By Beaton Galafa
Maybe justice will dawn on sand today. The corpses, piled on piles of other corpses, rot beneath the dunes. Bones scatter unattended to in ruins of villages that once harboured life. Stains of blood got tired of stench that attracted vultures. These people are black. This is Africa. There’s a government too, stable, meant to protect its people. But this day, June 14, 2015, law –abiding earth will alter fate.
When the International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted Sudan’s Omar Al Bashir in 2009, there must have been jubilation among the more than 350, 000 human underframes. There was light on the paths of the millions of Darfurians seeking refuge wherever they smelled peace. Sigh. Their president, the very source of this excruciation, would finally have bullets of justice loaded, ready to flee the cannon to his head’s direction at his single glance. The weeping in Darfur had finally been heard.
June 14, 2015 reignited that hope. Now, it’s been submersed. Like winds travelling west this moment only to change direction next moment. An Africa conscious of imperialism has gathered momentum. Omar Al Bashir is more African than the grannies, women and children he shells in Darfur. Or precisely, he is more Sudanese than the people his planes have been dropping bombs on for years. Pan-Africanism will not allow the West to stand in Africa’s way. Cadavers that were on their feet at the mention of justice must recoil to their catacombs.
Hamid Maraja Hassan should still curse whatever has become of hope. And justice. It’s faded so quickly. His son must continue wandering in Darfur’s afterlife seeking justice. He never tasted burial. At least, Hassan saw him off; until grumbles of the Janjaweed reminded him he needed to save remaining family. That’s how he and his family surrendered their humanity to a refugee camp in 2004.
The fight against neo-colonialism has made earth realize one thing. Africans are the mandarins who meet in South Africa or Botswana or Ethiopia. If a government perpetrates genocide against its own people, that’s fine. It’s not the presidents who die. Their duty is to slay. Hundreds. Thousands. Hundreds of thousands. And meet at summits to discuss development. It’s legal in Africa. Africans are the leaders. And the ICC is some stench that wants to foul the air around our leaders: Africa.
Now, the African Union, Pan Africans, and every single man in the streets praises South Africa. They sneaked Al Bashir in, and smuggled him out. Or, South Africa shielded a war criminal. Africa for Africans, at home or abroad. When they talk, they skip the blacks being massacred in Darfur. They throw away images of women and their daughters being raped by the Janjaweed in front of husbands, parents, brothers, sisters and everybody. They don’t want to talk the pain Al Bashir has inflicted on their flesh. The West must not be allowed to interfere. We are past the age of colonialism.
They say African matters must be left in the hands of Africans. And ask them what Africa is doing to return justice to those death denied the same. Ask them what Africa is doing, or has done so far, to mend the psyche of the raped. The psyche of the thousands who have witnessed blood gush out from faces of their loved ones till death saved them. To mend the horror stuck to corners of their minds when they remember bullets and bombs that tore apart flesh of family.
Where does all this talk about ICC targeting Africans leave the tortured Africans? Right there in their homes: mass graves, understaffed health centres in Zamzam Refugee Camp, on queues waiting for food, in malodours of blood flowing down the Nile, or soaked in sand. And fellow brothers, separated by mere borders drawn by former colonial masters, jeer and cheer that the man responsible for this has been allowed to enter and leave R.S.A freely. A sign Africa has grown wings.
Pan-Africanism is at a peak. The genocide victims must wait a little longer. Until the ICC gets George Bush indicted, or Netanyahu, or Tony Blair, they must fold their arms and wait. Africa is on the move. Down with imperialism. For now, it’s no crime to commit crimes against humanity so long you rape your own people, chop off their hands and slice their throats. The survivors will be finished off by bombs from warplanes and bullets. And famine. You are an African. They are your people. The continent will honour your bravado for daring the ICC. Sorry, the West.
I read a man’s comment when people debated the issue on a BBC Africa facebook page. He was happy. So much sorrow in his happiness. “Glad that Omar Al Bashir has left R.S.A. so he can now kill more of our African brothers.” And somebody spoke to the Pan-AFRICANISTS. “If you truly love your fellow African brothers, you wouldn’t support a man who is responsible for the murder of hundreds of thousands of Africans. He’s responsible for genocide.” I raised my palm to aid the falling head. He is responsible for GENOCIDE.
Don’t ask why Africa remains stuck to the ICC when she doesn’t subscribe to her very acts of sabotage against sovereignty. That’s a sign you’ve been brainwashed. Don’t call for justice for the slain brothers and sisters. That undermines Pan-Africanism. It makes you traitor to the major course. Africa must bury the Darfur corpses, exonerate Al Bashir of his genocide charges, and preach to the world there’s nothing going on in Darfur. Just minor skirmishes. Africa must rise to its feet, proclaim a fight against imperialism, and trample on the Darfur ghosts. Close the ears to the rattling noise of mourning and groaning. Blind the eyes against a glare of skin hanging from corpses of Darfurians. That is the direction the struggle against neo-colonialism has taken. Darfurians can die in solitude, Africa never minds.
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