ST.JOHN'S Antigua, March 29th, 2012 -- What now? That might be the prevailing question arising from the presentation, Wednesday night, by Leader of the Nation of Islam Louis Farrakhan.
Minister Farrakhan concluded a Caribbean tour in Antigua, in a packed arena at Multipurpose Cultural Centre.
His talk, which teased the emotive topics of race, religion, economics, food sovereignty, education, economics, self-definition and self-determination, could be said to have raised many uncomfortable truths.
It was not uncomfortable in the sense that people were squirming in their seats. The opposite is true. There was constant applause, choruses of “yes!” lots of head nodding, and people paying rapt attention. The discomfort might have come from accepting the things posited as having merit but not having what it takes – political will, support and the daring – to take remedial action. After all, whereas Minister Farrakhan was advocating the reemergence of black people to move en bloc to the forefront, in all spheres of life, the world and its leaders are ostensibly pushing integration.
The Minister sought to make a lie of the global notion of unity and equality, provocatively telling his Antiguan audience that there is a concerted effort to eradicate, not just the contribution of black people to the development of the world, but the race.
“We’re being socially engineered into extinction,” Minister Farrakhan said. He used, as example of this bold assertion, global statistics of the low enrollment of black men in institutions of higher learning and the high percentage of black men in prison; the places, like Africa, the Caribbean and urban communities, where the prevalence of HIV/AIDS is most prevalent; the move among black people to have less children while, he said, other ethnic groups are procreating more; a disconnection from what he said is a glorious past; and black people’s inability to feed themselves.
“Their fathers would come and kill us outright, but they’re scientists now,” Minister Farrakhan said, as he warned of the dangers of taking things at face value.
He said education is the key. He posited that self-sufficiency starts with education.
To the politicians – and there were several parliamentarians in the house, including Prime Minster Baldwin Spencer and Attorney General Justin Simon – he was direct, telling them they were not in control of theirs or their constituents’ destiny. “You have the politics but you don’t have the business,” Minister Farrakhan said.
He was ably assisted by the audience in listing the ethnic groups that hold the economic power.
“You can’t get your economics right if you don’t get your head right,” Minister Farrakhan said, as he took time to wax about religion, history and unity across the Diaspora and political lines.
And if the politicians were not prone to subtlety, the Nation of Islam leader began what sounded like a roll call: “I am the prime minister; I am the minister of agriculture; I am the minister of economy and trade; I am the minister of education. Whose education?” What trade? What commerce when our people don’t produce what we consume?” he asked rhetorically.
The question was met with whistles and applause.
So what now? What now that an evidently thirsty audience had spelled out for them that which they evidently knew before the first word was spoken?
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