Africa is for Africans

By Sicebise Msengana

I want to bring something important to your attention. It's a shame that they [Europeans] draw old tired arguments to justify land grabbing. I'm a xhosa and it is generally accepted that Nguni tribes migrated from Western Africa to Southern Africa some thousands of years ago. By the time Europeans landed on our shores my Xhosa ancestors were well established in the area. But notice how they [ Eurocentric scholars] distorted historical facts and said both groups arrived at the same time. It didn't stop there.

They also committed several genocides against the Xh
osas and other Nguni tribes. Centuries later, the most infamous Land Act of 1913, forcefully took all the best areas of South Africa and commenced the largest concentration camp in human history of cheap labour. In 1948, apartheid was officially made law, which brutally oppressed Africans for decades and with little or nothing that Africans gain from the repressive system still the land hasn't been resolved.

However, when Africans challenge the status quo demanding their lands, they called "racists" and "bigots." There is a quote attributed to Robert Mugabe, that has some truth in it: "Give me the name of one Zimbabwean [African] farmer who owns land in Britain [Europe] and I will return all the land we took from white farmers." How can colonial masters justify such hypocrisy?


Marcus Garvey wrote: "It is hoped that when the time comes for American and West Indian Negroes to settle in Africa, they will realize their responsibility and their duty. It will not be to go to the natives, but it shall be the purpose of the Universal Negro Improvement Association to have
established in Africa the brotherly co-operation which will make the interest of the African native and the American and West Indies Negro one and the same, that is to say, we shall enter into a common partnership to build up Africa in the interest of our race." -Marcus Garvey - Africa for the Africans, April 18, 1922

But there's hope in this gloomy picture. Revolution will only African people listen and put to practice these words: "I'm dead now. Malcolm is dead ,so are Martin, Garvey, Patrice, Harriet and Nat. We did what we could do, but we are dead now and we are not coming back, so it is up to you all now, our survival depends on you all."