Maafa
The
Maafa is often incorrectly referred to as
The African Holocaust but many Africentric historians and academics reject this assertion due its erroneous conflation with the historic events of the atrocities committed by the
Germans between
1904 and
1945 against the
Herero people of the
Namibia. It is worth noting that these crimes against Africa occurred
after the
pan-european parliamentary abolishment of slavery. However these events are encapsulated by the wider ranging definition of the Maafa.
Whilst the word 'holocaust' can be used to refer to large scale deaths of humans by humans, if capitalised it only refers to the Jewish/German ignoring the African/German persecutions. This asserts that the Holocaust against Jewish people is the 'real' holocaust and that the African holocaust is nothing but a poor facsimile. It is similar to the concept of Churches and 'black' Churches. By European standards one is deemed authentic the other an ‘ethnic' mimicry. Classicial music being another one, all civilizations have "classical" music; Indian and African classical music pre-dates the European classical tradition. However the word "classical music" implies European music. This is a direct reflection of
racism within the very language. It is similar to the concept of Churches and 'black' Churches. By european standards one is deemed authentic the other an ‘ethnic' mimicry. In Africa and the Caribbean this is the opposite, there are no 'black' Churches. They are simply referred to as Churches. Likewise there is no African Holocaust there is simply the Maafa.
Upon his forced entry with 10,000 heavily-armed troops into
Namibia the
German commander, General von Trotha declared "I wipe out rebellious tribes with streams of blood and streams of money. Only following this cleansing can something new emerge."
In
1903 and after much bloodshed of innocent Hereros, the Nama resistance under leadership of Hendrik Witbooi mounted a renewed campaign of rebellion. These heroic African revolutionaries engaged in armed struggle against insurmountable odds and succeeded in using guerrilla tactics against the Germans to debilitating effect. However the death toll was high. Before the uprising, the Herero had numbered eighty thousand. Afterwards only fifteen thousand remained alive with an estimated nine thousand confined in concentration camps.
On April 22
1904, Trotha, reeling from a long year of humiliating defeats, sent a message to the Nama that they should surrender; 'The Nama who chooses not to surrender and lets himself be seen in the German area will be shot, until all are exterminated. Those who, at the start of the rebellion, committed murder against whites or have commanded that whites be murdered have, by law, forfeited their lives. As for the few not defeated, it will fare with them as it fared with the Herero, who in their blindness also believed that they could make successful war against the powerful German Emperor and the great German people. I ask you, where are the Herero today?'
The Nama responded with more attacks but Trotha had already decided to use deadly force to indiscriminately murder thousands of innocent Herero to get at the Nama resistance. In October 2 1904, Trotha issued his order to exterminate all Herero from the region with the declaration; "I, the great general of the German troops, send this letter to the Herero people... All Hereros must leave this land. If they refuse, then I will force them to do it with the big guns. Any Herero found within the German borders with or without a gun, with or without cattle, will be shot. I shall no longer receive any women or children; I will drive them back to their people. I will shoot them. This is my decision for the Herero people.".
German troops murdered thousands of Herero people using machine guns such as the infamous Maxim and the Maschinengewehr. They also poisoned fresh water supplies to decimate large portions of the Herero population too young or weak to fight. In the aftermath of the attack Trotha claimed; 'To receive [African] women and children, most of them ill, is a serious danger to the German troops. And to feed them is an impossibility'.
The Germans then enslaved and raped African women whilst their children were forcibly removed and left to die.
A German named Eugen Fischer worked in the concentration camps and conducted inhumane medical experiments on African captives. These abuses culminated in the publication of his book 'The Principles of Human Heredity and Race Hygiene' which Adolf Hitler read whilst in prison in 1923. He later used this to ferment his ideology of ‘racial purity' and perfect the methods to be used to perpetrate the Holocaust under the banner of Nazi fascism.
In consideration of this, any translation of The Maafa should preferably match as many of the following criteria as possible;
*Be unique to African people (Relevance)
*Assert African people and culture were deliberately and systematically destroyed by non Africans (Malicious Institutional Intent)
*Assert African people were/are the innocent victims of slavery, colonisation and neo-colonisation (Damage and Legacy)
*Assert commercial exploitation was involved (Theft)
*Assert African human rights were violated (Immoral and unlawful by African standards)
One alternative translation that is also used is that of The Maafa as the
African Genocide. However the definition of genocide is typically; "the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group".
Whilst this works on several levels it only implies the death without reference to the forced enslavement and commercial exploitation of African people. It also doesn't match the criteria of being historically unique. Many news sources refer to the Rwandan massacres as the African genocide and this association therefore risks diminishing the horror and scale of the Maafa, which incidentally the legacy of played a major part in leading to the Rwandan conflict.
Whilst necessary, extreme care must be taken when choosing a translation in a European language African people have no control over, especially when the intent is to institutionalise a description of an African reality. In a similar way the denigratory European labels ‘negro', ‘coloured', ‘black' and the ubiquitous ‘[n word]' have been used by many to attempt a positive reclamation of anti-African racist labels, the only legacy of this practice has been generational confusion and conflict when non Africentric politics have dictated that it is useful to institutionalise odious redefinitions of language for European cultural values.
(e.g. 'gay' from a state of happiness to a state of same sex physical preference, or 'peado - phile' from a friend/lover of children to an adult who is attracted to children instead of the more honest definition of a potential or actual child rapist.)
The word Maafa should be invulnerable to this redefinition as African people collectively own the development of the Kiswahili language. Nonetheless its translation into European languages must be established by African people in European populations to ensure it is not corrupted in the same manner 'Yardie' changed from a Jamaican national (African definition) to an African criminal involved with drugs or violence (British definition).
The word "Black" has no historical or cultural association. It does not fully articulate the history and geo-political reality of African people. Black as a political (or colloquial) term was fashioned as a reactionary concept in the 60's and 70's against White male supremacy, but it was never meant as an epithet for African people, but moreover a transitory term to move a people away from "coloured" and "negro". As a political term it was fiery and trendy but never was it an official racial classification of peoples who have a 120,000 year old history. Indians are from India , Chinese from China . There is no country called Blackia or Blackistan. Hence, the ancestry-nationality model is more respectful and accurate: African-American, African-British, African-Brazilian, and African-Caribbean.
The mass usage of "black" by people of African decent is poor justification for the flagrant usage of the word. Because if that argument is to hold-up it would be justified to start using the term N Word again, due to the self-destructive resurgence of this word among African-American people.
Yes, Africa may be a foreign name given to Africa (source unknown), but if so, it was given to by contemporaries notcon querors. In addition, Africa is a name of a place and Africans are simply people who come from that place. Many fail to see that "black" ultimately sets us outside of our connection to our history and culture. Black does not connect us to Kemet, it only goes back 500 Years ago. Hence, "black" people are an "urban" people/culture and "urban" people's history is 5 minutes old. In addition, because it is a term placed on us, we have no bases for its control, and hence they are able to say; "Ancient Egyptians weren't black". Black has no meaning; except the meaning they place on it, if and when they chose.
http://www.maafa.org.uk
http://www.maafa.org
http://www.themaafa.com
http://www.swagga.com/maafa.htm
http://www.africawithin.com/maafa/slavery.htm
http://www.africanholocaust.net
http://www.africancode.org
*
Slavery in Colonial America*
African holocaust*
African diaspora*
African American*
African American history*
America's Black Holocaust Museum
