Obama must not lose sight of black people’s struggle

THE TRAGIC CONSIDERATION of race at times arouses pity and righteous indignation or contempt and arrogant dismissal at certain critical moments in history.

But sometimes, men have themselves been the very victims of the misfortunes, even violence, they wish on others.

In 1821, America created a colony on the West Coast of Africa, to which they could repatriate “freed” slaves.

When Liberia became a republic in 1847, it captured the imagination of African-Americans and became, like Ethiopia, central to Afro-American political thought.

About 30 years later, Edward Blyden, as an Afro-American teenager (all the more remarkable because he was self-taught) emigrated to Liberia and began to construct a vision of Africa through his Africanist writings.

Blyden’s writings would inspire many black leaders including Marcus Garvey, a descendant of a Jamaican slave, who began to champion the cry of “Africa for the Africans, at home and abroad”.

GARVEY, BY SO DOING, FOUNDED the largest mass black movement in history, inspiring blacks throughout the world with a vision of racial uplift.

Garveyism became a vibrant and essential element of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s.

Garvey’s overtones would later be amplified by pan-African nationalists such as Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere and Patrice Lumumba, who gave moral strength to the strategists of Negritude such as Dubois, Ahmed Ben Bella, George Padmore, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.

Senator Obama has hardly made any reference to this Black consciousness movement of the 1960s, which coincided with the rapid decolonisation of Africa.

At that time everywhere in America, there was much heroism and great sacrifice. Since these men, and after Nelson Mandela, the question of black leadership remains by far the most pressing facing blacks globally.

There is a difference between black leadership and leadership that is black. Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell and Kofi Annan belong to one category that is not difficult to guess. What about Obama, who is enjoying extraordinary support?

He is not easy to categorise yet, because in him, both blacks and whites feel a sense of both betrayal and inspiration.

The sun was never to set upon the white empire.

Throughout history the whites have drawn up contingency plan after contingency plan to deal with their fortunes and possible misfortunes, and it is no exaggeration to say that whites plan their own destiny hundreds of years in advance.

Too many of the black community from which leadership should be drawn are busy serving in the shadows of their white masters — the spirit of slavery and colonialism still lives.

A disadvantaged and exploited people, blacks, especially those in America, have little hope or real expectation of leaving anything for posterity except the traditional blood, sweat and tears and a sordid history of police confrontations.

Which brings the question, is Barack Obama a pawn in the race relations industry, the employer of the most significant body of prominent black leadership?