Black skin, white media – Kasarani (Nairobi)
If we’re allowing Western media to dictate who deserves our attention, we probably wouldn’t know about Kasarani. When it comes to the mass arrest and detainment of approximately 1.000 documented and undocumented Nairobi-based Somali in what is dubbed #KasaraniConcentrationcamp, broadcasters like BBC, CNN and the Dutch NOS couldn’t care less.
Check the following to get a better idea of the horrors that are unfolding (List updated on April 10, 10:09h)
1. Twitterati whose timelines are filled with updated:
– Haru Mutasa’s (@harumutasa),
– Mohammed Yusuf (@Moyusef)
– Binyavanga Wainaina (@BinyavangaW)
2. Interesting articles
Kenyan Somali, Somali in Kenya, Kenya in Somalia
Footage of #Kenya police arresting women in children in what is dubbed “The crackdown on terror”
What’s it like to be Somali in Kenya
Un-Memory
Social Media Reactions to Kenya’s Security Crackdown in Nairobi
Rights groups slam Kenya refugee crackdown
SOMALIA: Kenyan police keep more than 1,000 Somalis in Kasarani Stadium in the third day.
Kenyans question mass arrests of Eastleigh Somalis
Nairobi: A city under siege
Black skin, white media – In a rush to ‘get over’ the 1994 Rwandan genocide?
On Thursday April 3, 2014 Dutch newspaper NRC gathered the gall to imply that Rwanda was ‘running behind on schedule’ with regards to ‘coping’ with the 1994 mass slaughtering that robbed 700.000 Tutsi and 100.000 Hutu of their lives. With their “Twenty years later Rwanda hasn’t coped with the genocide yet”-headline the newspaper plays more than its part in illustrating that in Holland’s ghostwhite media landscape there’s no room for Black suffering. The country’s national lack of interest in Africa (‘Country, clan or continent?’) even allows relevance to trump a logic based on chronology. ‘Cause if after 53 years the Netherlands “still” annually commemorates the Dutch casualties of World War II on May 4, where the hell did NRC drag their ‘hasn’t it been a while?’-suggestion from?
Click here for NRC’s piece (written in Dutch). To join the conversation, please use the comment box below their article or mention @nrc on Twitter.
In response to the Lupita Nyong’o/Niki Minaj-cartoon
“No matter where you’re from… your dreams are valid.” I, too, donated many heartbeats to Lupita Nyong’o’s supernova of an acceptance speech and I think this cartoon completely undermines her power and relevance. Personally, I adore Nyong’o for being Nyong’o and not for not being Minaj.
Why isn’t the trashcan filled with pictures of Chelsea Handler who, among other racist rubbish, Tweeted: “#AngelinaJolie just filed adoption papers #lupitanyongo #Oscars -@chelseahandler.” or with eurocentric magazines that continuously make too many Sisters question if their Black is beautiful? How about a trashcan filled with the faces of (casting) directors who would like to tell the stories of iconic, dark-skinned Black women but only if they can be portrayed by a woman with a much lighter skin tone.
I hope the artist isn’t implying that Nicki Minaj is the biggest bump in our roads towards visibility and representation and I absolutely detest the idea that to truly celebrate the magic of one Sister, we must denounce another. If the cartoon would have showed us an image of a little Black girl drawing dreams under the watchful eye of a Lupita Nyong’o poster like the picture below I’m sure that we wouldn’t only have gotten the point… we would live it.
laZeefuik 
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