5 Motivating Reasons Why Black Folk Should Embrace Africa Now and Forever
“Go back to Africa!” Yeah, I know. Those are fighting words and they’ve already triggered a number of automatic replies in your mind. While not quite as inflammatory as the n-word, the little sentence is pretty close and quite likely to get somebody cussed out should it come out of the wrong mouth. Trust me, I get all of that. Yet, I’m going to stand on those words as I tell all my people we need to move beyond emotional responses and embrace Africa in a real way starting right now.
Before I go any further, let me tell you who I mean when I say ‘my people’. I call us CHOSSA, which stands for Children of Stolen and Sold Africans. This designation includes all of us no matter where those ships dropped our ancestors off. I’ll talk more about this at another time, but, for now, know that I’m speaking to CHOSSA in Brazil, the Caribbean, all of the Americas, Europe and anywhere else we may be. As the original Diaspora, each and every last one of us needs to develop a relationship with Africa like yesterday.
Going back to Africa also doesn’t mean a literal move. You can, of course, move to the Continent as many have already done and are planning to do in the future, but that’s not the only way to connect. You may “go back” for visits or, perhaps, explore business and investment opportunities in Africa. At the very least, we all need to go back mentally and spiritually, in terms of claiming Africa as our ancestral homeland and begin paying close attention to news and current events happening on the Continent every day.
Lastly, please save your keystrokes. I already know Africa is a continent and not a country. I also know those countries were created by White folks in order to kill, steal and destroy everything good about Africa. I’m clear on all of that, which brings me to tell everyone to wake up and take back what we’ve lost to all that despicable foolishness.
5 REASONS ALL CHOSSA NEED TO GO BACK TO AFRICA RIGHT AWAY
1. Do It For the Ancestors
You are free to do what your forebears could only dream of. Imagine what it felt like to be so brutally ripped away from your homeland and everything you’ve ever known. Left with nothing but memories and dreams, imagine what it must’ve felt like to long for a return that you knew would never happen, but you hoped would someday happen for your children and theirs after that. Now, imagine your descendants now being free to reclaim that homeland, but avoiding the blessing of doing so. Oh how that must pain those looking down on us now!
We talk about what is owed to us due to the hell they went through while being used to build someone else’s country, but what about what we owe our ancestors for their pain and suffering? What do we owe them for enduring and surviving in order that we could even be born? Their DNA, their Spirit, their grit lives inside of us — we carry all of that ancestral energy in our literal beings. We are them and they are us. So, if for no other reason than to take them back to Africa — back to the other side of those so-called doors of no return, we need to go at least once to take their journey full circle.
2. Africa Wants and Needs Us
In 2000, Ghana began offering Blacks in the Diaspora the freedom to enter, live and work in the country indefinitely. Under the Right of Abode program, blacks from all over the world can truly make Ghana a second home and enjoy a status akin to dual-citizenship. I’m not certain what the total number of returnees is now, but by 2015, well over 3,000 blacks had already taken them up on the offer and claim they couldn’t be happier. As many of you know, in 2019 Ghana hosted the Year of Return to help those of us in the original Diaspora find our way home.
Other West African countries, such as Sierra Leone, realize the importance of our return and have also beckoned us back to our Motherland. As Africa is a big place, some countries may be more receptive to our presence than others, but make no mistake about it, plenty of Africans on the continent want to embrace us.
Through our return, we can begin to reverse the losses that West Africa suffered when our ancestors were removed from the Continent. And while we’ve been through hell and back here in America and elsewhere, the advances we’ve made in areas like science, education, finance, tech, engineering, law and medicine cannot be denied. Some of us have also managed to amass small and great fortunes through careers and investments made here. Our return to invest in and help make Africa great again can help replace some of the vitality that’s been pilfered from Africa for too long.
For example, did you know that 40% of the world’s gold has been extracted from Africa? Think about that. The continent that we’re told is so poor and needy — where children are starving and people live in mud huts — that same place has supplied nearly half of the gold in circulation around the globe! World economies have been built and backed by gold that came from the Motherland, yet we are constantly told that she is poor and in need of our charity. That’s that new math, I guess.
Three of the top 6 rough diamond producing countries in 2014 were in Africa. A worldwide symbol of wealth, class and style, diamonds are also used for industrial purposes, such as drilling and grinding tools. How is it then that an abundance of these valuable stones are found on a continent that is portrayed to be so destitute?
Beyond gold and diamonds, elements like cobalt — used to make batteries, computers and mobile phones — are also mined by foreign corporations in poor ol’ Africa. Other resources like petroleum (yes, Africa has oil!), iron, silver, copper, uranium and more are all abundant in Africa. In fact, 80% of all of the platinum used globally in machinery and jewelry comes from Africa! People, including children, risk their lives (and even die) every single day while digging deep into Africa’s rich earth in search of materials that allow other countries to enjoy hi-tech luxuries and that make non-African people filthy-rich from the sale of these resources.
Charity to Africa is a cruel joke that’s been played for too long. How can I say such a thing? Well, common sense suggests that a continent as rich as Africa only needs charity because it’s being looted of its wealth today just as has always been done throughout modern history. Don’t just take my word for it, but read this article, which breaks down the imbalance between the $134 billion in loans and foreign aid that is poured into the Motherland annually versus the $192 billion she gives to the rest of the world each year. That’s a $59 billion dollar difference, folks! As the article states, the aid given to Africa is merely a “smokescreen” to hide the looting that consistently takes place. We have to lend our voices to the sea of native African ones already addressing this.
So, how is Africa still so underdeveloped and poor? How do we fix our lips to say that the Continent needs charity when so many others have built their wealth on the free labor and resources taken from its shores? That’s a good question leading to multiple rather complex and distressing answers. Colonialism, imperialism, exploitation, slavery, multiple wars, debt and even corruption are to blame. One thing is for sure, though, no one is protecting Africa. No one has been successful at unifying this rich and abundant continent to take a powerful stance against the profiteers and outsiders who have raided the Continent of able bodies and valuable resources while leaving the people of our mother’s land bleeding in the dust.
Is it possible that we are an important, yet missing, piece of Africa’s puzzle? Might we be like Joseph spoken of in the bible? Cast out and forsaken, only to rise up to be the ones to protect our people from devastation? Imagine how we could help reshape Africa if all across the Diaspora, we returned with that end-goal in mind?
We may not have all of the answers. We may not even be able to solve the most immediate problems that exist in Africa, but we can play an important role as part of the solution. If nothing else, Africa needs us to return to the land of our ancestors and do what we can wherever we can to say that enough is enough. Our voices are necessary in telling the rest of the world hands off Africa!
3. Africa Is Full of Opportunities
There’s a reason the 45th president of the United States said a lot of his friends go to Africa to make money. That’s because Africa is a land of opportunity. In historic fashion, so many others still flock to Africa to suckle from her abundant resources while we and our cousins on the Continent continue to lag behind others in terms of wealth.
In October of 2020, Nasdaq reported that South Sudan, Egypt, Benin, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Tanzania were in the top ten fastest growing economies in the world. Let me repeat that, six of the top ten fastest growing economies in the world are in Africa! Another in that top ten list is China. A country that was quite poor not too long ago, but has turned itself around economically. China is also a country that, quite coincidentally, is currently leaning hard on Africa for its own survival and continued growth.
As CHOSSA, we deserve to participate in and benefit from Africa’s development, wealth and growth. We (and when I say ‘we’, I’m referring to the ancestors who live on through us genetically and epigenetically) did not ask to be removed from the Continent where our heritage began. We did not and do not forfeit our claim to a continent as grand and diverse and fertile as Africa. We did not ask to be separated from our birthright and we deserve to take part in Africa’s progress as it continues to recover from the devastating effects of slavery, colonization, imperialism and outright theft.
And unlike those who use the Continent for their own benefit, we are seeking to bring our education, experience and resources to work for Africa and all Africans globally. So many use our Motherland for the wealth and business opportunities she provides, but they never seek to truly put roots down and build there. They carve out their own little spaces to live and socialize while very few live among the people or seek to blend with Africa’s various cultures as we long to do. And when they’re done, they take their spoils and go home giving not a care to Africa beyond what she can do for them. So, why shouldn’t we, who love our ancestral home, not explore the vast opportunities Africa offers? Wouldn’t we all be better off for such efforts?
4. We Deserve a Break From Whiteness
You probably won’t notice this until you actually touch down in Africa, but it’s nice to just be a person and not a Black person even if for a short while. We deserve the kind of mental, spiritual and emotional break being in a majority Black country provides. I’m one who LOVES my Blackness beyond words and I also love being lost in a sea of Blackness without White supremacy’s beauty standards on every billboard or the constant news reports of racist incidents. It’s nice to be in a place where not only is the president Black, but so is every other politician no matter what they agree or disagree on. Doctors, ticketing agents, hotel staff, business owners — just about every one you come in contact with is Black and it’s just the break from Whiteness you need to bask in your unfettered humanity even if just for a little while. (Note, just be sure to choose a Black country when you go. Although there is plenty to be celebrated across the entire continent, you may not have this experience in say Egypt or even South Africa. While S. Africa is full of beautiful Black people and you should definitely check it out, I found it to be quite westernized. The break from Whiteness is there, but to a lesser degree than say West or Central Africa.)
5. Because We Can
No sense in lamenting all that was taken from us if we’re not willing to go back and get some of it. Language, traditions, religion, history…there’s so much tragedy in what was ripped away from us, but guess what? It’s all been preserved in Africa. I once heard a Gambian say that the names of those who disappeared were kept by his people and that ritual libations are poured on their behalf and their names are spoken during ceremonies. Our history, our memory and those who remember us are all there hoping and waiting for our return.
Unlike our ancestors or even generations closer to us like our grandparents and great-grandparents who existed under their own restraints, we have the ability to go back on our own terms. Whether this means for a short vacation, a long-term visit or a permanent move, we simply must not deny ourselves or Africa any longer. Did you know you can even put flights on layaway now? I mean, literally, no more excuses, people! Every CHOSSA reading this needs to make at least one pilgrimage to Africa during one’s lifetime.
NEED MORE CONVINCING?
If these 5 reasons weren’t enough, then I implore you to visit my website and blog where you’ll find at least 13 reasons to return and more. You can also follow me on Instagram as I curate the BlacktoAfricaMovement and the CHOSSANation pages.
BEFORE YOU GO…
As I write this (my first article on Medium), I do not have any followers. I plan to publish a lot more and so if this article moved you even a little bit, please help a sista on her road to 100 followers (and beyond) out by following me now. I’ll be writing on various topics as they relate to race and returning to our African selves as CHOSSA (and remember, that stands for Children of Stolen & Sold Africans). I’d love to have you along for the ride!