Anti-Colonialism and the Struggle for African Liberation: A Call to Action

Most of our past leaders have been assassinated by imperialist forces because they feared the true freedom of the Black man, the freedom which Pio Gama Pinto died fighting for. The book, Pio Gama Pinto: Kenya’s Unsung Martyr comprehensively touches on the phases of the life lived by Pio, his motivations, history, his involvement in trade unions and most importantly his political identity and consciousness. As a young man not yet known to the world from Goan origins, of Kenyan descent, Pio Gama Pinto would take the world by storm and live to be remembered as a political activist, trade unionist, political organizer, revolutionary journalist and most importantly an ally of the masses. Pio Gama Pinto was a man whose consciousness was awoken by the suffering of his people. He was a visionary, a man of action, he easily saw that western colonialism was seriously undermining the African social infrastructure based on traditional humanistic values. His views were shared by the like of Julius Nyerere, Amilcar Cabral, Frantz Fanon, Aimé Cesaire and Sekou Touré who saw that the best way to fight imperialism in their respective countries and in the African continent at large was to take up arms, equip themselves with knowledge, garner global experience and fight until all foreign domination was eliminated. Ironically, silencing the voice of Pio Gama Pinto only made it grow louder.

His involvement in campaigns that included the struggles of peasants against the British for the acquisition of large tracks of lans, which had begun from early 1920s, was just but one of his notable achievements that uniquely stood out. His role in the struggle of land has influenced environmental activist of today. It is mind-boggling that many of the modern-day capitalists are still at it, same form of environmental injustices on peasants who are not able to earn a dollar a day to just afford basic necessities. Land in Mathare, Kibera, Mukuru kwa Njenga and many other informal settlements are still witnessing such atrocities, and these are only within urban settlement areas, without mentioning the situation in rural areas. The need for revolutionary change in land issues in Kenya today continues to be a critical issue as this is a highly contested topic given the nature of the complexities that surround land-related conflicts.

It is incredible that Africa possessed such great minds such as Pio Gama Pinto who easily saw through the blinding smoke of colonization that its sole basis was to rob Africa of its wealth, a system of economic domination. Their progressive steps should not be side-lined but put at the forefront as Pio Gama Pinto was one of the great minds that engineered the Mau Mau Freedom Movement. With the rise in organized movements, the works, tactics, and history still dominate the literacy scene and materials being accessed across the African continent and in the diaspora. We see the desire of young Africa’s to be heard, as they re-imagine a second liberation. Malcom X who was an ally to Pio Gama Pinto, had found great inspiration from Pio’s work. It was his thinking that reshaped Malcom X thought on Black Nationalism to Pan Africanism when they interacted during his stay in Kenya in 1964. Like the political and social-economic tensions which influenced their times, they continue to shape the current conversation in today’s time such as the Black Lives Matter movement.

What part then do you play in all this, I presume is your question? Have a look at your country, does capitalism rule in every sphere of life? Then clearly, we are not living the dream, that ‘uhuru must be uhuru for the masses,’ which was envisioned by the likes of Pio Gama Pinto and many other patriots in Africa. This book is a reminder that we need to hit the nail at the head, we need to address the elephant in the room as stated which is capitalism, a characteristic of a colonial empire in our African states, which are now headed by African leaders. Pinto lived and died addressing the internal struggles of the Kenyan people, why shouldn’t we?