Africa 101: The Wake-up Call is a book about the “hunters” and the “hunted.” The hunters are Africa’s exploiters, slavers, colonizers, and neo-colonizers, and the hunted are the African people who survived against severe odds.
In this book former African Union Ambassador to the United States Her Excellency, Ambassador Arikana Chihombori-Quao, MD. FAAFP tells the story of Africa in her usual in-your-face style. Although she served as a diplomat, she says that being diplomatic about the real issues facing Africa will do us no good. She warns in this book that the hunt is still ongoing and calls on Africans and people of African descent all over the world to rise up in defense of our beloved continent.
Using personal stories, her father’s accounts from the village of Chivu in Zimbabwe, and solid historical references, Her Excellency, Ambassador Arikana Chihombori-Quao, MD. educates, motivates, and challenges the status quo with respect to western countries’ abuse of Africa.
Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao explains how the process of enslaving Africans was not only genocidal but the gravest act of humiliation and dehumanization. The archetypal slave master had only one agenda: to use the African slave as a beast of burden which required that the latter be purged of self esteem and self-worth.
Slavery dehumanized Africans in the eyes of the slave master, which justified his mistreatment as a creature without dignity. The slave traders depopulated a huge stretch of the African coast from present-day Angola in the South to Mauritania in the North.
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It is against this background that Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao sounds her clarion call for Africa to wake up. She does so fully aware that since Slavery the African spirit has never been at ease because the quest for dignity never floundered even at the worst of times.
With the advent of independence Africans thought that the colonialists macabre dance of exploitation had ended but little did they know that in a chameleonic way the erstwhile colonizer had turned into neo-colonialist what with the Commonwealth which groups mostly former British colonies with their Monarch as the titular head and the French Pact for the Continuation of Colonization, so Nkrumah was right when he said: “On this continent it has not taken us long to discover that the struggle against colonialism does not end with the attainment of national independence.
Independence is only the prelude to a new and more involved struggle for the right to conduct our economic and social affairs, to construct our society according to our aspirations unhampered by crushing and humiliating neo-colonialist control and interference.”
After centuries of slavery, exploitation and colonialism, Africa sought liberation through armed struggle until South Africa was freed from pernicious Apartheid regime. Dr. Arikana ChihomboriQuao does not moralize or intellectualize, philosophize or agonize; she merely presents in a synoptic way the story of Africa in a manner that enables the reader to understand where the journey of misfortune started and how it has been perpetuated.
In this book, Ambassador Chihombori-Quao sheds light on the systematic brainwashing that all Black People around the world have been subjected to. She masterfully unbundles and scholarly explains the Berlin Conference and the rule of divide and conquer and how these two policies affect us Black people today in our daily lives economically, politically as well as socially.
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Being a Medical Doctor, Ambassador Chihombori-Quao systematically diagnosed the effects of slavery and colonization and reminds all of us that we are still suffering from the legacies of both. Furthermore, Ambassador Chihombori-Quao emphasizes the need for the African diaspora to unite.
The Ambassador rightfully identifies the African diaspora as the missing ingredient needed in order for sustainable development to take place in Africa particularly in the environment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Ambassador Chihombori-Quao notes that brain drain out of Africa remains Africa’s biggest challenge to economic development. This needed expertise is in the diaspora.
Ambassador Chihombori-Quao makes it clear that she is on a Mission to wake up the African diaspora and remind them that Mother Africa is calling on them to come back home to build Africa.
In this book Ambassador Chihombori-Quao highlights some of the atrocities committed against the Africans by the former colonizers. In addition, while on paper they left Africa, in reality however they never left. In fact, they continue to wreak havoc in their former colonies. She explains how Africa remains under siege and the need for the Africa diaspora to rescue Africa from continued exploitation.
This is a book like no other. It gives us a nutshell presentation of our circumstances as a people and justifications as to why we must unite. The Ambassador’s passion for Africa comes through very strongly in this book. Her desire to end the senseless deaths and suffering in Africa is unmatched.
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Ambassador Chihombori-Quao makes it clear that to accomplish this monumental task, the children of Africa must unite. Wherein lies the challenge. The self- hate among us black people is a major hindrance to our ability to unite.
This book also exposes the schemes the former colonizers have set up in order to keep Africa in perpetual economic bondage. This is a must-read book for anyone interested in Africa in anyway shape or form. It is a must-read book before going to Africa for pleasure, tourism or business.
I encourage everyone regardless of race to read this book for both the oppressor and the oppressed need healing. This book will wake you up from your slumber and give you a renewed informed insight and understanding of Africa and how she relates to the rest of the world.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Enslaved Africans | Used instead of "slaves" to emphasize that being enslaved does not define a person. |
| Continental Africans | Africans living on the continent of Africa. |
| Continental African diaspora | Africans born in Africa but currently residing outside Africa. |
| Descendants of formerly enslaved Africans | African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-Latino individuals. |
| African diaspora | Continental African diaspora, descendants of formerly enslaved Africans, and all people of African descent living outside Africa. |
As the adage goes, “a person who sleeps in a room knows exactly where it leaks,” Africa is now fully aware of her “leaks” through this book, hence the need to repair the leaks. I highly recommend this book for everyone to read. It is not a book for this generation alone but for many generations to come.
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