Do Black Lives Matter to Africans?

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October 28, 2016 3:17 PM

Hurt, anger and pain does not need a passport to travel across the Atlantic

BLM protest

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has spread beyond the borders of the United States and it’s sweeping through to the United Kingdom and Europe. Massive protests and movements like the shutdown of transport systems including airports in Birmingham, London, Manchester and Nottingham in the UK are beginning to gain attention.

Blacks all over the world are making it known that this is not jus an American problem it is a world problem. Institutional and systemic racism also happens beyond the borders of the US, even if we don’t hear about it on the news, or if it doesn’t get its own twitter hashtag.

However how far down to the global south will this movement spread to?

Well for one, the case of the protest in South Africa by school girls shows that even in supposedly “non-white” countries those of black skin, hair, and features are still discriminated against. They live in a society that tells then their natural order needs to be tamed and fixed and dressed up in a way that is presentable to the rest of the world. IN THEIR OWN MOTHER LAND!!!

I also draw your attending to the marches in again South Africa where protestors marches to the US Consulate. As well as the south, protesters in Senegal, West Africa have also joined the campaign. 9000 or so miles away from the conflict what made these people get up to do something about the injustice? Hurt, anger and pain does not need a passport to travel across the Atlantic, it is a feeling that transcends beyond any border patrol.

By now you might have guessed that I lean heavily towards the side of Africans standing with their African-American counterparts. However, I also hear the deafening sound of…

What have they ever done for us?

How many of them joined us in solidarity when Boko Haram took our girls in Nigeria?

Africa has its own problems, how can we possibly stand for a cause internationally when there are a lot of national and local issues to be resolved?

I do not claim to have all the answers and I know a majority of African countries are still sorting ourselves out and we question whether we have the capacity and organisational structure to speak up for Africans in the diaspora but we can’t sit down and be quiet.

Black American’s can’t be looking to others for help when the land of their ancestors are keeping quiet. African Americans are as much part of the diaspora as any other African living abroad.

So here is what I suggest, a recognised international agency such as the African Union, no matter how limited it is in its powers can still put some pressure on other governmental agencies in demanding justice for its people in the diaspora.

Some African-Americans might not believe or refuse to believe but they are still children of the motherland. The African union can take this matter to the court of human rights and put the United States and its systems and structures under judicial investigations. It might be a long process and the killings might not stop. But we can’t keep quite.

No JUSTICE. No PEACE. Our African-American brothers and sisters, we are with you!!

Christianah Adedigba is a fashion blogger currently living in the UK, a lover of all things fashion and beauty with the aim of helping others discover and express themselves through their style.

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