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If you were to ask the average African in the Diaspora if they considered themselves free, chances are they would exclaim with tremendous fervor, “Hell yeah, I am free! Slavery was back then in them times long ago. Fool we got a Black president; we can do whatever white people do, so that means we are free!” When you hear something like that, you have to ask yourself is the agency of an oppressed group to be judged by their ability to ape their oppressors? Why is it that freedom isn’t necessarily equated with sovereignty in the minds and actions of Africans in the Diaspora or the rest of the world? Well these are some of the questions Ezrah Aharone attempts to resolve in his books Pawned Sovereignty: Sharpened Black Perspectives on Americanization, Africa, War, and Reparations and Sovereign Evolution: Manifest Destiny From “Civil Rights” “To Sovereign Rights”. In this discussion with Ezrah, we talked about sovereignty, the contradictions of the so-called “Black Lives Matter” movement and recent Selma commemoration, and much more.
Music featured in this episode includes: Akala’s “Get Educated” from his album Knowledge Is Power – Mixtape, Vol. 1, Chairman Maf’s “Paint”, “Sundown”, “Never”, and “Whistle” from his album Paint, “Set U Free” from Wise Intelligent’s The Talented Timothy Taylor album, and “Gonna Be A Change” from Big Cakes’s album CCC.
