By Prince Justice Faloye

Once again, we are having the discussion of who really is African, due to the selective appreciation by the Moroccans that saluted their Afroasiatic Islamic civilization, and not geographic neighbors, Black Africans. Unfortunately Western colonization and it’s lingering coloniality of modernism has continued to rob Original Africans of a civilizational perspective and belonging.

We fail to understand that the world is divided along civilizations, not nations, tribes or anything else. There are about 4 civilizations across the world – Western Abrahamists, Afroasiatic Abrahamists, Asiatic Buddhists and Original African Ifa-Afa-Iha-Fa-Efa.

Africa is divided between two civilizations – Original indigenous Africans that share common genetic and cultural linkages from Southern Nigeria to South Africa and Gambia on one hand, and Afroasiatic civilization that are products of different waves of Euro-Asiatic imperialism. Infact the Fulani and other Northern Nigerian Afroasiatic are included in the Moroccan salute.

Unfortunately, the Abrahmists carried out epistemicide of Original African sources of knowledge and power, especially since the mid 1800s Western colonial invasions. With our Original African civilization balkanized into ineffective tribes, we are like cultural almajiris begging to be accepted by other articulated and successful civilizations.

This was the mistake that the independence founding fathers, especially Azikwe and Awolowo made by decolonizing the physical political institutions but not sources of our knowledge and power. Black Africans float in modernism based on Westernization, and therefore lack political and economic cohesion to free themselves from mental, spiritual, political and economic slavery.

The Moroccans are right to not categorize themselves geographically but by civilization, genetic and cultural linkages. People migrate and land locations change faster than genetic and cultural origins and linkages that make up a civilization.

However this doesn’t stop Original Africans supporting Moroccans to the final over Europeans because as Afroasians, they have half African and Asiatic makeups. There should be no bitterness if a child chooses to align with one side of the game, but often it is the poorer or least successful side that feels left out which is what is happening to us.

The solution is articulating and uniting the Original African civilization to achieve racial global parity, which as said, success has many relatives. The Yoruba and Igbo, the two largest groups of the Original African civilization must unite with all others Original Africans to grab their manifest destiny to a higher level of political and economic development.

Some want Morocco to defeat France, because of the colonial past, but not be the first African nation to win the world cup. Leaving that honor to Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon etc.

Faloye is the founder, ASHE cultural organisation.