Greetings Signatories of the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Petition and Supporters of the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide Campaign (SMWeCGEC).

Please see the attached response from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II’s Government dated 21st August 2017 and received today 23rd August 2017. No doubt the British Government would have been aware that today is the 226th anniversary of the insurrection of Afrikans in the north of the then French colony of Santo Domingo (present-day Haiti) which occurred during the night of August 22–23, 1791. However, to be true to the historical record, the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) actually commenced on 14th August 1791 with a Vodun ceeremony in Bwa Kayiman, in the northern part of present-day Haiti. The Haitian Revolution was one of the most important events in modern history. It was the first successful anti-slavery revolution. Not only did enslaved Afrikans in Haiti liberate themselves, they also inflicted crushing defeats on three empires – the Spanish, French, and British. There were numerous fatalities among the colonialists, each suffered catastrophic losses trying, and failing, to take back the island from its heroic defenders. 161 sugarcane refineries and 1,200 coffee plantations got torched, with damage estimated at 600 million pounds. In recognition of the fact that it was Afrikans that liberated themselves in Haiti, the 23rd August is also commemorated as the United Nations ‘International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition’.

You can then read our initial thoughts on this response below the letter from the FCO.

Please note the address of Esther Stanford-Xosei has been concealed which explains the gap between the date and opening line of the letter.

 

 

 

 

 

Our initial thoughts in reaction to this sort of Maangamizi denial response are:

Firstly, further insult has been added to injury in that contrary to the Prime Minister Theresa May’s initial response to the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Petition and its accompanying letter  dated 8th August 2017 stated that she had requested her correspondence officer to arrange for a Minister in the FCO to respond to us directly;  instead we have received a response from Karen Hamling, Human Rights & Democracy Department. Karen Hamling’s position within the department is not clearly identified in the correspondence. For your information, a list of FCO ministers can be found here:

So, is Theresa May confirming her notoriety popularised in song as a “Liar Liar” or has the Foreign & Commonwealth Office chosen to disobey her requests seeing her as a weak leader on her way out?

Secondly, the response from Karen Hamling on behalf of the FCO shows how the Government in its response to us is seeking to counter our assertions by highlighting those from our communities who are collaborating with the genocide and ecocide crimes of white power and priding themselves on being successful within this genocidal imperialist white supremacy racist capitalist system, without highlighting anything being fundamentally wrong with it. This emboldens the FCO to display this type of dismissive attitude to the cries of the majority of our Afrikan people across the world about the continuing genocide and ecocide of the Maangamizi that they are suffering. In addition, such a response starkly reveals that if our case for reparatory justice is to be taken seriously by the British state and its white power accomplices in Europe, then we have to re-examine the situation of the minority who are made to look successful from among us. Arguably, their so-called success in this genocidal imperialist, white supremacy racist capitalist system is largely possible due to the ‘selling out’ of our people through the actions, inactions and omissions of those deemed to be successful i.e. those collaborators in perpetration of the Maangamizi crimes of genocide and ecocide against Afrikans and Mother Earth.

Yes, we often hear praise-singing alongside finger-pointing to some in our Afrikan Heritage Communities who are deemed to be successful, the question is:

at what genocidal price for the majority of our people does the so-called success of a tiny minority come?

This type of untruthful and insulting response from FCO comes out of such notions of success that some ignorantly or opportunistically tout and pride themselves on in our Afrikan Heritage Communities.

It is mind-boggling that in spite of reports by British NGOs such as the ‘Honest Accounts 2017 – How the world profits from Africa’s wealth’ and ‘The New Colonialism: Britain’s scramble for Africa’s energy and mineral resources’, the British Government is still in denial that it is aiding and abetting British corporate criminals in the perpetration of the Maangamizi crimes of ecocide and genocide against Afrika and people of Afrikan heritage all over the world today.

Increasingly it is becoming clearer that the British Government will only begin to listen to our Afrikan Reparatory Justice demands, including the demands of the SMWeCGEC when the advocacy, encouragement and support by our Afrikan Heritage Communities in Europe is given to the efforts of our Afrikan Communities of Resistance in Afrika, the Caribbean, other parts of Abya Yala, (the so-called Americas), as well as in Europe to shutting down extractive industries and other foreign corporate crime scenes of the Maangamizi. This is something we stated in the letter to the Prime Minister accompanying the 2017 hand-in of the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Petition. It follows that the plunder of our community resources is still continuing to enrich white power in Britain and European domains of global apartheid across the world. We therefore need to seriously revisit some of the strategies and tactics with which our revered Ancestors fought successful liberation struggles; gaining some concessions that resulted in the official discontinuation of the British Empire, even from inside the brains and belly of the beast of the said Empire!

In fact, it is by pursuing strategies and tactics in Britain that advocated for, encouraged and supported actions of Afrikan people to make the British and other European Empires in Afrika, the Caribbean, Abya Yala as well as Asia ungovernable, which compelled changes in the British Empire, resulting in the proclamations of independence of our current nations states in Afrika and the Caribbean. A similar outcome and impact can be brought about again in our lifetime with the shutting down of Maangamizi crimes scenes in Afrika, the Caribbean, other parts of Abya Yala and Europe.

For those that still say they are not for petitioning or Marching, which actually cost us very little risk or harm in Britain today, what else is it you are prepared to do which you feel will bring about a more favourable response from the British state to our Afrikan Reparatory Justice demands?

The honestly critical discussion and reasoning that should flow from these perspectives of ours in the SMWeCGEC is something that we urge is carried out in Afrikan Heritage Communities not only in the UK, but throughout Europe, Afrika, Abya Yala and other parts of the world. We further urge that this is also done against the background of the historical legacies and the contemporary manifestations of the still ongoing Maangamizi as outlined in the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Petition.

So we in the SMWeCGEC invite you to share your own thoughts on the contents of this response from the FCO. Please email your thoughts and suggestions to: stopthemaangamizi@gmail.com by Friday 22nd September 2017.

We aim to utilise your ideas to inform a more detailed response to the FCO on our part as the SMWeCGEC.

 

In Service & Struggle

 

International Steering Committee ‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide!’ Campaign

(ISC-SMWeCGEC)

 

 

“[We] have had only a slave’s idea of freedom, and to the slave the master’s way of life represents the ideal free lifestyle...”

bell hooks, ‘Ain’t I a Woman’

 

 

 

“It is my deep conviction that all peoples wish to be free, and that the desire for freedom is rooted in the soul of every one of us. A people long subjected to foreign domination, however, does not always find it easy to translate that wish into action. Under arbitrary rule, people are apt to become lethargic; their senses are dulled. Fear becomes the dominant force in their lives; fear of breaking the law, fear of the punitive measures which might result from an unsuccessful attempt to break loose from their shackles. Those who lead the struggle for freedom must break through this apathy and fear. They must give active expression to the universal longing to be free. They must strengthen the peoples’ faith in themselves, and encourage them to take part in the freedom struggle. Above all, they must declare their aims openly and unmistakably, and organize the people towards the achievement of their goal of self-government.”

Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, ‘Africa Must Unite’

 

 

“Those who seek temporary security rather than basic liberty deserve neither!”

Queen Mother Audley Moore