Eve Merriam
It's hard for me to sit by and not comment on what's going on in the Horn of Africa these days. I had previously written about the crisis of famine and drought and what I thought and hoped could be done. I will still argue that while I feel the African Union (AU) leadership dilly dallies mediating issues on the ground using what appears to be excessive European and Western mitigation devices, there are many Africans in the West, throughout the Diaspora, who are all too willing to give the strength of our lower backs and full spirits to the just cause of peace and freedom.
Many of us who, were not born in the land, in generations too many to be our fault, have a love for Africa and an understanding and consciousness about Her unlike any other peoples on Earth. For while the Kenyan, Ethiopian, Sudanese, Nigerian and Rwadan, to name just a few, identify themselves chiefly as such, we in the West have been contemplatively fortunate enough to only see Africa for the sum of Her parts. We are generally not at all nearsighted as to only see: Her heavenly face, however enchanting; Her generous bosom, however supple; Her loving arms, however warm the embrace; Her beautiful feet, however graceful the foundation.
Similarly, just like the "Jamaican" doesn't, or hardly, understand the unique perspectives of the "Trinibagoin", "Bahamian", "Bajan" etc., we whose parentage most recently comes out of the Caribbean after having been, many, brought to the West in bondage have a certain affinity for the entire Caribbean region and peoples. While the subtle differences may be many, they are certainly not enough to not join in the revere and unity of family. Our love for Africa, in all Her splendor and Her strife, is no less great.
So when we see conflict in Africa, as reported on our nightly television news and internet news sites, with foreign precipitation, intervention and "solutions" it does indeed seem as though the African who has yet to`set a foot in the land, many who have yet to become part of the intellectual debate yet have heart for days, is once again left out. I've had this debate several times with those who have been back and forth many times in the land, and each time the argument gets intellectualized to a degree that the layman could hardly begin to understand. Yet that same layman, and woman, has as much heartfelt connection and spiritual attachment to Africa as any other. More so oft times.
When does the AU not turn to African children to find solutions to conflicts like between Somalia and Kenya? Why must drones fly from Ethiopia? Drones that are likely not even built in Africa, even as they use them to monitor all our movements in the land. Why are we afraid to say that it appears that Arab backed groups have for generations been allowed to exploit and destabilize Mama, while still accepting and willfully engaging our African Muslim brothers to raise their voices also against such vileness? When do we get to hear from our brothers and sisters on the ground who desire dialogue with their family throughout the Diaspora; family whose Pan-African ideal is not designated to denigrate or sarcastically sympathize but to assist in anyway we can, in universal African upliftment?
I can guarantee that there are quite a few who will call my argument naive. Some may even claim that I am arrogant and cocky to think that only the children snatched up and deposited in the West are able to administer any kind of remedy or offer any kind of real solution. Well, I give thanks that at least their reading and giving some thought to sentiments out in the Diaspora. I disagree with them of course. A lot of us with education from the schools of hard knocks and whose bank accounts aren't even in the four figures, would disagree with them. We, many of us, would still rather give our lives to defend freedom and justice at home than be slaves left to perish in the West.
And for what it's worth, let me still give thanks for all the good works the AU and many others are doing in Africa. I just wish you would engage more of us who aren't Harvard or Wharton grads or professional scholars. Those of us whose bloodline has also been let for the wanton desires of men and women with condescending tongues, wretched hearts and wicked spirits. The livity of Rastafari gave us an wonderful ideal of devoted love, let us live up to it.
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