Americans Started Terrorism- Rights activist, Izsadore
Category: Opinion & Views
While the United States may be spearheading the fight against
terrorism and extremism worldwide, one of her civil rights activists of
the Black Panthers Party (BBP), Mrs. Sandra Izsadore, has said that
white America actually taught the rest of the world how to perpetuate
terrorism by their sheer inhumanity to the African-Americans whom she
said they murdered in their thousands for no reason.
Also, Chairman, Human Rights Commission (HRC), Prof. Chidi Odinkalu,
said a lot of civil liberties were being denied Nigerians by what he
described as privatisation whereby they are being made to pay for the
profit margins of a certain few.
Sandra Izsadore was late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s mentor who reeducated
and reoriented the Afrobeat maestro towards a new political and musical
consciousness that was to define his activism and emancipation
struggles. They spoke in Lagos yesterday at the symposium that opened
Felabration Week, the yearly activities to celebrate Fela, his music and
life.
The symposium theme was ‘Human Rights as My Property,’ after one of
Fela’s popular tunes, and had Izsadore, Odinkalu, Mrs. Ayo Obe and Mr.
Kunle Ajibade as speakers. Mr. Olasupo Olasore representing former
governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola as chairman and
moderator.
In an emotional presentation that included horror slide images of
white supremacists hanging blacks on trees and modern-day white police
shooting blacks like the recent Trevor Martins’ case in the U.S.,
Izsadore said.
“Ku Klux Klan taught the world terrorism; they murdered my people”.
She stressed the need for African people to treat history with
respect, something not available to African-Americans whose ancestors
were stolen, denied their rights and shipped away to foreign lands to
endure despicable horrors, as horses were valued above them.
She went on: “We were stolen from Africa and forced elsewhere. I’m
this African who was stolen. I don’t know my ancestors, my homeland; I
was so disappointed when my DNA test showed I’m from northern Kenya. But
you know your history; you know where you’re from. You know your
language. There were the things I told Fela. What I discovered was that a
lot of Africans don’t about these things”.
She said the Jews have never forgotten what they suffered even if a
few millions of them died, but that Africans have forgotten so soon the
millions that died during the Middle Passage of the Trans-Atlantic Slave
Trade.
She lamented: “But what about those who died during the Middle
Passage? Millions died. If the ship’s captain felt that it was
profitable, they emptied the entire human cargoes and collect the
insurance. We ought to know our history”.
She chided Africa for remaining backward just as the entire western
world and its modern civilization depended on the riches prevalent on
the African soil. She said it was her dream that Africans began to live
like Saudi Arabia princes.
“The western world is so dependent on Africa. What goes into making
the cell phone is got from here,” she said. They need you; but people in
England, Dubai, America live better than you Africans. The riches are
here. So, I want my people here in Africa to live like Saudi Arabia. But
when you waste your resources, you are destroying your property.”
Izsadore frowned at the ethnic divisions that perennially plague
parts of Africa and said whenever she saw anyone with a black skin, she
feels a certain affinity of kinship to him or her, adding, “I don’t
understand the ethnic divisions so long as I see a black person. We are
one; collectively we can do a lot. I look at Nigeria like that. But it
cannot happen so long there’s greed.”
Odinkalu praised the Kuti family for making sacrifices on behalf of
ordinary Nigerians who have been at the receiving end of rights denied.
Odinkalu seemed to situate the biggest rights denied Nigerians on the
educational plane and said it has bred all manners of vigilantes that
now plague the polity either as Niger Delta militants, kidnappers in the
South East or Boko Haram in the North East.
According to him: “In reality, some of you may own human rights, but
you cannot enjoy it. Are human rights there for us to be enjoyed at our
will? Do we have state and civic capacity to claim our human rights?
Those who tell you to go to court know that you may not get justice.
We’ve lost faith in the legal system. Nigeria is wholly privatized, with
all of us paying for the profit margins of those running our lives.
“If the poor do not have access to good education, then you’re
breeding a band of vigilantes. In the South South and South East, they
use their education to negotiate for money in militancy and kidnapping;
in the North East, it’s nihilistic. In fact, there are only two tribes
in Nigeria – the haves and haves-not. If human rights is anything to
you, you don’t allow for narrowness.”
Odinkalu also linked human rights with memory and history that
inevitably becomes a person’s identity, adding, “Do we want a country or
tribe? A country of values or vigilance? Let’s have a country with
values.”
Earlier, Sasore said human rights was something that needs to be
protected, but which can only be attained if the rule of law was allowed
to prevail as again the rule of man.
Ajibade also said Fela taught Nigerians not to wait for political
leaders to give or ‘dash’ them human rights, but to fight for it.
Obe said there was a need to collectively protect the rights of
everyone, as a violation of one person’s right impinged on the rights of
others as well.
Culled From: The Guardian
Related Posts via Categories:
- Buhari: “My people are useless, my people are senseless, my people are indiscipline”
- OPINION: Between Ambode and Obanikoro
- Will You Forgive a Cheating Wife?
- What is Charly Boy Discussing With Madam Patience Jonathan?
- Why Do Women Send Their Naked Pictures
- Should a Lady Keep Her Father's Surname After Marriage?
- Is it okay for a woman to propose to a man?
Be Our Fan On Facebook
Follow Us @ACKCITY On Twitter
Want updates via;
BB: 568235DD
WhatsApp: 2348105649346
Need a good platform to Advertise your products & services;
Call: (234) 08121807240, 08105649346
No comments