Franck Zanu is a Benin-born naturalized American citizen; he now lives in Connecticut. He speaks common sense about the problems of Africans and African-Americans.
For instance, here are some formerly colonized countries: Brazil, Canada, United States, Singapore, Malaysia, and Korea. What is the difference between these countries and the formerly colonized countries of Africa? Well there may be many reasons for the disparities, but obviously colonialism is not one of them.
Rather than something that happened a hundred years ago, Zanu blames a lack of curiosity, a lack of national cohesion, and other negative aspects of African culture, such as polychronic timekeeping. In one of Zanu's videos he talks about the lack of maintenance in Africa. It is a culturally nonexistent concept.
It is interesting that he puts so much importance on a lack of curiosity. I have mentioned the lack of curiosity in the third world before. It would be fascinating to track curiosity or a lack of curiosity across the developed and undeveloped world. My guess is that genuine curiosity is a prerequisite for development.
The geographic nations of Africa are artificial entities leftover from the colonial period. The colonists imposed geographic boundaries on tribal peoples. These have always been at odds with African culture. Zanu asks: When these peoples demanded and received their freedom from the colonists, why did they keep these artificial geographic nation states?
Polychronic timekeeping is just a polite way of saying that Africans do not value punctuality or lines. You can explain the value to them, but you cannot accept the value for them. If Africans cannot accept the value of punctuality, they can never appreciate the possibilities or opportunities that punctuality provides. These opportunities will just never materialize.
I have heard Zanu use South Africa as an example of the problem with African culture. Without excusing the evils of the apartheid system, the country has fallen apart since black people with African culture took over in 1994. Only 32 years ago. This is simply undeniable. The formerly first world nation of South Africa today looks like every other broken African country. Well, they got what they wanted.
Zanu's critics blame everything except culture, and their always measured language has long dominated the argument among scholars and diplomats. But to what end? What is the result we see today? Africa is a mess. At some point we have to ask if this is intentional? Who benefits from the mess that is Africa?
Likewise, who benefits from the mess that is the urban black family in the United States today? In contrast to the problems of Africa, what I see in black America is a people who have lost their culture. Just look at black families back in the forties and fifties. Even with poverty and pervasive racism, you found intact families making their way. What happened to that? But that is my perspective as a middle-aged white man.
Zanu argues that in the forties and fifties, black Americans were not free, they lived under duress, and therefore their goal was to operate within the system. He argues that they did not lose their culture. Rather the freedom that came about after, say 1965, allowed them to, finally, live their culture. He argues that you can only find your true culture once you have freedom. And since black people never before lived in freedom, not in the US and certainly not in Africa, they do not know how to behave and self-regulate within it.
Zanu says: Freedom is responsibility. A man's true essence, his true capabilities, are observed only when he is free. It is an interesting observation, because I have always thought that a man's true essence is observed only when he is under duress. But Zanu seems to be saying that a man can only be his true self when he is free to be his true self.
It is a provocative argument. Is it correct? I do not know. Is he saying that two-parent black families, with no out of wedlock children, are not part of black culture? That the two-parent families of the forties and fifties were only the result of the systemic oppression of the time?
I want to think that is a stretch. But of course, I do not know any intact black families today. It is interesting; I did know some growing up in the seventies and eighties. But not today. Does that prove his point? Or does it prove that Zanu simply does not understand incentives?
I have always believed that the disintegration of the black family was the result of LBJ's Great Society programs, which clearly devalued black family cohesion. Arguably, these programs incentivized the breakdown of the families. This is the argument that conservative commentators often make.
But about those incentives: Are young, unemployed, black women truly incentivized to have multiple, out of wedlock children, that they cannot afford, with multiple men, none of whom remain in the home? Why would anyone do that? Can government incentives adequately explain this behavior? I find it at least questionable.
Zanu offers a dire explanation. If he is correct, the family disintegration, and all that flows from it, is a natural state of black culture. Black people are now free to be their true selves.
Goodness, can that be correct?
Naturally Zanu gets a lot of pushback from more orthodox African-American commentators. Here he is with four of them:
Watch this video and decide which of the two perspectives sounds more reasonable. One side offers blame and excuse. And more, there is a habit among modern African-Americans to exaggerate the contributions of black people in history. No, Pushkin was not black and he did not invent the Russian language. People are free to think whatever they like, but a lot of this just makes you sound stupid. The more common refrain today is: Black people built America. Well they helped, sure, but again this just makes you sound stupid.
On the other side is Zanu. He says, I chose to leave Africa. I have lived all over the world. I chose to come here. I choose to die in America. What's the problem? One other thing I notice about Zanu is how often he says: I do not know. The other guys know so very much. Trust people who admit what they do not know.
I will say this about Zanu, even if we disagree with one of his points, he is so direct and plain-spoken, we should take him seriously. He challenges the bien pensant narrative and that alone is a benefit. He is refreshing to listen to.
Keep fighting Franck.




