Back to Afrika is a movement that involves both blacks and whites, a movement with a central message that says that Afrikans all over the world especially those in America should just leave wherever they are and go back to Afrika.
This is because they believe that all Black Americans were brought in from Afrika because of the slave trade, and since the slave trade is over we should all return to Afrika which is believed to be the only place for Afrikans.
The movement has been mostly called “Back to Afrika” by Blacks and “Go back to Afrika” by whites.
As mentioned earlier, the movement involves both blacks and whites. Apart from the fact that Afrika is our homeland, the two groups had other motives for the movement.
For Blacks, the motivation apart from going home was to escape white hatred.
The Free Afrikan Union Society which was formed in 1780 which was one of the earliest proponents of the back to Afrika believed that free Afrikans would fare better by returning to their ancestral homes in Afrika.
Marcus Garvey in the 20th century also promoted the idea of "Back to Afrika" because he believed that Afrikan - Americans would never be accepted in America. His am was also to achieve total independence for Afrika and to unite and rebuild Afrika.
On the other hand, the American Colonization Society (ACS) was composed of two core groups: those who owned slaves and those who hated slavery.
The abolitionist members believed in freeing African slaves, along with their descendants, and providing them with the opportunity to return to Africa. Slave owning members believed free blacks endangered the system of slavery and sought to expel them from America.
One of the champions of the colonization movement, Solomon Parker was quoted as having said: “I am not willing Blacks shall ever be freed to remain in the United States... Am opposed to slavery and also opposed to freeing blacks to stay in our Country and do sincerely hope that the time is approaching when our Land shall be rid of them."
The ACS later chose Liberia as a place to return Afrikans from America whereas the Whites in America never returned to Europe or Central Asia from where they migrated.
Therefore, the motivations for Blacks was to escape white domination, to liberate, unite and rebuild Afrika while the motivation of the White advocates for “Back to Afrika” was to have an America for Whites only never for the interest of Afrikans.
The white proponents of this movement do not talk about the state of Afrika in terms of economics;
Do not care about the welfare of the returnees to Afrika;
Do not ask Whites to go back to Europe, and does not ask anyone to go back to Asia or Arabia;
Do not talk about the fact that Afrikans were in America and all parts of the world before Christopher Columbus;
Do not talk about reparations for the contributions of Afrikans who were enslaved;
Do not talk about repairing the damage done to Afrika over forcefully taking away of her people through the slave trade;
It does not remember that every single person on earth is genetically Afrikan.
The only focus of the white proponents of the movement is only the deportation of Afrikans back to Afrika and little or no more than that.
However, since the Whites could not 'deport' all blacks from America, they employed racism, and racism as we know it is “go back to Afrika in action.”
From what we have seen so far we can now begin to describe go back to Afrika what it really is especially from the white man's perspective
1. ANTI BLACK RACISM
While Back to Afrika is a genuine term used by Afrikans, “go back to Africa” is not.
According to Haleluya Hadero on qz.com, “Go Back to Africa” is a racist putdown long used against African-Americans, Africans, and other black people in North America and Europe.
Examples of racism as back to Afrika in action are
The Jim crow laws. Jim crow laws were a series of laws passed against Afrikan Americans to slow down the progress of Afrikan Americans after the abolishment of slavery and the reconstruction period. This period gave birth to the Black Codes, the KKK, segregation, lynching, and various other racist tools that made every Afrikan in America wish to run back to Afrika.
BLACK WALL STREET
In the 1920s, the Greenwood District was dubbed "Black Wall Street" by Booker T. Washington, as the community boasted more than 300 black-owned businesses, including two theaters, doctors, pharmacists, and even a pilot who owned his own private airplane.
Roughly 1,200 homes were burned, 35 blocks burned, an estimated 300 black people killed, About 10,000 black people were left homeless.
no criminal act from the massacre
It has been called "the single worst incident of racial violence in American history."
According to vox.com, after the violence ended, there was an effort to erase it. Records of it disappeared, and for decades, it wasn’t talked about much at all, nor did it appear in history books.
“was then or ever has achieved [o prosecuted or punished by the government at any level.”
2. WHITE AMERICA
It is an attempt to get rid of blacks; to push blacks out of America and other parts of the world, and have a whites-only America and white man's world just as was done in Argentina.
3. USE & DUMP AND DEPORTATION
When the world needed civilization they reached for Afrika and paid us back with colonization.
When whites needed labor, they went to Afrika and took millions of Afrikans for free labor to build America, now they think they do not need Afrikans they are asking us to "Go back to Afrika." It is used and dumps and it is deportation which is why ACS did not gain widespread support among African Americans, who saw it as a means by which whites hoped to deport free blacks.
4. ESCAPISM
The move for all Afrikans to go back to Afrika is escapism. It is escapist in that it is an attempt to escape White supremacism.
5. DISPOSSESSION
If all Afrikans worldwide return to Afrika, all the global possessions of Afrikans worldwide would automatically belong to whites: all the lands, all the investments, all the houses in all continents of the world would belong to Whites automatically if all Afrikans worldwide return to Afrika.
6. HALF TRUTHS
Based on the lies that all Afrikans are slaves whereas Afrikans are the first people to reach the whole world. Afrikans are first people in Afrika, first in Asia, first Europeans and first Americans, while every year Afrikans from Afrika migrate to parts of the world willfully. Therefore it is false to assume that all Afrikans are in America or other parts of the world because of slavery: we are all over the world as the original people in the world and not as slaves of the world!!!
7. Afrikan Progress
For Garvey, it was about Afrikan independence because, at that time, there was no independence as we claim to have now. It was to him also about Afrikan unity and progress.
SOME QUESTIONS WE NEED TO ASK ARE
1. Is going back to Afrika a guarantee of Afrikan progress?
In 1822, the ACS founded Liberia as a colony of the United States of America. Over the next few decades, 19,900 African-American men and women migrated to the colony. On July 26, 1847, Liberia declared its independence from America, making it the first post-colonial state in Africa.
About 200 years later, Liberia still remains one of the poorest countries in the world marred by political instability, ethnic domination, strife, and the famous blood diamonds-where is the progress?
2. What will happen to black businesses worldwide?
As mentioned earlier, they will all be taken over by whites the same way whites took over the wealth of Afrika through colonization.
3. Did we not build the world?
Was it not Afrikans that built America?
Was it not Afrikans that gave the world civilization?
Then why should we leave our share in the world and to who?
4. Those Europeans Have They Left Afrika Alone?
The same way Afrikan people all over the world are victims of racism all over the world, that is how the people of Afrika at home are victims of racism at home.
5. If all Afrikans return to Afrika is that the end of the colonization of Afrika?
Are the Europeans not still colonizing Afrika, are they not still in America, Arabia, Australia, and Europe.
6. What is the motivation, the reason why Afrikans should all return to Afrika; to what purpose?
If the purpose is to rebuild Afrika, Afrikans worldwide are the ones to rebuild Afrika, must all of us return to Afrika before we can rebuild Afrika?
If the purpose is to enjoy being home in Afrika, must we all return, and if we all must return must we stay permanently in Afrika? Cant, we make it a sort of pilgrimage?
The summary of the points and the questions is that all Afrikans worldwide have no reason returning to Afrika permanently but here is what we should do instead.
1. We must understand there are negative and positive attitudes for back to Afrika
The negative attitudes are: fear, hatred, and the belief that All Afrikans should return
The positive attitude is out of love, purpose, and that some Afrikans should return to Afrika.
2. Return your hearts
All Afrikans should not return to Afrika but the hearts of all Afrikans worldwide should return to Afrika
What Garvey had in mind was never that All Afrikans worldwide should return home, his intention was to that Afrikans in Diaspora should restore the glory of Afrika through freedom and industrialization.
“Negroes shall shed, if needs be, the last drop of blood for the redemption of Africa and the emancipation of the race everywhere.”
— Marcus Garvey
When on April 21, 1966, an estimated one hundred thousand people greeted Haile Selassie when he landed in Jamaica, he stated: "that the brethren should not seek to immigrate to Ethiopia until they had liberated the people of Jamaica." Some Rastafarians now believe that instead of immediate repatriation that first there must be liberation.
Marcus Garvey championed the Back to Afrika movement
Afrikans in Diaspora no matter where they are should consider the interest of Afrika above any nation they are in: This is by using the resources they have, whether talent, money, power, expertise to support actively the redevelopment of Afrika.
3. Not all Afrikans should return
Not all Afrikans should return home, but some Afrikans should return permanently to Afrika if they have permanent roles to play at home based on destiny. It could be for leadership, for infrastructure building, for training, to establish businesses in Afrika.
4. Visit Afrika
Every Afrikan worldwide should endeavor to visit Afrika at least once in a lifetime, or every decade or every year depending on factors like finance, passion, and purpose.
5. Fight for your rights
Instead of running from hatred all over the world, all Afrikans should fight for their rights wherever they are.
6. Which is why number 6, all Afrikans worldwide, and those at home should unite.
Unite in fighting racism
Unite in having the United Continent of Afrika
The Afrikan Government should protect Afrikans worldwide
We must unite against racism and tribalism, and against Afrikan treatments going on in Afrika
Unite to redeem and project One Afrikan Identity through projecting
Afrikan hairstyles
Afrikan name
Afrikan language
7. The world should give us Reparations
In the 222 Q$A about Afrikan Progress, I answered a question of what the is the best the world can do for Afrikans?
The best thing the world can do for Afrika is not to give Afrika aids
The best thing the world can do for Afrikans is not to flood Afrika with their soldiers
Asking Afrikans to go back to Afrika is not in any way the best thing the world can for Afrikans
The best thing the world can do for Afrika is to give back to Afrika what they stole from Afrika.
Instead of asking Afrikans to return to Afrika, pay reparations for the slave trade and colonization of Afrika. The funds will be used to rebuild Afrika for all who are returning. Se is talking about $200 Trillion reparations for the 200 years of the slave trade and $50 Trillion reparations for colonization.
CONCLUSION
Back to Afrika is in summary a recognition of the fact that we are all Afrikans and we all owe a debt in one way or the other to rebuild Afrika for the benefits of her people.
WRITTEN BY
Eze Chimere Nwauzo
Leader of the One Afrika Family OAF
Author, “The Wisdom& The Power of Afrikan Unity” and “222 Q & A about Afrikan Progress”
Eze Afrika
