Black struggle
Black consciousness
I remember you Steve Biko
Black History
It’s every day, my way of
life,
How I was taught
How I remember
How I continue the fight
I salute you all fallen
heroes
Onkgopotse Tiro, Robert
Sobukwe, Malcom X,
I read and share your
stories every day
Chant your names
Audre Lorde, Taytu Betul,
Mirriam Makeba
I call out to you great
ancestors,
Patrice Lumumba, Samora
Machel, Thomas Sankara
I give thanks to you
Toussaint
Louverture, Kwame Nkrumah, Kwame Ture
For my sanity I call out
Aluta Continua I call out
Not yet uhuru!
The blood shed was not in
vain
Soldier on we must
Bob Marley I call out for
my people’s emancipation from mental slavery
Acquiescence, fear
I draw courage and resilience
from you
Winnie Mandela, Lilian
Ngoyi, Charlotte Maxeke
Judged and persecuted for
this black skin
In these nervous
conditions,
I remember you Frans Fanon
Matla!
Yes let’s scrap Black History Month and
sustain the suppression of our freedoms! Let us deny ourselves the time to
interrogate and reflect on our past. “Black history is American history!” said
two actors once in separate interviews.
Would Carter G. Woodson agree that American
history is Black history? For his efforts and many others who give their time
to initiatives like Black History Month, and in South Africa observations like
the Human Rights Day and June 16, for the restoration and remembrance of our
histories.
One of the most painful realizations of
the black experience is the denial and distortion of our history. And the
process of discarding the lies, learning and unlearning ‘truths’,
decolonizing, liberating self against
the watchful eye of white supremacy is agonizing to say the least.
It is also hard for FORGIVENESS to
materialize with NO ADMISSION of the crimes committed against Black people but
instead we are met with more resistance by way of accusations and machinations.
“Why are Black people so damn sensitive, they should move on already?” The Truth and Reconciliation Commission
established after the first democratic elections in South Afrika was
unsuccessful in providing the catharsis and reconciliation that was hoped for
precisely because of the resistant tactics and lack of accountability.
The US, Canada and UK have a month to
celebrate Black History and in South Afrika we have less than ten days spread
across the calendar. They may seem
menial to others as in the case of the aforementioned Afrikan American actors
who declared the Black History Month commemoration useless and argued Black
history was American history. Reactionary commentary like theirs is problematic
and neglects to see the many strides and greater ones that are achievable with the
support and solidarity of the Black community across the globe.
Rather than critique the controversial
BET stable one of the actors failed to recognize the importance of the
platform, a Black institution which should be seen and used for the advancement
of the Black struggle. We need to strengthen these spaces and moments of
celebration, grow them! What if we forgot the Oscars, the Grammy and the likes
and permanently boycotted them? And rallied support for our own Black conscious
work and companies and products, our autonomy, freedom!
Because,
What has American history taught us?
We learn everyday of its selective
memory.
American history has always written
people and events out.
American history does not acknowledge
the genocide it committed against Native Americans but chooses to romanticize
the land grabs marked by the Thanksgiving Celebration, the same land it denies
Afrikan Americans and wealth built on the backs of their ancestors nor will it
admit to the trickery and dehumanization of Mexicans that continues to this
day. It will never speak of its conspiracies against Latin Americans, Africans
and Asians.
American History is Black History they
say?
In America, Black History has been a
learning opportunity of the histories and individuals that remind us of the
conniving ways of capitalism that birthed the observance of Juneteenth and a
chance to interrogate the systemic injustice like the prison industrial complex
that murdered George Jackson, denies Mumia Abu-Jamal medication and let’s not
forget the 6x9 feet cells and detention centers for us immigrants that threaten
our lives every day.
Black history is also about its
survival and contribution to our self-realization, self-determination and
self-sustenance. What also begs our immediate attention and interrogation is
the cultural misappropriation by the west kept alive by our high levels of
consumerism.
Let’s not only celebrate Black History
Month, but join in on the commemoration of the history of Native Americans, of
the people of Nicaragua and Cuba, rally behind the people of Palestine and Western
Sahara. Find our way into the discovery of many more histories hidden and
denied in the Library of Congress and in the basements of European museums.
For knowledge is survival, so for whose
comfort is dismissing Black commemorations as was the attempt in South Afrika
to rebrand Heritage Day celebrating our diverse cultures to ‘National Braai Day.
And while it may be fun and trendy, at what cost is the compromise?
Against 500 years of disarray it may
seem insignificant but these are moments of freeing ourselves, of imagining and
moving towards realizing a postcolonial society. Where’s your beginning, how
are you liberating yourself and others around you or are you just keeping watch
over the fence of your own privilege making sure we stay in our assigned boxes?
Wise women once said, “That which
causes you discomfort is a cause for interrogation”.
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