Black African Issues & the Holocaust

Great! Finaly, Black African and African descendant issues are taken in account by some NGOs, and not only by the Black African and African descendant ones. We remember that at the Strasbourg Conference we fought for that during the NGO Forum without any success at all. The Strasbourg NGO Declaration does not have any mention of words like «Black» or «African», as if they were impure. No specificity was recognized to the "anti-Black racism" (different from "negrophobia"), as it is still the case in all World Conference documents. But on the other hand, other specific racisms (antisemitism, islamophobia, anti-Rom racism, etc.) were repetedly mentioned and well lighted.

The sense of the combat of Black Africans and African descendants at this World Conference on Racism is : Justice, Reparation and Memory. No one cannot combat efficiently anti-Black racism if there is no recognition of the need for justice, reparation, and for the respect of our Memory. If more and more people are being convinced that Black Africans and African descendants have the right to get justice and reparationss, it is still not the case for their Memory.

The history of Africa is still unknown in very large extent and by a very large part of the population in the World, particularly by people fighting in anti-racist NGOs. They cannot fight against racism affecting Black Africans and African descendants if they even don’t know what mean for those people the fundamental roots of this racism : Slavery and Colonialization, which have not been ordinary tragedies. For Black Africans and African descendants, they have been two huge Holocausts.

The Slave Trade and the enslavement of Black Africans started with the Arabs from the 9^th century up to our day. Vestiges of these transsaharian and trans-Indian Ocean Slave Trades are visible in some Arab ruled countries like Mauritania and Sudan. But the Slave Trade was especially intensified by Western Europeans who targeted Africa with their notorious slogan "African instead of Indians-less resistant". It was also characterised by its large scale extent (about 150 million persons) which represents an unprecedented genocide. The trans-Atlantic Slave Trade which was ideologically justified by the Catholic Church (the bastion of Western moral values from the 15^th to the 19^th centuries), has stripped Africa of its strong children. They were forcibly displaced to the Americas and the West Indies, killed during raids or perished as a result of the inhuman conditions on the way across the ocean. Other direct and indirect consequences on the continent itself include the scourge of unprecedented calamities such famines, endogenous and exogenous diseases and internal conflicts which have transformed the continent into a permanent battleground.

Africa is to be singled out as the only continent where its population was enslaved solely to contribute considerably to the development of other nations. The West which faced considerable misery during the 15^th century, witnessed wide expansion not only through the employment of free labour, but also by the exploitation of African technologies (in the agricultural sector, metal industries, leather production etc.). This expansion took place in the New World which became the world hub for growth. On the other hand the African continent, which has been prosperous up to that time, fell victim to slavery, underdevelopment and marginalisation in a definitive way.

After the Slave Trade, Africa was plunged into yet one more Holocaust and a new form of enslavement i.e. colonial exploitation. Dismembered and divided among European powers, African nations have sacrificed millions of lives as a result of Western monopolies and the exploitation of raw material vital for Western industries which were flourishing at the time. In Belgian Congo, for instance, more than ten millions were massacred by the King of Belgians, Leopold II, as it is stated in the fully documented book of the Américan Adam Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost. A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa (published by Houghton Mifflin Co., New York, 1998). On the other hand, to ensure total control of Africa, colonial powers resorted to violence as well as brain washing of its people by enhancing Western history and values and by falsifying and negating African history and values.

The enterprise of falsifying and negating African history is still continuing. Particularly at this 2d PrepCom of the World Conference against Racism.

Thus, last week, the Jewish Issues Caucus made some "recommendations to the NGO Draft Declaration". Speaking about Slavery and Colonialism, it stated : «We respectfully request that the uniqueness of the Holocaust be respected and that terminology specific to the tragic suffering resulting from the Black slave trade and the colonization of Africa be used»!

This recommendation sounds like a Diktat. It is absolutely unacceptable. Black Africans and African descendants are not any more ready to accept this intellectual terrorism, based itself on an intellectual dishonnesty :

- "Holocaust" is a Greek word and not Hebraic. So, how can it be exclusive to Jewishes? Who and how one can decide that?

- "Holocaust" cannot be the specific terminology for the Jewish tragedy. The specific terminology is "Shoah" which is an Hebraic word and therefore the only one to be exclusive to Jewishes. Why they ten want to hold two specific terminologies. One is not enough?

Fortunately all Jews are not so exclusive. Adam Hochschild (see above) let his book translate into french with this title : Les fantômes du Roi Léopold. Un holocauste oublié (in english: King Leopold’s Ghosts. A forgotten Holocaust), Paris, Belfond, 1998, 440 pages.

Black Africans and African Descendants have at least two reasons to claim on and use the term "Holocaust" :

1) Because it is convenient to their two historical tragedies (Slave trade and Slavery, and Colonization) as sacrifices on the altar of Western capitalism, by the huge sufferings endured by Black Africans and African Descendants during more than five centuries up to our day and also because of all the multiformal genocides, despoilings and exploitations.

2) Because of the particular pyschological impact it may have in the struggling against anti-Black racism. In this way, no one would try to call again on the recolonization of Africa or to pretend that "Colonization of Africa was not unfortunately completed", as said a member of Swiss Parliement some months ago. Reticences to the right of Black Africans and African Descendants for reparations would be then immoral and inappropriate.

Now that Black Africans and African Descendants history and large sections of the Memory of Humanity cannot be occulted any more, people have to deal with this realitiy : Black Slave trade, Slavery and Colonization of Africa have been Holocausts. And it is sure they were not Shoahs.

The attempt of the Jewish Issues Caucus to denigrate the two Black Holocausts should not be endorsed by the rest of NGOS participating at the 2d PrepCom. The NGO draft Declaration must not reproduce the diktat of the Jewish Caucus.

Maybe one day Black Africans and African descendants will feel the need for a specific terminology for the two Black Holocausts. They’ll then start searching one. But it will be on their own will, not on a someone diktat.

The Jewish Holocaust is certainly unique in the history of Humanity. As the two Black Holocausts are unique too. To say this does not lead at all to unhealthy comparisons of pain. It just means that Blacks and Jews have so many things in common. And this is great.

Forum suisse contre le Racisme

(Groupe de Réflexion et d’Action contre le Racisme anti-Noir)

kanyana@espaceweb.ch