Death to Xenophobia and Tribalism!

A Nigerian senator-elect makes a case for unity of the black race. What do you think? High points in the battle of ideas include:


"Many people are unaware that before the British had free and qualitative
education in Great Britain, we were already implementing that policy in
the Western region of Nigeria under that great sage, Chief Obafemi
Awolowo".


Also "Even more are yet unaware that before many in Europe and Asia came up
with the idea of a single visa and economic free continental
zone(EU/ASEAN), Kwame Nkrumah had already conceived of the idea and was
advocating for  one pan Africa without borders".


My little contribution is that it is vital that we do not just dream dreams but clinically execute those ideas until they become concrete reality.


Please go through his article culled from ThisDay Newspapers and draw your own conclusions.



Ben-Murray-Bruce-new-bkp.jpg - Ben-Murray-Bruce-new-bkp.jpg
GUEST COLUMNIST: BEN MURRAY BRUCE 
To paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, Nigeria and South Africa are two
countries separated by a common language and a common bond. There are
too many shared interests between the two nations and as such both
nations must work as partners rather than rivals.

The issue of the recent wave of xenophobia in South Africa is
unfortunate, but we must not throw away the baby with the bath water.
Just as terrorism occasioned by the Boko Haram sect should not define
Nigeria, xenophobia should not define South Africa.
As a government and as a people, we must show South Africa, at the very
minimum, the same level of tolerance their government and people showed
to us when 84 of their citizens died at the synagogue building collapse
in Nigeria.
Let us learn something positive about this issue. If it is wrong to
hate people because they are foreigners in your country, it must equally
be wrong to hate fellow citizens because they are from a different
tribe or region or religion. Charity begins at home. African nations,
including Nigeria, must address prejudices such as tribalism and
religious intolerance at home because the best way to get others to love
you is to first love yourself.
This has always been my desire for the Black Race. No one put it as
good as the late Peter Tosh in his song ‘African’ when he sang “don’t
care where you come from As long as you’re a black man, you’re an
African. No mind your nationality, you have got the identity of an
African”.
Peter Tosh was a prophet. As long as we are a part of the Black Race, we all have the identity of an African.

There is nothing to be ashamed of about being an African and everything to be proud of about that identity.

Many people are unaware that before the British had free and
qualitative education in Great Britain, we were already implementing
that policy in the Western region of Nigeria under that great sage,
Chief Obafemi Awolowo. 
Even more are yet unaware that before many in Europe and Asia came up
with the idea of a single visa and economic free continental
zone(EU/ASEAN), Kwame Nkrumah had already conceived of the idea and was
advocating for  one pan Africa without borders.

And Nimrod, that great empire builder who founded the world’s very
first empire in Babel was black being a descendant of Cush. He was the
grandson of Ham (the progenitor of the Black race).
The reason contemporary Africans have not have lived up to this great ancestry is because we lack unity as a people.

Let me give a couple of examples. If the Prime Minister of Israel or
any prominent Jewish leader from Israel is to visit the United States,
they plan such a visit and consult with Jewish groups in the US such as
the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). This ensures that
Jews at home and in the Diaspora speak with one voice.
This and other groups were instrumental in arranging Benjamin
Netanyahu’s visit to the US Congress on the 3rd of March this year where
the Israeli Prime Minister bypassed (some say snubbed) the Obama and
made Israel’s case direct to Congress and the American people.
It took an immense amount of synergy between the State of Israel and the Jewish lobby in America to achieve this.

Arab leaders do the same thing with Arab lobby groups such as The
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and other bodies.
I am yet to see African leaders in politics and business do the same in
an organized and consistent manner with the Black lobby and common
interest groups in America such as the Congressional Black Caucus or The
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and
other such groups.
We cannot get the respect and global voice we crave for as a people if
we do not build a platform where black people the world over can speak
with one voice.
We will remain shut out of permanent membership of the United Nations’  Security Council if we don’t blend our voice.

This is why I am very upset when African nations spar with each other, and recall ambassadors or fighting wars in the process.

The greatest affirmation of a racist’s or a supremacist’s thinking is
actually the way and manner black people treat each other. Tribalism and
Xenophobia, which are rampant in Africa, makes people with such
inclinations think ‘how can I like them if they don’t like themselves’?
I support the outrage at recent and not so recent killings of black
youths by White police officers and wannabe cops from the Trayvon Martin
case to the incidences at Ferguson and Madison. But if truth be told,
black on black violence is much higher in occurrence than these other
incidences both in America and Africa.

The black world must address this by putting its house in order.
George Benson was right in his song ‘The Greatest Love of All’ when he said “learning to love yourself

It is the greatest love of all”. No wonder the late Whitney Houston
reprised it and made it an anthem. As Jesus said in John 8:32, ‘you
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free’.

Right now, I say to Nigeria, South Africa, the whole of Africa and the
Black Race in the Diaspora, let us acquire that greatest love by
exploring radical ideas.
Take Israel for example. On the 5th of July, 1950, Israel passed The
Law of Return which gives people of Jewish ancestry, along with their
spouses, the right to emigrate to Israel and obtain Israeli citizenship.
Perhaps nothing has built commitment to the cause of Israel worldwide
than this single piece of legislation. Wealthy Jewish Americans, who
have never been to Israel, die and leave their entire estates to the
State of Israel to facilitate the implementation of this law.

Jews in sensitive positions in the West risk death and long prison
sentences in order to spy for Israel in both military and industrial
espionage.
Israel even granted Jonathan Pollard, an American Jew serving a life
sentence for spying for Israel in the US, Israeli citizenship in 1995
while he was in jail.
Politicians of Jewish origin vote in Congress and the Parliaments of
the West in ways that show their sympathy and even loyalty to Israel.
Why do they do this? Because Israel has, by The Law of Return, turned
them from onlookers to stakeholders in the affairs of Israel.

This is what Africa must do. Instead of coming up with reasons why we
do not like other black people because they are blacker or lighter or
shorter or taller or nappier or straighter than us, the African Union
must return to the Pan African ideas of the late Kwame Nkrumah, and act
as a catalyst for a continental African  Law of Return to be inserted
into the Constitution of ALL African nations by ratification, giving
people of African descent and their spouses the right to settle in any
African nation of their choice and become full citizens.
If this is done, it will change the roles of the black African Diaspora
in the West and everywhere from that of onlookers to a role as
stakeholders in Africa. Eventually, the influx of returnees will become
the first truly continental Africans with the ability to live and settle
anywhere in Africa.
Once that happens, it will not be too long that xenophobia and tribalism will die a natural death.

I believe in this, and I, Ben Murray Bruce, will pursue and advance
such ideas in the incoming 8th National Assembly because I believe the
Legislature must be a place of ideas that will become laws that will
change our nation and our continent for the better.
•Ben Murray Bruce is a Senator Elect and CEO of the Silverbird Entertainment Group.

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