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.