Revolutionary Repatriation Platform & Program

The Revolutionary Repatriation Platform

OUR PLATFORM:We Charge Colonialism as an anti-imperialist Pan-Africanist organization primarily based in the United States takes the position that African people are faced with two plausible choices for our liberation. 1) Return to our mother Continent of Africa and fight for self-determination for the African continent; or 2) Stay here and fight for internal-self-determination in the United States, a manifestation of the Black nationalism Malcolm X and others advocated for, that is control over the social, political, and economic institutions in our communities.

While we support the right of each African person to arrive at which decision is most in line with their and their families interests, as an organization we take the stance that the first option is the most viable and truly liberating choice for African people, as American society has proven time and time again that it’s interest is in direct opposition to the interest of a free and liberated Africa. America without imperialism would be a country driven into chaos by the exercise of sovereignty over land and resources by the so-called “Third World” or “developing” countries. What will those Africans who stay do when Africa is free, drastically increasing the cost of living in America and the West, everything from food, to gas, to transportation, to computer technology and cell phones? What will those Africans who stay do when the corporations which employed them that had in previous times received cheap natural resources from Africa are driven out of business as Africans demand the correct form of payment for any resources leaving the African continent? What will those Africans who stay do when Africa chooses to leave the dollar, euro, or CFA Franc behind in place of a monetary system like the gold standard that would strengthen Africa while crippling the Western worlds’ economies? This reality can and will present a conflict of interest for Africans who have chosen to remain in the “Belly of the Beast.”

We also recognize on a practical level the words of Malcolm X, “REVOLUTION IS BASED ON LAND. LAND IS THE BASIS OF ALL INDEPENDENCE. LAND IS THE BASIS OF FREEDOM, JUSTICE, AND EQUALITY.”There is an undying need for all Africans to have a land base. As the United States is a settler-colonial state, we recognize the only group who could rightfully claim a right to this land is the currently occupied Indigenous Americans. We, therefore, turn our eyes to the only land we could ever rightfully identify as that for African people, that is Africa.[1]

This is not a “Back to Africa” campaign. As the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey stated: “I HAVE NO DESIRE TO TAKE ALL BLACK PEOPLE BACK TO AFRICA; THERE ARE BLACKS WHO ARE NO GOOD HERE AND WILL LIKEWISE BE NO GOOD THERE.”Frankly speaking, we recognize that most repatriation discourse that circulates the web is contrary to the benefit and interest of the masses of African people. We do not want pseudo-capitalist blood suckers going back to Africa, no matter if they’re melanated or not. We therefore offer these criticisms of the current movement of individuals reclaiming and repatriating to Africa from the Diaspora, generally speaking:

Diasporans are not concerned about individuals with means buying up the land in Africa while the locals are compressed into communities with a high concentration of poverty and with hazardous, overcrowded, and dilapidated housing; so long as the buyer of that land is African, just not European, and certainly not Chinese.

Diasporans are encouraged to return to Africa for a better standard of living than they enjoy in America. Diasporans are sold dreams of entrepreneurship in Africa “the land of opportunity,” and are told they need to go back to Africa to “invest.” That investment is masqueraded as being a revolutionary act without any articulation for how that business venture does anything to challenge the status quo for Africans. Investment even becomes a counter-revolutionary distraction from what the issues actually are by giving a false sense of hope to Africans that the situation is turning around even while it worsens. In all realism, that investment does nothing to eradicate the material conditions of the masses of African people. A very small percentage of Diasporans have the means to return to Africa for business opportunities. Of those who have the means to return, an even smaller percent even have the desire to return to Africa. Are we supposed to believe a sliver of a sliver of a percentage of Africans starting businesses in Africa, a continent of over one billion people, 85% of whom live on $5 a day,[2]and 40% of whom live on less than $2 a day,[3]that that small fraction of Africans can reverse this economic catastrophe by starting businesses where they employ their brothers and sisters??? Utter nonsense! Remember the words of Kwame Ture: “THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM DOESN’T LIE SOME OF THE TIME. IT LIES ALL OF THE TIME.”

Diasporans are often fooled into believing that the colonial situation has no consequences for them in Africa. We call on Diasporans, do not be fooled by the false narratives of living a bourgeoisie experience in Africa, and living untouched. Many Diaspora and Continental Africans have already been the victims of petty crimes such as robbery, or even serious crimes such as murder by some Continental Africans struggling with the impoverishment that is a creation of the colonial system. We do not celebrate this, but wish that this will serve as a warning. Do not find comfort in simply living a middle-class existence off of your retirement or savings while the masses of Africans around you suffer. Consider again the words of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey: “… WHEN A MAN IS HUNGRY HE IS THE RESPECTER OF NO PERSON. A HUNGRY MAN FORGETS THE LOOK OF HIS FATHER… I DO NOT CARE HOW RELIGIOUS A MAN IS OR HOW MANY SUNDAY SCHOOLS HE GOES TO; I DO NOT CARE HOW LONG HE CAN PRAY, WHEN THAT MAN IS HUNGRY HE IS A DANGEROUS CHARACTER.”Or, put simply: “HUNGRY MEN HAVE NO RESPECT FOR LAW, AUTHORITY OR HUMAN LIFE.”

Consider Africa’s growing population, much of which is made up of the youth. Not only is the African population the fastest growing in the world, but it is expected to increase by 50% over the next 18 years, growing from 1.2 billion people today to over 1.8 billion in 2035. The population is expected to DOUBLEby 2050.[4]In fact, Africa will account for nearly half of the entire global population growth over the next two decades.[5]We ask the African Diaspora to think about the issue this presents and think logically. African business and commerce have not even begun to touch the tip of the iceberg with the poverty our people face today. What do you expect to see with DOUBLE the amount of poverty and hunger we see today? Please understand you will see hungry men and women, and they will be no respecter of your society. They will be no respecter of how many years you put in to receive social security checks. No respecter of your 401K. No respecter of your stocks and investments. No respecter of how long you pillaged and saved to have the money you have. And understandably so when you realize proximity to Empire does not make one more deserving of life.

Aside from the unavoidable peril this situation creates, it’s essential to realize we Africans in the Diaspora and the Continent alike have a duty to devote ourselves to the continual fight for sovereignty, self-determination, and emancipation from the colonial system. Kwame Ture made this clear for us, reminding us that every single advancement, achievement, and gain we African people have is due to our ancestors who shed their blood for us to have it, and “THE MASSES DON’T SHED THEIR BLOOD FOR THE BENEFIT OF A FEW INDIVIDUALS… THE ONLY JUSTIFICATION TO ACCEPT [UPWARD MOBILITY] IS TO ADVANCE THE PEOPLE’S CAUSE, NOT [OUR] OWN.”How dare we accept the gains won only through the shedding of blood of our ancestors with no intention of using those gains for the purpose for which they died—the true and unwavering liberation of African people!

You do not justly retire from the liberation struggle, especially at the most critical stage as this is now. The struggle is ongoing until freedom is won. While we articulate a desire for Africans to return to the continent, we implore our people to return for one reason and one reason only, the total freedom and liberation of African people from the predatory imperialist system that creates our turmoil. This task is not only critical but most practical. All over the African continent are revolutionary organizers and organizations created to directly confront the colonial system. Wedding that work with the resources the diaspora has to offer would only prove more lethal to the colonial system. Let us not join the common and opportunist rhetoric that seeks to paint Africa as a paradise for all Africans. Our people are not drowning trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea because they have any absence of love for Africa. It’s because Africa is under siege, and the poverty overtaking our people is nothing short of violent and grotesque exploitation, in some instances akin to death. We collectively have resources, means, platforms, connections, and experiences which could prove vital to the redirection of our brothers and sisters seeking to escape by steering their frustrations away from problems of corruption and misappropriation of resources, which seem unsolvable, towards the colonial system responsible for that havoc they experience. This means channeling the colonized frustrations and energy towards the fight for land, freedom, and sovereignty.

Saying these things we proclaim…

Revolutionary Repatriation Proclamation

We African people dispersed throughout the African Diaspora make a conscientious decision that the country where we live is not poised for the granting of freedom and liberation for African people.


Deciding it in our best interest to repatriate to join once again with our African brothers and sisters, we make this proclamation that we do not repatriate as a passive act of retreat from the White supremacist structure in the West, but instead take the path of repatriation as a political, calculated, and ultimately as a revolutionary extension of our fight for African liberation. Having taken this stance we commit to the following:

  1. We will continue the struggle against White Supremacy and its bastard children imperialism, colonialism, and neocolonialism until Africa is free.

  2. We will do everything within our power to see continental unity.

  3. We will join/create a revolutionary organization(s) meant to bring about African liberation.

  4. We will do everything in our power to create communal/cooperative business models that challenge the current capitalist privatized control of our land and our resources.

  5. We will not join Africa’s bourgeoisie society, but will seek to eradicate the class system in favor of an economic structure where the masses of Africans benefit from the means of production.

  6. We will call for the expropriation of all natural or mineral resources to the benefit of the masses of Africans.

  7. We will spread consciousness and awareness of the current situation in Africa and the role of the West in Africa’s demise.

  8. We will only tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in the African struggle for liberation from globalized Western capitalism.

  9. We will not further the colonial situation in returning home to Africa, nor seek privileges from the colonial structure.

  10. We will only use our privileges as citizens in Western countries for African liberation, not as a means of simply coming and going, but as a means of Pan-African unity, organization, and amplification of the African struggle on the continent and abroad.

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WCC’s Revolutionary Repatriation Program

Hosted by Frank Mulbah on We Charge Colonialism TV.

Areas to be covered:

  • Political Education

  • Organizational Referrals and Connections

  • Cooperative Business Modeling

  • Basic skills training

The purpose of our program will be to assist African Diasporans planning to repatriate to Africa in 1) crafting out a plan of action as far as steps needed to make a successful transition, including financial planning, coming into line with African culture (person-person dynamics, language, history) and understanding how to create cooperative business models, 2) learning about the political situation of different countries, and what imperialist countries are currently involved in the politics of those countries, and 3) connecting African Diasporans with organizers and organizations already engaged in the African liberation struggle on the Continent.

[1]We make a differentiation between us Africans in the United States or other Western countries from those who are now in countries that were previously plantation colonies, understanding that the assertion of sovereignty was not made at the expense of a Native population, such as the Taino people who were mercilessly wiped out by the colonizers. While Africa is also the home of Africans in the Caribbean nations, we see the struggle to free the land from the imperialist who transformed those colonies into slave plantations and continue to rule them as such as an unquestionable fight for the freedom and sovereignty of African people.

[2]World Bank, https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/85-africans-live-less-550-day

[3]World Bank, https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/number-poor-people-continues-rise-sub-saharan-africa-despite-slow-decline-poverty-rate

[4]World Bank, https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/worlds-population-will-continue-grow-and-will-reach-nearly-10-billion-2050

[5]Institute for Security Studies, https://issafrica.org/amp/iss-today/africas-population-boom-burden-or-opportunity

— We Charge Colonialism (WCC)