Chinweizu Articles

499 Pages·2012·2.41 MB·English

by  Chinweizu

CHINWEIZU ARTICLES
Compiled By Ambakisye-Okang Dukuzumurenyi, Ph.D.
6252/2010

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Lugardism, UN Imperialism and the prospect of African power 6

On Negrophobia: Psychoneurotic Obstacles to Black Autonomy
(or Why I just love Michael Jackson) 45

Ancestral Culture and Modern Survival: The Example of Meiji
Japan 51

Debt Relief or Treasonable Scam? 56

Nija Titanic 61

Reconstruction of Nigeria:
Four Delusions on our Strategic Horizon 66

Reparations and A New Global Order:
A Comparative Overview 80

Reparations and the Pan-African War on Genocide 88

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The Trouble with Africa's Political Development 95

Arab Colonialism Series: USAfrica- The Arab Agenda 100

Arab Colonialism: USofAfrica, NO!!! USofBLACK-Africa, YES 106

Arab Colonialism since 640 AD 125

Black colonialists: The Root of the Trouble with Nigeria 160

Black World League I & II 210

Can Muslims Peacefully Coexist with Non-Muslim
Neighbours? See Sudan, Arabs and Blacks 230

Africa: Nyerere's Last Advice to Black Africa
Retreat From Continentalist to Sub-Sahara Pan-Africanism 338

CHINWEIZU on ANCESTORS' ANGER 343

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Collective Security 351

Debt Trap Peonage 366

Garveyism not Continentalism is what Black Africa Needs!! 378

Marcus Garvey And The Black Power Movement: Legacies And
Lessons For Contemporary Black Africa 385

Socialism Or Communalism? 418

The African Nation? 427

The Chinweizu interview: "It‘s a War for the African mind" 432

The Policies of De-Nubianization in Egypt and Sudan: An Ancient
People on the Brink of Extinction 450

USAfrica: A Mortal Danger for Black Africans A Black Power
Pan-Africanist Viewpoint 468

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Self-reparation for Afrikan Power: Pan Africanism and Black
Consciousness 476

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Lugardism, UN Imperialism and the prospect of African power

CHINWEIZU*[1]
[email protected]

A public lecture delivered at the Agip Recital Hall, Muson Centre, Onikan,
Lagos on 18 February, 2006.

In a nutshell, my presentation today argues that:

1] The 20th century has been the most disastrous century,
so far, for Black Africa. It was the century in which, under
colonialism, Black Africa was subjected to culturecide at
the hands of White Power. That culturecide destroyed our
ability to resist the genocide that is now taking place. As
a result, this 21st century is likely to see the physical
extermination of Black Africans, unless those now under
30 organize and defeat the extermination campaign that
white power has already unleashed on Black Africa.
Therefore,

2] The problem of the 21st century is the problem of
African Power – how to build it, and enough of it, to end
the long era of our defeats and disasters in the race war,
to prevent our extermination, and to ensure our dignity.

3] We should particularly note that Lugardism is a false
framework, and these Lugardist states, Nigeria included,
are the wrong foundation for building African Power

INTRODUCTION:

I just want to get us started on an examination of the awful situation in
which we find ourselves in Nigeria, and in Africa, at the start of the 21st
century, after some 50 years of fake independence, and more than 500
years of race war. We, Nigerians and Black Africans as a whole, have been in
a race war for 500years or more, and we have no chance of surviving it if we
refuse to recognize that fact and act on it.

Since 1960, many attempts have been made to diagnose the trouble
with Nigeria. Chief among the usual suspects have been, ―tribalism,‖
corruption, and bad leadership. May I submit that these are symptoms, not
the underlying causes; the fevers, not the malaria or typhoid parasites. Our
problems are much more serious than corruption & co. They include identity
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crises of various kinds, a lunatic elite, cultural schizophrenia, Eurotoxification
and the fact that Nigeria is not a nation but a noyau—i.e., a society of
inward antagonism, one held together by mutual internal antagonism, one
which could not carry on if its members had no fellow members to hate. And
if we want to end the troubles of the Nigerians, we must dig deeper to find
the fundamental causes. And I would like, today, to draw your attention to
some of the systemic causes that do not usually appear on our radar.

1] First of all is Nigeria itself: The fundamental trouble with Nigeria is
Nigeria itself—the Nigerian state. This Lugardist state, by which Nigeria
was invented and is maintained, has been a disaster for the Nigerian
peoples/nationalities and their society.

2] Second, is the refusal by Nigerians to recognize the race war in which
Lugardism is a key weapon that white power is using against Black Africans.

3] Third is our failure, in Nigeria and in Black Africa as a whole, to study the
Haitian experience and learn from it.

I, now, invite you to examine the following theses:

1] The Lugardist state is an enemy to the Nigerian population;
2] Black Africans, including Nigerians, are in the semi-final phase of a race
war with the European and the Arab branches of White Power.
3] Nigeria has been Haitified--Turning Nigeria into a Haiti has been a way to
totally defeat its people and all of Black Africa in this semi-final phase of the
race war. For, just as Haiti in 1804 was the hope of the Black race, even so,
in 1960, was Nigeria the hope of Black Africa. And, for your information, the
Haitification of Nigeria is almost completed by now.
4] The key enemy weapons in the race war today include the AU, NEPAD,
and the organs of the New World Order, especially the UN and its agencies.
5] If Africans do not build African Power now, and use it to prevent their final
defeat in the race war, Africans will be exterminated in this 21st century.
This, therefore, is the do-or-die century for Africans.

Recognition of these facts is the first step on the road to liberation and
survival for the Nigerian peoples/nationalities. I shall say a little to introduce
each thesis, and we can then together explore and illuminate them through
questions and answers that, I hope, will continue long after we leave this
hall.

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THESIS #1: LUGARDISM AND THE LUGARDIST STATE

In a broadcast on January 15, 1970, General Yakubu Gowon, the then Head
of the Lugardist state of Nigeria, proclaimed the Lugardist doctrine that
justifies the continued existence of the Nigerian state. He said:

―Our objectives in fighting the war to crush Ojukwu‘s
rebellion were always clear. We desired to preserve the
territorial integrity and unity of Nigeria. For, as one
country, we would be able to maintain lasting peace
amongst our various communities; achieve rapid
economic development to improve the lot of our people;
guarantee a dignified future and respect in the world, for
our posterity and contribute to African unity and
modernization. On the other hand, the small successor
states in a disintegrated Nigeria would be victims of
perpetual war and misery and neocolonialism. Our duty
was clear, and we are today vindicated.‖
-- Gen. Yakubu Gowon. Excerpt from his speech on Jan. 15,
1970 formally accepting the declared Biafran surrender and the
end of the civil war.
Source: Insider Weekly, August 8, 2005

This doctrine states the reasons for the continued existence and public
toleration of this Lugardist contraption called the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
I think we are all living witnesses to the fact, which our newspapers daily
confirm, that none of these claims is true and that none has been vindicated.
Has the Lugardist state preserved the territorial integrity and unity
of Nigeria? No! Just think of Bakassi. Has it maintained lasting peace
amongst our various communities? No! Just think of the inter-
communal clashes reported periodically from Plateau, Kano, Taraba, Benue,
Delta states and elsewhere. Has it achieved economic development, let
alone ‗rapid economic development‘ or improved the lot of our
people? No! Just think of the daily deterioration in the condition of life of
our people, and recall the coup-day rhetoric we heard regularly for the past
40 years, denouncing each ousted regime for its failures in this regard. Has
it guaranteed a dignified future and respect in the world for our
posterity? No! Unless it counts as earning the respect of the world Nigeria‘s
appearing, year after year, on the list of the poorest and most corrupt
countries in the world? Have we escaped neo-colonialism? If so, why are
we still in the debt trap where we are being robbed by the Paris Club and the
transnational corporations? And what are the agents of the IMF, the World
Bank and other imperialist organs doing in the offices and corridors of power
in Nigeria?
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What has the Lugardist state actually accomplished in its century of
existence? It has destroyed our sense of community and atomized us into
the Hobbesian condition of a ‗war of everyone against everyone‘ in the
ruthless struggle for money to buy what it has brainwashed us to consider
‗the good life‘; a condition of chronic insecurity, of ‗continual fear and danger
of violent death‘—as from ‗accidental discharge‘ from the guns of its
policemen; or from its rampaging soldiers, like at Odi, or Zaki-Biam and
other places, or from assassin‘s bullets targeted even at such big winners in
its system as Kudirat Abiola, Alfred Rewane, Alex Ibru, Bola Ige, Harry
Marshall, A.K. Dikibo, etc in the last decade; a condition where life has been
‗solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short‘ for everyone—even for Generals like
Bisalla, Vatsa, Shehu Musa Yar Adua, and Chief MKO Abiola, let alone for
the APO Six and countless ordinary victims of the police and armed robbers.
Thus, even without Nigeria‘s disintegration, we have been victims of misery,
neocolonialism and perpetual war inflicted on us by the Lugardist state itself.

From the foregoing, we can see that each and every one of the
itemized claims of Lugardist doctrine is demonstrably false. The Nigerian
state has failed to satisfy any of its own advertised justifications for its
continued existence. This goes to show that Lugardism is a hoax, and
Nigeria is a failed state even by its own criteria.

In 45 years, under local comprador management, this Lugardist state has
reduced Nigeria to a shanty country, a refugee camp where there is no order
or authority; where social anarchy reigns, since government has abdicated
its responsibilities and anyone can, with impunity, disturb the peace and,
with noisy loudspeakers blaring songs and drums and prayers all night long,
keep others from sleeping.

―Development‖ has been so successful that we now have industries
everywhere: the 419 industry; the ‗wetin-you-carry‘ industry that recently
yielded N17billion to its Chairman of the Board; the lootocrat or Authority-
stealing industry that has piled up billions of dollars in the foreign bank
accounts of high state officials; and the gospel and miracles industry on
every street; the thugs and ethnic militia industry that provide ―jobs‖ for the
tens of millions of the unemployed and lets them extort their livelihood from
people on the roads. We have all these strange industries, but no iron-and-
steel or machine tools or aerospace industries. It seems that the comprador
managers of the Nigerian state overheard that a STEEL industry was vital
for development and have built a STEAL industry instead. That‘s probably
their best understanding of what a steel industry means!

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This Lugardist state has, within a century, destroyed every society and killed
every culture it trapped in its prison, and has reduced its traumatized
captives to a 100 million mob of Hobbesian idiots who have lost all sense of
community and solidarity with one another. Nigeria is now a place where the
unspeakable is routine news. With the decay of both the state and social
authority structures for arbitrating disputes, neighbours resort to do-it-
yourself justice using privatized violence—hence the spate of acid and
machete attacks by people on their neighbours. Nigeria has been reduced to
an amoral land where greedy people think nothing of kidnapping their
neighbour‘s children and selling them to be killed for fresh body parts to be
sold abroad for organ transplants. That‘s the racket being covered up by the
epidemic of so-called ritual murder we read about these days. It used to be
that, in Lagos, if you were attacked by robbers and you shouted Ole! Ole! (
i.e. ‗Thief! Thief!‘) your neighbours would assemble and lynch the thief in
solidarity with you. Not anymore! Now, the people around will run away and
leave you to the mercy of your attackers. Fear, acute individualism and
deep insecurity have killed the community spirit.

In the 35 years since Gowon propounded his doctrine, this Lugardist state
has been unable to do those things that, it claimed it exists to do; and it has
done terrible things that it ought not to do to the society. It has inflicted
cultural schizophrenia and social decay; it has fostered an ethos of greedy
incompetence; it has replaced the work ethic with a criminal instant-riches
mentality, and it has turned governance into brazen gangsterism and
enthroned Al Capone on Aso Rock [the Presidential palace in Abuja]. It has
thereby been an instrument of large scale culturecide.

How did this Lugardist state achieve this feat of social destruction and
culturecide? The chief instruments were economic: principally, [1] the
commoditization of land and the introduction of individualist land tenure a
century ago, which slowly dissolved the communal holdings; [2] the
emergence, with the discovery of oil, of a rentier state which dominates the
economy with its huge rent revenues derived from foreign concessionaries--
this has turned the economy upside down, and made everyone dependent
on state favours instead of keeping the state dependent on taxing the
economically active population for its revenues; [3] the Land Thief Decree,
a.k.a. Land Use Decree, which robbed communities of their ancestral land,
thereby quietly turning the population into a vast rootless proletariat with no
landed communal interest to sustain their local structure and cohesion; [4]
the ravages of SAP and other economic policies which have impoverished
most people and left them without financial stamina; [5] a culturally
alienating, white supremacist education system that inculcates possessive
individualism and trains people for non-existent bureaucratic jobs, which
makes its products unfit for self-employment in productive activities. By
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