"Since CHALLENGE OF THE CONGO was first published in 1967, conflict between progressive and reactionary forces in Africa has sharpened. A point has now been reached where armed struggle is the only way through which African revolutionaries can achieve their objectives. Recent events in Africa have exposed the fallacy of trying to banish imperialism, neocolonialism and settler regimes from our continent by peaceful means. The aggression of the enemies of the African masses continues, and has become more ruthless and insidious. The evidence is all around us."
Kwame Nkrumah -- "Challenge of the Congo" (Conakry, 1 June 1969)
Due in large part to Sis. Affiong's insistence here, I'm finally reading Kwame Nkrumah's, "Challenge of the Congo." It took a little while to locate, but I got it right after I got back from home (which is why I haven't finished that post yet, Amenta!).
But it's a slow read for me because, while the overwhelming depravity and machinations of these self-described, supposedly "civilized" white folk is not surprising, it does tend to conjure up an inordinate amount of anger and yes -- pain, so I have to keep putting it down. I came across the documentary, "The Assassination of Patrice Lumumba" last night and decided to watch it during one of those reading breaks. Difficult to watch (for a myriad of reasons), but I'm glad I did. I'm sure it'll help me better focus on what I'm still reading.
Embedding is disabled by request so I can't post it here, but please, if you have 45 minutes, do go to YouTube and watch it. The hubris, barbarity and detachment, with which these murderers discuss Lumumba's death, coupled with their perceived, God-given right to control the world -- is sickening. However, it's also extremely illustrative of the days in which we currently live, where the "usual suspects" are continuing to do what they've always done.
More Nkrumah:
"We must combine strategy and tactics, and establish political and military machinery for the prosecution of the African revolutionary war. It is only in this way that the aspirations of the African masses can be achieved, and an All-African Union Government be established in a totally free and united Africa."
Family, if we are to culturally survive as a people (some of us are already too far gone), we have GOT to wake the hell up and stop our complicity in this madness and concentrate -- on us! As Nkrumah said, "The evidence is all around us."
Today marks the 44th anniversary of Dr. King's assassination, and in ways totally antithetical to those things for which he fought and died, we - with increasing gullibility and neediness - continue to accept the absolute, all-about-power wretchedness of the euro-centric powers-that-be. Yeah, they knew exactly what they were doing when they killed him.
They knew he'd become an even greater force with which they'd have to reckon, a force that not only his people would get behind - but one that many in the country as a whole would too. They knew his humanity, pitted against their obvious lack thereof, would be contagious, and therefore, a most effective contretemps to their various foot-on-neck machinations, designed primarily to keep Black and brown folk in their place - like today's, "Stand Your Ground" laws, Castle Doctrines, the Democratic party-revived, Obama-backed, Byrne grants (or Justice Assistance Grants - per Brother Ass-coverer) and, the "Secure Communities Act" of today.
They knew he would continue to explicitly "protest for right"and against their war-mongering, unlike the deus ex machina that is the Changeling. And they knew that the country wouldn't, no couldn't ignore him.
In his own words (long, but well worth the listen)...
Yeah, they knew exactly what they were doing when they killed him. They not only assassinated the man, they eliminated a more than worthy and powerful opponent, who could've brought some REAL change in which ALL of us could believe - in other words, a nationwide movement for justice and equality for everyone.
The Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning head of "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today" speaks...
...and plenty of exceptional, "we're-so-much-better-than-those-savages-over-there-celebrating-American-death-in-the-streets" Americans - celebrate.
Did you now? Not what some folk are already saying (Warning: photo is graphic, even if not real). And really, after all this time hunting him, can you see them quietly disposing of the "trophy" - at sea?
And one other thing. While I totally agree with what Messrs. Sirota and Hedges have respectively said in their pieces below - a common, seemingly inherent "white-American" hypocrisy reared its ugly head, stuck out its tongue and said, "Nah, nigger ya'll still don't count."
This is bin Laden’s lamentable victory: He has changed America’s psyche from one that saw violence as a regrettable-if-sometimes-necessary act into one that finds orgasmic euphoria in news of bloodshed. In other words, he’s helped drag us down into his sick nihilism by making us like too many other bellicose societies in history -- the ones that aggressively cheer on killing, as long as it is the Bad Guy that is being killed. (emphasis mine)
I despair that we as a country, as Nietzsche understood, have become the monster that we are attempting to fight. (emphasis mine)
S-o-o-o, "we...have become the monster that we are attempting to fight." Really? And who was the monster during slavery, and the pursuant (and continuing) Jim Crow? To paraphrase Pogo Mr. Hedges - as a country - "We have met the 'monster' - and he is us."
James Allen's introduction to "Without Sanctuary" is as relevant of America today (thanks to WikiLeaks and YouTube) - as the very Americanera it portrays:
Without Sanctuary is a photo document of proof, an unearthing of crimes, of collective mass murder, of mass memory graves excavated from the American conscience. Part postal cards, common as dirt, souvenirs skin-thin and fresh-tatooed proud, the trade cards of those assisting at ritual racial killings and other acts of a mad citizenry. The communites' best citizens lurking just outside the frame. Destined to decay, these few survivors of an original photo population of many thousands, turn the living to pillars of salt.
After almost 45 years, Dr. King's, "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence"is still right. And having a society-identified, Black man in the Big House - with an apparent penchant for assassinations and a serious case of Can't Remember Shit when it comes to them - hasn't changed a damned thing. {smdh}
UPDATE:This piece in Spiegel Online is an interesting commentary on how the Changeling has "upped our status" in the world (every bit of snark intended). All I could think - upon seeing this photo #1 in the gallery of 13 (click on Photo Gallery: The Hunt for Bin Laden for others) was - "Natural Born Killers"...
US President Barack Obama and members of his national security team, including Vice President Joe Biden (left) and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (second from right)watchedtheoperationlive in the White House situation room. (emphasis mine)
Art by Leon Kuhn - h/t Black Agenda Report
It doesn't matter how his faithful try to spin this one - let's just be clear - that megalomaniacal, little caramel drop amid all those white faces - sitting there, watching the carnage LIVE like it was a sequel to those "Saw" movies - is just like the rest of them.
UPDATE II: Seems Obama & Co can't help but swirl down Disraeli's toilet of 'three kinds of lies': "Lies, Damned lies and statistics." I don't know whether to laugh at, or feel sorry for, Brennan (sacrificial lamb that he was) as he regurgitated this stupid shit:
Qualifying the narrative of the assault that he offered to reporters, Brennan explained that some of the information came from live video feeds of the raid. "I wasn't there," he said. (emphasis mine)
WTF??!! Ask your damned bosses!! Glued to the f*ckin' plasma as they were, it was surely as close to "being there" as being there could have possibly been!
Y'all really need to stop insulting "we the people's" intelligence because obviously - THEY certainly f*ckin' know!!
Ah-h-h-h-h, but our really "knowing"was never the intent of the Changeling's puppet masters was it?
If "they" killed Bin Laden in Abbottabad then "they" also bombed a large number of wedding parties in Afghanistan, "they" murdered 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha and "they" gang-raped a 14-year-old before murdering her, her six-year-old sister and their parents near Mahmudiyah. If "they" don't want to be associated with the atrocities then "they" need to find more to celebrate than an assassination. Vengeance is, in no small part, what got us here. It won't get us out. (emphasis mine)
"The compound hadneither an Internet nor a telephone connection. According to the New York Times, the al-Qaida terrorists inside burned their rubbish themselves rather than putting it outside for collection." (emphasis mine)
Now, like I said - I'm no computer wonk - but I'm just finding it hard to believe that:
U.S. Enemy #1, who eluded not only our military forces, but our "intelligence" analysts for damn-near 10 years, lugged "... five computers, 10 hard drives, and scores of removable media including USB sticks and DVDs" around with him all that time on the run - yet burned his trash! But just for shits-n-grins, let's say he did. How'd he use them? Guess he had one of those super-duper-too-encrypted-to-track, wireless broadband Internet connection cards. Or, as some media outlets are now reporting - fiber optics cable.
U.S. Enemy #1 would take the time to run and bury (they are buried aren't they?) some damned fiber optics cable and NOT dig a damned get-away tunnel for himself and his family!
