Political theater on the world stage

by Obi Egbuna Jr

Reflections concerning navigating and maneuvering at the UN

Whenever Mother African’s Daughters and Sons touch down at the United Nations in New York City, regardless of where we fall on the ideological spectrum, it becomes abundantly clear that we are officially on enemy territory.

For US-born Africans with a sense of history, they never hesitate to remind our extended kith and kin at home and abroad that the UN is a precursor to the League of Nations, created by arguably the most racist Democrat to take the helm at the White House, Thomas Woodrow Wilson. During his tenure as president of Princeton University, Wilson refused to desegregate, leaving our people on the outside looking in. After all, Wilson considered segregation itself both rational and scientific. His apologists have always blamed this disposition on his Southern upbringing.

Since the League of Nations, in the eyes of Western political experts, could not curtail Axis aggression and prevent World War II, a facelift became the order of the day. Over 61 days in 1945, between April and June, 50 nations met in San Francisco to draft and sign the UN Charter.

During October of that same year, Africans were in Manchester, England, organizing our Fifth Pan-African Congress, which laid a springboard for the anti-colonial movement that led to self-determination and independence for Ghana on March 6, 1957, and 35 African nations between 1957 and 1960.

Exactly 10 years before Ghana’s independence, the Pan-Africanist and human rights champion Dr. WEB DuBois found himself locking horns with US First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who was seething with anger because he boldly presented “An Appeal to the World: A Statement on the Denial of Human Rights to Minorities in the Case of Citizens of the United States of America and an Appeal to the United Nations for Redress.”

Unfortunately, those who reduce Dr. DuBois to his disputes with Booker T. Washington and the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey forget how exposing Wilson in his 1913 open letter, standing up to Mrs. Roosevelt at the UN and refusing to endorse Harry Truman, who breathed life into both the Zionist State of Israel and the CIA, set the tone for African anti-imperialist resistance worldwide.

The mass walkout at the UN last week during Zionist Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu’s General Assembly speech appeared in the same space where Israel refused to recognize Algeria and Tunisia’s independence and right to sovereignty. Every Zionist Israeli head of state has used their platform at the UN to vote for the maintenance of the illegal racist US blockade on Cuba.

Exactly four years later, in 1951, the cultural and artistic colossal Paul Robeson, who proudly considered himself a pupil of Dr. DuBois, along with William Patterson, submitted an appeal entitled “We Charge Genocide: The Crime of Government Against the Negro People” to the UN in New York. Patterson also delivered it to an additional meeting in Paris.

One decade later, the Liberation Committee for Africa and the United African Nationalist Movement interrupted the speech by US Ambassador to the UN Adlai Stevenson, condemning the role of the UN and Western imperialist forces in the horrific and barbaric assassination of Congolese Patrice Lumumba.

The sentiment that led to us taking to the streets in Harlem, Havana, Warsaw, Paris and New Delhi was echoed by Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah when he said, “History records many occasions when rulers of States have been assassinated. The murder of Patrice Lumumba and two of his colleagues, however, is unique in that it is the first time in history that the legal ruler of a country has been done to death with the open connivance of a world organization (the United Nations) whom the ruler put his trust in.”

From there we remember Brother Malcolm returning to Babylon from his second trip to Mother Africa, where he went primarily to generate support from the most revolutionary heads of state at our disposal for the purpose of exploring the possibility of taking US imperialism before the United Nations. What differentiated Malcolm’s efforts from what Dr. DuBois, Paul Robeson and Unsung William Patterson were attempting was that, in 1947 and 1951, we had no independent, let alone revolutionary, nations ready to do battle on that initiative. Brother Malcolm took the golden opportunity to multitask and pen a classic article in the Egyptian Gazette entitled “Zionist Logic,” which is why, when it comes to anti-Zionist resistance amongst Africans, he is a trailblazer. It would come as no surprise that when Brother Malcolm was poisoned by the CIA in Egypt, the Israeli Mossad was also involved.

It appears that, as it pertains to anti-Zionism, the social democrats too often appear to have no interest in the efforts to the left of them on the spectrum. Therefore, the role of the revolutionary Pan-Africanist head of state Ahmed Seku Ture, who was at the forefront of pushing UN Resolution 3379, Zionism and Racism, must be remembered. We must remind our people that Palestinian solidarity for Africans is only the tip of the iceberg, and if we fight them based on their crimes against the African world, their days are numbered.

Our comrade and brother, Venezuela’s President Nicholas Maduro, was captured by US imperialist forces in a manner similar to the way Phyllis Wheatley was snatched from SeneGambia at the tender age of 7, or Zimbabwe’s former President Robert Mugabe was captured by the Southern Rhodesians and imprisoned for 11 years without a trial.

As President Maduro sits defiantly in an imperialist prison cell under bogus charges of drug trafficking, many remember 20 years ago, during his speech at the UN General Assembly, his predecessor Comandante Hugo Chavez called former US President George W. Bush the devil. Ironically, today former President Bush parades around as a born-again humanitarian, boasting that he has tested more women for breast and cervical cancer in Mother Africa than any other institutional framework of its kind. This grotesque attempt at a political makeover was encouraged by the neocolonialist tandem of former Ghanaian Presidents John Kufuor and John Attah Mills, who, in sequence, announced and opened the largest highway in all of Ghana named in honor of former President Bush.

Due to the level of decorum expected in high-level diplomatic spaces, progressive and revolutionary forces face the challenge of keeping their cool because passion and emotion could lead to costly miscalculations and acts of bad judgment.

The battle cry for African heads of state asking for permanent representation on the UN Security Council should result in a campaign named in honor of late President Mugabe. During the final phase of his presidency, we saw US-EU imperialism attempt to block Zimbabwe from chairing the UN Committee for Sustainable Development, addressing the Food and Agriculture Organization meeting and trying to leverage the UN Security Council to impose additional sanctions on Zimbabwe. Only China and Russia’s vetoes prevented this cowardly and hateful overture.

When US imperialism resorts to using the UN Security Council to impose sanctions, that act of aggression represents a final death blow to a nation where they desire a regime change.

Our comrades in Eritrea were forced to endure these measures because of a lie propagated by US imperialism that they were supporting al-Shabaab terrorist cells, allegations which were eventually dropped due to a lack of proof.

Since this year marks the 25th anniversary of the UN Conference on Racism, Xenophobia and Other Related Intolerances, where former President Bush threatened to boycott the conference over our ancestors’ captivity, commonly referred to as slavery, reparations and the Palestinian question, the more-than-usual traffic in and around this year’s General Assembly should come as no surprise.

To all newcomers who are engaging on this level for the very first time, we hope they surround themselves with disciplined and principled organizers who know how to avoid the grandstanding and shenanigans at all costs.

At this stage, you can expect to see anything, like pretend demonstrations, opportunists present foaming at the mouth for photo ops with heads of state, foreign ministers or any other high-level diplomats they feel can enhance their individual or organizational profiles. This includes gross exaggerations about what they sincerely have the ability or genuine willingness to deliver as an act of solidarity and camaraderie. We must prepare to overcome vultures who are against cohesion and seek to exploit the mileage of issues that soak in our sweat and blood.

We are witnessing the Ghanaian government dance to the tune of reparations while openly volunteering to serve as a neocolonialist proxy to the European Union intelligence agencies and militaries, who are looking to bring about regime change targeting the Alliance of Sahel States. Before retirement, General Michael Langley was aiming to do his best impersonation of the war criminal and buffalo soldier General Colin Powell.

Our extended family in Cuba have notified the world that the recent energy blockade has cost them $5.8 billion and nearly $180 billion since it was imposed in 1962.

The Democratic machine stands with Cuba when it’s convenient but is obviously more anti-Trump than it can ever be pro-Cuba. Its disingenuous posture suggests that Trump isn’t trying to finish what Kennedy started in 1961, which was a working tribute to the first seven US presidents who wanted to annex Cuba.

When every ounce of smoke clears, only those on the battlefield who wish to be what the Pan-African giant Amilcar Cabral referred to as anonymous fighters when addressing the UN in 1962 will carry our struggle forward.

Our aim is to convert all weaknesses to strengths and expand on the strengths.

Matching the resolve of Cuba, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Eritrea, the Alliance of Sahel States, Nicaragua and all our comrades and friends who dare to defy the odds our enemies attempt to present as insurmountable is an honor and privilege beyond description.

Obi Egbuna Jr. is the External Relations Officer of the Zimbabwe Cuba Friendship Association.

The post Political theater on the world stage appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

Source: https://sfbayview.com/2026/10/political-theater-on-the-world-stage/