AFRICA DAY – AGAIN

(By Banksy)

Fifty years ago on the 25^th of May 1963 the Organisation of African Unity was founded. To this day only five African countries have declared May 25 a public holiday. Only five African countries officially celebrate Africa Day!

Is that fucked up or am I just being sensitive again?

In South Africa, most of the population are unaware – loathe am I to say ignorant – that such a day even exists and if asked whether it should be declared a public holiday I am fairly certain of an ambivalent response.

Yet I do wonder…

Is it even necessary if we are unable to acknowledge the need?

And how would we decide if we haven’t thought about what the OAU set out to do?

“To promote unity and solidarity amongst the African states and to act as a collective voice for the African continent.”

Viewed in the context of what the OAU and currently the AU* has achieved – or not achieved – to fulfil this aim it would seem all too apparent why Africa Day is not a continental celebration. However, it can be argued that this very reason is why it is so important that all of Africa for once just realizes and celebrates what binds us even if it is just a geographical happenstance.

Because everything besides, what else does it mean to be African?

Is it our blackness?

Is it our continued suffering?

Is it our desperate desire to be acknowledged and accepted by our oppressors?

Is it our ability to speak their language or to adhere to and promote their designs?

Is it our capacity for love or hate?

My soul bleeds for Africa; for the African dream deferred; the African dawn delayed and forsaken.

As my brothers and sisters bow down to an Abrahamic god imposed through might of arms and force of will, I listen to the muted cries of the children mourning the death of their future.

Dying of hunger. Dying in squalor. Dying alone with a bloody bullet clenched in a weakened fist.

I search the face of the puppet leaders and liberators and I weep for what could have been; what should have been but is now no more. As they turn away from the people to smile and embrace what they have been told to be: obedient capitalist niggers.

Slaves in chains no longer because the will has been subdued. The desire to be free perverted. Enchained and enslaved by aspirations of heavenly absolution and the advertisers’ nightmare. Brightly packaged and presented with bells and whistles as the only success.

The mindless middle-class miasma.

So I hang my head in shame again at another prospect lost. An opportunity mislaid amid the trappings and distractions with which we are beset. I bow my head and shed a tear for every child, every mother and father who will die in Africa today.

* (The OAU was replaced with the establishment of the African Union on the 26^th May 2001.)