Webster defines colonialism as “the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.”

We think this is a little too clinical a definition that doesn’t really say anything about what colonialism really entails and who it affects.

Colonialism emerged within capitalism – a worldwide system of exploitation and violence that began with the European assault on Africa.

It was the rape of Africa which led to the rape of African women, whose wombs became the human factories upon which parasitic capitalism depended.

It is a brutal system that imposes the white ruling class’s will on the people they have oppressed.

It does this through violence, but also by erecting governments, rules, laws, schools, ministries, economies that protect the interest of the ruling class.

Colonialism is embedded in all aspects of our life. The food we eat, the air we breathe, the music we listen to, the way we raise our children; all of it serves to sustain the life of the colonizers.

Under colonialism the white ruling class determines the trajectory of society, directly or indirectly. Sometimes using members of colonized groups as their agents (ie. Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela).

This is called neocolonialism, a term first used by Kwame Nkrumah to describe white power in black face.  I won’t go into this too deeply because Chairman Omali has written on this extensively. I mention it to help you understand that capitalist colonialism is a chameleon and has been successful in reinventing itself.

Long gone are the hokey characterizations we associate with colonialism, of an old-timey curly mustached british officer mistreating meak peasants in some far off place circa the imagery of the early to mid 20th century.

Today’s colonizer is a smooth-haired hipster, feminist who listens to Taylor Swift and has a black girlfriend.

Colonialism didn’t just disappear. It changed because oppressed people forced it to change.  What we’ve failed to do, however, is to destroy it.

Therefore,  African people are still suffering; especially black women who hold a precarious position in society dealing with a special oppression from the state and from within the African colony.

Who is today’s colonized African woman 

She is struggling with whether to report her rape to colonial police because she knows it could result in increased police terror in the black community, on one hand,  or nothing will happen, on the other hand.

She is the office worker who endures characterizations of being “unfriendly” “antisocial” “mean woman.”

She is the mother who is fighting to regain custody of her child from the state, facing criminalization from the State and indictment from her community.

She is the girl carrying  the financial weight of her entire family, forced to marry a man for dowry.

They are the women who enjoyed themselves too loudly in a public space and had the police called on them for disturbing “white people’s” peace.

She is a mother who cannot afford to take care of her child, so she gives birth and dumps her baby in a sewer.

She is also a woman who is forced to make decisions about her body and reproduction based on  colonial conditions.

She is the woman, or girl, trapped by antiquated traditions that lock her into a life of servitude and isolation.

She is even the repugnant African petite bourgeoisie like Oprah, Michelle Obama,who still get followed in stores or called a monkey in the ruling class media.

She is the pig black cop, military or any employee of the colonial government including the workers that carry out their job  taking children from black families.

She is the mother that buries her child too soon, because of colonial violence from the state or from within our community.

She is the mother that dies in childbirth.

She is you, an African woman trudging through life, minding your business only to be stopped by a Burning Spear Newspaper salesperson talking to you about revolution.

Essentially she is every African woman on the planet today experiencing tough times or who is trying to live her best life, despite the circumstances.

African women are colonized because we have not destroyed colonialism.

African women workers must help destroy colonialism

African women workers have every reason to destroy colonialism.

It is the only way to ensure that we can be  free and that our children, don’t have to know a world where African nation is subjugated.

We have everything to gain and nothing to lose.

The African petite bourgeoisie woman, on the other hand, has less motivation to destroy capitalist colonialism because she benefits from it.

She needs the maintenance of capitalist colonialism to measure how close she comes to achievements celebrated by the white ruling class.

The Revolution is Calling

The African National Women’s Organization (ANWO) exists as that organization where African women workers can organize our efforts toward the destruction of capitalist colonialism.

Through organization, we help prepare ourselves and our communities for the emergence of a new world where African women are no longer fourth fiddle, but instead, are integral to the political running of our society.

All African women must prepare to transform society by joining ANWO at anwouhuru.org/join.

The Time is Now!

African Women Must Lead!

This is important in order to fulfill the strategy of the Party which is to bring African women into revolutionary political life, through organization.

After all, we are the only organization for African women with the implied mission of filling our ranks with African poor and working class women.

Struggle between the working class and the petty bourgeoisie

In order to accomplish this objective we have struggled with our members to abandon any petty bourgeois aspirations and contribute their skills to the interest of the African working class.

This has been a point of contention, which has led to many struggles inside ANWO, as we’ve fought for structure, accountability and action.

The basis of the contradiction has been that some women joined not understanding that they aspire to be the African petty bourgeoisie – a sector of the African colony who maintains the status quo and are not particularly interested in becoming the “leaders of the African revolution, shapers of our new society.”

There are also women who we consider the radical petty bourgeoisie. These women are unhappy with the current social system and are constantly voicing outrage or protest in order to initiate reforms within the capitalist system.

In either instance, the outcome is African women who do not believe that African liberation is possible, but join ANWO because it represents the militant politics that they hope to embody.

Liberation requires organization not anarchy

We are a mass organization, which means that any African woman can join. We do, however, have objectives that we expect members to contribute to.

The highest expression of membership, is action. The African working class demands it.

What we find, however, is that some women are opposed to organization.

They are opposed to the strategizing, organizing and execution that is required to get us closer to our mission; and are drawn to groups or individuals who do not have structure and where political theory does not exist.

That is anarchy and we are not anarchist.

This struggle constantly emerges because the characteristics of the African petite bourgeoisie is to be liberal (read Combat Liberalism by Mao Zedong).

Since they do not believe in African liberation they do not have a vision of free future. So every action item is tedious, inconvenient, “confusing”, or too hard.

They do not help solve problems, they present problems. They suddenly don’t have convertible skills and they do the bare minimum or nothing at all.

In some cases they have a contempt for the African working class, which is evidenced in their unwillingness to engage in basic organizing in our communities.

They would rather work hard for capitalist industries or in bourgeois institutions, rather than work hard for the revolution.

They fear “coming out” as a revolutionary, but are ok with being an activist.

Kill “Becky”

Kalambayi Andenet, InPDUM President, calls these tendencies “Becky” – the white woman that lives inside our head. “Becky” leads us away from black power and the African revolution.

In ANWO and the Uhuru Movement overall, our goal is to kill “Becky” everyday.

We do not want the selfish individualistic opportunist characteristics of oppressor nation white women to take over and make us comfortable with living in the colony.

We aim to destroy the colonizer, which in turn, will destroy the colony.

We have to engage in the long, hard, important work to build power amongst African women who suffer immeasurably inside the colony.

The conditions of African women demands organization

Currently there are over 1 million African women who live in combat zones as a result of colonial exploitation.

Many of us are poor and without access to resources. Many of us are illiterate and are victims of violence on a daily basis.

There are hundreds of thousands of African girls who are missing. They are forced into prostitution just to make ends meet.

There are mothers, right now, looking for their children or crying over the bodies of their children.

This is the world we live in because of capitalism.

The worldwide system of capitalism started as an attack on Africa which resulted in building wealth for the white world and poverty and misery of the African world. Hence, capitalism was born as a parasite, sucking the blood of African and other colonized people for its existence.

Colonialism is the brutal instrument of capitalism used to repress the colonized- the people and their lands and economies that white power has destroyed.

It’s in the interest of African women to destroy parasitic capitalism. In the process of destroying capitalism, African women learn to solve problems and emerge as leaders in the African revolution.

ANWO remains committed to building that legion of African women who will birth a new world free from colonial domination and parasitic capitalism.

Read our site to find out more about us and how you can join. Save the date of March 27-29 for our 2020 national convention. Follow us on social media and sign up for newsletter to be kept up to date on the latest news and info from ANWO.