Colin Powell's trip
U.S. Blacks abroad
By Mumia
Abu-Jamal
The historic naming of retired Gen. Colin Powell to the
post of U.S. Secretary of State has been as remarkable as it
was unprecedented, chiefly because of his African ancestry.
Most major media coverage has been positive on the Bush
administration's pick, and Secretary Powell's recent trip to
sub-Saharan Africa has drawn the kind of crowds and attention
usually reserved for heads of state--not secretaries.
But among the highly politicized student activists of
South Africa, Powell was far from impressive. One youth stood
at the mike at the question and answer session of the
University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and asked, "What
role are you in now, Secretary Powell: revolutionary, radical
or Uncle Tom?" Outside, some protesters hoisted signs
decrying Powell's former role as head of the Joint Chiefs of
the U.S. military, reading "Butcher of Baghdad" and the
like.
Clearly, among some African youth, it mattered little the
complexion of an American diplomat. What was important was
the role that was being performed.
Powell's recent African trip raises questions about the
history of U.S. Blacks overseas and the ways in which they
have helped or harmed other societies, by serving communal
interests, or the interests of the U.S. Empire.
For many years, to go abroad meant to be safe from the
terrors and hatreds of America. When the U.S. Congress passed
the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, Blacks fled by the thousands to
Canada for a kind of civil and personal freedom that was
illusive in the United States. A number of free Black
communities were begun there, some that continue to this
day.
The famed Frederick Douglass fled briefly, but to England,
where supporters helped him purchase his freedom. At the time
of Douglass's flight to freedom in England, the same time as
the passage of the infamous Fugitive Slave Act (which
threatened the liberty of even so-called "free" Blacks), some
Blacks went to West Africa to set up a free Black
nation-Liberia.
What U.S. Blacks brought to Africa was a new kind of
colonialization that privileged Anglo-speaking people, while
stigmatizing, exploiting and even oppressing the indigenous
peoples of the region. In Elizabeth Isichei's "A History of
Christianity in Africa: From Antiquity to the Present"
(Africa World Press, 1995), a tragic conflict unfolded
between two Black peoples, one American, the other
African:
"[T]o the [Black American] settlers, the local African was
the Other. Lott Carey was a black Baptist pastor from
Virginia who played a leading role in the early days of
Monrovia. With tragic irony, he blew himself up in 1828,
while making ammunition to use against legal Africans. A
black Episcopalian priest wrote of a conflict between
Americo-Liberians and local Africans, 'A few brave colonists
were beset by hosts of infuriate SAVAGES.' A black American
Baptist in Liberia called Africans "servants and soldiers for
hell." [p. 165]
As late as the first quarter of the 20th century, the
U.S.-based tire company, Firestone, was the economic
sparkplug in the national Liberian engine. Liberia was known
as "the Firestone republic" because of the tire corporation's
powerful influence. It was on behalf of this rich
multinational that the tiny Americo-Liberian minority
(roughly 5 percent of the population) exploited the
overwhelmingly indigenous people, and at their behest that
the locals were used to work the Firestone rubber tree
groves.
For the Vai, the Bassa, and the Kru peoples of the
Southwest African coast, did the coming of the
English-speaking, Christian Blacks from America herald
freedom, or exploitation? What did Liberia mean to them but
the rise of a dark, strange-tongued foreigner?
The moral of this trek through history?
It matters more the purpose of the return of Blacks to
Africa, more than the matter of return itself. When we bring
the mindset of the imperialist, capitalist, exploitative West
to Africa, we bring something that does a disservice to the
African people.
As the saying goes, "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts!"
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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