When the downtrodden or, in the words of Frantz Fanon, the wretched of the earth, mark a commemorative day, it is often done to mark a painful moment in their past, a moment that continues to gnaw at them like a raw wound in the present. Yet to these people, remembrance on that day is also an act of self-assertive moral optimism about the future as well as a rite of exorcism of the collective trauma that had demonised their history.

So, just as Black History Month, which got underway this week, is a reminder that we cannot understand American history in isolation of slavery, known as America’s original sin, so is Day of the Land, which was commemorated by Palestinians on March 30, a reminder that we cannot expect to understand the root-cause of the century-old conflict in the Holy Land in isolation of the catastrophic impact that the creation of Israel in Palestine has had, and continues to have as we speak, on the daily lives and political destiny of the Palestinian people.

Published in The Daily National Courier, April, 08 2024

Like Business on Facebook, follow @DailyNCourier on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.