EDITORIAL:TWO TYPES OF SCHOLARS IN THE GLOBAL AFRICAN COMMUNITY

There are two types of fundamental scholars within the world of
African people. There are those scholars who have internalized the
value system of white supremacy. They, generally, never question any
theories, models, perceptions, assumptions or concepts that come from
the minds of White males in the world. They then proceed to write and
teach rooted in the assumption that white scholars cannot be
questioned in their social, cultural, philosophical or theological
approaches to the human condition. In general their very merit as
scholars is rooted in their approval by the white male developed and
controlled institutions of higher learning, and they depend on the
validation of the white male as the source of their professionalism
and views. This group of scholars within the global African community
can command accesss to the media, major publishing companies, the
university lecture circuit, and even access to other nation of African
people. These scholars, in conjunction with a very dishonest
mainstream African media in the U.S., the Caribbean and on the African
continent then engage in reinforcing white supremacy simply because
that endorsement pays well, supports the business, provides the
indivdual with economic stability and personal notoriety. Even those
who take the position of being progressive, liberal and radical only
do so within the context of White male cultural thought. They only
referrence other Africans who reference radical, progressive and
liberal whites. Such scholars attempt to control the direction of the
conversation of African people. They are more prone to talk in
'universal' themes, 'international' themes, 'humanism' themes and
'class' themes which are all inventions of the white male mind in
their concept, assumptions, values to serve the purpose of his
maintenance of human supremacy. Thus the conversation for them is
always 'how do we transcend race to a common dialogue of humanity'
which is always based on how the white world wants to transcend race.
For them the goal is for African people to prove to the white world
that African people are worthy of respect, regard and assistance
whether that argument is posed from the conservative right or the
radical left of white cultural thought. In essence they spend a life
time promoting world white nationalism disguised as 'modernity,
technological advancement and social democracy' as defined by the
white male mind. They have not had an original thought ever and
denounce original thought as invalid and unrealistic because it does
not allow African people to learn how to live in a white cultural and
social reality. Their combined force of conversation then attempts to
drown out the second type of scholar, the African-centered,
Nationalist and Pan-Africanism scholar. This type of scholar has
struggled for two centuries to be heard by African people yet this
scholar has had to contend with the power of white supremacy by way of
the first scholar, the media preference of the first scholar and the
innate selfl-preservation of white male culture that has created a
climate and environment to starve his scholar out. This scholar has
learned the theories, models, perceptions, and concepts and
assumptions of the same schools of the white male thought as the first
group of scholars yet this scholar has not only chosen to challenge
their fundamental validity but has moved into the direction of
replacing them with sound thinking that comes out of an African way of
looking at the human condition rooted in those cultural concepts,
theories, models, perceptions and assumptions of a fundamentally
African value system. This scholar has been a student of Jeffersonian
philosophy, Marxism, Christianity, Islam, capitalism, industrialism,
and found all of them to be unAfrican in nature, sensibility and
application. This scholar has started from the position that the
white male is not above being challenged in ALL of his theories,
models, approaches, assumptions and concepts about anything human.
This scholar takes the position that the white male is no more
intelligent than any other group of people on the planet. He has
merely had the ability to use seduction, coercion and brutal violence
to persuade the rest of humanity that he is the ultimate
representative of civilization, human achievement and human
aspiration. These scholars, however, have generally worked in
isolation from one another, without the advantage of financial support
that their peers have received continuously. They have had to
struggle against a mainstream African American, Caribbean and
continental African media that has been convinced of the credibility
that anything worth doing must be a copy of the white male model of
human intellect and social organization. These scholars for the most
part have not headed any historically Black college departments in
America, nor have they been made the heads of such departments in
Caribbean and African universities. Often times these scholars have
not only struggled to print their material but to get it advertised in
the mainstream black media. They have never been featured on
mainstream black controlled programming on a regular basis. They have
not been offered syndication by the Black media in the U. S., in the
Caribbean or on the African continent. They have had to pursue an
intellectual guerrilla strategy to get exposure in the Black world
globally. The power of white male supremacy is such that those
African people on the right of the white male cultural perspective and
those on the left of the white male cultural perspective have attacked
them with equal venom, and where they have not been attacked, they
have been deliberately ridiculed or questioned. Those who have
challenged them have read nothing of Martin R. Delany, Paul Cuffee,
Edward Wilmot Blyden, Marcus Garvey, Ida B. Wells, Queen Nzingha,
Queen Asantewaa, Cheikh Anta Diop, Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner, etc..
Their books have not been used by the vast majority of Black history
courses in the U.S. And of course they have not been approached by
most universities in the Caribbean and on the African continent to use
their books for courses. Yet this group of scholars has always
attempted to put the needs of African people first, realizing that the
other groups on the planet do not need our help, and are generally
helping themselves bettter than we are helping ourselves. All of
these scholars have started with the assumption that we have enough
genius within our ranks to solve our problems if we are willing to
think ourside of the Eurocentric cultural box. For them, we need to
learn how to think from a position of power; work together to
establish a position of power and be able to threaten retaliation from
a position of power."

Baye Kes Ba Me-Ra
"Two Types of Scholars in The Global African Community"