Until 711 AD when Arabs finally conquered Egypt and the destruction of African civilization began, African people were the movers and shakers of the world. In fact, there was a saying in the ancient world that “everything new comes out of Africa.”

Since we have lost our leadership position the world has regressed in every possible area. Violence predominates today because the “race of soldiers and rulers” are in charge and a soldier by the very nature of his profession is violent. The three sectors of the economy have been intentionally divided up along racial lines for the last 500 years and changes are occurring today as the Asians, the race responsible for the secondary sector, attempt to reposition themselves on the economic hierarchy.

If we really want to understand western society, we should first study the history of India because this was the model that Europe used to create its own. Europeans simply fine tuned what their Ayran ancestors had started in India. By studying Indian history, African people would not be so enamoured with the idea of India as the next superpower.
 
Nothing can happen in the secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy without the primary sector.In this regard, Africa has an absolute advantage since she alone, has the natural resources that keeps the wheels of the racist economic system turning. Africa, if she so chooses, can single-handedly dominate all three sectors of the world economy. This is the major fear of the western world and is the reason that Africa has been intentionally restricted to the primary sector for the last 500 years.

Are African people going to continue to quietly sit back and allow themselves and their resources to be controlled forever by other groups who starve and abuse our people? Will they be content to receive peanuts from them, while they make trillions of dollars/euros from our resources? Will Africans come to their senses and retake their position as the movers and shakers that they once were? Isn’t it time for Africa to let the West know that we do not need solutions from the G8 countries, fictitious concerts from their artists, nor any help from their phony humanitarian organizations? Shouldn’t African people make the West understand that we, like the Asians, are no longer prepared to play by the same old rules?

In fact, Africa needs no help from any country on the planet since it is the breadbasket of the world. African people should be left alone to decide for themselves how to use their own resources and determine the correct price just like other groups on the planet. This is the best gift the West can offer African people and should be the mantra of African people worldwide.
 
The poverty, underdevelopment, war, crime and the other aberrations we see in Africa and in African communities around the world are not tied to negligent parents, corrupt leaders, African people not having business acumen, or other outlandish reasons given to explain why African people are consistently at the bottom of society. The problem is that Africa tragically came into contact with a violent and lazy people who cannot compete with her on an equal footing. To ensure that competition between the two groups never occurred, they invented a racially segmented economic system and fixed the rules in such a way that they always end up one step ahead of African people. They took the wealth producing sectors of the economy for themselves (secondary and tertiary) and gave Africa the sector which creates no wealth (primary.) This obviously keeps Africans at a social and economic disadvantage. As a result, African people around the planet live in dire poverty, and this in turn creates all kinds of dysfunctional behaviour in African people. But this is the only way the West can rest assured that their worst nightmare will never become a reality. What is ironic is that children who behave like the West in school are called cheats and are often punished.
 
The West has succeeded in maintaining its racist economic system for so long because of our ignorance. During slavery, the economic sector was off limits to African people, since it concerned money and slaves were not allowed to accumulate wealth. When machines were going to replace men, to ensure that competition between the two races never occurred, the West simply changed the name to industrialization, but they never modified their racist economic system. They have maintained those racial disparities right up until today and this is the system we continue to live and work under.

Our ancestors in their euphoria at being finally free only focused on the social inequalities in society. By leaving racism in the economic system intact, the West has been able to consistently bring back the social injustices that they fought so hard to destroy. For example, after African people had fought for centuries to destroy slavery, the West returned with apartheid and segregation. Our people were once again forced to fight against these two evils. When they ended, they have brought it back again in the form of ghettos. It is like a hydra. As soon as you destroy one branch another springs up elsewhere. As a result, Africans are frustrated because in spite of all their efforts, they see very little change in our community and cannot understand why. African people have not been able to change their deprived circumstances or make much progress, because it is economic wealth that changes social status and not the other way round. If we do not destroy the economic disparities first, it will be impossible to destroy the social inequalities. That is where the root of our problem lies.
 
Intentionally creating social injustice and economic disparities is the only way to ensure that Africa and the West never attain equal status either socially or economically, because if this situation ever occurs, Africans, as the life givers of the planet will firstly, easily surpass them and their fragile egos cannot accept this.We must do like the Europeans when they conquered the world. They first attacked militarily, then spiritually, economically and educationally at the same time. We are to do exactly the same but in reverse order. We must first attack the economic system, then the educational, social and religious systems simultaneously.

Teaching African children ‘to turn the other cheek’ will encourage bullying, and bullying is nothing more than violence against someone who is weaker than the bully. We must point out to African children that slavery was the end of African civilization, and it is our duty to teach them the beginning since they will not be taught that in the educational system. This will tremendously enhance their self esteem and will in turn make them less tolerant of accepting abused directed against them and their people.

Radically changing the racist economic system is the only viable solution for alleviating chronic poverty and underdevelopment in Africa and everywhere that African people are to be found. However, as long as our people continue to remain myopic, the West will make no changes to its racist economic system. In fact, they are quite content to hear us blaming our leaders, Aids, ethnic conflict, overpopulation, corruption, our youth, each other and everything else for our plight, while they just sit back and watch us slowly suffer and die.

In my opinion, the real issue today is not about the rise of Asia. The real issue is the rise of Africa. Where do Africans intend to position themselves? Are they content to remain where they are or are they going to try and bring about radical change on this planet?  Only African people can decide. Today, the ball is in our court.

By Junious Ricardo Stanton, Columnist in Positively Black and Community Broadcaster