Greetings Elder,

Thank you for your comments. Here is my initial
response. With all due respect, I am inclined to
disagree with a lot of your analysis and conclusions
as I understand them. I will have to reread your
letter again. But, in the meanwhile, allow me to say
that I see myself and take pride in being both a Black
man and an African. I see no contradiction there.

At least as far back as the ancient Nile Valley we
designated ourselves as the "black" people. I suppose
that if we wanted to we could talk about shades of
blackness. And we should never forget that many,
perhaps most, of the national borders of modern Africa
have been drawn up by foreign governments with their
own interests paramount.

I do not and never will accept the idea of "white"
Africans. That just does not compute.

It is true that many of us are now "mixed" as a result
of our interaction with other peoples. But it is
certainly nothing to be proud of and boast about, and
we should not forget how the bulk of the
"intermixture" came about. We know that it has not
always been voluntary. And know that I love all of
our people even though some of us look more like snow
than crow. But I think that not only must we accept
our blackness; we must glorify it.

This may sound to you like a harsh position but I
think that we have to be direct and to the point and
not apologize to anyone while taking uncompromising
positions. I think that the majority of our people
understand and accept that even if some of the
intellectuals want to engage in discussion.

I would like to think that my position is not simply
an "African-American" position. Even though I have
traveled over much of world and interacted with a
great many of our people I have not been to your
native Cabo Verde yet, even though I would very much
like to. But I have been to Southern Africa on two
occasions and there you have people of clearly
European ancestry running around claiming to be
Africans. I regard that as an insult to my Ancestors
and to me. Much the same can be said about the white
Arab and Berber populations in North Africa. They are
largely the descendants of generations of invaders.

In other words, just because a person occupies African
land does not make them African.

I hope that my position is clear and you will forgive
my rambling although I suspect that we will end up
going back and forth on the matter. And I hope that
we can disagree without being disagreeable as I
greatly respect your contributions to the struggle.

All the best to you.

In love of Africa,

Runoko Rashidi
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