From Palestine to Hawai’i, Indigenous people all over the world suffer at the hands of neocolonialism and ethnic cleansing, with Rafah facing a ground invasion while those in the United States watch the Superbowl and one Sudanese baby dying every two hours inside refugee camps.
These atrocities serve as a global litmus test, revealing how instead of halting the genocides those capable of stopping them are often the ones funding them. The goal is clear—to ethnically cleanse and exploit the people of the land.
Moreover, global exportation of anti-Blackness—or neocolonialism values such as anti-Blackness—discriminate against the often darker Indigenous populations and have favoritism for those more akin to colonial features, which are directly responsible for who gains international attention.
Since 2003, Sudan has faced a grueling humanitarian crisis as an aftermath of the Darfur genocide, which didn’t come to an end until 2020. The Darfur genocide resulted in the deaths of over 200,000 civilians, with two million displaced.
Today, Sudan faces another genocide while still recovering from a previous one. Currently, over seven million people remain displaced due to this genocide carried out by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a mercenary private military company funded by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In a series of videos released by Arab tribal leaders in July, they pledged loyalty to the RSF, thus pledging to the ethnic cleansing of the Sudanese population. Local Sudanese journalist Abdel Moneim Madibo argued this “will divide South Darfur between Arabs and non-Arabs.”
Led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo on April 15, 2023, a coup gave the RSF the power they needed to enact a genocide against the ethnic Masalit tribe of Sudan.
As of the end of 2023, this genocide has claimed lives, with RSF militia pillaging villagers’ properties, murdering civilians, committing sexual violence against women and girls and cutting off internet connections to withhold real-life accounts from citizens.
The Masalit people have been targeted explicitly in West Darfur and the RSF continues their ethnic cleansing of them.
Just south of Sudan, the neighboring country—the Democratic Republic of the Congo—faces its own unique genocide, fueled by the West’s desire for coltan and cobalt. The Congo holds nearly 60% of the world’s coltan reserves and over 50% of the world’s cobalt reserves, two essential minerals to the modern digital world.
Present-day uses of coltan include laptops, cell phones, rockets and gaming consoles. Cobalt, on the other hand, is primarily used in making batteries for cell phones, electric cars and green energy solutions.
Corporations we rely on daily—such as Apple, Tesla, Sony and Samsung—are directly responsible for the demand for cobalt. The image is clear—our daily desires and consumerism act as fuel for the genocide occurring in the Congo.
Unfortunately, the Congo does not control its reserves but is operated by multinational mining companies created by the U.S., France, China and the United Kingdom. Israeli billionaires, such as Dan Gertler, also exploit the nation for its natural resources.
These global imperial powers collectively fund Uganda and Rwanda, allowing them to invade areas rich with minerals in the Congo. The incentive resides in financial gain and political control for both nations.
As a result of the invasions planned out by Uganda and Rwanda, as well as Western powers, six million people have been killed, with an equal amount displaced. The Congo remains a children’s rights violation, a women’s rights violation and ultimately a human rights crisis.
Both crises in Sudan and the Congo have been labeled “silent genocides” when the reality is that these oppressed people have been pleading for the world to show any care or empathy.
In the Congo, a man went as far as lighting himself on fire in an attempt to bring attention to the genocide. Those in Sudan have been using what little internet access they have—due to the RSF severing connections—to share their recounts of their genocide. Still, both countries have struggled to gain international recognition.
A large part of why two genocides occurring in Africa have been labeled silent and remain ignored is due to anti-Blackness, colorism and prejudice against those of darker complexions.
It’s no mistake that the RSF militia’s target—the Masalit people—are of darker complexion. A central pillar of anti-Blackness is the hatred of dark skin tones and dark-skinned people. It’s how one’s proximity to Blackness or whiteness is determined at first glance.
Black lives aren’t valued in the same way non-Black lives are valued. In an anti-Black world, we must merely exist as bodies from which labor is to be extracted. When non-Black people are introduced to the white supremacist structure via colonialism, imperialism, cultural contact or assimilation, they themselves can internalize and adopt it.
Seeing a potential for material advantage, some make a collective agreement to begin the project of defining their racial identity in opposition to Black people. This is why anti-Blackness can be observed in all non-Black communities.
Anti-Blackness is the barrier to true solidarity amongst Black people and people of color. It is the unfortunate pledge non-Black people of color allege to separate themselves from Black people to gain proximity to whiteness. It is the direct and indirect association of people of color to separate themselves from Blackness to achieve the promised privileges of whiteness.
The disease of anti-Blackness even seeps into Black communities themselves, with bigotries such as featurism and texturism dividing the community, thus preventing true Pan-African solidarity.
Many genuinely believe this is inevitable—that their pleasures must come at the expense of Black lives. That their new iPhone is worth the life of a young Congolese child.
As Black people are seen as inherently violent, some reduce the genocides to merely Black-on-Black violence, even when the reality is that Western powers collectively push for the subjugation of the Congo, and the UAE funds the genocide in Sudan.
One thing I have observed about Westerners, specifically those in the U.S., is their lack of focus and tunnel vision when it comes to their attention. In the U.S. mind, only one crisis at a time can exist or be focused on.
Mention disparities happening elsewhere and you get an earful of “now’s not the time” and “can we focus on one thing, please?” Mention disparities happening to Black people and you’ll receive an uproar from supposed allies as to why it isn’t relevant to mention right now.
For people to truly combat anti-Blackness, they’d first be forced to humanize Black people, something many non-Black people aren’t ready to do.
I see what is happening in Palestine, Sudan and the Congo right now—what has been happening for decades—and my heart hurts for all of us. We cannot sit by and passively exist in a world where such violence exists. Violence does not disappear because we choose to plug our ears and shut our eyes.
Our struggles are united—the struggle for Black liberation in the U.S., liberation in Somalia, liberation in Palestine, liberation in Sudan, liberation in the Congo and liberation of all oppressed people. We must continue to fight in solidarity, because your struggle is also mine.
Malcolm X once said that “the only way we’ll get freedom for ourselves is to identify ourselves with every oppressed people in the world.” White supremacy aims to isolate colonized people and blame those with the least power, furthering their marginalization from ever forming a collective. International solidarity is more important now than ever.
The war machines of the U.S. and other global powers are killing people all over the world to ensure continued profit. China dominates the mining industry in the Congo, exploiting young children barely 6 years old. At the same time, the UAE actively funds the RSF militia’s ethnic cleansing against the Masalit people.
Israel restricts the movement of Palestinians on their own land. The U.S. also does the same to Black Americans, forcing them to settle in hoods and ghettos. Indigenous Americans face the continued effects of removal and confinement to reservations established under the U.S. colonial regime.
The colonial power to delineate and define spaces and bodies as greater or lesser—to exploit or to be exploited—is exercised in each of these cases.
This fight is not just abroad—it is right here in the belly of the empire. It’s important never to forget that genocide criminals are repeating offenders and all follow the same playbook.
We all have to be in this fight for each other. None of us are free until we all are free.