News — protest

On Sunday, January 18, 1981, thirteen black youths attending a birthday party in Deptford, South London was killed in an alleged racially-motivated house fire. The New Cross Fire tragedy highlighted hostility between black Britons, the police and the media.

On the night of the fire, nine black youth died. By February 9, four more black teenagers had succumbed to their fire injuries. Before the New Cross Fire, black homes and community centers were targeted and burnt down. Many black Britons believed that the National Front (NF), a fascist group, was responsible for those incidents as well as the New Cross Fire tragedy.

Corroborated eyewitness accounts placed a ‘white man’ in an Austin Princess vehicle at the New Cross Fire scene. Witnesses stated that he threw a Molotov cocktail into the house party. Others believed, however, that the fire started from a dispute between revelers.

After several subsequent failed inquests by The Metropolitan Police, (the Met) black Britons were convinced that the police had failed the black community by not treating the thirteen black youths’ deaths seriously. Frustrated by the police’s inquests, on January 20, black Britons began organizing. ‘An assembly of the people’ consisting of five hundred black Britons was formed to investigate the killings. A week after the fire, 2,000 mourners gathered at the Moonshot Youth Centre in South London to pay their respects and to ‘devout themselves to the struggle for justice.’

It was through the ‘assembly of the people’ that black-Britons discovered that the police was ‘forcing statements’ out of black youths without lawyers or parents being present. Subsequently, the New Cross Massacre Action Group was formed and led by activists, writers, and civil rights campaigners John La Rose and Darcus Howe. They declared March 2, the ‘Black People’s Day of Action’ to demonstrate against the Met’s mishandling of the teenagers’ deaths. On 1 March, the Daily Mail falsely reported that several of the fire survivors were arrested and would face severe charges in what black Britons saw as an attempt to undermine the demonstration and the black community’s inquest into the house fire.

On March 2, an estimated 20,000 demonstrators including members of the Black Panther Party, Black Parents Movement, and Black Youth Movement, marched in one of the most massive demonstrations against racial injustice in British history. For ten hours campaigners marched eight miles from Fordham Park, South London to Hyde Park, Central London with placards stating, ‘Thirteen Dead, Nothing Said’ and ‘No Police Cover-Up.’

Weeks after the demonstration, ‘Swamp 81’, a plainclothes police operation, was launched in Brixton, South London, the heart of the black Briton community. In early April, an estimated 943 peoples were stopped and searched by the police under ‘Sus laws’, an addendum to the 1824 Vagrancy Act, and 188 black youths were arrested. Many black Britons viewed those acts the state’s retaliation for the ‘Black People’s Day of Action’ demonstration. From April to the end of the summer of 1981, several significant uprisings occurred in various British cities.

The New Cross Fire was a significant turning point in Britain in terms of black Britons, the police and the media’s relationship and inter-generational alliance to expose racism, injustices and the plight of black Britons. Today, the New Cross Fire remains unsolved. But, as Darcus Howe said on the 30th anniversary of the fire in 2011 it is ‘the blaze we cannot forget.’

During the nationwide protests following the murder of George Floyd, Nic King thought hard about how Black voices could be amplified. Multiple publications have underscored the fact that the Black community has been underinvested and Black businesses struggle to raise venture funding to expand their operations.

King recalls on the Kelly Clarkson Show that he was emotionally charged, just like the majority of the protestors who took to the streets to protest Floyd’s unjust killing. In the midst of the chaos, that was how King got a business idea to found a cereal company called Proud Puff cereals, a vegan, gluten-free chocolate-flavored cereal that comes in the shape of a Black fist. He had left his corporate job of 12 years.

“It came to me through divine inspiration,” King said. “Summer of 2020 during the George Floyd protests, just like very one else, the world looked emotionally charged, I couldn’t sleep it was 3am and it was like someone whispered to me, it sound bizarre but I woke up and I thought Cereal company.

“Just like everybody else my age, I grabbed my phone and I am scrolling through social media and there was a lot of anger, a lot of sadness we’ve seen a lot of protest but there was also company initiatives, going forward how they are going to amplify black voices as well as ensure diversity, inclusion and equity.

“So I just Google Black owned cereal thinking it has to be there. And to my surprise, it wasn’t there and from there I was like wow this is my opportunity not to just wait for the change to happen but to actually be the change,” he said.

King touts his business as the first Black-owned cereal in America. According to him, since he launched his cereal the feedback has been overwhelming. Despite the early signs of promise, the Black entrepreneur notes that there are still hurdles to overcome, one being large production to meet growing demands and putting his cereal on grocery shelves.

“I’ve been reaching out to these brands, but I haven’t received any feedback. I guess it’s because I’m the new guy in town. So, I understand that. But, I’m focusing on [my] brand, just building with my community,” he said.

With Proud Puff, King is not only looking at creating jobs but also wants to showcase Black greatness. He decided to put his family on the cereal box. On the side of the box, he lists 20 influential Blacks across every sphere.

King is currently working on more cereal concepts and building up his brand despite the pandemic. “There’s a lot of systems that come to play. I have to get tested first before I can go to the office or the distribution facility. It’s definitely slowed down a bit, forcing me to go online a lot more. But, I’ve been building, and cultivating what I need to do organically to make the business rise,” he said.

Starting Proud Puff cereal was not King’s first attempt at entrepreneurship. He previously attempted launching a clothing line but was not successful.

A Virginia judge ruled Tuesday that a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee along Monument Avenue can be removed under the governor’s order. In June, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced plans to remove the statue of the general amid protests for racial justice in the U.S. in the wake of George Floyd’s killing.

At the time, monuments connected to slavery and colonialism became the target of Black Lives Matter protesters across the world. Statues on Richmond’s Monument Avenue were toppled by protesters or removed by the city. To date, the towering statue of Lee remains the only one standing following an injunction that had blocked it from being removed for months.

The plaintiffs argued in court last week that Northam does not have the authority to remove the statue because “it would violate restrictive covenants in deeds that transferred the statue, its pedestal and the land they sit on to the state,” NBC 12 reported.

But Circuit Judge W. Reilly Marchant ruled Tuesday that Northam can remove the statue though he cannot take that action immediately. The 130-year-old statue will remain in place until after the resolution of an appeal. The judge also ruled that keeping the monument in its current location “would be contrary to public policy” established this year by the Virginia General Assembly that would allow the removal of Confederate memorials.

“We are one step closer to a more equitable and honest Virginia,” Northam tweeted after the ruling.

Attorney General Mark Herring called the ruling a huge win.

“We WON the Lee statue case after a judge found that it was raised against a backdrop of white supremacy and that it is against public policy to keep it up,” Herring tweeted.

He said the ruling “will send a very strong message about how Virginia today values equality, values inclusiveness that we recognize that this statue was a relic to a white supremacist past that does not reflect who we are as a Commonwealth.”

In 1890, the statue of Lee on horseback, which is 21 feet high on a pedestal almost twice as tall, was erected in the former capital city of the Confederacy.

The Confederate states, also known as the Confederacy, were 11 states in the United States of America that seceded from the Union after the election of President Abraham Lincoln. They existed between 1861 and 1865 but were never officially recognized.

These states formed the Confederacy as a way of maintaining slavery as a way of life — something the election of Lincoln threatened. In 2015, following the Charleston church shooting, a number of states removed statues dedicated to the Confederacy, as they believed that these statues glorified white supremacy and a government that thrived on the perpetuation of slavery.

In recent years, there have been renewed efforts to remove Confederate tributes due to the above reasons but those against the idea believe that Confederate statues like Lee should be made to stay to educate future generations of the evils of the past.

Police and protesters clashed for a second night in Philadelphia following the police shooting death of 27-year-old Black man Walter Wallace Jr. Footage of the shooting shows Wallace being shot at several times by the police on Monday after they yelled at him to drop a knife.

Wallace had a mental health crisis before his killing, and his family had called for an ambulance to seek help for their son, according to their lawyer, Shaka Johnson. The lawyer said the officers were aware of Wallace’s mental health crisis since they had been to the family home on about three occasions before he was shot.

Hundreds of people who gathered in a West Philadelphia park on Tuesday night started marching through the neighborhood in protest of Wallace’s killing. The march turned violent when the group came across some police officers near a police station and started throwing bricks, rocks and light bulbs at them, according to reports. Others looted shops amid reports of arrests in other areas of the city Tuesday around 9 p.m.

During Monday night’s protests, some 30 police officers were injured and about 90 people were arrested. Philadelphia Police Department tweeted, “A large crowd of appx 1000 is looting businesses,” and advised residents to remain indoors as the police and the National Guard were deployed.

Wallace’s family has meanwhile condemned the violence and looting. “Stop this violence and chaos,” Wallace’s father, Walter Wallace Sr., said outside of the family’s home on Tuesday, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “People have businesses. We all got to eat.”

Police commissioner Danielle M. Outlaw said an investigation into the shooting is underway, adding that all issues in the video would be addressed. District Attorney Larry Krasner also released a statement saying his office would conduct a joint investigation of the shooting along with the police department’s Officer-Involved Shooting Investigation Unit.

Police spokesperson Tanya Little said the shooting happened before 4 pm Monday after officers received a call about a man screaming and holding a weapon. Officers arrived at Cobbs Creek, a predominantly Black neighborhood in west Philadelphia where they found Wallace holding a knife, Little said. The officers ordered Wallace to drop the knife; he refused and rather “advanced toward” them, according to Little.

Both officers then fired “several times” at Wallace, who got hit in the shoulder and chest. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital the police drove him to. The officers involved have so far been taken off street duty pending further investigation.

A bystander shot a video of the incident, which was shared on social media by civil rights attorney Ben Crump. Wallace’s death is the latest killing of a Black person by police in the U.S. after months of protests against racial injustice and police brutality in the wake of the death of unarmed man George Floyd.

For whatever reason, the fear has never been quite overcome by the Nigerian people even after President Muhammadu Buhari, a former military leader of that country, referred to himself as a “converted democrat”.

After he was kicked out of power in 1985 in the same way he had militantly grabbed it, Buhari tried under the new democratic dispensation to become Nigeria’s president. He was fourth time lucky in 2015, thanks to the support from the hugely revered Olusegun Obasanjo and top-dollar advice from a former senior adviser to Barack Obama, David Axelrod.

On assuming power, Buhari was mindful of what he had to prove and the background against which he would be measured – the steps were careful and the tone, ear-friendly. There were the Boko Haram menace and an economy that required impetus but the president understood that his democratic credentials were under perpetual forensic audit by the over 190 million in Nigeria and observers from afar.

But the complexity of the multitudes in a democratic society revealed his shallow temperance in good time. This year, the vibrant #EndSARS movement of young protesters who sought to disband the notorious unit of the Nigerian police service came knocking for positive change and the door held by no hinges, caved in.

The Special Anti-Robbery Squad had terrorized Nigerians for decades, and the widely-held feeling was that the unit was not fit for purpose. As the days rolled on, the concerns of the protesters did not necessarily evolve but expanded. And that was the most annoying thing for Nigeria’s ruling elite – to be called out to do their jobs in that very global manner by young people.

But what happened with the movement was simultaneously the best opportunity Buhari was presented to cement his name in the pantheon of converted democrats. But Nigeria’s president allowed himself to be undone by the temptations of not aspiring to respectable immortality.

The source of Buhari’s first temptation goes back to 2019 after he sealed the deal for a second term. There are now no more elections for him to win and that means there is very little reason to go further and seek better. The nature of Nigeria’s politics means that Buhari is not necessarily hurting the chances of whoever in the All Progressives Congress (APC) is considered heir apparent to the president.

Alfred Akawe Torkula in The Culture of Partisan Politics in Nigeria: An Historical Perspective illustrates how Nigerian politics is not particularly ideological as it is populist, and not strongly partisan as it is about ethnic identities. Buhari himself was the presidential candidate of three different parties in four different elections.

The second temptation was the president treating the cries of concerned citizens like noises of petulant children. Falling to this temptation was as African as they come, with the nearly 78-year-old adult dismissing the dismissable children who should be seen and not heard. Throughout the time the protesters were on the street of Nigeria’s major cities, Buhari only spoke twice to their problems, and he did not hide his condescension on either occasion.

In the first speech that came days after the protests had begun, he reiterated the disbandment of SARS and virtually said there was no more reason for protesters to be on the street. SARS had previously undergone reformations and disbandment that left the unit neither reformed nor disbanded.

The second time Buhari spoke to Nigerians, he threatened that the federal government will not be dared by troublemakers “who have hijacked and misdirected the initial, genuine and well-intended protest”. When people with power frame language in this way, it leaves very little doubt that the state security apparatus takes it upon itself to choose whosoever fits a predetermined description of a troublemaker.

Effectively, this threat was not lost on the youngsters who had already seen some of their colleagues killed. The speech also came two days after protesters were killed by soldiers in Lekki, Lagos, an event Buhari failed to acknowledge as if that day had not even happened.

Buhari even reserved some of the sensational disrespect of his second speech for Ghana’s Nana Akufo-Addo who the Nigerian president diplomatically told to mind his business after the leader of Nigeria’s West African neighbors had, in his capacity as the head of the regional body ECOWAS and in neighborly spirit, spoken about the unrest in Nigeria.

The final temptation Buhari surrendered to was the rotting Nigerian democratic culture. The attitudes that preserve the sanctity of democracy seems lacking among Nigeria’s political class and the young people know this all too well. The young in Africa’s most populous nation know the systemic dream-shattering efficacy of the Nigerian experience.

This is the culture where political office holders who felt insulted by an electorate asking them to do better unleash numerous faceless henchmen to clash with protesters.

For a while, protesters were not even against the national security forces in the streets but against a collection of machete and club-wielding young men whom no one has been able to identify. And who can forget the mysterious jailbreaks in two states that were blamed on #EndSARS protesters?

In the beginning, it was even hard for politicians to sympathize with protesters and those who even did hoped they were allowed to turn this one into an anti-Buhari campaign. There were those who definitely saw the #EndSARS movement as an anti-Hausa and anti-northern Nigeria masses who had coalesced around an exaggerated police problem.

Now, the leadership that could not be reached but through the force applied by international pressure is thinking of regulating social media, the tool by which they were exposed.

What reared its head in the two weeks that the #EndSARS campaign was alive was the leader with authoritarian tendencies. The poor protesters could not get through to him and he would not even tell them to eat cake or Agege bread.

Certainly, the unwritten leader’s transcendental calling as one who should rise above the usual and lead the people into some semblance of sense is the ground upon which Buhari’s refusal to lead shocked many. He did not want to bring light to the darkness but took to the nightshade like the black panther.

In the last two weeks more than any time during his presidency, Buhari epitomized the fears that never went away. Every bit of his moral abstinence said clearly to the young who come tomorrow: Hope? That’s for losers!

Violence rocked Guinea's capital Conakry on Friday as supporters of opposition leader Cellou Diallo clashed with security forces who tried to disperse them.

They threw stones and blocked roads. Police responded with teargas and bullets. The clashes erupted as soon as provisional results released by the electoral commission showed president Alpha Conde winning with a big margin.

Conde, 82, won twice as many votes as his nearest rival, opposition candidate Cellou Dalein Diallo, with 37 of 38 districts counted, according to preliminary results from the commission.

Opposition supporters accuse the electoral authorities of rigging the vote for incumbent president Alpha Conde.

Sekou Koundouno, head of mobilisation for the opposition coalition FNDC said Conde had committed 'high treason'.

"He is an illegal and illegitimate candidate who is stubbornly pursuing his obsession to turn Guin ea into a monarchy in which, by the way, he will dictate orders to his subjects," said Kounduno.

Diallo maintains that he won with a landslide despite irregularities, according to his own tally. He remains barricaded in his home which security forces have besieged since Monday.

ICC warning

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor warned on Friday that warring factions in Guinea could be prosecuted after fighting erupted.

“I wish to repeat this important reminder: anyone who commits, orders, incites, encourages and contributes in any other way to crimes … is liable to prosecution either by the Guinean courts or the ICC,” she said.

Many people have been killed since clashes began on Monday. Scores too had been killed in the run up to the vote as protestors marched against Conde's bid for a third term.

Nigerian protesters demanding an end to police brutality returned to the streets on Wednesday, saying they were unconvinced by the creation of a new police unit and a pledge not to use violence against demonstrators.

Protesters have staged daily marches nationwide for a week, calling for an overhaul of police forces. Police have responded to the demonstrations with beatings, tear gas and gunfire, which human rights group Amnesty International said had killed at least 10 people.

The protests have prompted a raft of announcements. The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a police unit that demonstrators have long accused of beatings, killings and extortion, was officially disbanded on Sunday.

On Tuesday, police agreed to stop using force against protesters. They also announced the formation of a new unit, the Special Weapons and Tactics team (SWAT), to "fill the gaps" left by the disbanded SARS.

But protesters said on Wednesday they feared the new unit will simply be a rebranded version of SARS.

Hundreds gathered on Wednesday in the capital Abuja, as well as megacity Lagos and Warri -- both in the south -- to press their calls for police reforms.

"What they do is... give them new uniforms, call them a different name, but they are still the same people in these police forces," said blogger Folu Oyefeso, in Lagos.

Demonstrators in Lagos, who gathered despite heavy rain, sang, danced and chanted. Many held placards, including one that read "Stop killing our dreamers. #EndSARS now."

Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in a statement on Wednesday, urged protesters to wind down demonstrations, saying that the gridlock caused in recent days had disrupted businesses still reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.

"People are just coming back to businesses. It would be unfair for those businesses not to be able to get back on their feet again," he said.

Nigeria's police chief has ordered the unconditional release of all demonstrators arrested during protests against police brutality.

This was a key demand of protesters who have rallied against the hated Special Anti-Robbery Squad (Sars) in major cities for seven days.

Amnesty International said that 10 people were killed in the protests.

Rallies have continued despite President Muhammadu Buhari announcing on Sunday the disbandment of Sars.

Protesters responded to that announcement with scepticism, saying they believed that Sars officers were still deployed.

Some of Nigeria's biggest music stars, including Davido and Falz, threw their weight behind the demonstrators, who have been galvanising support on Twitter under the #EndSARS hashtag.

On Tuesday, they marched in the oil hub of Port Harcourt in defiance of a ban on demonstrations imposed by the state governor.

Protests were also held in the commercial hub, Lagos, the country's capital, Abuja, and four other cities.

What did the police chief say?

Mohammed Adamu announced the release of all protesters at a meeting with the National Human Rights Commission.

He did not say how many of them were in detention.

Mr Adamu added Nigerians had the right to protest peacefully and ordered officers to stop using force against them. He acknowledged that the protesters' concerns were genuine and said they would be addressed by the government.

The meeting also agreed that an independent panel would be set up to investigate allegations of abuse against Sars, and other police units.

On Monday, Mr Buhari promised that the disbandment of Sars was only the first step towards "extensive" reforms within the police force.

Huge victory for protesters

The police chief's announcement is a massive victory for the protesters. It shows that the government is under enormous pressure. It is difficult to predict whether the demonstrations will now end. The level of mistrust between the government and protesters is high.

The protesters have also got a taste of their power, and they may decide to continue their campaign. They would very much like to see punitive action against police and other security officers blamed for the deaths of demonstrators.

Although Amnesty International says 10 people have been killed, other reports suggest that the number is lower.

The protest movement does not have an organised leadership. Much of its success is down to online influencers - especially a group of women who have been organising medical supplies and funding, including bail for detainees - and celebrities who have supported the protests from the onset.

Protesters are most likely to listen to these two groups and the government will be hoping that they call for an end to the demonstrations.

On July 18, a protest against religious intolerance took place in Duque de Caxias, in Greater Rio’s Baixada Fluminense region, at the former site of the terreiro (outdoor place of worship for Afro-Brazilian religions) of Joãozinho da Gomeia, babalorixá (high priest) of the Candomblé religion. The demonstration was organized because the mayor of the city, Washington Reis, announced that a daycare center would be constructed on the site, abandoning the current recovery process of the historical memory and religious significance of the place. Participants in the demonstration called for the space to be preserved as a heritage site. Currently, the site is considered unsanitary and is abandoned.

On July 27, almost ten days later, the demands made by the black movement and by religious movements were met by the Duque de Caxias city government: the site will be preserved, and the sacred memory of the land will be maintained. The municipal government resolved to build the new school unit in a different location, fence off the land, and clean up the site.

Understand the Case and Its Importance to Afro-Brazilian Culture

Who was João da Gomeia?

Considered the most famous Brazilian babalorixá, João Alves Torres Filho, from the state of Bahia, better known as João da Gomeia, was an important pai de santo (male priest) in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1946, he moved to Rio de Janeiro, establishing his terreiro in Duque de Caxias, where he attended to politicians and artists. Rumor has it that former Brazilian presidents Getúlio Vargas and Juscelino Kubitschek visited him at his terreiro. His bibliography is the subject of two published books, one play, academic studies, and, more recently, a parade theme in Rio’s carnival. In 2020, the samba school Grande Rio, which is located in the same municipality as the terreiro, took the story to Rio’s Sambadrome. The tribute considered the artistic soul and religious life of the pai de santo.

In addition to his renowned and respected spirituality, the pai de santo was also an artist who brought the terreiro dances to the stages of theaters in Salvador and Rio de Janeiro. The religious community did not receive these (public) performances well, but the babalorixá, with his striking and irreverent personality, kept his art alive despite the criticism.

Currently, there is a committee dedicated to keeping the memory and work of the babalorixá alive. The Gomeia Committee is led by Pai João’s filha de santo (a female religious pupil, spiritual daughter), Seci Caxi (sacred name given to Sandra Seci Reis), and since 2015 they have planned to build the Joãozinho da Gomeia Memorial. The Rio de Janeiro State Institute of Cultural Heritage (INEPAC) also initiated a process to establish the area as a protected public landmark, which is still underway. “I’m not against it. No one here is against the construction of a daycare. But this is a sacred site and we must respect Pai João and the importance of his name within Afro-Brazilian culture,” said Seci de Caxi during the July 18 protest.

Pai João’s terreiro unquestionably made its mark on Brazilian history. But more deeply still, it marked the lives of many residents of the Baixada Fluminense, such as that of journalist Sílvia Mendonça, Ekedi (spiritual role in the Candomblé religion), a resident of Duque de Caxias and activist in the black movement. “I was born nearby, and my family used to come to the parties. I’m the youngest, but my oldest brother would be 97 years old if he were still alive. My father was born in 1900. Everyone knew Pai João’s stories around here, but no one knew him as Joãozinho da Gomeia. He was Pai João. And what would be the importance of building [the daycare] here? It’s not only about preserving his memory, that wasn’t the only thing he wanted. He wanted to empower the population. The black population especially.”