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Obi Egbuna Jr Simunye
WHEN a 30-year-old daughter of Africa, Bree Newsome born in Charlotte, North Carolina recently decided to travel to Charleston, South Carolina and climb a 30-foot flagpole and remove the US Confederate Flag, it is safe to say that Africans at home and abroad were deeply moved by this courageous act.

For those among us who remember the words of Frederick Douglass, who once said; “Power concedes nothing without demand”, often echoed in circles of those who consider themselves our most politically and historically enlightened, we are witnessing politicians being forced to address the issue and racist and genocidal monuments in their states and cities.

Both the Mayors of Baltimore and New Orleans — Stephanie Rawlings Blake and Mitch Landrieu — have decided to address the issue of confederate monuments in their cities, the actions of Sister Newsome and the two Mayors, are in response to the nine Africans gunned down at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston,South Carolina on June 17.

Since this horrific act occurred, it has been revealed that the 20-year-old Dylann Roof, who recently confessed to the shootings, was seen in pictures not only sporting clothing with the US Confederate flag, but also the flags of Rhodesia and South Africa when it was under Apartheid rule.

If the majority of so-called African Americans have concluded that the US Confederate flag and the white supremacist tradition, has only domestic implications, the global influences of Mr Roof have forced our people to evaluate their thinking.

What Sister Newsome and Mr Roof have in common, is neither one of them were born when the world witnessed Zimbabwe’s flag being raised for the first time at Rufaro Stadium on April 18, 1980.

For Sister Newsome, it symbolises watching a people who she is connected to by blood, celebrate defeating the second most powerful colonial army assembled on African soil, in the case of Mr Roof, it represents the crushing of the empire that he embraces philosophically.

In Sister Newsome’ case, her quote was “You come against me with hatred and oppression and violence. I come against you in the name of God. This flag comes down today”.

The big question therefore is Sister Newsome and her generation as comfortable embracing the flag of Zimbabwe, as Mr Roof is embracing the flags of Rhodesia and South Africa under apartheid?

During the press conference discussing his vision for the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March, whose theme is Justice or Else, the Honourable Louis Farrakhan said, “We need to put the American flag down because we’ve caught as much hell under that as the Confederate flag”.

These sentiments remind us of the classic song “Rally Round The Flag” by the Revolutionary Reggae group Steel Pulse which dedicated to the Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey or the very last verse of Lift Every Voice and Sing True to our God True to our Native Land.

Since Minister Farrakhan visited Zimbabwe over 10 years ago and had audience with President Mugabe, we wonder if he would be willing to suggest that everyone who attends the march scheduled for Saturday October 10, 2015, bring a flag of Zimbabwe to hold in the air while he calls for the Obama administration to lift US-EU sanctions on Zimbabwe.

The tragedy is if Sister Newsome and her generation decide to embrace President Mugabe and the people of Zimbabwe, the same forces in our community, who are using her act of defiance as a platform to advance the agenda of the Democratic Party will abandon her quicker than lighting strikes during a severe thunderstorm.

We only hope Sister Newsome has a sit down with Attorney Faya Rose Ture, who was arrested in Selma,Alabama, nearly two years ago for condemning the State of Selma for donating land, to build a statue for the 1st Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. The statue reads Wizard of the Saddle Defender of Selma Untutored Genius. In 2013, during the annual commemoration of the Bridge Crossing in Selma which Attorney Sanders Ture and her husband State Senator Hank Sanders serve as the main organisers, the documentary Mugabe: Villain or Hero Directed by Ghanian Filmmaker Roy Ageymang was featured as the main film.

When addressing Xenophobia in South Africa, President Mugabe stated; “It is a matter of the whites keeping things to themselves and the political dispensation brought in by Mandela that did not address the question of disparities between Whites and Africans (Blacks) and this must be addressed.”

On April 9, 2015 South Africa’s University of Cape Town removed the statue of the war criminal and colonial invader Cecil Rhodes,around the same time Africans born in other nations were subjected to brutal assaults on the ground.

The lesson for Sister Newsome and here generation is the struggle to dismantle monuments that symbolise genocide, are part and parcel of our struggle for political and economic empowerment, and the driving force today is President Mugabe and the people of Zimbabwe.

Since Sister Newsome’s decision to snatch down the Confederate flag, is being compared to when John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised their fists for Black Power at the Olympics in Mexico City, as part of a movement called the Olympic Project for Human Rights. Our Sister must be told that one of the main demands of OPHR was the immediate removal of Mr Avery Brundrage from the chairmanship of the International Olympic Commission, because of his support for Rhodesia and South Africa.

We, as an African family recently watched in utter disgust as the Dominican Republic embarked on a campaign, to forcefully remove Africans who are citizens of Haiti, and make up 90 percent of the migrant workers in the country. This reminded our people everywhere of the horrific Parsley Massacre of 1937, in which the US backed Trujillo regime, exterminated nearly 30 000 Africans who were citizens of Haiti, due to his fear of the darkening of the population in the Dominican Republic. The word Parsley was used in order to distinguish Africans born in Haiti, based on their unique pronunciation of the word. If those Haitian born Africans are no longer welcome in the DR, perhaps they can come to Zimbabwe and contribute to the land reclamation programme.

The former US Secretary of State General Colin Powell, last year, attended a ceremony in Fort Leavenworth Kansas, where a statue was erected in his honour, the statue is right next to the monument he erected for the Buffalo Soldiers nearly 20 years ago. It was General Powell who originally imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe, and used an endorsement of President Obama, to divert attention away from the invasions of Panama and Grenada that resulted in the assassination of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop.

We will never forget the words of Bob Marley from the song “Zimbabwe” ‘Soon we’ll find out who is the real revolutionary cause I don’t want my people to be contrary”, as Sister Newsome pulls down the US Confederate flag, may her generation raise the flag of Zimbabwe and demand that US-EU sanctions be lifted once and for all.

• Obi Egbuna Jr is the US Correspondent to the Herald and a US based member of the Zimbabwe-Cuba Friendship Association his email is [email protected]