The Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization [1] postulates three convenient truths that explain racism against global Africans. The first of these postulates is about the enslavement and displacement of Africans [1. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, which lasted from 1440 to 1833, led to the forced displacement and forced migration of an estimated 12.5 million Africans, albeit the debate continues over this estimate because of the poor record keeping at the time. Approximately 472,000 Africans are reported to have been taken to the 13 original British colonies and to the United States between 1619 and 1860. Almost 18 percent of them are noted to have perished due to disease and suicide during the Middle Passage: i.e. the leg of the slave trade between Africa and the Americas. The forced displacement and forced migration broke down self-identity and instigated its reformation or reconstruction [2-3].

The second postulate concerns the colonization of Africans—the Berlin Conference variety which started in 1885 and lasted until 1990 with Namibia’s independence and, arguably, up to now with New Caledonia under French suzerainty and Morocco’s colonization of Western Sahara or Saharawi. According to Frantz Fanon, the colonization of Africans entailed two worlds:

• The world of the European colonialist which the colonizer perceived to be a good one with value and comfort

• The world of the colonized African which the colonizer believed to be lacking value; in fact, a negation of values

Thus, as Aimé Césaire points out, the European colonizer was comfortable with brutalizing, degrading, dehumanizing and exploiting the African [4]. Despite all this, however, as Abdul Aziz Said asserts, the African “never looked to violence as an absolute line of action, but rather saw it as a useful tool because it unified diverse it unified diverse peoples. It was a cleansing force which freed the African from fear, inferiority, despair, and inaction. It restored the African’s self-respect and dignity” [5].

The third postulate has to do with the integration of Africans into a bipolar global system: i.e. the system of world order in which the majority of global economic, military and cultural influence is held between two states—in this case, the Cold War between the United States with its Western allies (the Western bloc) and the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (the Eastern bloc) that dominated the second half of the 20^th Century from 1947 to 1991. As Ali Al’Amin Mazrui delineates, as newly independent states, African countries had to seek direction for their diplomacy. The experience of conducting international relations as sovereign states was quite new to the African states, so was the notion of a foreign policy also novel to them. Non-alignment, a policy of “pragmatic non-committal,” therefore became a useful guideline for these new states. By refusing to join alliances in the early stage of their independence, and by doing similarly for the Cold War, the new African states bought themselves some time to reflect. The strategy allowed these states to establish relationships with countries in both the Eastern and Western blocs [6].

Without understating the preceding postulates as tangible and valid explanations for the persistent racism against the global African, I, nonetheless, also contend in this paper that the analysis of this phenomenon is incomplete without including the following two inconvenient truths:

• The failure to heed the call of early Pan-Africanists to establish a Union of African States 

• The existence of intra-racial discrimination and Black-on-Black violence. Therefore, utilizing the Ancient Kemetian approach of ai-[t] m’ såati (meaning the “analysis of discrimination and hypocrisy”), I demonstrate that only by analyzing both the preceding convenient and inconvenient truths can Global Africans discover the necessary African-centered answers to confront the adverse effects of the racism that has and continues to be afflicted upon them. Accordingly, rather than the catchphrase “Black Lives Matter,” which has become vacuous, I propose the Ancient Kemetian notion of neb ānkh iw neter khe-t (meaning “every life is sacred”), which found its way into the tenets of the Abrahamic faiths—i.e. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—as the precept to guide global Africans in their fight against racism. The rest of this paper discusses these aspects and ends with a conclusion

Kemetian ai-[t] and såati

The Ancient Kemtian/Egyptian ai-[t] m’ såati analytical technique allows one to discern two factors: 

• ai-[t] or discrimination—i.e. the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex

• såati or hypocrisy—i.e. the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one’s own behavior does not conform

With ai-[t], one can identify

• Prejudice leading to calamity and trouble

• Ah—prejudice leading to evil, grief, and disaster

• At—prejudice leading to loss

Vis-à-vis såati, one can tease out 

• Beq ha-t—insecurity leading to be insincere, to be deceitful, and to falter

• Såati—deceiver, cheater, trickster, swindler, and impostor

• åri em gaå—to pretend, to make oneself like someone, to feign to be someone else, and to disguise oneself (for the English translations of these terms, see Budge passim)

James Best has employed what appears to be ai-[t] to decipher evidence of racial and religious discrimination in Ancient Kemet. He focused principally on how the Kemetians perceived and treated the Nubian culture through means of propagandistic artefacts and wall depictions of the “smiting scene” [7].

Also, Joshua Seth Houston utilized what seems to be såati to demonstrate hypocrisy in Kemet of the domestication of livestock as an event that marked organized civilization; and, yet, the gods of Kemet were depicted as animals [8]. He went on to make the following observations and raise the following questions:

• The Egyptians held animals in such high esteem that no less than 176 of their hieroglyphic drawings are animal depictions. Animals in Egypt were rarely regarded as inferior to humans. In most instances, animals were considered to be superior to humans. If the gods are connected to nature and humans are superior to natural products (i.e. animals and plants), who then is really god? [8]

We find in the Abrahamic faiths similar notions of at-[tt] and såati. The Holy Torah teaches us in Genesis 1:27: “God [thus] created man with His image. In the image of God, He created him, male and female He created them.” The book also instructs us in Matthews 6:10: “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them.”

The Holy Bible educates us in Galatians 5:14: “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The book also enlightens us in Matthew 7:5: “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.”

The Holy Quran apprises us in 49:13: “We have created you all out of a male and a female, and have made you into nations and tribes, so that you might come to know one another. Verily, the noblest of you in the sight of Allah (SWT) is the one who is most deeply conscious of Him. Behold, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware.” The book also edifies us in 63:4: “And when you see them, their forms please you, and if they speak, you listen to their speech. [They are] as if they were pieces of wood propped up—they think that every shout is against them. They are the enemy, so beware of them. May Allah destroy them; how are they deluded?”

Failure to Heed the Call of Early Pan-Africanists to Establish a Union of African States

Numerous African thinkers and leaders, beginning in 1897 with Henry Sylvester William, the Father of Pan-Africanism, to Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi of Libya in 2011, have made ardent pleas for the establishment of a Union of African States. For example, as I state in my article titled “How the African Union’s Conceptualization of Global Africa 2063 Agenda Got Kwame Nkrumah Wrong: A Predictive Analytics and Behsâu-pehsa Axiomatic Assessment” that appears in the Journal of African Union Studies, Kwame Nkrumah made the call in his Africa Must Unite in 1963 and elaborated on it in his Neo-colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism in 1965. In fact, not only did Nkrumah emerge and remains as “the idol of the Pan-African movement” because of his operation as a major theoretician and political activist of the movement and for the formation of a Union of African States, he was the one who coined the name [9-10].

As I also point out in that article, Nkrumah also argued that the greatest obstacle to the unification of Africa is neocolonialism, which he characterized as a situation whereby a colonialist grants its colony independence as a disguise to adopt negative action camouflaged by giving the impression that it has been overcome by positive action. The neocolonialist foments discontent and disunity among the people of the former colony so that it can continue to serve as their conscience, will, voice, and arm. If that does not work, the neocolonialist can act like a “latter-day harpy, a monster which entices its victim with sweet music” [9] through economic and military aid, loans and investments in the former colony [11].

The failure to heed the call by early Pan-Africanists to establish a Union of African States has led to many negative consequences with effects that will last for the next 50 years if a Union of African States is not established. The following are some of the major consequences [11]:

• Data for per capita GDP for Africa were available for only 12 years. There were increases and decreases from 1985 to 2014. In short, the pattern is inconsistent. Projected for 50 years, the autocorrelations (correlations among the elements of a series and others from the same series separated from them by a given interval) for only ten years, with attendant Box-Ljung statistics (a test that determines whether any of a group of autocorrelations of a time series are different from zero) and standard errors (statistical accuracy of an estimate), were lagged for 12 total cases and 11 computable first lags. While the first three lags are positive and statistically significant at the 0.01 level, the six other lags are negative and statistically significant at both the 0.01 and 0.5 levels. The differences among the scores are statistically significant at the 0.01 level

• Labor force and unemployment data were available for only three years. The overall labor force and those for males and females separately hardly increased. In addition, the unemployment rates for all three categories hardly decreased. Projected for 50 years, the autocorrelations for only one year, with attendant Box-Ljung statistics and standard errors, were lagged for the three cases and two computable first lags for labor force and unemployment. All of the lags are negative, albeit not statistically significant at the 0.05 level. The differences among the scores for all three categories of labor force and unemployment are statistically significant at the 0.01 level. In short, the patterns for all three categories are similar. The differences among the scores for the paired samples of the male versus female labor force and unemployment rates are positive and negative, respectively, and statistically significant at the 0.01 level. In essence, there is some variation between males and females on these indicators

• Data for agricultural production were available for only nine years. Agriculture and food production increased from 1975 to 2013. The difference between the two indicators is quite insignificant. Projected for 50 years, the autocorrelations for only seven years, with attendant Box-Ljung statistics and standard errors, were lagged for nine total cases and eight computable first lags for agriculture production. While the first two lags are positive and statistically significant at the 0.01 and 0.05 level, respectively, the rest of the five lags are negative, with two statistically significant at the 0.01 and the other three not statistically significant at 0.05 level. Projected for 50 years, the autocorrelations for only seven years, with attendant Box-Ljung statistics and standard errors, were also lagged for nine total cases and eight computable first lags for food production. Just as in the case of agriculture production, while the first two lags are positive and statistically significant at the 0.01 and 0.05 level, respectively, the rest of the five lags are negative, with two statistically significant at the 0.01 and other three not statistically significant at the 0.05 level. The differences among the scores for agriculture and food production are statistically significant at the 0.01 level. In short, there is hardly any discernible difference between agriculture and food production. Differences among the scores for the paired samples of agriculture and food production are negative, although not statistically significant at the 0.05 level. Thus, the difference between the two indicators is not pronounced

• Data for patents were available for only eight years. The growth for the number of patents is not smooth for the entire period. When patents were projected for 50 years, autocorrelations for only six years, with accompanying Box-Ljung statistics and standard errors, were lagged for eighth total cases and seven computable first lags. While the first two lags are positive but not statistically significant at the 0.05 level, the four other lags are negative, with two statistically significant at the 0.05 level and the other two not statistically significant at that level. The differences among the scores for patents are statistically significant at the 0.01 level. In other words, the year-to-year variations for patents are significant

• The data for primary energy production were available for 11 years. The pattern of the growth for primary energy production is not smooth for the entire period. Projected for 50 years, the autocorrelations for only nine years, with accompanying Box-Ljung statistics and standard errors, were lagged for 11 total cases and ten computable first lags for primary energy production. While the first two lags are positive, with the first statistically significant at the 0.01 and the second statistically significant at the 0.05 level, the rest of the seven lags are negative but not statistically significant at the 0.05 level. The differences among the scores for primary energy production are positive and statistically significant at the 0.01 level. In essence, the year-to-year variations of energy production are significant

• Data for enrollments at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels were available for only six years. The gross total enrollments and the percent enrollments for females increased significantly and consistently for the former but very little and not consistently for the latter. The predictive analytics for these data is therefore focused on female enrollments at all three educational levels due to their implication for gender equality. These data cannot be paired because of their different measurements: while overall enrollments are measured in thousands, those for females are measured in percentages. When gross primary school enrollments were projected for 50 years, autocorrelations for only four years, with accompanying Box-Ljung statistics and standard errors, were lagged for six total cases and five computable first lags. The first two lags are positive but not statistically significant at the 0.05 level and the second two lags are negative and also not statistically significant at the 0.05 level. When projected for 50 years, also autocorrelations for only four years, with accompanying Box-Ljung statistics and standard errors, were lagged for six total cases and five computable first lags for female primary school enrollments. Lags 1, 2 and 3 are negative but not statistically significant at the 0.05 level and Lag 2 is positive but also not statistically significant at the 0.05 level. When projected for 50 years, likewise autocorrelations for only four years, with accompanying Box-Ljung statistics and standard errors, were lagged for six total cases and five computable first lags for gross secondary school enrollments. Again, the first two lags are positive but not statistically significant at the 0.05 level and the second two lags are negative and also not statistically significant at the 0.05 level. When projected for 50 years, once more autocorrelations for only four years, with accompanying Box-Ljung statistics and standard errors, were lagged for six total cases and five computable first lags for female secondary school enrollments. Once again, the first two lags are positive but not statistically significant at the 0.05 level and the second two lags are negative and also not statistically significant at the 0.05 level. When projected for 50 years, once again autocorrelations for only four years, with accompanying Box-Ljung statistics and standard errors, were lagged for six total cases and five computable first lags for gross tertiary school enrollments. Here, all four lags are negative, although not statistically significant at the 0.05 level. When projected for 50 years, once again autocorrelations for only four years, with accompanying Box-Ljung statistics and standard errors, were lagged for six total cases and five computable first lags for female tertiary school enrollments. Here again, all four lags are negative, albeit not statistically significant at the 0.05 level. The differences among the scores for all three categories of educational enrollments are statistically significant at the 0.01 level. In short, the patterns for all three categories are similar

        The foregoing findings do not seem to support the proposition of the African Union [12] that African countries will be amongst the best performers in global quality of life measures by 2063 [12].

Existence of Intra-racial Discrimination and Black-on-Black Violence

Intra-racial discrimination and Black-on-Black violence are so rampant that to broach the issue substantially would require volumes of books. For the sake of conciseness, I will briefly allude to the issue as it pertains to South Africa and the United States. But before doing so, I will first talk succinctly about two cases that hit home for me to show the pathos of the issue.

As some of you might have read in the newspapers or heard on television news, an 18-year old male was murdered in Northeast Washington, DC on August 9, 2020 [13]. This is an area that one would hardly expect such a murder to take place as it is where Catholic University of America, Trinity University, Howard University Theological Seminary, Saint Joseph’s Seminary, and middle to upper-middle class residents call home. The young man happened to be my nephew Richard Bangura whose father Abu Bakar Bangura and mother Mary are still emotionally devastated. Mary fainted upon hearing the news and was not able to eat for over three weeks.

Richard was not murdered by the police or the “White man,” but by two Black males. He had just graduated from the historic Paul Dunbar High School in Washington DC three weeks ago and was ready to start college two weeks ago when he was shot many times. Ironically, he had intended to study Criminal Justice so that he would one day fight for justice for our Black people within that system. While a high school student, he volunteered at the Mayor’s office (Mayor Muriel Bowser expressed her sadness on television) and the DC circuit court to prepare himself for his chosen field of study. He attended church with his mother every Sunday and did volunteer work there as well.

Also a 23-year-old Nigerian American genius, Alexander Nwogu, was murdered by Blacks males at a gas station not too far from where I live in the Northwest section of Washington DC. He graduated in May 2020 cum laude at Virginia Tech and had just been hired as a tech consultant with the very prestigious Northern Virginia firm Ernst and Young [14]. The murder of Alexander, like that of Richard, really hurt me personally. A few years ago, I gave a keynote lecture at Virginia Tech. In attendance was this young genius. In fact, he and the other members of the African Students Association at the university organized the special dinner in my honor after the lecture. The place where Alexander was murdered is in the second wealthiest section of Washington, DC where the National Zoo, embassies, the University of the District of Columbia, etc. are located. As my daughter Isatu said when she heard the news, “Dad, it could have been me because my friends and I do buy gasoline at that station.”

The Case of South Africa

South Africa’s apartheid and colonial histories introduced more fine-grained racial classifications that ushered in administrative and sociopolitical wedges between Blacks and Coloureds (mostly people of mixed heritage). The Coloureds believed that they were marginalized and trampled on during the apartheid era under White supremacist rule, and they now perceive a similar fate during the post-apartheid period under Black leaders [15].

In addition, Africans from other countries are made whipping boys for crimes, economic insecurity, and government incompetence to deliver services and have been targets of nationwide protests and shutdowns characterized by looting, mob violence, and burning of their businesses (Human Rights Watch 1). Most of the African targeted are Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Zambia, and Zimbabw [16].

This situation prompted me to write a short piece titled “Confronting the Intra-racial Victimization and Violence in South Africa” on the LinkedIn website on September 15, 2019. I expressed that for starters, we must eschew calling the attacks on Blacks by other Blacks in South Africa Xenophobia (which originates from “Ancient Greek: ξένος, Romanized: xénos, meaning ‘stranger’ or ‘foreigner,’ and phóbos, meaning ‘fear’” refers to the fear of that which is perceived to be foreign or strange) and call them what they are: i.e. intra-racial discrimination and Black-on-Black violence. I noted that I am afraid of black mamba snakes, but I do not go to the forest looking for them to kill them.

Next, I pointed out that since at least Julius Malema is sincerely addressing the intra-racial victimization and violence being perpetrated against non-South African Blacks in South Africa, we will give his initiative an opportunity to succeed. But, should the blatant victimization and violence continue, and the top national and local government leaders remain oblivious, we would be left with no other choice than to mobilize for massive protests at the South African Embassy in Washington, DC and boycotts against South Africa across the United States. We will work with other activists in Sweden and other African countries to do the same.

Also, I stated that South Africans need to be informed that while some of us did not get the accolades, and that was not our objective, we were instrumental in the protest movement against the apartheid regime. As I made the addendum during my address after Moeletsi Mbeki (brother of President Thabo Mbeki) spoke at a specially-invited symposium convened at Boston University in Massachusetts that included top United States government officials and leading Black scholars in the United States some years ago, it was my students at Howard University and American University who started the anti-apartheid protest movement that was later taken over by Randall Robinson and his TransAfrica Forum. At Stockholms Universitet in Sweden, it was activist students like Dennis Dean-Sie and I who launched protest activities that propelled Prime Minister Olof Palme to get his country to become, as I recount in my book titled Sweden versus Apartheid: Putting Morality Ahead of Profit, the first Western nation to apply sanctions against the apartheid regime and fund the African National Congress (ANC).

In addition, I asserted that we need to remind South Africans that Zimbabweans and citizens of many other frontline states were continuously bombed by apartheid troops, Angolans and Cubans sacrificed their lives at the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale to expose the veneer of apartheid troops’ invincibility, most African states suffered economic losses from sanctions against the apartheid regime, many African countries as recorded by Madiba Tatamkhulu Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela in his Long Walk to Freedom memoir contributed money and military hardware to the ANC, many colleges and universities across Africa offered free education and other financial support to Black South African students, Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the United States offered scholarships to Black South African students, Caribbean countries placed sanctions against and boycotted the apartheid regime in many spheres, etc. so that Blacks in South Africa can gain the freedom they now enjoy.

The Case of the United States

That intra-racial or color-based discrimination, which involves discrimination by a member of one race against a member of the same race because of a difference in skin color between the two [17], is rampant among Blacks in the United States is hardly a matter of dispute. Lighter shin Blacks, who are more favored than darker skin Blacks, discriminate against the latter. We see this in sororities, employment, the field of entertainment, advertising, etc. In addition, having lived in the United States for four decades and been on many panels on the subject of African and African American Relations, I can attest that many African Americans do not like continental Africans and vice versa. The former blame the latter for their ancestors having enslaved their ancestors, coming to America to take their jobs, being favored by Whites for success, etc. The latter believe that the former are lazy, violent, prefer to collect welfare payments rather than work, etc. In fact, many African Americans, even prominent ones, feel no affinity for Africa. For instance, Author Keith Richburg of The Washington Post wrote in his book titled Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa and spoke on many television and radio shows that he was “Thankful for slavery for allowing him through his ancestors to escape the calamities in Africa” [18]. Also, Florida State Representative Kimberly Daniels said publicly that “If it wasn’t for slavery, I might be somewhere in Africa worshipping a tree” [19]. These stereotypes serve only the appetite of the dominant group in the United States.

Nonetheless, one sees unbridled Black-on-Black violence in the United States. As I indicate in our forthcoming book titled Black Lives Matter versus All Lives Matter: A Multidisciplinary Primer, for example, for the year 2016 (the year for which complete data are available), the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reports that of the 2,870 Blacks that were murdered, 2,570 were done by other Blacks [20]: i.e. almost 90%.

Also, from January 1 to November 10, 2020, we have had 172 homicides in Washington, DC compared to 145 for the whole of 2019 (Metropolitan Police Department 1). That is 27 or 19% more than the whole of last year and we have over a month to go. And, the worst thing is that all of the homicides have been committed by Blacks and all of the victims have been us Blacks. The DC population of 720,687 is comprised of 45.5% Black or African American, 42.2% White (36.9% Non-Hispanic White and 5.3% Hispanic White), 3.9% Asian, 4.4% Some Other Race, 0.3% Native American and Alaskan Native, 0.1% Pacific Islander and 3.6% from two or more races [21].

In Prince Georges County, which is the richest Black county in America and should be the exemplar of Black success, the Black population there is 65%. Yet, 80% of the inmate population is Black. From January to July of this year alone, there have been 68 murders in that county; 66 were committed by us Blacks on Blacks and two were committed by Hispanics [22]. We see the same pattern in Chicago, which is the most notorious, Baltimore, Richmond, and other cities with majority Black populations across the United States.

The Vacuity of the Black Lives Matter Slogan

To begin with, on the one hand, some proponents of Black Lives Matter advocate the use of “non-violent civil disobedience” and others do not eschew violence as an approach to protest against police brutality and other racially-motivated violence against Blacks. In essence, Black Lives Matter activists proffer a contradictory message when they utter their slogan and at the same time they say that it is time to kill police officers. The message is illogical in that it generalizes all police officers as being bad while these activists also insist that police officers should not to generalize all of them as being bad [23].

Next, the Black Lives Metter movement preaches “exclusivity” because its focus is solely on African Americans. Thus, the catchphrase Black Lives Matter itself is immanently racially divisive as it focuses only on injustices against Blacks, as opposed to everyone [24].

Also, the “in-your-face” tactics of Black Lives Matter activists are “disrespectful” and “ineffective.” This new crop of activists fails to realize that they must work with political leaders in order to get them to make reforms; instead, all they do is to “disrupt” and “make noise.” Also, the Black Lives Matter movement as having a polarizing effect on society, especially because it eschews dissent and its members are quick to disparage White politicians who say that “all lives matter” [25].

In addition, the Blacks Lives Matter movement makes male victims of police brutality the center of attention while marginalizing female victims. A support of this claim is that more protest rallies have been organized for the police murders of Trayvon Martin and Michael Martin compared to those for Rekia Boyd and Kayla Moore [26].

Furthermore, financial transparency is another aspect for which the Black Lives Matter movement can be faulted. The crux of this criticism centers on the fact that the organization does not disclose the activities on which it spends the millions of dollars in contributions it has received and how much. This situation has led many observers to accuse the organization of donating money to the Democratic National Committee and other liberal organizations and causes [27].

Moreover, the Black Lives Matter movement ignores the issue of intra-racial or Black-on-Black violence. This matter is critical because, as I had shown earlier, Blacks are likely to be killed hundreds of times more by other Blacks than by police officers. Hence, it behooves me to ask the following poignant question: Should Black Lives Matter only when Blacks are killed by police officers?

Of course, as to be expected, there are scholars who have offered counterpoints to what I have tendered here. For example, Professor James T. Gire argues that the issues of Black Lives Matter and Black-on-Black violence are not mutually exclusive. The fact that one is opposed to the brutal killings of Black people by the police in no way suggests that s/he condones Black-on-Black violence. Many Black people, and an overwhelming number of Black people he says, including himself, are outraged and anguished by both the wanton killings of Black people by the police and the killings of Black people by their fellow kin. There are many reasons why there is more organized outrage about police killings of Blacks; but for the sake of brevity, he enumerates a few. First, the police are paid by our tax dollars to serve and protect. When they fail in that duty, they should be held accountable. Second, most of these people who kill fellow Black people are criminals who, for the most part, vanish into wherever their hideouts are. It is more difficult to organize protests against unknown criminals who disappear from the scene of their carnage. The job of the police should be to help bring them out from such hidden places, so that they can be brought to justice. It is doubly tragic if they end up “piling on” a people who are already in dire straits [28].

Gire adds that he knows of no one who thinks that Black people who kill their own should be commended or be left alone. He finds it incomprehensible to suggest that because Black people kill their own, we should therefore turn a blind eye to the same treatment by the police. He adds that it is almost as if, at the peak of the carnage in Rwanda, another nation chose to attack Rwanda and upon protesting such an attack, Rwandans were told that they were already killing their own and, thus, lost any right to protest [28].

Gire conclude that a person needs not do everything that s/he finds to be worth fixing. Those who are championing the Black lives matter have chosen their cause to protest unwarranted killings of Black people by the police. Others can choose to focus on Black-on-Black killings. Those choosing to focus on the police cannot and should not condemn those focusing on Blacks killing fellow Blacks, but neither should the latter vilify the former either. Yet, another group might focus on alleviating poverty, promoting education, creating business opportunities, and so forth. People like Magic Johnson are trying on the economic front. We should not expect them to also address all the other ills in the Black community [28].

Indeed, Black Lives Matter! Nonetheless, I must now ask why are we thoroughly outraged when a police officer murders a Black person, but we are not equally outraged when we murder one another many hundred times more than the police do? Where are the Al Sharptons? And, I don’t want to hear the socioeconomic explanation because when I drive across this country and see what are referred to as “Po White Trash Living in Trailer Parks,” I do not see them nurdering one another like we do to ourselves. Even more outrageous is that we murder even our toddlers and pregnant women, and at peace picnics and community block parties. And, we are more Satanic in killing our transgender Black women, an act that has become a national epidemic.

Kemetian neb ānkh iw neter khe-t

In light of the vacantness of the Black Lives Matter mantra, I suggest in its place the Ancient Kemetian neb ankh inAxy, meaning “Every Life is Sacred.” This Kemetian belief denotes 

• neb—everyone

• ankh—life, to live, to live upon something, all prosperity, all health, joy of heart, a formula of good wishes which follows each mention of the king’s name in documents: e.g., “life and content forever”

• inAxy—revered, revered one, reverence

• neter khe-t or akh-t neter—sacrosanct, the property of God, sacred book, book of temple services

• āa sheps—most holy, most august

• uāb—holy, to be innocent, guiltless, to be clean, to be purified, to be ceremonially pure and clean, to purify, to purify oneself, a cleansing, clean, to wash clean, pure

• shepsi—holy, to be noble, venerable, honored

• s-tcheser—to sanctify, to beautify (for the English translations of these words, see Budge passim)

In addition, among the 42 “Ideals of Ma’at of the Temple of Isis: A Positive Confession for the Present Day” is the fifth Ideal that “I affirm that all life is sacred”. Also, Hany Elgabry educates us about Ma’at as follows:

• Ma’at is the ancient Kemetian goddess of truth, justice, harmony, and balance…who first appeared during the period known as the Old Kingdom (2613–2181 BCE) but no doubt existed in some form earlier. She is depicted in anthropomorphic form as a winged woman, often in profile with an ostrich feather on her head, or simply as a white ostrich feather. The feather of Ma’at was an integral part of the Weighing of the Heart of the Soul ceremony in the afterlife where the heart of the soul of the dead person was weighed in the scales of justice against the feather” [29].

Furthermore, the Holy Torah and the Holy Bible, we learn from Genesis 9:8-10, for example, that “All life is sacred” and that human life is especially so. Protecting it is of utmost importance to God. God takes this so seriously and personally because God made humanity to reflect Him. We are God’s earthly representatives, made in His image. To murder another person is to mount an attack on God who created that person.

Moreover, in the Holy Qur’an, we learn from Surah Al-Isra 17:70 that Allah (SWT) said: “We have certainly dignified the children of Adam and carried them on the land and sea and provided for them of the good things and preferred them over much of what We have created with definite preference.” Thus, Islam guarantees the right of life for every human being, whether the person is a Muslim (meaning simply a believer in God) or non-Muslim (non-believer in God). Every human life is sacred in Islam and every person has been granted God-given fundamental and universal rights at the time of his/her birth.

Kwame Nkrumah in his Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for De-colonization expressed the following:

•   It is my opinion that when we study a philosophy which is not ours, we must see it in the context of the intellectual history to which it belongs, and we must see it in the context of the milieu in which it was born. That way, we can use it in the furtherance of cultural development and in the strengthening of our human society [30]

• Given the evidence I have presented in the preceding sections and the observation in the preceding excerpt, Africans across the globe must heed Nkrumah’s clarion call. And, indeed, Africa need not wait any longer to unite if it is to be able to deal with the vagaries of the current era of globalization and prosper

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