The Groundings With My Brothers by Walter Rodney

Author:Walter Rodney
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Verso Books

5

African History

In The Service of

Black Revolution

One of the major dilemmas inherent in the attempt by black people to break through the cultural aspects of white imperialism is that posed by the use of historical knowledge as a weapon in our struggle. We are virtually forced into the invidious position of proving our humanity by citing historical antecedents; and yet the evidence is too often submitted to the white racists for sanction. The white man has already implanted numerous historical myths in the minds of black peoples; and those have to be uprooted, since they can act as a drag on revolutionary action in the present epoch. Under these circumstances, it is necessary to direct our historical activity in the light of two basic principles. Firstly, the effort must be directed solely towards freeing and mobilising black minds. There must be no performances to impress whites, for those whites who find themselves beside us in the firing line will be there for reasons far more profound than their exposure to African history. Secondly, the acquired knowledge of African history must be seen as directly relevant but secondary to the concrete tactics and strategy which are necessary for our liberation. There must be no false distinctions between reflection and action, because the conquest of power is our immediate goal, and the African population at home and abroad is already in combat on a number of fronts.

If there is to be any proving of our humanity it must be by revolutionary means. The Cuban revolution has already demonstrated in this hemisphere the role and achievement of black people as participants in a people’s war against imperialism. They were a despised minority in the period of US hegemony, but the dignity which they have achieved in the process of the Cuban revolution is itself eliminating the initial necessity to draw distinction along the lines of race and colour. Interest in the African revolution, in African plastic arts and drama and in the history of Africans in the New World, is cultivated in Cuba today at a level that is far above that of neo-colonialist Jamaica, which is 95 per cent black. In Jamaica, a recent proposal to teach African history and an African language in the schools was turned down by the ‘black’ prime minister. The conclusion is clear – Jamaican freedom fighters will read some African history in the course of preparing for an engaging in hostilities; but the struggle will not wait until the re-education of the mass of the black people reaches an advanced stage.

In response to the demand for more black culture and history, the national bourgeoisie of the USA has adopted a technique different from that of their neo-colonialist puppets in the West Indies. Having that security which comes from the possession of capital, they feel confident in making certain concessions to black culture in their educational institutions and media of public communications. As always, they concede the lesser demand to maintain the total structure of white capitalist domination,

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