Featured: Africa indignant after George Floyd murder

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Tens of thousands of people took part in the march in honor of George Floyd in Houston, June 2, 2020. Mark Felix / AFP

By: Frédéric Couteau Follow

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"  More than a week after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the shock wave continues to shake the United States, notes Le Point Afrique . And African-Americans are not alone in shouting their rage. Tens of thousands of women and men around the world have lent them their voices, especially in Africa. (…) Public opinion on the continent sees a parallel between their situation and that of African-Americans, notesLe Point Afrique, especially in the face of police violence. Beyond the reactions of support, the movement, which is growing on the other side of the Atlantic, questions in an unprecedented way the relationship of Africans with the United States and throws a harsh light on the situation of African Americans and African refugees far from living the 'American dream'.  "

Too much condescension and contempt

Is Africa right to be indignant?  "Asks Ledjely Guinea.

Yes, replies the site. Because, “  under other skies and because they are black, Africans also suffer condescension and contempt. This is particularly evident in the world of football, where in recent years many African or African players playing in particular in the best European clubs have tasted the bitter fruit of racism in the form of songs, insults, monkey cries or banana jets.  "

However, continues Ledjely , "  how to explain in particular that the African Union is concerned about the fate reserved for blacks in the United States, when it does not always do it enough for many Africans who are killed or the do we persecute on the continent itself?  "

In the DRC, Cameroon, Mali, Guinea, "  and in other countries still, citizens are killed, imprisoned and tortured, without any institution wanting to lift a finger. The irony is such, concludes Ledjely, that when it is on the continent, it is for others to be indignant, to condemn and to deplore. We, citizens and institutions alike, are looking elsewhere.  "

Trump conspired

For its part, Le Pays au Burkina concentrates shooting on Donald Trump ... "  Beyond the human drama, what is heartbreaking in this affair is its political management. Indeed, the American president, who has never made a secret of his connections with the white supremacists, did not even bother to sympathize with the pain of the family of George Floyd, any more than he did condemned this crime. Worse, continues Le Pays, he takes the option of calling on the army to silence the cries of anger from the Americans. By thus choosing to blow on the embers, all shame drunk, Trump attempts a political recovery whose goal is to galvanize his electoral base of the far right and to pretend in the imagination of the affluent as the champion of the order in the face of anarchy.  "

The voice of intellectuals

For their part, African intellectuals are indignant ... "  How could a population subjected to such treatment not revolt when a policeman coldly chokes a man whose only wrong is to be black? , exclaims the historian Pap Ndiaye, professor at Sciences Po Paris, in a column published by Jeune Afrique . The police departments of too many American cities are plagued by structural racism that has ruined the lives of black Americans for decades. Serious efforts have been made here and there, but we are still far from the mark. (...) Consequently, only a popular and powerful collective voice is likely to make things change , considers Pap Ndiaye. For example, by having the murderer of George Floyd charged with murder, not manslaughter.  "

It is now done since yesterday

Finally, for the Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka, Nobel Prize winner in literature, who speaks in the columns of WakatSera in Burkina, “  the solution is quite simple: Afrodescendants are, so to speak, condemned to excellence and to the conquest of economic and political power wherever they live , says the writer. No salvation or compassion should be expected from a system founded since the 15th century on the plunder of Africa and the enslavement or inferiority of its descendants. Why, concludes Wole Soyinka, do you want this system to accept its own loss?  "

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