The African-African American Divide

           I read an article recently that discussed the antagonism many Africans experience from African-Americans and vice versa.  I have witnessed this my entire life.  I have seen it in operation within my family and among friends and colleagues.  We are natural allies, but we too often see “others” who are different and to be criticized rather than members of our extended family to be honored and cared for.

            It has been a blessing to me to know Africans as friends and neighbors early in my life.  I saw that while we looked similar, we don’t think in similar ways.  My late father-in-law looked a lot like the late former President of Guinea-Conakry, Lansana Conté (at least in His Excellency’s better photographs), but they thought and acted very differently. Those of us brought up in America think like Americans.  That doesn’t mean we think wholly like white people because America is an amalgamation of cultures, including African and Caribbean cultures.

            When I joined the Black Student Union in college, some of my fellow members liked to say they were “Africans living in America.”  Because of my direct experience with Africans, I knew that wasn’t true.  We are not brothers and sisters; we are cousins brought up in a different household, so to speak.  But just because we were reared differently doesn’t mean we can’t cooperate with one another as cousins often do.  We not only should do so, we must do so.

            In order for that to happen, though, we have to learn some hard lessons.  I wrote in an earlier blog about the experience representatives of the Honorable Marcus Garvey had in Liberia in the 1920s.  One would expect the colonial powers to block any influence that would consolidate the strength of the African Diaspora, but local people in Liberia also rejected the Garvey representatives because of their history of being dominated by returning African-Americans decades before then.

            This was an example of not knowing the culture to which you’re trying to enter.  Perhaps there could have been a way to ease tensions about the entry of another educated, well-funded group of immigrants into a still-largely rural, uneducated society, but it wasn’t found by the time the Garvey delegation arrived.  Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association still exists, and it provides culture training for those seeking to emigrate to African countries.  Such training is vital for successful cross-cultural relations.

            People like my former classmates and other activists on Africa issues have gone to Africa over the last few decades behaving as though they had been born there, but there were too many differences in how we act and think to assume that.  These differences are not universally right or wrong; it depends on the context in which we live.  For example, shorts and miniskirts on women are accepted in American society, but are highly offensive in conservative African societies.  Such customs and many others must be researched before attempting to visit another culture.  It is a sign of respect to that new culture.

            Learning at least some of a new culture’s language also is appreciated as a sign of respect.  One doesn’t have to be fluent in the new language, but speaking only English in a non-English-speaking country makes communication difficult, just as it does for non-English speakers in this country.  My daughter works for a telephone answering service and is constantly faced with callers who speak only Spanish.  They presumably have an emergency that cannot be addressed because they can’t communicate the problem.  We shouldn’t let ourselves be isolated by not knowing how to say the basic things necessary to survive in a new society

            In the article to which I referred in the beginning of this blog, much of the blame for the antagonism between Africans and African-Americans was attributed to colonialism and even capitalism.  While there certainly is much truth in that allegation, we have to accept that we are often our own worst enemy.  It is true that colonialism in Africa pitted one tribe against another to conquer people on the continent, but to continue the tribal divides decades after colonialism ended is counterproductive to say the least.  Such intra-African enmity has led to genocides such as in Rwanda and Burundi.  Imagine Hatfield-McCoy-type family feuds on a much larger scale.

Here in America the divides caused by the perceived advantages of light skin continue to be a divide on the down-low among African-Americans, as one might say.  To be honest, we have to admit that much of the antagonism between people in the African Diaspora is because of jealousies created by the differences in our skin color, culture, education and relative wealth.  In South Africa, local people are called xenophobic for sometimes violently rejecting immigrants from other countries, but when you look at that country’s history of depriving black people of education and empowerment, clearly the less educated and empowered people in South Africa justifiably fear being edged out of opportunities for advancement, for example, by the more highly educated and skilled Zimbabweans who have already taken key spots in South Africa’s banking industry and are part of the immigrant shopkeeper class that denies local South African shopkeepers from servicing the immigrant market.

            Here in America, many less educated and skilled black people born here resent the people from Africa and the Caribbean who seem to shoot to the top of business not long after they arrive.  What is not seen, apparently, is all the hard work these Diaspora immigrants use to acclimate themselves to this country and its business environment and take advantage of the skills and money they bring with them.  Working hard and saving, as well as seeking all the education one can get, are the keys to their success, as is families working together to ensure that all members realize the opportunities for success. 

If some of us don’t do that, then how can we blame the newcomers for shooting past us?  This isn’t to say the newcomers don’t ever use government programs, but it is much harder for Africans or Caribbeans to enter this country if they lack skills, and they very rarely, if ever, have generations living on welfare like some native-born families do.  So, they have a head-start on our so-called “underclass.”  Of course, this head-start may lead some new Diasporans to look down on African-Americans – equating all of us with those not trying to better themselves.

We are burdened by the media and educational representations of our communities.  History in American schools not only doesn’t adequately represent the successes our people have attained in this country, but they are ludicrously inadequate in teaching about the long history of African achievements on the continent. 

Meanwhile, movies and television, including alleged news programs, portray Africa as a war-ridden, disease-ridden place where people suffer and die in squalor, avoiding the presentation of successful African government and business leaders and companies and institutions. African Americans have for so long been portrayed in the media as servants, drug addicts, robbers, rapists, pimps and prostitutes that it will take some time for those negative stereotypes to fully overcome this long history of media vilification.  Think of black actors and actresses you follow and count how many have never had to portray one of the negative stereotypes I just described.  How many can you count?

There is a lot that has kept African and African Americans apart, but we should know better than to keep our communities apart at this point in history.  Marcus Garvey and other Pan African leaders knew a century ago how powerful a force for good the Diaspora alliance could be – not just for our people, but for the entire world.  How can we continue to fall victim to the manipulations we have endured and the misinformation we have been given in the information age of the 21^st century?  Shame on us if we continue to be victimized.