Revolution is a Global Necessity
Nigeria's #EndSWAT movement demonstrates that the anti-police fight is a worldwide struggle.
Thousands of protesters have been storming Nigerian streets for several weeks, demanding the country to abolish the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (Sars). The unit is reviled in the country for their illegal conduct, including shooting, robbing, and even sexually assaulting citizens.
Their treachery reaffirms that policing is a naturally brutal, corrupt entity. Policing isn’t an American issue, it’s a human issue. We don’t need to have an entity that has (armed) authority over the domain of other people, especially not when learned biases affect one’s ability to wield that power responsibly. The Stanford prison experiment proves as much.
This week, Nigeria announced that it had disbanded SARS and created a SWAT unit. But the shift merely rebrands the same beast. We saw the same thing occur when Minneapolis proposed to defund the Minneapolis Police Department and institute a ‘Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention.” But as long as it’s under state control, it’s an inherently oppressive institution that won’t be held accountable.
The Minnesota proposal was spurred by an urgent uprising that lasted the entire summer and is still taking place, no matter what the mainstream media chooses to cover. When George Floyd was killed by Derek Chauvin, America stood up together — and countries like Nigeria stood up with us. There were George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests everywhere. It’s time to reciprocate.
We’re all facing the same beast. Police are shooting people with impunity, and not being held accountable (which condemns the entire carceral state). They’re corrupt. They’re assaulting innocent people. And they’re tied in with nationalists who support their every anti-Black action.
The parallels are glaring. Imperialism is a worldwide disease. These oppressive institutions don’t serve the people, they plunder them, and only when the people rise en masse does the ruling class offer some kind of placatory reform. But that’s not enough. It’s time for all of us to demand more for each other, worldwide.
A lot of us, me included, live in a western bubble. We aren’t always abreast of what’s going on outside of the scope of the western media, especially when it comes to Africa. It’s why we’ve looked the other way on POC countries being systemically pillaged for resources. It’s why we view Akon as some kind of real-life T’Challa instead of someone helping China colonize Africa through hefty loans. On a relatively trivial level, it’s why we call all the music that comes out of Africa “Afrobeats.” We’re disconnected. How could we be so pro-Black with only a cursory understanding of what’s happening on a Black continent? It can’t be about “rooting for everybody Black,” and “protecting Black women,” and “Black Lives Matter” if we don’t act on those mantras.
Activists I spoke to for a piece I’m working on credited the rise of camera phones with helping make police brutality a more entrenched issue. It’s one thing to hear about police violence, but seeing it made it real, and jarring, for everyone. Technological advancement has also aided grassroots movements by allowing us to not just access international media, but learn personal accounts of oppression from people all over the world. I saw #EndSARS first on social media, not on CNN. We have the tools to foster the kind of solidarity we need.
Black Liberation has always been rooted in international alliance, and not just on the continent. The women who co-founded Black Lives Matter stand with Palestine. I remember seeing protesters in Palestine teaching Ferguson activists how to combat tear gas, a small moment that was actually enormous.
Marcus Garvey sought an Afro-Asian alliance to fight colonialism. Martin Luther King spoke with leaders representing every ethnicity while putting together his Poor People’s Campaign. Malcolm X traveled the world in the last year of his life, met revolutionaries from all over the world, and came back with a renewed perspective on what anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist solidarity meant.
We’re not just fighting policy, or any particular leader we’re fighting racism and human greed. That scourge casts a cloud all over the world. Radical organizers all over the world are fighting for a world where classifications and race have no bearing. Why not do it together?
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Venmo: Andre-Gee
Bless u Andre.
A couple questions:
1 - which actions can black activists in the US take to support the Nigerian activists over there?
2 - how can we as a species come to a greater understanding of each other’s struggles - or at least get further along with stopping these things in our daily lives?
3 - are u up on your Yoruba?