AFRICAN/WORLD FREEDOM CHAMPIONS OUR FREEDOM CHAMPIONS FOR AFRICAN HUMANITY

Lest we forget: 2010 marks the centenary of the Union of South Africa, a political dispensation that has brought so much pain and suffering for indigenous people who suffered the indignity of legalised apartheid (segregation) and pass laws long before 1948, and bore the brunt of land dispossession through forced removals. But this year also marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacres – a symbol of defiance against passes and other unjust laws. FRONSE PELLEBON SMITH pays tribute to six illustrious, historic figures who tried to make the world a better place for all people of African descent.

In Mississippi English my folks would say, “Who deeze people be?” I would like to discuss and challenge you to think of six black men who changed the way we, people of African descent, view ourselves today. These are: Marcus Mosiah Garvey [1887-1940], Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia [1891-1975]; Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah [1909-1972]; Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe [1924-1978]; Robert Nesta Marley [1945-1981] and Stephen Bantu Biko [1946-1977]. These great historic men have achieved notoriety and fame in Africa, America, the
Caribbean and the world. Each was, at first glance, seemingly known for different accomplishments in different ways and by different means and at different times. Yet there is a common theme and thread in all their works – Freedom for African humanity. Yes, by different means, often controversial and often maligned, they all were advocates and fighters for freedom for ALL African peoples. Why should we take
a look at each man’s life and study them? Because what good is history if there are no future lessons in it for us to apply in our own lives? What can we do with their history and life-study that will help us understand our African right to freedom? Is there benefi t from learning their life histories? Indeed there is! We must focus on their examples, successes and failures so that we can see links that tie us together. Their personal examples can be a roadmap to continuing our own journey as Africans – politically, socially, culturally and spiritually. Our humanity is inexorably linked to our ancestors’ achievements, trials, efforts and tribulations. We need not look back with only sadness and anger. Rather we can learn and build on their life experiences, purpose and intent. Let us now take an ancestral ‘flight’ across this century of time, oceans and continents to ‘see’ connections among African champions of freedom. Too often history only records what has happened, not why, or how events came to be. So let us examine these great men’s lives and works, and learn from them. From this study and learning we can look for ways to apply their teachings to our own lives. First, let’s begin our journey of freedom by looking at Marcus Mosiah Garvey, a West Indian pioneer of the pan-African philosophy. The ‘Back-to-Africa!’ slogan was and still is the message of Marcus Garvey, the founding president of the United Negro Improvement Association and African Communities (Imperial) League (UNIA-ACL) in the US and founder
of the Black Star ship line whose existence and purpose was for diasporan Africans to return to Africa. Born in Jamaica (a truly Africanised
island of diasporan Africans), Garvey moved to the USA where he became a powerful orator in the tradition of Baptist ministers and a skilful organiser. Between 1916 and 1921, he built the largest black mass movement in world history, the first black leader to pioneer the politics of mass mobilisation. He used his nationwide movement as a platform to preach self-love, self-help and racial pride and even designed the horizontal red, black and green fl ag of Pan Africanism. “We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because, whilst others
might free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind,” he declared in one of his famous speeches. Those words were later adapted by fellow countryman and liberation icon, Bob Marley, in a classic, Redemption Song. His ‘Back-to-Africa’ message resonated with African Americans seventy years after legal slavery ended yet economic, political and social growth was still stifled by new race-based laws, Jim Crow. This heinous set of laws prohibited and limited what, when and where Africans could work, live, eat, walk and learn. Even my grandparents’ generation, born after the passing of the Emancipation Proclamation, identifi ed with this eternal yearning for true freedom and a return to the lands of their mothers and fathers – Africa. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation during
the American Civil War freeing the slaves by declaring ‘ownership or title to humans as property’ was illegal. In my opinion, Lincoln wanted and needed a legal basis for freed Blacks to legally fight in the Civil War for the Northern armies. This produced legal freedom, yet my ancestors remained unfree into the twentieth century. Why ‘back to Africa?’ So there could be reclamation of spirits lost in exile. And so by ‘coming home’, our ancestors’ descendants could begin the process or journey to reclaim freedom. That is the why. Now let us cross the ‘pond’ (called the Atlantic Ocean) to Ghana, and study one of the intellectual and political authors of modern day pan-African ideology: the late founding president of Ghana, Dr Kwame Nkrumah; one of the patriarchs of Pan Africanism, (James Brown would say ‘the Godfather of Pan African ideology). Nkrumah was educated at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He was not ‘Westernised’, in the European sense. Rather, he came to identify with Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Dubois, Booker T. Washington and George Padmore. We know these men as advocates for Black Consciousness and pride; advocates that taught, lectured and established institutions of higher learning for Black people denied access in America. Nkrumah formed alliances with diasporan African leadership in America, Africa and the Caribbean and brought their ideals of freedom and ubuntu back to his native Ghana. This synthesis of collective experiences led to the founding of various Pan-African organisations on the continent – notably Robert Sobukwe’s Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) of Azania. Pan Africanism is a philosophical and political means to gain our right to be free Africans controlling our own destinies. To be succinct, Pan Africanism for me means Across the globe ALL peoples of African descent, mixed blood or ‘pure’, are bound together by a primary idea: Freedom to determine our own destiny.” So too are the precepts of Black Consciousness. We are a particular group of people with one common thread; we seek
and are free from domination by foreign i deologies; we control our own development and are ultimately our own destinies. Now let us trek across the great continent of Africa to Ethiopia and beyond, and examine a sovereign who challenges further colonisation by Europe at a time when industrial European might threatened to sweep all of Africa into a new era of economic, physical and political slavery and subjugation. In the USA and the Caribbean we refer to him by titles: Emperor, Elect of God, The Conquering Lion from the Tribe of Judah,
Most Worshipful; and his life’s story (a man of Solomonic pedigree) lived up to every claim. He was a man of and for African peoples. Emperor Haile Selassie represented the kingship of African peoples in post-World War II struggles for independence. By successfully resisting and fighting Italian domination he was able to go before and address the United Nations on the need for the sovereignty of African
people. As a beacon of African independence and anti-colonial struggles, the Emperor suffered imprisonment and exile but remains a defining figure of modern African history and the architect of African unity through his key involvement in the establishment of theOrganisation of African Unity (OAU) – headquartered in the capital Addis Ababa. So there is a clear link between Garvey’s back-to-Africa movement, Nkrumah’s Pan African independence of Ghana and Haile Selassie’s successful challenge, defi ance and implementation of a free African nation. European hegemony was stopped in Ethiopia with words and force and remains the only African country that defi ed successful
colonisation. Now we travel south to the Land of Modern Day Freedom, South Africa and evaluate two gentlemen and champions of freedom Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe (1924-1974) and Stephen Bantu Biko (1946-1977). Numerous champions of freedom were born and politicised in South Africa. These men are just two examples of the fruit of the freedom tree. Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, aka ‘Prof’, grew up in the
early years of Pan African ideology. From Fort Hare his and so many others learning ground, to teaching African Studies at Wits in 1954, he also began of course as an African National Congress Youth League member. Sobukwe evolved from ideology to action and identifi ed strongly with Pan Africanism eventually aiding in formation of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and he became its fi rst president. Sobukwe also edited the ‘Africanist.’ Yes he saw a different path to humanity’s yearning for self determination different from the African National Congress, and he marched boldly down that path. His continued activism eventually led to his incarceration with so many other freedom
advocates on Robben Island. Along with other very notable freedom fi ghters he did not retreat from his principles but stood for human rights and dignity. After extension of his sentence by apartheid authorities, he was eventually released and returned to public life to have his own law firm. Notably he advocated for full African control of not just politics but resources and industry. Sounds familiar? Yes, just think Garvey, Nkrumah, Selassie – freedom for African Humanity; and finally, Steve Biko’s Black Consciousness, a model for the Chicago Pan African community in particular. Biko was the founding president of the South African Student Organisation (SASO). Like Garvey, Biko was an articulate spokesperson of the ‘black is beautiful’ gospel and advocated self-help programmes through action, which was our approach in Chicago even until this day. Biko, a man of action, penned papers and delivered lectures, but also organised and gathered resources to help ordinary people. His Black Community Programmes (BCP’s) were even a model for the ‘Breakfast for Children’s Program’ and Free Health Clinics of the Black Panther Party (BPP) in Chicago. Many fledgling Pan-Africanists in America understood the need to aid and support Black people’s basic needs. Stephen Biko demonstrated that this ideology required commitment to action. Just like the other ‘Champions of Freedom’ Biko’s threat to the establishment led to his brutal and early demise much like Chairman Fred Hampton in Chicago’s Black Panther Party. Humanity was bettered by their actions, not just words. Biko championed youth to a new and beautiful awareness of self and purpose. Self determination is a cornerstone of community and nation building. Pride provides the spark, the energy to attain independence. I hope the path of Freedom Champions has been shown to be clear from the Caribbean, mainland America, West and East Africa to South Africa. Just think of the passing of a century, of decades of oppression by different masters. Yet there was an overlapping prevalence of ideology and dreams that passed the baton of freedom from one generation to the next; action being the mechanism of success. Connect
if you please the geographic locations and people to the commonality of purpose – self-determination and freedom. Thus Humanity marches to the drum beat of freedom, and key people beat and have beaten their own drums to keep African humanity focused on our universal common goal. Politics and freedom walk hand in hand on Africa’s many winding roads to freedom for humanity. Each of these bold men suffered oppression, betrayal, setbacks, yet they marched onward. Finally, let us study a man of more modern times – a musician, a bard and a modern day griot. We have to travel back across Africa, across the ‘great pond’ back to Jamaica, completing the circle of
examination and study of the great music champion of freedom, Bob Nesta Marley. He gave us a new oration and visualisation of our ancestral call to be free through timeless songs like Redemption Song, Africa Unite and By the Rivers of Babylon. Through his music –known the world over – he pooled the message of Scripture with the understanding of African ancestors. Marley was not just a pop musician. He sang prophetically and the chords and lyrics were heard by freedom loving people not only in Jamaica, England or America, but in Brazil, Chile, Argentina and the rest of the diaspora. “By the Rivers of Babylon” a paraphrase of Psalm 137, speaks of the lament of captured people with a sadness of generations of removal from their homeland. Speaking for the ancestors, Marley’s words were immortal for all former slaves, their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. In Buffalo Soldier he summarised the oral history, spirit, defi ance and pain of Africans taken to the Americas. “Stolen from Africa/ brought to America/ fighting on arrival/ fi ghting for survival/ taken from the mainland/ in the heart of the Caribbean…