These principles are offered to ALL people of African descent and ALL people of the world who are concerned about us to begin a process, that has already started in some quarters, that will bring about greater decency, equality, respect, cooperation, and financial prosperity WITHOUT exploitation from any corporate, government, quazi-government or private or other force from within or outside the African Continent. They are offered to bring about help for the African continent and its’ People, and help to build on an already existing program of support for the People of Africa and the entire African Diaspora. They are also offered in the same spirit of healing, LOVe and fairness that the Sullivan Principles [from the now late Reverend Leon Sullivan of Philadelphia’s great Zion Baptist Church] were offered to the South Africans during Apartheid.
• No African, regardless of your station in life, is to treat another African with anything but RESPECT and DIGNITY.
• All the people of the world who are concerned about the People of Africa, The African Continent and the African Diaspora are to show that concern in a real and lasting way through some process or consideration at least once a week. That concern can be something as small as a letter to your Congressperson asking for more financial support for any given program that has been proven effective in helping the People of Africa such as: rightful land ownership; land and property management; the use of private and public funds in helping African people; finding Ways to provide clean, fresh water and effective irrigation for the people and crops of Africa; finding Ways to lessen, end and or to avoid violence, civil strife, conflicts and war; finding effective and useful Ways to treat women, men and children in a respectful and dignified Way for the duration; and to help Africans who may be infected or affected in ANY way what so ever with such maladies as HIV and AIDS. This list is BY NO MEANS ALL- INCLUSIVE… Other Africans, Caribbeans, African Americans or others from the African Diaspora working on such decency and Peace initiatives for the Continent of Africa MUST BE EQUALLY CONSIDERED…
• Wars of aggression on the African continent should be covered by ALL media just like any war in any other part of the world.
• People MUST be allowed to see the progress, highlighted in a positive Way, that is going on in Africa and that is spearheaded by African people just as much if not more than they see the negative things that African People are doing on the African Continent.
• Cultural differences MUST BE RESPECTED even though they are not supported or understood by people and governments and government leaders from the West. This RESPECT must be a forthright goal even if those cultural differences are considered heinous, strange, stupid, evil, ignorant or indifferent.
· The massive influence and economic control that the international corporate structure has on Africa and the lives of Africans must be controlled, tailored, shaped and molded with the full consent, agreement, and control of the majority of the People of African descent living on the African continent and their leaders and those leaders MUST not be deemed controlled or unduly influenced by said international corporate structure or those leaders can be replaced through an open, non-violent and democratic process in a timely manner.
• We must all take time to understand the so-called tribal wars and tribal differences that exist among the Africans and find solutions and Ways of resolving those differences while bringing about a peaceful co-existence among African People.
• Different and divergent aspects of the Black community in the United States and Black communities and Black people around the world are asked to come together to bring forth a peaceful, meaningful, safe, mutually beneficial, and economically rewarding existence for ALL AFRICAN PEOPLE throughout the World.
• The harsh treatment of the environment is to be avoided at ALL cost and ALL AFRICANS are to get and prioritize clean water, a clean and safe environment, clean and pollution-free air and the building and retooling of buildings must follow ``green building’’ guidelines to be drawn up by groups of independent Africans who cannot and will not be impacted on by corrupt influences or Western influences except for technical and financial assistance. Such technical and financial assistance MUST be without money strings attached or corrupted in ANY WAY.
• Population control must be part of the equation for proper and progressive development in Africa, but we must remember that Africa is a network of developing Nations. As such, the African People are not super consumers as we are in the West (Europe and the United States). Africans use far less food, electricity, goods and services and other energy sources than the West does and an African Person is far less of a consumer because of this. He or She leaves far less waste and far less harsh treatment to the environment than His or Her Western Cousin.
• Businesses that do business and develop in Africa must do so with high principles, morals and ethics and have as their core value the benefit of the People of Africa NOT PROFITS AND THE KIND OF BRUTAL EXPLOITATION THAT TRADITIONALLY IS ASSOCIATED WITH WHITE-RUN BIG BUSINESSES ON THE AFRICAN CONTINENT. Black Africans MUST be part of the business process all along the Way, and not just any Africans, but people who have a long history of positive community involvement / progressive political views and actions / and who share not only the profit-making motive but an authentic concern for the People and the Land of This Great Continent. They MUST also have the interests of ALL the African People at heart including the children of Africa, women, men and the disabled.
• Homosexual People or Gay and Lesbian People, Transgendered People and Bisexual People among the African People MUST be treated with fairness, respect and dignity even as cultural differences and historical conflicts are worked out, considered, pondered, examined, studied, written about and explored. The model of South Africa having Gay and Lesbian Rights as part of their Constitution MUST be a goal for each and every African country. There needs to be a consideration of partnership rights, fair treatment, access to education, access to housing rights, access to employment rights and access to jobs and other such rights considered, even as the cultural, tribal and ethnic differences that might see homosexuals as a threat, are explored, studied and considered. The goal MUST be to consider the rights of homosexuals and transgendered People just as fairly and equally as the rights of other people in Africa.
By Brother Tracy Gibson.
February 18, 2013 Wednesday
Re-Edited and Up-Dated on September 8th, 2013…
Check the spelling and meaning of ``Principles’’
At the Library and send as an e-mail to Oxfam America, The United Nations and the Ghanaian Embassy.
No comments:
Post a Comment