Let me start by saying that I am not necessarily writing this post in defense of African Americans, I am merely writing it to expose another facet of the argument. I think its unfair to say that Africans shouldn't and have no logical reason to have "respect" for African Americans. First of all, that is the problem. We, blacks in the diaspora, need to stop inventing reasons to not like or disagree with one another. To put it plain and simple, we are all AFricans. We all came, at some point, from the continent, regardless of where we may live now. Yes, our cultures our different, and yes our beliefs may not match, but we share a bond that is much stronger than that. It pains me to see the disdain and apparent disgust which Africans show towards Africans in America. I agree, that as a group, we are the richest Africans living in the world. I believe someone said something to the effect of "look at your neighborhoods, look at your attitude..." and another person said "you can't even educate your own children, you don't have control over your politics, you don't create your own institutions, etc, etc." Well these facts may be true. No, fuck it, they are true. I do believe that to say Africans in America have lost their initiative, and become blinded by the society in which they live is unquestionable. To say that we have lost sight of the principles which our ancestors lived by would not be far from the truth. But look deeper than that. What is the reason? Did we just one day decide to be greedy, and selfish, and materialistic? I think not. We have become products of this American society. A societies whose goal, since they brought us here, was to strip away any link we had to our homeland. Our religion, spirituality, rituals, ancestry, everything was taken away. So it is only logical that our way of thinking would be vastly different from those Africans actually living in Africa. The fault cannot be totally placed on African Americans, but cannot be totally placed on American society.

What I'm trying to say is, that regardless of what differences we have, we are all connected. I know people from Nigeria, and other West African countries that hold more disdain for African Americans than they do for Europeans. I don't mean to sound preachy, but these separations and divisions are making it impossible for us to ever unite. Maybe Africans don't want to unite with AFricans in the diaspora, but I do. And many African Americans do. If we were to unite, the force of our bond would be strong enough to break through even the strongest oppressors iron hand. But we can't do that if we keep breaking each other down. Feel me?



~Peace







"I'm an African, never was an African American..."- Dead Prez