Economics and Afrikan Nationalism, Dr. Amos Wilson

Economics and Afrikan Nationalism, Dr. Amos Wilson
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Economics and Afrikan Nationalism,
Dr. Amos N. Wilson
Blueprint for Black Power: A Moral, Political, and Economic Imperative for the
Twenty-First Century
Blueprint for Black Power details a master plan for the power revolution
necessary for Black survival in the 21st century. Blueprints posit that
an African American/Caribbean/ Pan-African bloc would be most
potent for the generation and delivery of Black power in the United
States and the World to counter White and Asian power networks.
Wilson frames this imperative by deconstructing the U.S. elite power
structure of government, political parties, think tanks, corporations,
foundations, media, interest groups, banking and foreign investment
particulars. Potentially strong Black institutions such as the church,
media and think tanks; industry; collectives such as investment clubs
and credit unions; rotating credit associations such as Afrikan-
originated esusu, tontine and partner are analyzed. Pan-Afrikanism,
Black Nationalism, ethnocentrism and reparation are assessed, often
misused and underused financial institutions such as securities, mutual
funds, stocks, bonds, underwriting, and incubators are advocated, thus
elucidating oft-negated opportunities for economic empowerment.
Extracts from Chapter 1| WHAT IS POWER
"The oppressed and downtrodden, having been traumatized by the abuse of power by
their powerful oppressors, often comes to perceive power itself as inherently evil, as by
nature corrupting and therefore as something to be eschewed, denied and renounced.
The pursuit of power is viewed as unworthy of virtuous persons, and the desire to
possess it as sinful. Therefore, many among the powerless and poor feel compelled to
find in their powerlessness and poverty the emblematic signs of their Godliness and
redemptive salvation. How convenient a precept for rationalizing and maintaining the
power of the haves over the have-nots! As the result of their ideological manipulation by
the powerful and their own reactionary misperception of reality, the poor and powerless

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have been made to perceive the pursuit, possession and application of power in their
own behalf as unbecoming to themselves. This is even more the case when through
their naïve acceptance of the self-serving deceptive propaganda perpetrated by the
powers-that-be, their own reactionary self-negation, and their nursing of their internalized
inferiority complexes, the poor huddled masses perceive the possession and exercise
of power as the inherent and exclusive prerogative of the ruling classes or races." "To a
significant degree Afrikan Americans accept and obey predominant White American power
and its authorities (at least from social-psychological standpoint) because they agree with
the rules of their establishment and expression as defined by White Americans; share
with White Americans the moral, legal, and other values and perspectives which justify
them; and to some extent (limited and of recent origin) because they, i.e., Blacks, have
been permitted by White Americans to participate in political and social processes by
which White power is given legitimacy. To a limited degree, Afrikan Americans have
been permitted access to certain positions of competent and legitimate authority. These
factors contribute mightily to their acceptance of White American power (domination) and
the White American monopoly of positions of authority as legitimate. These forms of
giving consent to the social power status quo on the part of Blacks help to obscure as
well as deny the fact that they are in fact a dominated and severely exploited group
(regardless of class); and helps to obscure the fact that their uncritical acceptance of the
'rules,' moral beliefs, perspectives, and their customary-traditional participation in the
'American (White) political-economic process and system is tantamount to the legitimating
of their own oppression and to the consensual insurance of their own powerlessness.
Rules, beliefs and consent are manufactured by those in power to justify, legitimate and
serve their interests. In its origins White American power was not legitimated (i.e.,
voluntarily or contractually consented to, morally justified or politically-socially ratified) by
Afrikan Americans who at the time of its origination were held in captivity (slavery) and
to this point in time have been largely excluded from significantly participating in American
legitimating processes. From the historical point of view of Native and Afrikan
Americans, White power, in whatever form, is illegitimate. This is because such power
rests essentially on the near physical and genocidal decimation of Native Americans,
the theft of their

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properties, on the exploitation or forced labor (enslavement) of Afrikans, and on the
systematic exclusion by Whites of both Black and Native Americans from the influential
exercise of practically all forms of 'legitimate' power and authority in the United States.
The rules and beliefs which provide the means for legitimating White power were in fact
pre-established, preordained and imposed on Blacks against their will by Whites from
the beginning. The illegitimacy of White American power is founded on the illegitimacy
of its original sins--genocide, theft of property, and enslavement." "For social power to
be exercised effectively the power holder must possess or control some important or
valued material and/or social resource(s) which is the basis of his power. By
strategically rewarding or depriving others of these resources, he may use them to
influence behavior in ways compatible with his interests. Resources when used for such
ends are referred to as power bases or resources. Power bases or resources may
include physical safety, health and well-being, wealth and material possessions; jobs
and means to a livelihood; knowledge and social skills; social recognition, status and
prestige; love, affection, social acceptability; a satisfactory self-image and self-respect…
We have no intentions to review the quite sizable number of possible power bases here.
We shall constrain ourselves to brief, but pertinent, discussions of those power
resources which are of important relevance to Afrikan Americans and the power relations
between them and European Americans. These power resources include property,
organization, race consciousness and ideology. We do not include state politics in our
discussion at this juncture because in the context of contemporary Afrikan American
social, political and economic culture and the more basic issues it must resolve,
state politics is of secondary importance to the Black community. Black politics and
activism without the Black ownership of and control over primary forms and bases of
power such as property, wealth, organization, etc., is the recipe for Black political and
non-political powerlessness.
The rather obtuse pursuit of political office and the ballot box as primary sources of
power by the Black community and its politicians without its concomitant ownership of
and control over important resources has actually hindered the development of real
Black power in America. More ominously, there appears to be a paradoxical and positive
correlation between the number of Blacks elected and appointed to high office

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and retrogressions in the civil and human rights extended to Black Americans during the
past twenty years. Increases in homelessness, poverty, unemployment, criminality and
violence in the Black community; disorganization of the traditional Black family,
inadequacies in education, increases in health problems of all types, and a host of other
social and political ills have all attended increases in the number of Black elected and
appointed officials. That is, the more elected and appointed Black politicians, the more
social, economic problems the Black community has suffered. While we are not implying
a causal relationship between the increase of the number of Black appointed and
elected officials and the increased misery indices of the Black community, we are
implying or asserting that their increase obscures those things which are responsible for
and do little to ameliorate or uproot the increasing prevalence of social and economic
problems in the Black community. The community's concern with the election and
appointment of Black political figures helps it to maintain false hopes that their
attainment of office will significantly resolve its problems. The activities of Black
politicians, given the current inadequacy of social organization and economic resources,
harmfully distract the Black community's attention from recognizing and eradicating the
true causes of its problems and the remediation of its powerlessness." "The
responsibility of the Afrikan American community is to ensure Afrika's economic
development. The ignoring of Afrika by the Western nations provide windows of
opportunity open to native Afrikans to drastically reduce the massive outflow or flight of
capital, which has been estimated to exceed 80 percent of the Gross Domestic Product,
and to reinvest it in their own countries. Afrikan peoples and nations across the Diaspora
must apprise themselves of a full, ongoing knowledge of the social, economic and
cultural history of Afrikan nations as well as their contemporary status and reorganize
their sociocultural and economic structures so as to initiate and fuel continental Afrika's
growth and development. The Afrikan American community, especially, should vastly
overhaul and reconstruct its educational orientation toward knowledge of the
Motherland. It must realize that its own economic salvation is coterminous with or tied
to that of Afrika's. It must invest money and human resources in Afrika's development
and perceive its economic prosperity as its special responsibility and mission. The
Afrikan American community must become vigilantly and jealously

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interested in U.S. and European policies toward Afrika and seek to influence those
policies in both its own and Afrika's favor."
DR. AMOS WILSON NATIONHOOD QUOTES
No Black person has ever been taught to think
like ―White Folks‖. If you thought like Whites, you
would want your own nations, to control your own
neighborhoods, to control your own economy, to
have your own military, to control the resources
in your own ground. Blacks come out of these
schools and universities to be highly educated
servants, slaves not in control of their own
destiny. You would want to remove them from
power. Knowledge must be wielded to a sense of
purpose, people-hood and destiny. Then it
becomes protective of your survival as a people.
It is measured by how it protects your survival as
a people, nationhood. Change your mind, your consciousness and change your
circumstances. See your consciousness in terms of its Afrikaness, its life enhancing
benefits, its consequences for your survival and goals as a people, measured in terms
of its characteristics, what it must acquire. You must have certain intentions to do this.
These intentionalities are the intent to be truly free, truly self-determining, to create
prosperity for yourself and people, to be able to protect your interests by any means
necessary, to stop depending on white folk for your life, job and well-being. Your mind
will generate what you need when you give it a goal or purpose. If you want to develop
an Afrikan-centered curriculum, start by asking ―What problems must we solve as an
Afrikan people? Our problems include the problem of being dominated, not controlling
our nations, being poor in the midst of affluence. What goals do we want to reach?
What quality of life do we want to enjoy? What kind of people must we become in order
to solve the problems that we must solve as a people? What kind of attitudes,

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relationships toward ourselves, one another, and Europeans/Asians/Arabs? What
institutions must we develop so that we can act in terms of our interests? What kind of
social and educational experiences must we expose ourselves and young to become
the kind of people we need to become to solve the problems we need to solve? Unless
education, politics and economics are designed to solve our problems as a people they
are pointless. What kind of education and knowledge and information and skills and so
forth must we develop so that we can build the institutions, develop the relationships,
attitudes to be the people we need to be? Then work from there to look at your
developmental psychology. In what ways do we grow and develop? At what point are
we most ready to undergo particular kinds of experiences, so that we can match those
experiences, with the developmental readiness of ourselves so we can maximize the
kind of growth we need? We are only free in this country to do the wrong things. We say
freedom is being able to do what we want to do-but ask yourself- What makes you want
to do a thing? Your wants and desires have been induced. What we want and desire
maintain the system of domination and destroy us as a people. Our problems, behavior
etc. have a political and economic function. We are ―alienated‖ so we can serve aliens.
Our alienated psychology shows that we are controlled from outside. This state of
alienation is functional for European/Asian/Arab power. Equality. Equality with whom?
With enslavers and exploiters. Or do we want a new social system different from the
current one. This is a moral issue and should have been debated and deliberated by the
Black community. The ―Civil Rights Movement‖ [NAACP, CORE, etc.] was founded on
faulty moral premise of ―Equality of opportunity and results. You must know who and
what you are as a people. Question all that you have accepted as right and true. Your
time given to certain tasks in your curriculum is determined by your culture and history.
If you say you suffer from low self-esteem, etc. then give time to that in the curriculum.
Failure to do this causes Black children to be destroyed by the time system in these
schools and universities, which are set up to deal with the problems of
Whites/Asians/Arabs.
Familiarly referred to as Brother Amos, he provided the average person with an acute
analysis of where we are and the things that affect us. He served as a council to
energize our race and those in positions of influence as to how to carry out their

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leadership responsibilities. Dr. Wilson's activities transcended academia into the fields
of business, owning and operating various enterprises in the greater New York area.
"When we get into social amnesia - into forgetting our history - we also forget or misinterpret the
history and motives of others as well as our motives. The way to learn
of our own creation, how we came to be what we are, is getting to
know ourselves. It is through getting to know the self intimately that
we get to know the forces that shaped us as a self. Therefore knowing
the self becomes knowledge of the world. A deep study of Black
History is the most profound way to learn about the psychology of
Europeans and to understand the psychology that flows from their
history. If we don't know ourselves, not only are we a puzzle to
ourselves; other people are also a puzzle to us as well. We assume
the wrong identity and identify ourselves with our enemies. If we don’t
know who we are then we are whomever somebody tells us we are.
"The Falsification of Afrikan Consciousness," Afrikan World InfoSystems, New York, 1993 p. 38
This book presents two groundbreaking lectures by Amos Wilson. The first, European
Historiography and Oppression Exposed: An Afrikan Perspective and Analysis, was
among the first contemporary analyses which delineated the role Eurocentric history
writing plays in rationalizing European oppression of Afrikan consciousness. It
explicates why we should study history, how history-writing shapes the psychology of
peoples and individuals, how Eurocentric history as mythology creates historical
amnesia in Afrikans in order to rob us of the material, mental, social and spiritual
wherewithal for overcoming poverty and oppression. Moreover, these engrossing
lectures provide information on the relationship between the rediscovery and rewriting of
Afrikan history and achievement of liberation and prosperity by Afrikan peoples. The
second lecture, Eurocentric Political Dogmatism: Its Relationship to the Mental Health
Diagnosis of Afrikan People advances the contention that the alleged mental and
behavioral maldaptiveness of oppressed Afrikan peoples is a political-economic

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necessity for the maintenance of White domination and imperialism. Furthermore, it
indicts the Eurocentric mental health establishment for entering into collusion with the
Eurocentric political establishment to oppress and exploit Afrikan peoples by officially
sanctioning these egregious practices through its misdiagnosing, mislabeling, and
mistreating of Afrikan peoples’ behavioral reactions to our oppression and our efforts to
win our freedom and independence.
Dr. Amos Wilson’s Last Interview (1995)
―All of us may not live to see the higher accomplishments of an African empire, so
strong and powerful as to compel the respect of mankind, but we in our lifetime can so
work and act as to make the dream a possibility within another generation.‖ — Marcus
Garvey
Dr. Amos Wilson died in 1995 under mysterious
circumstances. Few understand how he died; yet the method
appears similar to Dr. Khalid Muhammad’s death. Both were
warriors for the African race. Dr. Amos Wilson asked: ―Why
does the Black man say, ―Freedom is doing what I want to
do!‖ and why it is that everything he ―wants to do‖ enriches
the European?‖ In light of Marcus Garvey’s quotation
(1920s), in light of Carter G. Woodson’s statements (1930s),
but also in light of Ibn Battuta statement on our excellence
(1300s) our work will reward us. The African Blood Siblings has pointed out the North
Star. It’s time to point it out to others. This is how so many of our ancestors liberated our
ancestors.
It’s Dr. Amos Wilson’s last interview. …He was writing “Blueprint for Black Power”
(order from an African-owned store here) and they killed him but the ideas
live on and Black Power is ours. ..

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RAW: Now you have raised the possibility of genocide before in books such as Black-
on-Black Violence. Could you briefly talk about how Black-on-Black crime serves white
supremacy by playing a role in our own genocide?
WILSON: Well, what we are experiencing in the African American community is not just
confined to America. You’ll find this experience in the Caribbean, in Africa, wherever
you have large populations of Black people. You go to Brazil Black children are being
shot in the streets; people just get in their cars and shoot Black children. You will find
this sort of thing going on in Uruguay. A lot of us don’t realize that there are large
populations of Black People in Central America and South America. Africa is suffering
tremendously. You can even look the millions of Blacks in Europe. We are finding that
there is a general oppression of Black people across the globe as the global economic
system reorganizes itself, and reorganizes itself in a way to leave Blacks out of the
global economic system, just as they are being left out of domestic economic systems.
What you’re getting here when it comes back to Black-on-Black violence are reactions
to the dynamic economic changes. You’ve got a lot of people who want to lay all of this
on family values and the absence of old time religion and things of this nature. And
while that’s a part of the mix, you cannot just blame this all on the loss of family values.
People don’t eat values, you know. You have to actually work; you have to feed your
family. There are concrete material things that people have to have. The mere training
of people in family values is not going to solve this problem. As a matter of fact, when
you transform people’s material position in the world, you transform their values. So a
part of transformation of the values that we complain about is a result of the
transformation of the concrete living conditions of Black people. The key to
understanding the relationship that Black-on-Black crime has to white supremacy and
genocide is knowing the context in which the problem occurs. Too often people want to
talk about the problems that exist in the Black community as if they are unconnected to
everything else going on in the country. This is a terrible mistake in analysis. You have
to begin with the political and economic context in which a people exist in order to begin
to understand their behavior. When Blacks commit violence against other Blacks, they’re
committing it within a certain political economic context. Violent acts are social acts.
We may call them anti-social, but they are still social, whether anti- or pro-, which

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means that they have to do with the nature of relationships between people. That’s what
we mean when we use the word social. If we are to understand the social relationship of
Blacks to whites and to the social and political system in which we exist. When we look
at this system under which we exist as Black people, we’ll see a connection between it
and the kind of behavior the Black community is undergoing at this particular time.
RAW: So you’re saying that the rising tide of Black-on-Black crime is a direct result of
the position of powerlessness that we currently occupy vis-a-vis the restructuring global
economy?
WILSON: Yes, to a very great extent. We don’t think of crime as serving a social
function. Some people’s negative behavior serves the interest of other people. For
instance, Black children dropping out of school serves the interests of other people’s
children, who then don’t have Black people to compete against. Our dropping out
becomes a service to those who then can enter the positions for which we are no longer
in competition…. As a matter of fact, during the first reconstruction, Blacks were robbed
of the 40 acres and a mule promised them by the U.S. government as part of the
REPARATIONS for slavery. A lot of people think that’s just a myth; but that was an
actual act of Congress. This would have given Blacks an economic leg up, an economic
independence which would have served as a platform for our political independence as
well…. the white planter recognized that if you gave Black people this kind of land, they
would not be able to use them in the cotton fields; they wouldn’t be able to profit from
their destitution. It’s important to understand how you actually create poverty in a people
so that you can use their services. You strip them of everything; therefore, they become
utterly dependent upon you, and you use their dependency as a means of creating your
own wealth and power. Black people aren’t poor by accident. This serves the interest of
somebody. The energy that we put into hurting each other is the energy that we can’t
use to compete against other people. The stereotypes of Black-on-Black crime serve as
a justification for other people to take advantage of us. But in a deeper sense, it serves
to hide the criminality of whites. It makes us think that whites in America are not
criminals and have not created a criminal.

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RAW: Now is it not true that numerically and statistically, whites commit more violent
crimes than Blacks?
WILSON: Definitely, just as there are more whites on welfare. Because of the media,
you are lead to believe that Blacks are the only ones on welfare. But whites get far more
money out of the U.S. government. Most of the money distributed by the U.S.
government is paid to middle class white folks and upper-class white folks while we are
made to believe that it is the poor Blacks and the people on welfare that are getting the
bulk of the money from the federal government. You see, a service is performed there.
While the white upper class robs the nation of its wealth, and even robs the white
middle class, the elites point to Blacks as the ones who are bankrupting America. This
is why you get image after image of Blacks on welfare, Blacks on crime. Those images
serve the interest of those who are taking advantage of the system and want to hide
how and what they are doing to the system. Our so-called criminality, our so-called
being on welfare serves a useful political and economic purpose in the society.‖
RAW: In your book, The Falsification of African Consciousness, you write about the
critical role that history plays in developing the consciousness of a people. Could you
elaborate on how knowledge of our true history can help us to overcome the myriad of
problems facing us?
WILSON: Those who do not study history will repeat it. We’re talking about the first and
second Reconstruction repeating itself. What I find interesting is the attitude that we in
America have toward history, the belief that history is mere recapitulation of dates and
times. Some people actually believe that history is unimportant in academic life or the
life of a people. But one of the things that brings the importance of history to mind very
quickly is when you try to teach Black History in schools, watch the objection you et to
teaching Black history and culture. If history were so unimportant and meaningless, why
is it that we have such strong opposition to the teaching of African history and culture?
Why is it that the powers that be define how history is taught and what history will be
taught? It’s because they know intrinsically that history defines who we are. We are
history. We cannot live in the future – the future is always in front of us. And the present
is essentially the leading edge of the past. You don’t leave your past behind. The past

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lives in your brain; in your behavior; the way you see life and the way you see yourself.
Everything that happens to you in the present is filtered through past experiences
present in your mind. This means the past is operationally present at every moment. If
that past is distorted, if your perception of it is incorrect, if it’s absent, then when you
look at things in the present, your perception will be distorted. You will not be able to
effectively use what your see right in front of your face. You will not be able to take
advantage of possibilities that you have nor will you be able to design your own future,
because your history has been distorted. Whites have stolen and distorted the history of
Blacks so that they can influence the type of behavior we exhibit. They have been able
to shape our behavior to support their domination of us as a people. Thus, we continue
to serve their interest.
RAW: Even when some of us find ourselves in a position of power such as Mayor,
Governor, or President….
WILSON: Oh yes, definitely. You must recognize that consciousness is power; being
aware, knowing something, and being able to do something is what consciousness is all
about. This grants power. Remember, we act in terms of what we know, what we
believe, what we expect, what we value, what skills we have. All of this is part of
consciousness. Therefore, when you manipulate these things, you manipulate people’s
ability. History teaches us methods of coping. We learn from experience. Why do we
teach our children things? We don’t want them to make the same mistakes we did. In
teaching history, we transfer from one generation to the next methods of solving
problems. When we don’t pass history on, you don’t pass on problem solving methods
and techniques to the next generation. That generation, without a sense of history, is
unable to solve problems, because it has not received methods to do so. It’s important
to understand that the history we’ve been taught is not a history that brings with it
problem-solving skills and other things needed to solve the problems that we face as
African people.

Economics and Afrikan Nationalism, Dr. Amos Wilson

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Economics and Afrikan Nationalism, Dr. Amos Wilson