Our 2020 Vision: Make Africa Great Again

by Paradise Freejahlove Supreme

Make-Africa-Great-Again-Winnie-Mandela-by-Paradise, Our 2020 Vision: Make Africa Great Again, Culture Currents

When I first started sharing my Make Africa Great Again campaign with people, it didn’t take long to hear such pedestrian and patronizing responses as: “Africa is already great! Africa has always been great!” Yeah, we know this. But mouthing such words is not beneficial to Africa or Africans in need today.

And when I say Make Africa Great Again, I’m not just talking about the continent, but Africans and Black people worldwide. I’m not just talking about a faraway land for you to journey away to sentimentally, in a day dream or reverie about great African kingdoms in Ancient Egypt, Benin, Songhai and Timbuktu.

Make-Africa-Great-Again-Kwame-Nkrumah-by-Paradise, Our 2020 Vision: Make Africa Great Again, Culture Currents

I’m talking about the Africa in me and you and the minds of the people, now! Make that Africa great again. And make Africa greater than it’s ever been! I’m saying love is a verb, an action word, that needs to be seen much more than it is heard. I’m proclaiming a dictum, a mandate for us to roll up our sleeves and get to work on a United States of Africa and the wellbeing and prosperity of all Africans.

Why? Because years of colonialism have left Africa in a shambles. Crippled. And snakes are crawling in and flying in from every corner of the globe to take advantage of her rich bounty and treasury and disarray. As president of the International Black Writers and Artists, I am privy to the cries of The Motherland.

Make-Africa-Great-Again-Fela-Kuti-by-Paradise, Our 2020 Vision: Make Africa Great Again, Culture Currents

The Congo is being pillaged and plundered. Libya is enslaving Black Africans. Egypt is blanketed in pollution and corruption. In parts of Nigeria and Somalia, poverty is so rampant that many are escaping to South Africa, perceiving it to be the closest utopia to America, but whose Black population is besieged with 50 percent unemployment!

And jobs are so tight and the economy is in such a plight, that Black Africans in South Africa are calling the incoming Africans foreigners. Imagine that: Africans calling other Africans foreigners!

And I have sister friends in Kenya and Cameroon who say there are no jobs there! The sister in Cameroon feels her only options are to come to America or go to Europe or Canada in order to pursue her career. And then there are places like Panama where the old “You must have a complexion lighter than a brown paper bag” Negro rule is in effect, where our darker brothers and sisters are more likely to be ostracized.

Make-Africa-Great-Again-Patrice-Lumumba-by-Paradise, Our 2020 Vision: Make Africa Great Again, Culture Currents

There is still a lot of work to do in decolonizing African minds. Make Africa Great Again!

Meanwhile back here in the states, there is another problem: Every few decades or generations we get these waves of shamed Black youth who have been disconnected from their roots, or maybe find it too challenging to be Black and embrace their African identity, who find new ways to disclaim their African-ness and disown their Blackness.

There is a very determined current wave of Black youth who say they have NOTHING TO DO WITH AFRICA – and/or they are not Black or African, but Original Indigenous Natives. The original Native Americans. And this may be true, but nevertheless, you’re still Black. You’re still African.

Make-Africa-Great-Again-Malcolm-X-Muhammad-Ali-by-Paradise, Our 2020 Vision: Make Africa Great Again, Culture Currents

Your roots, like the roots of all human beings on earth, lie in Africa! Make Africa Great Again has nothing to do with who gave Africa its name. Especially since all people in essence are African and come from the Motherland! This has to do with the continent that most of us presently agree to call Africa. And which I sometimes spell Afraka to denote a Black God centered realm and people. And at other times I may spell it Afrika or Afreeka, to remind us that A-free-Ka and its people must be free.

The point is: Af Ra Ka is our home base. The home base of Black people worldwide. Africa is our Be Hive. Afrika is our Black Power Base. Our life force. Our African Sun. One billion Black people live in or around Aphrikah, where the largest concentration of Black people on the planet is located. The home base of Asians is Asia. The home base of Europeans is Europe. The home base of Mexicans is Mexico. The home base of (East) Indians is India. Where is your home base, Black man? It’s Africa.

Make-Africa-Great-Again-Black-woman-by-Paradise-1, Our 2020 Vision: Make Africa Great Again, Culture Currents

You may be an Original Indigenous Native Olmec-ian Black American Moor. But where is your home base on this continent? Atlanta? Brazil? Brazil has the largest Black population outside of Africa and India. But does Brazil love its Black people? Where 50 percent live in poverty? Under neo-oppressive rule?

The reason why Africa is called The Motherland is because not only did she give birth to humanity, but to all the continents. Africa is said to be the only continent rooted in the earth. The only land mass that doesn’t experience continental drift. Before the continents started drifting apart, about 200 million years ago, scientists say, there was only one land mass. One Supercontinent. Which is now referred to as Pangea.

Pangea-supercontinent-map-pre-continental-drift, Our 2020 Vision: Make Africa Great Again, Culture Currents

Pangea? Noted Black scholar, historian and ancestor, Dr. Ivan Van Sertima, said that 55,000 years ago only Black people, original Black people roamed the earth. Pangea? Let’s call a spade a spade. This is Planet Africa. Call the original land mass and continent Ethiopia, Akebulan, Kemet, Mari or Afraka if you want. Call yourself a Native American if you want, but your elongated head is shaped like Mama Africa. The heart of the world and center of the universe. Let’s Make Africa Great Again.

Because Black people all over the world and Black culture would be in serious trouble, even more so than today, if there were no Africa. If the Motherland became the Mothership and suddenly disappeared. Your little lost souls and Black behinds would be like bees or ants without a home – whose hive was suddenly obliterated. You would be subject to and swallowed up by krakkadom and krakkas from all over the world: Indian krakkas, Asian krakkas, Mexican krakkas, Wyt krakkas, Brown krakkas and Black krakkas too. Uncle Tom krakkas from all walks of life who are implicit in your oppression. Because as my underground classic song says, “They love everything about you, but you.”

Dancer-in-shape-of-Africa, Our 2020 Vision: Make Africa Great Again, Culture Currents

They love your music. They love the way you entertain them and make them laugh. They love you being a good sport and running and jumping and playing for their teams. They love your gift of gab and the way you talk for them and their products and celebrities on their talk shows. They love the way you make money for them and fight each other waiting in line to buy their chicken or to get in their stores on Black Friday. Why do you think they call it Black Friday?

They love the Black bodies of your children and daughters for sex trafficking. Over 60,000 Black girls are missing here in the states alone. And the number of Black boys missing is astronomical. They love your powerful Black organs to trade for on the “Black” Market. They love marketing your Black arses, but they don’t love you.

You hate your Black African identity. But they know how great it is. So when they graduate their college students, they put them in black caps and gowns, because black represents excellence. Their judges wear black robes, because black represents power and authority. They dress their popes and priests in black, because black represents divinity and greatness. They love your trauma and pain and finding new ways to showcase it every year in more slave movies. Because they love your discomfiture. But they don’t love you.

And the very thing you are running from, your Blackness, your negritude, your African identity, is the only thing that can save you! Your last hope. You must run back to Black. You must run back to Africa – literally and/or – at least – spiritually. You must bask in your African sunlight and let it empower you. Your only defense and offense is Super Blackness. Super African-ness. Not Superfly, but Superblk. Can you get to that? “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the Blackest of them all.?”

Our great ancestor and beloved historian and scholar Dr. John Henrik Clarke said, “Some of us are hiding behind religion to avoid our responsibilities.” In other words, are you truly trying to ignore the fact that Black is under attack by burying your head in the sand … or the clouds?

Yes, in spite of it all, Africa is on the come up. Nevertheless, this be our 2020 vision: Make Africa Great Again.

Project 10/10

Project 10/10 is 10 leaders and decades long champions of the community seeking donations for their projects, including Paradise, Virtual Black Wall Street, The Black Elders Fund, True Vibe Records and Prisoners’ Lives Matter. No donation is too big or small. Any donation is welcome by all.

Go to www.gofundme.com/vbws-project-1010. Thank you for your contribution and sharing this message!

Paradise is president of the International Black Writers and Artists, was honored with his own day, Oct. 6, by the city of Oakland, and may be heard performing at True Vibe Records Presents, trueviberecords.com. Find him on Facebook at Paradise Freejahlove Supreme.