Since the Beginning of Time — Who Really Decided?

Colonization built the pillar of difference. But before pointing at a man, a color, an era — you need to understand how that pillar was constructed, and why it is still standing today. Since the beginning of time, there has been a tendency to put Black people down and assign them prejudices. But who, exactly? The white man? Is it really a matter of skin color? And why us? These questions are not new. They have been asked for generations, in different languages, on different continents, with the same pain sitting at the back of the throat. But rarely are they pushed all the way to their real answer. Because the answer is uncomfortable — not for Black people, but for those who built the system that makes these questions necessary in the first place.

A Pillar Does Not Fall on Its Own Before colonization, the concept of race as we know it today did not exist in this form. There were tribes, kingdoms, languages, cultures — real differences, celebrated or disputed, but never systematically ranked according to skin color. Colonization introduced that hierarchy. It needed to. To justify slavery, you had to dehumanize. To dehumanize, you needed a theory. And that theory was called race. Black people did not become “inferior” because nature decided so. They became “inferior” because men in suits, with quills and parchments, needed it to be true so their business could keep running. This is not biology. It is accounting.

So — “Who” ? The opening question — “the white man?” — is legitimate but incomplete. Color does not oppress. Organized power behind that color, at a specific moment in history, does. Africans sold other Africans to slave traders. Black elites today perpetuate the misery of their own people. White men fought, bled, and died to abolish slavery. Color is only the mask. The real face is the system. Previous SIIIOCULI articles documented it clearly — Africa loses over $88 billion every year through illicit financial flows. That is not a racial question. It is a question of economic structures built during colonization and never dismantled. The pillar is still there. It just changed its costume.

Prejudice Is Not Natural — It Is Manufactured A three-year-old child does not see race. They see another child. Prejudice is learned. It is taught in school textbooks that erase African civilizations. It is transmitted through media that only shows Africa in crisis. It is reinforced in Hollywood films where the hero always has the same face. This is not innate. It is a cultural infrastructure built on centuries of colonial propaganda, and that infrastructure runs on autopilot to this day. Kigali is cleaner than most European capitals. Lagos is one of the most dynamic entrepreneurial hubs on the planet. Abidjan rivals Paris in certain neighborhoods. This is not what the world sees, because it is not what the world chooses to show. The image of African poverty is a tool. It exists to justify extraction. If Africa looks broken, those who are looting it look generous. The image of poverty is not an observation. It is a policy. Keeping Africa small in the minds of the world makes the pillaging acceptable.

Why Us? — Because We Had Something The question “why us?” has a brutally simple answer: because Africa is the most resource-rich region on the planet. Cobalt, gold, diamonds, uranium, oil, coltan — none of this is a coincidence. You do not target the poor. You target those who have something you want. The dehumanization came after the greed, not before. They wanted the land first. Then they invented a reason to take it. That is the pillar of difference that colonization erected. Not a biological truth. Not a divine judgment. An economic fiction made permanent through centuries of repetition, biased education, and the complete absence of reparation.

Dismantling the Pillar The pillar will not fall by debating whether the white man is evil. That question is a trap — it wastes time, it divides the oppressed against each other, and it leaves the system completely intact while people argue about the color of those who run it. The pillar will fall when colonial economic structures are dismantled. When the profits from African resources stay in Africa. When school textbooks teach ancient Egypt, the Mali Empire, and the Kingdom of Zimbabwe with the same rigor they apply to Rome and Athens. When an African child grows up knowing they descend from builders of civilizations, not from victims. This is not about hatred toward anyone. It is about truth. And the truth is that anti-Black prejudice was never a personal opinion spontaneously shared by millions of individuals. It was — and still is — a policy.

SIIIOCULI — Intelligence. Sovereignty. Awareness. siiioculi.lilxbrxaker.com