-Reactions of Leading Newspapers in the World
-Farrakhan Predicted Mass Killings of Blacks, But Warns Trump
-The Bunker President Trump Took Shelter in
By Zainab Atinuke, Garba M. Mahdi & Samson Yaki
It was a moment of grieve, as black nations of the world, in frenzied mood, buoyed up by the immensity of their grieve and determination to end the deadly monster call ‘Racism’, went berserk, to demand from the gods, the return of the soul of their horribly killed comrade, or from the bald headed monkey like-creatures, to put an end to the heinous acts, committed in the name of racial superiority. The protest, which engulfed the world in totality, left no stone unturned, to say ‘Enough is Enough’ to any inhuman treatments meted out to blacks all over the world.
Setting the stage rolling, besides giving full coverage of the world protest, the media also took definite stands to condemn the dastardly act. In the Sydney Morning Herald, columnist Tom Swizer sees an all too familiar pattern in American history of failure of the state to protect blacks against police brutality.
“The mayhem follows a depressing pattern in American history. The record of state failures to protect blacks and others against police brutality is all too full.”
An editorial in Le Monde paints a similar picture of an age long structural racism and police brutality by police and others against black Americans.
“George Floyd and Eric Garner are not isolated victims. The list is too long to give here of these black American men of all ages, who are too often victims of encounters with the police that turn out badly; of the trigger-happy in a country where firearms are routinely carried as an accessory, or just plain racism.
El Periódico in Barcelona also points to a history of endemic racism in the US.
“The truth is that what happened in Minneapolis is just the latest proof that the racism epidemic is far from being controlled, and that the two Barack Obama administrations did nothing to cauterize any wounds. On the contrary, they fueled the desire for revenge in many communities, with a deeply rooted racist culture, which saw its time come in November 2016 with the victory of a far-right Republican candidate.”
Many commentators are doubtful that Trump has the skills or even political capital to emerge as a healer of the endemic as Toronto Star’s Analyst, Edward Keenan thought. “Even if Trump were inclined to try to heal the nation with some kind of address, as some have called for him to do, it is hard to imagine anything he could say that would de-escalate the situation rather than be read as a provocation by the protesters.
South Africa’s Mail and Guardian had Ifrah Udgoon, a US Somali Immigrant, writing about her fears for her black son.
“Black mothers have much to fear when it comes to their children. American soil is saturated with the blood of black people: slavery, Jim Crow, mass incarceration and the war on drugs, and police brutality have ensured that black people know pain and loss intimately.
“We don’t see just a man in a single moment when we look at George Floyd. We see America’s entire racial history culminating into that one moment.”
Similarly, Leaders around the world also rented their voices in totality with a call to end any form of racism. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned racism and called for efforts to end inequality and discrimination.
“Racism is an abhorrence that we must all reject… Addressing inequality & discrimination, strengthening support for the most vulnerable and providing opportunities for everyone,” he tweeted.
Former American President, Barack Obama, said, America, should use the opportunity of the protest, to deal with fundamental national matters that constituted menace in the society.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson also condemned the killing of the unarmed African-American man by police, “I think what happened in the United States was appalling, inexcusable,” Johnson told MPs in parliament, in his first public comment on the case. “We all saw it on our screens and I perfectly understand people’s right to protest what took place,” he added. “Obviously I also believe that protests should take place in a lawful and reasonable way.”
The Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the police killing shows the “true face” of the United States and its oppression of the peoples of the world, including its own.
“The fact that a policeman has cold-bloodedly pressed his knee on the throat of a black man until he died, and that other policemen watched on without doing anything is nothing new,” Khamenei said in a televised speech on Wednesday.
“It is the true face of America, it’s what it has always done all over the world – in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and other countries, and before that in Vietnam… It is the normal course of action of the United States, it’s the true face of their regime,” Khamenei said.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called the anti-racism protests “understandable and more than legitimate.” Adding that, “I hope that these peaceful protests won’t slide further into violence, but even more than that I hope that they will make a difference in the United States”.
George Floyd’s killing received condemnation from African governments and citizens. It led to protests and vigils in some African countries and reemphasized police brutalities on African immigrants and the need to eschew racism.
Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairman of the African Union Commission, issued a statement condemning the murder. He recalled the 1964 Organization of African Unity Resolution on racial discrimination in the United States and reaffirmed “the African Union’s rejection of the continuing discriminatory practices against black citizens of the United States of America.”
He urged U.S. officials to intensify their efforts to ensure the total elimination of all forms of discrimination based on race or ethnic origin.
In a virtual address to the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa condemned Floyd’s murder and said he shared the anger of millions in the U.S. and across the world.
“As countries that have borne the brunt of racial discrimination over centuries, we need to work together to end the scourge of racial violence, wherever it occurs. By working together, we can build a peaceful, just, healthy and prosperous global community,” said Ramaphosa, who is African Union chairman.
The Forum of Former African Heads of State and Government urged African countries to “raise a strong protest” to the killing and demand that the “perpetrators of this crime and all other crimes of this sort be punished in the strongest terms.”
Former Beninese President Nicephore Soglo said, “What level of cruelty must you reach that the entire world finally wakes up and manifests its indignation, Who would dare here, their face visible, to treat in such a way a European, an Arab, an Israeli, an Indian, a Chinese, a Japanese, an Argentinian, etc.? Enough is enough.”
Jerry John Rawlings, Ghana’s former president, asked: “If some of these atrocities, especially from some white police officers against black citizens, cannot shock the American populace to see evidence of their own decline, what can?
“How can a police officer be the source of such cruel, violent death with knee choking down a black man’s neck till he is motionless? And why do these cruelties end up in farcical trials that see the evil culprits escape justice and capital punishment?” he asked.
The Pan-African Parliament said it “stands in solidarity against injustice, racism, discrimination, and violence of any kind based on race and ethnicity.”
U.S. embassies in Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Congo have also issued rare statements of concern and called for justice.
“We are deeply troubled by the death of Mr. George Floyd in Minneapolis. The U.S. Department of Justice is conducting a full criminal investigation as a top priority. Law enforcement officials must be held accountable in every country,” the U.S. Embassy to Kenya said in a tweet.
Brian A. Nichols, the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe, said, “As an African American, for as long as I can remember I have known that my rights and my body were not fully my own. I have always known that America, conceived in liberty, has always aspired to be better-a shining city on a hill — and that’s why I have dedicated my life to her service.”
“In a long unbroken line of black men and women, George Floyd gave the last full measure of devotion to point to us toward a new birth of freedom,” he added.
The U.S. Embassy in Uganda said: “We are deeply troubled by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Authorities have fired the officers involved and are conducting a full investigation. Government officials should not operate with impunity in any country.”
The President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, was one of the first heads of state to respond to the murder of George Floyd.
“Black people, the world over, are shocked and distraught by the killing of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, by a white police officer in the United States of America…. It cannot be right that, in the 21st century, the United States, this great bastion of democracy, continues to grapple with the problem of systemic racism,” he wrote in a statement. “We hope that the unfortunate, tragic death of George Floyd will inspire a lasting change in how America confronts head on the problems of hate and racism.”
Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou said that the death of George Floyd was “the symbol of the old world that must be changed”, during a video conference with his peers in the African Union. “Our conference must condemn this heinous act without reservation.”
The Chadian Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, was very quick to react to George Floyd’s death, calling it a “murder”. In a statement, he said he “strongly condemns the murder of George Floyd that occurred in the United States at the hands of law enforcement officers”.
Some intellectuals, however, see it as opportunistic for the continent’s leaders to take up the problem in this way. Among them is the Cameroonian economist Célestin Monga, who called on African politicians to put their own houses in order first.
While he commended the “(anger and indignation) of African political leaders over the assassination of George Floyd and police brutality in the United States, he said he wished “they would be just as quick to issue condemnations when our police and soldiers are martyring our citizens on a daily basis”.
A hundred African writers hope that the repercussions of George Floyd’s murder will lead to the revival of the pan-African dream. In an open letter, they call for Africa to be a “refuge” for its diaspora.
“We ask that African governments recognize our alliance and ties with our brothers and sisters across borders, from America to Brazil and throughout the rest of the diaspora. Let them offer those who choose it a refuge, a home and citizenship in the name of pan-Africanism,” the African authors urged.
“We note with dismay that what Malcolm X said in Ghana in 1964, namely that ‘for the 20 million of us in America who are of African descent, this is not the American dream, this is the American nightmare’, remains true for 37 million (African-Americans) in 2020.”
But in all of these outpouring condemnations, Nigeria’s Muhammadu Buhari, who is the President of the most populous black nation in the world, kept mum.
In the same vein, Church leaders all over the world also condemned the death and spoke out against racism. In a united voice, they cried out that, “We stand with our kith and kin in America in these difficult and trying times, and we hope that the unfortunate, tragic death of George Floyd will inspire a lasting change in how America confronts head on the problems of hate and racism”.
The leader of America’s Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, a renowned American Preacher, having recalled his prediction at one time that American government was hell bent on annihilating blacks and the Arab world, warned President Trump that the black nation is an apple of God’s Eyes. “I have warned all of you. I told you that the army was coming. I told you to get your acts together and clean up your acts because they are coming with the mind to slaughter us. Have I not told you? Not just for a year but for three decades I have been warning you about the government of America planning a war not only with the Muslims overseas but the black people and the nation of Islam in America.
“But I’m gonna warn you that this is not a forsaken people and the God that we serve has promised us that He will fight our battles. We don’t have gun to equal yours, but we have God.
He fired that America and Americans are under the wrath of God for all the atrocities committed to humanity, “Check out the West coast, you never seen no rain like that. You ain’t seen anything yet. In the middle East, you all think that Dubai is a nice place to run and hide now, you can get into a hotel in a Muslim country. But they woke up one morning, in Dubai, and saw ten inches or ten centimetres of snow on the ground in the desert. So don’t you ever think that you can go somewhere and God can’t get to you when He wants to make an example of you.
Mr Farrakhan, unequivocally told Trump and Americans that America has had its days of greatness and will never come back to greatness again. “For you, Mr Trump, and for the country you said you want to make great again, that’s not gonna happen. America will never be great again. The days of greatness are over. The God of justice has come and America now has to pay for what she has done”.