African Liberation Day, 2024
Today, we gather here in Görlitzer Park, which as you all know fits into the racist stereotypes of our black struggles, asking the question, when will our struggles be visible and humanised?
Yet, this Park is full of historical significance, diversity, visibility, and symbolism.
This space is marked as a ‘hotspot’ not of diversity but of crime from the BIPoC community as the racist narrative goes. The reasons behind the situations in this park; the racist asylum procedures are never addressed. Europe’s asylum policies, like the Dublin Regulation, are not just bureaucratic hurdles; they are mechanisms of oppression. They deny asylum seekers the fundamental rights to work, accommodation, and a dignified existence. These policies force vulnerable people into precarious situations, exacerbating their suffering and dehumanizing their existence.
What we fought to achieve in Oplatz cannot be extended to Asylum seekers facing deportation to countries of entry to Germany.
We are angry! Oplatz resistance is being whitewashed. For 2 years, we occupied spaces. We fought an Apartheid Asylum system that had stripped us of our dignity and rights. The Residenzpflicht law, the Gutschein system, right to work, right to study, against deportation and shutting down old condemned buildings; the Lagers. It is for a reason they are Lagers.
Now, the same oppressive measures are being reintroduced; the Bezahl Karte, an attempt to further isolate us from the rest of society and deprives us refugees of our self-determination: it is an act of structural, systemic and physical violence.
The use of artificial intelligence, Eurodac, and the GEAS system represents a new frontier of surveillance and control, stripping away the last vestiges of privacy and dignity from migrants. The EU’s heavily funded militia, Frontex, enforces state violence through deportations and brutal pushbacks, extending Europe’s crimes from the Mediterranean Sea to its externalized, militarized borders.
Women and children are being locked out, left to face unimaginable horrors without legal support. This is not merely a violation of human rights; it is a direct assault on human lives. The EU Pact focuses on detention, surveillance, and the criminalization of migration, turning a blind eye to the human suffering it causes.
Europe’s leaders seem united only in their efforts to stop migration. Are we truly the biggest challenge facing Europe? The continent grapples with war, skyrocketing inflation, and the suffocating grip of capitalism, yet migration is scapegoated as the root problem. This is a disgrace. Shame on you
Europe’s treatment of migrants is a crime against humanity. The policies and actions taken in the name of border security and migration control are not just failures of policy; they are moral failings on a grand scale.
Today, we gather with a shared purpose to commemorate the struggles, celebrate the victories, and renew our commitment to the ongoing quest for freedom, dignity, and self-determination across the African continent and diaspora.
Africa, rich in diversity, culture, and natural wealth, has long been a battleground for freedom against forces that have sought to exploit and oppress. Neo-colonialism, extractivism, racism, oppression, and systemic injustices of Africa is a story whose
This includes acknowledging the harms inflicted upon Africa, offering sincere apologies, and providing reparations to affected communities.
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We must acknowledge the dark history of colonization, a period that saw Africa carved up by foreign powers with little regard for the cultural and ethnic landscapes that existed. Colonizers extracted resources, enslaved populations, and imposed foreign governance structures that have left enduring scars. The Berlin Conference of 1884-85 epitomized this brutal scramble for Africa, where European powers divided the continent with arbitrary borders, sowing seeds of conflict that persist today.
Colonialism was not just about domination and resource extraction; it was also about dehumanizing African people and dismantling their systems of governance, education, and economy. Traditional knowledge and practices were undermined, replaced by foreign ideologies and systems designed to serve the interests of the colonizers.
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For far too long, Africa has been treated as a mere repository of resources. The story of extractivism in Africa is one of relentless exploitation. African countries, while politically independent, remain economically subjugated. Our mineral wealth, which includes gold, diamonds, copper, cobalt, and many others, should be a source of prosperity and development, instead profits are siphoned off to foreign capitals, while African workers endure poor wages and hazardous conditions.
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This is not a relic of the past. Today, multinational corporations continue to exploit African resources with minimal benefit to local populations. The environmental degradation caused by mining and drilling operations has led to loss of biodiversity, pollution of water sources, and desertification, exacerbating poverty and food insecurity.
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The exploitation of resources and the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo highlight a tragic paradox: immense natural wealth coexists with extreme human suffering and instability.
In Nigeria, the story of oil extraction in the Niger Delta is one of environmental devastation and economic disparity. The story is the same in Mozambique, Uganda and Tanzania.
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We cannot forget the World Bank and IMF and their destructive policies. Africa is steeped in the politics of debt. Loans from the World Bank and IMF, though framed as tools for development and economic growth are catalysts of poverty!
Today, the struggle for Black Liberation in Africa must also contend with the urgent threat of climate change. Africa contributes the least to global greenhouse gas emissions, yet it suffers the most from climate impacts. Extreme weather events, prolonged droughts, and shifting rainfall patterns are already devastating agriculture, leading to food shortages and exacerbating poverty.
Climate injustice is stark. Africa is not the “gas station” for the world. The impacts of climate change are already being felt acutely, from the Sahel to the Horn of Africa, from the Congo Basin to the coastal regions. Droughts, floods, desertification, and loss of biodiversity. 100 people died in Mali from heat waves, over 500 people died in Kenya due to floods, in Zambia, Zimbabwe farm lands have been swept away. It cannot be business as usual. We demand action and responsibility. We demand climate justice!
We must recognize that the fate of Africa is intricately linked to the fate of the entire planet. The resources that are extracted from its soil and waters are not infinite, and the environmental consequences of their exploitation are beyond its borders. We must hold accountable those who profit from extractivism. And no, the solution is not green energy, the green washing of Africa must stop.
We must reclaim and celebrate African heritage, traditions, and knowledge systems. Cultural liberation is as important as economic and political liberation.
The struggle for Black Liberation in Africa is interconnected with global movements for racial and social justice. Building alliances with like-minded movements worldwide strengthens our collective power.
Black Liberation demands that we confront the legacies of colonization, challenge ongoing exploitation, and stand firm against climate injustice. It calls for solidarity, resilience, and unwavering commitment to justice and equity.
We will not be silenced, we will not be intimidated, and we will not be complicit in our own oppression.
We will echo again the demands that were made today in the demonstration in front of the consulate of Tunisia in Berlin.
We demand the freedom of movement for everyone.
We demand for fair trade and market value for goods and not for development Aid.
WE DEMAND REPARATIONS!