The rift between Mainland Africans and African Americans is troubling. Each looks suspiciously and accuses the other of ill-treatment, condescension, ancestral betrayal, underperformance, indifference, ethnic isolation and more.
Whining over small matters like children with wounded vanity and false pride. It is a pitiful game of ego and small-minded petulance in which both sides are missing the bigger picture!
Namely, the rift ensures their continued mutual subservience to the same global order that enslaved one and colonized the other, and which still exercises undisputed suzerainty over both through entrenched systems and institutions. Instead of leveraging their strategic advantages and unique strengths for shared advancement toward a high aim, they prefer bickering and licking their wounds.
Both sides live under a sinister delusion that they can advance and reach their potential without the other! However, let me be clear: neither can fully overcome their challenges and reach their developmental potential without working together. You are brothers and sisters, ancestrally derived from the same ethnic groups, separated by tragedy, shaped by unique experiences, yet connected by the blood from the same creative African spirit that still flows through your veins!
Mainland Africans: African Americans technical skills, experiences, and strategic positioning are needed for Africa’s next stage of development. Some of the issues you have can be resolved by your siblings from across the ocean whose help and cooperation you sometimes stubbornly reject.
African Americans: Africa is the headquarters of your identity, your homeland and powerbase. Approach it with humility and make a serious effort to ethnically integrate while avoiding the savior complex. Recognize that in Africa are the minerals, resources, governments, and organizations that can strengthen your economic and political position. Many of the issues you face can be resolved by coordinating with your siblings in Africa from whom you often disassociate.
Will collaboration be easy? No. Will it have great challenges and setbacks? Yes. But it is necessary for the mutual advancement of both parties. Remember that every great aim has difficulties, but it is the unshakeable commitment to the high goal that enables all trials to be successfully overcome!
Mainland Africans and African Americans, it is time to honestly resolve the rift, set aside petty differences and work together for higher aims. We are interdependent, capable of helping each other overcome challenges and advance if we collaborate with openness, respect, and patient determination. We are one people, consanguineously interlocked by the unbroken thread of a common heritage, our destinies are tightly interwoven. Let us focus on higher goals that unites us and move us forward as brothers and sisters!
And remember, no matter how long the prodigal son was away, when he returned to his father, his time apart did not change his place as a reunited son and sibling—embraced without hesitation, restored to family! Remember this and work together!
Onward & Upward!
~Dr. Ikenna A. Ezealah, Ph.D., MBA
Builder of the African Future
Nation Upbuilding 