A statement by AFFORD’s Executive Director Onyekachi Wambu.
On 25 May, the killing of an African American man in the USA triggered a wave of anger and uprising which many are describing as a kind of African Diaspora Spring.
Like Arabs during their Spring, many people of African descent, who understand the commonalities and tropes of social, economic, legal oppressions spread across the Western Atlantic civilisational space, have been at the forefront of the calls for change. This space, unleashed by Columbus, has been the most important geo-political reality of the last 500 years – the gold, land and free labour of the conquered and enslaved – transforming the fortunes of the European world, turning small and medium-sized countries into super powers.
People of African descent have played critical roles in co-creating this civilisational space over the last 400 years but have rarely enjoyed the benefits. George Floyd’s killing by the police was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. It was the moment fear evaporated.
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