Congressman Elijah E. Cummings Proudly Representing Maryland's 7th District

We Live to Be Free

September 2, 2000
Keynote Address
Ngwa National Association USA Convention
Presidential Dinner

Marriott - BWI Airport
Baltimore, Maryland

Good evening. Thank you for your kind words of introduction.

I was honored when my friend, and the Chairman of your Convention Committee, Louis Eguzo, conveyed your invitation to speak to you during this Presidential Dinner.

Dr. Obinna Ubani-Ebere, your national President, is a man for whom I have a great deal of respect.

And, under the leadership of Lawrence Okpulor, the Baltimore Chapter has demonstrated your commitment to the welfare of the people I serve in the Congress.

A calling to public service is central to what I have to say this evening, so I will begin by expressing my appreciation for the Baltimore Chapter's support of Bea Gaddy and Baltimore's homeless citizens, your contributions to the American Red Cross and the free healthcare screenings you offer to those who might otherwise go untreated.

People helping other people is the foundation of every civilized society.

Thank you for understanding this basic truth - and for acting on your insight.

So many people have a vision of a better world but never lift a finger to make that vision real.

Men and women like you, who translate their vision of a better world into their practical mission in life, are the true leaders of any society.

So, I would like to approach our time together this evening as a brief discussion among leaders about the very important subject you have asked me to address - the increasingly important role that each of you, and this Association, can play in the political and social life of America.

LEADING THE MARCH TOWARD FREEDOM

In preparing for my talk tonight, Louis Eguzo informed me that three-quarters of your members are now U.S. citizens.

He also told me, though, that all of you have your roots in the Ngwa area of southeastern Nigeria.

Many of you continue to have family and friends in Nigeria, so it is natural that you retain an intense interest in the future of Nigeria and her people.

So do I - and so does our government, as evidenced by President Clinton's just-concluded mission to Nigeria.

I believe that America's interest in strengthening democracy in Nigeria would be justified on purely humanitarian grounds.

No one is well-served when people are allowed to prey upon others - and that principle is equally true whether the killing happens on the streets of Lagos or on the streets of Baltimore. We no longer live in a world where we can insulate ourselves from the consequences of terror or ethnic violence.

We in the United States also have a national interest in the stability and prosperity that a democratic Nigeria can bring to the entire sub-Saharan region of West Africa.

When you turn on the lights in your hotel room tonight, that electric power may well have been generated by Nigerian oil. The trade potential between a free Nigeria and the United States is enormous.

A free and stable Nigeria, moreover, is absolutely essential to bringing the appalling HIV/AIDS crisis under control.

In Africa, and throughout the world, a united effort will be required to defeat AIDS. That objective is so very important.

The lives of our own children are at stake. The world's children will live - or die - together.

So, for all of these reasons - humanitarian concern, economic self-interest, and the survival of our children - the future of your adopted country is inextricably tied to the destiny of Nigeria, the country of your birth.

I am convinced that the 10,500 members of this Association have an important leadership role to play in the perfection of freedom B in Nigeria and here at home.

If the forces of freedom do not bring peace and prosperity to Nigeria, the forces of totalitarianism and terror will return. We know this from experience.

Being from the Ngwa region of Nigeria, many of you trace your ethnic heritage to the Ibo peoples of Africa.

So, I remind you of the fundamental question raised by that old Ibo proverb:

In Nigeria - and here in America - people now understand the consequences that follow when men and women of conscience do not rush forward to claim the freedom that is our birthright.

That is why, here in America, we must be eternally vigilant against threats to our voting rights.

That is why hate crimes motivated by racial or religious or social animosities are so dangerous to our social order.

That is why we can never rest until every American receives the educational and economic opportunities that will give tangible expression to their freedom.

If we who love freedom fall back, others will rush in.

We know this in America.

In Nigeria, however, history illustrates in heartbreaking detail that our instinctive yearning for freedom does not guarantee a free society.

Freedom is our most cherished possession, but nothing in the history of humankind suggests that free societies are the natural order of things.

Societies in which all people are free and secure are something new in the history of the world.

After two centuries, freedom and democracy in the United States remains a revolution in progress.

That is why Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., once observed that "the most revolutionary action our people can undertake is to assert the full measure of their citizenship."

An authoritarian society requires only a gun or a tank to maintain order. However, an egalitarian society - a society respectful of human rights - must depend upon true leadership for its very survival.

And here tonight, within this room at an airport hotel, I have come to ask you - to ask the leaders of the Nigerian-American community - for your help.

You are leaders upon whom the people can depend. I am convinced of that. You are my true reason for being here this evening.

You are educated people, and I am not so presumptuous as to come here this evening to offer you a history lesson about your own lives.

But I have been asked to offer a few thoughts on how you - as individuals and as an Association - can play a larger role in the political and social life of America.

So, in response, I offer these reflections.

In the history of this country, Gandhi helped Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., learn how to lead African Americans to freedom.

Dr. King then taught the rest of us that we must lead the march to freedom for all people or languish in servitude ourselves.

Black Americans could not be free unless everyone was freed from the shackles of the past.

To achieve and hold onto our freedom, we must be prepared to give freedom to others as well.

That is the paradox of freedom - freedom, to be held, must be given away.

That is why Dr. King's goal was not limited to freeing African Americans from the servitude and degradation of Jim Crow.

Dr. King understood that the freedom of black and white Americans was intertwined - neither could be free without acknowledging and supporting the other's freedom as well.

Dr. King understood that racism and militarism and excessive materialism were all symptoms of the same underlying disease.

The 1960s in America were not without violence.

But, fundamentally, Dr. King led a peaceful social revolution.

Riots and assassination could have sparked civil war.

But leaders stepped forward - leaders who valued peace and universal respect among all people.

And America chose peace - a difficult and often unsatisfying peace to be sure - but peace nonetheless.

Sadly, Nigeria took a different course at that time.

The country's boundaries may have been an arbitrary colonial construct, but the potential greatness of a united Nigeria captured the imagination of millions.

To achieve that greatness - and be free - however, people had to grow beyond the past.

-- Hausa had to be prepared to acknowledge the freedom of Ibo.

-- Ibo had to support the freedom of Yoruba.

-- Christian and Moslem had to be prepared to live together in mutual tolerance and respect.

In the Nigeria of the 1960s and 1970s, however, Nigerians did not support each other's freedom.

The forces of freedom fell back from the challenge in Nigeria, and the strong men rushed forward.

I remind you of what you know from your own life experience because we must apply the lessons of your history to our lives today.

In simple terms, the tragedy of Biafra was that Nigerians in the 1960s could not learn to live together in peace and freedom - and they would not live apart.

The consequence was war. And in that war, children died by the thousands.

That is what happens when those of us who love liberty "fall back." That is what happens when the generals rush forward.

I remind you of this today because, 30 years later, Nigeria has earned a second chance.

Today, as Americans of Nigerian heritage (and as people who love freedom), you have an important opportunity to support Nigeria's movement toward democracy.

You see, I came here this evening to ask for your help.

In all candor, we must acknowledge that the policies of America toward Nigeria and the rest of Africa have not always been enlightened, have not always been helpful; but I am convinced that President Clinton, the Congressional Black Caucus and many others in the leadership of this country want to be enlightened about Nigeria.

We want to be helpful, but we do not have all the answers yet.

We are in the process of learning how to help Nigeria in a mutually-beneficial way. We need all the insight we can obtain.

The Nigerian Embassy in Washington and Nigeria's consular offices in this country are staffed by very capable people. Given time, the U.S. government can work with Ambassador Kazaure to achieve the broad outlines of a mutually-beneficial relationship.

But think about the news reports and other intelligence we receive daily from Nigeria.

How much time do you think we have in order to offer the people of Nigeria a "democracy dividend?"

How much time do we have before widespread poverty, ethnic and religious rivalries, corruption and the lust for power bring the tanks and jets to the forefront once again?

In the struggle for freedom, time is a luxury we do not have.

Think of the words from the South African song:

So, I do not come here this evening asking for your help because I distrust official government channels.

I come here because democracy and freedom are not gifts that any government can bestow upon a people. People must work together to build freedom from the ground up.

I come here because, like violence, freedom is also a candle that must become a fire.

Freedom must become a fire if it is to withstand the winds of change.

I hope that you will offer the Congress - and especially those of us in the leadership of the Congressional Black Caucus - the benefit of your understanding.

For example:

- I support the idea of forgiving Nigeria's staggering international debt.  But, in good conscience, we must develop mechanisms that assure that the benefits of debt forgiveness flow to all the people of Nigeria, not just the powerful and well-connected few.

- I am hopeful that, with your contacts in the intellectual and commercial leadership of Nigeria, you can help us assure that debt forgiveness will pay a "democracy dividend" to those Nigerians who are most in need.

- Likewise, I have devoted a substantial part of my public life to the struggle against HIV/AIDS.

- I voted for the Marshall Plan for Africa, and I support significant increases in our humanitarian assistance to the health systems of Sub-Saharan Africa. But we must all work together with the public health officials and universities in the region to assure that ignorance and corruption are no longer leading causes of death for Africa's children.

- I support an expanded role for the Nigerian military in peace-keeping operations throughout West Africa. But central to our assistance in training and equipping the Nigerian military must be the idea - the democratic idea - that soldiers who train their weapons on their own people are war criminals, not patriots.

- And, foremost, we must encourage a Nigerian military that understands that its role - its honored role in society - is to defend democracy, not overturn it. I hope that you will help to develop this vision of military professionalism with your friends and colleagues within the Nigerian military.

This is an historic moment in Nigerian-American relations, my friends.

If we fall back, others will rush forward . . . and 120 million Nigerians will lose another chance for freedom.

Many of us here this evening are old enough to remember Biafra.

One tragedy in a lifetime is more than enough.

OUR AMERICAN MISSION

My friends, I must tell you how heartened I am to be here with you this evening.

My friend, Louis Eguzo, has informed me that many of you originally came to this country to study.

I am filled with joy that you decided to stay and make this country - my country - your home.

I am the great-grandson of slaves, the descendant of people wrenched from their homes and families in Africa to serve others in a foreign land.

I am the son of share croppers - people who broke free from a future in which they would have forever toiled for the benefit of others.

I am a black man who was segregated and disparaged in my youth, but who survived and succeed in this country because the good in America far outweighs the evil.

I am a black man in America, and I have no illusions that ours is a perfect land.

But in America, the heir to slaves and share croppers can rise to serve in the Congress of the United States.

In America, a military establishment that once dropped napalm from the sky on villages in Vietnam now helps to keep the peace in Bosnia and Kosovo.

I am proud of my African heritage, but I am even more proud of the young American men and women of every culture, class, religion and race who work for freedom every day around the world.

I cried with pride and joy one Christmas when President Clinton and I joined some of these young Americans - standing straight and strong and committed - on the freezing streets of Bosnia.

They were there, Americans all, living for the spread of freedom, even as the people there honored our flag and thanked us for their lives.

So, I do not consider myself an American because this country honored the humanity of my elders.

That was once not the case.

I am an American because this country - with our determination and involvement - will honor and protect the freedom of my children.

That is the message I offer you this evening - a message I hope you will share with your friends and relatives in Nigeria.

Tell them that freedom is like a candle.

Tell them that men can put out a candle, but they can't put out a fire.

Tell them to work to give democracy time - that when the wind begins to catch, it will blow the flame of liberty higher and higher.

Tell them that, and help us help both your homes - America and Nigeria - build freedom and democracy in our time.

As I close, I will share with you an insight about the struggle for freedom that was expressed by a very great Nigerian writer, the first African to ever win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Wole Soyinka is a Yoruba - but he was not imprisoned during the Biafran War because he was Yoruba.

Professor Soyinka was imprisoned because he publicly spoke out, declaring that it was wrong to kill Ibos simply because they wished to be free.

For his courage, he became a hero to all Nigerians - and to people everywhere who value liberty and conscience.

Today, Nigeria's struggle to create democracy needs role models. Wole Soyinka is such a man.

He was imprisoned for exercising his conscience and right to speak freely.

In the book he subsequently wrote about his imprisonment, The Man Died, Professor Soyinka tells this story.

I share a summary with you because it reveals an important insight about how ordinary men and women can build their own freedom in the face of terror and overwhelming odds.

Soyinka tells us how was placed in a police holding cell during his interrogation. After a time, a woman was placed in the cell with him. At first, the woman was withdrawn and suspicious, thinking Soyinka might be a government spy.

"Suddenly," Dr. Soyinka wrote, "she looked down and saw that I was shackled, I was in chains. And so, slowly and for the first time, she brought herself to actually look up and look at my face and recognize me."

"It was a very overwhelming moment," Soyinka recalled, "because she then just took herself down at my feet and started to cry."

"In a way, it was very frightening. And then it became strengthening because I now had to console her, reassure her."

"AND IN TURN," Soyinka reveals, "I WAS STRENGTHENED."

"I became very, very strong," he concluded, "both for her and for everyone in her situation, and so became tougher in myself....So she did me a lot more good than she could ever have guessed that day."

What Professor Soyinka is telling us by this reflection, I think, is that we who love freedom must learn to put our suspicions aside and recognize the power that lives within our hearts.

In the reflection of our life experience, mutual fear and distrust are understandable.

Yet, when we look up and recognized our shared humanity, a strength deep in our hearts reaches out and allows us to grasp the liberty that is our birthright.

We can be free only in human kinship, one to another.

Gandhi understood that fundamental truth - as did Dr. King and President Mandela and Professor Soyinka.

We are living, you and I, in a moment in history second in importance only to that spiritual moment 2000 years in our past.

In our time and in our place, freedom shall prevail with God's grace.

This is what I believe in the depths of my heart.

This is the great mission we must work together to achieve.

Thank you.