On May 25th (“5/25”) 2020, two recorded events made headlines in Africa’s northern Diaspora. Both were horrific in the degree to which they were racially-charged and played out from the standpoint of white privilege and callousness against black lives. One was a blatant attempt to provoke a potentially dangerous police-confrontation against an innocent bird-watcher (Christian Cooper) in New York’s Central Park; and the other which demonstrated that very potential when George Floyd lived his final 8m:46s under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. Unfortunately, such horrific occurrences as these are not uncommon, and the long list of African victims goes back to the era of slavery whose evils live on and play out in toxic ways from that unexorcised and overly-policed space which nonetheless claims to be the land and home of the free and brave. Officially commemorated as Memorial Day, May 25th (in 2020) – the date of these occurrences and America’s unofficial start of summer – is, perhaps ironically, also observed as African Liberation Day…

Africa – humanity’s organic Motherland & Temple of the World [per God Djehuti] – is continually challenged by aggressions from the elite minders of an external northern Europatriarchal ‘cradle.’ Many regard the latter as a false matrix which has forced the world onto its self-serving assemblyline through its enterprises of chattel slavery, colonialism, apartheid & other crimes against humanity, which were ‘sanitized’ & curated via ‘historical’ text, symbols & media platforms for control over humanity’s narratives. When the world went into lockdown in 2020, global citizens witnessed the dark spirit of the criminal matrix unfold on TV, which led many to link the act itself to symbols in Britain’s Order of St. Michael & St. George medal-of-honor. Eerily similar to the depiction of a white ‘angel’ subduing a black-man-as-‘satan,’ George Floyd‘s murder was another of several ritual reenactments throughout history on either side of the 1818 date when this specific Order of the British Empire & its official raison d’etre came to be.

African Liberation Day is the term that came into use on May 25^th, 1963 to commemorate the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). On May 25th, 1963, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie hosted representatives from 30 African nations in Addis Ababa where they met with the intention of advancing decolonization gains, particularly in Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, and Southern Rhodesia. Most of the continent had achieved Independence by the time of this meeting. The charter they drew up in support of Africa’s remaining freedom fighters and to improve Africa’s living standards, was signed on May 26^th, 1963 by all attendees except Morocco.

Morocco was a holdout from a preexisting 1960s collective – Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Libya, Mali, Morocco, and Tanzania aka the ‘Casablanca Group’ – whose radical vision of Pan-Africanism and Africa’s future contrasted from that of the moderate ‘Monrovia Group’ (Liberia, Nigeria, and most of Francophone Africa including Cameroon and Senegal). Both factions had emerged out of the First Congress of Independent African States, which was convened in Accra on April 15^th, 1958 by  Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah to showcase the progress of African liberation movements for the first time on indigenous soil.

The 1958 Congress thus symbolically advanced the lead of the Pan-African Congress which had been working since its 1900 founding on behalf of African self-determination and liberation from predatory and parasitic outsider interests. To that end, this Congress became a model for subsequent meetings between African heads of state leading up to the 1963 formation of the OAU where the Casablanca and Monrovia factions reached a compromise. African Freedom Day, an annual precursor to OAU’s African Liberation Day (aka Africa Day)was also established from the 1958 Ghana Congress as a day to be set-aside for the recognition of progress made in Africa’s liberation struggles against (neo)colonialism, apartheid, slavery, etc. Though the OAU disbanded in 2002 and has since been replaced by the African Union (AU), 5/25 (May 25th) continues to be observed throughout the Diaspora as African Liberation Day. A Luta Continua… 

LINKS BELOW TO AFRICAN THOUGHT-LEADERS’ REACTIONS TO GEORGE FLOYD’S MURDER & RELATED ATROCITIES:

1. ‘It cannot be right’ – Akufo-Addo condemns George Floyd’s death
2. Mama Africa Dr. Arikana Chihombori Quao Statement Crying for her Son George Floyd
3. Statement of Moussa Faki Mahamat [AU] following the murder of George Floyd
4. Maponga Joshua III ‘…George Floyd, We Can’t Breathe’ 
5. Prof. PLO Lumumba, Africa WE CAN’T BREATHE, call to AU & Africa… about George Floyd
6. Ramaphosa: AU Strongly Condemns George Floyd Murder
7. “Former African Presidents Condemn George Floyd Killing”
8. “Africa Reacts to George Floyd’s Death & US Protests” [CSIS Africa Reacts series, 6/4/20]
9. “Africa’s Literary Community is Lending its Voice to Calls for Justice for George Floyd”
10. “In Rare Move, US Embassies in Africa Condemn George Floyd Murder”
11. “African Nations Call for Racism Debate at UN Human Rights Council“
12. Julius Malema‘s African Liberation Day Address
13. President Nana Addo to Deliver Kente to George Floyd’s Family
14. ‘Racist’ Statue in Catholic Churchyard in Ghana Provokes Backlash
15. Calls for Redesign of Royal Honour Over ‘Offensive’ Image
16. Ignorant African Leaders are More Dangerous than any Foreign Agendas
17.  Jamaica’s Governor-General Suspends Personal Use of Royal Insignia Over ‘Offending Image’
18.  Former African Slave Trade Center Renamed in Memory of George Floyd
19.  George Floyd, Four Hundred Years Later
20.  A year since George Floyd’s death, people are pushing for change that lasts
21. African Union & EFF Condemn The US Over George Floyd’s D*ath; Liberians Protest At US Embassy
22. DWNews: She was tortured with axes during Kenya’s struggle for independence from British colonial rule.
23. Prayerfully NOT 2 B Continued…