4. No need to rewrite History—they’ve already done it for you! This will just make you even more of an outsider, someone who’s only worth a ‘sub-history’ or ‘counter-history’! What should you do? Grab this ready-made history just like the Italians in the fourteenth century claimed Antiquity in the name of the Renaissance and just like the socialist thinkers in the nineteenth century took over the Christian heritage in the name of humanism. Of course you’ll have to be clever to take over late-20th century humanism weakened by contemporary ‘exclusivism.’ If humanism is to have a fresh chance you will need to find allies who will give up charity in favour of justice and who agree that we need to be partners if we are all to survive.
5. Stop looking at the ground to find your roots every time the issue of identity comes up!
You’re a person, not a vegetable! You’re standing on the tarmac of Babel and you can speak all its tongues!
6. Cross the border whenever you’re near it! You won’t be more of a foreigner on the other side than you were on ‘your’ side. Don’t bother trying to get a visa—they’ll never give you one! Knock down the
doors, make false papers, bribe the customs men ... That’s another ‘African’ art that Europeans don’t know: the art of survival. Who knows, maybe one day you’ll be able to cross the border between the outsiders and those who belong.
7. Don’t bite the charitable hand that feeds you—eat it! It will only give you crumbs in any case. Charity has become a business with the aim of making exclusion part of the New International Order.
8. Don’t lose yourself in black moods—or moods in any other colour! Don’t trust people of colour, that’s to say, any people who focus just on the colour of their skin or those of other people. It’s very hard to see a ‘black soul’ in a dark room, especially if it isn’t there! Nobody knows exactly the colour of the African’s ‘black soul! (Not even black Africans themselves!) Souls don’t really have a colour: they take on the colour that is given to them or that they give themselves.
9. Don’t trust any maps you haven’t drawn yourself! Your route may not be marked on them. Maps are drawn to mark out land that has already been conquered for investors, tourists and the Peacekeeping Forces of the United Nations. So, learn to explore your surroundings first and draw your maps later!
10. Don’t be afraid to ask stupid questions! They might turn out to be existential questions, like:
•Who invented ‘Africans’? •Could Michael Jackson turn black again if he wanted to? •What’s the identity of the African identity?
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