From East to West Africa, the border zone between North and sub-Saharan Africa has become the new target of the armed groups already responsible for mass murderous violence in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Afghanistan, among others. We must go beyond the usual arguments, used to explain this historic tragedy. There is the argument of religion, which is now as transparent as fake costumes and make up. Everyone knows these groups attacking the Sahel region from West to East, are nothing but regular bandits, smugglers and mercenaries, with no true religious affiliation. They are in no way different from old time sea pirates, who would also fly Muslim flags, or Christian ones, to trick their victims. This is not at all a new phenomenon, people who sold blacks as slaves for mere profit, also used religion as an excuse. Then there is the known argument of economic wars. This one is also obvious, and gives a clear and simple enough motive for the one above. The pillage of African resources requires the presence of pirates and bandits of all kinds, and can be further put in place by infiltrating the political platforms of the countries being targeted, through corruption. The African public is already fluent in such notions, that one might hear discussed in cafes all over Africa. However, if we understand well the philosophy the fathers of panafricanism taught us, we see that such an illogical situation is impossible to implement, without the psychological dimension of minds deeply infected by the contagion of racism, turned into an inferiority complex. The Sahel violence is being ignored, for very simple causes. This reality is symbolically visible on a map of Africa. North of the Sahara, we have countries that were hit frontally by colonial White Supremacist ideology, which fed them during colonial times the poison of hating the Black within themselves. Thus trying to eliminate any identification of pride with their African ancestry. North Africans were taught that it is better to say you come from elsewhere, from somewhere more ‘white’, like the Middle East rather than being linked with a continent of ‘cursed’ people, and losers. North Africa has seen the suicidal symptom of jihadism surge from this deeply planted self-hate. These false color based classifications also spread the Niger River countries, and survive in many social interactions. Hating the Black within, is the true and only cause for espousing a violent philosophy against your own kin. For North Africans, if your skin tone is lighter, there is this unwashable blackness that still stares you in the mirror. The ‘others’, which remind of that blackness in any way or form, have now a new name: Infidels. Just like Black, the word “infidel” in this poisonous context only means the one outside of accepted humanity.
Eventually this notion of otherness can even extend to nuances within the same religion.
This situation, or this condition, of self-destructive contagion, has extended to cover most of the Sahara region. The North African country of Mali, has been fragmented down to a Mosaic of Africans who officially hate one another, to the point of inhuman cruelty. But it is not each other they have learnt to hate- it is, in fact, themselves.
Look at the map: the North, closer to the whites, and the South, where the skin is darker.
The band in the middle is where the war is raging, where entire villages of Fulanis and others are disappearing, victims of senseless anti-human violence.
The word Sahel should mean for all Africans, everything there is to say about those intent on waging racial wars between people designated as Black for Africans, and others as White for Europeans. It is not only a war of religion or economics, it is a war based on image, symbols, and language. With the full intent of this language turning to thoughts against ourselves. Some want to make this border of color-illusion a reality, with scars to prove it. They are ready, for that, to show us on t.v. images of black slave markets in Lybia. The violence behind these images land on earth they become words and thoughts inside the minds. To reclaim Africa as independent, has to mean first that Africans themselves have analyzed the destructive effects of racism in any and all of its forms, especially how it has destructively affected their image of other Africans. And unless Africans are fully ready to address the problem of self-perception, and make the necessary transformations and adjustments to change it, we are only going to see more Sahel-like contagion.
For groups of black people to reproach Africans not to read Arabic, and be ready to kill them for that, they first have to believe that Arabs, being associated in their diseases minds with Whiteness, are naturally superior to Blacks. They think only whiteness can redeem Blacks. Until we understand this well, we cannot heal this sickness and its catastrophic effects. It is sad to see how this blind spot is so easy to exploit, so much as to expose vulnerable populations to be once again victims, or regress back, to the worst parts of colonial times. It’s a long road to self-love. But it’s the only path to healing.
War in the Sahel, and Racism
