Daily Independent (Lagos)
Taiye Olaniyi
8 January 2009
opinion
Beside the vivifying aura of the universal respect and acceptance of late Pope John Paul II as a world personality, Barack Obama's adventure and victory at the Presidential election of America has also set a new record in world history.
Black consciousness or/and awareness in "blackism" in racial context started from time immemorial but became more prominent after the era of slave trade and associated inhuman treatment being meted to the blacks both in the African continent and the Diaspora.
Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King, Jr, Malcolm X and a host of other blacks in America in particular could not but voice out their oppositions to the disdainful manner blacks were being treated in America and other lands.
Here in Africa, the likes of Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Jomo Kenyatta, of Kenya, Nnamdi Azikwe and Obafemi Awolowo of Nigeria were no mean figures in the promotion of black consciousness and Pan Africanism.
I remember as if it were yesterday, the revolutionary musical renditions by reggae artists like Burning Spear in his "Do you remember the days of slavery"? The Mighty Diamonds' "Why my brother why, the killing and maiming?" and Bob Marley and the Wailing Wailers in "Until the philosophy that holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently abandoned, everywhere will be war, ........"
Peter McIntosh also contributed to black man's resurgence in renaissance by singing "Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights". and a lot of assorted reggae tunes that eventually advanced the frontier of independence in South Africa in particular.
In an attempt to bring reality of black consciousness into the fore of culture, Nigeria hosted the Festival of Arts and Culture in 1977 and since the establishment of Centre for Black African Arts and Civilization (CBAAC) the promotion of culture and black intellectual contributions to world civilization is being put on the front banners.
However, the glaring evidences of abject poverty, downturn in economic activities, bad governance, explosive internal and external crisis, wars and bouts of other calamities are making mess of what remains what could be likened to the pride of the black race.
How true the statement of Susan Rice that "Africa is too rich to be poor and too poor to be rich".
Inspite of numerous measures to lift the continent from its inimical economic and political doldrums through numerous initiatives by the Western world, the American and Asian tigers, every positive move usually meet its albatross in the heart of the black man and poor leadership qualities.
General Yakubu Gowon's popular adage after the civil war enjoining that "United we stand, Divided we fall," has been bastardized by the fall of many black African nations.
Barack Osama's victory in the United States of America has reinforced the statement of the Hare Krishna movement, that "At the lotus foot of God, mankind is united".
Victor Hugo has described humanity as "the gathering of all human beings", this humanity has said yes to tests, and trials of Barack Obama as a universal personality. Would he fail the world as a Blackman ensouled in the spirit of Americanism?"
If it were in Africa the ancestral home of Obama that the election had taken place, the odds are that might not have emerged as President inspite of his grandiose styles of leadership, impeccable credentials and eloquence. In America, nationalism and patriotism hover around the hearts of their citizens whether highly or lowly placed.
Are we blacks in Africa expecting Obama to drop these two noble tenets that usually advance the course of true nationhood for just mere racial, sectional, tribal and ethnic jingoism that have bastardized governance in black African nations?
The citizens of the world are fed up running helter skater in towns and cities, villages and jungles where George Bush is planting bombs and explosives.
Humanity will no doubt appreciate Barack Obama as a universal personality in his succor to the Almightiness of God, the creator of everything everywhere, if only he agrees to submit to this opinion of the sage:
"Militant activity is of the mind rather than of muscle. Mental argument must be met by mental conviction. The enticements of darkness must be neutralized by the beatitudes of light.
The subtle attractiveness of untruth and deception must be overpowered by the grandeur of truth and divine revelation."
Barack Obama should learn to tell his black brothers in rulership position here in Africa in particular, that his yearning for the black race in Africa and Diaspora is to uplift the "African history be it lost, stolen or strayed", using the words of our own Philip Emeagwali - the world renowned super computer genius, for according to him, "The story is mightier than the warrior."
As Obama begins another chapter in the chronicle of the black race, may the Cosmic Christ and spirit of our ancestors bestow on him the wisdom that would make the story live on.
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WISHING Glenn Miller - words and music by B.G. DeSylva
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