B.F. Bankie,
The A-APRP (GC) hopes this email finds you in the best of health and spirits. Thanks for acknowledging receipt of our Open Statement on the 8th Pan-African Congress in Accra. We have published our Statement and this Response on our web portal. We have reached several conclusions also, drawn from our five decades of experience and study, our Pan-African objective and our Nkrumahist-Toureist ideology.
Africa, from Cape to Cairo, is our home, our Motherland. All 1.5 billion African People scattered, suffering and struggling in 125 countries in the world are our People. We do not ask anyone’s permission to suffer and struggle with them. We do not pretend or seek to lead them, and cannot be lead. We do not disrespect you or anyone. We disagree with your positions, and will not compromise our principles.
We are familiar with Malcolm’s Statement at the July 17-22, 1964 OAU Meeting; and with his letter from Accra, Ghana, the then “fountain-head of Pan-Africanism” under Osagefyo Kwame Nkrumah’s leadership. Our commitment to revolutionary Pan-Africanism begins from this date.
Malcolm did not create this bond “between Africa and its Diaspora,” as you suggest; and it cannot be so easily broken as you postulate. You do not speak for Africans on the Continent, especially the almost one-half of them whom are Muslim. We doubt if you speak for many of the others.
We are not afraid of conflict, we don’t run from it, we run to it. Reactionary African chiefs, (Traditional religions) working with and for European (Christian) and Arab (Muslim) masters “sold” us into the Diaspora (trans-Mediterranean, trans-Red Sea, trans-Indian Ocean and trans-Atlantic). They enslaved millions more of us on the Continent. We fought them then and continue to fight them now. We are sure that the revolutionary African youth will fight with us, once they recognize the truth.
We are also familiar with Malcolm’s article on zionism which was published in the Egyptian Gazette on September 17, 1964. “The zionist-capitalist conspiracy,” Malcolm wrote, “dread Gamal Abdul Nasser’s call for African-Arab Unity under Socialism.” Our commitment to Palestine’s liberation, and our uncompromising struggle against zionism and the illegal, settler-colony of Israel begins then as well.
Nasser and Malcolm did not create this bond between Africans and Arabs; and it cannot be so easily broken as you also postulate. Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. DuBois, George Padmore, Kwame Nkrumah, Ahmed Sekou Toure, Kwame Ture and others, also called for this revolutionary African-Arab unity. The A-APRP (GC) reaffirms this call, and extends it to include all genuine revolutionary forces in the Middle East and Africa, and their Diasporas. This revolutionary camaraderie is needed more today, than ever!
Bankie, we are amazed at how little you know about the internal dynamics in the African community in the United States, or in the Pan-Africanist and nationalist movements here. We do not share your belief that the World Conference against Racism represents a watershed for the movement. It was certainly not a revolutionary watershed. Your concern regarding Minister Louis Farrakhan (Nation of Islam) and Omali Yeshitela (African Peoples Socialist Party) has been read, especially your concern regarding their position on the situation in the northern part of Africa, our Motherland. We notice that you have not voiced any concern regarding Obama’s escalation of US AFRICOM’s presence in Africa.
The A-APRP (GC) does not work with or for the United States or Israel, or their allied governments, political parties, foundations and NGOs. We do not intend to do their work for them now, and therefore decline your invitation to debate or denounce Farrakhan or Yeshitela. We have no relationship with many of the forces with whom you work. We will not denounce or debate you or them behind your backs either.
No organization or individual has “carte blanche” on any area of interest to 40 million Africans in the United States; not even Obama and the US government. Some organizations have more access to the establishment—right, center and left—and are more resourced. They are therefore in a better position to be seen and heard, by external forces. Those on the ground see the lightning and hear the thunder before they feel the rain. “Black visibility,” as Kwame Ture correctly said in 1967, “is not Black Power.”
Malcolm met three political forces in Cairo 50 years ago: Nasser’s forces, Sunni Islam under the control of Saudi Arabia, and the Muslim Brotherhood. They were then and remain at war with themselves and others. Malcolm tried to align with all sides, a good choice for him then (perhaps), a “non-aligned” choice that was determined objectively by political and spiritual necessity.
Osagefyo cautioned us in 1964, that “a new harmony needs to be forged, a harmony that will allow the combined presence of traditional Africa, Islamic Africa and Euro-Christian Africa, so that this presence is in tune with the original humanist principles underlying African society.” He told us that “[o]ur society is not the old society, but a new society enlarged by Islamic and Euro-Christian influences.” He also told us that, “a new emergent ideology is therefore required, an ideology which can solidify in a philosophical statement, but at the same time an ideology which will not abandon the original humanists principles of Africa.” (Consciencism; Philosophy and ideology for decolonization. p. 70.) He named this philosophical statement consciencism. We did not listen to Nkrumah 50 years ago.
Sekou Toure delivered a position paper on the relationship of Religion and Revolution at the 1979 Congress of the Democratic Party of Guinea. Kwame Ture delivered a speech at Dunbar High School in 1983 on Religion and Revolution. The All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (GC) will republish them on our webportal. We did not listen to them 35 or 31 years ago. Their voices are hot silent however.
The so-called “silence” of the African community in the United States regarding Sudan and South Sudan is a MYTH! You perhaps have not heard its many and conflicting voices. That is your problem, not ours. Perhaps you have heard, disagree with certain positions, and are lobbying against them. Again, your problem. We give two facts that debunk your myth of “silence:”
- Condeleeza Rice, Colin Powell, Susan Rice, Barack Obama and the forces within the African community in the United Sates whom they represent are not silent. They oppose the government of Sudan. They support Chevron Oil and the government of South Sudan. They and the fundamentalist Christians, Jews and Muslims with and for whom they work for are pouring money and soldiers, drones and guns into every village in Africa. Confusion, corruption and opportunism reigns supreme, and Africa is drowning in blood once again.
- The All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (GC) and the forces we represent, which are admittedly small and not heard, are not silent either. We have condemned, and will continue to condemn the African governments of Sudan and South Sudan. Both have the blood of hundreds of thousands of Africans on their hands. We have spoken and will speak out against both governments, Chevron oil, and their mercenary armies and allies, especially the US and Isreal.
Again, the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (GC) unequivocally condemns the trafficking in and enslavement of all human beings—historically and currently—in all forms and manifestations, domestic and international, in every corner of Africa, the African Diaspora and the World. We condemn human rights violations, genocide, ethnic and religious cleansing, chauvinism and ethnocentrism. We also condemn racism and sexism, capitalism, imperialism, colonialism, settler-colonialism, Zionism, segregation, apartheid and neo-colonialism.
We do not support 8th PAC in Capetown or Accra!
READY FOR THE REVOLUTION!