African-Americans: The Power and the Glory (I)

Louis Egbe Mbua

Saying zero to hero: will grossly underestimate, if not demean, the spectacular rise of people of African decent in the United States of America; moreso if we apply that phrase as a qualification for the phenomenon. That there are no appropriate words to phrase these remarkable achievements means that it must be classically -- though not the same -- as biblical as the story of the Israelites.

The election and then inauguration of an African-American complete with his African-American wife as the first family of America is an achievement that compares well with that of Joseph being appointed the Prime Minister of Egypt straight from slavery almost 4000 years ago.

The African-American story is one of the most amazing events to have come to pass since recorded history began. Not only is the rise meteoric but was covered in blood; and then power and glory. Just how they managed to carve such a shinning and promising destiny for themselves remains a mystery which has to be demystified: so that other oppressed peoples of the human race may emulate and master these strategies to benefit and free themselves from the vice-grip of tyranny and terror.

While it is evident in historical records that slavery was officially abolished in America by law in 1865 under the watchful eye of the great Abraham Lincoln Presidency, it can be clearly induced that enslavement of African-Americans; and all its symbols and implications was spiritually and utterly destroyed in all its forms and remnants the world over on the 20 January 2009 when Barak Obama was inaugaurated the 44th President of the United States of America . Today, all Americans are free regardless of race.

It has been a long and extraordinary story that will outlive history: for the story is history on its own. When the first captured Africans arrived Jamestown, Virginia in 1619, never did it occur, by any stretch of their imagination, that it would take 390 years for their time to come in the new world. Nor did the pioneer slaves envisaged the despicable cruelty and the unimaginable suffering they were to endure under their new masters. How they managed to survive physically and spiritually in the face of such unceasing attack on their dignity and physical being is a mystery; and a subject that should be explored.

For a people to effectively determine their destiny, there has to be a powerful leadership in place to meet the challenges of the defining moments. A poor leadership structure at a time of epoch-making events may set back the course of a people several hundred years back. The author believes that after the abolition of slavery, powerful African-American leaders quickly emerged to wrestle with the newly found freedom; and meet the challenges of poverty, psychological trauma and civil rights abuses but with no material resources.

It would seem that one of the first institutions the leaders created and established in rock was the African-American church. As much as a human law can destine a man's rights and being to be three-fifth of a man it is agreed that in a free world, we cannot deny a man the right to worship. Again, a solid Christian base will expose a people to moral values, high expectations on accountability, forgiveness of a fellow man, theology, spiritual strength, knowledge, love and education. Foremost and ingrained within these values in the rise of the African-American is the knowledge of the God of Justice.

The African-American Church base gave them the knowledge of social justice and its anti-thesis: gross social injustice and violations of human and civil rights. Thus, just within 100 years after slavery was abolished in 1865 entered Dr. Martin Luther King, a firey baptist minister of the church, pioneer fighter of modern American Civil Rights and an African-American leader of outstanding leadership qualities. Dr. King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

African-Americans established a strong leadership structure, found a power base in their churches and delivered themselves from the shackles of oppression when Lyndon Johnson guided the passing of the Civil Rights Bill envisaged by the assassinated American President John F. Kennedy so that all Americans could be free.