A Rejoinder to
"Kwame Nkrumah’s 40-year-old stolen diary returning to Ghana" and
"The State of the Nation of Ghana and Africa"
by Wale Ajibade (African Views)
I knew of Blay Meinzah... He was the one who stole the
Nkrumah's briefcase after Nkrumah's nephew returned with it from
Romania... He was an associate of Robert Shuhmann (this plaintiff: who
happened to be a Jewish American male).
I have some news about the case. Apparently the diary has been returned
to an associate of the grand master, a young Engineering student in from
Washington, DC by the name of Siddiqui Wai, nephew of Siddique Wai in
NY. "The diary" will be "returned to Samia Nkrumah who will be arriving
in the US on April 19." Also the amount of the lawsuit was 1.2 trillion
dollars not 2.7 as previously stated.
Do not be hard on us Africans, it has been a long weary journey through
hostile terrain for so long. Because we are at the bottom of the
socio-cultural food chain and every effort we make to liberate a civil
issue leads to emancipation of the genera.
Some of us are confused with the status quo. Many people react angrily,
and decry other people, religion, etc, some of us play to please, some
of us try to fake confidence with arrogance. To our defense, however, it
is important to recognize the right to choose. This choice to exercise
self determination is inalienable right.
Many people cry unite unite unite, organize, organize organize. I ask
unite on which platform: Political, religious, cultural, national,
economic ? Honestly, I think the whole unity thing is confusing. I would
seek rather for acknowledgment of the common issues among the factions.
The issues may vary between 1-10 on the interest scale. But each scale
measure point is important, and this will help prioritize. We need to
continue creating institutional services and developing interconnected
network of these services across international and continental
boundaries on prioritized platforms. This will allow for intelligence
and resource pass through. We need to provide value based education and
prioritize sustainability of collaborative opportunities. We need to
inform ourselves.
By informing ourselves, it is important that we also inform
others. This means that we need to create monuments for our heroes
everywhere! Love those stamps! We need more. Celebrate from John Henrik
Clarke, to the freedom riders, science, arts, and those unsung heroes
including Mohammed Ali for captivating the imagination of the world and
even Michael Tyson and Hollyfied. Thank them for having sacrificed much to
entertain us. Soon Africans will lose its ground in boxing. I am not a fan
of violence so it doesn't bother me. Of course celebrate the young and the
old heroes. Always build monuments and build where it counts. Make each
monument building a competitive project. The monuments will bring useful
for economic interest. For the academics wasting time of hiphop, I'd say
put your strength where there is more value. Hiphop will sell itself, just
like rock, blues, reggae etc did. This is too much of a luxury we can't
afford.
What is the point, how do we want to intellectually argue
our way through with our kids showing their dirty underwear as couture and
spending money on gold tooth and Draconian tattoos, and by the way I can
rhyme my reasons. What kind of collective neurosis is that. How did the
society manage to convince our kids that this is cool. What got so many of
our kids to act erratically and then having them shot at and killed at
convenience. Who managed to tell our daughters, sisters and aunties that
straight wig hair is desirable. That growing their own hair is impossible,
and having them spend an abominable amount of money year on year for fake
self esteem. This is what I call masking confidence with arrogance and
there are lots of it. In as much as I am tempted to blame the family, I
understand the over arching pressures from the socio cultural sphere. Even
the family too may have been exposed to the soulsvillus syndrome (this is
essentially a repressed state of depression in denial of emotional
poverty, which may have resulted from a cumulative combination of lynch,
bell, eugenic, raciscm, economic poverty, civil pressures, etc)
I know of committed leaders and great institutions like the Schonburg
catering sincerely to cause of human advancement with African
Intelligence. There are also the local community organizers who are great.
There are other organizations like the pseudo African Associations
regurgitating useless information and misleading people.
I want to first get something straight. We won the battle of emancipation
and with it we bury the color coding. People forget that that battle of
slave emancipation is what marks the beginning of human civilization. It
took a public out cry to get the American eugenicist to reckon that Otto
Benga was a man with intelligence and emotion that is far more developed
than the moron who put him to zoological exhibition. As a matter of fact
we should build a monument about that. Going back to monuments, we can't
have enough of them. Symbolic references are tethers for human conscience
and learning. The challenges we face as Africans today are becoming graver
as the world is becoming more interconnected globally. The question is no
longer about the oppression of the superiority complex; it is that of a
struggle to prove that Africans are not the most inferior race within the
lots of diversity. Many educators with pens and mics have tried to
undermine the development of African people to prove themselves right.
Remember the Bell curve and the likes. These challenges are there and they
are real. Neither of us will escape the fiery stigma of such curse if we
allow such ideology to flourish. As Africans, we do not need to try to be
Africans because we already are. That Africanity is our Africanness, which
will be with us from the day we are born to the end of time. We will even
continue to be Africa after we are dead. We do not need the walking stick
from Goma, or the Kente from Accra, or the Danshiki, from yoruba land to
prove our Africanity. That Africanness is the warm and safe place inside
your heart, so simply be yourself. And do not thank anyone for letting you
be yourself that would be trading a piece of your confidence for an
already earned comfort. It is your inalienable right! This is why it is
important to develop oneself. So that you can enjoy the comfort of being
with you.
All these being said, I think people who want reparations or restitutions
should be free to go about that pursuit on the context of the loss they
experienced, especially if they can find the beneficiaries of their
plight. The one rule that people must put in mind is that they can not,
and should not compromise the overall integrity of Africanity. That should
always be kept sacred.
Some of the things mentioned here are the principles we hold dear at
African Views. We are still young and always open to learning. We are not
just talking. See our deeds.
Thanks for the inspiration.
Wale
AV
ABOUT THE WRITER: Wale Ajibade
is Executive Director of African Views.
African Views (AV) is a framework for information,
communication, and collaboration on African and diaspora affairs in every
country.
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