CONNECTING THE STRUGGLES, Amilcar Cabral

[Baba Ahmed]

During Amilcar Cabral's last visit to the United States, Africa Information Service organized an informal meeting that Cabral exchanged talk with members from about 30 different Afrikans in America groups. Follows is an excerpt from it.

"I am bringing to you---our African brothers and sisters of the United States--the fraternal salutations of our people in assuring you we are very conscious that all in this life concerning you also concerns us. If we do not always pronounce words that clearly show this, it doesn't mean that we are not conscious of it. It is a reality and considering that the world is being made smaller each day all people are becoming sonscious of this fact.
Naturally if you ask me between brothers and comrades what I prefer--if we are brothers it is not our fault or our responsibility. But if we are comrades, it is a political engagement. Naturally we like our brothers but in our conception it is better to be a brother and a comrade. We like our brothers very much, but we think that if we are brothers we have to realize the responsibility of this fact and take clear positions about our problems in order to see if beyond this condition of brothers, we are also comrades. This is very important for us.
We try to understand your situation in this country. You can be sure that we realize the difficulties you face, the problems you have and your feelings, your revolts, and also your hopes. We think that our fighting for Africa against colonialism and imperialism is a proof of understanding of you problem and also a contribution for the solution of your problems in this continent. Naturally the inverse is also true. All the achievements toward the solution of your problems here are real contributions to our own struggle. And we are very encouraged in our struggle by the fact that each day more of the African people born in America become conscious of their responsibilities to the struggle in Africa.

Does this mean you have to all leave here and go fight in Africa? We do not believe so. That is not being realistic in our opinion. History is a very strong chain. We have to accept the limits of history but not the limits imposed by the societies where we are living. There is a difference. We think that all you can do here to develop your own conditions in the sense of progress, in the sense of history and in the sense of the total realization of your aspirations as human beings is a contribution for us. It is also a contribution for you to never forget that your are Africans....

The fact that you follow our struggle and are interested in our achievements is good for us. We base our struggle on the concrete realities of our country. We appreciate the experiences and achievements of other peoples and we study them. But revolution or national liberation struggle is like a dress which must be fit to each individual's body. Naturally, there are certain general or universal laws, even scientific laws for any condition, but the liberation struggles has to be developed according to the specific conditions of each country. This is fundamental.
The specific conditions to be considered include---economic, bultural, social, political and even geographic. The guerrilla manuals once told us that without mountains you can not make guerrilla war. But in my country there are no mountains, only the people. In the economic field we committed an error. We began training our people to commit sabotage on the railroads. When they returned from their training we rememberd that there were no railroads in our country. The Portuguese built them in Mozambique and Angola but not in our country.
There are other conditions to consider as well. You must consider the type of society in which you are fighting. Is it divided along horizontal lines or vertical lines? Some people tell us our struggle is the same as that of the Vietnamese people. It is similar but it is not the same. The Vietnamese are a people that hundreds of years ago fought against foreign invaders like a nation. We are now forging our nation in the struggle.
This is a big difference.

Vietnam is also a society with clear social structures with classes well defined. There is no national bourgeoisie in our country. A miserable small petit bourgeoisie yes, but not a national bourbeoisie. These differences are very important. Once I discussed politics with Eldrige Cleaver. He is a clever man, very intlligent. We agreed on many things but we disagreed on one thing. He told me your condition is a colonial condition. In certain aspects it seems to be, but it is not really a colonial condition. The colonial condition demands certain factors. One important factor is continuity of territories. There are others which you can see when you analyze. Many times we are confronted with phenomenon that seem to be the same, but political activity demands that we be able to distinguish them. That is not to say that the aims are not the same. And, that is not to say that even some of the means cannot be the same. However, we must deeply analyze each situation to avoid loss of time and energy doing things that we are not to do and forgetting things that we have to do."

[Baba Ahmed]

Baba note: In Guinea (Bissau) the home of Amilcar Cabral, may he be remembered and studied, there were/are many different cultures; e.g., Muslims and Afrikan traditional societies, plus the largely influenced Catholics of Cape Verde Islands. He led them all to victory. They physically won their independence and liberation from Portugal in spite of heavy European aid of all kinds.

So I say study this struggle, and understand why some of us born and reared in North America can benefit from studying a real life example of Afrikans who crashed through difference barriers. And why some of us say: we can and must do it also!!!

[Baba Ahmed]

An added note: Amilcar Cabral also noted that....

".... Ten years ago, we were Fula, Mandjak, Mandinka, Balante, Pepel, and others. Now we are a nation of Guineans. Tribal divisions were one reason the Portuguese thought it would not be possible for us to fight. During these ten years we were making more and more changes, so that today we can see that there is a new man and a new woman, born with out new nation and because of our fight. This is because of our ability to fight as a nation."

Can this example be included in our conditions & circumstances today? This is not theory or some pointless debater speaking; Amilcar Cabral is clearly setting examples.

I think it bears close study and long and deep looks into our mirrors of life. BTW the Fula, Muslims, are of the ruling class; the Mandinka a mixture of Muslims and traditional cultures, are the Warriors of old. All are Guineans. Afrikans

[Baba Ahmed]

Oh, and correct me if I'm off base, but isn't Guinea (Bissau) the 2nd country that Kwame Nkrumah was ruler of simultaneously?

Now consider the differences between those nations of Afrikans!!!! And we argue about whether a religion/religious person can be revolutionary. Culture isn't static and set in unchanging stone. There are similar principles that grow similar practices; e.g., no where is there found in our Ancient &/or original traditional cultures homosexuality as an accepted fact nor openingly done. Even tho today we might see it anywhere. My son, who just returned from Morocco by way of Paris, reports having seen Afrikan homos there.

A strange bunch we are. I sat as some here raved about The Battle of Algiers. Ha! Straight up Muslims! Sisters and brothers do n what was necessary to gain their liberation!!!

Many of us should be called "The Motley Crew." Come on my sistas and bruthas lets cut through and reduce aiming to eliminate poisonous european thought and culture in us. Like Cabral said over 30 yrs ago: our aims are the same, the means have to differ... due to a different local, etc kwk kwk!!!

Fo' we all be dead. But no that won't happen there must be a buffer btween the Oppressors and the oppressed. In your spare time, read The Healer, by Ayi Kwei Armah. He paints a clear written image of how, why, and what happens to a people divided.

You may not agree; we are divided like Femi Kuti sangs: scattered brains/minds!

We can always wait til this european hegemony implodes.... but i ain't wid dat or in the glorious words of Professor Griff: Fuk dat!

[Akyeame Kwame]

Originally Posted by Baba Ahmed

Oh, and correct me if I'm off base, but isn't Guinea (Bissau) the 2nd country that Kwame Nkrumah was ruler of simultaneously?

Now consider the differences between those nations of Afrikans!!!! And we argue about whether a religion/religious person can be revolutionary. Culture isn't static and set in unchanging stone. There are similar principles that grow similar practices; e.g., no where is there found in our Ancient &/or original traditional cultures homosexuality as an accepted fact nor openingly done. Even tho today we might see it anywhere. My son, who just returned from Morocco by way of Paris, reports having seen Afrikan homos there.

A strange bunch we are. I sat as some here raved about The Battle of Algiers. Ha! Straight up Muslims! Sisters and brothers do n what was necessary to gain their liberation!!!

Many of us should be called "The Motley Crew." Come on my sistas and bruthas lets cut through and reduce aiming to eliminate poisonous european thought and culture in us. Like Cabral said over 30 yrs ago: our aims are the same, the means have to differ... due to a different local, etc kwk kwk!!!

Fo' we all be dead. But no that won't happen there must be a buffer btween the Oppressors and the oppressed. In your spare time, read The Healer, by Ayi Kwei Armah. He paints a clear written image of how, why, and what happens to a people divided.

You may not agree; we are divided like Femi Kuti sangs: scattered brains/minds!

We can always wait til this european hegemony implodes.... but i ain't wid dat or in the glorious words of Professor Griff: Fuk dat!

htp Baba,

i think you're thinking about Guinea (headed by Sekou Toure) not Guinea-Bissau (Headed by Amilcar Cabral). Stay BlackNificent!

AK

[Baba Ahmed]

Originally Posted by Akyeame Kwame

htp Baba,

i think you're thinking about Guinea (headed by Sekou Toure) not Guinea-Bissau (Headed by Amilcar Cabral). Stay BlackNificent!

AK

htp my yungun how b u?

I stand corrected and say "dat's what I like about this Souf!" Yunguns who guard us old head's steps.... Imagine that: leader of two nations and Guinea is not "next door" to Ghana!

medase.

Kwame

[Akyeame Kwame]

Originally Posted by Baba Ahmed

htp my yungun how b u?

I stand corrected and say "dat's what I like about this Souf!" Yunguns who guard us old head's steps.... Imagine that: leader of two nations and Guinea is not "next door" to Ghana!

medase.

Kwame

BlackSolutely anything for the BlackNificent! Yes, Sekou Toure named him co-president after the coup by Kotoka that ousted him. Interestingly enough, Nkrumah was away when the coup happened trying to show solidarity with the asians in a tour to china with the goal of ending the vietnam conflict. Unfortunately our own Black people's stuff was not together and we were going and trying to help others. WokO gye wo yonko ban a, hwE wo deE ansa. If you are going to fix your neighbor's fence, look to your own first. Stay BlackNificent!

AK

[Im The Truth]

Solid point. I think there are two things to learn from Nkrumah's SERIOUS!! mistake that is:

1.) As you properly gave the proverb, WokO gye wo yonko ban a, hwE wo deE ansa. If you are going to fix your neighbor's fence, look to your own first.

and

2.) The solidarity that Pres. Sekou Toure showed to pick up an embarrassed African brother (and leader) and to pull him back up! If more African leadership and Africans in general were to take on this quality we'd be better off.

Originally Posted by Akyeame Kwame

BlackSolutely anything for the BlackNificent! Yes, Sekou Toure named him co-president after the coup by Kotoka that ousted him. Interestingly enough, Nkrumah was away when the coup happened trying to show solidarity with the asians in a tour to china with the goal of ending the vietnam conflict. Unfortunately our own Black people's stuff was not together and we were going and trying to help others. WokO gye wo yonko ban a, hwE wo deE ansa. If you are going to fix your neighbor's fence, look to your own first. Stay BlackNificent!

AK

[Baba Ahmed]

This brief exchange recalls Curtis James Morrow aka Kojo-Achampong's My Sankofa (formerly named "Return of the African American) his autobiography. He'd left America in 1965, fed up with the Black Power movement. Allow me to quote his writing: "I began working on a full length painting of Kwame Nkrumah. He would be carrying a book entitled Neo-Colonialism and Last Stage of Imperialism. It was to be presented to him for me, in the hopes of gaining a position. Two days before it was to be presented, word came to us that Nkrumah had decided to travel to Hanoi. He had been invited to lend his voice in the peace talks taking place there. Well he got as far as Peking, China when his government was overthrown, and I learned a new phrase - coup d'etat.

The overthrow of Nkrumah's government hit me like a brick. I, like many other self-imposed expatriates, was taken completely by surprise at the treacherous undertaking of certain members in the military. I couldn't believe it. I thought everyone loved him, at least everyone I talked to said they did.

However, thinking back, I recalled a conversation that took place three or four days prior to the coup. I was in the company of a young woman and, like the average Ghanaian, was boasting of Nkrumah's greatness. I was surprised, when the young woman cut me short and told me that 'All is not as well as you may think, and your should first try to better learn the ways of your brother's house before voicing opinions about things you know not.' .... When I feigned surprise, she went on to say, 'First, you should learn the ways of we Africans, our customs and our languages, and you can only do that by listening more and talking less.' "

I assume the brutha learned his lesson, for he stayed in Ghana and surrounding areas til 1976. Last heard from he was living in Chicago. Til this day, I'm careful of what and how I say anything about Kwame Nkrumah. Among us is a young Ghanaian sub chief, who's dedicated to ingesting Dr. Clarke's works and other Afrikans in America and contributing to remove yt's strangle hold on Afrikans. I'm happy to say that I've seen no signs that he'll not return as too many Afrikans who become educated here, to live as tools for continuing indirect euro rule by outdoing our original enemies. Brutha Kojo Achampong's story is a worthwhile read.

Politics is a maze.