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America, Don't Be Fooled |
Had Americans been able to stop
obsessing over the color of Barack Obama's skin and instead paid more
attention to his cultural identity, maybe he
would not be in the White
House
today. The key to understanding him lies with his identification
with his father, and his adoption of a cultural and political mindset
rooted in postcolonial Africa.
Like many educated intellectuals in
postcolonial Africa, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. was enraged at the
transformation of his native land by its colonial conqueror.
But instead of embracing the traditional values of his own tribal
cultural past, he embraced an imported Western ideology, Marxism.
I call such frustrated and angry modern Africans who embrace various
foreign "isms", instead of looking homeward for repair of societies
that are broken, African Colonials. They are Africans who
serve foreign ideas.
The tropes of America's racial history as a way
of understanding all things black are useless in understanding the
man who got his dreams from his father, a Kenyan exemplar of the
African Colonial.
Before I
continue, I need to say this: I am a first generation born West
African-American woman whose parents emigrated to the U.S. in the
1970's from the country now called Nigeria. I travel to
Nigeria frequently. I see myself as both a proud American and
as a proud Igbo (the tribe that we come from -- also
sometimes spelled Ibo). Politically, I have always been
conservative (though it took this past election for me to commit to
this once and for all!); my conservative values come from my Igbo
heritage and my place of birth. Of
course,
none of this qualifies me to say what I am about to -- but at the
same time it does.
My friends, despite what
CNN and
the rest
are telling you, Barack Obama is nothing more than an old
school
African Colonial who is on his way to turning this country into one
of the developing nations that you learn about on the
National Geographic Channel. Many
conservative (East, West, South, North) African-Americans like
myself -- those of us who know our history -- have seen this movie
before. Here are two main reasons why many Americans allowed
Obama to slip through the cracks despite all of his glaring
inconsistencies:
First, Obama has been living on American
soil for most of his adult life. Therefore, he has been able
to masquerade as one who understands and believes in American
democratic ideals. But he does not. Barack Obama is
intrinsically undemocratic and as his presidency plays out, this
will become more obvious. Second, and most importantly, too
many Americans know very little about Africa. The
one-size-fits-all understanding that many Americans (both black and
white) continue to have of Africa might end up bringing dire
consequences for this country.
Contrary to the way it
continues to be portrayed in mainstream Western culture,
Africa
is not a continent that can be solely defined by AIDS, ethnic
rivalries, poverty and safaris. Africa, like any other
continent, has an immense history defined by much diversity and
complexity. Africa's long-standing relationship with Europe
speaks especially to some of these complexities -- particularly the
relationship that has existed between the two continents over the
past two centuries. Europe's complete colonization of Africa
during the nineteenth century, also known as the
Scramble for Africa,
produced many unfortunate consequences, the African colonial being
one of them.
The African colonial
(AC) is a person who by means of their birth or lineage has a direct
connection with Africa. However, unlike Africans like me,
their worldviews have been largely shaped
not by the indigenous beliefs of a specific African tribe but by the
ideals of the European imperialism that overwhelmed and dominated
Africa during the colonial period. AC's have no real regard
for their specific African traditions or histories. AC's use
aspects of their African culture as one would use pieces of costume
jewelry: things of little or no value that can be thoughtlessly
discarded when they become a negative distraction, or used on a whim
to decorate oneself in order to seem exotic. (Hint: Obama's Muslim
heritage).
On the other hand,
AC's strive to be the best at the culture that they inherited from
Europe. Throughout the West, they are tops in their
professions as lawyers, doctors, engineers, Ivy League professors
and business moguls; this is all well and good. It's when they
decide to engage us as politicians that things become
messy and convoluted.
The African colonial
politician (ACP) feigns repulsion towards the hegemonic paradigms of
Western civilization. But at the same time, he is completely
enamored of the trappings of its aristocracy or elite culture.
The ACP blames and caricatures
whitey
to no end for all that has gone wrong in the world. He
convinces the masses that various forms of
African socialism
are the best way for redressing the problems that European
colonialism motivated in Africa. However, as opposed to really
being a hard-core
African Leftist
who actually believes in something, the ACP uses socialist themes as
a way to disguise his true ambitions: a complete power grab whereby
the "will of the people" becomes completely irrelevant.
Barack Obama is
all of the above. The only difference is that he is
here playing (colonial) African politics as
usual.
In his 1995
memoir, Dreams From My Father -- an
eloquent
piece of political propaganda -- Obama styles himself as a
misunderstood intellectual who is deeply affected by the sufferings
of black people, especially in America and Africa. In the
book, Obama clearly sees himself as an African, not as a black
American. And to prove this, he goes on a quest to understand
his Kenyan roots. He is extremely thoughtful of his deceased
father's legacy; this provides the main clue for understanding
Barack Obama.
Barack Obama Sr. was
an
African colonial
to the core; in his case, the apple did not fall far from the tree.
All of the telltale signs of Obama's African colonialist attitudes
are on full display in the book -- from his feigned antipathy
towards Europeans to his view of African tribal associations as
distracting elements that get in the way of "progress." (On
p. 308 of Dreams From My Father, Obama says
that African tribes should be viewed as an "ancient loyalties".)
Like imperialists of Old World Europe,
the ACP sees their constituents not as free thinking individuals who
best know how to go about achieving and creating their own means for
success. Instead, the ACP sees his constituents as a flock of
ignorant sheep that need to be led -- oftentimes to their own
slaughter.
Like the European imperialist who spawned
him, the ACP is a destroyer of all forms of democracy.
Here are a few
examples of what the British did in order to create (in 1914) what
is now called Nigeria and what Obama is doing to
you:
-
Convince the people that
"clinging" to any aspect of their cultural (tribal) identity or
history is bad and regresses the process of "unity".
British Imperialists deeply feared people who were loyal to anything
other than the state. "Tribalism" made the imperialists have
to work harder to get people to just fall in line.
Imperialists pitted tribes against each other in order to create
chaos
that they then blamed on ethnic rivalry. Today many "educated"
Nigerians, having believed that their traditions were irrelevant,
remain completely ignorant of their ancestry and the history of
their own tribes.
-
-
Confiscate the wealth and
resources of the area that you govern by any means necessary in
order to redistribute wealth.
The British used this tactic to present themselves as empathetic and
benevolent leaders who wanted everyone to have a "fair shake".
Imperialists
are not interested in equality for all. They are interested in
controlling all.
-
-
Convince the
masses that your upper-crust university education naturally puts you
on an intellectual plane from which to understand everything even
when you understand nothing.
Imperialists were able to convince the people that their
elite university educations allowed them to understand what Africa
needed. Many of today's Nigerians-having followed that
lead-hold all sorts of degrees and certificates-but
what good are they
if you can't find a job?
-
-
Lie to the people and tell
them that progress is being made even though things are clearly
becoming worse.
One thing that the British forgot to mention to their
Nigerian constituents was that one day, the resources that were
being used to engineer "progress" (which the British had confiscated
from the Africans to begin with!) would eventually run out.
After WWII, Western Europe could no longer afford to hold on to
their African colonies. So all of the counterfeit countries
that the Europeans created were then left high-and-dry to fend for
themselves. This was the main reason behind the
African independence movements
of the1950 and 60's. What will a post-Obama America look like?
-
-
Use every available media
outlet to perpetuate the belief that you and your followers are the
enlightened ones-and that those who refuse to support you are just
barbaric, uncivilized, ignorant curmudgeons.
This
speaks for itself.
America, don't be
fooled. The
Igbos
were once made up of a confederacy of clans that ascribed to various
forms of democratic government. They took their eyes off the
ball and before they knew it, the British were upon them.
Also, understand this: the African colonial who is given too much
political power can only become one thing:
a despot.
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©
Copyright Beckwith 2010
All right reserved
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