Do Black Lives Matter Only in the USA?

 

Picture credit: bbc.com.

I don't know what you call being in shock without showing any signs of it or resigning to the fate that you aren't actually in shock. Do you think that black lives matter at all? And I mean it. Do you think that black lives matter at all to black people, to anybody? Yesterday (18/11/2020), I got a ride to Obingwa Local Government Council and saw an irate mob assailing a youth in his twenties or thirties. A young man was sprawled on the dirt tied on his feet and hands. He wore only boxer shorts. The angry men beat him with all sorts of weapons including cassava stems, stumps, blocks; he was crying and pleading for mercy. His crime? He allegedly was trying to steal a motorbike. He in his pleas claimed that the motorbike belonged to him. I would hear later that he was lynched and burned to ashes and left at the Council headquarters. What a race of barbarians. Is this the independence that we sought for in 1960 or the democracy that we won in 1999. Tufiakwa!

Do black people care about black lives or are we merely reacting to racism especially abroad when we cry that BLACK LIVES MATTER? If we think that it's ugly for blacks to be killed by the white police in the USA but don't mind engaging in the scene that I witnessed yesterday, then we are as totally as I project us - a race of SAVAGES. I will be the last person to encourage anybody to steal for whatever reason including getting ready for a marriage/wedding or the festive season. Oh! What a waste. Black lives should matter. We oughtn't make sport of watching lynches or wanting to see the reactions of angry people. We are savages when we do not condemn jungle justice. Yes, and yes! Those men and boys of the underworld are deadly and mustn't be handled with kid's gloves. They are killers. But I still would hand them over to the police than engage in extrajudicial killings even if I would be afraid of the consequences. Law enforcement is a backbone of democracy; jungle justice isn't. Why do we think that these things don't matter? Our decision making ability and pattern MAKE a civilization. It's not the cars we ride, it's not the people we know and meet. I don't care what petty scores were settled yesterday. Resorting to this ugly way of resolving conflict is evil. Nigerians are victims of structural violence, of a society that doesn't speak the truth and speaks the language of scapegoat and sacred cow. Why would you frame another in order to survive this year, to get married, get a job, a promotion or whatever? We have lost it as a race. We don't get it. We are wicked. Mothers where are you in all of this?

I will say it again, a regular argument of mine: it took more than the black race to end slavery. For the black race alone there will no end to slavery. Blacks are evil and black on black violence is hardly condemned except when you aren't getting paid anything. Yesterday was every day. And every day in this jungle called the Nigerian society including the Igbo society is scary and evil. It wouldn't be up to the black race to end a trade that produced a buoyant economy. Nigerians are greedy and that's the way we have chosen to be. The victim of yesterday's lynching was found with bullets, which he was accused of using in armed robbery. He had team members who were luckier and had escaped before the irate mob caught up with him and he met his waterloo.

The war against oppression is not over even after the #EndSARS protests. Don't be a victim. Don't let foreign agents use you to perpetrate evil in your homeland, in this case Nigeria. The Igbo used to be a very law-abiding society before we became known for nothing but our inordinate love of money. Money. Money. Money. When will we realize like Obama's famous slogan would remind us that 'we are the change that we are waiting for?' Nobody is coming to change Nigeria for us. We are only going to lose our freedoms and soon we shall start carrying our own placards everywhere shouting, BLACK LIVES MATTER HERE TOO!