasing the 1London collection of T-Shirts and accessories as well as photographic journals and graphics that promote contemporary London as a major world cultural capital. 1 London provided employment support and skills development to 16-25 year olds through a digital media programme, work placements and also master classes for emerging art and design professionals.
Exhibition Events
- Mon 29 Mar: Street Photography at 3-6pm
- Tues 30 Mar: Paint a skate deck at 3-6pm
- Wed 31 Mar: Film Screening ‘Bamboozled’ at 3-6pm
- Thurs 1 Apr: DJ Workshop at 3-6pm
- Tues 6 Apr: Street Photography at 3-6pm
- Wed 7 Apr: Film Screening ‘Block Party’ at 3-6pm
- Thurs 8 Apr: DJ Workshop at 3-6pm
- Fri 9 Apr: Skate deck competition
- Sat 10 Apr: VJ Miguel and DJ Yamila and closing party
Launch on Thurs 25 Mar at 6pm-9pm. Exhibition runs Mon-Fri at 11am-6pm until 10 Apr at 198@45, Unit 45, Brixton Village aka Granville Arcade, Brixton Market, London, SW9. E-mail: info@198.org.uk / creativelearning@198.org.uk
~ DJED ENTERPRISE FRIDAY LECTURES
- Fri 26 Mar: Paul Simons - Commercial Redemption For Diasporians Pt1
- Fri 2 Apr: Paul Simons - Commercial Redemption For Diasporians Pt2
At 7.30pm at 10 Adelaide Grove, Shepherds Bush, London, W12. Tel: 020 8743 1985 / 07957 919 877.
~ PAN AFRIKAN SOCIETY COMMUNITY FORUM presents the 2010 workshops ‘Afrikan Freedom means Defeating Neo-colonialism: Nkrumah @ 100. ‘Women in the Haitian Revolution’ with Sista C. On Fri 26 Mar at 6,30pm at Starlight Music Academy, 44-46 Offley Road, The Oval, London, SW9 0LS. For info tel: 07940 005 907. E-mail: Panascf@yahoo.co.uk Web: www.pascf.org.uk
~ BLAK LIBERATION AFRIKAN KNOWLEDGE present B.L.A.K. FRIDAY with Sister Sandra Hurst on "Taking Liberties" Common Law -v- Statute Law on Fri 26 Mar at 7.30-10.30pm at Unit 9, Eurolink Business Centre, 49 Effra Road, Brixton, London, SW2 1BZ. Adm: £5. For more info e-mail: info@nubeyond.com
~ BLACK HISTORY WALKS: Haiti Educational Film Day Fundraiser. An audio-visual exploration in the 'Why is Haiti so Poor?' series. This special session is sponsored by A2 Dominion, Somali Family Support Group, and Colourful Kids. Screening of ‘Poto Mitan’, where Haitian women tell their stories and share their achievements. Plus an interactive, presentation covering unknown facts like - Haiti and Somalia: The hidden connection; How Disney made Haitian women poor; Female Haitian Heroes; Shadism in the Dominican Republic and discrimination against Haitians; The Lambi project: 13 years of Haitian 'Do for Self, Garveyism'; and 200,000 dead in Haiti, 4 million dead in the Congo, Which do we know more about and why? On Sat 27 Mar at 2.15-5.45pm at Beethoven Centre, Third Avenue, Queens Park, London, W10. Adm: £5, donation to Haiti. Web: www.blackhistorywalks.co.uk.
- ‘Welcome Back? We fought and died for you, now what?’ Films and Talk in memory of Cy Grant. 1946, after Afrikan people had fought and died all over the world for Britain those still in England were told to go back where they had come from. Black History Walks tells the untold stories of the post-war generation with films, audio clips and testimony from war veterans who were also veterans of the Civil Rights movement in Britain. War veterans such as Billy Strachan, Sam King and Laurie Philpot used their organising skills to fight such discrimination. On Sun 28 Mar at 1.30-5pm at Conference Room, 1st Flr, Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, London, SE1. Adm: Free. Web: www.iwm.org.uk / www.blackhistorywalks.co.uk
~ AFRICAN FEVER: PERFORMING ‘AFRICA’ IN EUROPE: In 2008, a number of Afrikan-themed circuses were touring Europe. ‘African Fever; performing ‘Africa’ in Europe’ is a collection of photographs from one of those tours, taken by Jessica Kendall who spent three months with an African-themed circus that took her to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy - first as a PhD researcher, and then as an employee of the circus. Jessica became intrigued by the differences between the ‘Africanized’ aesthetics of the show, and the off-stage lives of the performers. On Tues–Sat at 10.30am-5pm until 27 Mar at Brunei Gallery, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London, WC1H. Adm: Free. Tel: 020 7898 4046. E-mail: gallery@soas.ac.uk or cirquebella@yahoo.com Web: www.soas.ac.uk/gallery
~ EVER YOUNG: JAMES BARNOR STREET AND STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY Autograph ABP and the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute jointly present the first exhibition in the US of photographer James Barnor's work. It features a range of archival photographs from a seminal collection that includes street and studio portraits with elaborate backdrops, fashion shoots in glorious colour, and social documentary images from the late 1940s to the 1970s depicting a burgeoning modernity as the Gold Coast becomes Ghana and London becoming a cosmopolitan, multicultural metropolis. Alongside the photographic display, we present the award-winning Black Audio Film Collective feature film Testament (1988), directed by John Akomfrah, an experimental narrative of exile, diaspora and dispossession. Until 26 May at Rudenstine Gallery, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, Harvard University, USA
- Film Screening: ‘Limbo’ by Admas Habteslasie until 30 Apr at The Autograph ABP Photo Lounge, Rich Mix, London
Contact: Autograph ABP, Rivington Place, London, EC2A 3BA. Tel: 020 7729 9200. Fax: 020 7739 8748. E-mail: info@autograph-abp.co.uk Web: www.autograph-abp.co.uk
~ KARA-DO FITNESS EXPERIENCE Weekend Excursion to Hastings on 18-20 June. For info contact Cecil Hackett on 07984 620 829. |
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