African nations triumphed over the rampant European colonialism system that devastated the entire continent for over a century. Only in 1994, however, was the last African country, South Africa relieved after decades of an apartheid regime its nation suffered from. In Africa, the scare of apartheid is still fresh and it takes longer to heal from the hard-to-remove consequences of colonialism. For one, direct colonialism has ended, but indirect colonialism is perpetuated. And, most importantly, Africans see the same humanity keeps suffering from unabated real colonialism across the Red Sea, Palestine. Who could, thus, talk about the ugliness and ultimate removal of colonialism wherever and under what sentiment it exists on the planet? And, no one dares to question Africa’s children’s support to any humankind who keeps resisting colonialism. A free Africa will never shy from calling for a free Palestine and strengthening support for the cause. This is important because Africa looks at its near past and gets compelled to morally and historically choose to side with the Palestinians as Madiba once said ‘‘ true today as they were then.’’
The Genesis of the sustained alliance for the shared grievance
The Afro-Palestine natural alliance to say a big no to and fight against colonialism goes back to the 20th Century. In both the African and Palestinian cases there occurred an invasion and destruction of indigenous society that resulted in a settler-dominated society exogenous to the subsequent lands. Despite their freedom, for decades now the continent’s nations' support and their collective solidarity for the Palestinian cause have been proven steady, mainstream, and unwavering.
In the lead-up to the beginning of the First World War, European powers controlled all but the entire geography of the African continent. This also marked the formation of the world’s last colony in Palestine by the same European forces that equipped a Zionist initiative for a Jewish state with the development of the Balfour Declaration in 1917. The 1922 resolution of the League of Nations (the predecessor of the United Nations) mandated Great Britain to rule Palestine which cleared the way for the Zionism movement to establish a settler colony. The barbaric measures the European colonists put in place to control and exploit Africa were transferred to the Palestine lands, of which some 94 percent they inhabited and owned, leading eventually to the catastrophic erection of the state of Israel in 1948.
This Zionist colonization of Palestine with the proactive role and support of the Western Powers, Africa’s ex-colonizers, generated the genesis for a perpetual alignment of the broader African against shared grievance. Over the last seven decades, African nations have kept standing by the oppressed and fighting against the very cause they defeated in their homeland but continued in the homeland of the Palestinians.
Africa’s Continued Support to Palestine
A little over 20 years into the twenty-first century and 75 years the state of Israel existed on illegally occupied territories, the Palestinians keep living under a ruthless apartheid regime and a colonialist country. The Palestinians are under existential danger driven by the militarized Zionist ideology and incremental genocidal measures of the state of Israel.
More than 93 percent of the land is under Israel’s illegal occupation and exclusively for Jews. Palestinians are legally banned from building new homes, new settlements, and are not allowed to expand cities under Israel’s control and beyond. And no secret has now it become that the ultimate objective of the Israeli forces is to push the Palestinians from the enclaves to neighboring Arab countries ostensibly due to the conflict but later to put a ban on the right to return, a policy Israel puts in place since 1948 practicing hitherto.
Two points suffice to explain the Nations’ unwavering solidarity and tangible support for the Palestinian cause, a free and independent state of Palestine. Why Africa’s further support is important?
First, it is the very force that defeated colonialism. Africa represents a single giant bloc that suffered from and eventually annihilated colonialism irreversibly. For Africans, the Palestinian cause means the continuation of the same battle against an old enemy but on another geography. The persuasion is that a victory at home should bring a viable and lasting victory abroad, for the same fellow humankind has for decades been oppressed by sustained colonization.
For Palestinians on the other hand that gives them hope and moral support coming from a victorious Africa. Such support reenergizes the colonized Palestinians and strengthens them to resist the barbaric apartheid practices being committed by settler colonists. More importantly, this instills an unshakable belief both in Africa and beyond that ultimately Palestine shall also be free.
Second Africa’s support is a force that features a struggle against powerful and massively armed actors experienced in oppression. Back then Africans were fighting with poorly equipped weapons against powerful Europeans who were armed with endless weapons with advanced technologies. This mirrors the Palestinian ongoing struggle against the hugely armed occupying force.
However, the battleground in the 21st century comprises both the armed struggle and the war in the virtual world particularly in the media. As technology advances and has not become a tool that only a few powerful controls, the support coming from actors such as Africa is paramount. As the world keeps observing what has been unfolding since the latest conflict on October 7 the world shows a significant increase in support for the Palestinians.
Palestine’s endurance rewards freedom no matter what as Africa
Africans endured the inhuman oppression of the Europeans that began in the 1880s under the Scramble for Africa that installed the systematic exploitation project of colonialism which ended only in the 20th century. The lengthy endurance that coupled with the generational fight against the oppressive system rewarded Africans with freedom. Currently, the continent renews its solidarity for the Palestinian sacred cause and it never stops calling for a free Palestine. Africa’s freedom against white oppressors is not complete until Palestine is free from the same settler-colonists.
The sun of colonialism will inevitably set in Palestine too and the Palestinians’ endurance shall reward them with an independent, sovereign, and prosperous Palestine no matter what. Indicators that point to the due realization of the liberation from the shackles of oppressive apartheid regime are rising by the day. The world, more than any other time, has shown ever-increasing solidarity for the Palestinians since the Balfour Declaration suffering from non-stop killings to take their lands and wipe them out.