Three occasions made Monday, June 16, 2025, a sobering second for me. On that day, again in 1976, information filtered that the killer Apartheid safety forces which had been terrorising African nations like Zambia, Botswana and Lesotho, had turned on unarmed college kids in South Africa.
The Nigerian society was so acutely aware then that I recall adults in Lagos, explaining to us that college kids like us have been being gunned down. That is what grew to become often called the Soweto Bloodbath. Then, the enduring {photograph} by Sam Nzima surfaced. It was the picture of the lifeless physique of 12-year-old Hector Pieterson being carried by the teenager, Mbuyisa Makhubo, with Hector’s 17-year-old sister, Antoinette Sithole, operating along-side. Hector was one among about 700 kids massacred by the Apartheid regime which had the backing of nations like the US and the UK.
The easy demand of the 20,000 kids who started the protests, was that the choice to impose the racist Afrikaans language in colleges, be rescinded. Additionally they demanded an finish to Apartheid in schooling through which White kids attended superior colleges free, whereas Black kids paid charges to obtain poor schooling. In these days, the Apartheid regime spent 42 rand on every Black baby, and 644 rand on every White baby.
Then Nigeria, which, on the Apartheid subject, had its head firmly on its shoulders, issued a name for Nigerians to donate funds to the liberation battle to free Africa from colonialism. Sure, the battle in South Africa was not primarily about Black leaders changing the White fascists. It was a de-colonisation conflict to destroy the settler-colony and exchange it with a mass democratic system. One through which the mass of the individuals could have bread on the desk, garments on their backs, schooling and healthcare for all, and land for the landless.
The targets of the battle which have been championed by the African Nationwide Congress, ANC, and the Pan African Congress, PAC, are but to be met.
I recall the story within the newspapers about Teboho “Tsietsi” MacDonald Mashinini, the chief of the kids rebellion, visiting Nigeria. He died in Guinea in 1990 the place he was in exile. His reminiscence ultimately light. However that of the Soweto Youngsters Rebellion, is stored alive by the act of the Organisation of African Unity, OAU, now AU, which declared June 16 the Day of the African Youngster. That is the second occasion that made me unhappy. Primarily, African leaders created the Day for the continent’s kids with out main follow-up. As an example, the Day jogs my memory as a Nigerian, the dual tragic details of kids, like these of Chibok being mass-abducted by terrorists. The opposite subject is {that a} nation like Nigeria which over 70 years in the past, in its Western half, launched free and obligatory schooling, in the present day has over 18 million kids out of faculty. The kids roam the streets begging for meals, whereas plenty of them are recruited by felony gangs, bandits and terrorists.
Nevertheless, on Monday, June 16, 2025, the United Nations Corridor in New York, echoed with my petition earlier than its Particular Committee on Decolonisation. I couldn’t be bodily current, however the internationalist Esteli Capote learn out my petition which demanded that the world physique frees humanity from the inhuman and felony shackles of colonialism.
My petition earlier than the world physique learn: “I’m Owei Lakemfa, President of the Society for Worldwide Relations Consciousness, SIRA, an African assume tank on overseas affairs. I’m additionally an Worldwide Co-coordinator of the Finish Colonialism Motion, ECM.
The ECM holds as an everlasting fact, the US of America, USA, Declaration of Independence that: “all males are created equal…”
The ECM is constructed on the foundations of the United Nations, UN, Worldwide Invoice of Human Rights and, the 1960 UN “Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Nations and Peoples”.
The UN Constitution defines colonies as “territories whose individuals haven’t but attained a full measure of self-government”.
It’s tragic that by June 2025, there are nonetheless over 60 such colonies on the planet. We’re, nonetheless, inspired that in Could 2025, Britain returned Chagos, a gaggle of 60 islands it seized 60 years in the past when Mauritius gained independence.
Puerto Rico
The ECM stands earlier than you in the present day, June 16, 2025, to demand the rapid and peaceable decolonisation of Puerto Rico (Borikén). It’s a territory of three.4 million individuals with over 5 million different Puerto Ricans residing outdoors their homeland largely resulting from colonialism.
Puerto Rico was colonised by Spain in 1493. Nevertheless, throughout the Cuban-Spanish-American Battle of 1898 the US of America, USA, invaded Puerto Rico, and occupied it.
Girls and gents, The Treaty of Paris, negotiated on December 10, 1898 between the USA and Spain with out the illustration of the Puerto Rican individuals, is in violation of worldwide legislation because it ignored the popularity of Puerto Rico as a nation.
The USA has not carried out a decolonisation course of in Puerto Rico in accordance with UN Decision 1514 (XV) to which it’s a signatory. Conversely, it has by means of the Treaty of Paris, the Foraker and Jones Acts and imposition of a non-representative structure, strived to create the misunderstanding that Puerto Rico will not be a conventional colony.
At this time, it’s 127 years after the USA occupied Puerto Rico. The one logical step is to let its individuals go free!
The ECM, subsequently, deems it very important that:
*The case of Puerto Rico ought to be elevated as a subject for the United Nations Basic Meeting, UNGA.
*The Puerto Rico Observer seat within the United Nations revoked in 1950, ought to be restored.
*In accordance with the United Nations Basic Meeting Decision 1514 (XV) of 1960 and, the place of the UN Particular Committee on Decolonisation, Puerto Rico ought to be granted independence.
We additionally recommend that the UN admits all colonies into the United Nations Basic Meeting, UNGA, simply as India and the Philippines have been admitted in 1945 whereas nonetheless being British and American colonies respectively.
Additionally, the ECM urges nations just like the USA, United Kingdom, France, Morocco and New Zealand who nonetheless keep colonies, to enter into negotiations with the colonised peoples with a view to peacefully and fully decolonize the human race. Thanks.”
Humanity had three nice challenges which questioned our claims to be superior to different earthly beings: Slavery, Apartheid and Colonialism. We have now just about eradicated the primary two. We have now the obligation to remove the third.
You may contribute to this historic battle by campaigning for the eradication of colonialism simply as humanity did towards slavery and Apartheid.
Additionally, you possibly can set up or be a part of organisations just like the Finish Colonialism Motion, ECM, devoted to eradicating the scourge, worldwide.
The submit My plea before the United Nations: Set humanity free! By Owei Lakemfa appeared first on Vanguard News.
