Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet.
Dr. Okey Anueyiagu, public policy analyst, investor, philanthropist, humanitarian, and author of the book ‘Biafra, The Horrors of War, The Story of A Child Soldier’, is a contributor to USAfricaonline.com
As a young boy growing up in a household of books, I questioned many of life’s contradictions. My father, who was an avid writer, editing several radical newspapers, provided me with an environment of information on various issues stemming from racism, colonialism, and the injustices that rule our world.
One of the major issues that agitated my mind then was the issue of race and the prejudices against the black race. I was betrothed with how insidiously the problem of race, color, tribe and religion all interconnect with a range of words and images, to the extent that black becomes associated with the dark, the evil, the shadowy, the hopeless, and with sadness and corruption, while white is associated with hopeful, light, cheerful, clean, elegance and purity.
I began to ask my father questions surrounding these anomalies. I asked him the real meaning of being black. I wanted to know how these systemic despairs about the black race have become prevalent. My father was very patient with my prodding, and somewhat nagging questions. He took his time and explained certain things to me.
My father would often point me in the direction of his writings; his ploy to get the whiteman, (the colonialist) to realize his racist follies; to bring him to a psychological point, where he feels a certain sense of compassion and becomes self-conscious of his sins against the black race. He allowed me ample time to read and discover by myself the genesis of the problems of colonialism and the impact on our race and our country.
As a child, my early susceptibility to the fears and anxieties of oppression and discrimination, be it from within or from outside, was palpable and perspicacious. I felt a certain gravity, and an unusual strain, mixed with deep anger and confusion. I constantly brooded over these occurrences, wondering if the problem of colour and its complications was real or imaginary.
It did not take me long to realize that racism is part of the exploitative motives and actions of the white race against the black and brown peoples of the world. For the white man, the realization that the black skin is all that is required to keep him and members of his race in money, prosperity, power and comfort was the motivation for racism.
As I began to mature and started reading and studying the many elements of race issues, I encountered the role of religion and the economy in the perpetration of this evil. From time, I became aware that until we, the black and brown emancipate ourselves from mental and physical slavery, and become no longer the white man’s social and economic prey, the problems of race many never go away.
Throughout my academic life, I have become quite aware of my blackness without any iota of ambivalence. I have never seen my colour as a category to transcend, or a limitation to overcome, but was deeply inspired to constantly make conscious and passionate effort to affirm my blackness with pride.
Today, as I reflect on my introduction to my father’s editorials on racism and colonialism; his preaching and admonitions on our Black identity, and all the poignant complications with which the subjects were surrounded, I feel confident that I may have learnt a thing or two.
My feelings deeply represent a pilgrimage to the soil of my father and his ancestors. I believe that every black person, no matter what planet he or she is from, must undertake a spiritual journey and an understanding of the meaning of being black. There is an excruciating pain that is associated with the colour black, and also a gleaming beauty too. That pain and the power to summount it, and transform it into strength in endurance is the essence of being Black.
With a touch of reminiscent of my father’s writings on racism and colonialism, I began my inquisitive journey into the vileness of this phenomenon. With the publication of my book; Biafra, The Horrors of War, The Story of a Child Soldier, I started a new book prospectively titled; Try Being Black For One Day. This book in the works, chronicles the journey of blacks into slavery, the pains and agonies of this perilous crime against humanity, the wickedness of colonialism and then, my personal experiences of racism in the hands and homes of white people.
The matters of Black and White as complicated as they have become may never provide us with a resolution to our quest for peace in the world.
Dr. Okey Anueyiagu
