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Spartacus R.
editor of Global Africa Pocket News and author of " Violation " and " The Maãt Mystery " takes another look at the world.

The following is an adaptation of "The Healing Process", a small section of the book "Violation: a Look at Non-physical Violence in Relationships" published by Sukisa Publications in 1995. This adaptation has been inspired by the recent crescendo of demands for reparations. These demands, coming from Serious Revolutionary Activists, Reactionary Opportunists and Gold Diggers alike, may sound deafeningly loud and strong in our community, especially to those who are making them, but in reality they are mere whispers in the ears of the deaf. This article is not intended to upset or offend, it is just a simple wake up call. If it does upset or offend you, don’t come looking for me, instead take a closer look at what I have said and ask yourself: "Which part of it is not true?" Then check yourself. If you are still not satisfied then, talk to me.

I remember some 20 plus years ago, while on the reparations campaigns with the African Peoples Socialist Party (APSP) in Oakland, California, telling my audiences that the call for reparations should be seen as an educational tool, a rallying cry for our liberation. It should not be seen as a serious demand which, if met, would resolve our problems. "Reparations", I said, "Should be seen as the small "r" in the middle of liberation and hence, an inevitable by-product of self-determination rather than an end in itself".

A decade later, I was telling my Global African readers in Global Africa Pocket News magazine (GAP News) that: "Reparations is probably the only single issue which the majority of Africans world-wide from all walks of life can find common ground to agree on." However, I warned them then that although reparations is one of our best weapons in our war of liberation, it could in the long term, prove to be a tragic and expensive liability.

Today, I watch in amazement and with great sadness as the salivating hordes of reparationists compete with each other for the mantle of representative recipient of the millions, billions and in some cases, trillions of dollars demanded of the descendants of our European enslavers. Repeatedly, I find myself ostracised by some of these novo-enthusiasts with their panic-stricken attempts to undermine and silence me when I point out that there’s a war going on and that only winning the war will resolve our problems. Reparations as an end in itself will not resolve our current problems. The expectant demand for reparations, as I hear it, is at best an exercise in communal self deception and at worst, criminal deception by those who know better.

There are many in the reparations movement who are genuinely convinced that reparations will definitely be forthcoming from our slavemasters in the form of money, land, transfer of technology and the return of cultural and historical artefacts and that it will automatically resolve all our socio-political problems. These are people who, like Toussaint le Overture in Haiti, genuinely believe in the innate goodness and fairness of the Global European. They do not understand that there is a war going on and above all, they do not understand the psyche of our enemies.

Other reparationists believe that reparations is not so much about material handouts or compensation, but more about the internal process of community self-healing. So what is the difference between compensation and reparation? Well, if you are the loser at the end of a war you may see your task as trying to survive and to repair the damage that had been done Psychomotionally, Socially, Physically and Spiritually, to your people. That can be called reparations. On the other hand, if you are the victor, you will normally extract compensation from the vanquished by force, in order to rebuild, if necessary but essentially to enhance your power, your influence and your control. According to the English dictionary, you will also call this reparations. This extraction would normally include materials and services. Of course, we are not yet in the latter position.

Reparationists who say that we should look more toward repairing or healing ourselves rather than begging other people for help, are of course thinking of self-determination. In a personal relationship where one party is violently oppressing and brutalising the other, the violated party cannot heal themself while remaining in the relationship and being battered on a daily basis. Likewise, we cannot heal ourselves as a people while ignoring the genocidal war that is being waged against us and while tied psychomotionally to serving our enemies’ interests. Our enemies’ worst nightmare is a strong, unified, self-determinate Global Africa. They know what we can do because they know what we have done. So they will not leave us alone to develop into the most formidable opponent they could ever imagine. Sooner or later this self-reparation group will have to recognise that there is a war going on and engage themselves in helping us to win it.

Of course, there are many blind people in our community who are very happy about our relationships with Europeans and Arabs, especially those of us who have succumbed to Christianity or surrendered to Islam and choose not to see the open, unhealed wounds left by two thousand years of violent interaction. Many do not even see the need for change, much less reparations or The Healing Process. Most of them will not read this article.

There are also the criminal deceivers who see reparations as a means of making a quick buck. They are the ones who are registering unsuspecting victims at a price, with the promise that only registered members would share in the booty of imminent reparations. Some of these crooks with their petitions, collecting donations and subscriptions from our people for "legal expenses", know full well that the situation is not remotely as they pretend.

So what is the truth? Should we demand reparations/compensation for what has been and is still being done to us? Will we get reparations? And if so when, what, how much and from whom? Well, reparations is stage four of The Healing Process, which consists of five stages, so, before we get to the point of demanding or asking for reparations there are three stages of The Healing Process which we must deal with first. The five stages are:

Every act of violence perpetrated in our relationship with Global Europe and Pan Arabia, whether physical (PV) or non-physical (NPV), creates a wound in the violated - that’s us - Global Africa. With the passage of time, because these wounds are not helped to heal, they tend to have a negative effect not only on the relationship but also on the violated and, to a lesser extent, the violator. Every wound which is not treated promptly and carefully becomes a festering sore. Before long, these "sore spots" become so pervasive that there is hardly any subject, nor any area of interaction the parties can touch without inflicting or experiencing pain.

In this society of the walking wounded, where violence is a normal daily experience, it will be difficult to find anyone whose psyche is not infested with open sores or unhealed wounds. The old saying that time heals all wounds is not quite true when we talk about reparations. Time alone does not heal untreated communal wounds. Just like their physical counterparts, psychomotional, social and spiritual wounds will, in time, develop scabs designed in some cases to obscure the issues and protect the guilty. It then becomes more difficult (though not impossible) to apply the necessary healing remedies starting with Damage Assessment.

Every time we enter a new personal relationship we carry with us baggage, including old wounds from previous relationships. The success or failure of these relationships depend on how we deal with or help to treat each other's wounds. Whether we add newer injuries to them, dig them and make them worse or try to help heal them, would tend to determine the depth, quality and length of our personal relationships. The same applies to our lethal relationships with Global Europe and Pan Arabia where, instead of our wounds being acknowledged and treated they are being aggravated by escalating hostilities.

The wounds of social, non-physical violence and psychomotional trauma, suffered as a result of a continuing war cannot be bandaged, stitched up, balmed or medicated in the same way as physical injuries which are visible and tangible. Nevertheless we need to apply the emotional bandages, by giving emotional support to each other; we need to get out the psychological needles and do some nifty stitching, to rekindle in us the knowledge of self which is the necessary key to life itself; we need to apply the spiritual balms by reconnecting with our spiritual self in order to make positive use of our own reparative medication. We need to do all those things and more. There will be times when we need to perform radical surgery such as:

A) the removal of some individuals and groups from our environment,

B) the removal of items such as debilitating drugs and anti-African propaganda and/or

C) the termination of practices which we may appear to be inextricably attached to but tend, all too often, to have a negative effect on us.

As we begin Stage One we will discover that Communication, the most important ingredient in Social Interaction, is also the most important ingredient in The Healing Process. There must be, in the first instance, clear, accurate and honest assessment of the damage experienced, the pain felt and the nature of the wounds created in our community. Here we have a major problem because most of our people do not know who we were/are (the original God), what we had (the great civilisations of Ethiopia, Khemet, Meroe, Songhay, Timbuktu, Zimbabwe, to name a few) or what we have done (created mathematics, science, writing, charted the universe, built the pyramids). Some of us even believe, as we have been told so often by our enemies, that African people have not contributed anything to world civilisation and therefore, we had nothing which could have been stolen or destroyed. Too many of us believe instead that contact with our enslavers have been to our advantage and for our benefit but the exact reverse is true. In order to correct that error we need firstly to communicate with ourselves, to teach and learn of our past and our present. Secondly we owe it to ourselves to inform our enemies of our injury in a way that they are likely to understand and appreciate the damage that has been done to us. It may, in some instances, be necessary to demonstrate to the less sensitive (or the more dishonest) how it feels to be treated in the manner that we have been and continue to be treated. Statements such as: "it happened such a long time ago", "forgive and forget" and "let bygones be bygones" are always welcomed by the violator but are never of any value to the violated. They never help to resolve the problems. Too often in the past we have readily forgiven our enemies and tried to forget their atrocities but the unconscious desire for retribution and satisfaction does in time manifest itself in the form of self-destructive violence.

If the wound was wilfully inflicted, as in our case, by means of invasion, theft, enslavement and continuing warfare, for the purpose of establishing control and exercising power over Global Africa, The Healing Process becomes much more difficult to complete. This is because Stage Two of The Healing Process, Acceptance of Responsibility, normally requires the acknowledgement or acceptance of responsibility for the damage that has been done.

Acceptance of Responsibility by the violator for their actions and the consequences of their actions is of vital importance because the process cannot go any further without them acknowledging the part that they played in causing the amount of damage which was assessed in Stage One. Before you can ask for forgiveness or pay reparations for anything, you have to take responsibility for your actions and admit your guilt. This is not rocket science, just common sense. For example, after the recent Global Europe instigated genocidal massacres in Rwanda, when many people were talking of reconciliation and forgiveness, one woman who had lost all her family asked: "Who can I forgive? Nobody has said they are sorry. How can I forgive?"

There is also the Responsibility of the Violated party in the relationship. Some people can accept that in every relationship, the violated is also responsible for their own actions and the consequences of their own actions. The difficulty we have is that most people cannot accept that in every relationship all parties are equally responsible for the result of their interactions. So, if the result of our interactions with the Arabs and the Europeans is the situation we find ourselves in today, we have to look very carefully and honestly at our own input into the relationships and take responsibility for it. That should be the first step in ensuring that we do not make the same mistakes again and end up in a worse situation.

The slightest bruise to the spirit, the smallest bump on the emotion, the tiniest nick to the psyche, if ignored or aggravated, can have a serious, even terminal effect on the person and the personal relationship. Imagine then, the effect a sustained genocidal attack lasting hundreds of years can have on a peace-loving, life-giving people. The fact that their intent was to violate us, makes it doubly difficult for them now to demonstrate a desire to repair the resultant damage. But an understanding that our relationship with them cannot improve or harmonise unless our wounds have been healed, could in due course, help to motivate them to engage in The Healing Process. Because they care? No. Because of their natural human desire to save themselves from total annihilation. That is the only reason why Global Europe or Pan Arabia will eventually accept responsibility for what they have done to us and engage in The Healing Process. And they will not do it voluntarily.

Stage Three of the Healing Process, expressions of regret, remorse, compassion, etc., is the easiest, most readily accepted part of The Healing Process, especially when taken out of context by the violator with no intention of satisfying Stages One, Two, Four or Five. They may say "Sorry" as the Pope said recently on behalf of the Roman Catholic church, for their part in our enslavement but there is no evidence to show that they are genuinely repentant. The fact that they are still holding on to countless numbers of our priceless artefacts would suggest that the "apology" was no more than an idle, wicked boast designed to boost the ranks of Christian flock and help to undermine international calls for reparations.

Stage Four of The Healing Process is where we encounter some difficulty with the idea of reparations or compensation. In personal relationships, where both parties are seeking to heal the wounds of the relationship they would have arrived at stage four having:

1) assessed the damage together,

2) individually accepted responsibility for their part in the destruction and

3) mutually or individually expressed regret, remorse, etc., for the violence, both physical and non-physical.

At this stage in a personal relationship, the violator would compensate the victim or agree ways to help the victim to repair whatever damage can be repaired.

But how do we arrive at Stage Four in a relationship of nations, peoples and cultures where war is still being waged, where the damage is not being assessed, where the parties are not prepared to take responsibility for their actions and the violator is not able or willing to show remorse? How does one compensate a people for hundreds of years of terrifying, genocidal violence, mental and physical enslavement, theft of nearly everything they owned, including their land, their fittest, strongest and most vibrant young people and the denial of every contribution they have ever made to human existence, denial even, of their very existence? How does one compensate the relatives of hundreds of millions of African people, murdered in an undeclared war they didn’t know was happening before they died. How does one compensate a people while they are still being murdered at home and abroad with guns, bombs, drugs, diseases, poisons, famines, abortions and sterilisations? How does one compensate a people whose education, economy, politics and religion are still controlled by their enemies, who still remotely control their lands for the enemies’ benefit?

I cannot answer those questions. I know however, that if we want to survive, we first of all have to recognise that we are at war. We then have to do whatever is necessary to win that war. Once we have won the war, we can then complete The Healing Process and set about building a world fit for Gods to live in.

Stage Five of The Healing Process calls for reconciliation or separation. Only after the first four stages have been completed can there be reconciliation. At this stage the freer more open communication established between the parties during the first four stages can result in a deeper understanding of themselves and each other. Reconciliation can take place when Global Africa, as a victorious, self-determinate people, are satisfied that our former tormentors are not only repentant but will never, never, ever be able to violate us or any other people again! They also, should be satisfied that we will not mistreat them as they have mistreated us.

There is also the possibility, after all has been said and done, that the two entities come to recognise that separation is in the best interests of all concerned. Not as enemies, which would have been the case had they not gone through The Healing Process but as mutually aware and self-respecting independent people who, because of their natural characteristics happen not to be suited for each other.

So, whether the result is reconciliation or separation, application of The Healing Process to the relationship between Global Africa and Global Europe or Global Africa and Pan Arabia would guarantee a less violent, more harmonious relationship than currently exists or would otherwise be possible, to the benefit of all concerned, especially future generations.

In summary, if we expect to achieve reparations now or we expect that "reparations" outside of The Healing Process and self-determination will solve our problems, we will be investing a lot of time, effort, energy, money and lives in self-deception. That would be a tragic and expensive liability which can set us back another thousand years in our march to freedom. However, reparations as a war cry, could be a very useful educational and mobilising tool for Global Africa. If we understand that reparations, in all its guises, will be an inevitable by-product of liberation (or self-determination), those of us genuinely seeking reparations will immerse ourselves in the Global African liberation movement and, with the guidance, protection and genetic wisdom of our great Ancestors, we will triumph. Then everything good will be ours - again.

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Excerpt from "Violation: a look at non-physical violence in relationships"

Spartacus R. is available for Lectures, Conferences and Healing Workshops.

For bookings or further information please contact: 0871 871 6616

Your comments, criticisms, observations, reactions, etc. are welcome and will be greatly appreciated. All contributions, positive or negative, may be published, unless you request otherwise.

Please feel free to publish this article, providing the source and the author are properly credited, text is not edited and descriptive terms or phrases are not altered in any way without written permission .

Please e-mail your comments and/or queries to Spartacus R.

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