Black Agenda Radio - 08.27.18

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Black Agenda Radio this week examines two questions that confront those who want to bring down the 500-year reign of Euro-American colonialism and imperialism: How do people free themselves from the oppressor’s rule without becoming like the colonial master? And, how can the nations of what used to be called the Third World create economies of prosperity while still respecting the environment and the rights of indigenous peoples?

Some news from central Africa. -- Bobi Wine, a wildly popular musician and member of the Ugandan parliament, was arrested and severely beaten by police, along with several other elected officials. The police shot Bobi Wine’s driver dead. Wine and his colleagues are vehemently opposed to the 32-year rule of Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni, one of Washington’s closest military allies on the African continent. We spoke with Milton Allamadi, publisher of Black Start News, in New York City, and a native of Uganda. We asked Allamadi what the arrest and brutalization of Bobi Wine says about the Museveni regime.

The Europe and the United States became great industrial powers through centuries of theft of the labor and land of the colonized people of the planet. In the process, great harm has been inflicted on both the environment and the indigenous peoples of formerly colonized world – destruction that continues, even in those developing countries with left-wing government. Macarena Gomez-Barris is author of, “The Extraction Zone: Social Ecologies and Decolonial Perspectives.” She’s also chair of the Department of Social Sciences and Cultural Studies, at Pratt Institute. Gomez-Barris warns that those activists who claim the Earth has no future are unwittingly allowing the rich to continue spreading their ideology of disposability.

 

And so was a book by Dr. Julietta Singh, titled “Unthinking Mastery: “Dehumanization and Decolonial Entanglements.” Singh is an associate professor of English at the University of Richmond. She’s deeply concerned that previously oppressed people not internalize the ideology and behavior of the Oppressor. We asked Dr. Singh the question: How do people wage a liberation struggle against ruthless capitalists, or imperial powers like the United States – including armed struggle – and not appear to be behaving like the oppressor, like The Master?