On September 24, 1964, Ghanaian President Dr Kwame Nkrumah said that “the foulest intellectual rubbish ever invented by man is that of racial superiority and inferiority.”
He was speaking at the opening of the first meeting of the editorial board of the Encyclopedia Africana at the University of Ghana, in Legon. The meeting lasted six days.
The President said the board would have to contend with the fact that “powerful forces find it in their interest to maintain the mythology of racial inferiority.”
Why Nkrumah’s words resonate in these times
Throughout last week and this week, protests have been held in the US and worldwide after Floyd, an unarmed black man, died while being pinned down by white police officer Derek Chauvin.
The protests began after a video showed Mr Floyd, 46, being arrested in Minneapolis on May 25 and a white police officer continuing to kneel on his neck even after he pleaded that he could not breathe.
The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with third-degree murder and will appear in court next week. Three other police officers have been fired.
The Floyd case has reignited deep-seated anger over police killings of black Americans and racism. It follows the high-profile cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Eric Garner in New York and others that have driven the Black Lives Matter movement.
For many, the outrage also reflects years of frustration over socio-economic inequality and discrimination.
Diaspora African Forum demands justice for George Floyd
The Diaspora African Forum has petitioned the United States of America (USA) government to arrest and prosecute all four police officers who were caught on video manhandling George Floyd at Minneapolis, USA, resulting in his death.
The Forum further called on the USA government to seek a drastic change in systemic policies that oppresses and suppresses African-Americans and violates their human rights.
The petition, signed by members of the Diaspora community in Ghana, some Ghanaians and civil rights activists and presented to the USA Ambassador to Ghana, Stephanie Sanders Sullivan, in Accra yesterday further urged the American government to put in place measures that protect the lives of African-Americans and other minorities or risk losing its global status as a model of democracy and freedom.
In brief remarks ahead of the presentation, Rabbi Kohain H. Halevi, Convener, Universal Pan African Diaspora Coalition of Ghana, said it was time to end growing killings of African-Americans by police officers and white supremacists.
He said, for far too long, the USA government and laws have failed to protect them from hateful executions and other racially-motivated actions stating that “we have brought ourselves to a new level of consciousness and responsibility to end this terror.”
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
