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Obi Egbuna Jr Simunye
WHEN Africans critically access the status of our most noble efforts to complete decolonisation, our daughters and sons who are the most determined and committed to this never ending aspect of our liberation struggle, inevitably arrive at the conclusion that having a truly Pan Africanist approach is non-negotiable.

If our beautiful and courage extended family in the Republic of Zimbabwe in all 10 provinces, were to wake up tomorrow morning and suddenly get the urge to march on the US Embassy in Harare, for the purpose of simply posing the question, since it is commonly understood and accepted that we have an unresolved dispute with our former coloniser Britain why does our Political and Economic situation concern you so much?

The so-called African Americans living inside US borders would be the first to pose a follow up question to their Zimbabwean sisters and brothers, ‘Comrades are you sure you are ready for an honest response to that thought provoking question?’
Truthfully some among our ranks may anticipate that Democrats and Republicans would have an entirely different answer, simply meaning that before White liberals and conservatives begin their dog and pony show, that through time has become an insulting and condescending diatribe centered around why they are so fundamentally different.

When an African nation with a proud revolutionary pedigree like Zimbabwe finds themselves entrenched in Diplomatic Warfare with their former coloniser, which is an extension of military warfare where we emerge victorious against odds that were deemed to be insurmountable, the last thing they need is US imperialism meddling primarily because they feel their kith and kin need a helping hand.

What we eventually learn is the biggest threat to African peoples resistance for fundamental change, is US-EU imperialism’s resistance to change, which is rooted in a stubborn and white supremacist disposition that is the biggest threat to world peace.
Our Sisters and Brothers in Revolutionary Cuba clearly remember former US president John F. Kennedy stating what made them most dangerous was not their ability to sustain their revolution, but the inspiration they would provide neighbouring nations who might try to follow their heroic example.

When the history of Zimbabwe’s Third Chimurenga is recorded, what future generations will immediately recognise, was the main reason US-EU Imperialism lost the propaganda war, stemmed from our so-called African American Sisters and Brothers launching an African Historical Reclamation Movement that documented and chronicled the atrocities they have been subjected to inside US borders.

In 2014 an organisation called the Equal Injustice Initiative (EJI) based in Montgomery, Alabama best known for the infamous Montgomery Bus Boycott led by the Montgomery Improvement Association whose most high profile members were Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parks.

On the back of this history calendar and monumental intellectual undertaking EJI explains why the created this work “As part of our work for addressing race and poverty in America, EJI produces educational materials like this publication. Many of today’s issues have been shaped by America’s racial history- the history of racial injustice in particular. The legacy of racial terror and legally supported abuse of racial minorities is not well understood. EJI believes that a deeper understanding about our nation’s history of racial injustice is important to addressing contemporary questions of social justice and equality”.

What EJI’s historical calendar exposes is the manner that US Imperialism treats the victories of so-called African Americans, resembles the attitude that British/Rhodesian Colonialism and Imperialism responded to Zimbabwe’s Second Chimurenga that resulted in a victory against the second most powerful colonial army positioned on our beloved Mother continent.

While EJI’s focus is strictly domestic and was created for the purpose of igniting so-called African Americans, with the hope of intensifying our resistance in Babylon, they more than likely had no idea their Sisters and Brothers in Zimbabwe could use this as ammunition to turn back US Imperialism’s efforts in their Zimbabwe regime change agenda.

The main characteristic of US Imperialism we can focus in on is how vindictive they become, once so-called African Americans made progress whatsoever against their efforts to turn the clock back to chattel slavery and segregation.
After the historic Brown vs Board of Education in 1954 which resulted in the desegregation of public schools in the US, 11 Southern States created a document and program called the Southern Manifesto declaring their opposition and displeasure to a US Supreme Decision the highest court in the land.

While Rosa Parks is a household name in every corner of the world, due to the Montgomery Bus Boycott that lasted 381 days, we must remember that in 1956 a pregnant woman named Rosa Jordan was shot in both legs riding a desegregated bus.

The home of the youngest member of the Little Rock 9 Carlotta Walls that desegregated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957, was bombed three years later.

Two years before this citizens of Little Rock Arkansas voted to close public schools rather than integrate which resulted in schools being closed for approximately one year.

The year before that in 1959 Lawmakers in Prince Edward County Virginia closed public schools for five years and gave the students of European ancestry vouchers to attend private schools.

This also took place in Tuskegee Alabama in 1963 where Caucasian students withdrew from school after integration of schools began and with the help state funds they were sent to a private institution called Macon Academy that remains 98% Caucasian today.

After Chattel Slavery was declared illegal in their state in 1844, the State of Oregon responded by passing a law that prohibited Africans from living there and authorised them being whipped the way the former slavemaster would impose discipline when we deemed acting defiant.

Three years after this the State of Missouri outlawed the formal education of Africans and simultaneously banned the entry of free slaves into the state.

We also must observe the indifferent attitude to the 13th amendment of the US Constitution by the following States Delaware and Kentucky, that abolished Chattel Slavery on paper, the State of Kentucky did not ratify the amendment until 1976 111 years after it was introduced. The State of Delaware ratified the 13th Amendment in 1901 after rejecting it in 1865.

The US Citizens of European ancestry also didn’t take kindly to Africans getting promoted in the work forced, at Packard Motors in Detroit, Michigan in 1943 where their children would dance to the sounds of Motown Records, Caucasians staged a strike showing their anger for Africans getting job promotions.

The main lesson is if Democrats and Republicans respond to so-called African Americans receiving better treatment inside US Borders, their natural response to President Mnangagwa and former President and Liberation Icon Comrade R.G. Mugabe is to maintain US-EU sanctions hoping that the gains of the Second and Third Chimurenga go up in smoke.

Obi Egbuna Jr is the US Correspondent to the Herald and External Relations Officer to ZICUFA(Zimbabwe Cuba Friendship Association) His email is [email protected]