Opinion / Columnist
Armchair activists make Pan-Africanism elitist and irrelevant to ordinary suffering Africans!
14 Sep 2022 at 07:26hrs | Views
Imagine an impoverished widowed grandmother, struggling to fend for her orphaned grandchildren, somewhere in rural Marange, Zimbabwe - without any means of income, nor anyone to assist her tend her tiny rural field, as old age, riddled with sickness, makes it virtually impossible.
In utter desperation and despair, she sits under a tree on her homestead - her head held up by her shaking emaciated hands, having not had a square meal in days - wondering where her hope and salvation will come.
In all this - she, ironically, resides in a country, endowed with over sixty of known precious natural resources, in demand throughout the world - yet, never having benefited even a single cent from these, in spite of the fact that, diamonds are mined just a few kilometers away from where she sits.
On a dally basis, in utter anguish and dismay, she has hopelessly watched as numerous trucks and various types of vehicles (some exposing the opulence of the owners) pass by her poverty-strticken home - without any concern of who lives there, and how she is surviving - in their eagerness to make their millions, if not billions, of dollars.
Who is to speak for this elderly widow?
Who is to push that she gets food to eat with her grandchildren?
Who will ensure that she is no longer invisible to those in power - who are more concerned about enriching themselves, than the fate of a 'powerless inconsequential old woman', who cannot influence election outcomes?
Wait!
Fortunately the country has some activists who claim to stand for human rights - and even those clamoring specifically for Africans, and those of African descent wherever they may be throughout the world.
They are never weary of informing whoever listens how they care and love Africa (even referring to it more appropriately as Afrika), and Africans - being most vocal in making all manner of demands for the restoration of pride and dignity of the continent's people.
Can this aged grandmother hope for these people to bring her case - and, those of millions others in a similar or worse predicament - to the attention of the ruling elite, and all other relevant stakeholders?
Since she desperately needs help today, as well as a more stable and decent means of livelihood - with her homestead requiring immediate attention, to rescue it from its near dilapidated state.
However, those who claim to stand and speak for Africans would rather be all over social media - the favored battleground for most armchair and keyboard activists nowadays - posting images of how Africans were savagely enslaved, colonized and treated as subhuman some decades and centuries ago, by cruel Europeans.
They are more interested in a multi-million dollar diamond that is supposedly in the possession of the British monarchy, or the skeletons of our ancestors who were brutally murdered and taken away by heartless colonists.
Yet, there are billions of dollars worth of diamonds being shipped past this elderly widow's homestead - most probably eventually destined for the same European shores, but this time around, the proceedings benefiting the ruling elite in the African country, who have been plundering resources more viciously than the former colonizers.
At least, these colonists knew to use revenue from this stolen loot for the benefit amd development of their countries back home in Europe - as opposed to our own African leaders who pillage for their own small circle of families and friends.
Therefore, if our so-called Pan-Africanists cannot loudly and boldly speak out, and stand up for such African people - as this lady, enduring unspeakable poverty and suffering - how, then, are they relevant to the modern day Afrikan, in a post-colonial Afrika?
Let me be unequivocally clear - I am not, in any way, saying that we should forget about past injustices, and not seek justice for the heinous harrowing barbarity inflicted upon our people.
However, this becomes a huge problem, when we have armchair and keyboard Pan-Africanists - whose fight for African dignity and pride has become elitist, and far divorced from the plight of ordinary suffering Africans - who undoubtedly have no one to speak for them against today's breed of oppressors and plunderers.
History is very good - considering that I am one of those who love its study - as knowing our past, helps us understand our present, in order for us to shape our tomorrow.
Nonetheless, it becomes quite absurd, and even insincere, when those who tout themselves as passionately speaking up for Afrikans - to the extent of showing unbridled anger towards those who once enslaved and colonized us - yet, these same Pan-Africanists never showing any concern whatsoever for the sorrowful desperate plight of those Afrikans facing the wrath of our own Afrikan leaders.
Who exactly, then, are these Afrikans that they so eagerly and angrily stand up, and speak out, for?
Who is going to post, on the favored social media, pictures and videos of black Afrikans being brutally gunned down in cold blood, or horrifically beaten up, by their own black Afrikan governments' state security forces?
Are our Pan-Africanists advocating only for justice and the rights of our ancestors - who faced a cruel fate at the hands of European slave masters and colonizers - and, to hell with living Afrikans, who need justice and their rights respected today, who are being subjugated and marginalized by their own fellow Afrikan ruling elites?
Maybe, these Pan-Africanists are telling us that, oppression and plundering is only wrong when committed by a white person from Europe - but, entirely alright and acceptable if it is at the hands of a black person from Africa.
Well, this may come as a shock to such activists - for the elderly widowed grandmother referred to earlier, the difference is the same - as her pain and suffering is color blind, and is just as excruciating and unbearable.
It does not matter whether this was at the hands of a 'white colonist'', or 'black revolutionary'!
● Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice activist, writer, researcher, and social commentator. Please feel free to contact him on WhatsApp/Call: +263715667700 / +263782283975, or Calls Only: +263788897936, or email: mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com
In utter desperation and despair, she sits under a tree on her homestead - her head held up by her shaking emaciated hands, having not had a square meal in days - wondering where her hope and salvation will come.
In all this - she, ironically, resides in a country, endowed with over sixty of known precious natural resources, in demand throughout the world - yet, never having benefited even a single cent from these, in spite of the fact that, diamonds are mined just a few kilometers away from where she sits.
On a dally basis, in utter anguish and dismay, she has hopelessly watched as numerous trucks and various types of vehicles (some exposing the opulence of the owners) pass by her poverty-strticken home - without any concern of who lives there, and how she is surviving - in their eagerness to make their millions, if not billions, of dollars.
Who is to speak for this elderly widow?
Who is to push that she gets food to eat with her grandchildren?
Who will ensure that she is no longer invisible to those in power - who are more concerned about enriching themselves, than the fate of a 'powerless inconsequential old woman', who cannot influence election outcomes?
Wait!
Fortunately the country has some activists who claim to stand for human rights - and even those clamoring specifically for Africans, and those of African descent wherever they may be throughout the world.
They are never weary of informing whoever listens how they care and love Africa (even referring to it more appropriately as Afrika), and Africans - being most vocal in making all manner of demands for the restoration of pride and dignity of the continent's people.
Can this aged grandmother hope for these people to bring her case - and, those of millions others in a similar or worse predicament - to the attention of the ruling elite, and all other relevant stakeholders?
Since she desperately needs help today, as well as a more stable and decent means of livelihood - with her homestead requiring immediate attention, to rescue it from its near dilapidated state.
However, those who claim to stand and speak for Africans would rather be all over social media - the favored battleground for most armchair and keyboard activists nowadays - posting images of how Africans were savagely enslaved, colonized and treated as subhuman some decades and centuries ago, by cruel Europeans.
They are more interested in a multi-million dollar diamond that is supposedly in the possession of the British monarchy, or the skeletons of our ancestors who were brutally murdered and taken away by heartless colonists.
At least, these colonists knew to use revenue from this stolen loot for the benefit amd development of their countries back home in Europe - as opposed to our own African leaders who pillage for their own small circle of families and friends.
Therefore, if our so-called Pan-Africanists cannot loudly and boldly speak out, and stand up for such African people - as this lady, enduring unspeakable poverty and suffering - how, then, are they relevant to the modern day Afrikan, in a post-colonial Afrika?
Let me be unequivocally clear - I am not, in any way, saying that we should forget about past injustices, and not seek justice for the heinous harrowing barbarity inflicted upon our people.
However, this becomes a huge problem, when we have armchair and keyboard Pan-Africanists - whose fight for African dignity and pride has become elitist, and far divorced from the plight of ordinary suffering Africans - who undoubtedly have no one to speak for them against today's breed of oppressors and plunderers.
History is very good - considering that I am one of those who love its study - as knowing our past, helps us understand our present, in order for us to shape our tomorrow.
Nonetheless, it becomes quite absurd, and even insincere, when those who tout themselves as passionately speaking up for Afrikans - to the extent of showing unbridled anger towards those who once enslaved and colonized us - yet, these same Pan-Africanists never showing any concern whatsoever for the sorrowful desperate plight of those Afrikans facing the wrath of our own Afrikan leaders.
Who exactly, then, are these Afrikans that they so eagerly and angrily stand up, and speak out, for?
Who is going to post, on the favored social media, pictures and videos of black Afrikans being brutally gunned down in cold blood, or horrifically beaten up, by their own black Afrikan governments' state security forces?
Are our Pan-Africanists advocating only for justice and the rights of our ancestors - who faced a cruel fate at the hands of European slave masters and colonizers - and, to hell with living Afrikans, who need justice and their rights respected today, who are being subjugated and marginalized by their own fellow Afrikan ruling elites?
Maybe, these Pan-Africanists are telling us that, oppression and plundering is only wrong when committed by a white person from Europe - but, entirely alright and acceptable if it is at the hands of a black person from Africa.
Well, this may come as a shock to such activists - for the elderly widowed grandmother referred to earlier, the difference is the same - as her pain and suffering is color blind, and is just as excruciating and unbearable.
It does not matter whether this was at the hands of a 'white colonist'', or 'black revolutionary'!
● Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice activist, writer, researcher, and social commentator. Please feel free to contact him on WhatsApp/Call: +263715667700 / +263782283975, or Calls Only: +263788897936, or email: mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com
Source - Tendai Ruben Mbofana
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