By AKIN OKUNOWO (Akin Aluta)

To my brothers and sisters in South Africa — Nigerians, Ghanaians, Zimbabweans, Malawians, Mozambicans, and all African migrants.

To the Government of South Africa and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

To the African Union, ECOWAS, SADC, and all regional bodies.

To every African worldwide blood still running in their veins:

Aluta Continua! But this time, the battle is for Africa’s soul.

THE SHAME THAT IS KILLING US

As a Nigerian who has marched with African youths from Lagos to Johannesburg since my own youth, my heart is broken. Two Nigerians are dead. Shops owned by our brothers are ashes. Mothers sleep with one eye open. Fathers have become refugees on the same soil Mandela called “home for all Africans.”

What started as protests has become pogroms.

What started as anger has become anarchy.

What started as Africans fighting for justice has become Africans killing Africans.

Yemisi Adewale told us: “They are specifically targeting shops owned by Nigerians and Ghanaians. Once your shop is open, they attack, loot your goods, and assault you.”

Another trader cried: “We are living in fear. No one dares open their shop anymore.”

Fellow Africans, who is winning?

Is it the looter who steals a TV today and has no country tomorrow?

Is it the government that watches cities burn and calls it “isolated incidents”?

No. The only winner is the enemy of Africa who has always said: “Divide them, and they will destroy themselves.”

ACAM’S POSITION: THIS IS NOT XENOPHOBIA. THIS IS AFROPHOBIA — AND IT IS SUICIDE.

1. This violence is cultic in nature. It is the same spirit that turned university boys into killers in Nigeria. It is the spirit of “us versus them,” of blood for blood, of “if I can’t have, you can’t have.” A man who burns his brother’s shop is a cultist in plain clothes.

2. Poverty is the recruit, politicians are the sponsors, and ignorance is the weapon. When leaders fail to create jobs, they create scapegoats. When youths have no hope, they are given hate.

3. Evacuation is not a solution. It is surrender. Yes, we thank the Nigerian Consulate and NICASA for the free flight. Save lives first. But if every African runs home each time there is fire, soon there will be no Africa left to run to.

WHY AFRICANS MUST UNITE TODAY — NOT TOMORROW

The proverb says: “When brothers fight to death, a stranger inherits their father’s land.”

China is united. Europe is united. America is united. Yet Africans are burning each other’s shops in Durban and calling it “protest.”

1. We share one enemy: Poverty. South Africa has 33% youth unemployment. Nigeria has 53%. No Ghanaian stole your job. No Nigerian took your future. Failed leadership did, and they are stylish psyching you on to distract you from fighting for your freedom and the freedom of your radical leaders in solitary confinement. Don’t be fooled all the time.

2. We share one destiny: The African Continental Free Trade Area. How do we trade with each other when we are killing each other? You cannot build Africa by burning Africa.

3. We share one shame: The world is laughing. CNN will not say “South Africans attacked Nigerians. They will say “Africans are killing Africans — again.” Our children will pay for this headline. Mark my word!

THE RIGHT STEPS — NOW, NOT LATER

TO SOUTH AFRICANS:

1. Stop the attacks. You are not fighting Nigerians. You are fighting your own reflection. When you are supposed to focus on your agitation for freedom, you allow the puppet masters manipulate your mind. The Nigerian trader employs 5 South Africans. Burn his shop, you sack your brothers.

2. Remember Mandela: “I detest racialism… I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination.” *You cannot replace apartheid with afrophobia and call it freedom. You are only deceiving yourself.

3. Join the protectors, not the looters. Form community defense groups with migrants. “The hand that covers the fire is not the hand that lights it.”

TO NIGERIANS, GHANAIANS, & ALL AFRICAN MIGRANTS IN SOUTH AFRICA:

1. Stay calm but stay safe. Register with NICASA and your embassy. If you must leave, leave with dignity. If you choose to stay, organize. An injury to one is an injury to all.

2. Do not retaliate. Blood cannot wash blood. If you carry a knife today, your children will carry guns tomorrow. “When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers” — and we are the grass.

3. Document everything. Names, videos, locations. We will need them for justice. But do not post to incite. Post to indict.

TO THE GOVERNMENT OF SOUTH AFRICA:

1. Call this what it is: Domestic terrorism. Deploy the SANDF now. Protect foreign nationals like you protect embassies. Your 1996 Constitution says “South Africa belongs to all who live in it.” Prove it.

2. Arrest the sponsors or you are complicit . These are not “random protests.” Someone is bussing looters, sharing target lists. Find them. Jail them. Make examples.

3. Compensate victims NOW. A looted shop is a destroyed life. Set up an emergency fund with Nigeria and Ghana. Justice delayed is justice burned.

TO THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT & ALL AFRICAN COUNTRIES:

1. Evacuate the willing, protect the remaining. Your citizens are not criminals. Post more consular officers to hotspots. Demand hourly briefings from Pretoria.

2. Stop the blame game. Don’t just fly people home. Fly delegations to SA. President to President. Parliament to Parliament. Youth to Youth.

3. Fix home so your people don’t have to flee. If Nigeria is working just as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is claiming, Yemisi would be trading in Yaba, not hiding in Johannesburg.

TO THE AU, ECOWAS, SADC:

1. This is your Rwanda moment. Convene an emergency joint session in 48 hours. Afrophobia is a threat to continental peace. Send peace envoys, not press statements.

2. Activate the African Standby Force protocol. If governments won’t protect Africans, the AU must.

3. Launch “One Africa, One Market” Peace Campaign in all cities. Use radio, TV, churches, mosques. “I am because we are” — Ubuntu must mean something.

TO ALL AFRICANS: THE SOLUTION IS IN OUR HANDS

1. Refuse to be divided. The man looting your shop is not your enemy. The system that made him jobless is. “When the drum beats, the legs must not argue.”

2. Build African Unity Coalitions in every city. South African + Nigerian + Zimbabwean business owners. Joint patrols. Joint markets. Joint prayer. Show the world that we protect each other.

3. Teach our children the truth. The colonialists drew borders to divide us. We are drawing blood to finish the job. Teach them: “A family that eats together, stays together.”

FINAL WORD

I was a youth leader when the first xenophobic attacks happened in 2008. I marched then. I am marching now. But I am tired of marching for corpses.

To the killers: Drop the weapon. You are not a patriot. You are a pawn.

To the leaders: Stop the speeches. Start the arrests.

To my fellow Africans: Come home to each other. If we don’t stand together now, we will be buried separately.

Do the crime, pay with time — and the crime of killing your brother will cost Africa 100 years.

Save lives today. Evacuate who you must. But unite who remains.

Because the same sun that rises in Lagos sets in Soweto.

We are one people. One blood. One Africa.

Enough is enough!

Aluta Continua, Victoria Ascerta!

Signed:

Akin Okunowo

(Akin Aluta… the King of Lyrics)

National Coordinator

Anti-Cult Alliance Movement (ACAM)

Pan-African Youth Advocate

+2349032767085 | anticultlessons@gmail.com