By Lengdung Tungchamma
As a black person, as an African, you must always understand your place in the world. Never forget that.
Thirty years ago, Africans were begging the US to sanction South Africa for its apartheid policies.
All over the world, everyone was condemning South Africa. All the Western power brokers had condemned South Africa. They were boycotting South Africa. The stories of how the South African government were killing black South Africans are well told. Steve Biko was killed in prison, hundreds came out to protest, and they were killed. School children were killed.
This is aside from the whole apartheid injustice happening. This was the reaction against protests against apartheid. The apartheid regime was on the brink, it was supposed to fall. There was only one country that kept propping it up. The United States of America.
Ronald Reagan, in particular, not only embraced South Africa, he made sure it felt comfortable. He ensured it would not fall.
Forty plus years later, a man who claims his heritage is continuing his legacy, but in a different way.
This time around, he is protecting South African whites again. The dynamics have changed, but the group being protected remains the same.
Of course, white South Africans have one of them very close to President Donald Trump. Elon Musk is surely fighting for them.
What is disappointing is how Africans don’t have the clarity to see through bullshit, harmonize their interests, and fight for them.
That is one of the great things about the first generation of post-independence African leaders. They knew their place in the world. They knew their interests. They didn’t have any delusions. In many cases, it led them to fight for African independence in the second place.
Do you know where the word “woke” came from?
The term “woke” originated in African American Vernacular English in the 1960s and 1970s. It was initially used to describe being aware of and alert to the social and racial injustices faced by African Americans.
Stay woke!
*Lengdung Tungchamma, a social entrepreneur focused on using education to solve societal problems, writes from Jos