[EXCERPT FROM: NATION-BUILDING: RECONSTRUCTING AFRIKAN POLITICAL PRAXIS, DR. AMBAKISYE-OKANG DUKUZUMURENYI]

[EXCERPT FROM: NATION-BUILDING: RECONSTRUCTING AFRIKAN POLITICAL PRAXIS, DR. AMBAKISYE-OKANG DUKUZUMURENYI]

We must understand that we are not talking about reform.  This is no more reform minded than was the Poor People's Campaign initiated by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As he himself stated,

“We are not interested in being integrated into this value structure.  Power must be relocated, a radical redistribution of power must take place ...This means a revolution of values ...We must see that now that the evils of racism, economic exploitation and militarism are all tied together, and you really can't get rid of one without getting rid of the others ....

The whole structure of American life must be changed...

We must formulate a program, and we must fashion the new tactics which do not count on government good will, but instead serve to compel unwilling authorities to yield to the mandates of justice...

Nonviolent protest must now be adapted to urban conditions and urban moods.  Nonviolent protest must now mature to a new level...mass civil disobedience...

There must be more than a statement to the larger society, there must be a force that interrupts its functioning at some key point ....Let us therefore not think of our movement as one that seeks to integrate the Negro into all of the existing values of American society, but as one that would alter those basic values.”  [DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.]

These are not the words of reform, but social revolution; not necessarily violent, but revolution nonetheless.

When you begin to talk about altering resource distribution, when you discuss changing values, when you speak of disrupting the functioning of society, you are talking about thrusting yourself into the heart of the struggle for power.  When the exploited lifts up their head and speaks of nation-building, and challenges the exploiter, this is not reform it is SOCIOPOLITICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC REVOLUTION.

Changing the system is often violent and it is bloody because the holder of power never goes quietly.  Just look at U.S. actions in Iraq perpetrated under the guise of regime change and value reorientation.

All of this is in play right now: that is social reconstruction-revolution from the outside and it is not peaceful.  That is how you alter an intractable system: you do what the United States did and has done, you prevent it from operating.

We as Afrikans must keep in mind as well that whether we acknowledge it or not we have been in a perpetual state of social, cultural, political and economic war with the powers of Europe. 

Beginning in 700 A.D. and ending in 1485 we fought with the European Christians for control of the Iberian peninsula. 

In 1485, after 785 years we began our last stand in Grenada, Spain against the Portuguese and Spanish. In 1492 we were driven out and they did not stop there.  They immediately began to extend their reach into Afrika and Asia and established and Afrikan-Hindu Empire.

In 1493 the Catholic Church instituted the Asiento, which allowed the Portuguese to transport enslaved Afrikans into Spanish colonies. 

In 1512 King Emanuel of Portugal announced in the policy plan the Regimento,  Portuguese plans on the conquest of Afrika, couched in semantical terms of humanitarianism.  The document stated that conquest would occur in three forms: territorial, enslavement and acculturation.  

The year 1513 saw the Italian Niccolo Machiavelli write his treatise The Prince.  The book provides political philosophy on the procedures for the successful conquest and maintenance of states and conquered territories, the establishment of colonies. 

From 1518 to 1880 we have the Maafa, The Great Suffering of Afrikan people under European enslavement.

In 1884 there is the Partition of Afrika by European powers.

From 1884 until 1994 there has been a constant struggle on the part of the global Afrikan population with European interests. 

A perpetual state of war sometimes hot and at other times cold.  But war nonetheless. A genocidal, terroristic war which utilizes law, health care, and economics as the ultimate Weapons of Mass Destruction. 

And that war has increased in intensity since 2001, with the open renewal of the policy of colonialism and imperialism by the United States and the United Kingdom under the pretense of fighting terrorism as defined from Western values and interests. 

And once again the other European powers [France and Germany] squabble with the U.S. & U.K. over the utilization of the spoils of imperial conquest and not over the morality of the issue.

As Afrikan Men and Women we must use all viable options to protect ourselves and our interests and thus provide a brighter future for those yet unborn. 

This is a necessity that all people must satisfy or forever forfeit the right to be considered Men and Women.  You as a generation must understand that you HAVE A HISTORICAL MISSION THAT ONLY YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH, AND THAT YOU CAN EITHER FULFILL IT OR BETRAY IT.

As Afrikan Men and Women it is our duty to build and protect our communities, a duty that we ignore to our and our future generations peril. 

Enslavement and Colonialism were merely dots on the map of Afrikan History.

We now must do what we have always done, RECONSTRUCT OURSELVES, OUR COMMUNITIES, OUR CIVILIZATIONS AND ALLOW OUR LIGHT TO SHINE BRIGHTLY FOR ALL OF OUR FUTURE GENERATIONS TO GAZE UPON WITH GRATITUDE AND PRIDE.