Black Lives Matter: Is it different in Africa?

I did not want to write this article until a section of Nairobi Mathare slum residents marched on June 8^th 2020 to protest police brutality during the enforcement of curfew enforced to fight Covid-19, with 15 police-linked deaths reported by IPOA since the enactment of dusk-to-dawn curfew in Kenya. Despite these demonstrations being unlinked to the current US protests, they all address the same cause.

Many of my friends, and strangers from all over the world have joined hands to fight acts of racial discrimination in the US after the Black-American George Floyd death, my condolence. Since then, the world has severely risen up against racism, abuse of right to life, right not to torture among others. It is a surprise how globalization has made the globe one community, separated by artificial borders and also commendable how people of other races have joined their hands to help the black race fight racism in US. However, we should not forget racism in Germany where Africans hesitate to visit in fear of discrimination, China, where recently the Africans were discriminated in the name of bringing and spreading Corona virus in the country, South Africa where Apartheid fed on the black race for a long time and Xenophobia which saw loss of black lives.

It is easier to look at the other side of the road until the ball hits you, thus let me bring this home and see if Black lives are treated different in a continent inhabited by mainly the black race. Police brutality, rape, torture, murder and unnecessary in Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, Chad, Cameroon, Libya, Angola, Zimbabwe, and South Africa where we are all black is not entirely different from what our brothers and sisters face in diaspora. When walking on the streets of Banjul, Tunis, Abidjan, Addis Ababa, Antananarivo and Brazzaville, all you want is to enjoy the African beauty, a place you don’t expect to look after your back, but that isn’t the case. In every street of Africa, your accent becomes the basis of discrimination and the only thing that saves you is your deep pockets or otherwise, your ancestor’s friendship with the officer and that hasn’t changed amid Covid-19 curfew and lockdowns but rather escalated.

A friend of mine has been under police harassment for a long time for their white skin. He has had to produce identification documents often to certify he’s born in Kenya and many of my African comrades have narrated their constant interaction with the police and every time, it has been difficult to make a successful conversation with a person who only understands the words ‘I’m sorry officer, can I buy you coffee?’. Most common Africans have faced serious and rough police rape, beatings and sometimes psychological torture, for simply being poor with empty pockets in Africa. And thus one wonders if such police officers recognize Country specific Human rights Bills, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), or that work has been left in the hands of the CSOs, the NGOs, and the HRs activists.

Although the police faces day-in-day out challenges like poor remuneration, poor working conditions, low levels of education, lack of knowledge on the citizens’ awareness of their rights, ignorance, mental health challenges, these are the same challenges a common citizen face and thus, it should not be the basis of excuses for human rights violation. It is entirely possible for a police officer in Gisenyi in Rwanda, Mzuzu in Malawi, Buea in Cameroon, and Jonglei in South Sudan, to honestly do their job and protect the lives of Africans, without torture, rape, beatings and murder. It is necessary.

How long will the African old, young and powerless continue looking up to human rights activists like Bonface Mwangi ,Kenya, Stella Nyazi, Uganda, Timothy Mtambo, Malawi, for protection from the rogue police? Does Black lives really matter in African streets ?