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THE
BLACK
AGENDA
By
NAIWU OSAHON
Leader, World Pan African Movement
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The
inaugural meeting of the BLACK THINK TANK, now as a concession known as THE
THINK TANK OF THE BLACK WORLD (TTB), an on-going department of the Pan African
Movement,
took place
from 1 - 8 August, 1992, at ASCON, Topo, Badagry, Lagos,
Nigeria.
The TTB was
attended by Black leaders and intellectuals representing all the regions of the
Black world. They examined the issues: "Why are we not
benefitting as a people from the
civilization we pioneered and what are we to do to get back on our feet
again as one family ? "
THE BLACK
AGENDA is the product of their deliberations and it lays down the rules to guide
the activities of Black governments, individuals, organisations, communities,
family units, institutions from now on.
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Instead of setting up
congresses, conferences, workshops and gatherings to repeat what the Black
Agenda already contains (or to try to re-invent the wheel, so to speak),
the Black world is invited to concentrate on implimenting the the Black
Agenda because 'doing time' has come for us. Some of the
resolutions have been achieved already but many more have
not been visited at all.
There is much still to do before
the morning.
------------------------
The Black
Agenda is constantly being updated at the Regional and National conferences of
the Pan African Movement.
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The word
Black is used in the Agenda interchangeably with Pan African and African in
conformity with their current usage by the Pan African Movement. Black is
considered the simplest most all embracing descriptive word because it
accommodates the objections of, for instance, Blacks in the South Pacific region
who do not consider themselves Africans.
Black helps
overcome the current tendency by African associations or countries to call
themselves Pan African simply by forming links across two or so ethnic or
national borders. Pan African is the favourite name also for most
institutions of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) or as now called (AU),
thus creating a need to differentiate between, at least, major AU and PAM
institutions.
Pan African
is retained when it attracts no controversy or double meaning and particularly
when it provides historical link such as in the Pan African
Movement.
----------------------------
PAM's definition of a Pan
Africanist is a Black person who, regardless of sex, age, politics, religion or
profession, passionately loves the race, demonstrates such love in his or
her every day behaviour and actions and is actively involved on an
on-going basis in efforts to promote our self -esteem, unity and ascendancy as a
family.
The Pan African Movement's creed does not recognize any
limitation to legitimate Black aspirations in commerce, religion, politics etc,
whether collectively or individually and calls on all Blacks to go out there to
conquer, excel and lead the world in whatever field of human endeavours they are
involved in.
REPATRIATION AND DUAL
CITIZENSHIP
1. Every Black person in
the Diaspora has the right of repatriation, the right to return and settle in
the homeland, in any African country of their choice. African governments
are to reach out to them, set up programs to make their return as comfortable
and fruitful as possible, and accord them full opportunity to fulfil their
talents and expertise in service to the motherland.
2. Every Black person in
the Diaspora has the right of citizenship in any African country of his or her
choice. US officials have usually discouraged African-Americans from
seeking dual citizenship on the false excuse that African governments are
opposed to it. African governments which have not already done so are, as
a matter of urgency, to work out the necessary protocols to accord dual
citizenship to Blacks from the Diaspora. As Marcus Garvey said, it is
"Africa for the Africans, at home and abroad."
3. Every Black person in
the Diaspora has a right to enter any African country on the continent without a
visa. African governments not already done so, should adjust their laws to
accommodate this requirement immediately.
4. The Black Diaspora
constitutes a large reservoir of talent and skilled manpower waiting to be
tapped and put to use in developing the motherland. African countries are
to take advantage of this Black reservoir instead of their usual recourse to
Whites, most of whom are not sympathetic to our progress.
5. For their part, Blacks
in the Diaspora are to organize a massive "invasion"
of the continent by experts of all sorts - teachers, doctors, nurses,
engineers, technicians, manufacturers, farmers, entrepreneurs, etc. An
"invasion" larger and more sophisticated than the
Peace Corps, a fresh, revitalized and vastly expanded Operation Crossroads
Africa. They should not wait to be invited.
6. The AU to evolve a
continental citizenship scheme to guarantee the possession of a Black Passport
as both a right and a privilege.
PILGRIMAGES
7.
Blacks in the Diaspora are to make annual work and leisure pilgrimages to their
encestral roots, Africa, as a way of establishing strong family ties across the
Atlantic and transferring funds, skills and ideas to develop
Africa.
ECONOMICS
8. The
Lagos Plan of Action to be fully operational within the next five
years.
9. The AU
to:
(a) Shorten the proposed period of economic integration throughout Africa
from
between 20 and 35 years to only 10 years.
(b)
Establish an elected African Parliament and African Supreme Court without
delay.
10. IMF and World Bank policies which
have served to disrupt and further impoverish Black societies, are to be
scrapped immediately by all Black governments operating them and to be replaced
by African (home-grown) economic strategies.
11. All Black governments of the the
world are to come together to establish the African World Bank (AWB), and the
African Monetary Fund (AMF), to monitor all funds received from reparations,
contributions from Black countries and communities. AWE/AWF to set up a
Pan-African currency to be used to promote and regulate trade between Blacks
world-wide.
12. Existing African banks to
establish branches in large African-American communities to enable
African-Americans recycle their wealth within their communities and the African
continent.
13. To facilitate good sisterly and
brotherly relationships among Blacks world-wide, Black governments are to assist
Black indigenous companies to take control of the commanding heights of their
national economies and expand activities into other Black
countries.
14. Black leaders and governments are
to stop receiving foreign aids and loans designed for the destruction of African
economies through impossible conditionalities.
15. Black governments to seek out and
give to African-American and other Black companies those contracts,
consultancies and business opportunities which are presently being given to
White-owned companies.
16. Blacks from the Diaspora to be
patient in their business or other relationships with Africa because facilities
and systems in Africa are not generally top class yet and mistakes are not
impossible in the learning and adjustment process currently common place all
over Africa.
17. The Pan African Movement to
produce a Pan-African Development Plan (PADP) to rescue the Black world
economically.
18. Blacks to go into manufaturing
and distribution of products needed by Africans and to invest in Africa as a
priority.
19. Black governments, institutions
and organizations to initiate training facilities in research and development,
teach and promote self employment as a career, create business models,
practices, Afrocentric business links and set up well-informed investment
groups.
20. Black individuals, groups and
institutions in Europe, North America, the Pacific region and North Africa to
protest against biased and discriminatory practices, develop alternative
strategies to enhance Black business fortunes, lobby their governments to back
bank and credit union projects for Black owned businesses experiencing
difficulties raising loans from mainstream financial insitutions.
21. "Buy Black"
is the best policy yesterday, today and tomorrow. Black
individuals and companies all over the world are to deliberately seek out one
another, establish a network of commercial and business contacts, and buy and
sell goods and services to one another to develop the economic power of the
Black race.
22. Black nations are to repudiate
their foreign debts. They are to come together to form a debtors cartel to
resist further servicing of their bad and doubtful debts. These debts
arose mostly from the collusion between the creditors and our corrupt military
juntas and irresposible civilian dictators who promptly deposited the stolen
monies in the creditors' foreign banks. Why should the masses of Black
people who did not benefit from these dubious loans be forced to pay
twice?
23. Black communities and people
throughout the world to be more assertive and creative in their various lines of
business and commerce, to be conducted with integrity and full regard for the
principles of ethics, morality, collective responsibility and
professionalism.
24. The African Development Bank to
be completely re-organized and restructured, in view of the infiltrations,
intrusions and machinations of foreign capital and control in its systems, in
order to empower interested Black businessmen, both in Africa and the Diaspora,
to take their economic destiny in their own hands.
25. Regional Black groups in the
Pan-African world, such as the CARICOM, ECOWAS, SADC
and ECCAS to attain political integration within
the next five years and maximize cooperation with similar blocs all over the
Black world.
26. As the African, Caribbean and
Pacific world remain unequal and exploited partners in such multi-lateral
arrangements as the ACP-EEC conventions, and in view of the
evolution of the African Economic Community (AEC), the
CARICOM and such bodies, the ACP
countries are to gradually withdraw from such lopsided organisations in
favour of stronger South-South ties, and the AEC to deal only
on equal footing with the EEC.
27. A Black world
trade fair to be staged once every five years in rotation around the Black
world, or along with the five-yearly Pan-African Congress.
REPARATIONS
28. All Blacks are owed by the
colonial powers for colonialism, neocolonialism, slavery and the death of
millions of Blacks and the physical and mental anguish suffered in the
process.
Since African free labour built the wealth of the
developed world, one half of the gross wealth of the colonial powers is to be
transferred by them to the Black world in compensation for the general and
special damages for the wrongs done to African people.
29. In the USA and the Caribbean,
reparation for African descendants is to take the form of monetary payment to
individuals who are free to decide to re-locate to Africa with the money.
Ten percent of each individual's entitlement is to be put into a United Black
Fund (UBF) in the USA, or the Caribbean African Fund (CAF). The UBF and
CAF are to be managed each by a board representing the youth, women,
professionals, business persons, religious leaders, community leaders, etc, of
the Black world. Both Funds are to be disbursed for the promotion of Black
trade and development programs.
30. The Pan-African Movement recognizes the
efforts and energies of individuals and organisations labouring on the issues of
Reparations on behalf of the African people world-wide, and encourages those
operating from the USA and other countries in the Diaspora to coordinate their
efforts with African nations who are also fighting debt-slavery created by such
institutions as the IMF and the World Bank.
31. Black legislators in the USA,
Britain and France to recruit White legislators to fight jointly through their
parliaments for monetary and other compensations to the Black race. Such
reparations to be forced to the top of political agendas, nationally and
internationally.
32. AU to champion the campaign for
full Reparations globally through the UN General assembly, the UN Security
Council, the World Court and direct negotiations with Arab and Western enslavers
and colonizers.
33. Compensation received
universally, on behalf of Africa to go into funding aspects of the Black World's
Pan-African Development Plan.
34. Black world media to mount
continuous publicity and pressure to draw attention, to the Black world's demand
for Reparations.
35. The Pan-African Movement to
assist all reparations efforts around the world and to design appropriate
sanctions to be applied against insensitive White and Arab powers in the form of
mass withdrawal of services, as and when necessary, to provoke
compliance.
(a)
The Pan-African Movement to establish an institution to use and manage
investigations
and documentations to create strategies for the execution of raparations to the
citizens
of Africa and its Diaspora.
(b) The
institution to hold legal and actuarial responsibilities for negotiating the
quality and
quantity of reparations to be sought from the enslavers and
colonizers.
(c) The institution to
be managed by experts including in the field of politics, history,
finance,
law and administration.
(d) The
institution to act in protest against current forms of enclavement in
which
multinationals profit through the blatant exploitation of the labour of
minorities, youths,
women and indigenous people.
HUNGER
36. Black leaders to cambat hunger
through the elimination of wars and the improvement of farming methods through
research in agriculture and appropriate government policies.
37. Rural dwellers are to be educated
by government agencies and NGOs to reduce their need to destroy their natural
environment in order to feed themselves and supply their basic
needs.
38. The Pan African Foundation is to
inspire the emergence of indigenous NGO structures throughout Africa and the
Diaspora to combat hunger by instigating self-help and other similar
schemes.
REFUGEES
40. The refugee is a socially,
politically, economically and culturally dislocated and traumatized
person. Steps are to be taken by countries of their refuge and the entire
Black world to end or minimize the causes of population displacements such as
drought, natural disasters and wars usually sponsored, backed or instigated by
the industrialized countries.
41. Black governments and people to
promptly go to the aid of other Blacks in distress because their widow's mite
could make a valuable difference.
DRUGS
42. Major drug-producing countries
not fighting the menace of dangerous drugs to be ostracized, and sanctions
imposed against them by the Black world and through the United
Nations.
43. Any Black person known to be on
drugs to be denied leadership positions at all levels of society.
44. The Pan-African Foundation
(PANAF) to encourage Black NGOs to establish drug rehabilitation centres with a
strong bias for Pan-Africanist education in Black communities where
needed.
CONFLICTS
45. The Pan-African
Movement to set up a Conflict Commission to resolve Black conflicts and impose
decisions through sanctions.
The Pan-African Movement to recruit, healthy,
disciplined, young women and men into the envisaged one million strong Black
army. The army is expected to reach its full strength in a couple of
years. The purpose of the army is to prevent or stop all wars in Africa
and the Black world. Where ever conflict rears its head in the Black
world, the Black army (BA) would intervene by any means necessary to restore
order and save innocent lives. The BA would, in fact, be a very
sophisticated, lethal, crisis prevention, management and termination force.
LIBERATION
46. The Pan-African
Movement to collaborate with relevant local groups to achieve independence by
any means necessary (including focusing on their plight and assisting
financially and physically) in Anguilla, Dutch Antilles, Bermuda, East Timor,
French Guyana, Guadeloupe, Guam, Martinique, Moluccas, New Caledonia, Pilao and
Yep, Puerto Rico, Saba, St. Maarten, St. Thomas and Caicos Islands, Irian Java
and West Papua.
MILITARY
47.
As a matter of urgency, all national armies in Africa and the Caribbean are to
be abolished forthwith, to be replaced by a continental army (for Africa and a
regional army for the Caribbean) committed to the political, economic and social
interests of the entire Black world.
48. All civil and religious wars in
Africa to stop immediately. All conflicts to be tabled before the AU
Arbitration Commission for resolution. The aggressor, or the first to
strike, to be condemned by the entire world, isolated and starved of any form of
support, including funds, arms supplies and the use of neighbouring country's
land and facilities.
49. Black people in the police and
the armed forces of the White or Arab dominated countries to henceforth refuse
to be sent to fight in any Black community or country whether locally or
internationally.
50. The USA and other industrialized
nations to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Haiti, Cuba, and
Panama, and to cease interferring in their internal affairs and those of other
Black states.
ENVIRONMENT
51. Rural Blacks to stop destroying
their environment, whether by burning and cutting down trees indiscriminately,
or by allowing the industrial world to dispose of toxic waste in their
backyards.
52. Rural Blacks are to seek
alternative energy sources, for example, the use of kerosene and gas in place of
firewood.
53. Black governments are to develop
and use alternative sources of energy such as solar energy, gas or the
harnessing of ocean power.
BLACK NGOs
54. Community-minded Blacks to come
together to form local and international NGOs to introduce and promote simple
self-help techniques, ideas and tools to relieve Black rural dwellers of tedious
and unnecessary work and hardships in areas such as:
(a) Access to good
clean water, electricity and roads.
(b) Provision of
simple functional housing programs using local building materials and
conforming to traditional norms and habits.
(c) Construction
of post-offices, police posts, school facilities, banks, clinics, markets,
portable
telephone systems, and recreation centres.
(d) Education in
tree planting rather than indiscriminate tree cutting and the use of alternative
non-ligneous energy sources that are cheap, practical, clean and protective of
the environment.
(e) Vigilance
against the dumping of toxic waste, and early warning systems against
drought
desertification and how to minimize their effect on rural
communities.
(f) The setting up
of small-scale industries and co-operatives for cassava cultivation and
harvest,
honey collection and bottling, fish-farming, cash-crop farming: oranges, cashew
trees, pineapples,
etc; animal husbandry: chicken, goats and cows, in semi-intensive
farming.
(g) Peculiar arts and
crafts workshops with outlets in every Black rural
community.
EDUCATION
55. PANAF to set up an international
task force of African scholars for the purpose of defining a Pan-African canon
of cultural literacy as a frameworld of curriculum planning at all levels of the
educational system in African communities and countries.
56. PANAF to set up an international
committee of African writers, literary scholars and educators for the purpose of
defining a Pan-African literary canon.
57. PANAF to promote exchange and
cooperation among African post-secondary institutions and also academics
world-wide. For this purpose, PANAF would take the initial step of
preparing a directory of African colleges, technical institutes, universities,
teachers and scholars.
58. PANAF to promote exchange and
cooperation among African colleges and university students world-wide, through
such mechanisms as scholarships at African institutions, exchange programs and
organized trips.
59. PANAF to promote the use of specific
African languages as languages of instruction at African
institutions.
60. PANAF to assist and encourage
Black publishers in the development of adapted and affordable textbooks for use
by African students.
61. PANAF to encourage greater
numbers of African students to specialize in the scientific disciplines through
scholarships and preparatory programs.
62. PANAF to create a system of
scholarships and fellowships that would enable African students and academics
study and conduct research at Black institutions world-wide.
63. PANAF to encourage Black
communities and governments to look into alternatives to traditional
post-secondary institutions in order to meet the educational needs of their
young people. We are referring to such alternatives as apprenticeship
programs, cooperative eduction, etc.
64. PANAF to set up an international
agency of academics, professionals and community leaders to launch an
international and multinational Pan-African University in an African country to
serve as a pool to excellence to attract African students, teachers and
researchers from every part of the world. The Pan-African Univeristy to
eventually have campuses in various African communities and
countries.
65. (a) Early childhood
education to begin at age 3 to 4 years old. There should be major emphasis
on
cultural awareness using a variety of our traditional songs and games to teach
and help develop
the readiness skills in the areas of numeracy and literacy.
(b)
PANAF to collect and distribute such materials world-wide. Where
necessary, to provide
translations to facilitate accessibility particularly for children in the
metropolitan Diaspora
who are losing out on those home and community
based manipulative activities that facilitate
early development of fine motor
skills.
66. Black educational authorities to
work with and set up strike committees or working groups of nurses, teachers,
culturally literate others, etc. to establish early intervention programs
combining areas of health, cultural values and education to address the needs of
teenage mothers. Such parental education programs to provide support
during pre-and-post natal periods.
67. Black educational authorities to
ensure proper initial training and sensitivity to our needs, and to provide
on-going assessment tools to allow corrections as well as transference of ideas
to other locations.
68. Black governments, communities
and families to push for literacy for all our people and to the highest
levels. Place cultural literacy at the centre of the education of our
kids. Set up monitoring systems for children, teens of college age,
apprentices and professionals working with young people. Put Black
educators to work in Diaspora penal institutions and establish parallel
educational institutions with Afrocentric focus for the recuperation of our
drop-out Diaspora kids.
69. All conference agendas of the
Pan-African Movement to involve participation of youhts. Local youths to
be exposed to all facets of the conferences.
70. Black educational institution,
organizations and individuals to support the modernization of the Black Research
Agenda, especially by updating its various aspects of traditional research and
culture, in such cultural areas as alternative medicine, physiotherapy,
orthopaedics, psychology, psycho-analyses and geriatrics/gerontology, so as to
promote the people's general well-being and longevity.
71. Every Black child to be
compulsorily educated from the age of five right through the secondary school
level. All retrogressive principles, practices and policies derogating
from the attainment of this educational objective are to be immediately
discarded. Prominent among such retrogressive practices is forced marriage
(i.e marriage against the consent of one or both parties), which usually
involves marriage of a child under-age, resulting in the disruption and
curtailment of the child's education. The victims are mostly girls, and
the girls often end up with the horrendous affliction known as VVF - which is
the loss of control of the urinary and excretory functions due to the tearing up
of the pelvic muscles during difficult childbirth by the physically unripe
child-bride.
72. Every Black parent or guardian to
ensure the participation of their children in the Pan-African youth leadership
program. Rites of passage classes to be introduced throughout the Black
Diaspora.
73. The Pan-African Foundation
Education Committee to institute a comprehensive leadership training program for
all African people.
74. Black governments to stop their
indiscriminate closure of educational institutions and instead concentrate on
providing such institutions with adequate funding to create the ideal
environment for qualitative teaching, learning, scholarship and
research.
75. All the regions of the
Pan-African Movement to review and reformulate all existing pre-school, primary,
secondary and tertiary educational curricula from an entirely African and
Afrocentric view-point, in order to achieve a balanced development of the
personalities of all Black children, and to inculcate in them such virtues as
patriotism, courage and selfless service through the institution of "Love
Africa" and "Love Black" campaigns.
76. Black communities and families
the world over to promote educational and family visitation exchange programs to
culminate in the mutual adoption of families, children and young persons by both
social institutions and other families.
77. Africa, as a continent and other
nations of Black control, have a moral obligation to assist African-American
children in combating the social and cultural conditions that are destroying
them physically, psychologically, emotionally and spiritually. Black
governments to set up educational programs and scholarships in Africa to assist
and relocate Black kids with problems from the Diaspora, particularly from the
USA.
COMMUNICATIONS
78. Black business people to
establish, control or invest in the communications industry as it relates to the
publication of books, magazines and newspapers, and the dissemination of general
information and its urgent accessibility, so as to ensure the affordability of
such materials to the Black people and to enhance their positive image and
international credibility.
79. The Pan-African Foundation
Telecommunications network to set up an exchange of programs, personnel and
ideas among media agencies around the Black world.
80. Black governments and countries
to establish telephone, telex, fax and other communication links amongst
themselves as a matter of priority.
81. Air, sea and road traffic to be
strengthened where available or instituted to facilitate easy communication
among the Black states of the world.
82. African governments, institutions
and organizations to identify and support African oriented communications
businesses.
83. African entrepreneurs to go into
the fabrication of communications tools and soft wares, address the need of
Africans and establish local, national and international communications
facilities.
84. African school authorities to
introduce the importance, role and uses of communications into their curriculums
and facilitate computer literacy.
85. African media and community
organizations to urgently educate the masses on the role and the wide-ranging
applications of modern communications technology and tools.
86. African governments to introduce
policies and implement programs to make communications facilities accessible to
the genral populations.
87. African governments to upgrade
communications infrastructure to world standards to facilitate world-wide
communications.
88. PANAF to create a distance education
program through the use of multilingual television network and short and long
wave radio stations. Also to introduce ham radio training and the
provision of sets to facilitate individual communication to remote and not-so
remote parts.
89. PANAF to establish publications
and newsletters to provide information sharing of workable ideas. This
will facilitate replication of successful projects and transfer of
know-how. Pen-pal system to be introduced through the newsletter,
internet and radio programs for youths, adults and professionals across
the world.
SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
90. Every Pan African Movement
national branch to provide a list of all the science and technology laboratories
in their country that can be of benefit to Black people and submit it to the
'Movement' for redistribution around the Black world.
91. Every Pan-African Movement branch
to develop a Skills Bank by identifying all persons in science and technology
who can be of service to the Pan-African world and to facilitate the sharing of
scientific knowledge.
92. Sixty percent of all Black
children in higher institutions of learning to major in science
subjects.
93. Black entrepreneurs to go into
manufacturing as a matter of priority and to borrow and adapt available
technology or designs and produce more prototypes suitable for the expansion of
Black industrial base and take-off.
94. The notion of waiting or begging
for technology to be transferred is to be discarded immediately. The
secret of every technology is in the libraries of the world and in the make-up
of its product and can be bought, dismantled, studied and reassembled.
Self-education and application are the surest and fasted ways to industrial
revolution.
95. The Pan-African Foundation to
sponsor annual national/regional and international science and technology
exhibitions and award prizes to selected innovators and inventors, and to fund
leading inventions to produce prototypes leading to mass production and
distribution.
96. African governments and
purchasers of technology to patronize and support African professionals and
entrepreneurs and encourage the sharing of scientific knowledge around the Black
world.
97. African entrepreneurs to improve
the quality of their products and services to compete with world's
standards.
SELF-ASSERTION AND
RACISM
98. All Black people to re-assert and
re-affirm their inalienable faith in the principle that, irrespective of age,
sex, profession, religion, location and other circumstances and accidents of
life, they are naturally endowed and imbued with physical, mental and spiritual
attributes and a sense of mission and accomplishment to embark upon every
conceivable self-actualizing human endeavor, and to go forth into the world to
conquer.
99. Blacks are a great race of
people, the original, the first and are therefore born to lead. They
taught the world what she knows, and despite all vicissitudes they have
survived. They must continue to excel in every competitive endeavor, in
sports, knowledge, ideas, technology, culture, spirituality, or commerce
because they were the ones created in God's own image and likeness.
100. Pan-Africanism recognizes the evolving
process of afrocentricity as the motivating spiritual force that is assiting
African-Americans in North America to reconstruct and re-define themselves as an
independently emerging group of African people with a unique African
identity that should be recognized by all other Black people in
the world.
101. It is Black people's inalienable right
to defend themselves, their family and their interests, by any means necessary,
against all acts of violence, aggression, humiliation, degradation and
provocation from whatever source or quarter, especially from the Arabs and
Europeans who enslaved, colonized, violated, vandalized and subjected us to the
ravages of racism, apartheid and other continued forms of dislocation,
oppression and victimization.
102. To attain political, economic and
social independence, Black people all over the world to contribute maximally to
the struggle against racism in Europe, South Africa, North and South America,
North Africa, the Pacific region and everywhere else, as a sine qua non for the
total attainment of respect for Pan African rights and freedoms.
103. Apartheid (i.e racism by legislation)
to be completely wiped out of the face of the earth in the next five years by
any means necessary.
104. Economic, sporting and diplomatic
sanctions to continue against South Africa until it operates a one man, one vote
constitution. Any reverse in the current political trend towards racial
harmony and equality in South Africa, to be immediately answered with the
rearming of Blacks and the end to Black-White negotiations.
105. Brazil to be isolated by the Black
world. Attention to be focused globally on Brazil's vicious form of
racism. Economic, sporting and diplomatic sanctions to be imposed upon
Brazil until all races in that country have equal rights.
106. Slavery and marginalization of
African's in North African states, from Mauritania to the Sudan, to be focused
upon and brought to an end by the Black world at whatever cost in its
relationship with the Arab perpetrators of this evil.
107. Arabs latter-day slavery by corrupting
and retarding African economies in the name of business, and stealing and
transferring to the Arab world, particularly to Afghanistan's cocaine farms and
to Lebanon, hundreds of African kids as slave labour bound to a life of torture
and servitude must stop immediately, otherwise all Arabs are to be branded as
enemies of Africa and expelled from Black
countries.
108. Aborigines and Maoris to be fully
compensated for the callousness with which their land has been appropriated by
their ruling White regimes. Focus on racism in Australia and New Zealand
to be intensified and economic, diplomatic and sporting sanctions imposed on the
two governments by African governments.
109. The West and Japan to stop using the
South Pacific as their nuclear testing ground and the dustbin of their nuclear
waste immediately, otherwise grassroots Black world to take strike action
against the interests of the nuclear merchants.
110. Blacks in Europe to work together in
teams, form vigilante groups and reply their violence with violence in the light
of the new wave of racism currently sweeping through Europe.
111. Racists must be forced to learn that
no race of people has a monopoly of violence and that Blacks will not turn the
other cheek anymore.
112. For every Black denied entry into
Europe, or repatriated, or treated shabbily at European entry ports, the Black
country of the victim to retaliate in commensurate measures against two natives
of the offending country.
CULTURE
113. Because of the qualitative difference
between slavery and indenture, in the course of which slave families which
descended from Africa were deliberately and systematically destroyed, losing
their languages, culture and other values, while the Indian indentured families
ratained their culture and identity, a 'Manual of Pan-African Cultural
Ceremonies ' is to be produced by PANAF for adoption by Blacks in the
Diaspora.
114. All African-American indigenous
performing art forms, and those artists who use them for the empowerment of
African people are to be recognized as powerful tools for educating all African
people about Pan-Africanism and to be promoted and supported by the Pan-African
Movement.
115. Rich Black people of the world are to
recognize their responsibility to support and endow research in the arts,
sciences and technology, as well as to grant aid to other projects designed to
promote the Pan-African interest, outlook and heritage.
116. All stolen or confiscated Black
artifacts and museum pieces found in other parts of the world to be returned to
their original owners through their various governments.
117. Grenada's national records, which were
stolen by Washington during the American invasion, to be returned to that
country forthwith.
118. Skills in traditional African games,
such as 'AYO' or 'WARRI ' and sports like 'NGBA
' (in Nigeria, wrestling) and martial arts like 'LANGA ' (in Nigeria) and
'CAPOEIRA ' (in Brazil), as well as other similar games and sports of the
Black world, to be developed, organized, popularized, promoted, sponsored,
marketed and taught at different levels for the honour and glory of the Black
people and the enhancement of their lucid prowess and
ingenuity.
119. The Pan-African Movement to put
together a Pan-African sports and games every five years.
120. Black artists, especially the most
successful, to recognize that the majority of their immediate communities, for
economic reasons, do not have access to them, and therefore to undertake to
stage free shows and benefit concerts for them from time to time to enable them
to enjoy and be involved in their art or performance.
121. Black artists to racapture the
grandeur and greatness of Pan-African traditional arts (music, literature and
the fine arts), developing and modernising them by experimentation and, if
necessary, borrowing from external sources.
122. The best artifacts in the world were
created by Africans. To perpetuate African leadership role in creativity,
governments in Black countries and organizations of the Black world are to
ensure the promotion and transmission of these skills from generation to
generation.
123. The Black promoters of Pan-African
arts (records companies, radio stations, book and magazine publishers and art
galleries) to pay particular attention to and promote those art forms inspired
by the traditional mode, by using such agencies as the media, festivals,
competitions and sponsorships.
124. Every Black child born from now on in
any part of the world to bear an African name as a way of rooting into African
culture.
125. The Pan-African Movement to mount, at
least, one joint cultural festival every ten years. Pan-African festivals
in each discipline of the arts i.e the visual and plastic arts, cosmetics and
fashion, literature, dance theatre, film, photography etc to be staged every two
years in rotation around the Black world to promote African ideals and
perspective and to influence the world.
FAMILY
126. All Blacks around the world to return
to the extended family tradition of our ancestors.
127. Rites of passage traditions to be
introduced in all Black communities of the world through big brother/sister
mentor to youths and institutionally to all members of each
community.
128. Respect for elders is a strong African
tradition that has a stabilizing influence on the African family and home, and
it is to be the norm throughout the Black world.
129. The tendency to replace African names,
particularly surnames or family names, with Christian or Moslem names is
anti-self-esteem, shows gross disrespect for African traditions, and is to be
reversed immediately. All foreign surnames or family names are to be
reversed to African names. All foreign names too late to change should be
spelt with peculiar African literary flare and colouration.
130. The number of children per Black
family to be kept to manageable proportions to enable them to be provided for
adequately in education and development. Black families cannot do this if
they let themselves have more children than they can afford.
131. Blacks all over the world are to begin
to make more serious efforts to remain married to their spouses especially if
there are children involved. Before a marriage becomes irretrievable,
elders in both families are to be invited together to counsel the
couple.
If separation is inevitabloe, partners must
continue to carry their full responsibilities financially, physically and
spiritually for the upkeep of the family so as to ensure a reasonably balanced
development of their children.
132. All Black women are entitled to the
opportunity regardless of religion, nationality or other considerations, to
develop their skills and apply them to the limit of their
abilities.
133. Children are not slaves just because
they are weak and helpless. Child abuse in any form whatsoever is to stop
and every child must be given the full support and flexibility to be educated
formally and informally to the highest levels of professionalism.
AESTHETICS AND
FASHION
134. All Black people to reaffirm that
Black is beautiful and a thing of great pride and joy, not to be disparaged,
abused or decried in any way or retarded by the use of skin bleaching and hair
relaxers of European cosmetics which compromise the radiance of Black
beauty. Anything used to violate the Black person's physical being to be
banned from the Black world by communities and governments.
135. African fashion is the most beautiful
in the whole world, hence a well-dressed African is one who is truly turned out
in the latest traditional vogue.
136. All formal attire or professional
regalia such as wig and gown, vetments or canonicals, academicals or
regimentals, are to be Africanized immediately.
CELEBRATIONS
137. The following list of
days and months of every year are of great significance to Black people
throughout the world (they are not exhaustive and are constantly being reviewed)
and are to be celebrated or observed as public holidays:
(a) February: Black History Month
(b) 25th May; African Liberation Day. This date is to be
declared a public holiday throughout
the world.
(c) 11th November.: NAKUMBUKA DAY (Kiswahili for "I
remember"). The date is to be observed
throughout the Black world to mourn the slavery holocaust and to declare:
"Never Again." On
that day, every Black in the world to wear a medallion of the image of a Black
in chains with the
words "I remember" surrounding the image. The medallion is being
produced by the Pan-
African Movement to be sold around the world.
(d)
26th Dec. is Osiris' birthday and as the symbolic representative of our
ancestors, the date is to be
celebrated around the Black world yearly with
fasting. The date is to serve as the beginning of
the African New Year Celebration (i.e from
the 26 Dec. to the 1st Jan.) called KWANZA
WEEK.
Details of how to celebrate the week are
already available in other documents.
LANGUAGE
138. The universal languages of all Black
people are Yoruba and Kiswahili. Others are being modernised. They
are to be learned by children with the co-operation of their parents or
guardians and to be further developed and promoted for international
communications by governments and non-governmental agencies and
institutions.
139. Every African country is to adopt, at
least, one indigenous lingua franca, and teach it in schools.
140. All Black people to abolish the use,
and resist the imposition, implicit or explicit, of all forms of derogatory
expressions, remarks, epithets or appellations which refer to Africans or
Blacks, such as: "Third World" instead of "South,"
"Tribe," "Palop"(in Portuguese), instead of "ethnic
groups" and also to absolutely discourage the use of such descriptive and
pejorative words as '' nigger, '' "blackmail," and
"blackleg," which shoud best be reversed, both in form and meaning,
until they are completely expunged from international lexicography.
141. Every African street, road, lane or
institution bearing unearned foreign names to be Africanized
immediately.
142. At congresses, meetings and gatherings
of the Pan-African Movement, participants are to relate to each other and refer
in broad terms to one another as brothers and sisters.
HONORIFIC TITLES
143. Any Black person who, in fighting to
defend, protect, unite or inspire his or her people, displays exceptional
courage in confrontation with imperialist and racist forces, is to be accorded
the title HERO of the people.
HALL OF FAME
144. The Pan-African Movement to establish
the Black Achievement Awards in all fields of human endeavor to reward
excellence in the Black world.
PAM FLAG
145. The flag of the Pan-African Movement
is the Red, Black and Green as used by the Marcus Garvey Universal Negro
Improvement Association.
RASTEFARIANISM
146. All Black people to counter any attack
on the Rastafarians and their identity, as they are ambassadors of Pan-African
culture and purveyors culturally and spiritually of its ideals. If there
is anything they do that offends the tenets of the Black Agenda, they are to
begin to clean up their acts immediately and occupy a leading role in our
cultural offensive.
147. We salute the courage of the Maroons
for holding their ground until now and invite all Black countries with Maroon
settlements to assist them to be commercially, socially and spiritually viable
as distinct communities representing a brilliant legacy.
RELIGION
148. As the Cradle of humankind and the
epicentre and custodian of deep spirituality, Africa and Africans are to lead,
as a matter of right and responsibility, in all the various religions to which
they belong.
149. Black people all over the world to
support the trend to re-Africanize all existing religions, resist all manner of
religious domination and intolerrance, and rediscover and respect the tenets of
traditional African religions in their various manifestations.
150. The Pan-African Movement to evolve a
spiritual dimension to Pan-Africanism incorporating a body of ideas, cutting
across and welding together all the religions of Black people and insituting
common leadership training programs, celebrations and ethos of co-operation and
oneness among Blacks.
151. Every Black family and community,
regardless of divergences in religious beliefs and practices, to celebrate
KWANZA uninturrpted from December 26th of one year to January 1st of the next,
to promote and extol spiritual unity, inculcate faith in self-determination,
responsibility, collectivity and co-operation in work, and inspire purposeful
creativity.
152. All marriages, naming ceremonies,
house-warming, burial and similar ceremonies and celebrations to include a
Pan-African ritual of pouring libation and incantatory prayers invoking the
ancestors.
153. All Black states to adopt the
Pan-African spiritual canon as embodied in 'THE CRADLE FAMILY.'
POLITICS
154. Military regimes and dictatorships
being an anarchronism and an aberration, are outlawed outright in all Black
countries for not being accountable to the people they claim to represent.
From now on, all coups are to be stoutly resisted by mass uprisings and popular
insurrections to counter such undemocratic interventions.
155. All Black dictators and Life
Presidents to hand over power to multi-party democracies or be ostracized and
taunted out of office by the Black world.
156. The Pan-African Movement to compile
comprehensive annual reports on performance of Black leaders. Those found
to be corrupt, inefficient, ineffective or to have violated basic human rights
or rigged their elections, to be humiliated out of office.
157. Countries of the Pan-African world to
withdraw unconditionally, a a matter of urgency, from the Commonwealth, the
Conference of French and African Heads of State, the Conference of Francophone
Countries, The organisation of Islamic Countries, the Arab League, and other
such bodies which are anachronistic vestiges of imperialism and
colonialism.
158. The Pan-African Movement to devise
appropriate and effective programs of political leadership to groom potential
leaders in Black countries and communities.
159. The Congrssional Black Caucus in
America, the NAACP, the SCLC and other such organizations to adopt a new
political agenda and strategy based on an understanding of Blacks as an
exploited and traumatized moinority in the USA, and to admit that racism is the
root of the monstous system in which they themselves operate, and therefore to
apply all their energies towards the democratization of property and economic
rights for all Black people.
160. The Congressional Black Caucus, to
seize immediately the initiative based on the Pan-African Agenda, of raising the
political consciousness of the entire Black people, formulating appropriate
educational strategies for the evolution of qualitative Black leadership, and
sponsoring candidates for electorial office.
161. The Congressional Black Caucus and all
the Black people of America to work together as one political family to produce
the first Black president of the USA by the year 2000 or soon
thereafter.
162. All Black governments of the world to
support and strengthen the former Non-Aligned Movement, the South-South
Commission and the G-15, to make them more effective in projecting and
protecting Pan-African interests in the world.
163. All Black delegates to the UN to
caucus on all issues and matters arising, determine a Pan-African position, and
vote en-bloc accordingly.
164. The UN system to be further
democratized; particularly, the veto power of the permanent members of the
Security Council which is to be scrapped .
165. The permanent membership of the UN
Security Council to be expanded in the meantime to include Nigeria.
African nations to insist on producing the first Black and African Secretary
General of the UN immediately.
166. The United Nations, having been established for peace and
peace-keeping operations throuhgout the world is to limit itself to this role
and also to the arbitration of conflicts. The UN to be positively neutral
and not support or be a party to any aggression against any nation.
167. The OAU (AU now) to establish special
membership status for Blacks in the USA and Brazil, (or at least bring their
plight to the forefront of international politics), being so grossly
marginalized, without governments of their own or representation on any
international organization of nations to articulate and protect their
interests.
168. Blacks in the US, Canada, Britain,
France, Brazil, Arab dominated African countries, Australia and New Zealand and
other White or Arab dominated countries are to seize the initiative immediately
to control their communities through such institutions as schools, the Police
force, the communications media, community development programs, churches,
mosques and industrial projects.
Members of the Think Tank of the
Black World (TTB) who first put the Black Agenda together in Lagos, Nigeria, in
1992, under the auspices of the Pan-African Movement were:
Naiwu Osahon, Chairman; Charles C. Roach, Deputy Chair;
Catherene Acholonu, Nigeria; Denese Bradford, USA; Duane Bradford,
USA; Tom Dalgety, Guyana; Viola Davis, Barbados; C. M. Eya-Nchama,
Equatorial Guinea; Diane Forte, USA; Malinali Meza Herrera, Mexico;
Onwuchekwa Jemie, Nigeria; Owei Lakemfa, Nigeria; Olusegun Maiyegun,
Nigeria; Rudy Mattai, USA; Lonja Mulegwa-Migabo, Zaire; T.C. Nwosu,
Nigeria; Osagie Obayuwana, Nigeria; Yinka Ogunsulire, Nigeria;
Yeye Akilimali Funua Olade, USA; Gbenga Sonuga, Nigeria; Andre Franco de
Sousa, Angola; Amelia Ventura, Mozambique/Australia; Johnny Washington,USA
who sat through meetings without making contributions. Two members
who could not get to the venue of the TTB were:
Joycelene Loncke, Guyana and G. Mawa-Kiese Mawawa, Congo. Logistic
support team members included: Maria Adebiyi; Wale Adeyemi; Yetunde
Akerele; Marion Amanambu; Ngozi Amushie; Segun Esuruoso; Alex Iheanachor;
Majisola Matti; Mr. and Mrs. Obi; David Odeghe; Alaba Oruwari; Ivy
Oruwari. The Black Agenda was first comprehensively reviewed at
the first ever Canadian Pan-African Conference chaired by Naiwu Osahon and held
at the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada from 24 - 27, June, 1993, conveyed
by the Deputy Chairman of the Pan African Movement, Charles C.
Roach.
The Black Agenda is to be freely
published, photocopied and distributed to all Black individuals, organisations,
groups, institutions and governments world-wide. Do not break the Black
world's mobilisation chain. Every recipient of this Agenda must
immediately make, several copies to pass on to other Blacks. Every Black
must begin to act on this Agenda right
away.
- Naiwu Osahon, Chair,
The Pan-African Movement
World-wide.
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