From Cop City in Georgia to Genocide in Gaza, the rise of fascism touches all colonized people. It is extremely important in this time of sharpened contradictions in the global capitalist system for Africans and working class people all over the world to make these connections and build solidarity with oppressed peoples everywhere.
BAP unequivocally supports the Palestinian’s struggle for self-determination, their land, sovereignty, freedom and justice. The struggle of Palestinians is the struggle of Africans is the struggle of the masses.
U.S. Out of Africa: Voices from the Struggle
Since the October 7th act of Palestinian resistance to the 75 year occupation, there has been a great deal of discussion among African people about how this applies to us? Some feel that we have our own liberation struggles and have no capacity to focus on those of others. Others feel that there is a link between the liberation struggle of the Palestinian people and those of African people.
AFRICOM Watch Bulletin spoke with Djibo Sobukwe recently who is a former longtime member of the All African People's Revolutionary Party and a member of Black Alliance for Peace Africa and Research / Political Education teams.
AFRICOM Watch Bulletin (AWB): When most people think of the African Diaspora, they don’t think of Palestine. Should it be included, why or why not?
Djibo Sobukwe (DS): I think it should be included because by definition “the African diaspora” includes anywhere in the world where we find persons of African ancestry living. There is definitely an Afro Palestinian community in Palestine, in fact one would be hard pressed to find any country in the middle east (Western Asia) that doesn’t have some presence of people of African descent. It is appropriate here to mention a famous Afro Palestinian freedom fighter named Fatima Bernawi who was nine years old at the time of the Nakba. She later joined the Fatah movement, and was reportedly the first Palestinian woman jailed by the Israeli Defense Forces for being involved in a planned attack. After spending 10 years in jail she was released in a prisoner exchange and then went on to work with PLO chairman Yassir Arafat.
AWB: How should we respond to the African person, especially in the United States, who says, "I’m concerned about police brutality here and just don't have the capacity to take on the Palestinian struggle"
DS: We all have a responsibility to educate ourselves to understand that police brutality here is just one local symptom of this US racial capitalist imperialist system that is international and has violent ramifications the world over. Dr. Martin Luther King’s statement that “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world is my own government” is still the truth. The Zionist entity (Israel) is a US middle east settler colonial satellite apartheid state that has been committing genocide against the indigenous Palestinian population for 75 years, funded and supported by our tax dollars. The US empire is at the head of an international structure of violent oppression of the majority of the worlds’ people. The only way we can be victorious is to internationalize our struggle and be in solidarity with the struggle of other oppressed communities. The issue of being educated and being on the side of justice is not always easy because the first line of attack by US imperialism is the ideological arena or the battle of ideas and morals. The empire relies on constantly gaslighting and falsifying history in order to manufacture consent and gain complicity by the masses towards its objectives. It also relies on public sanction, threatening and condemning people who do speak the truth.
AWB: Talk about the primary contradictions or misunderstandings that the African Christian Zionist in the US has about Palestine and the State of Israel.
DS: The primary confusion lies in conflating biblical Israel of the old testament with the relatively new (since 1948) settler colonial state of Israel which is occupied Palestine. In reality the two have nothing to do with each other. The confusion is also rooted in the myth that Jews controlling Israel will somehow facilitate the second coming of Jesus thereby bringing salvation to Christians.
AWB: In your latest BAR op-ed, you talked about Nasser leading the Casablanca group of African countries in 1961 which supported Palestinian rights and condemning Israel. Talk about what became of that concept and if you see signs or hope of that effort being revived in Africa?
DS: Well, the struggle between the Casa Blanca group on one hand vs Monrovia and Brazzaville groups on the other, represented a big class struggle between the progressive revolutionary countries wanting total independence and the countries that wanted to remain neo-colonial. That class struggle still exists but in a different form. Now neo colonial governments have near complete dominance of the continent, there are only at best a few progressive governments. But change is constant, and there are some encouraging signs in that there are some left, progressive Pan-Africanist, socialist and communist parties and movements emerging that are challenging the dominant narrative. Even a neo-colonial government like the one in South Africa is insisting that at least Israel should not get observer status at the AU.
AWB: For those who do see Palestinian liberation being linked to African liberation, how best can one contribute to both?
DS: The best way to make contributions to both is via organizations; that is to join an organization that has revolutionary internationalism/ Pan-Africanism as a core principle and demonstrates this through its work. If one organization doesn’t totally satisfy this, one can always support or join an additional one.
News and Analysis
The Black Alliance for Peace Condemns the Murderous Assault on Occupied Palestine
October 11, 2023 by Black Alliance for Peace
The Black Alliance for Peace stands in solidarity with the people of Gaza and all Palestinians under occupation in the racist, apartheid settler state of Israel. We recognize the right of Palestine to exist and the right of the Palestinian people to resist occupation. We call on African/Black people to remember our long tradition of solidarity with Palestine.
The A-APRP Condemns Attack on the PAIGC
December 7, 2023 by All African People’s Revolutionary Party
We call on all revolutionary Pan-Africanist, anti-imperialist and progressive forces to stand in solidarity with the PAIGC, PAI Terra Ranka Coalition and the heroic people of Guinea Bissau who chose once again the path of progress over the neo-colonialist reactionaries and their foreign counter-revolutionary imperialist backers. We will not let their victory be stolen.
Populist Trends or Revolutionary Pan-Africanism?
November 30, 2023 by Kinuthia Ndungu & Nicholas Mwangi
The African continent is witnessing the dynamic movement of leaders who deliver passionate speeches, captivating the youth and the diaspora. However, beneath this energetic facade lies a challenge – the rise of pseudo-populist Pan-Africanism that regurgitates empty rhetoric. This practice has also extended among African presidents who are now becoming overnight celebrities around the world with short YouTube videos going viral.
Kenya’s Intervention in Haiti: An Interrogation of Impetus, Objectives, and Consequences
November 21, 2023 by Haitian Studies Association
This panel is a dialogue between Haitian and Kenyan internationalists about the implications of a Kenya-led military intervention in Haiti. It features Jemima Pierre, Professor of Global Race at the University of British Columbia (Canada) and Haiti/Americas Team-Coordinator for Black Alliance for Peace (U.S.); Georges Eddy Lucien, Professor of History and Geography at the Université d’Etat d’Haiti (Haiti); Willy Mutunga, retired Professor of Law at the University of Nairobi, former Chief Justice of Kenya, and former President of the Supreme Court (Kenya); and Boniface Mwangi, renowned photo-journalist activist (Kenya).
November 15, 2023 by Djibo Sobukwe
Colonized people must be in solidarity with the oppressed and by definition, that means being anti-zionist. Political Zionism is a racist ethno-nationalist imperialist ideology and movement founded in the late 19th century that mis-uses Judaism to justify the settler colonial occupation of Palestinian land as a state reserved only for Jews. Christian Zionism, which actually preceded political Zionism, is the belief that the biblical land of Israel should be controlled by Jews thereby ensuring the second return of Jesus which will bring salvation to Christians.
Pan-African Masquerade: William Ruto with the Mask Off
September 27, 2023 by Larmbert Ebitu
With recent credible reports suggesting that the UK’s MI6 and the US’s CIA are plotting to eliminate African leaders seen as aligned with Russia, one cannot rule out their weaponizing puppets like Ruto to do their bidding. Africans must start calling out Ruto, if only to expose the neocolonial puppet behind the mask masquerading as a pan-African.
If you are interested in getting more directly involved in the fight to liberate Africa, please consider joining the U.S. Out of Africa Network.
No compromise, no retreat,
BAP’s U.S. Out of Africa Network
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Banner photo: Two demonstrators standing side by side with one holding Palestine flag and other holding DR Congo flag (courtesy social media).