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African Community Abroad Should Help Those Back Home

 By Dan E. Austin, Publisher, Transatlantic Times

 A community of people is evolving to reflect the diversity of the African continent including Arabs from North Africa, Eastern Africans of Ethiopian descent, dark African Nigerians and Ghanaians, as well as Kenyans, Ugandans, and a South African mix featuring both blacks and whites. All of these people are prominently visible and intermixed with but not overshadowed by American indigenous blacks or, more commonly, African Americans. Indeed it is a pleasant blend that the emerging immigrant African community gladly embraces in America, and that has helped many of the new African immigrants in their introduction to and absorption into the American culture.

 Most immigrant Africans normally start off in the US by taking up residence in predominantly lower income black neighborhoods at an affordable cost without the added concern of blending into such neighborhoods. In the majority of instances, the reunion of the African immigrant with the indigenous African American is often welcomed and gladly embraced. On the other hand, a bringing to bear of the Biblical “Joseph mentality” sometimes is problematic especially when differing economic needs clash at the personal level. But, most of the time, at a community level or community leadership level, these issues are almost never of any importance to consider.  Often, these quality of life inequities are simply overshadowed by the mutual spirit of the reunion, mutual economic needs, and cooperation of both communities.

 Immigrant African communities are often more educated on the average, because most travel into the west to obtain higher education. Hence, per individual, their statistics are similar to most immigrant groups in the US. Their first generation children are more likely to excel, bringing an added dimension to the African community in the United States as a whole. In major Black universities such as Howard University in Washington, DC, Mehhary medical College in Tennessee, or other mainstream prestigious institutions across the US, it is not unusual to see a disproportionately higher number of immigrant African Americans or their first generation children as both professors and students. The different African countries are well represented, with the most prominent being the Nigerians, Ghanaians, and Kenyans, and, to a lesser extent, South Africans and North Africans, partly because of better economic situations in those countries.

 Within the US, African immigrant communities have produced numerous sports stars such as Akeem Olajuwon the popular Houston Rockets basketball star, Mutombo, another NBA Star, and most recently, the basketball star Okafor and the soccer sensation Fred Adu to name but a few.

 In the area of science, Hi tech, corporate, and professional achievement, this group has also excelled and continues to rise quite on a par with other immigrant segments and in many cases outdo many other immigrant groups. However, there is one challenge the group has yet to attempt to address or even think about so far. Specifically, it is the issue of respectively harnessing the fruits of the collective successes and achievements here in the US to confront the root causes of backwardness on the African continent.

 Today, there is no hiding the fact that the primary reason the economies of most African countries are not progressing is because of several serious maladies. These include lack of accountability, bribery, corruption, and frequently, a blatant lack of the implementation of commonly accepted standards as practiced around the world. In short, it is a sad truth that the countries on the African continent continue to remain a laughing stock to the rest of the world.  Furthermore, it seems that nowhere else in the world is it quite so easy to turn basic or routine social institutions such as police, security, road construction, banking, or postal systems into a sham and make them examples of shameful mismanagement.

  Up to this time the label "Dark Continent" has remained a foreign tag. It has been easy to sit down in the concrete jungles across the skyline of Europe or the board rooms of the capitalist West and describe some group of so called Negroes and festively-dressed warm dancing peoples in the tribal, mineral rich lands as the "dark continent." But, it is something else when the descendants and generations of these so called peoples from the dark continent themselves begin to look at the so-called “Dark Continent" and ask the question, "Is it really a dark continent?"  Let me answer categorically on behalf of the continent-- NO.  To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven... a time to sow, a time to keep silence, and a time to speak. God has made everything beautiful in its time. So it is that when the sons and newer generations of the Dark Continent begin to ask the question and answer the question, it becomes obvious that the time to speak has come.

 A significant area of frequently unanswered questions in the world is that mass of difficulties existing ceaselessly in African countries. And it appears that no one is more qualified to pick up the mantle of this task whose time has come than the African community in the United States or the Western hemisphere from whence the phrase the “dark continent " originated.

 The objective of this analysis is not to minimize the good job being done in many countries and the tireless efforts of the many people working to restore the dignity and productive strength of the continent. Such people include the present administration in Ghana, blacks working tirelessly in Southern Africa, Kofi Anan, and Colin Powell just to name a few. This group also includes the numerous unsung but dignified contributors working in prominent or unrecognized positions, helping to bring the continent and its descendants or all peoples related to the continent to their rightful place in world development and global responsibility. We salute you, wish you the best, and are here to join hands with you.

 Nevertheless, we must hold the continent accountable and call to question its present system and its leaders today; otherwise, its future course must be called to question. The object is not to find fault, but to bring her to an acceptable path, in the face of the world today. The goal is to move away from scenarios where the actions of some unscrupulous and corrupt government officials in Nigeria in collusion with corporations such as Halliburton might make headline news on CNN and thus soil the image of everyone of African descent in the World. This is a matter in which the African community in the western hemisphere must take the lead. It must be addressed now, for any further delay would continue to insidiously erode any individual progress to be made by people of African descent anywhere in the world.

At the cornerstone of accountability we find the Nigerians, the largest and the most populous black African nation in the world. It is the wealthiest African nation in mineral resources, the largest in economy, yet the most corrupt and possibly the crown sultan of mismanagement and lack of accountability. The African community around the world beginning with those at the helm of power in the west must confront the Nigerians without fear or favor. Until Nigeria gets its act together and its government realizes that the silly pennies gained from dirty local kickbacks are hurting everyone including themselves, we are all laboring in vein. What is needed is democracy, one, man one vote, law and order, security, disciplined ranks in the police force, transparent banking, and accountability at all levels. These are a few of the issues on which the African community must join together and work to take the lead at championing the development of the continent. Without the tenets of democracy and accountability in place, true development will remain stagnant.

 Contrary to common beliefs, tribalism though a problem is not as serious a problem as the root issues of lack of accountability and transparency. The African community must organize itself to form a front here in the West, principally in the US, and build a structure with which to enlist the cooperation of other influential political groups. The objective should be to convince enough people that it is in the interest of the entire world to have accountable, transparent, and progressive African continent countries. It would be the best security against the likes of Niger-delta renegade groups, who, for example, have helped to trigger a shakeup in world oil prices, or have aided and abetted the genocide in Sudan.

 The African community could secure its long-term progress and improve on the dignity of the world and its people at large if they would see the light and invest time and effort now in this cause whose time has come. The battle for civil rights has indeed been well fought and many would argue that fight still continues. However, this newer struggle is even more immediate and can be joined and fought by people of all colors. In the long run, the application of shared resources and effort would bring dignity to the struggle rather then suspicion that some are getting away with a “free lunch” that they would otherwise be incapable of earning. The African continent and its countries are a wealth of potential once these issues are confronted and addressed. The result would be that much of Africa’s resources would be freed up for the accountable and progressive use of all.

 It is my hope that this call will resound to all friends, natives, and descendants of the African community.  Pass it on to a friend. Write to me at danaustin@transatlantictimes.net so I can link you up to numerous efforts to bring people together to organize a voice to assist and support such efforts that would make ideas such as I have presented here into a reality.

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