Ever since I saw the video of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on the 25th May—killed by a policeman who knelt on his neck for nine minutes while he called out for his dead mother and for mercy—I have been upset and angry, as have been most people across the world and amongst different races. I’ve been watching the riots in the USA and all over the world and wondering whether this will pass by as just another of these events, or whether change really is on the horizon.
We know this systemic racism started four centuries ago and, through endless and varied legal and political processes, was designed to benefit one section of a society. All other systems are subservient to this system and all other people are subservient to a race, a large number of whom are fighting to keep the privelege they feel is rightfully theirs.
I also see the knee on George Floyd’s neck as also being symbolic of how neoliberalism, and the associated neocolonialism, are putting their knee on the neck of Africa. I hear Africa saying, “I can’t breathe.” There are many avenues by which those in power are putting their knee on the neck of our continent, but let’s just focus on what’s happening in agriculture.
*The views of the above article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Africa Speaks 4 Africa or its editorial team.