IANA Blog- May 2023

 Blog

Happy May,

This May 25th was Africa Day, formerly known as African Liberation Day. Africa Day is the commemoration of the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAAU) on May 25, 1963. It is celebrated pretty much everywhere in Africa. I remember last year as I was celebrating Africa Day, someone on Twitter talked about how Africa Day has turned into a co-op and how some use Africa Day just to celebrate, when in actuality, it should be used as a day to commemorate the many Activists, Revolutionaries and Freedom Fighters from the continent who fought for the independence of the countries they were from, especially Kwame Nkrumah, Haile Selassie and Julius Nyerere who helped form the OAAU. 

I had to agree; of course, Africans should celebrate “Africa Day,” but also remember that it should be a call to action, because every African country still has problems that go all the way back to colonization. We should all be continuing to fight for the liberation of not just our African countries, but all of Africa..and continue to remember the sacrifices that many of the activists and revolutionaries and freedom fighters fought to free Africa from the colonizers and the oppressors. I’m saying this as I began this Month reading a book that I’ve been wanting to read forever…How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Legendary Guyanese historian, activist and revolutionary Walter Rodney.

It’s pretty much there in the name, but this legendary book is about how Africa was exploited by European regimes. The book also talks about how Africa also helped develop Europe during the time Europe was doing the opposite. Technically, I’m still in the beginning of the book, due to work and other projects, but some highlights of the book so far, are the differences between development and underdevelopment, criticism of the bourgeoisie, the psychological damages colonization has done to Africans and the foreword where it was stated that Rodney wrote this book specifically for Africans. I was talking with a couple of friends about the book and I told them that I think every Black person should read this, especially every African. I could definitely relate to the psychological damages of what colonization has done to Africans; I can definitely see it today online, when I see an African say something stupid and I’m not innocent, I’m guilty of it too. 

Of course, if you read my blog, I talked about Queen Elizabeth’s death in my blog, and I talked about how I saw Africans mourning for her. Well, her son, King Charles III was crowned on May 6th and what I saw online was embarrassing. I saw Africans online from all countries celebrating the coronation of King Charles. From Ghana…to South Africa…to Nigeria…I was shaking my head.

I even saw a video of Tiwa Savage singing at the coronation, performing “Keys to the Kingdom,” and I’m just disgusted at this point. Luckily, I saw a tweet from SosoTheWanderer, who is Half-Haitian, Half-Nigerian, talk about how Tiwa Savage is Nigerian and her country was colonized and massacred by the “King’s” family and how she chose to perform “Keys to the Kingdom,” while talking drums were being played. When she brought up colonization, there were responses that range from “I don’t care” to petty insults to BS like other Nigerians condescendingly telling her to come back to Nigeria to fix the problems going on there or “shut up,” and seeing those dumbass responses had me furious…then I had to remember what Dave Chappelle said, “Twitter is not a real place.” I still was looking at those comments thinking, “Wow…y’all are stupid…”

As May is near its end and I look back, I know it’s going to be very helpful reading the rest of the book, but as I read and reflect after African Liberation Day, I know we still have a long way to go to be “liberated,” but I know when that day comes it will be amazing…until then, it would be nice for some of these Nigerians/Africans to stop “cooning,” and I gotta continue to read the book.

Oh yeah, just a reminder, just like Black History Month...everyday is African Liberation Day!