Africans Did Not Sell Themselves Into Slavery.
The rise of this colonial fundamentalist perception – that Africans sold themselves into slavery – among some Black folks in the USA and elsewhere is indeed exceedingly troubling. The Grey Media War Machine in the US that engendered this feeling/perception is not difficult to trace and understand.
I myself was perturbed, the first time I stepped into a European country, and was accosted by grey people asking: But why did you sell your own people into slavery? I’m like, “What now???” What?
That was a long time ago. But the most debilitating feeling I ever had was when an elderly African American man accosted me in Philadelphia, right from his front porch, after I waved to say hello: “Why y’all sold us and then didn’t even care to come get us?” I was like, “What naw?”
Such confrontations are mind-blowing and mind-boggling. I have had quite a few to still remember them all vividly.
In Accra, Ghana, the perception is still the same among a select group. Many educated Africans, and I constantly refer to them as the Mis-Educated Than His/Her Ancestors (the METHA), have accepted the grey narrative, hook and sinker, that Africans sold themselves (family members, village members and friends) into slavery. Every story about Dahomey or about Oyo have been crafted around TAST.
Colonial Education, internal or external, is a factor. We do not control what our children actually learn, yet we think that we do. But why do we not control what our children learn? In fact, I recall my grandfather in NTOABOMA (far away village in Ghana) challenging one colonial clerk from Accra, by refusing to send his children to colonial missionary school.
The result? The grandparents who held their children back from this colonial/missionary trauma are now referred to in the grey media, and among the Metha, as primitive, backwards and even patriarchs who prevented their girl children from getting educated. Framing then, is key… and frameworks lay the foundation for more trauma especially when such frames accrue colonial materialism as evidence for their validity.
Add the Grey Media ejaculation to the very idea – that Africans sold themselves into slavery. The idea absolves the Grey people of moral/financial responsibility for TAST. Africans are both the victims and the perpetrators of TAST, you see? ***Although, for all that Sex-Trafficking going on in the USA, no one claims that Americans are selling their own daughters into sex slavery! However!***
My point? Most of us, because we are led by the Metha, who often times come in two main flavors: Afrosaxons and Afrogauloises, we are simply not aware of the Non-linear War on Africans everywhere – to drive in wedges and watch the chaos unfold. The Africans Sold Africans (ASA framing) perception is one such non-linear wedge, carefully crafted and pushed between Africans in the US and the rest of us on the Motherland.
Furthermore, the ASA framing drives apart what is now called modern Africa, such as the country called Ghana, away from Traditional Africa (from states like the Ga or Fante).
Our Ancestors called the Grey People, Chaos Managers, for one reason: That’s all they are good at – producing Conflict so they can sit back and manage the benefit to themselves of the chaos. These wedges are very powerful, nonetheless. However, we must identify the wedges and dismantle them in whatever way that we can… even if it invites the ire of those among us without eyes!
Narmer.
(Image: Mianor – Our Mother. Aka. Gbetto/Hunter Warrior from Dahomey).
Ahh Nkanka(ancient elder)…. I have a strong feeling that you literally avoided going deep into the narrative of “…NOT sell themselves …”? I frankly thought that you would absolve us of all responsibilities with respect to this topic but you haven’t done that nor have you blamed “them”for it all either. In other words for the first time I notice a sense evasiveness in your tone. ?
Basweka Mawanda Interesting observation… thanks for pointing it out. My brother! Perhaps, the elders in the village would say, I have gone fishing. In this way, I need the small worms/shrimps in order to catch the big fish. This topic, of the place/role of Dahomey and Oyo, just for instance, in TAST has been made exceedingly complex. The whole thing has turned, so to speak, into some BIG FISH. To rein in the fish, I think I must cede some worms and shrimps.
The Colonial TAST narrative centering on the colonial ASA Framing is now a type of Non-Linear Attack on the African Psyche. This is my estimation. To counter it, we need a Non-Linear Defense. Which means that at certain points I would have to cede some ground to force the enemy out into the open and to retool and regain such lost ground in a later Offensive. You cannot fight what is not there. This kind of non-linear warfare is as Old as Africa. In Ewe, for instance, it is called Kametete, or the Stretching of the Rope. To stretch the rope I need not pull the whole thing apart, I can do with nudging it at certain points so as to maintain the integrity of the rope.
The ground I am ceding at the moment is populated with the Metha, the Afrosaxons and the Afrogauloises. It used to be populated with the Colonial Clerk, and even before that, with the Traitors. I have decided to cede these people to be taken care of by the enemy as strategic interest to the Objective. We cannot eradicate the ASA framing from the minds of these ones. What I protect is the rest – Africa proper. This is firm ground.
Let me know your thoughts, my brother.
Narmer Amenuti “The ground I am ceding at the moment is populated with the Metha, the Afrosaxons and the Afrogauloises.” LOL. I drink to that. Would you say that the very occurrence of TAST in West Africa involved some level of Kametete (Stretching of the Rope, or Wrestling) on our parts, to counter the Non-Linear nature of European war of Chaos Management in Africa.
Dade Afre Akufu TAST was the result of Chaos Management by the European War on Africa. It has been made exceedingly complex by the our non-linear approach to its resolution. Nonlinear wars are by nature confusing, but so are the nonlinear solutions. It is complex.
General Narmer you have the mindset and understanding of a true military strategist who can unravel the underpinnings of the grey barbarian non linear war against the African people.
Great expose. ??
They have always wanted to rid themselves of the stigma attached to slavery and have finally found a clueless African American/Caribbean African mis-educated class who cannot think for themselves and will entertain even the silliest narrative that the Africans are both the victims and perpetrators of slavery.
Suddenly, the in-fighting has begun..again! Just like during pre-colonial days.
Sometimes I wonder when the average African will finally realise the that his brainwashing process by the Europeans/Americans has been consistently in over-drive for several decades now.