The day October 7, is a very historic day in the annals of Christendom. This day is celebrated in the Holy Catholic Church as the Feast of the Holy Rosary and it added to the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Help of Christians.
On Wednesday October 7, 1571, the Battle of Lepanto, the battle that saved Europe took place. The Muslim Ottoman Turks decided to conquer Europe and were descending upon the region around Cyprus, with the largest and the most sophisticated naval ships. They outnumbered the Christian forces in troops and in vessels.
Pope Pius V, urged all the Christian faithful to pray the Holy Rosary and on that day, October 7, 1571, after only five hours of battle, the Christian forces completely defeated the Muslims and Europe was saved from Muslim invasion.
Exactly four hundred and fifty-two years later on, Saturday October 7, 2023, the firstborn of God, Israel, was attacked in the bloodiest way, by Arab factionalists call Hamas. Over 1,400 Israelis were killed and over 240 were taken hostages, and in both cases, children and babies were included.
The world went relatively silent. There were no demonstrations against the Palestinians, across Europe and America. But when Israel struck back and knew no bounds. all of a sudden, the world woke up with condemnations of Israel including calls for ceasefire.
Iran who is alleged to be funding Hamas and who had stated many times over that Israel should be whipped off the surface of the earth, is also calling for ceasefire. Meanwhile, another group, Hezbollah, also bent on driving the state of Israel into the sea, have started attacking from the north.
Israel is saying that, it will not stop until it has completely destroyed Hamas and every Israeli hostage has come back home safely.
While this war is going on, I have observed with great amusement, how most Blacks including Ghanaians are condemning Israel. We are being told today that Israelis were involved in the Slave Trade and that most of the slave ships belonged to Israelis.
How do Arabs relate with Blacks, especially Black Africans? North African nations like Morrocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Egypt and Sudan consider themselves Arabs and not Africans.
They will quickly remove the Africa tag on them at the least opportunity. During the 2022 World Cup, after Morrocco’s historic victory over Spain, its player, Sofaine Boufal attributed his country’s victory to Arabs and Morrocco, at the time the whole of Africa was celebrating an African victory.
When the OAU was established, member countries broke links with Apartheid South Africa. Meanwhile the issue of apartheid was hot topic in the UN and many resolutions to punish that country failed because of the USA, the UK and France.
One example was in 1974 when a resolution was passed to expel South Africa from the United Nations as a result of human rights violations. France, the UK and the USA did not support it and it was vetoed.
By the end of 1973, forty-nine African countries, including Ghana, broke ties with Israel with only four maintaining diplomatic relationship. This was in solidarity with Egypt who lost control of Suez to Israel after an Israeli-Arab war.
During the Kutu Acheampong’s regime, an Iranian high official visited Ghana and warned us, yes warned us, not to have any relationship with Israel. Meanwhile, at that same time, Iran was having strong trade links with South Africa, dealing in oil.
On March 26, 1979, Egypt and Israel made peace. The Suez was returned to Egypt and the two nations exchanged diplomats. Egypt, an Africa nation, who because Israel took-over its land, had forty-nine African nations breaking ties with Israel, renewed ties with the Jewish nation without even given prior information to Africa.
Very embarrassed, ashamed, looking stupid and disgraced, the forty-nine African countries including Ghana could not demand explanations from Egypt. Rather, they came out to say that they would continue to break links with Israel, because it had links with South Africa. What a ridiculous reason to give to lift up ourtarnished dignity?
In the first place, was Egypt not aware of the good relationship between Israel and South Africa, before it made peace with its neighbour? Secondly, why did those forty-nine African nations not break up relationships with France, UK and USA, who fully supported the Apartheid regime in South Africa?
On a more serious level, dealing with human relationships, Black Africans are not considered humans by most Arabs. News is rife, about how Black Africans who find themselves in the North African Arab nations are treated. Blacks are killed and their organs harvested and sold to medical facilities for patients who need organ transplant.
We are again in a new era of Slave Trade, where Black Africans are sold into slavery by Arabs. Our women are forced into sex-slavery, especially those who go to the rich Arab nations to seek greener pastures. They sadly realise that the pastures in Arabia are artificial grass and the natural green grass is in their home countries.
Yes, we hear sad reports of Black African wedded women deceived into believing that they were going to land decent jobs in rich Arab lands, only to have their themselves forced into offering sex to Arabs.
All these things are going on but not an official protest or sanctions from the ECOWAS, AU and the UN, on violations of Black African rights, because Black Africans lives do not matter.
Here in Ghana, we have news of molestations and harassments of Ghanaians working in Asian owned shops and businesses. In 2017, twenty-five-year-old beautiful Evelyn Boakye, a staff of the Lebanese owned eatery, Marwako, had her whole face pushed into hot pepper puree by her Arab supervisor, Jihad Chaaban, at the company’s Abelemkpe branch.
After releasing the lady who was almost suffocating to death, he locked her up in a room for hours so that she was not able to seek medical care immediately. And this happened in Ghana.
Today, our enemies’ enemy is at war with them and surprisingly, many Blacks have forgotten how these Arabs take delight in violating our rights, the world all over and we are instead calling the Chosen Race, names and praying that Israel should be eliminated from the surface of the earth.
I am not going to go on about the rights of Israel as a nation and how it was founded in 1947, that will be for another day.
Looking at the whole issue, firstly Israel cannot be associated with the Slave Trade. When we mention Slave Trade, we should remember that Arabs came down south waged war on us and abducted millions of Black Africans and chained them, neck, hands and legs and made them walk bare-footed on the hot Sahara to their countries.
Thousands perished on the way. So, now Israelis who were alleged to have supplied slave ships to the slave traders, and Arabs who came down to wage war on Black Africans and capture our people as slaves, which of the two are offenders?
We, Black Africans have suffered under Whites, and Belgium can be recalled here. When Adolf Hitler killed millions of Caucasians, he is listed high as one of the most evil persons in history. Meanwhile, King Leopold of Belgium who killed tens of millions of Black Africans of Congo alone, is least mentioned. We can die, for all they care.
Black South Africa is boiling mad over Israel’s presence in the Gaza. These Black South Africans could go and kill other Black Africans in their country and deny them of their rights to what they legally owned. And here we are today, they fighting for the rights of the Gaza people. What hypocrisy.
We continued to break ties with Israel after Egypt restored relationships. We claim Israel was having relationship with Apartheid South Africa, but we never had the courage to break links with France, UK and USA who supported South Africa all through the apartheid regime and made sure that UN sanctions did not affect it.
So, what do we call ourselves? We, Black Africans do not stand up for our rights. We do not seek to defend anything Africa or African, but we seek to defend those who treat us as sub-humans.
Instead of getting up to adopt the Niger Fever and stand up for what can help us develop, and make the world respect us, as humans, we are defending those who do not regard us for anything.
Israel, when given the chance went all out to help Black Africa in many sectors including agriculture and food production. The drip irrigation founded by Israel helped us a lot, especially in the cultivation of crops in areas without adequate water. What offer has the Arabs got for us? They only treat us as if we are not humans.
On October 7, 2023, Arabs violated Israel’s rights and we did not send a word of caution to them. But when Israel returned the gesture in the only way it knows best, we are crying foul. What are the rules of the game here? A mosquito bites you and takes not more than five-millionth of a litre of your blood.
You know that small bite is lethal, so what do you do? Do you also bite the mosquito back and collect your property or you do what you know best, by smashing the mosquito to death?
Iran and some of the Arab countries have vowed to kill all Israelis in Israel and in the rest of the world. And Israel is aware of this threat and surely it knows that it cannot afford to lose a single battle against the Arabs or the nation of Israel will cease to exist.
Why won’t the Arabs make peace with Israel? Egypt, Saudi Arabia and few others are at peace with Israel, so what is stopping the rest of Arabs countries?
October 7, has come again, and the question to Black Africans is, what is our enemies’ enemy to us? Black Africans, let us think about ourselves, this is what matters most.
Hon Daniel Dugan
