Chika Onyeani - Roar of the African Lion

In this collection of speeches, newspaper columns and other writings, Chika Onyeanis unblinking gaze and plain speaking are directed at many of the burning issues of the day. He outlines his revolutionary Spider Web Doctrine aimed at financial self-reliance and the upliftment of black communities and attacks the parasitic leaders whose greed has robbed the people of Africa of opportunities for advancement and development since their liberation. He is equally scornful of the failures of the African elite to influence the direction of their countries, and has trenchant comments to make about racism, xenophobia and hypocrisy in Africa, America and elsewhere.

Dr Onyeani also tackles the persistence of slavery on the continent, the Wests ambivalent attitude to aid and debt relief, rampant corruption and the whiteness of Barack Obama. Looking to the future, he cautions Africa to be wary of Chinas embrace and to pursue its own solutions to African problems.

ROAR

OF THE AFRICAN

LION

The memorable, controversial

speeches and essays of

CHIKA

ONYEANI

Author of the bestselling

CAPITALIST NIGGER: THE ROAD TO SUCCESS

DELTA PUBLISHERS

CAPE TOWN & JOHANNESBURG

Born in Nigeria, CHIKA ONYEANI is a journalist, editor and former diplomat. He is the author of the bestselling Capitalist Nigger: The Road to Success, a manual for the empowerment and regeneration of the Black Race. He is the publisher and editor-in-chief of the award-winning African Sun Times newspaper. He lives in New Jersey.

NOBODY OWES BLACKS ANYTHING: TRUTH, HONESTY AND FRANKNESS

In 2000, I was invited to Morgan State University, in Baltimore, Maryland, as the keynote speaker at their Bill of Rights/Trans Africa Convocation, held in the Carl Murphy Fine Arts Auditorium. Dean Burney J Hollis awarded me the Distinguished Achievement Award, for my work as International Diplomat, Editor and Author. This is his introduction to my keynote address.

His Excellency, Dr Chika Onyeani, is a man for all seasons an international diplomat, a pace-setting journalist and a distinguished author. For over three decades, he has been a pioneer and a pathfinder, a beacon and a trailblazer, and a commander and a mighty warrior. From his current post as editor-in-chief of the African Sun Times and his various stations in the worldwide Pan-African movement, Dr Onyeani has achieved singularity, and honour, as one of Africas foremost statesmen.

Whether during the 1960s, when he was Nigerias youngest diplomat and served in diplomatic posts in London, Dublin, Brussels, Paris and New York, or, later, as the founding editor of the African Sun Times, the largest and only weekly African newspaper distributed nationwide in America, or as founding chairman of the United African Congress, the umbrella organisation for all continental Africans in the United States, and as current interim chair of Africans for Democracy, Dr Chika Onyeani has brought to his work an unshakable devotion to truth and to Pan-African unity. He has been a courageous and forthright advocate of excellence and achievement for peoples of African descent around the world, and he issued this year a stentorian call for Black people to rise above being dependent and complacent consumers and become independent, reformed producers of culture, language, food, clothing, values and economies.

In his landmark publication, Capitalist Nigger: The Road to Success, he issues an angry, but compassionate, cry for Black people around the world especially African leaders to wake up to the reality of their own enormous potential and become economic warriors in the world. He has penned a historic and ground-breaking economic, political and cultural treatise that, according to one critic, is the definitive book on the Black Race that every Black person would like to have written, but didnt have the courage [to write].

Over the last three decades, Dr Chika Onyeani has been recognised and applauded across this country by the media, by the business community, by social and fraternal societies, and by local governments.

This morning, Morgan adds its name to those around the world who have recognised and praised the good work and the visionary leadership of this man for all seasons. So, I am pleased today, on behalf of our university community, to present to His Excellency, Dr Chika Onyeani, the Morgan State University Distinguished Achievement Award for 2000, in recognition of outstanding contributions to African-American and African and Pan-African history and culture.

My keynote address, entitled Nobody Owes Blacks Anything: Truth, Honesty and Frankness, followed Dean Holliss introduction.

Good morning,

President Earl Richardson, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters. I feel especially honoured to be here today, in this great institution. I must thank Dean Hollis for inviting me to come here today.

In fact, the last time I was in Baltimore was at the Middle-Atlantic Writers Association conference, and I had been invited by Professor Grace Coffey to speak about my book, Capitalist Nigger: The Road to Success A Spider Web Doctrine. My African sister Yahne Sangarey, a member of the African Sun Times staff as well as Curator of the African Museum here in Baltimore, had arranged for me to participate in Global African Writers: The Ties that Bind of the United Nations African Project. The book was well received, and when Dean Hollis offered to bring me here to speak with you, I wasnt sure that his colleagues would have the courage to agree with his selection of an author of such a controversial book and viewpoint. The fact that I am here today is a testimony to the courage and progressive thinking of the members of this institution. I thank you all, and especially Dean Hollis for his bold initiative.

A lot of times when we present our polished resums, we forget to mention the humble environment we come from. Of course, I am no exception. But I would be remiss if I didnt tell you a little bit about myself other than what is in my resum. I come from Ohafia, a warrior group of the Igbo national group in Nigeria. It is in a very remote area of the country. When I was growing up, we attended school in makeshift mud huts. Then, as today, we didnt have running water, and now the electricity we have hardly works one day in a month. For most of us, books were a luxury, but when we got hold of one we made sure that we knew what was in it to pass our exams and move to the next class. In fact, I am exceptionally lucky because I was one of those who hardly had books, even exercise books what you call notebooks here not because my parents did not provide the money for them, but because of my uncles partiality to my cousin, who started school with me.

Needless to say, my cousin was three classes behind me when we finished, and even then I had set a goal of becoming somebody. I gave you that very short resum just to say that, no matter wherever you come from, or from whatever circumstances, you can achieve whatever goal you set your mind on. And, looking at you all, I know you are all very special and goal-oriented; otherwise you would not be sitting where you are now. Thousands of others have abandoned their goals even before they started. I applaud you all.

My topic today is the Black Race. It is not about Africans from the continent, or Africans in the diaspora, or African West Indians, but about the Black Race. My discussion is about truth; it is about honesty and frankness. It is about no more lies, no more hiding the truth, and no more blaming others for what is happening to the Black Race. It is about accepting responsibility for our actions; it is about playing the same games that others are playing and becoming very successful.