Thinking About African Americans During February Black History Month
The Smart African, 7th February 2022
I am more used to Black History month being in October, but in America and Canada the month is February. And we are now in February.
When I talk about African Americans I mean the actual descendants of the enslaved, so I am referring to those whose ancestors toiled to build the United States, literally giving up their lives and liberty for it. Today, African Americans are the most enlightened among Black people and their Universities are ranked highest in the Black world. Well done to you I say! In fact, now that I am interested in nation-building (in Africa), African American people actually fit well as a group that can see itself as a sort of nation within the country of America. A nation is defined as:
“A large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory.”
Having gone through the horrors of slavery, African Americans still had to fight for their human rights, civil rights, and dignity. They succeeded quite spectacularly with the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. With that success, Africans from Africa began to come to America, because they knew they would now be comfortable there, now that African Americans had won freedoms that the entire Black Race could benefit from. A decade before that, thus, in the 1950s, Africans had themselves begun to fight for their freedom from European colonial powers. However, life after Independence got worse for Africans because Independence was not Self-Determination, so they found themselves under internal colonization by their own leaders, often more brutal and more destructive than when under European colonization. Many Africans then started to flee Africa because in reality it was easier to do that than to stay and fight back, and do whatever it would take to get Self-Determination. Thanks to the Liberation fight won by African Americans, Africans began to live very well in America, doing so in increasing numbers, and began to seek citizenship of that country.
In African culture, basically, once someone looks Black, then they must be African. So, without asking questions, and without doing reading and research, the African migrants in America began to think that African Americans were “lost Africans”. They did not see that African Americans could be another Black “nation” in the world. Therefore, before resentment between the two groups worsens, Africans-in-America should, with humility, make themselves learn the history of the African American (nation), and show them appropriate GRATITUDE for having fought for the freedoms that Africans-in-America are now enjoying.
For who they are, and how they have raised themselves up from the darkest pit of horrors, the whole world should respect African Americans. And Africans should respect them all the more. I say:
“Just as White Americans are not Europeans, so too African Americans are not Africans. They have different histories and different traditions… Let’s please respect this difference.”
Ignorance creates the environment for enmity to develop. African Americans were in their HOMELAND, then Africans came over to them. It is for Africans, especially Nigerians (because they flock to America in their tens of thousands) to learn about the history of the African American (nation).
It is now Black History month. An essential part of African American history concerns Black Wall Street aka the Tulsa Race Massacre. On Clubhouse there is an excellent talk about it. Below is the link to the replay, and you may not need to have Clubhouse app in order to listen to it.
Tulsa Race Massacre: Rebirth - Part 4
US Freedmen Masterclass Club on Clubhouse
Africans-in-America, please do not make yourselves a problem for African Americans, they have already been through so much! Remember that you fled the Continent of your birth because you had problems there. Be considerate. Be a smart African.
I have learned since writing this article that the Descendants of enslaved Africans prefer to be called "Black Americans" more than anything else. I will therefore be doing so from henceforth.