As black people we have been experiencing oppression, racism, lack of opportunities, and discrimination since the era of colonialism and slavery. When Europeans came to Africa, they encountered a land rich in natural and human resources and decided to capitalise on it through deception, infiltration, and the practice of buying Africans into slavery who would have been around to aid in the military defence of West Africa.

The slave trade in West Africa signalled the global fall of all black people on Earth, and we have never been able to attain our former glory in over five centuries. Within this time, blacks have been enslaved, brutalised, objectified, dehumanised, massacred, robbed, deceived, and resocialised. We have had one of the largest genocides in recorded history perpetrated against us, and although the world is morally advanced enough to sympathise with the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust, we never see that moral outcry for the 10 million Congolese who were massacred by King Leopold and the Belgian Government.

The racial attitude of white Europeans, and Americans by extension, has not changed since the days when it was acceptable to enslave a Negro from Africa, and our people have been without equal rights and opportunities since. Even more unfortunate is the approach of the other races, who seem to be adopting the Europeanised world view of Africans. Therefore, racism is everywhere globally and the Eurocentric brand of racism has become the global narrative regarding black people.

To solve this dilemma we must apply rational solutions to our real-world problems. Since black people all over the world have the same exact problems and suffer from the same exact sources of oppression, it is only logical that black people unite globally and jointly address our common problems. In fact, Marcus Garvey had formulated the solution to the Negro problem by declaring that black people in Africa and the Caribbean must unite as the United States of Africa.

What is the United States of Africa and why should we actualise it?

The United States of Africa is the political uniting of all African and Afro Caribbean nations, along with Papua New Guinea, into a single sovereign principality, with one centralised Government administering the affairs of all black people on Earth.

Here are 10 reasons why we should take the necessary steps to form the United States of Africa as Garvey had proclaimed.

1)We would have the largest single nation in history.

2)We would be able to develop a 3 million-man strong army to protect black people globally and to secure the wealth of Africa for future generations.

3)We would be able to form an agency to collect intelligence regarding the safety and security of black people globally.

4)We would be able to industrialise and modernise Africa with the wealth of our African soil, no different from countries in the Middle East and elsewhere. Africa has gold, diamond, silver, oil, tantalum, uranium, plutonium, cobalt, copper, magnesium, and many more vital resources in large deposits. The African continent should, by that very fact, be richer than the Middle East.

5)We would be able to rise our people out of abject poverty and give them a humane standard of living.

6)We would be able to reinspire pride within the black race and regain our self-respect and our glorious legacy.

7)We would be able to assist any black person on Earth who is experiencing racism, injustice, discrimination, or a lack of opportunities. Also, we would be able to sanction racist countries who fail to address their domestic racism, like how the US has failed to dismantle the racist terrorist organisation known as the Ku Klux Klan.

8)We would be able to give our future generations the support and the foundation that they need to become their highest and best selves.

9)We would be able to have the world’s strongest economy, the world’s highest trading currency, the world’s highest concentration of raw resources, the world’s largest young productive population, and the world’s most strategically located geography (most centrally located continent on Earth).

10)We would have an international voice at the United Nations level and be able to administer world affairs alongside other major powers.

This is the greatest single development in modern African history, and we owe it to the future generations of black people to take the necessary steps to end racism, elevate our people to the status of dignified and equal human beings, and end the global suffering of black people altogether.

How can we create the United States of Africa?

The idea is a grand and prestigious one indeed, which might make our black brothers and sisters think that it will take decades to complete, but this is not true. In fact, the strategy of uniting black people globally is not that complex and difficult to actualise and can be achieved by simply drafting an agreement which entails the gradual unity of all African and Afro-Caribbean nations (and Papua New Guinea) by having the leaders of all those nations sign to the agreement and commence the process of outlining the structure of the new nation.

It’s that simple, and since we are in the 21st century, we have multiple fully functioning federations that we can take inspiration from in structuring the functioning of this new nation. Since Hawaii is so far from mainland America, we can use the Americans as reference in order to properly administer the affairs of a state like Papua New Guinea, which is halfway around the world. The US Constitution can also assist us in structuring a constitution wide enough in scope to entail all the needs of a modern multi-geographic federation. The structure and functions of this new nation can take shape with simply coordinated effort and a willingness to take action.

The dream of Garvey, the supreme guide of the global black revolution, to see black people unite into a single nation-State must be put into action in the 21st century. If this does not happen, then Africa will be lost.

Toraino D Beckford

torainobeckford@gmail.com

Marcus Garvey

The slave trade in West Africa signalled the global fall of all black people on Earth.

Toraino Beckford