Monthly Archives: July 2015

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Now, there will be no more pain but beautiful mornings. RIP Sandra Bland

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Sandra Bland was outspoken about the injustice that African-Americans often face. Footage from several of her inspirational videos where she would call on social change, have emerged. She would greet her viewers saying “Goodmorning my beautiful kings and queens”. She spoke with grace and calmness as she talked about injustice and the need for society as a whole to work towards social change, fairness and equality. She spoke with brilliance. Today, that brilliance, that beautiful queen is gone.

On July 10, in Waller County, Texas, Sandra Bland was stopped for changing lanes without any signalling and was later arrested on the allegation that she had assaulted an officer. Three days after her arrest, she was found dead in her cell room. Bland was 28 years old. Her death has been ruled a suicide. However, her family, the public and myself are not buying that. There is suspicion of foul play all around. In America, police has many times, been everything but a friend to African-Americans. Many unarmed black people because of their skin colour, have been shot dead by police officers. The stories of such murders are numerous and disturbing, so this particular story that Sandra Bland would have taken her own life is not one that will be easily embraced. More investigating is needed. Coupled with the fact of police brutality on black people in America, Sandra Bland was visibly full of life, full of hope for social change. As observable from her videos, she struck a presence of someone who was not quitting. She was in this life to win. So, we are really asking the police – what happened to Sandy Bland?

As many wait for more details to emerge, I feel so sad that an activist for racial equality and unity like Sandra Bland possibly went through the evils that she so wanted to work towards getting rid of. In several different videos that Sandy had recorded, she can be seen saying things like – “I was asked was I trying to racially unite or racially insight. My goal is to racially unite.”, “I’m going to call out racism wherever I see it.”, “for the ones who want to get on on my page talking about ‘all lives matter’, show me in American history where all lives have mattered. Where has there been liberty and justice for all?”.

Thank you Sandy for your service to humanity. I wish that you now sleep well in the place where there will always be beautiful mornings and where there is no more pain and injustice. God bless you.

Love & Peace,

Chiamaka

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Diversity should mean more than meeting a quota

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Photo obtained from http://www.rooshv.com

The challenge for every culturally and racially diverse society is the need to embrace all people within it. Indeed, this is the way diversity works. It is far more meaningful than the numbers, than meeting the quota. A truly multicultural or diverse society upholds an honest love for all people and their various cultures. Diversity is a beautiful thing and it only makes sense when it is done right.

While quite a number of countries are impressively diverse, this does not mean that they are very inclusive. Diversity encompasses different spheres – it is not just first acceptance or – your ability to enable migration to your country, your ability to provide social services for everyone regardless of where they came from or what they look like, your self-appraisal that you do not discriminate but accept all. A huge sphere of diversity that is often forgotten is the need to understand that everyone is just as significant – irregardless of whether they are called visible minorities or immigrants – and that their cultures are also important. Speaking from my own experience as an immigrant living in a Western society, I feel like there is an unconscious, constant persuasion for the the newcomers, the marginalized, to ‘assimilate’.

There are all these assumptions that – with all the bad news that comes from Nigeria, coupled with the Western media’s one-sided portrayal of Africa – coming to Canada must have been my ultimate redemption. I see how people with foreign or non-Canadian accents are treated and spoken of. There is pressure on the so-called other to dissolve into a melting pot. I have heard that there is no Canadian accent. While the sentiment of such a statement is appreciated, I do believe that honesty is the best policy.

In the United States, diversity blooms yet there is still so much racism. Unarmed black people are killed by law enforcement officials on the premise that the unarmed black person could somehow have been harmful, just because of his or her skin colour. Of what use then is diversity, if people are not free to be who they are?

Diversity to every society should mean more than using the faces of people of different skin colour on a billboard advertisement, more than boasting about the numbers of Asian, Black, White and Syrian people that reside together in a western society. It is beyond feeling blessed to be from a diverse society, it is beyond being accepting of more opportunities at diversity, it is beyond first-compassion for people who are seeking to migrate to flee war or poverty. These are all important but an ideal diverse society, must be one that also gives way to people to be who they are – to speak how they have always known to speak, to dress how they have always known to speak, to be proud of their skin not scared of what it may bring unto them. Diversity needs to be done right.

Love,

Chiamaka

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Jungle justice: It’s time to end it

Jungle justice is a thing. It is certainly a thing in Nigeria and the recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa make one wonder the number of African countries in which jungle justice exists. The disturbing fact about jungle justice, in Nigeria is that it happens so often and there are little or no legal consequences.

In Nigeria, the most common method of carrying out jungle justice is to put a tire on a suspect’s neck, then pour kerosene or some inflammable fluid of that sort on the person and then light a match. The individual then burns alive, in the presence  of the perpetrators and onlookers and when the scenario is over, life goes on. Stating the word “suspect” is actually flawed because the person who is killed is not being seen or treated as a suspect but as a criminal. In a country with a Constitution and with laws, it is quite outraging that anyone can go on the streets and automatically take on the role of judge, jury and executioner. It certainly feels awkward referring to such acts with the word – justice, although it follows the word “jungle”. However, jungle justice is what such acts are indeed referred to.

Barbaric is the word for this sort of so-called justice. Anyone can be the victim. Innocent people could become victimized just based on an accusation. Imagine that some people are burnt to death over crimes which will certainly not demand an execution sentence at a court of law. So, why is jungle justice still a thing? Why are the perpetrators allowed to walk around as free people?

It is about time that Nigeria and other countries in which such acts of inhumane judgement are practised, enact laws that make  them (the acts) punishable. Jungle justice is unfair, callous and wicked – and this is not what justice is about. Justice is about due process – looking at the facts and asking thorough questions – before a verdict is made. It is time for a change and people need to be taught that such acts of inhumanity to a fellow person are intolerable and not in any way in conformity with being or becoming a just society.

Question: What are some other jungle justice practices that you have heard about and where did they occur? I would love to hear from you.

Peace,

Chiamaka

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No place for fundamentalism in social justice advocacy

You live and learn. No one learns everything they need to know about life in a day. It is human nature to live, make mistakes, be ignorant and then learn, do better, still make mistakes and then, learn again. This is why the approach of imparting social justice knowledge through fundamentalism is not very helpful and often toxic and repelling.

It is important to recognize the fact that to come to knowledge, there is a process, there is no instancy. So, the approach of shaming everyone who does not necessarily agree with an ideology or a movement, in an effort to bring about social change does more harm than good. Of course, activists do not need to accommodate every idea or everyone and this is the powerful thing about activism. You defend people and societies assertively, in spite of insult, criticism and sometimes, possible harm. However, activists must be careful to make room to listen to those voices that want to know, that believe that there is good in what you are advocating for but need more enlightenment. This is so because some people do not just disagree with ideas because they are naive but because they do not have enough information, because they grew up within ideologies that are different from what should now be the norm.

The good news is that there are people willingly to learn why certain ideologies are putting societies backward. So, they need an open space where they can express their ‘ignorance’ politely and freely and then be more enlightened.

Do you ever read the works of certain social justice advocates and feel somewhat belittled, categorized unfairly as not willing to contribute to change? Well, no one should be made to feel that way. Social justice advocates have to be able to present themselves, their mandate, in a way that encourages people to come up and question them and even give constructive criticism. A simple example of fundamentalism is when an activist seems to respond to hate with hate, whether or not that was the intention. Also, think reverse racism – as a more narrow example.

It is very easy to be distracted by anger from all the bad news circulating form society to society, that activists begin to seem too angry and unapproachable. Speaking from my own experience, I have written and spoken out of anger at times, in ways that though my argument may have been right, I just may have scared off a few people with my facial expression or the tone of my voice – whether orally or in writing. Luckily, I have people who can tell me – I think you were right but that approach was unnecessarily too harsh.

Fundamentalism does not make people immediately drop their differing ideologies to follow yours, rather it takes them aback. The approach seems scary and certainly, they do not want to turn into people with temperaments, people who give no room to newcomers, the adapters. As my sister, Ebele, once told me and I am paraphrasing – A lot of troubles in the world are caused by fundamentalism.

So, it is problematic to approach social/world transformation through fundamentalism. It is like feeding fire with more fuel.

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