8TH Pan African Congress: Diaspora participation sabotaged
In the absence of representation of the Repatriate Diasporan Community at the 8th PAC in Accra, Ghana, last month, the cry for a ‘law of return’ was successfully side-stepped and instead plans were proposed to restrict involvement of repatriates to certain organisations only, thereby facilitating infiltration, manipulation and sabotage.
ATTENTION:
THE CHAIRMAN OF THE AFRICAN UNION, PRESIDENT ROBERT MUGABE
THE AFRICAN UNION MINISTERIAL COMMITTEES,
THE GLOBAL CHAIRMAN OF THE 8TH PAN AFRICAN CONGRESS, MAJOR GENERAL KAHINDA OTAFIRE
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We are writing to you to with heavy and fearful hearts.
OUR PLEA - THE LAW OF RETURN
We want to explain the pathetic showing of members of the DIASPORAN COMMUNITY at the 8th Pan African Congress (PAC) in Accra, Ghana, which was held between 4th and 7th March, 2015.
The PAC represents the power of self-determination of African people working together across tangible and artificial borders, and the continued relevance of Pan-Africanism for Africans at home and abroad. For Repatriates to Africa, the 8th PAC held in Accra, Ghana was our BIG CHANCE to make our plea to the African World for a LAW OF RETURN, but our voices were cynically silenced.
AFRICAN UNION: DIASPORA AS THE SIXTH REGION OF AFRICA
The African Union has welcomed Diasporans to ‘come back home’ and contribute to the revival of our Homeland Africa by including us as stakeholders in the SIXTH REGION OF AFRICA. We are ready to participate fully as stakeholders, and believe that our potential will be unlocked once we have the same rights of citizenship in our Homeland that our brothers and sisters enjoy across the continent. This is even more critical to us as we see that non-Africans, the former colonisers and settlers in Africa, are already enjoying citizenship in Africa, and are now claiming ‘indigenous status’ in some African states.
There are at least 20,000 Diasporans now living and investing in Ghana as Repatriates from all regions of the Caribbean, South America and North America; many tens of thousands more who have lived here in the last 58 years since independence but who reluctantly gave up their dream and went back to the ‘West’; and many millions throughout the African Diaspora, from Aruba to Venezuela, who would love to rebuild Africa with their skills, resources and passion to see the continent revived. The one insurmountable difficulty that we face is that we do not have equal rights here - to make a home and/ or invest - and are treated in immigration laws as ‘foreigners’ and ‘aliens’. Given the LAW OF RETURN, there would be no barrier to our willingness, ability, and joy in investing in our Motherland, the Blessed Continent of our Ancestors.
The LAW OF RETURN would be the fulfilment of the ultimate goal of Pan Africanism: AFRICA FOR THE AFRICANS, THOSE AT HOME AND THOSE ABROAD; and would remove the inequality we face by being treated differently to those Africans who, by dint of luck, had identifiable relatives living on the continent before the Independence Acts of Parliament were passed by the former colonisers. These Acts created artificial borders all across Africa; and from the time of their passing, condemned those Africans caught outside the doors as ‘foreigners’, while dubbing those inside the doors as ‘citizens’. Thereby, the first deliberate divisions between Africans became enshrined.
My Brothers and Sisters, Did we not all fight under the banner of Pan-Africanism for the liberation of Ghana, of Africa, together? So, please, why then are we still left outside the door?
We are now humbly repeating our plea to be accepted on the Continent of Africa, to be allowed back through ‘the Doors of No Return’, to be treated like any other African on the Continent.
OUR PROBLEM: MISREPRESENTATION and INFILTRATION
So, why were we not present at the 8th Pan African Congress in Accra, Ghana, to explain what policies would help us to fulfil our potential to contribute, as equal stakeholders, to the development of Africa?
1. We do not have genuine representatives here in Ghana: There are people from within our own Disaporan community (descendants of those taken to the Caribbean and the Americas) purporting to represent our Repatriate community here in Ghana. These people somehow hi-jack leadership of any organisation we establish here, or are parachuted in amongst us to head organisations bearing our name, as they seem trained to ‘agitate’. They travel to meetings around the world which relate to our concerns, yet never represent our interests. They neither meet with the Repatriate community here before they travel, nor do they report back to us from these trips. Frankly, they operate ‘in the dark’, answering to unknown masters. These people deliberately concealed the dates of the 8th PAC from interested Diasporan Repatriates, and it appears that it was their intention to silence us and make sure that Repatriation was not on the agenda. This has been their strategy, device, mission, call it what you will.
2. The unity of the Pan-African community is constantly under attack so that it has been difficult for us to speak with one voice: There have been deliberate attempts to break up the community by different people forming a multiplicity of new organisations, within the wider Caribbean or USA community, and in the Rastafarian community. These new organisations or ‘groupings’ do nothing but sabotage the momentum of the Repatriation movement here, and create deep divisions. This is another strategy, device or mission to silence the voice of Repatriation. The community has become scattered and disoriented by this tactic, and we are only now rallying together again, now that we see our opportunity passing us by.
OUR REQUEST: A CHANCE TO BE HEARD
Please give us another chance to be heard by the AU, the Global Pan African Committee, and the Heads of all the African States in the Union, so that we can explain our feelings and hopes for THE LAW OF RETURN. Please give us a chance to explain the issues that are so critical to us and to the future of Pan-Africanism. Give us a chance to express our desire to return to our Homeland.
Please give us the chance to put our case for Repatriation and THE LAW OF RETURN.
The Summary of the Communique from the 8th PAC copied below in no way reflects our voice, and is perhaps also a distortion of the true voice of Pan-Africanism here in Ghana due to outside interference and manipulation.
We have more information which we need to give to you in person to explain our problem of misrepresentation here. If only you are ready to hear us and advise us on the way forward.
Anxiously awaiting your reply as genuine Repatriates to the Motherland.
In solidarity, respect and love,
Nana Kwame Gayle, immediate past President of the Ethiopian World Federation chapter in Ghana (Repatriated to Ghana 23 years ago and never left since.)
PLEASE SEE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
A. Dr. Erieka Bennett
B. Summary and communiques of the 8th PAC, 4-7 March 2015
A. IS THE DIASPORAN REPATRIATE COMMUNITY BEING SIDELINED BY THE ACTIVITIES OF CERTAIN PEOPLE WHO APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN PARACHUTED IN AMONGST US TO CREATE DIVERSION AND MISINFORMATION?
Please read and follow these links:
Does “Africans in the Diaspora” mean or include People of African Descent in the Diaspora? If it includes us, then the AU must have intended to make it possible for us to “come home”?
Yet, what attempts has the Diasporan African Forum in Ghana made to represent the People of African Descent returned from the Diaspora and who are now living in Ghana?
Does the AU really authorise and endorse this DAF mission?
Does the AU know what the mission is actually doing here in Ghana?
1. https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/05ACCRA519_a.html
Taken from WIKILEAKS:
Classified By: Ambassador Mary C. Yates for Reasons 1.5 (B and D)..
Summary ------- 1. (C) Ambassador Yates met March 9 with President Kufuor to recommend urgent action on Ghana's Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) proposal, Trafficking in Persons (TIP) legislation, and planning for the April G8/NEPAD Agricultural Productivity Conference (Ref A)...
2. Tapping Ghanaian Diaspora ------------------------- 7. (C) Tapping the Ghanaian diaspora's remittances and return of talent are hot topics in government and private circles, with a two billion dollar annual remittance figure often cited...
The Ambassador also encouraged Kufuor to explore ways to capture the talents of returning Ghanaians, and suggested opening a one-stop shop to assist returnees. She shared that Ghanaians who return from the states with skills and talents to offer become frustrated with the bureaucratic red tape. She asked if a diaspora office in the government had been considered, and also mentioned that Dr. Erika Bennett (American living in Ghana) had been selected to head the diaspora office for the African Union. We understand from Dr. Bennett that several African countries were vying for hosting that office but the President expressed preference for Ghana becoming the headquarters of this AU office....
2. http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=117402
Dr Bennett has consistently represented her presence in Ghana as being the Diasporan representative to the African Union, which has led many Repatriates in Ghana to believe that she was here to assist them, but is this the case?
3. From the extensive promotion of the DAF mission, the Repatriates in Ghana and the Diasporan community globally have been led to believe that Dr Bennett, as an African American herself, represents the People of African descent who are Repatriating to Africa: http://blogs.america.gov/blog/2009/07/08/633/
“I also had a chat with Dr. Erica Bennett, head of mission for the African Union Diaspora Africa Forum, an organization dedicated to strengthening ties between peoples of African descent in the Diaspora and Africa.
“ We [Disapora Forum] are…bridging the gap between Africans abroad and those at home. We are excited beyond words in terms of President Obama coming to Ghana. I think it is a testament to the stability, the warmth and the goodness of the Ghanaian people. We as the Diaspora are opening our arms and our hearts to president and Mrs. Obama, and we are looking forward to them coming!”
B. IN THE ABSENCE OF REPRESENTATION OF THE REPATRIATE DIASPORAN COMMUNITY AT THE 8TH PAC IN ACCRA GHANA, THE CRY FOR A ‘LAW OF RETURN’ WAS SUCCESSFULLY SIDE-STEPPED AND INSTEAD PLANS WERE PROPOSED TO RESTRICT INVOLVEMENT OF REPATRIATES TO CERTAIN ORGANISATIONS ONLY, THEREBY FACILITATING INFILTRATION, MANIPULATION AND SABOTAGE
ACCRA, GHANA, 5 - 7 MARCH 2015
We, the representatives of the global Pan African family, gathered in Accra, Ghana from 5th to the 7th of March 2015, to review progress made thus far since the Pan African Congress in 1994 and to take stock of the continual challenges confronting African persons of African descent globally. This represented the first session of the 8th Pan African Congress, with the second session to be convened by May 2016…
We resolve that:…
RESOLUTION 7: CONCERNING HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY INJUSTICES AGAINST PEOPLE OF AFRICAN ORIGIN
Agreeing that the two critical issues for discussion were addressing Racism and Violence against Black People and Reparations for historical and Contemporary Injustices. We resolve to:
…
13. Recommend that the identification of appropriate organizations to be a conduit for Africans of the Diaspora to partner the PAM initiatives at all levels and facilitate the involvement or inclusion of Africans from the Diaspora who have repatriated back home to Mother Africa.