Turning tragic history to advantage

THE Jews have a tragic past. They call it the Holocaust. It was the time when the murderous persecution of the Jews by the Nazis got to its peak. From 1933 onwards, there were isolated cases of violence, sometimes resulting in death among the Jews in Germany and other places with German influence. A German doctor, Josef Mengale, was notorious for using Jews, including children, for his medical research. On November 7, 1938, a German diplomat, Ernst von Roth, was assassinated in Paris by Herschel Grunspan, a Jew. That unfortunate incident was used as a pretext to launch full-scale physical onslaught against Jews in Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus and Lithuania. In December 1939, during the Second World War, mass extermination of Jews by gas was introduced. Mass killing centres in concentration camps were built in parts of occupied Poland, including, Auschwitz, Belzec, Chelmno, Jasenovac, Majdanek, Maly Trostenets, Sobibor and Treblinka. By the time the mass murder, euphemistically described as the Final Solution, came to a halt after the end of the Second World War, an estimated six million European Jews had been killed. Before the Holocaust which was visited on Jews, another monstrosity had taken place between the 16th and 19th centuries. That involved the purchase and transportation of Africans to North and South America to work as slaves on cotton, sugar, tobacco and cocoa plantations and rice fields for their masters. Some worked in the mines, while others cut timber for the construction of ships. The lucky ones worked as house servants. Since these slaves became the properties of their owners, they were treated like other goods and sold as such on open markets. Conservative estimates indicate that Africa lost over 12 million strong and energetic members of its population in what became known as the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Slavery, which some scholars prefer to describe as the African Holocaust or the Holocaust of Enslavement, did not only deprive the continent of its human resource also but stripped Africans of their identity and self-esteem and reduced them to mere objects who are still trying hard, with very little success, to rediscover their true selves. While the two holocausts remain two of history’s most human tragedies, the victims have reacted differently and that is the subject of this article. The Jews came out of the Holocaust of 1939-45 with one resolve — to never again succumb to the enemy, suffer such humiliation or put their fate in the hands of other people. It is this resolve, call it a vow, which is serving as the heartbeat pumping blood into the Jewish system. From a small population of about 300,000 when the Jewish State was created in 1948, the population of Israel, which became the home of Jews after the war, has gone up to over seven million. This is because more Jews in the Diaspora are encouraged to return home, while those in foreign lands continue to support the Homeland with anything, including cash, political support and military accoutrements, which has made that small country one of the most powerful nations in the world. Israel has remained defiant against strong world opinion by maintaining occupation of Palestinian lands and building new settlements by the day. You may condemn the Israelis for swimming against the tide of international opinion, but you cannot blame them because they know their history. They know they may not have a third chance if they should slip back into subservience and are, therefore, prepared to challenge and disregard UN resolutions if that will keep them together as one. So while the Jews came out of the Holocaust tightly united and determined not to suffer any form of annihilation again, Africans emerged from the Holocaust of Enlargement and landed in the Holocaust of Colonialisation. For over 200 years, the African continent was cut into pieces and shared among European powers, including France, Great Britain, Germany and Belgium. Any hope that Africa would come out of slavery with a strong resolve to avoid the humiliation of the past crumbled under colonialism. Africa lost its human resource and dignity under slavery, lost its land and natural resources under colonialism but, worst of all, lost its mental independence. In spite of slavery and colonialism, Africa could still have restored itself to its natural glory. It remains one of the most endowed continents on earth. It still has the human resource, both on the continent and in the Diaspora, to harness for development. Africa emerged from colonialism not united solidly to rebuild itself and restore respectability as others had done. In spite of the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which spearheaded the liberation struggle, and the African Union (AU), which succeeded it, Africa has largely remained fragmented along colonial lines. Africa can only rebuild itself if it can learn one valuable lesson from Israel — together we stand, divided we perish. Like the Jews, Africans should realise by now that their destiny lies in their own hands and, therefore, they have to chart an independent path, even if that should run parallel to that of the rest of the world to achieve this. It is easy to know who is encroaching on your land or who is trying to dispossess you of your physical property. Political independence is only an attempt to regain physical possession of colonial occupation. Unfortunately, the continent is yet to recover from mental slavery which the two holocausts — slavery and colonialism — have inflicted on the continent. China shocked the world when, on the blind side of the rest, set its development agenda and stormed out of backwardness and poverty to the amazement of those who had declared that country a back-water case. Today, the West can whimper about human rights but the Chinese know their own survival and economic progress lie in the hands of China. Africa must begin to think in similar way. Even the slave outposts, which yesterday were centres of humiliation, could be developed as tourist attractions to recoup from the same Europeans who yesterday gained from our human labour. The excitement with which some of our leaders announce the signing of loan agreements gives some of us the feeling that they are now imbued with nationalistic fervor and are not in a hurry to cut themselves free from the apron strings of the slave and colonial masters. There is nothing exciting about a country such as Ghana chasing foreign loans everywhere when everything is here for the taking. It is time we said enough is enough. Slavery bled the continent of its rich human resource which went to build the industrial empires in America and Europe, while colonialism provided the cheap raw materials for industrial Europe. These two evils did not come by accident. Under the guise of foreign aid and international trade, a third calamity is going to befall Africa unless we learn from the first and second and resolve not to be an appendage of a foreign power again, no matter the form it takes. fokofi@yahoo.co.uk kofiakordor.blogspot.com