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5th June 2020
The agonizing killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 in open view of the world by a White police officer assisted by 3 other non-Black officers, one of them Oriental, in America, is yet another hate-fuelled killing of a Black body. On that same day, in another part of America a White female called police with her best acting voice and lied that she was being threatened by a Black man, all because he had correctly complained about her needing to put her dog on a leash in that part of the park where they were. You see, Amy Cooper knew that Black people are hated and harmed by other communities, and she used the right words during her lying phone call to police, that would have potential to get the Black male, Christian Cooper (no relation) killed. Fortunately Christian videoed the whole incident and is alive and well. Amy lost her job, her lies could have gotten Christian to lose his life, as has happened to countless Black people.
These killings of Black people are not just a White and Black issue but is a dehumanization of Black bodies by other communities too. It happens in India, in China, in Saudi Arabia, in Brazil – all over the world.
We Black Africans love to shout: BLACK LIVES MATTER! But we too are guilty of hating, harming and destroying Black lives on a regular basis. I shall stick to only three examples of this, but there are thousands upon thousands of them.
Example 1: African leadership that continues to use corruption and looting of public funds as their method of governance. Nigeria, the most populous Black nation is a signal case study of a nation where Black lives DO NOT matter. There is in-your-face looting of the national treasury, of loans for development, plus of aid money and materials. The civil servants, politicians, consultants, and business cronies who collude to loot public money know what they are doing. They are like Derek Chauvin the White police officer who used his power and position to strangle out the life of Black George Floyd. Nigerians including Civil Society Organisations beg leadership to stop looting. They SHOUT: I can’t breathe! They have been thrown down into the dirt, and tied up by lack, poverty and underdevelopment, shouting! Yet the leadership class keep their heavy knee on the people’s neck as the people shout and beg for deserved mercy, then life and hope fade away… Nigerian leaders and their criminal gang are Derek the killer. Just like Derek Chauvin watched as he killed the pleading George Floyd and never stopped, they watch as Nigerians suffer and die needlessly through the effects, direct and indirect, of looting of public money meant for the people’s welfare and good. That dehumanizing hatred that White supremacist Chauvin has for Black bodies, is evidently the same that Nigeria’s leadership class has for Black bodies.
Example 2: That culture that abuses and harms weaker Black bodies (but would never dare to treat a non-Black body in that same way). It is seen in the dehumanizing and humiliating manner that domestic staff are treated, including the use of minors as house help. It is seen in the driving manner of Nigerian motorists which reveals what is in their heart towards fellow Black road users, with deadly viciousness applied to the weakest, ie pedestrians, killing or injuring them through daily hit-and-run collisions.
Example 3: Although historic, it still affects Africans because we have not properly repented of it by making restitution in the form of Reparations for Africa’s cruel role towards Black bodies for the approximately 1300 years we kidnapped then sold our own Kind to Arabic then European slavery.
While America has to deal with antinubianism (racism specifically against Black people) especially in their policing and Criminal Justice System, Africa has yet to acknowledge its own destructive hatred of the Black body.
The implications of this in Nigeria is that corruption at levels where it remains a “crime against humanity” persists. Children will continue to be born and raised in a society that is uncaring and brutal. They will face it in many ways such as have to live in extremely filthy environments, with extreme noise, and constant violence. In short, Nigeria is quite a traumatizing place for Black bodies, and all by the hands of the Black people in their life space.
African Reader, you may say you are innocent of hating and harming Black bodies. Well, only three know if that is true: you, God, and the devil. Also, before removing yourself from the dehumanizing hate and antinubianism that Black Africans have for Black bodies, recall that three police officers stood by watching George Floyd being killed by their colleague. Is that you? Standing by as Black bodies in Africa are raped, killed on the road, killed on their farms, harmed by their employers, destroyed by the effects of corruption?
For those who do not want to be found in the same camp as Derek Chauvin and the other three police officers, thus unconcerned about the suffering and destruction of Black bodies, even also the cause of it, there is another way of being and living, there is an Alternative Culture. In this world, each person’s life either counts for good or for bad, there is no such thing as neutral. This Alternative Culture is for those Africans who want their lives to count for good, so when they see something wrong in themselves or in society, they DO something about it. They change their own attitudes and behaviour, and also find or create ways to improve society by GETTING INVOLVED!
George Floyd, if only you could see that your life DOES matter. It is Derek Chauvin and your other three killers who will now see that their lives no longer matter… Little brother George Floyd, sleep well.
This post was written by Ndidi Uwechue.
The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.