RaceandHistory.com - The 7th Pan African Congress

There has been only one Pan african congress in the history of the African world and it was held in manchester, england in 1945 and called the fifth. because we are used to counting jamborees as congresses, the uganda-arab gathering, rich in rhetorics and short in substance claims to be the seventh. The second but called the eight pan african congress scheduled to convene within the next nine years would exclude non-africans and formally institutionalise the pan-african movement

To quote the famous historian and a leader of the Pan African Movement, Prof. John Henrik Clarke, "When Africans were surrounded by Africa, they walked on it, bathed in it, ate from it and were not conscious of it. All of a sudden, now as slaves, having lost Africa, they began to be conscious of it. On the boat were Ibos, Urhobos, Ashanties, different people from different parts of Africa, speaking different languages and had different customs, but the Africans realised they were all Africans, and were on the same boat with the same predicament, and suffering the same tragedy."

So far, Pan Africanism has reacted more seriously against White imperialism than the Arab variance that pioneered the Black slavery holocaust and has continued since, becoming even more virulent now under the cloak of subtle religious platitudes.

The OAU as a geographical compromise helped to diffuse the issue and blind Black Africa to the plight of their kith and kin racially marginalised and suffering severely in Northern Africa. With their membership of the OAU, the Arabs were allowed to attend the 6th Pan African Congress in Tanzania in 1974, which they promptly disrupted by insisting that Africans do not need a global institution or league. To press their advantage home, they forced the congress to adopt Arabic as an official language.

In fact, OAU Abuja conference of 1992 would not have been able to pass its landmark 'Reparations' resolution if any Arab Head of State from Northern Africa had been in attendance. Even so, the OAU resolution deliberately avoided mentioning Arab culpability and liability in the African slavery holocaust.

So it is obvious that Arabs are not Pan Africanists. Quoting Prof. Clarke again: "Arabs always act as though they are not in Africa. Once when I was visiting Egypt, I told my Egyptian Arab host to get a cab ready for the next morning that I was going to Kenya. So you are going to Africa to visit your people? We got no diseases here, why are you leaving us, the host asked?"

"The Arab in Africa will always be an Arab. They never were Africans and never would be. The Arab commitment has never been to Africa and will never be. This is the first self liberating truism every Pan Africanist must learn before they can seriously liberate Africa from all comers Africa is sandwiched between the Arabs in the North and the Whites in the South. Africa must fight her way through and win. All of Africa must come under African control. There are no two ways about this. No second guessing and no apologies. We must take control from Cape to Cairo."

This has been the principal philosophy behind the new spirit of Pan Africanism which we have been promoting in the Black world in the last eleven years ( i.e from 1982 to 1993) as we prepared to convene the 7th Pan African Congress in Africa in 1995.

The Pan African Movement's International Secretariat recognised from the start that we are at a critical crossroad right now in our movement forward and that we can not afford to continue to listen too seriously to non-Black interests about what we have got to do for our self-improvement.

We were convinced before we embarked on our Pan African journey that not a little bit of our recent past may have been tinted against our best interests. That the reason we have remained marginalized for so long is because our supposed leaders have not always stood firm to represent and defend our interests against all comers be they Jews, Arabs, Asians or Caucasians who in fact, continue to tell us that we do not need to institutionalise our movement while they keep their racial leagues. Butros Butros Gali, as the UN scribe and a member of our Co-ordinating Committee for instance, was vehemently opposed to our institutionalising the Pan African Movement while he saw nothing wrong with the Arab league.

The 7th Pan African Congress of the Pan African Movement has remained adamant about the Black world institutionalising its movement now. We are closer to Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X on this issue than to Du Bois. For those reasons, we have not been the darling of the Black lackeys of Arab and European hegemonies. And since they have the resources through their foreign partners to entice and dazzle Africans, our job to carry the Black world along with us has been made that much harder.

Some patriotic Blacks may not already know that we have convened two Caribbean regional conferences in preparation for the 7th Pan African Congress (7PAC) scheduled to be held in 1995 in either Nigeria, Ghana or in ANC led South Africa. The first conference was in September 1991 in Barbados and the second was in August, 1993 in Trinidad. Our North American regional conference took place in Savannah, Georgia, USA, in May, 1992, and our Canadian national conference followed in Toronto in June-July, 1993.

We convened the Black Think Tank now called the Think Tank of the Black World (TTB), in Lagos from August 1 - 8, 1992, and it produced what is now popularly known around the world as the first BLACK AGENDA and also the CONSTITUTION of the Pan African Movement.

We have so far set up 60 national committees or branches of the Pan African Movement and launched ZAWADI KWAFRICA fund in Canada. Zawadi requires every Black person in the world to contribute just a hundred units of his or her local currency to a world Black pool, once in a life time, with the interest accruing from the fund to be used to begin to address the deteriorating plight of the Black world.

We have done all these without financial assistance from any outside source or even from any African government, the OAU or African institutions. We rejected all such assistance because we do not want to be teleguided and because we do not believe it is our business to convene a Black-Arab-Zionist-White congress and call it the Pan African Congress.

Of course, we anticipated the serious opposition we are now experiencing from the Black fronts of anti-Black interests because we knew all along that Nkrumah would have given us a more vibrant OAU if such Black traitors did not exist. But we do not want to compromise as Nkrumah did by accepting an OAU first in the hope that things would correct themselves in the long run. They hardly ever do because Black skins with Arab or White minds have become part of our cultural landscape.

To the Black vassals of non-Black interests' argument that the Pan African Movement's ideological stance should be Socialist or Marxist, we replied that traditional African politics is not necessarily homogeneous and that there is no reason why the fortunes of a whole race of people should be condemned to the status of the working class for ever. That why should Blacks be stopped from aspiring to exploit those who have been exploiting us? That a billion virile, determined and ambitious people, scattered all over the economies of the world, can not and must not be restricted from reaching even beyond the stars.

On the opposition's insistence on African government's involvement and sponsorship of participant's flight tickets and accommodation costs to congress, we said that it was because of the parochial politics of the OAU and our generally not so well informed leaders, that our attempts at forging global union had eluded us so far. That independent Black governments derailed the limited union goals of the 6th Pan African Congress in Tanzania in 1974. That the Tanzanian government was alleged to have kept under house arrest, all African-Americans living in Tanzania on the eve of the 6th Pan African Congress, obviously to prevent their participation and possibly to pacify the USA government at the time.

That Blacks considered outspoken against colonialism and imperialism generally, were prevented from attending the 6th Pan African Congress as a result of which, Walter Rodney, who was teaching in Tanzania at the time, and C.L.R James who was a sponsor of the Congress could not attend. That, in fact, Blacks advocating Black unity, even under Black governments around the world, are often branded as 'radicals' and denied government jobs and patronage implying that for selfish personal reasons, the Pan-African spirit is dead among most of our leaders who need the West anyway to maintain their illegal hold on power.

That our Movement has no money and no rich friends from within or outside the Black family. That we are absolutely on our own, poor, helpless and to a large extent resigned to our fate. But that this could be reversed with a little individual self-sacrifice because it is possible for us to pool together in poverty to make a difference to our world.

As to the complaints by some Whites and Arabs involved in anti-apartheid and similar campaigns over their exclusion from the 7PAC, we said that being 'Black' is a state of the mind, coupled for non-Black Africans with incontrovertible evidence of progressive, patriotic achievement in support of Black aspirations. That Africa for Africans is still very valid today. That after the overwhelming White South African 'yes ' vote in support of democratic power sharing, White South Africans who consider themselves Africans and behave so, would be welcomed with open arms to Black caucuses. That the Black Movement has always been pragmatic and non-racist but that it was for the individual to decide how to qualify and be involved by showing proof, particularly if not Black by pigmentation or parental links, of consistent, genuine, legitimate intent and acceptance of majority Black aspirations.

That the Arab league admits Black Africans, although as inferior partners, into its fold and yet the Arab league represents a fixed or well known and definable political world view. That it is not the Arab league that changes its name or re-defines itself to accommodate its African members but rather, it is the African that becomes as Arab to join the league. The African decides deliberately and consciously to be one with the Arabs and begins transparently to behave so. Membership of the Arab league has to be earned by non-Arabs. So also is the membership of the Black league called the Pan African Movement.

Britain was unhappy with our stance. The US government sponsored Sullivan's African-African American summit to rob our efforts of some shine. France tried to hijack the leadership of the Movement and Morocco offered to host the congress with the support of France. Libya tried every way possible to be involved, including using some of our members to try to change our policy. Our inner core leadership could not be bought. After failing in this bid, a group of Africans, including Museveni's personal assistant called Col. Otafiire, Kwame Ture (Stockley Carmicheal) and others met in Tripoli Libya on the 10th December, 1990, to take over the 7th Pan African Congress and focus it on anti-Zionism. Because Libya financed and trained Museveni's guerrilla army, it did not have difficulties recruiting Uganda to do its dirty work by serving as venue of their 7PAC intended by Libya to cause confusion in the Black world. Kwame Ture later met with Naiwu Osahon in Lagos and they both reached a compromise that the Uganda variance should be a preparatory conference for the Naiwu Osahon's institutionalising congress planned for 1995.

In the eleven years the 7th Pan African Congress Committee has been at it, a few have dropped out on account of our inflexibility in terms of having a Black organisation-institution now, and excluding Arabs from the Black institution. They have now finally rallied under the umbrella of the Uganda government just as the 7thPAC was coasting home, to announce their Arab-African Congress tagged the 7th Pan African Congress. Their congress was first scheduled for December 1993 and now rescheduled for April, 1994 in Kampala, Uganda.

President Museveni apart from his guerrilla war credentials has no recognisable record of achievement in the realm of Pan Africanism. But he is the Patron of the Uganda group and he would not even tolerate dissent from within Uganda let alone from outside it. Museveni's Uganda is in the pockets of the Arabs that are marginalizing our kith and kin in all of Northern Africa. The Pan African Movement is anti-Arab, anti-Jews and anti-West but Museveni dangles 'loaded' carrots of free transportation and accommodation to delegates who attend his Uganda 7PAC in attempt to set the Black world in disarray for his Arab benefactors.

Arab imperialism is worse for Africans than European imperialism. Europeans relatively, have some conscience. Not much but some. White ethic is at least slightly more tolerant of dissent than the Arab one. Europeans did not completely destroy African culture. Our history yes, while our traditions were largely derided as primitive and banned in some cases or ignored or marginalized. Arab's strategy was to strip us entirely of every thing, our history, culture, religions and traditions. Their religion overwhelmed our culture and traditions where ever we met to the extent that Africans in Arab dominated states today no longer bear their original African names nor do they remember their history. They do not even remember they were Black, independent and thriving communities before Arabs colonised them. All Africans in Arab dominated Northern African countries bear their slave masters names with Muhammad predominating.

Egypt is still so intimidated by its glorious Black African past that the government would not allow thorough research into Egypt's past. In Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, Mauritania and the rest, Africans are regarded as the scum of the earth. They are second class citizens at the very best in their own countries. Blacks in these countries can not aspire to positions of respect or authority in any of these countries. There are no Africans in high government positions in Arab dominated African countries. Like Brazil which is just as racially cruel against their Black natives, there is no legislation favouring slavery (except in Mauritania), it is just a way of life, that's all.

If one were to ask Gaddafi why Africans are not high up in his government, he might answer that they are all Africans, after all. In that case, one should go and find out the truth for oneself. One should go to the poor section of town to lament the plight of our kith and kin in oil rich Libya.

No nation in Africa has suffered more in the hands of the Arabs than Ethiopia. It has been going on since Arabs first invaded Africa in the 7th century AD. Recently, with Libya supporting the people of Eritrea, they destroyed the basic structures of Ethiopia in attempt to cut Ethiopia from the sea and to weaken this section of Africa and eventually all of Africa for re-colonisation. They did this without mercy and they used religious framework.

In Algeria, Arabs throw stones at Black people, including diplomats in market and other public places. In Mauritania, they have had to declare end to slavery six times in this century alone and still nothing has changed for the African native owners of the country. African slavery is still in their statute books. African slavery in Arab Mauritania is what the recent quarrel between Mauritania and Senegal was about. It forced Black African refugees to pour across the boarder from Mauritania into Senegal. A few years ago, Mauritania sacked all Black natives from their civil service positions. Black Mauritanians protest their plight to the OAU without receiving attention because of OAU leaders fear of offending Arab members of the OAU.

Of course, the war in Sudan is our modern day Haiti in terms of Black liberation. What is going on in Sudan is ethnic cleansing against Africans. Even across the Red sea in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Blacks are treated worse than animals after using their live's savings to go there on pilgrimage. Hundreds of Blacks who have lived all their lives in Saudi Arabia are being repatriated daily right now after loosing an arm or leg for some minor or trumped up offences and without regards for their comfort, welfare or rights. Lebanon is base for thousands of smuggled African slaves serving as domestic helps and Afghanistan's opium fields are dominated by teenage African slaves, particularly females kidnapped from Africa.

Arab traditions and religion allows exploitation of another man. It does not frown at poverty. It believes that those smart enough to exploit others are only using their natural endowment. No one should reject the gift of God, so says the Koran. The only concession being that the rich should give alms to the poor or the less privileged. Africans are always at the receiving end in Arab dominated countries.

Arab African countries, of course, are African geographically and are entitled to belong to the OAU as at present constituted. Despite this they have their own league and do not want Blacks to have theirs. Although Mobutu lacks the credibility to advocate the formation of such a league, considering his reputation at home as a corrupt dictator, the Arabs nearly haunted him to death when he once stuck his neck out for Black unity.

Now that we have forced White South Africa to democratise, our attention naturally is going to turn to the Arabs in Northern Africa. It is not a religious thing, so Moslem Black Africans must understand this and separate religion from racism just as the Christian Africans did against the Christian Boers in South Africa.

The dignity of the native African is at stake. The African is free to adopt any religion of his choice but he must be respected and treated as a human being where ever he chooses to sojourn in the world and particularly in his home land Africa.

Pan Africanism is and has always been about racial emancipation from all forms of racism and imperialism. If White Americans can not belong to the Pan-African Movement and attend its congresses, why should their Arab counterpart, simply because they have succeeded in stealing our land to molest and enslave our kith and kin in Northern Africa?

The Pan African Movement will continue to refuse to negotiate away or sell short our grassroots 7PAC Black only mandate and agenda. We invite the patriotic Black world to remain calm and resolute. No self-respecting Black person should lend credibility by attending the Arab inspired and sponsored Kampala, Uganda, April, 1994, Arab-African Congress.

No African leader attended the Arab-African 7PAC . Most African scholars and patriots avoided it. Naiwu Osahon who set the 7thPAC process in motion was not invited and did not attend. Nothing of significance came out of the Uganda (me too) band-wagon frivolities. In fact, the typical African does not know that the 7thPAC has been held in his name and Africans remain the underdogs of the world. We must reverse the trend and take back our leadership of the world. The count down to the 8thPAC has now begun. We already have the Black Agenda, a constitution, Zawadi Kwafrica and we have brought back the Mystery System as our Cradle and binding force just as Judaism is to the Jews. We are taking the Black world into the era of institutional Pan Africanism. A grassroots league restricted absolutely to the Black race and like the Jewish World Congress, to cause an earthquake every time it sneezes.