When blacks freed themselves from slavery and later colonialism wrongly thought they’d become equally equal with other non-black people. This has never been; and it seems, it won’t be if black people all over the world won’t rise again and fight for equality as any human beings. The world superstructure never cared about black people. Refer to how the Declaration of Universal Human Rights (UDHR, 1948) clearly stated that freedom was one of human rights. Ask yourself. How long did it take for African countries to become free? Again, if we consider the fact that at the time the UDHR was created, humans were just rich men and white only but not otherwise, we can understand why. Now, white females are deemed as human beings as well as poor white blue, yellow and whatever races are deemed humans. When it comes to black people, theoretically they’re humans however, practically, they’re either not or half humans as European colonisers and xenophobes used to categorize them.
Holy molly! Recent racially motivated killing of George Floyd in the US has brought back stinking racist experience. Millions of people in the US and abroad walked the streets to condemn this endemic and systemic racism against black people while US president Donald Trump seems to add more fuel by doing his dirty linens on the agora. New York governor Andrew Cuomo came forth and condemned systemic racism and injustice noting “we have an injustice in the criminal justice system that is abhorrent.” Cuomo added that what’s ongoing in the US is the continuum of injustices that have been sat on and tolerated for decades and decades without providing neither a lesson nor a solution to the US which is the replica of the West so to speak.
Essentially, Floyd’s massacre unearthed the soft underbelly. This has been ongoing in various states in the US where police are renowned for killing and maltreating Afro-Americans. After Floyd’s butchery, the entire world condemned the US for its racism against black people. I am not trying to be Advocatus diaboli. Again, is the US alone? Have we easily forgotten what transpired in China just recently where Africans were openly discriminated against? When the shoe is on another leg for whatever reason being legged down or legged up, too, does chime with change. Have we easily forgotten how in India Africans in Andaman island known as Jarawa are treated like animals for Indian tourists to go and view not to mention open discrimination against Africans and Indians of black pedigree such as Bengalis and Dalits among others? Have we easily forgotten how black people in Libya and many Maghreb countries have been traded in silent slave trade? Have we forgotten our sisters that are abused and discriminated against in the Middle East where racism is open and rampant?
This piece seeks to see if Africans are treated equally just like other humans in Africa and abroad. They are restricted even in their continent where they’re not allowed to move freely compared to foreigners. A foreign with a foreign passport can crisscross Africa more swiftly than an African. Even many corrupt African governments like to do business with foreigners than their counterpart African ones.
They are discriminated even in Africa by those whom colonisers brought to rob them. Let us face it. Indians and other Asians have been in Africa for many years. Despite that no enough intermarriages have occurred between blacks and those they host. Currently, at least, it is possible to spot a Sino-African couple even Korean African couple but not Indo-African one. Why? Isn’t this broad daylight racism? It is easy to see Filipino and any colour couple but not with black? Even Arabs who have been in Africa are famed for marrying African women but not reciprocally allowing their daughters to be married by black men. Dar es Salaam, Kilwa, Mombasa, Tanga and other coastal towns speak volume vis-à-vis this observation drawn from personal experience.
The situation is worse. In Brazil, it is close to a crime one to associate him/herself with blackness. That is why some brownish Africans in Brazil like to refer to themselves as Moreno but not negro or negra. Likewise, in Africa, there are some Africans who either believe they’re Arabs like those in North Sudan or have Arab ancestry thus, discriminate against others. Go to Eastleigh in Nairobi. You will see what I mean. Somali never like to mix with non-Somalis. Refer to the so-called Bantu Somali and the way they have for many years discriminated against and maltreated. Ethiopians, as well, do the same systematically. To make matters worse, even those in the diaspora still believe that their brethren sold them to slavery. What a blame game!
Source: African Executive today.
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