DRAMA of TWO AFRICANS in HYDE PARK Pt 2

Drama of Two Africans in Hyde Park 

By Nzinga Nzinga

When African from the East meets African from the West, ole fiah tick easy fi ketch! (It is easy to ignite old fire sticks.)

♪♪ I want you beside me all of the time…

Holding hands together… 

All in the same boat. 

Rocking on the same road…

We got to get together. ♪♪

-- Bob Marley…Satisfy My Soul

 Part 2.

“You have hit the nail on the head. We Africans have to get closer together. We have to start moving towards one another cutting across boundaries, tribal differences and linguistic peculiarities. All black people are Africans.” The Gold Coast man’s voice rang out with excitement.

“You are talking unity. That is the core of my message to our brothers in Africa. We have to unite, not only African nations together but also all Africans in the world at home and abroad. There is a radical Jamaican who will one day sing:

           ♪♪ No matter where you come from

           As long as you’re a blackman you’re an African. ♪♪

Even those who do not yet know that they are Africans will soon learn. You see, my brother, there is a natural mystic blowing through the air and it is African. It is the hegemony of the African spirit that will generate in Africans at home and abroad, a new consciousness never before witnessed. It is the African spirit indigenous to our continent and which can be retained, maintained, sustained and exercised nowhere else but in Africa." He stood up, sat down again and stood up again. 

Pacing back and forth, he continued to speak. "Let me repeat. It is absolutely essential and necessary that the hegemony of the African spirit be retained in situ on the continent of Africa, the only place on earth where this can happen. It is the spirit which inspires us, not only to feel good about ourselves, but also to want Africa for Africans at home and abroad. That's not racism, but rather the policy of putting race first, a course we have yet to learn to pursue.”

“That is good news, my nameless brother. We need such a force of nationalism to wake up our people to what we can achieve,” said the man from the Cold Coast.

“My brother, believe me, when it gets really forceful it will even awaken our dead!”

The continental laughed. “You, yourself are certainly forceful. A few more like you in Africa and those undesirable, colonialist bald heads would be running away from the continent without even a backward glance. You are such a strong character.”

The non-continental smiled. “I suppose I am. You see, it comes to the individual, the nation and the race once in a lifetime to decide upon the course to be pursued as a career. The hour has now struck for the individual African as well as the entire race to decide the course which needs to be pursued in the interest of our liberty and rehabilitation. Let them beat the black man, scoff at the black man, deride the black man. It may come back on them one of these fine days because what goes around comes around." 

He paused for breath and then continued. "Today one race is up, tomorrow it has fallen; today the black man seems to be the footstool of the other races and nations of the world. Tomorrow the black man may well occupy the highest rung of the great human ladder, since civilisation moves in cycles.  Black people were once great and we shall be great again. Lose not courage. Lose not faith. Go forward! The time is ripe for the black man to step onto the stage of world affairs, to take his rightful place among men. It’s Black man’s redemption time!” The speaker’s enthusiasm was contagious.

The continental African was pacing in front of his interlocutor. “Oh that I could memorise your words and transmit them word for word to our people when I return home. All that you are saying is true and I am feeling better in spirit already. I was feeling very discouraged when I left the conference room not long ago. Now your words are inspiring me with great confidence courage and hope. I will never forget them. The conference was an immense disappointment. At the end of all those deliberations there were neither any gains for Africa in general nor for Gold Coast in particular."

Shaking his head and sighing, he continued. "All the gains were for Europe. Frankly, it was their conference. They invited us only to hear how we are thinking, what new pressures to put on us and to discover where they are safe enough to slacken up a bit in those areas. I have grown sick and tired of these conferences. Some of my countrymen can’t have enough of them, but as for me, I think they are intended to trap us into selling out our own people. I had no good news to take back to my people in the Gold Coast. I was overcome with hopelessness and ashamed of our powerlessness until you started speaking to me. But now your words have inspired me. Would that my colleagues attending the conference could hear you too!”

“Conferences! Conferences! The white man will have you so confused with conferences you will start to think that there are no alternatives to solving your problems besides conferences organised by the white man. He, the white man, is our problem so it is a waste of time and a contradiction to sit down with him in his conferences to get him off your back. When the Almighty found out that Lucifer was colonising heaven and suborning his angels, did he call a conference? Did he send angels to negotiate with Satan? Did he sign treaties, pacts and deals with Satan? Of course not. He kicked out Satan and his unholy posse all the way down to hell where they belong.  Heaven belongs to God and Satan had tried to usurp power right there in God’s territory. " He gently slapped the African from the Great House, from the Continent of Africa. 

"Let me continue," he said. "Africa is yours. There is a certain proverb: 'No two roosters like to crow from the same roof top.'  In other words, the black man and the white man cannot both be masters in Africa at the same time. If the black man wishes to be master in his own land as the white man is indisputably master in his, he has to push the white man from off his roof top thus laying claim to the right to crow from it alone. He has to be the solo and numero uno cock from on high!” 

“I'm picking up. Your words will not fall on barren ground.  What we have to do will undoubtedly take time but we can and we will do it. Now that the fears are dissipating I can see more clearly. Thank you. You have just quoted an African proverb. What nationality are you? Are you American or are you from the West Indies?”

“Same difference. The white man’s slave ships docked in the West Indies and in America and those who rode to wealth and prosperity on the backs of our ancestors were just as cruel and evil in America as they were in Jamaica, Haiti, Brazil or wherever they enslaved our people. They are the same people who have the nerve to hold our continent in colonial bondage. I am African. I know no national boundary where the black man is concerned. The whole world is my province until Africa is free! However to satisfy your curiosity, I was born in Jamaica, West Indies.”

“Aha! A Jamaican! We need more men who think like you, more men of your calibre to further our cause.”

“What our race needs, is men of vision, endurance and ability, men of character and above all, men of honesty and that is hard to find.” The stranger told the Gold Coast man.

“They will come forward if we can rouse them to sufficient consciousness of their responsibility to our continent.”

“Unfortunately, the great stumbling block in the way of progress in our race has invariably come from within the race itself.” The man from the occident bemoaned.

The continental African looked pained and nodded. “That I will not dispute. That menace looms large on the continent. You would expect that our people would unanimously want to be free of the chains of colonialism and serfdom. But no. There are those who betray us to the coloniser for the most trivial thing such as a nod of approval or an old shirt.”

“In the fight to reach the top, the oppressed have always been encumbered by the traitors of their own race, made up of those who are generally susceptible to bribery for the selling out of the rights of their own people.”

“Education is, I think, the only solution,” the continental said.

The non-continental shouted. 

“Education! Education, indeed! The traitor of other races is generally confined to the mediocre or irresponsible individual, but unfortunately, the traitors among the race of the black man are generally to be found among the men highest placed in education and society, the fellows who call themselves educated and leaders.” 

“You are right again but don't you believe in education?” The man from Africa asked in surprise.

“Of course I believe in education when education is the medium by which a people are prepared for the creation of their own particular civilisation, and the advancement and glory of their own race. You cannot expect to use the very type of education bestowed on you by your enemy to overthrow him. That education is given to you to maintain the status quo which keeps him in his privileged place and you in your underprivileged one. It is orchestrated to keep you from emancipating yourself from mental slavery. As I remarked before, to see your enemy and know him is a part of the complete education of man.” So saying, he sat down with his head in his hands. His eyes were wet. So were those of his companion. 

So are mine. (The author, Nzinga Nzinga.)


To be continued
All the images were taken from the Internet and I claim no copyright.

DRAMA OF TWO AFRICANS IN HYDE PARK Pt 1

 Drama of two Africans in Hyde Park 

By Nzinga Nzinga

When African from the East meets African from the West, ole fiah tick easy fi ketch!

(It is easy to ignite old fire sticks.)

♪♪ I want you beside me all of the time…

Holding hands together… All in the same boat. Rocking on the same road…We got to get together. ♪♪

-- Bob Marley…Satisfy My Soul

Part 1

The scene is set in London Hyde Park. A continental African of some thirty years is seated on a bench reading a newspaper. He wears a long dark grey coat with a black neck scarf. There is a black hat perched on his head. He wears new boots. Half an hour after his arrival, another African dressed identically except for his tartan scarf, joins him.

“Good afternoon, my brother,” said the new arrival approaching the man on the bench. The newcomer is thickset and shortish. He is black with thick lips. He moves like one having authority.

“Fine afternoon,” said the other turning to look fully at the stranger.

“May I sit beside you, my Gold Coast brother?”

“Of course. Please sit down. How did you know that I am from the Gold Coast?” he asked.

“I was told that whenever you are in London, you come here every day bar Sundays between noon and two.”

“That is true. Have we met before?”

“We were well-acquainted some four hundred years ago. We might even have eaten from the same asanka and we might even have hunted together. Can we talk? I have a message for you.” The newcomer was a fast talker and the Gold Coast man was intrigued, mystified more like it.

“What is all this mystery? Speak if you wish. It can't hurt me to listen. I have been listening to so many speeches lately another won't hurt. Before you reveal your mission, tell me where you are from. You already know my identity. The least you can do is tell me yours.” The Gold Coast man smiled at the bold intruder.

“I am visiting from America. The brothers and sisters over there want you to take a message back to our people in Africa when you return next week.”

“You are well informed.”

“That’s my line. Information is my business. Blackman Redemption is my objective. African Liberation is my never-ending mission. Pan-African communication is my trade. This is what you must tell our people on the continent. 'What is happening to you over there on the continent is also happening to us over here in the West. You already know our history of slavery so you understand how we over on this side happen to be here. The same forces harass us both. In other words, we are in the same leaky boat. We are both in trouble from the same enemy. However, you have the advantage over us in that you are on your own God-given territory, on your own continent and in spite of what the enemy might think, he is nothing but an alien intruder.'”

“Albeit, a powerful one.“ The continental said with resignation.

“They are but men, my brother. Mortals like you and me. One day they will send men into space, walk on the moon but still they will not find the formula for peace or for cohabiting this world in harmony with other races. They are, as a Jamaican singing- philosopher-to-come will chant:

♪♪ Men sailing on their ego trips,

Blast off on their space ships

 Million miles from reality

No care for you, no care for me.” ♪♪

“They have no scruples about using their military might on us. We fear them. They have no mercy.” The continental said.

“You have a right to fear them if you think the way you think. If you think you will always be like this, so you shall remain. If you think they will always have dominion over you, so shall it be. You are all on one landmass. You are all suffering from the same pain inflicted by the same enemy. This enemy does not respect your boundaries. In his eyes you are just a bunch of brawny black people put on earth to administer to his needs. Every inch of this land on which he demonstrates his arrogance belongs to you and your descendants forever. Every inch! We African people will not rest until we take back every inch of our land from these greedy colonizers. Forgive me. I can't help but get emotional about this subject.” The speaker’s eyes glistened with tears and his words were like balm to the continental’s soul.

“We agree with you, my brother, but every attempt we make in that regard is beaten down by their superior forces supported by traitors from among us. We seem to be held under by divine or demonic forces. It is as if we are to be always the white man’s servants, his footstool.”

“Don't talk like that, my friend. The power that holds down Africa is neither divine nor demonic. The power that holds down Africa is human, and it is recognized that what man has done, man can do. Have no fear for their sophisticated weapons. Have no fear for atomic energy for none of them can stop the time. The time will come, maybe you and I will not live to witness it, but surely as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, our people shall rise up with one will, with one accord and 'chase those crazy baldheads' out of our land.”

“What a day of rejoicing that will be!" The Cape Coast man exclaimed. "Today we African people have to try hard not to hate these people. They are not human. Look at Italy trying to destroy Ethiopia! It strikes fear in our hearts because we used the never- colonized Ethiopia and Liberia as beacons, as flares of light in our time of darkness. An evil spectre stalks the land and we can find no way of driving it out or of destroying it.” 

The non-continental African shook his head and pushing it nearer into the face of his companion, cried, "Part of your problem is that you do not all know who your enemy is. Listen carefully. An essential part of one’s education is to know the identity of one’s enemy. Know him and then you will know what you are up against. We are many. They are few. They have dazzled, awed, addled and bemused us with their sophisticated weapons, their inventions, stolen and otherwise, and their excessive conspicuous consumption of material things, so much so that some of our people think they are in the majority and unconquerable. We have come to associate invincible, indomitable, invulnerable and unbeatable power with their white skin and straight Caucasian hair." He paused to sneeze. 

 "In fact, they think themselves sacrosanct and divine and have conned many of us Negroes into thinking they are, and that we are not their equals. We Negroes, universally, all have the same enemy. A common enemy. He is the European whether he comes beguiling us in English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch or German, Afrikaner or any other language of the colonizer that I have omitted. Their strongest weapon is to keep us disunited, fragmented, at each other’s throats like dogs fighting over a bone while they step in and deprive the dogs of the bone.”

“I like that,” said the continental.  “I like this thing you are proposing to me but we must exercise patience. By all means, God will deliver us from this unbearable curse, from this evil scourge that is laying our continent waste, impoverishing and under developing our people and turning our men into boys. Yes, they have turned our men and women into servants. Nevertheless we must exercise patience." He stopped, looking up into the sky as if expecting some solution from that quarter.

"Go on," the Occidental African encouraged his brother from Africa in the East

"Okay. Let me remind you that these people who invade our land and put a blight on it, are well versed in the art of divide and rule and they use that policy to turn us against one another as you rightly say. In the end when they act as peacemakers, they take away even the meatless bone over which we squabble and use it to make jewellery or medicine and sell it back to us at exorbitant prices. Excuse me." 

He coughed loud and long and then resumed his remarks. "Peacemakers indeed! They have no respect for peace. They set us persistently at each other’s throats and once we start quarrelling and fighting, they step in, pass judgement and make havoc and mockery of our ancient traditions, laws and customs. Yet we must exercise patience. God will surely deliver us.” He ended reverently as if expecting the other to say “Amen!” 


He didn’t. Instead he snapped like a hungry impatient dog. “Patience? Is not your well of patience running dry? Do you expect to see God coming with a host of angels to deliver you while you sit back and patiently wait? Do you expect to see a white God surrounded by white angels coming down from the skies to help the cause of black people against white oppressors? Get wise, my brother. 

"Look to the God of Africa for help because it is not reasonable to expect the God of your enemy to deliver you from the oppressive hands of his sons and daughters. But be mindful that God, anybody’s God, helps those who help themselves. I know that it is the enemy who teaches you to have patience and that God will deliver you. Their missionaries have done their work well. Their educators have done their training well. My friend, you will have to do your best and God will do the rest. Deliverance is in your hands. Act like the noble warriors you used to be."

He shook his head and continued, with a smile. "Nowadays you resist a little bit here, you resist a little bit there but this kind of resistance will not be effective. It will get you nowhere. Rather, it will frustrate you. These are but fragmented pockets of resistance. The enemy will brush you off like flies. They will massacre you because you are weakened by the disunited front you present. Organize in anyway you can, by any means you can." 

Throwing his arm over the shoulder of the man from the Gold Coast, he continued. "Yea, together we must organize and strategize by any means necessary. We must get and stay together and we will make them tremble and respect us. United we will inspire fear. Our unity is our only strength, our only hope. We can unite in spite of the many obstacles. We must start off with a positive approach, not a negative one. I find comfort in this Ethiopian proverb on unity: 'When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion'”. 

To be continued.

All the images were taken from the Internet and I claim no copyright.