As African writers without borders who are connected beyond geography with those who live in the United States of America and other parts of the African diaspora, we state that we condemn the acts of violence on Black people in the United States of America.
We note in dismay that what Malcolm X said in Ghana in 1964 that “for the twenty millions of us in America who are of African descent, it’s not an American dream; it’s an American nightmare” remains true for 37 million in 2020.
We condemn the murders of:
George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland, Amadou Diallo, Ahmaud Arbery, Aiyana Mo’Nay Stanly-Jones, Tony McDade, Pamela Turner, Matthew Ajibade, Rekia Boyd, Eric Garner, John Crawford III, Michael Brown, Shelly Frey, Ezelll Ford, Dante Parker, Michelle Casseaux, Yvette Smith, Darnesha Harris, Laquan Mcdonald, Atatiana Jefferson, George Mann, Tanisha Anderson, Akai Gurley, Tamir Rice, Rumain Brisbon, Jerame Reid, Frank Smart, Natasha Mckenna, Tony Robinson, Anthony Hill, William Chapman II, Alberta Spruill, Walter Scott, Shantell Davis, Eric Harris, Philip White, Mya Hall, Alexia Christian, Brendon Glenn, Victor Manuel Larosa, Jonathan Sanders, Salvado Ellswood, Joseph Mann, Freddie Blue, Albert Joseph Davis, Darrius Stewart, Billy Ray Davis, Samuel Dubose, Troy Robinson, Christian Taylor, Sean Bell, Brian Keith Day, Michael Sabbie, Asshams Pharoah Manley, Felix Kumi, Keith Harrison McLeod, Junior Prosper, Anthony Ashford, Dominic Hutchinson, Paterson Brown, Lamontez Jones, Bettie Jones, Alonzo Smith, Tyree Crawford India Kager, Janet Wilson, Sylville Smith, Benni Lee Tignor, Yvonne Smallwood, Kayla Moore and all other names, known and unknown, that represent human beings who are our kin.
Our blood.
We support the protests in the United States and across the world as our people demand justice for any and all racial killings whether by police or civilians. We are aware that these are not quiet protests.
Summit attended by Malcolm X
In 1964, during the Organization of African Unity (OAU) summit in Cairo, Malcolm X tried to make his “African brothers and sisters” aware of the discrimination experienced by African-Americans. A speech that foreshadowed the African emotion felt 56 years later around the George Floyd affair in the United States.
The President of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat has spoken out against the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American father of two children, who died from suffocation following an incident where a white policeman in the American city of Minneapolis placed his knee on Floyd’s neck for over seven minutes.
Mahamat strongly condemned the “murder that took place (…) at the hands of law enforcement officers” and offered “his deepest condolences to the family of the deceased and to all his relatives.”
On behalf of the entire @_AfricanUnion family, I condemn in the strongest terms the murder of #GeorgeFloyd at the hands of law enforcement officers in the United States of America. See my full statement here: https://t.co/LslbVFrWHN
During this summit in July 1964, Malcolm X, the emblematic leader in the struggle for the rights and dignity of African Americans, was invited as an observer to make a poignant pan-African plea on the discrimination that African Americans were then suffering on the other side of the Atlantic.