The Destruction of Black Civilization (#RealBlackHistory)
In honor of Black History Month here in the U.S., United Black America brings you the Black History that is NOT taught in the public fool school system. In learning our history, we shall overcome our destruction, reclaim our culture, and redeem the memories of our fallen.
Black History is not about statistics! It’s not about you knowing more than anyone else, and it’s not about endlessly debating.
Yes, these things are important, but what is more important about Black History is learning lessons that will guide our steps into the future. In learning (and thus, reclaiming) our history, we should ask:
- What achievements were made in the past that should be repeated into the future?*
- What mistakes were made that brought us to the position of shame we find ourselves in today?
- What worked? What didn’t?
- How can we use technology to change the game up?
- What tactics did the enemy use in the past that are still being used now?*
*(Here are some hints: here, here —>this worked, and here)
One of the few books that asks and answers these questions is Chancellor Williams’ book, The Destruction of Black Civilization: Great Issues of A Race From 4500 B.C. to 2000 A.D.
Chancellor Williams, Author of The Destruction of Black Civilization
This is one of the most important books ever written about our race. Every Black Man and Woman I know has the entry level Black consciousness books (The Autobiography of Malcolm X, The Miseducation of the Negro, The Souls of Black Folks) –but The Destruction of Black Civilization is a complete view of our history, from early evolution in Ethiopia to the 21st Century.
5,000 Years of History in 14 Chapters
After you read this book, you will realize that you weren’t taught ish in public school! Im not going to give too much of the book away, but there are a few chapters that stand out.
The first several chapters build on the research of African scholar Cheikh Anta Diop and other scholars in teaching us how Ethiopia, Axum, and Kemet arose, the origins of African Spirituality, and the great rulers and kingdoms of Old Middle Africa. Much of what we know today comes from Chancellor Williams putting scattered information together for us in these chapters.
In the Chapter 5 – The Arab Hordes and How Slavery Came to Be Confined to Blacks Alone, Chancellor Williams goes in on the fact that Arab is NOT the indigenous religion of the Black man, nor is Arabic his indigenous language. He makes it clear that “the Arabs were spreading out and penetrating formerly forbidden borders of black states. They could therefore enter black territory from which Whites were barred.These Arabs confused African leaders everywhere, increased the tensions and tribal wars among them, and helped mightily in destroying the independence of African states.”
These Arabs actually served as slavery middle men in Eastern Africa, capturing and selling four times more slaves than the Trans-Atlantic slave traders did!
On a side note: Even today we can see how Arabs penetrate our neighborhoods with inferior goods and services, try to “look” and “act” Black, and then loot the Black dollar and carry it out of the hood – perpetuating our economic slavery!
In the chapters “The Liberation of Our Minds” and “Organizing a Race for Action”, Chancellor Williams breaks down how a dominant group (whites) can easily control a surpressed community (Blacks) even after they are set free by using mental manipulation, religion, and culture. . Unlike other peoples – we Blacks remain VOLUNTARY SLAVES even after being set free because we were taught to believe in the white values system. As an example of how this pattern of behavior started to be broken, he writes about the Black youth in the 1960s brought about the greatest reversal of the races attitude toward itself that had ever been achieved before.
Chancellor Williams saves the best for last in the most important chapter of the book…
The Shape of Things to Come: A Master Plan to Unite the Clans
The Destruction of Black Civilization book cover
“…Although the African people may continue their present course of weakness on into the future with thousands of un-unified organizations, powerless and dependent like half-men unable to use their own brains, (with this master plan), we can never again say that nobody has studied the principle problems and the obstacles to their solutions based on history, and then offered an overall plan as one of the possible lines of march out of chaos.” – Chancellor Williams
Since we as Black people first realized that we had a problem, thousands of “Black” organizations have come and gone. But none of these groups came with any kind of long-term action plan (other than the UNIA, which just barely still exists today) . The NAACP is an utter sell-out as an organization. The African National Congress has been pushed to the side by corporate interests in South Africa. The Black Panther Party was ripped apart by the CIA, and other organizations like the Nation of Gods and Earths, The Nation of Islam, and the Nuwaubians don’t attract mainstream Black Men and Women.
Chancellor Williams argues that these organizations fail because they do not include the whole race, but instead are organized along lines that leave most out – for instance, if you dont believe in Allah, dont pay $1,000 in dues a year, or dont want to go back to Africa then you cant join. Some African Americans have no interest in migrating back to Africa, most refuse to give up their religions, and few are willing to pick up a weapon and fight for separation.
Rather than being a separatist, religious or militant organization, Chancellor Williams suggests a “race organization”. He writes;
“Race Organization” here means a nation-wide organization of Blacks only…the organization should be so structured through all elements of Black population that it reflects the voice of Black America as a whole. No such organization ever existed amongst us; hence, no real unity exists amongst us.”
He goes on to say;
“Far from being a separatist movement, our organization would be cooperative. For the Black masses are not going to give up their 400 years of investment in blood and labor that was used to build up America. They are not about to separate or migrate anywhere, leaving all those centuries of toil as a free gift to the whites. “
He also points out some things that should be understood :
1: The unity we seek cannot be achieved by organization alone. Actual unity will be achieved, not by preaching, pleading, or exhortations, but almost unconsciously as people work together for mutual benefits to each other and the advancement of the race as a whole. Meaningful, practical activities which involve even children in attacking the problems of their race will be the cement which we call unity.
2: Economic activities are fundamental in any truly upward movement. Slave mentality causes millions of us to shy away from this rule of life itself because it requires more initiative, training, and work, and less talk than politics [or preaching]. The result is that the rest of the world sees us as a race of dependent job seekers, ourselves unable to engage in the large scale production of any of the necessities of life, whether they are the shoes we wear or the food we eat. Hence, the billions of dollars we spend each year, just in these categories, we eagerly give back to the whites to strengthen their power over us while becoming richer and richer at the same time. Economic development activities are direct survival activities.
I wonder what Chancellor Williams’ take would have been on this:
3. All community enterprises, contrary to capitalism, will be owned and operated by people in the community, that they will be the shareholders, that all the trained personnel in each store, plant or any other enterprise will be shareholders (and therefore, part owners) of such establishments, that all profits will belong to the people, but the full responsibility for the first class service will be that of elected managers, and not the general membership.
Why a Racial Organization?
Chancellor Williams outlines a number of reasons that only a race movement can be successful …
- The significance of a nation-wide organization, he writes, is that it can influence American foreign policy regarding important matters affecting African nations “just as effectively as American Jews can influence this country’s relations with Israel. “
- A national racial organization would change standards of living and expenses for all Black men and women. “Higher rents and higher prices are paid for goods and services in “inner cities” than those paid in affluent white suburbs. This open yet silent war against Blacks is being accepted because we are helplessly disorganized.
- “Such a race movement would be superficial indeed if it proceeded without its principal foundation, which is the ownership of vast tracts of farm and timber land in various parts of the country (the Nation of Islam is already up on this, buying huge parcels of farmland and real estate nationwide). Land is for production. And its ownership and use will become more and more necessary for survival since even now 75 percent of the American population is concentrated on only 2 percent of the land in cities and towns. ”
- A race movement can have on behalf of African Americans and the African diaspora a Central National Bank as the people’s national depository. Blacks are arbitrarily denied protection or are charged much higher rates than those paid by whites.
* And we know a Black Bank is needed. During the lead up to the financial crisis of 2006, banks pushed minority borrowers into subprime loans, even when many of them qualified for prime loans. Wells Fargo had perhaps the most horrifying practices in this department, calling the subprime loans that they pushed in poor, black neighborhoods “ghetto loans.”
- A race organization can give new hope and a new sense of direction to the thousands behind prison walls and, in time, practically empty the prisons of those convicted of crimes for which the whites go free. The men and women coming out of prison would have something to come to: training or retraining for their much needed services in helping to build and advance their race and themselves.
- Most importantly, Black children, who have been badly cheated by this white power structure, [who] know that their parents are actively a part of a great Race movement will give a new sense of worth and dignity to them.
Finally, Chancellor Williams builds on decades of Black movements to identify the necessary elements of a successful organization. He suggests that this organization consist of several specific departments, including:
- The Department for Promotion of Community Cooperative Enterprises
- The Department of Finance, Banking, and Credit Unions
- The Institution of Technology and Personnel Training
- Central Office of Accounting and Finance Control
- Department of Land Reclamation and Farming
- Transport and Distribution Agency
- Central Purchasing and Supply Agency
- Division of Political Action
- Division of Public Education
- Division of Community Services (including community clinics)
- Division of Youth Activities
- Division of Pan African Affairs (to coordinate our efforts abroad)
- Division of Intelligence and Security
- The Commission for Spiritual Life and Assistance (to build connections between the scattered religious philosophies of the diaspora)
“With the development of a movement of this magnitude, the Black people may begin to learn at last how utterly futile it is to grasp the ideologies developed by the white world for the people of the white world. What the need now, therefore is neither “Black Capitalism” or “Black Communism” – but what is needed is an ideology of Black Africanism, operating within ORIGINAL VALUES”
After a dismal and agonizing history, the Destruction of Black Civilization ends with the question: “What are Black people themselves going to do? Will our destruction as a people continue until it is complete? Or will we take our place of leadership in the African world?
Black men and women in America are in the best position to lead the rest of the African diaspora. We are the lost children of Africa who possess more knowledge, resources, and commercial capability than any other members of the African diaspora.
As a Pan-Africanist, I can’t help but believe Chancellor Williams’s book is incomplete. I believe we can unify, here and abroad, and finish his work. While we discuss the Destruction of Black Civilization now, let us labor so that our children will talk of the Destruction and Resurrection of Black Civilization.
On the Front Line,
Asad
Have You Read These Yet?
