Riot police brutally attacked protesters in the mostly Black city of Buenaventura, the South American nation’s largest port. Charo Mina-Rojas, of Black Community Process, part of a broad spectrum of organizations behind a general strike in the city of half a million people, said water is unavailable 150 days of the year, the people “don’t have access to health care, teachers have not been paid in months,” and violence is rampant in poor neighborhoods controlled by paramilitary gunmen. “We don’t see opportunities for real peace in Colombia if Black people continue under these racist attacks by the national government,” said Mina-Rojas.
Kwame Nkrumah’s 1961 speech on the assassination of Patrice Lumumba exposes the the international white supremacist cabal responsible for his death, and for the crisis of the Congo.
It is not surprising that a settler colonial state would practice racism for centuries or that race would be the major factor determining who lives and who dies.
Donald Smith always performed at Black Agenda Report events in New York City. He was a great musician and friend to the Black Agenda Report team. He will be missed.
BAR contributor Ann Garrison reports on conditions in Ethiopia.
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book. This week’s featured author is Mercy Romero. Romero is Associate Professor of American Literature and American…
