Cliff’s Notes

Praise vs. Criticism
Africans do not hate African Americans. Rather, we hold African Americans in very high esteem for placing Black people on the global map by triumphing over slavery and Jim Crow, and by striving for civil rights and the empowerment of women. Undoubtedly, this was an inspiration for many African countries to declare independence from Europe. Nonetheless, we Africans living in America fail to understand why African Americans have not thrived more in the United States. Why have African Americans not excelled to their full potential? We are confused and disappointed by this lack of progress, for we consider the success of African Americans as Africa’s success.

Healing Mechanisms
Africans understand imperialism—they lived with it for over five hundred years. However, there is a time to let go. African Americans focus so much on the emotional effects of oppression. Some African Americans feel, rightly, that America owes them something. Though, the fact is that the world is moving ahead. We, Africans and African Americans alike, have to move ahead as well. We have to go to school, embrace scholarship, raise children, and create a culture that is functional and not dysfunctional. We have to create empowered young men that can form functional families. We must embrace our true identity and support one another. African Americans can achieve greater success in the U.S despite institutional racism; the system can be beat!

And the Story Goes…
Africans acknowledge that slavery happened, and that approximately 12 million Africans were forcefully captured and sold as slaves to the New World. The majority of those captured died during the voyage. Only a small segment settled in North America, while most were sent to South America and the Caribbean islands.

Most slaves in America were captured from the west coast of Africa from Senegal to Angola. In West African oral history, there are reports that initially only war prisoners and people rejected by society were sold into slavery. Slavery existed in Africa, yet it was different. Slaves in Africa had basic rights; they could marry, own property and eventually be fully integrated into the community.

When Africans learned that their brothers and sisters sent to slavery would never return, were worked to death, and were treated inhumanely, many African kings stopped selling off prisoners of war to European slave traders. Black slave merchants were corrupt individuals who were intoxicated with selfishness and greed. They were the minority and not the majority of the African people.

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