Africa is home to black people. That is a fact supported by the obvious fact of geography.
That’s one of the reasons it is called the Dark Continent. Of course, there are other derogatory reasons for that nomenclature. It is the dark continent because it is the most backward in terms of development.
Nevertheless, in Africa, there are Arabs and people of Arab stock like the Sudanese, Chadians, Nigereins, Malians and other nationals who are fair-skinned. They owe their ancestry to Arabs.
Unfortunately, the Arabs who are in North Africa, naturally identify more with their kinsfolk in the Middle East than their black African neighbours on account of their shared Islamic heritage, culture and common racial origin.
That was why the high-performing Moroccan soccer team at the recent Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup openly celebrated their Arab and Muslim identities ahead of any affiliation to Africa, where they actually reside, geographically,so to speak.
In Africa, Arabs are a minority. In fact, the entire Arab population in the world is about 300 million. Yet, Arab influence is global, first, on account of being home to Islam, one of the world’s major religions, and also because of oil wealth, economic power and rich history.
That said, there’s a disturbing trend in Arab-African relations that is being aggravated by the surge in migrants from black African nations who are going by sea to Europe by way of the North African Arab nations.
These migrants go through Libya and Morocco without legal travel documents. Unscrupulous agents in human trafficking and illicit prostitution rings are behind this migrant labour networks, which ferry innocent people to Europe through North Africa.
While it is normal for the Arab nations in North Africa to protect their borders from unwanted migrants, there is growing concern about the subhuman treatment meted out to blacks in countries like Tunisia, where the country’s President, Kais Saied, is pursuing an openly racist policy targeted at blacks, in a bid to maintain the racial purity of Tunisia.
Even before the government of embattled President Saied came to power, racial discrimination against black Tunisian minorities as well as other blacks from African countries resident in that country was a well known problem. Black minorities in most Arab nations are silent victims of racial discrimination in jobs, marriage, politics and every sphere of human life.
Although Morocco has granted some level of legal status to Ethiopians and Eritreans and some other foreigners, most Arab nations are still intent on preserving their racial purity like Tunisian President Saied is trying to do.
The African Union (AU) must reject this subtle attempt by North African Arab nations to take us back to apartheid. We’re supposed to be moving forward, but Saied and his ilk are intent on destroying the amity that has long existed in Afro-Arab relations. Africa always partners the Arabs in world affairs.
Arabs covet black African solidarity at the United Nations, when confronting the West on the perennial struggle with Israel, even though I personally think it’s very wrong for the Arabs to seek the destruction of the Jewish nation for whatever reason. I believe that Arabs and Jews must end their age-long hostilities and live peacefully together under the widely recommended two-state solution.
That’s the reasonable thing to do, the right path to follow, instead of the mindless killings of innocent people going on in the Middle East.
Personally, I don’t think the Arabs are doing enough to help Africa with it’s stupendous wealth. Black Africa has a large Muslim population. Arabs owe Africa support for building it’s decaying infrastructure, poor educational systems and enhancing its food security. Africa needs Arab money to develop.
We need massive investment from the Arab League to cement the partnership between African nations and Arab people to consolidate Afro-Arab relations. There is a need to help Africa without attempting to Islamise the continent or bring it under the hegemony of radical Islam. Arabs must respect Africa and not discriminate against its people. It is also wrong to compel poor African nations to toe the Arab line in dealing with Israel. That is wrong. No African country should be dragged into the Arab-Israeli conflict because Africa needs Arab patronage. Being third world countries, we should be development partners.
I want to plead for deeper cooperation between African and Arab nations. Arab leaders should encourage African leaders to develop their countries, instead of stealing the wealth of their own people and hiding it in Western banks. Arab leaders hardly do that, even if some are corrupt and dictatorial. More Arab multilateral agencies should come to Africa to promote mutual development objectives.
We don’t need to quarrel or view our peoples as rivals and enemies. The exploits of the heroic Moroccan team at the recently concluded World Cup was applauded by black Africans and black people in the diaspora, mainly because they see Morocco as an African nation, despite attempts by some Arab folks to downplay that country’s ties to Africa on account of its location.
On our part, blacks must strive to prove themselves as a productive race, not the whipping boys of a world that is developing in an alarming pace. We should stop aping America and the West, as if they are our masters forever.
The political independence we were granted is enough incentive for us to believe in ourselves and undo every bad legacy of our colonial past. We must up our ante and assert our rights as independent people with a proud history.
African people should appreciate their own heroes and promote their own celebrities. Blacks in America have tried to do that with some level of success. We blacks in Africa tend to undervalue what we have because of the high premium we place on Western brands. We think white is good but black is bad. That is the colonial perspective. That’s not correct. Black is beautiful. We have our strength, which we do not appreciate because of mass brainwashing by the Western media and their cultural institutions and promoters.
Nigeria has to take the lead in the black renaissance that this writer is promoting through the proposed World Black Congress. We need a strong, credible institution to rally all black people so that our unity and solidarity would be the bedrock of a global resurgence that would give us a credible voice that the world would respect.
This is what we should do now. This is where to begin the effort to reclaim our lost identity, personality, self-esteem and essence as credible members of the world community.
•Ayodeji, author, pastor and life coach, can be reached on 09059243004 (SMS, WhatsApp and email: [email protected] only)