ACCRA — On the night of November 13 in Paris, France, a sophisticated and well-coordinated series of terror attacks took place that smothered the lives of 129 people, with several dozen people grievously wounded, and fighting for their lives in hospitals all over Paris.
The cascade of terror attacks started at around 9.20 PM local time with two explosions by suicide belt wearing “Shahidists” at the Stade De France where a friendly match was been played between France and Germany. We are told, French President Francois Hollande and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier were in attendance at the Stadium.
Another group of gunmen made their way to a packed concert hall, The Bataclan in the 11th arrondissement in Eastern Paris. There, they proceeded to calmly and methodically shoot the concertgoers while shouting Allahu Akbar (God is Great). In perfect French, they told the terrified and stunned hostages at the Bataclan, that this was retribution for France’s intervention in the Syrian conflict.
Before the night was out, other roving gunmen with unnerving military precision pumped their bullets of terror-loaded death into unsuspecting people, at five other locations including restaurants, a pizzeria and a bar in the French Capital. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for these attacks.
We in Africa from the hallowed depths of the African soul extend our deepest condolences to the grieving families of the victims and the survivors of this act of terrorism.
All around the world has come a deep groundswell of emotion and compassion for the people of France in their fateful hour of tragedy and pain. It seemed to give the tenor of a shared humanity that binds all of us, from the physical expanses of the planet to the digital expanses of cyber space. One might wish that this were so. However, what do the facts show?
On April 2, 2015, Al-Shabaab an Islamist terror group that (as of October 15, 2015) has pledged allegiance to ISIS, burst into a university college in Garissa, Kenya and massacred 147 students, young men and women, young people that represented the hopes and aspiration of their families.
There was no global groundswell of compassion and emotion for these victims, in an Africa whose image has been distorted and conditioned by the media masters of the North Atlantic. Compassion seems to come in different colors, the tint of Afrophobia also known as racism.
On October 31, an Airbus built Russian airline plane carrying Russian passengers from the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh in the Sinai crashed 23 minutes after taking off killing all the 224 on board including several children. It was later determined that it was a bomb placed on board, an act of terrorism claimed by ISIS.
There was no groundswell of emotion or compassion from the media masters of the North Atlantic and their conditioned eager consumers. Compassion again had a different tint, the tint of Russophobia.
On November 12, a suicide attack in Southern Beirut, Lebanon killed 43 people and wounded about 239 people. Again, ISIS claimed responsibility for this act of terrorism. But, there was no groundswell of emotion or compassion from the media masters of the North Atlantic and their self-contented consumers. Compassion again had a different tint, the tint of Arabophobia.
From the blood-spattered halls of stolen lives at Garissa University College, the shattered fields of fragmented human life and debris of the Russian airline plane crash, the murdered lives of Southern Beirut, to the blood soaked sidewalks and restaurants of Paris, there is but one common thread, the thread of life stolen by violent death wearing the mask of terrorism. All these deaths are equal in magnitude and horror; to these we extend from the hallowed depths of the African soul our deepest condolences.
One might ask why this is occurring. What could be the reason for so much violent death? I think the comment of one commentator reacting to the Facebook post of former U.S. Labor Secretary under Clinton, Robert Reich, sums it up much more succinctly than I could. These are his words:
This is such a disappointing post Mr. Reich. President Obama on bombings in France 2015, “this is an attack on humanity.” Let’s put his drone casualties aside for a moment. French colonial empire: 1534-1980, aka French invasion of sovereign lands. Spanned 38 existing countries today. Former colony of Algeria, 1.5 million deaths during colonial domination and fight for independence. Only 37 colonies to go. It’s about context, connections and the west’s refusal to grapple with its colonial past and how it manifests in the present. Some deaths are “attacks on humanity” others are just policy…. “The higher races have a right over the lower races, they have a duty to civilize the inferior races.” -Jules Ferry, 1884. Main exponent of French colonialism. Failure to understand how hundreds of years policy of domination and millions of resulting deaths are connected to this, ensures this will happen again and again. The media is the main proponent of extending post colonial denial, I’m asking that we don’t buy into this today by the continuing valuing of the “higher races” over the “lower races” vis a vis “humanity” aka the French over “collateral damage” aka brown folks in former colonies dying at far greater numbers due to current western policy that no one is addressing the way this event is getting addressed and attended to.
We as Africans guided by the operative principle of Maat can only nod in understanding at the words of this astute and wise commentator. He could not have said it any better. We do not make chromatic distinctions over compassion. For us, compassion has no color; it does not have different hues. We light the candle of dignified remembrance to honor all the victims of terror around the world.
This is a fitting account of terrorism in the past year by Jehuti Nefekare. It puts the conversation in the correct perspective. Calling on all peoples to condemn all forms of terrorism up to and including those ones in Africa and Black nations! Black Lives Matter as well, not just the French and the Americans!
The western hypocritical governance & media are making us believe that French are more humans than Africans.France economic and political dominion in Africa and the thousands dying in Africa in wars that France has a hand in it is not a problem to them.Why should i care about them? #AfricanLivesMatters.
Akosua M. Abeka got so much to say in response to your article and events in Paris that will break it up into 3 parts:
Part 1: The value of human life
All human life is valuable and the loss of any is regrettable. IMO don’t believe the extended media coverage on Paris as well as what seems to be a show of support from the whole world is indicative of any bias against black lives. From the global media’s perspective keep in mind they are corporations and will only cover stories that sell and attract a wide audience.
Does this mean the rest of the world does not care about African events? IMO for the most part the answer is not that simple. Let me explain by using what happens here in the U.S. The news has over reported crime in black and minority neighborhoods so much that anytime another shooting happens in the hood attitudes have become there goes these savages killing themselves again. Both the criminals and victims have lost their humanity making it hard for people outside these communities to relate and empathize with their condition.
Same dynamic has happened with the media’s coverage on Africa. For the most part of the last few decades it’s being war and chaos. Things have only started to change in media global coverage the past decade. Obviously that creates a misconception that violence in Africa same any hood is the norm not the exception. Anything that is normal will not draw the same kind of response as an abnormal occurrence.
Part II: Unintended consequences of European Altruism
Face it Europe now has an Islamic problem. No need for political correctness. France and now the UK has a growing radical and non radical Islamic population. European altruism IMO is this liberal concept of believing that you can integrate almost anyone into a culture or society. Europeans have worn their liberalism proudly like a badge to their detriment. Europeans have allowed huge numbers of migrants from Islamic countries to move in without really considering the unintended consequences. Yes for the most part the majority are peaceful and freedom loving but some do not identify and insist that Islamic law is the only way.
Many of these people have been born and grown up into a culture which they neither understand or appreciate. There is a reason why in some Islamic countries a woman accused of adultery is immediately stoned to death. Expecting all people from these cultures to assimilate and adopt foreign concepts of tolerance, the rule of law, conviction by trial is ludicrous. The unintended consequences are starting to show now. So yes Europe and much of the west now faces a huge Islamic problem. Can theses people be truly integrated? If not the unintended consequences will be disastrous.
Part III: Sympathy is a b-tch.
Excuse my French but we need to stop asking for others to care about our condition. Asking for sympathy from our blond hair blue eyed counterparts is analogous to a slave requesting a pat on the back from the masters after back breaking work in the fields.
IMO as has been expressed through several posts on this forum, focus on the things that promote and elevate us. We have so many things to worry about, sympathy should be on the back burner. What can we do to make our lives as individuals, and collectively better? Sympathy and apologies do not solve systemic problems and are only meant for the weak minded. Targeted actions do. Stop feeling sorry for ourselves and start focusing on solutions.
Peace.
Thanks Ares. Let’s focus on solutions. One of those solutions would be to finally cut the Debt Paying deal that France has with 14 African nations. Let us force France to return the monies to the 14 West African nations and to Haiti. This stolen money will go a long way to help us build roads, schools and hospitals. France must pay back with interest what they have stolen from Africa! Or its injustice. Or else!
I don’t think I can say it better than Diane Gee, who posted this on her Facebook page:
I will not be updating my profile to support France. Sorry. It sucks that people died, always does. But more totally innocent black people are killed by our own cops in a month, every month than were killed there by terrorists. We have our own, unmentionable terrorist here. BTW, they have started killing poor whites too. Will THAT make us finally care?
France is bombing the sh*t out of Syria, and still collecting taxes from a bunch of African nations for its “losses” to slavery and their colonies there. Who mourns that?
I will not indulge in Islamophobia, because the refugees in Europe are going to pay for this, when these are the people they are running from. The people the US and the EU armed, trained and paid for to a great extent. The people they are trying to demonize.
Lastly, so many people have died in the Middle East this week, from the West’s attacks as well as ISIS, and no one gives a f*ck that it seems to me to uphold the idea that only white lives matter.
ISIS suicide bombers detonated themselves in the southern part of Beirut last Thursday, killing 43 people and wounding 239 and none of us painted our image in their flag.
I know its impossible to care about every atrocity at once. I know its harder to when your western press propaganda machine doesn’t write sensational stories about it. So you never hear about dead brown or black people. And still, innocents died! Yes, I feel for them with the same Mother’s instinct that makes every Palestinian child mine, every Somalian child mine, every young Black father my son, every trembling Iranian girl mine.
But does it ever occur to us, how grossly unfair it is to have some lives matter more than others?
I won’t. In fact, I should change it back to the rainbow, because GLBT people are still being denied parenthood in the US, even as we attained marriage.
When will all lives matter? When white people acknowledge black and brown losses as dramatically as ones that look like them.
Feel free to block me. I am un-budging on this. I won’t damn you for your following the pack, but I sure hope my words make your brains turn a bit before you fall asleep.