DAESORIN

Ibrahim Traore’s recent remarks about Arabs exposed a split within nationalists and socialists which has existed within the Pan-African for decades. The nationalists tend to view our primary struggle as a struggle against racial oppression and are critical of centuries of anti-Black racism from Arabs. Socialists view the struggle as one which is primarily against the imperialism of Western capitalist nations, and as such views Arabs are a group who are also struggle against the same imperialist powers. The reality is that both of these positions are valid. They simply place a different emphasis on different aspects of the same problem. There is no contradiction in recognizing the problem of Arab racism against African people and the consequences of forced Arabization in Africa, while also acknowledging the role of Western imperialism in invading, colonizing, and destabilizing Arab countries. What we need is an analysis that is rooted in a synthesis of different ideological approaches to Pan-Africanism.