Thursday, September 3, 2015


By Mansor Puteh

It is not easy to be Black or Africans living outside of Africa. No matter how they behave and try to be somebody else, they are seen to be Blacks and as Black as their ancestors who were first detained in Africa and sent to America and be considered as ‘goods’ and not humans.

Someone remarked to Sammy Davis, Jr, that he had more chains on him than his ancestors. The person happened to be Johnny Carson, so he is not ‘someone’ and what he said had to be a joke and not meant to demean him.

So Sammy had to laugh at it.

They are not the African Diaspora. They are descendants of Former Slaves. The Blacks in America may be suffering or experiencing a mental Blackout for so long.

Many of them have become successful but there are many more who can just get by with a sizeable number who are not as better off than their brethren in the slums in Africa.

Even after so many generations, the Blacks are still very much African in all ways.

Some of them may try to do a lot to clear the color of their skin and not speak in any of the languages in Africa that their ancestors who fled their respective countries in Africa had used which they would later forget.

Basically the Blacks in America are no different to those in Africa today, no matter what they do to themselves, by any means possible, they are still Blacks and many of them still look very African like their ancestors did when they first landed in the country in the Sixteenth Century on despite them not being able to speak in any African language or practicing any African culture, and so on.

So few had decided to return to their roots by reverting to Islam, which is the major religion of their ancestors and started to use Arabic or Muslim names, despite some of them not being Muslims at all.

It seems only Oprah Winfrey is trying to do something with her fame and fortune by establishing some foundations in South Africa to help young Africans to get education so they can be empowered by that.

But the other notable Blacks in America and other countries outside of the African continent seem not to be keen to do that.

Michael Jackson University was supposed to have been established when he was still alive, but the idea did not come to fruition.

On the contrary, Bill and his wife, Melinda Gates of Microsoft have been doing a lot of things to help out those in Africa with their Bill and Melinda Foundation despite them not being Blacks at all.

Worse, even Saudi Arabia which is where Islam came and grew, has not bothered to help out the Blacks in Africa especially those in Somalia and Nigeria whose ancestors had accepted Islam long ago and also Arabic as their national language.

It is too bad that this has now caused tremendous damage to the two countries and the others where they are many African-Muslims, including Yeman, despite being Arab, have also not benefited from being the closest neighbor to Saudi Arabia and the two countries are also land-locked in the Saudi Arabian Peninsula, with it now being attacked by Saudi Arabia which had caused the Houthis to have other plans for Yeman, after so many decades of neglect by Saudi Arabia.

Prophet Mohammed, pbuh, had also gone to Yemen to trade. But this fact does not seem to ring any bell in the Saudis.

Africa does not seem to need or to care for the Blacks that are now in America and all over the world, because they had not been known to be charitable.

On the contrary, they have been charged for being negligent and forgetful and can be described as ingrates, for not showing any interest in the affairs of Africa.

In the 1960s there was some move by the Blacks in America to show their love and gratitude and appreciation for Africa, when films are made to show Black and African pride, with many young men and woman starting to wear African-style clothes and also adopting African and Arab-sounding names, such as Hakim.

Now we also have Queen Latifah and other names that are used by many Blacks in America especially by those who had reverted to Islam and the members of the Nation of Islam who are proud to use their new Arabic names.

Muhammad Ali and his brother Rahman Ali led the way for them to do that.

But why did the trend stop? And why is there no association of African Diaspora much like the other association of Chinese and Indian Diasporas who meet every year to chart out plans for their race, despite many of them are not living in any Chinese or Indian country?   

So far the Blacks in America do not seem to have a real life to live other than to try and ape the Whites and not knowing what else that they can do with their lives and the continent their ancestors had come from.

Unlike the Indians and Chinese and Arabs who take the whole of India, China and the Arab World with them wherever they go and may be living now, the Blacks in America and elsewhere had left Africa behind.

But the color of their skin and thickness of their pigmentation cannot hide their true identity and shame in being Africans.

Of course all the Blacks in America especially can do much to help develop Africa, without allowing it slide until many countries in the continent could be destroyed by in-fighting and civil strife leading to civil wars, if the Ebola outbreaks had not managed to teach them any lesson at all.

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