For over four centuries, the original Moors...Black people of African descent...have been subjected to persistent and calculated campaigns aimed at erasing their existence, culture, and history. Yet, despite slavery, colonization, systemic oppression, and genocide, they remain. Not just surviving, but standing strong.
This essay examines the brutal legacy of genocide on the African continent, with specific emphasis on the lesser-known but devastating Libyan Genocide, asserting that despite all odds, Black people...originators of life and civilization...will remain the last ones standing.
Genocide as a Colonial Tool
Under international law, genocide is defined as acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. The term, coined by jurist Raphaël Lemkin in 1944, was not only intended to describe the atrocities of the Holocaust but to shed light on other historical campaigns of extermination. Nowhere has this term applied more consistently than on the African continent, where genocide has often been masked as “civilization,” “exploration,” or “development.”
From the Herero and Namaqua genocide in German South West Africa (1904–1908) to the atrocities in Darfur (2003–present), African nations have endured systematic extermination. Genocide, starvation, concentration camps, forced labor, and medical experimentation have all been used to destroy entire ethnic groups and enforce white European dominance.
Colonialism and the Blood Price of Empire
Between the 19th and 20th centuries, over 90% of Africa fell under the rule of European imperial powers...France, Britain, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, and Italy. These regimes did not simply extract resources; they disrupted traditional systems of governance, exploited indigenous people as labor, and carried out policies of extermination and terror to maintain control.
Europe’s imperialist blueprint always required the suppression of African identity. The underlying logic: to break the body, destroy the culture, and erase the memory. Genocide, in this context, was not merely a side effect of colonialism...it was a deliberate mechanism of rule.
The Libyan Genocide (1929–1934): A Forgotten Atrocity
One of the least discussed yet deeply tragic examples of colonial genocide is the Libyan Genocide carried out by Fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini. After the 1911 invasion and the annexation of Tripoli, Libya was turned into a battleground of Italian supremacy over indigenous resistance, particularly targeting the Bedouin tribes.
Between 1929 and 1934, Mussolini’s forces executed a campaign of extermination against Libyan civilians. Methods included forced labor, mass killings, chemical warfare (such as mustard gas), and the use of concentration camps, where thousands perished from starvation and abuse. The Bedouin people alone lost nearly half of their population. Families were displaced and forced to march into the desert to die. This genocide serves as a brutal reminder that North Africa, like Sub-Saharan Africa, was not spared the wrath of European imperial conquest.
The Libyan Genocide stands as a potent symbol of the widespread, intentional violence enacted against African populations...not in ancient times, but in the 20th century...under the banner of civilization, nationalism, and empire.
Rwanda, Darfur, and the Continuing Cycle
Fast forward to the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, where nearly a million people, mostly Tutsis, were slaughtered in 100 days. The West watched. So too with the ongoing genocide in Darfur, beginning in 2003 and stretching into the present, where the Sudanese government and militias have carried out ethnic cleansing against non-Arab populations in the region.
Whether through silence or complicity, the global powers continue to ignore African suffering...because genocide in Africa does not seem to warrant the same urgency or intervention as it does elsewhere. This historical amnesia is part of a larger pattern of erasure and dehumanization.
Resilience of the First People
Despite this unrelenting trauma, African people endure. This is not mere survival...it is sacred resistance. Black people are not just victims of history; they are its architects. They were the first hominids to walk the earth, the origin of civilization, science, art, and spirituality.
And what has been attempted: enslavement, colonization, cultural destruction, genocide...has not succeeded. Because you cannot erase the source. You cannot kill what is eternal.
The African soul is not bound by a single body or generation. In many African spiritual traditions, including the concept of reincarnation, the soul transitions...not ends. This cyclical understanding of life affirms that death is not defeat, but transformation. Legacy lives beyond the grave. Resistance echoes through lifetimes.
Final Reflections: A Global Brotherhood of Souls
In the words of poet Edwin Markham,
“There is a destiny that makes us brothers: None goes his way alone. All that we send into the lives of others comes back into our own.”
Dr. Martin Luther King reminds us:
“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
And spiritual teacher Ram Dass affirms:
“We are all just walking each other home.”
These words, while universal, carry particular weight for a people who have faced centuries of attempted erasure. They serve as a reminder that justice, memory, and unity are inseparable from the African experience.
Conclusion
From Libya to Namibia, from Rwanda to Sudan, Africa has been the stage for some of humanity’s most horrifying chapters. Yet, in the face of genocide, there remains an unyielding flame...a divine resilience rooted in ancestral strength and spiritual continuity. Black people, the original Moors and the origin of life, are not disappearing. Despite it all, they will be the last ones standing.
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