Thread by @LeviKabwato

Hoping I create more time this week to continue writing about Kanye West, Amerika in the BLACK Imagination and the hierarchies of #BlackLivesMatter.

The widespread and necessary reaction to #KhashoggiMurder also matters in putting things into perspective.

From my perspective, the evolution of Kanye West is the most logical consequence of repeated attempts by BLACK americans to gain full citizenship in the country they belong to.

Ye isn't acting out-of-sync with common aspirations for US citizenship by blacks in amerika.

In fact, the wild and violent reaction to Ye's 'behaviour' might have more to do with how much it resonates with 'liberal' black americans who are unsure about their own reaction to "this moment".

"This moment" is euphemism for president Donald Trump's long-overdue presidency.

Hence, Ye's evolution appears to scare the black amerikans who actually share his views and see where he's going with this. It scares them not because it's new, but because it forces them to finally confront the question of their citizenship in amerika and how fluid it is.

Citizenship for blacks in amerika is fluid because they're part of a country & history that has NEVER recognised them as fully human, and therefore worthy of sharing in - and benefiting (socially & economically) from - the privilege of being amerikan (in white Imagination).

All the blacks in amerika have to ride on for their citizenship is the (un)happy coincidence of being born in the geographical territory known as the united states of amerika.

Hence "African-American" to remind them of where they come from, and consequently, to restrict them.

The irony here is that they might be descendants of assimilados, mulattos or just 'pure' BLACK, in their 'original' state but as soon as they lay claim to amerikan citizenship, they're ascribed a singular identity - African.

The system makes no distinction because there's none.

Yet, the awareness of the system in ascribing a singular identity is, conversely, the 'ignorance' of the blacks who seek amerikan citizenship and desire to be fully amerikan, and therefore fully HUMAN (in white imagination).

The question, therefore, is: what is citizenship?

Is citizenship a passport/ID?

Is citizenship a place of residence?

Is citizenship a form of recognition within the Nation?

Is citizenship the colour of one's skin?

It's not surprising that whites in amerika do not have to resolve these questions at all. Blacks, meanwhile...

When Ye says he wants to "MAKE AMERIKA GREAT AGAIN", he is expressing his desire to become fully amerikan, and therefore HUMAN, (in the white imagination of amerika as a NATION).

He wants to let go of the 'burden' of being an Afrikan in amerika with amerikan citizenship.

Why shouldn't he?

For most blacks in amerika to be temporarily recognised as amerikan, they've had to do really exceptional things.

Temporarily because as soon as the moment of their recognition passes, they revert to being Afrikan, and therefore sub-HUMAN in amerika.

But, a white kid born in amerika today doesn't have to do anything except to exist in the geographical territory known as the united states of amerika for them to be seen as american, and therefore, HUMAN.

That's why, in the 21st century, blacks in amerika say #BlackLivesMatter

So why is Ye being castigated for wanting to "MAKE AMERIKA GREAT AGAIN"?

Why should he not desire to be fully recognised as amerikan, and therefore HUMAN (in white Imagination)?

Despite the political expediency for Trump, this aspiration is NOT inconsistent with "this moment".

What many (especially blacks in amerika) forget is that "this moment" has been a long time in the making. Strangely (or ironically) they should have been the first ones to see it coming.

But, did the 'distraction' & 'destruction' of amerikan citizenship blind them to reality?

As I've written elsewhere, to fully understand your BLACKNESS in amerika requires, nay demands, that you transcend the fact of your amerikan citizenship.

Malcolm did it. Angela did it. Jimmy did it. For a moment, even Ta-Nehisi did too. I'll come back to Malcolm & Ta-Nehisi.

Ye isn't interested in transcending the fact of his amerikan citizenship - he wants to fully embrace it, & in return, be embraced by the Nation to which he 'thinks'/'feels'/'knows' he belongs. This is a very legitimate aspiration, one which can help us think deeply about the us.

And the main reason why many people are angry with Ye is because they are unsure (maybe even afraid of) what this actually means for amerika in both BLACK and white Imagination.

Ye & Trump, as it turns out, are contesting the idea of amerikan citizenship and broadly, NATION.

Who belongs to this NATION? Who doesn't belong? Why?

Unsurprisingly, there's much clarity to these questions from the Right than there is from the Left. Reasons for this abound and are well-documented. Save to say, it's little wonder why Ye has been attacked the way he has.

Back to Malcolm & Ta-Nehisi.

In 1964, Malcolm endorsed Goldwater's candidacy, saying this man, as an amerikan president would help blacks in amerika to understand 'their' country better. Basically, they would start imagining amerika in the BLACK Imagination.

He was right.

When things got heated for Ta-Nehisi as a BLACK man in amerika, he decided to 'escape' to France. Once there, he felt safe and 'accepted'.

His amerikan citizenship, however, restricted him from confronting the question of french colonialism & imperialism in BLACK Africa.

So, as long as france was 'safe' for Ta-Nehisi as a BLACK man with an amerikan passport, he couldn't help but enjoy these benefits regardless of france's history of colonialism & imperialism. This is how hierarchies in #BlackLivesMatter emerge & are reinforced.

Malcolm, on the other hand, did not care about amerikan citizenship; he understood it to emanate from a particular history of slavery, colonialism & imperialism. This made it illegitimate and therefore worthy of contestation. You see this in his trips to Afrika.

Between Malcolm & Ta-Nehisi you have Muhammad Ali (leaning more towards Malcolm), Angela Davis & James Baldwin (both conflicted about their citizenship) & now Ye, who was recently in Uganda. All this isn't one big coincidence. These are deliberate acts seeking to answer questions

...questions on amerikan citizenship and its limitations for the blacks who live in amerika.

In Ye's amerika, perhaps BLACK people will not get shot & killed for simply being BLACK in amerika. Maybe they will be seen as amerikkan, and therefore HUMAN.

Enter the #KhashoggiMurder

The narrative of the murder has quickly moved towards the sale of arms - what amerika sells and profits from.

There is a side, however, that is actively & rightly demanding justice for #Khashoggi. Some on this side have never quite demanded justice for others elsewhere...

...who are victims of amerikan imperialism, often aided and abetted by countries deemed to be allies. This approach has its benefits but it also has a lot of limitations, especially on the message it sends on whose life is valued and whose life is not. Again, hierarchies.

Suddenly, or so it seems, there is widespread outrage when the allies appears to behave badly by destroying lives that are deemed to matter. Yet, when the same allies are destroying lives that seem not to matter, they are celebrated, even rewarded for their efforts.

Beyond the narrow limitations of citizenship, we must confront the question of global citizenship and its inherent biases against BLACK (in the Bantu #Biko imagination) people all over the world - the Damned of the Earth, so to speak.

This is where liberalism struggles the most, ironically. Hence, the tyranny of white supremacy tends to organise far much better than the 'freedom' of universalism.

What is the World? Who lives in it? Under what conditions? Why?

Personally, I am under no illusion as to where exactly - in this global hierarchy of lives that matter and lives that DO NOT matter - I stand as a BLACK man.

It's not looking good for me & that's why I keep insisting that #Afrika is all some of us have...it better work! Else...

There by amerika, trauma is being conveniently & convincingly deployed to guilt trip BLACK people into voting in what is effectively a choiceless 'democracy'.

"Your vote matters more than it has ever done before," they are told. The historical import of this strategy is key.

If you are BLACK in amerika and you don't want to vote, so-called 'democrats' are going to come for you, and not in a good way. "Your ancestors died so that you could vote," you'll be told.

The reduction of the fight for freedom by BLACK people in amerika to voting is disturbing

Hopefully there will be much more talk/discussion on the use of trauma to guilt trip BLACK voters into voting. And when they vote, blaming them for undesirable electoral outcomes.

Voting has to mean something; it's not an exercise in futility. You can't guilt trip people.

[REMINDER]

"American Negroes have always feared with perfect fear their eventual expulsion from America."

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

"American Negroes have always feared with perfect fear their eventual expulsion from America" - James Baldwin.

On Jay-Z, we are not going to see the same vitriol that was directed at Ye, when he went all MAGA etc. There's a reason for the inconsistency and - frankly - hypocrisy.

"American Negroes have always feared with perfect fear their eventual expulsion from America."

Some Africans, on the other hand, have always feared - with perfect fear - the decline of the American empire. Instead of focusing on #Africa, they are crying more than the bereaved.

In all these takes, some of them quite well-meaning, you begin to see why slavery went on for as long as it did; colonialism, and imperialism to this day.

The resistance to Oppression is always undermined by those who love their Oppressors more than they love their Freedom.

A few things are at play:

1) Use of trauma to guilt-trip suffering BLACK Americans into 'voting'. This is most visible in use of MLK quotes, ad nauseam, without any context and meaningful will to engage. Also, 'voting' here means voting for Establishment Democrats. Problematic.

2) it's the question of Citizenship - being fully american as a Black person. The reason why Black people are murdered by police is none other than the fact that their Citizenship (and broadly Humanity) isn't recognised by law enforcement. So they can be killed with impunity.

3) citizenship also comes with the weight of imperialism. This is why we have all these takes, for example, about Black people in the us army who "fight for democracy abroad" but are subjected to racism in 'their' country. Fanon's experience in WW2 is instructive on this point.

The main problem with the "fighting for democracy abroad" take is that it actually hides the fact of us imperialism, victims of which are Black people elsewhere in the world. So, as long us bombs & guns are killing 'other' Black people, it's cool, these lives DO NOT matter.

Of course these lives DO NOT matter because they are taken in the name of "fighting for democracy". So bombs can rain on Black children, weddings, hospitals etc, accompanied by other extra-judicial killings and it would be all good. Why? To be a full citizen in america.

4) Enter the African 'solidarity' voice calling out unending police violence visited upon Blacks in america. The well-documented irony is, of course, the police violence we also have to deal with in Africa. Most of the instruments of force were inherited from the colonial state.

If the 'post-colonial' state is still relying on instruments of violence it inherited from the colonial state, then we should find out what the common denominator is. Why do the military, police & other state security agencies behave the way they do? Who/what do they protect?

In answering this question, we will also be confronted with problem of neo-colonialism/imperialism. In short, to ask a president of a country that is still in colonial shackles to speak out against the excesses of the empire is to ask for the impossible. It is never sincere. Why?

Examples abound, and there are many I may not be aware of. But one could mention:
- Patrice Lumumba's detention & subsequent assassination;
- Nkrumah's overthrow in Ghana;
- Sankara's assassination in Burkina Faso;
- Gukurahundi killings in Zim;
- Marikana massacre in SA.

I cite these examples because of the critical role the State (or how State power is conceived, at least) plays in defining the course a particular country takes. This is important because in the next decade, the State is going to be a site of many a struggle.

Of course, it should be logical that the State becomes a site of many struggles. However, most mainstream thinking in #Africa has largely 'absolved' the State of much responsibility; we have been encouraged, rather, to pursue "reforms" - a loose term for static/incremental change

Ironically, the language of "reforms" in #Africa has come from people who have the most to gain from neo-colonialism/imperialism etc. It is, therefore, inconsistent with 'popular' aspirations for Freedom, the main reason why colonialism had to be fought.

It is on this point that African solidarity voice within #BlackLivesMatter is found wanting. Yes, at face value, everything makes sense & this is, indeed, 'the right thing to do'.

But, BLACK lives will NOT matter anywhere else in the world until they matter in #Africa.

Logically, the African solidarity voice to #BlackLivesMatter is being expressed as pan-Africanism. This is fine. In fact, one could even say pan-Africanism has gone full circle (or has been attempting to go full circle), since it's something that started outside the continent.

So here, we must actually look at attempts, in #Africa, to give pan-Africanism both content & character.

Nationalism, for example, grew out of pan-Africanism, not vice versa as is commonly thought. Perhaps this portion of History should be more instructive in this moment?

Looking back into History matters because it actually gives us practical guidance, if the end goal of African solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter is initiate methods, systems and practices that can recognise the Humanity of, and bring Dignity to, all BLACK people around the world.

(By the way, saying/chanting/singing #BlackLivesMatter does not necessarily mean those lives will automatically matter. The systems/practices that necessitated the cries of BLACK people have to end, or be completely thought anew, for Black lives to matter.)

On the occasion of #AfricaDay, last month, some tweeps correctly stated that pan-Africanism had been emptied of its content by African States, and was no longer as useful for contemporary #Africa. The less said about the African Union and other regional bodies the better.

But as I say, history matters, especially the potentials it reveals to us, much like the potentials currently opening up globally through #BlackLivesMatter. What can we learn from young people who crossed borders to fight for the liberation of countries they didn't 'belong' to?

What can we learn from a Head of State who grants Citizenship to all Africans, including Africans in the diaspora?

What can we learn from a Heads of State who took in militants fighting for Freedom, gave them support at a significant cost to their countries? And own lives?

What can we learn from Heads of State who defied norms & called out imperialist leaders, doing so at the risk of sanctions, coups and assassination?

Any lessons from those who, after fighting WW2 for Europe, decided to fight against Europe in the quest for African Independence?

In the grand scheme of things, as it turns out, to be an African has always meant our existence ought to be rooted in the assertion that BLACK LIVES MATTER.

There is no 'need' to march, shout, chant, cry, hashtag etc. To simply exist as an African is, in fact, to MATTER.

So, when Shaun King expresses surprise at seeing the news of Stephon Clark's murder on Egyptian* TV, his reaction has double meaning:
1) this Black life *really* matters;
2) we (america) is getting a bad rap.

he is shocked to see the news & is also worried about his Citizenship

(*I know that Egypt also has a history of being anti-Black)

Anyway, the larger point here is that this moment is further exposing the the limitations of the State, Citizenship and Agency. At the same time, it is opening up a variety of potentials which, if harnessed, can reposition #Africa. (More on this another day)

Save to say, the global 'uptake' of #BlackLivesMatter (in the midst of a pandemic) is a useful reminder that being BLACK in an anti-BLACK world is, literally, a matter of life & death.

We are NOT going to be spared death by asking racists to 'reform' themselves out of Racism.

Neither can anything substantive come from Blacks in america who are still invested in their Citizenship. To say #BlackLivesMatter and also condemn us imperialism, manifest in wars, bombs, guns, exploitation targeted at 'other' BLACKS requires one to transcend their Citizenship.

My more elaborate thoughts on transcending Citizenship are on this thread, in which I was looking at the 'tiff' between Cornel West & Ta-Nehisi Coates.

(We have to be clear which Black lives matter, and which ones don't matter if we are to move forward)

https://twitter.com/LeviKabwato/status/947716593802506240?s=19

As for the BLACKS on the continent, the solidarity voice is instinctively correct. But what more can be done to build a kind of solidarity that helps advance the assertion of BLACK-ness that matters, both in #Africa and in the World?

A good start, perhaps, is to start from a position of PAIN - to fully acknowledge our dehumanisation, the torture, violence and death we have been subjected to. This, as a reminder of the reason why, in 2020, we still have to cry #BlackLivesMatter just so we can breathe.

There is also a solid BLACK RADICAL TRADITION from which to draw inspiration, learn lessons and better manage how we organise.

These takes that insist "we are not our ancestors" are not only disturbing but also anti-historical, flawed, unimaginative and quite frankly, dangerous.

Imagine crying out #BlackLivesMatter while insisting you are not an heir to a glorious BLACK RADICAL TRADITION.

The people who have their knee on your neck are acting within the confines of their own tradition - a tradition that has left you where you are, as BLACK person.

This is what you are up against yet your ancestors are the problem? Anyway, maybe we can - and should - blame the history lessons.

BUT, wasn't this the whole essence of anti-slavery, anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism? To be left alone so we could make our own History?