Africa Reading Challenge: Capitalist Nigger, My First Review

Capitalist Nigger The Road to Success: A Spider Web Doctrine
Author: Chika A. Onyeani
Publisher: Timbuktu Publishers, New York
Pages: xx+180 pgs
ISBN: 0-9678460-9-9
Reviewer: D. Mwesigye Gumisiriza

In this hard-hitting analysis of the economic status of black people around the world, Chika Onyeani, a Nigerian who has lived in the US for more than three decades, develops his ‘thesis’ that the black race is a generally non-productive consumer race. He uses the term “black” to refer to not only Africans from continental Africa but also to those in the Diaspora, African-Americans and those of African descent from anywhere in the world.

Drawing from various scenarios to support the view that the black race is at the bottom rung when compared and measured against yardsticks of success in different categories; the conclusion is that blacks are economic slaves—“a people who produce nothing and consume everything that others produce”. This is the refrain that is repeated throughout this book to press home the point and to realise the author’s aim of opening a debate on the state of the African race.

Africans tend to blame slavery and colonialism for all their problems and failures; African-Americans and other blacks in the Diaspora put this blame on racism. So, this victim mentality has held them back from economic empowerment. The author claims to have conducted a long study of East Indians and Pakistanis and came up with the idea he has called the Spider Web Doctrine. This is named so basing on how spiders behave; they build a web, when a fly enters it, it is prevented from leaving. That this race is the most adept at applying this doctrine and subsequently have become a major economic force. “When a dollar comes into the community, because of their spider web mentality, that dollar does not leave the community, they reinvest it by buying from other Indians”. It is this mentality and behaviour that will liberate blacks from economic slavery.

Onyeani clearly attributes economic advancement to race and stresses over and over again in his book an admiration for the Caucasians or the whites. In particular, he notes that Caucasians have the killer instinct and ‘Devil-may-care’ attitude that have enabled them to develop their societies and nations to a level that is universally admired.

To put this in context, he uses several scenarios. For instance, in 1998, General Motors, a Caucasian-owned company, earned revenue of US$ 161 billion making it the first on Fortune 500; a list of top-rated American businesses. By comparison, the number one black-owned company, The Philadelphia Coca Cola Bottling Company, earned revenue of US$ 389 million! Onyeani also wonders how a handful of Caucasians could round up 36 million Africans into slavery. In addition, he cites people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and George Soros who exemplify the killer instinct and daring attitude of whites and Jews.

However, he does not only criticise but also advocates for capitalist niggerism, a movement that seeks to empower blacks. A capitalist nigger is defined as an economic warrior who loves money and seeks wealth and in this way helps his or her community to grow. Alongside this, he develops a set of rules to live by—the Capitalist Nigger’s Canon. But first, he suggests that there should be a Day or Days of Atonement—“the day that the Black race decides to confess for its transgressions against its race, and to promise forthwith to correct such transgressions…”

It is strongly recommended for every black person, everywhere in the world, of at least a university education, and those at all levels of leadership to read this book.