Policing Authorities in Africa
By: Victor Ekoko Mukete
Tags: Corruption, Police Brutality, Inequality, Protest, Development

I implore you to listen to N.W.A. If you take the time to listen to the second track on their critically acclaimed debut album, “Straight Outta Compton”, the first 30 seconds offer a foreboding, aghast with something all too familiar with African-Americans, against a backdrop of drums and trumpets, which are somehow harrowing, yet triumphant.

Ice Cube is called to the stand as a witness, swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, to which he blithely obliges. The next line aptly depicts the sentiments that have inundated black people of every ilk, where they are the minority;

“Fuck the police coming straight from the underground, a young n***a got bad cuz I’m brown”

Iconic.

Iconic because what this line captures transcends police brutality and goes beyond all strands of relational society, wherein, a social contract exists between an authority and a people. This denotes an implicit agreement between members of society and the state for social benefits, not least of which include STATE PROTECTION. However, the very substratum of this song, keys in on Ice Cube’s vulnerability to the police authorities because he’s a black man. Thus, the caveat to this social contract is that it can be breached by living in a certain pigmentation.

Suggested solutions often made to rectifying this phenomena is to augment representation in law enforcement, which would likely reduce criminal bias placed on minorities. Doing this would abrogate policies that target minorities, which would lead to less black people in prison, right?

To agree is to trivialise the depths of police brutality, because in as much as it is a problem delineated by race, it is equally a problem that is exacerbated by corruption and poor governance.

What if I riddled you a story about police brutality and the incessant abuse of law enforcement in a place where black people are meant to be neighbours and not oppress on another?

The story of policing in Africa (not all but several) is a narrative of flawed leadership and toxic political regimes who have turned a blind eye to illicit practices of government and quasi-governmental officials, allowing for corruption to run rampant. Corruption is a given in the remit of politics and in exceptional circumstances, can be a necessary evil. For example, when power is in the hands of an authoritarian government that keeps bureaucrats under firm control, the state is able to act like a smart monopolist: its employees charge prices that are high but not too high, and are able to deliver what they promise.

The problem is that the debilitating impact that political corruption imposes on those living in the global North are vastly different from those living in the global South, largely by consequence of economic development, suppression of free speech among many others. Nevertheless, the different geographies do not insulate the human rights crisis that people suffer at the hands of police.

#ENDSARS is a decentralised social movement in Nigeria, remonstrating for the complete disbandment of what is a gangster police unit of Nigerian law enforcement, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, known for unlawful killings, torture and extortion. Hitherto, the legacy of #ENDSARS is not unique to the history of police brutality in Africa. The world mobilizing in support of #ENDSARS, isn’t solely a win for Nigeria, but for the continent, because protests rarely occur or, in most cases, are rarely ever respected by authorities in Africa and those abroad. Such is the example of the #AnglophoneCrisis protests in Cameroon, where over 300 people have been killed at the hands of security forces. In East Africa, violence is a hallmark of the Kenyan police as a defining trait since its genesis.

In August, A 15 year old boy with down syndrome, Nathaniel Julius, was shot in the head and chest for not answering police questions. This must be noted — the South Africa police service kills three times as many people per capita than the US police do. For such a contemptuous relationship to exist, one that isn’t motivated by race, the reason for this is clear: poor governance and corruption.

A fish rots from the head down, which is why you are exercising your right when you blame country conditions on political leadership. Unfortunately, there is still a very powerful political class of cronies for whom establishing a context where rule of law, checks and balances and efficient systems of bureaucracy exist is the exception and not the rule. The high growth rates African Economic Ministries boast at Davos every year mean nothing if they aren’t transmuted into channels of upward mobility and wider safety nets for the poor — Africa’s most vulnerable demographic to police brutality.

There’s a collective emergence in our universal black voice that is cutting across state lines, tribes, gender and continents. 2020 will close as the year where Africa’s youth activism arrested any fallacious and moral portrayal of their undeserving leaders. Every act in pursuit of justice, no matter how unsuccessful, will find its justification in history. The momentum must continue.

#ENDANGLOPHONECRISIS #ENDSARS #CONGOISBLEEDING #AMINEXT#ZIMBABWEANLIVESMATTER #SHUTITALLDOWN #BLACKLIVESMATTER #RAPENATIONALEMERGENCY #ENDCHILDTRAFFICKINGCOTEDIVOIRE #ENDCHILDTRAFFICKINGGHANA #STOPWARINETHIOPIA #ENDPOLICEBRUTALITYINUGANDA