S4 E14: Speak White : converging struggles from Canada to Africa
My African cliché of the day is an incredible book, titled White Negroes of America, a classic Canadian literature that draws an astonishing parallel between the situation of African Americans in the 1960s and that of French Canadians at the same time.
When Pierres Vallières wrote this book in 1960 while in prison in New York, had he imagined that 60 years later, the situation of French Canadians will be significantly improved, while that of African Americans would remain unsustainable in many respects?
Did he imagine that his book would be so full of similarities on the situation of millions of marginalized Africans in their own countries, by their own leaders, marginalized in education, health care, decent food, housing?
And you then, do you speak white? what do you think of the fact that Africans today have languages to speak with the old masters but not to talk to each other? what do you say about African states that speak white to an African Union that has taken a resolution asking them to teach Swahili in all African schools?
From the book White Negroes of America to the poem Speak White, from Pierres Vallieres to Michele Lalonde, from Bamako to Mbabane, as well put by Thomas Sankara, all right causes always come together.
As for me, it is time to say Kaidenawan, meaning goodbye in Otjiherero language of Namibia.
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