TO MANY PEOPLE Pan Africanists seem strange, dellusional or worse. They call them radical, crazy, dangerous, even racist. I’ve heard it several times. Usually after really deep conversation, someone will admit to me, “You know, I always thought you didn’t like white people.”
Never has anyone been able to point out to me exactly what I have said or done that would suggest that. But that’s not the point. That is how they feel. I’ve come to understand why. They are afraid.
They perceived Pan Africanists as angry, violent and unreasonable people, just waiting for revenge and a chance to burn the plantation to the ground. I call it Bussaphobia. The irrational fear of black revolt. They fear the corrupting influence of too much blackness; too much Africa. They may have internalized the propaganda that Africa is savage and backward. To many, Pan Africanism makes no sense.
Pan Africanist are a minority group. They have been, misunderstood, discriminated against, and rejected because of their orientation; their socio-political orientation. Many Pan Africanist and Pan Africanist sympathizers, black and white remain in the closet. They see it makes sense. It feels right. But the social risk of identifying with the position is too great.
The people commonly called black, wherever they be in the world, have a common origin and history, rooted in Africa and branching into slavery and colonization, which results in very similar present day cultures and similar current day problems and issues. Why dey doan come together to solve them? That is Pan Africanism. It only mek sense.
This position is based on a particular understanding of history and human beings. It makes perfect sense to me. Not to everyone though. Some people have a different understanding of history. Some have very little understanding of history. Some people’s understanding of history is a reflection of the lies about Africans created to help enslave Africans.
A prospective employer offered me what would have been my dream job. He was extremely impressed with my qualifications, experience and interview. He planned to give me a whole lot of benefits, but wanted something in return. He wanted me to cut my locks. He said he could not send me in front of his white clients like that.
Another prospective employer, presumably because I wore locks, asked me during the interview if I had any religious restrictions that would prevent me from carrying out my duties. I couldn’t understand what he meant. Did he assume I was Rasta? If so, the job didn’t require me eating pork. It was obvious I wasn’t Jehovah’s Witness nor Seven Days, so I had no problem working on Saturdays.
Those prospective employers worked hard to build their businesses in what can be a difficult environment for black business people. The last thing they want is some wannabe Bussa to come and destroy everything. They may even have been Pan African sympathizers, making a strategic cost/benefit analysis of the situation. Who knows? Whatever the reason, symbols of Africa continue to cause discomfort for a large number of people. Even in the days of slavery, when revolts were going on around them some Africans refused to take part saying, “Who? Not me! My massa is treat me good. Dis is a good plantation.”
Years later, I did cut my hair, but on my own terms, for no other reasons than my own, with my self-respect intact. It was not about the hair. It is about what the hair represents.
I used to think that it was their loss. Not anymore. No one lost. It was not meant to be. I had other work to do. No hard feelings.
This is the African Way. This is why Hutus continue to live side by side in peace with Tutsis who once tried to exterminate them in Rwanda. This is why today there are white police officers living freely in South Africa, who have admitted to torturing and murdering thousands of black South Africans. Forgiveness and reconciliation has been a typical African response. This is why the response of the black community in Charleston, to the shooting of nine black church members, is not surprising.
This is why no one ever had anything to fear from Pan Africanism. This is not to say that there are no crazy Pan Africanists. There must be. There is ISIL and the Klu Klux Klan, and a whole host of crazy Christian offshoots. But the premise is sound. It is Bussaphobia or the acceptance of Anti-African propaganda that causes the resistance to Pan Africanism.
Pan Africanism is and has always been, about peace and restoring balance. Africa is a continent where in one country you may have hundreds of different languages spoken among several ethnic groups. Acceptance of differences, coexistence and tolerance is a way of life.
When we talk about going back to Africa that is one of the things we are going back to.
Adrian Green is a creator of valuable communications. Email: [email protected]
