After the traffic stopping protests against reports of slavery in Libya that took place last month (1), the campaign is set to continue with the London, UK, UAE and Libya Slavery, International Anti-Slavery March on January 27th. The will take place from 12pm to 3pm at Embassy of the United Arab Emirates, 1-2 Grosvenor Crescent, Belgravia, London SW1X 7EE. The organisers, African Lives Matter state:
“This march is a peaceful protest to bring attention to the human rights violations taking place present day in Libya, as of now the following atrocities are happening:
The enslaving, selling and illegal detention of black Africans in Libya. Violence against men, women and children including the extrajudicial killing of children.
Enslavement of African Migrants in Libya by armed Groups funded by United Arab Emirates
Help slavery victims in Dubai return to their families in Africa
Stop UAE funding of armed groups in Libya which imprison, torture and kill African migrants in addition to “selling them as slaves.” (2)
The focus of the upcoming protest represents an expansion beyond Libya to include the United Arab Emirates and Dubai. What is less clear is the extent to the protests can facilitate an understanding of the historical context that sees the continuation of slavery in Libya and elsewhere. An indication of the task at hand be gleaned from our Afrika Speaks correspondent that attended the rally outside the Libyan Embassy on December 9th. When one of the platform speakers attempted (albeit briefly) to place the situation in historical context, vis-à-vis Afrikan/Arab relations, it was met with derisory cries of “we didn’t come here for this” (queries regarding what they were there for were not responded to).
It must be acknowledged that there are differing views even within the activist community about how to contextualise the current scenario in Libya and elsewhere. One of the most prevalent arguments is the idea that current slavery in Libya is a direct consequence of the 2011 NATO invasion that led to ousting of then head of state, Colonel Muamar Gaddafi (3) and prior to then, in the words of former Ghana President Jerry Rawlings “Blacks were equals under Gaddafi.” (4) In other words: “Gaddafi’s Absence Made This Possible.” (5)
This narrative casts Gaddafi as a Pan-Afrikan hero in the tradition of Nkrumah, Lumumba, Ture and Sankara. (6) Indeed, author Jean-Paul Pougala actually refers to him as Afrikan, “the African Who Cleansed the Continent from the Humiliation of Apartheid,” no less. (7) Similarly, this is why the World African Diaspora Union (WADU) claimed:
“The greatest calamity that befell Africa in the last 20 years was the murder of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya.” (8)
Underpinning this narrative is the idea of continentalism the geographical unification of the region., popularised during Afrika’s independence era encompassing the Arab dominated north with the rest of the continent. (9) Implicit in this is the notion of “Afro-Arab solidarity,” the Palestinian issue being a notable example to the extent that the Palestinian Liberation Organisation was granted observer at the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). (10) Part of narrative of Palestinian support is the equation of Zionist Israel being firmly located ideologically with the imperialist west with the latter regarded as the greatest threat to Afrikan sovereignty. (11)
However, there are other perspectives that eschew the notion of Gaddafi as Pan-Afrikan hero as well as the basis for any “Afro-Arab solidarity.” While suggesting that “Arab imperialism is worse than European imperialism., author Naiwu Osahon asserts: “Arabs’ Mortal Hatred And Enslavement Of The Black Race,” dating from the 7th century and “continues to this day in the Muslim world, particularly in the Sudan, Niger, and Mauritania.” (12) From this perspective then, the current atrocities in Libya are not simply the result of NATOs imperialistic designs but part of a millennia long assault.
Moreover, contrary to some observers, Muamar Gaddafi fits neatly into this trajectory.
First of all, in a 2007 speech, Gaddafi unequivocally affirmed his identity:
“But emotionally, we the Arabs, and all of the Muslims, are attached to ‘Ali (the cousin of Prophet Muhammed s.a.w. and first Imam of Shi’a Ithna Asheri)… We in North Africa are Arabs, and North Africa is 100% Arab. Those whom we say are Berbers are the original, unadulterated Arabs.” (13)
Scholars like Baba Chinweizu have also gone to great lengths to document what he refers to as the ongoing “Arab Quest for Lebensraum (‘living space’) in Africa.”
Baba Chinweizi identifies Gaddafi as central to this quest as the following proclamation to the Arab League in 2001 makes clear:
“The third of the Arab community living outside Africa should move in with the two-thirds on the continent and join the African Union ‘which is the only space we have.” (14)
Baba Chinweizu considers this nothing less than a declaration of war on Afrika. It’s a declaration that has been made manifest:
“In the past 40 years, Libya’s Gadhafi has been particularly active in sponsoring chaos, anarchy and civil wars in Chad, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire etc., and in trying to Islamise Uganda, Rwanda, the CAR etc. For example, in a live broadcast on Rwanda Radio on 17 May 1985, Gadhafi said:
First you must stick to your Islamic religion and insist that your children are taught the Islamic religion and you teach the Arabic language because without the Arabic language we could not understand Islam. . . You must teach that Islam is the religion of Africa. . . You must raise your voice high and declare that Allah is great because Africa must be Muslim. . . We must wage a holy war so that Islam may spread in Africa..” (15)
At stake here is, whether or not there was “slavery” in Libya in the fashion that has recently been reported under Gaddafi’s regime, it is apparent that he has an extensive track record of facilitating it elsewhere on the continent.
Yet he continues to garner support. As recently as December 2017 – six years after his death – he was lauded by the African Union for his ”role in maintaining peace and security in Africa.” (16) In addition to this, many Pan-Afrikanists continue to applaud him for pushing the “United States of Africa” agenda. Some advocates of this position such as WADU, have also been scathing about those they say have “colluded” against this programme, in the process throwing together curious bedfellows such as Barack Obama, Abdoulaye Wade, Condoleezza Rice and Baba Chinweizu (the latter castigated as “Intellectual anti-Pan African activist who supported the attack on Libya”). (18)
Yet not everyone shares this pro-Gaddafi position. For example, renowned academic Baba Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe argues that Gaddafi’s strident advocacy of an union government at the 2007 summit of Afrikan heads of state in Accra was little more than a ”smokescreen,” part of his “diversionary trail” to keep the ongoing genocide in Darfur off the agenda. Consequently giving cover to the “well-known pan-Arab long-term goal to seize the whole of Africa.” (19)
Ultimately, the key to solving the Libya slavery crisis and other pressing matters may be a case of not only where ones ideological allegiance lies but also how one interprets history.
Many Pan-Afrikanists claim to be heirs of Marcus Garvey. Some interpret his vision as a continentalist United States of Africa while challenging western imperialism and Zionism and locating Arab intrusion as consequence of this. This perspective characterises Muamar Gaddafi essentially as the successor to Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah.
While others advance a ”neo-Garveyite,” race first position advanced by the likes of Chinweizu, which demands that we, for instance:
“Replace the OAU/AU with a proper collective security organization for Global Black Africa, an organization to which the Black African Diaspora countries and communities will rightfully belong.
It is one of the blemishes of Continentalist Pan-Africanism that it is embodied, at the interstate level, in an OAU/AU from which the Diaspora originators of Pan-Africanism have long been excluded whereas the Arab enemies of Black Africa are, not only members, but the dominant bloc. The Black African Diaspora are only now being brought into the OAU/AU structures as an afterthought and as no more than second-class members… The history of Black Africans demands that we replace the Arab-castrated OAU/AU with a blacks-only collective security organization, and not with yet another Arab-castrated outfit called the UsofAfrica.” (20)
So as we head towards the protests, it is essential that we consider how what we do fits into our understanding of the history and how it contributes to us challenging and eradicating the atrocities against Afrikan people throughout the world and how we prioritise this:
”Unless the members of a group are keen for their group to survive, the group will most probably not survive; for its members will fail to do what must be done for their group to survive. And any such group does not deserve to survive. If Black Africans wish to survive, they must profoundly change their priorities: Not slothful consumerism here on earth, not paradise for their souls in the hereafter, but collective security here on earth must become their ruling passion.” (21)
(1) Ella Willis (18/12/17) African Lives Matter protesters block all roads around Parliament in demo against Libya slave auctions. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/african-lives-matter-protesters-block-all-roads-around-parliament-square-in-demonstration-against-a3722521.html
(2) African Lives Matter (12/17) National anti-slavery march to take place in London. http://www.voice-online.co.uk/article/national-anti-slavery-march-take-place-london
(3) Seun Opejobi (30/11/17) Libya: How Barack Obama caused slave trade in Africa – Reno Omokri. http://dailypost.ng/2017/11/30/libya-barack-obama-caused-slave-trade-africa-reno-omokri/
(4) Zadok Kwame Gyesi (29/11/17) Show compassion to black Africans – Rawlings to Libyan slave traders. https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/show-compassion-to-black-africans-rawlings-to-libyan-slave-traders.html
(5) Chris Jones (28/11/17) T.I. Sounds Off About Slave Trade in Libya: ‘Gaddafi’s Absence Made This Possible’. https://allblackmedia.com/2017/11/t-sounds-off-slave-trade-libya-gaddafis-absence-made-possible/
(6) Min. P.D. Menelik Harris (03/01/18) Press Release: WADU Calls For 2018 60th “Peoples Convention” For A United States of Africa.
(7) Jean-Paul Pougala (20/12/13) Muammar Gaddafi, the African Who Cleansed the Continent from the Humiliation of Apartheid. https://libya360.wordpress.com/2013/12/20/muammar-gaddafi-the-african-who-cleansed-the-continent-from-the-humiliation-of-apartheid/
(8) Min. P.D. Menelik Harris (04/12/17) WADUPAA – WADU for Union Gov. Now!;
(9) Igor Castellano da Silva (30/03/13) From OAU to AU: 50 Years of African Continentalism. https://www.mundorama.net/?p=11031
(10) Prof Haroub Othman (2018) Africa’s Solidarity With Palestine. http://www.aapsorg.org/en/vision-of-bandung-after-50-years/541-africas-solidarity-with-palestine.html
(11) Asari Sobukwe (07/02/11) Where is the Afrikan voice in the Egyptian ‘revolution’? Afrika Speaks with Alkebu-Lan on Voice of Africa Radio
(12) Naiwu Osahon (15/11/09) Arabs’ Mortal Hatred And Enslavement Of The Black Race. https://www.modernghana.com/news/249409/1/arabs-mortal-hatred-and-enslavement-of-the-black-r.html
(13) Labbayk YaMahdi (10/04/07) In Overture to Iran, Gaddafi Declares North Africa Shi’ite and Calls for Establishment of New Fatimid State. https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/imammahdishiaclub/conversations/messages/6814
(14) Chinweizu (25/07/06) The Arab quest for Lebensraum in Africa and the challenge to Pan Afrikanism. http://houseofknowledge.org.uk/newsite/documents/chinweizu/8_Arab_quest_for_Lebensraum_F.pdf
(15) Ibid.
(16) Iddi Yire (25/12/17) AU lauds late Gaddafi’s role in maintaining peace and security. http://www.ghananewsagency.org/social/au-lauds-late-gaddafi-s-role-in-maintaining-peace-and-security-126819
(17) Min. P.D. Menelik Harris (25/12/17) Pan African Agenda – ACTION.
(18) Min. P.D. Menelik Harris (02/01/18) 2018 Call To 60th Anniversary Peoples Convention For United States Of Africa
(19) Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe (25/08/07) History and that Gaddafi Diversionary Trail. https://www.africaresource.com/essays-a-reviews/essays-a-discussions/399-history-and-that-gaddafi-diversionary-trail?showall=&start=1
(20) Chinweizu (2007) Garveyism not Continentalism is what Black Africa Needs. http://www.ghanansem.org/downloads/10_Garveyism_not_Continentalism_is_what_Black_Africa_Needs_4.pdf
(21) Ibid.
we ask the question:
What are the roots of the Libya crisis?
What impact have the protests had?
In understanding the issue should our focus be the 2011 NATO invasion?
Or do we need to go back to the 7th century?
Were ”Blacks were equals under Gaddafi.”?
Is the Arab threat to Arika subordinate to the western imperialist one?
What political approach do Afrikans need now?
Our very special guests:
Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and UNIA-ACL Ambassador for the UK and national co-Chair of the interim National Afrikan People’s Parliament. Bro. Ldr is a veteran activist of over 30 years standing, a featured columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily Affirmations and Education: An African-Centred Guide To Excellence.
Baba Chinweizu: is an institutionally unaffiliated Afrocentric scholar. A historian and cultural critic, his books include The West and the Rest of Us (1975), Second, enlarged edition (1987); Invocations and Admonitions (1986); Decolonising the African Mind (1987); Voices from Twentieth-century Africa (1988); Anatomy of Female Power (1990). He is also a co-author of Towards the Decolonization of African Literature (1980). His pamphlets include The Black World and the Nobel (1987); and Recolonization or Reparation? (1994). More recently Baba Chinweizu has been delivering online classes on the AbibitumiKasa Afrikan Social Education Network: History of Pan-Africanism 101 and History of Pan-Africanism II a multi-sequence course based mostly on his forthcoming 7-volume book Pan-Africanism Revisited: A Neshni-centric and critical History.