A profound clash of viewpoints recently occurred at the 2006 State of Black America forum when Minister Louis Farrakhan posed a "prophetic" challenge to the timing and historical relevance of Tavis Smiley's "Covenant With Black America." After calling it "impotent" he impugned the U.S. government's honor and trustworthiness.

He then quoted Dr. Martin Luther King's metaphor that Black America might be "integrating into a burning house," and went on to say that if God set America ablaze because of endemic injustices, then who are we to try to "be firemen" to extinguish the flames - as advocated by Dr. King.

The atmosphere was never the same thereafter as subsequent panelists had little space for middle-ground, since defending the "Covenant" on one hand meant (to a degree) rationalizing America's flagrance on the other. I say that the cause of the "burning house" is the Machiavellian nature of Euro-Americans, and therefore the flames can only be extinguished through their volition to change - Not through our increased participation or commitment to Americanization.

But beyond the "Covenant" and all the verbal sparring, a greater message was cloaked and conveyed through the split applause of audience members on both sides of the argument. This duality points to a dormant political aspiration within a segment of Blacks that has long been in search of crystallizing and ascending to its rightful place among the world's respected ideologies. But having descended from a culture of enslavement, Black America has never been in the business of defining or instituting ideology. That's been a role reserved for Euro-Americans. So, up until now, there is no properly developed intellectual or political framework to transform such aspirations into a functional ideology, moreover self-government.

If you notice, it's becoming common in literature and documentaries to call slaves "African Americans" … It's like adding sugar to poison to disguise the effect. Historically however, there were countless, nameless, faceless Africans who had no aspirations whatsoever to embrace the ideology or be politically married to Americanization "til death do us part" … Nat Turner wasn't an "American" as Webster's states, and he wasn't lynched because he wanted to integrate or drink "white water." He was lynched because he fought and aspired to be free from Americanization. Joseph Cinque did not mutiny aboard the Amistad because he wanted to vote or become the first Black governor of Connecticut. He fought and aspired to be free to return to Africa. Harriett Tubman ended the Underground Railroad in the North because railroads can't cross the Atlantic.

The question was also rhetorically posed, whether any panelists were prepared to "die" for the "Covenant." I seriously doubt so. But what's interesting is when you politically calculate the sum we've received in return for the untold millions who have died. Look around the world and you'll find that people don't fight and die to integrate with those who abuse them. They do so for sovereignty to govern themselves. No other people in contemporary times have died in numbers comparable to Africans in America. Yet we are far from being a "sovereign people," as verified by the keloid scars we bear from the backlashes of pseudo-integration.

Nevertheless, the aspirations of Blacks who prefer self-government do not necessarily conflict with those who prefer Americanization. Both can theoretically coexist in principle alliance and support of the other. In fact, that should a shared goal and mutual commitment - Just like the British and Euro-Americans who likewise are one people with two distinct national identities. Together they represent two of the world's closest and strongest so-called democracies.

The notion of self-government being a "pipedream" for Blacks, as expressed by panelist Cornel West, underscores a primary difference in the psyches and political outlooks between Blacks and Euro-Americans. They have a much clearer vision and far greater ambition to amass and exert power, along with an uncompromisable resolve to lead, not follow. Unlike us, they cannot be politically appeased by anything less than self-government. And they don't check with anyone or apologize for any means they employ (slavery included) to achieve their aspirations.

I therefore contend that the notion of equality is a "pipedream." Why? Because the Euro-American establishment purposely subjects us to conditions and sub-standards that history confirms they would never tolerate themselves, that's why. Say for example, roles and conditions were hypothetically reversed, (complete with centuries of inhumanities from slavery to Katrina) you can bet they would not submit a "Covenant" to a Black government to appeal for their upliftment. In the enduring spirit of Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty (Sovereignty) or Give Me Death," they would have bombed us a long time ago … And we all know it too!

But a major psychological spillover from slavery is our distorted "sense of self-identity" of who we are, and our distorted "sense of relevance" regarding our relationship to Euro-Americans. This is typified in the example of the slavemaster who coughs and the house-slave who asks, "What's the matter master, 'we' sick?" Today this same "we" distortion exists in the flawed notion that we share some kind of special democratic bond of sameness that permanently connects us to Euro-Americans … No such bond exists, which is why even Euro-Americans themselves know that their days of "democratic dictatorship" over all Blacks are numbered.

There's nothing odd or illegitimate about Black aspirations for self-government. We have just as much right and reason to govern ourselves as any of the near-200 sovereign nations in the world. What we lack is the "strategic intellect" to institute the proper ideological and political framework necessary to transform our aspirations into self-government. In the final analysis of world politics, people without the vision, courage, and intellect to actualize sovereign aspirations are guaranteed to be perpetual political sharecroppers of those who do.

Ezrah Aharone is a Scholar of Sovereign Studies and the author of "Pawned Sovereignty: Sharpened Black Perspectives on Americanization, Africa, War and Reparations" http://www.1stbooks.com/bookview/18126. He can be reached at EzrahAharone@juno.com.

© April 2006 By Afromerica