March 8, 2011The Image of Racism in Libyan UprisingBy Kwasi Seitu, Institute for Tsunamic Justicewww.itj-pdn.yolasite.comWash, D.C. - The image of the handsome young boy being in the clutches of a bunch of armed racist, with a gun up against the back of his head, while an apparent Alpha racist questions and threatens him, you can see it in the child’s eye, in his stare. I am not talking about some little black boy caught in the clutches of the Ku Klux Klan, but a little black boy in the hands of murderous racist “rebels” in Libya, as photographed by a Reuters’ photographer and appeared in the New York Times. (3/4/11 “Pictures of the Day,” to view: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/pictures-of-the-day-libya-and-elsewhere-7/?emc=eta1)The caption describing the moment captured in the photo was that the little boy was “suspected of being a Gaddafi supporter, “what it did not say was that the boy was “suspect” simply because he was black or an “African,” as has been made clear by the “rebels” forces is grounds enough for death. Although I have yet to see the great “slaughter” that supposedly Qaddafi is committing, I clearly heard the “rebels” declare Afrikans as their enemy and the enemy of their “struggle for freedom.” This means that their “revolution” is not an Afrikan revolution, it is opposed to Afrikan liberation and unification, that it is just as much anti-Afrikan as much as it is anti-Qaddafi, and murderously so as they have slaughtered untold numbers of people just because they were black.What happened to that little Afrikan child at the hands of those who claim to be operating from a higher moral ground? The so-called “rebels” have killed many, and there is reason to believe that many of those killed have been darker than a paper bag, and for no other reason. Where were the boys parents? Did the “rebels” kill the boy’s parents? The boy looked to be no more than ten or eleven years old, yet the Times described him as a “young man,” which is the same as when the white reporter called a pair of black folk “looters” and white people doing the same thing “hurricane survivors.” Here was grown man was holding a gun to the back of this little boys head, while another was forcefully in his face, it looked like the scene where the South Vietnamese officer assassinated a purported “Viet-Cong” right in front of the camera.Black folk in the U.S. and the entire Afrikan Diaspora must say no to any country arming, or lending any support to the “opposition,” the “rebels,” or the “rebellion” in Libya. In particular, we must engage in discussions so that black people as a whole in the U.S. will oppose the Obama regimes efforts to build up to some sort of “intervention” invasion, or at least to backing the “rebels” to violently overthrow the government. We need to help our people and the general public to look beyond the rhetoric, lies, and half-truths of the mainstream press. The mainstream press has failed to report on the plight of dark complexioned Afrikans in Libya, and due to its own racist nature, does not see any significance in the anti-Afrikan tone of the supposed rebellion for “freedom.” Even the so-called “leftist” or progressive alternative news media has utterly failed to identify, report on, and speak to the anti-black nature of the rebellionThe “rebels” have acknowledged and openly that they are the descendants of foreigners to Afrika, they are not Afikan, they are not black. They are the descendants of those who invaded and took land in Afrika by force, a fact shown by numerous scholars and historians such as Chancellor Williams, John Henry Clark, Ayi Kwei Armah, Walter Rodney, just to name a few. Fact is that many of the blacks accused of being foreigners and mercenaries, were Libyan citizens in Afrika, and looking very much Afrikan. The boy, I did not see the picture of a person that should not be in Libya, but a person in the hands of a bunch of bastard descendants of foreign invasion, domination, and occupation.The uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt have given no indication that they are even aware of, more less committed to Afrikan liberation, at least we have evidence that Qaddafi was, and now we hear the anti-Afrikan tenor of the rebels.Afrikan unity will never be possible as long as these people are allowed to remain in Afrika without being Afrikan themselves. Sub-Saharan Afrika must not only be on guard against the “destroyers,” but the “predators” who arrived in Afrika across the desert through invasion, conquest, and occupation. Four centuries Afrika has given these people the opportunity to become Afrikan, by which they have been able to maintain their claims of legitimacy as an Afrikan state. The battle in the Sudan now spans across northern Afrika, it may be by coincidence that this domino- effect of grassroots uprising to topple old-line tyrannies across northern Afrika, accept in Sudan. It is most unfortunate that the Afrikan Liberation struggle has yet to produce anything more than bright revolutionary moments. It appears that Thomas Sankara, who Mu’ammar al-Qaddafi supported and help to bring to power in Burkina Faso, was the last in a very short line of true Afrikan revolutionary leaders such as Amilicar Cabral and Samora Machel. There seems to be none now, I would say that Afrikans on the continent are in the same position as Afrikans around the world, leaderless and caught up in the machinations of the white or “West” world.I have no doubt that the CIA has had some involvement with promoting the uprising in Libya, that the U.S. has special forces in the country at this moment training and arming the so-called “rebels.” This is Libya and the overthrow of Mu’ammar al-Gaddafi, who is a bigger and older target than Saddam Hussein ever was. For the U.S., Libya has been Cuba on the Mediterranean, and Qaddafi the Fidel Castro of Africa. Note the lack of U.S. concern for the killing of peaceful protesters in Bahrain and the brutal repression of them in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and even in Iraq. Yet, every day Obama and Clinton are beating the war drums and fanning unsubstantiated claims to villanize Qaddafi and buoy the so-called “rebels.” And we are hearing the same tone that came from the Bush regime in their build up to launching “endless war” on a tactic of which the U.S. is the greatest perpetrator and practitioner.Black folk in Amerikkka should and need to make their voices heard on this global development with critical implications for Afrika and the whole of the global Afrikan liberation struggle. And we must come out uncompromisingly on our side in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Chad, Sudan, and Somalia. However, we cannot affect that change with coming to address the Afrikan liberation struggle in our own communities and houses. Some would argue that Robert Mugabe continues to represent the principles of the Afrikan liberation movement, however, this still does not necessarily make him qualified to continue serve as a leader or even as a symbol.Clearly, the Afrikan liberation struggle continues, but always toward unity. I cannot see my way to supporting a racist mob as “rebels,” even less as revolutionaries. I have my doubts that what is going on in Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia have anything to do with Afrikan liberation, if anything, they appear more prone to identifying with, and serving Western interest and essentially helping to return the whole of Afrika firmly back into the hands of the former colonial powers.It all comes down to that picture of that little black boy that the NY Times labeled as a “young man,” with a gun to his head and a clearly angry racist man in his face asking questions and making accusations, and we are not supposed to ask “What happened to that little boy?” because he is “Afrikan,” black in a land of light-skinned descendants of foreign invaders and occupiers who have made it clear that they are not part of the continent of Afrika. Even worse, they see all Afrikans as enemies. I conclude with this question to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, "What happened to that little black boy?"To contact Kwasi Seitu, visit www.itj-pdn.yolasite.com
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