1. 3Celebrating Being African Means Opposing Xenophobia
Today is Africa Day. The same politicians that repress popular
organisation and make deals with capitalism and imperialism
are all making speeches. As they make these speeches they
forget that Pan-Africanism was a radical movement, driven from
below, with a vision of a united and free Africa in which wealth
and resources are shared and people’s dignity restored. They
forget that from Algeria to Zimbabwe it was ordinary people that
made the revolutions against colonialism.
In South Africa the same politicians that encourage and enforce
xenophobia from above are saying how much they love Africa.
But what does it mean to say that you love Africa when you are
sending the police to round up people from Zimbabwe, Malawi
and Mozambique, beat them, steal from them, and then take
them to rot in Lindela before they are deported? What does it
mean to say that you love Africa when you always put the profit
of multi-national companies before people?
Across the continent the majority remain impoverished and
states are neo-colonial formations rather than instruments of
the people. From Nairobi to Harare and Johannesburg the
Covid-19 crisis has been misused to abuse the poor with state
violence.
Africa continues to be exploited by an alliance between
imperialism and national elites who plunder resources leaving
environmental and social devastation in their wake. War
continues in the eastern DRC where many people are killed
2. every day. Libya and Somalia are still faced with civil wars that
are caused by those who want their resources. In Zimbabwe
the dictatorship continues. Many of our countries continue to
starve while our resources are extracted by imperialism.
The decolonisation demanded by the people was never
achieved. Everywhere popular movements were repressed and
progressive leaders targeted. Amilcar Cabral and Chris Hani
were both assassinated on the eve of the achievement of
democracy. In the Congo Patrice Lumumba was removed from
power in a coup and then murdered in 1960. In Ghana Kwame
Nkrumah was removed from power in a coup in 1966. In
Burkina Faso Thomas Sankara was also removed from power
in a coup, and then murdered, in 1987.
No state can stand against imperialism on its own. We need to
build popular democratic power from below. In our movement
popular democratic power has always been built from the
strength of families, neighbours and communities. We have
always understood that the politicians fear this power and will
try to divide us by turning neighbours against each other and
dividing communities. We have always refused this and worked
to build unity in struggle. Our record on this question is clear.
We are not only Africans on Africa Day. We live and struggle
side by side with our comrades from Malawi, Mozambique and
Zimbabwe. Membership and leadership are open to all. We
believe in the words of Kwame Nkrumah 'I am an African
because Africa lives in me'. We believe in solidarity and
internationalism.
3.
We all know that the borders in Africa were created by
colonialism. We all know that before colonialism people moved
around a lot, and that popular politics often took the form of
moving away from an oppressive leader to create new
communities. However, the ANC embraces these borders and
spends millions to build fences and police the borders. The
struggle for land, freedom and dignity might take some different
forms in different countries but everywhere you find the same
struggle.
You cannot say that you support Pan-Africanism or
internationalism while you are simultaneously pursuing a top
down politic of state xenophobia. We will remain committed to
building a bottom up politics of solidarity that unites the
oppressed in struggle.
