We Are All African

Regardless of your shade of blackness, we are all African!  Most blacks who do not reside on the continent have never visited their homeland.  There is no other continent in the world where you can walk around and you are truly the majority.  Your shoulders lean back a bit further and your head his held higher as you stroll down the street.  As you glance around you take notice of those around you and realize that you share a resemblance with most of them--you are black--you are African!  I'm flattered when I walk by and someone greets me in one of the 11 native languages spoken in South Africa.  I realize that they see me as one of them---a sistah---an aousi---an African!

I've oftentimes wondered what life would have been like for blacks if we followed Marcus Garvey's back to Africa movement; or if we listened to Booker T. Washington and moved to Africa to be kings and queens.  Africa is now a different place than the one they talked about, but I wonder how different blacks would have been?  Would we have suffered the same indignations as we did during the 1960s?  Would apartheid ever have come to fruition?  Would there be the Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther Kings of the world?

We can't change the past but we have time to improve our future.  What will your contribution be to improve the image and the lives of the African diaspora?