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Letters & Opinions
The Ujamaa revolution
redINK
2010-04-22, Issue 478
http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/63897
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‘You can fool some people sometime but you can’t fool all the people all the time’ Peter Tosh.
Easy targets is what we Kenyans are, very easy targets indeed. The same bag of tricks that was used to swindle us out of power in 1963 are still the same tricks currently being employed to totally alienate us from freedom and prosperity. They have used our ignorance and irrationality against us; they have used our tribally aligned shortcomings to incite us; they have used our hunger and poverty to control us and they have certainly used state machinery to clobber our scanty resentment. Yet still, in our ethnic cocoons, we cheer on as they rob, rape, steal and kill with impunity. Our docile acceptance of these tribal war lords is a shame and a betrayal to the future of the Afreekan people.
The Kenyan government, like every other African government, is a neo colonial government. Omali Yeshitela chairman of the African Socialist International puts it in clear perspective, ‘Neo colonialism is white power in a black face’. This simply means that we have black British and American political leaders. Has it ever come to your notice that in each election year our most potential presidential candidates spend many hours between amerikkka and brutiain? Moi, J.M, Kenyatta, Jaramogi, Ouko, Matiba, Muliro, Kibaki, Uhuru, Orengo, Kalonzo, Raila; black home guard faces exercising white imperial power against their own people. ‘WASHINDWE!’ We cannot have leaders who don’t have our interests at heart. We refuse to accept a leadership that is dependent on western charity and is not accountable to its people. We can no longer continue to support these lazy and arrogant families of the home guard fraternity. They have fooled and used us long enough and this time we are not willing play a recipient role. We must come together and speak to each other. We must organise ourselves and identify a genuine alternative leadership. A call to all Kenyans, all Afrikans, to rise up and participate in the liberation of Afreeka.
As we organise ourselves towards freedom, they will initially attempt to ignore us. It will be impossible to ignore 10 million voting Kenyans. They will then advance the struggle and use the mainstream media to brand, abuse, ridicule and dismiss us. It will be silly to dismiss 11 million voting Kenyans. They will then endeavour to arm twist and co-opt our leadership. I don’t know how they will manage to arm twist 12 million voting Kenyans nor do I think that they have the money to co-opt 13 million voting revolutionaries. When all their corruptive attempts end in vain, they will then proceed to imprison, torture and kill a few of us in order to arouse the Kenyan curse of irrepressible fear. We fear no more. A new consciousness is growing amongst the Afreekan youths. In Kenya, come election time in 2012,
things will be different, very different. We shall attempt a revolution, a bloodless revolution, a youthful revolution, a vote revolution, a silent revolution, a conscious, non-violent revolution by Afreekans for a united, free and prosperous Afreeka. We call it the Ujamaa Revolution.
They have fooled us a long time; they will not fool us this time. Afreeka MOJA, Afreeka HURU!
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