2010 Marks the 50th anniversary of Independence in 17 African nations, setting the stage for Africa as a continent to look deep within our history, to wake up & to make this decade Africa’s decade of fulfilling the change that was to come with independence. There was something in the air in 1960, a leap year where many in the continent of African leaped into their independence as British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, stood in independent Accra, Gold Coast (modern day Ghana) on January 10, 1960 & declared “The wind of change is blowing through this continent. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact.“.

1960 was also a time when America was experiencing its own wind of change, as an Irish Catholic named John F. Kennedy announced on January 2nd that he would be running for president of the USA & subsequently went on to win the presidency on Novemeber 8, 1960, becoming the youngest man to be elected as president of the USA , the first & only Catholic & the first Irish-American, something that most Americans at that time thought could not be done. The nation at the time was broken, divided & knew that they needed & had to accept change. The 1960’s also heralded in the wind of change toward the Black civil rights movement when four black students held a sit in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter on February 1st in Greensboro, North Carolina, paving the way for many more nonviloent protests against segregation resulting in the original four protestors sitting down at the Woolworth counter five months later on July 25,1960, becoming the first Black people to be served lunch at a Woolworth counter. 1960 was also the year after the victory of the Cuban Revolution led by Che Guevera & Fidel Castro when Castro began to nationalize all national & foreign property & businesses in a new socialist government seeking to end class & economic disparity by sharing the wealth amongst all of its citizens while shunning western democracy & capitalism. 2010 also marks the 50th anniversary of the Great Chilean Earthquake on May 2, 1960 which is to date the most powerful earthquake ever recorded, rating 9.5 & resulting in a tsunami. Today on February 27, 2010, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake, the strongest quake in South America since the 1960 great Chilean earthquake has hit Chile with the whole world sending out prayers & hope that a tsunami will not ensue as the wind of change continues.

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There is just something about 2010 in its mimicry & 50th anniversary of certain historical events worldwide, which brought about significantly historical changes in the 1960’s that seem to be resurrecting & forcing a new tide of change in this new decade. Whether planned by mortal man or not, I don’t think there is any coincidence in the fact that the World Cup (Africa’s sport) will be held on African soil for the first time in football’s professional westernized history at a time when all eyes are on Africa, a time when a large majority of the continent will be celebrating a half century of independence, a time when many of the most influential African players are leading the charge in western football clubs with relentless racism, a time when many of the world’s greatest players will be returning home to play for their birth & ancestral nations & a time when it is realistically possible for an African country to win the world cup on African soil. There is an erupting wind of change with new found freedoms in the world sparked in Africa & being pushed by yet another symbolic election for change with a new mindset & attitude toward the world in America where its citizens in their frustration of being tired of being sick & tired will determine the direction of the nation.

Ironically 2010 marks the 53rd anniversary of Independence of the African nation that started the wind of change toward independence in Africa with a dream of seeking independence for the entire continent consisting of 53 nations. Although Ghana became the first sub-Saharan Africa nation to attain Independence on March 6 1957, July 1st 1960 actually marked the day when Ghana became a republic asserting its full rights of autonomy with Dr. Kwame Nkrumah as its first President & Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom ceasing her reign as the head of state. With this newly found freedom, autonomy & financial reparations from the United Kingdom, Dr. Nkrumah set out to create the United States of Africa, where all 53 African nations would gain their autonomy from their colonizers toward a goal of economic freedom & a vision of empowerment fortified in Pan-Africanism , with the Black star nation leading the march & setting the standard through leadership & financial assistance. Leading the charge with Dr. Nkrumah were fellow Pan-Africanist Patrice Émery Lumumba, Sekou Toure & Jomo Kenyatta, perhaps the most feared African leaders in the eyes of their colonizers. in hopes of symbolically fulfilling Dr. Nkrumah’s dream of uniting the 53 nations of Africa let’s look “Forward Ever, Backward Never” with hope that Africa’s unity on African soil does not start & end at the World Cup in South Africa.

The 17 African Nations who will be celebrating their 50th anniversary of Independence:

Cameroon – January 1st – President Ahmadou Ahidjo

Senegal- April 4th- President Léopold Sédar Senghor

Togo April 27th-President Sylvanus Olympio

Madagascar -June 26th-President Philibert Tsiranana

Democratic Republic of The Congo- June 30th -President Patrice Émery Lumumba

Somalia- July 1st- President Aden Abdullah Osman Daar

Benin -August 1st -President Hubert Maga

Niger -August 3rd -President Hamani Diori

Burkina Faso- August 5th- President Maurice Yaméogo

Cote D’Ivore (Ivory Coast) -August 7th-President Félix Houphouët-Boigny

Chad- August 11th- President François Tombalbaye

Central African Republic -August 13th- President David Dacko

Republic of Congo- August 15th-President Abbé Fulbert Youlou

Gabon- August 17th – President Gabriel Léon M’ba

Mali -September 22th- President Modibo Keïta

Nigeria -October 1-President Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe

Mauritania -November 28-President Moktar Ould Daddah

Billions have been raised so far in charitable donations for Haiti, but more & more Haitians are dying every day after surviving being buried alive in years of poverty & the rubble of the earthquake, having only their sheer will to live to hold onto. International bureaucracy & power struggles of people with invested interest more in economy than humanity is becoming the continued cause of many Haitians being handed their final death certificates.

We need to be diligent & aware about keeping up with who is controlling the purse strings of all the humanitarian aid & the future sovereignty of Haiti. We can raise all the money we want to help Haiti, but Haiti will still be in the same condition & possibly worse, with an achieved loss of sovereignty if Haitians & Pan-Africanists at large do not come to the aid of their brothers & sisters in attaining & retaining economic empowerment & sovereignty. We have seen throughout the history of the world that a nation’s power & health rests upon its economic power & health; however for many African nations & Diasporans, genuinely fighting to attain this reality has been less & less of a priority because it has been easier & less work to collect foreign aid in return for resources, to leave the health & upliftment from poverty of their citizens to NGO’s & to just silently exist without much fight nor change within broken systems of governance, as long as the few in power continue to hold their titles as beneficiaries.

“Something in the nature of an economic revolution is required. Our development has been held back for too long by the colonial-type economy. We need to reorganize entirely, so that each country can specialize in producing the goods and crops for which it is best suited…..We have the blessing of the wealth of our vast resources, the power of our talents and the potentialities of our people. Let us grasp now the opportunities before us and meet the challenge to our survival. ” Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s First President

We need to be diligent about not turning a blind eye to where all the Haitian relief funds are going when there are so many still begging & waiting for relief. Where is all that money being allocated to? Who is watching over the money & making the decisions on how it is spent? These are the questions we should never stop asking as we give of ourselves in charity because what is the point of charity when the situation of the people is never helped, but rather seems to get worse than better? This is the question we should be asking the Red Cross & the 10,000 + NGO/charities that were in Haiti prior to the quake & the numerous more that are in Haiti now.

“We shall measure our progress by the improvement in the health of our people; by the number of children in school, and by the quality of their education; by the availability of water and electricity in our towns and villages, and by the happiness which our people take in being able to manage their own affairs. The welfare of our people is our chief pride, and it is by this that my Government will ask to be judged.” Dr. Kwame Nkrumah

February honors Black History month in America- we should not & can not allow the history of Black people throughout Africa & her Diaspora to be written in the same way in the next decade as it has been written in the past because that only will show the lack of forward movement & the acceptance of stagnation amongst Black people globally. If this decade is going to be diffrent than the last decade for Haiti & Black people globally, then we must recognize our common struggle, the same struggle that became the catalyst for the movement of Pan-Africanism.

We need this new decade to be a revival of Pan-Africanism with new, young, intelligent, concerned, enlightened, awake, aware, unabashed,unbought, unbossed, pride filled Black people in the likeness of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, W.E.B Dubois, Jomo Kenyatta, Marcus Garvey,Patrice Lumumba, Edward Wilmot Blyden, Ahmed Sékou Touré ,Gamal Abd El Nasser,Haile Selassie,Bob Marley, Fela Anikulapo Kuti etc. -everyday people turned leaders who knew,understood & accepted that although they have been spread all over the world, their legacy empowerment & economic freedom is intertwined in the legacy, empowerment & economic freedom of Africa-the spiritual birthplace of home. The type of feeling of home where one always comes back to pay homage while seeking the guidance & comfort of mama Africa’s bosom -the only true mother of our blood & roots regardless of our adopted mother nations.

There are the Kimmie Weeks of Africa & the Wyclef Jean’s of the Diaspora, who need to join forces with the likes of people like Samia Yaba Christina Nkrumah, daughter of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, who has decided to take on the mantle of her father by starting a new intelligent revolution toward real resolution. There needs to be a new era/new decade of Pan-Africanism with a Pan-African summit based on the original teachings & goals of empowerment & health through our collective economic freedom at the forefront.

“She is emerging as the new face of the current crop of selfless continental African leaders who think more about the development and prosperity of sub-Saharan Africa, first and foremost than looting from the continent.” Ghanaweb.com.

Sami Nkrumah & the growing crop of new thinkers & leaders are the only way to make this new decade, a decade where Africa & the Diaspora truly gets our house in order in efforts to write our own history in the manner that we would like to be recognized & heralded. We can’t rest on touting the legacy & greatness of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah or Toussaint L’Ouverture when there has been little to no forward movement created by the generations after them, in terms of the level of global respect & conditions of Africans & her Diasporans.

“Achieving political and economic liberation, social justice and national and continental unity including the African Diaspora are yet to be realized.” Samia Nkrumah

Pan-African movement
“Movement dedicated to establishing independence for African nations and cultivating unity among black people throughout the world. It originated in conferences held in London (1900, 1919, 1921, 1923) and other cities. W.E.B. Du Bois was a principal early leader. The important sixth Pan-African conference (Manchester, 1945) included Jomo Kenyatta and Kwame Nkrumah. The first truly intergovernmental conference was held in Accra, Ghana, in 1958, where Patrice Lumumba was a key speaker. The Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) was founded by Robert M. Sobukwe and others in South Africa in 1959 as a political alternative to the African National Congress, which was seen as contaminated by non-African influences. The founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU; now the African Union) by Julius Nyerere and others in 1963 was a milestone, and the OAU soon became the most important Pan-Africanist organization.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60U0IV20100131

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/haiti/story/1455459.html

http://mashable.com/2010/01/13/haiti-red-cross-donations/

http://open.salon.com/blog/ezili_danto/2009/10/13/oil_in_haiti_-_economic_reasons_for_the_unus_occupation

“When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the Missionaries had the Bible. They taught how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible.” — Jomo Kenyatta, Pan-Africanist & first president of Kenya

“It is said, of course that we have no capital, no industrial skill, no communications, no internal markets, and that we cannot even agree among ourselves how best to utilize our resources for our own social needs…Yet all the stock exchanges in the world are pre-occupied with Africa’s gold, diamonds, uranium, platinum, copper and iron ores. Our CAPITAL flows out in streams to irrigate the whole system of Western economy. Fifty-two per cent of the gold in Fort Knox at this moment, where the USA stores its bullion, is believed to have originated from OUR shores. Africa provides more than 60 per cent of the world’s gold. A great deal of the uranium for nuclear power, of copper for electronics, of titanium for supersonic projectiles, of iron and steel for heavy industries, of other minerals and raw materials for lighter industries – the basic economic might of the foreign Powers – comes from OUR continent.” Dr. Kwame Nkrumah

http://ghanaianoracle.wordpress.com/the-history-of-ghana/

The Achievements and Failures of President Kwame Nkrumah
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/history/cia_nkrumah.php

Richard Helms (CIA) file on Nkrumah
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/history/cia_nkrumah.php

“Countrymen, the task ahead is great indeed, and heavy is the responsibility; and yet it is a noble and glorious challenge – a challenge which calls for the courage to dream, the courage to believe, the courage to dare, the courage to do, the courage to envision, the courage to fight, the courage to work, the courage to achieve – to achieve the highest excellencies and the fullest greatness of man. Dare we ask for more in life? ”
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah -Address to the National Assembly. 12 June 1965