ColumnsNewsOpinionWhy African Nations Support U.S. Anti-Racism Protesters

Recent protests have drawn attention to police brutality in Africa, especially as it relates to maintaining coronavirus lockdown and curfew orders. As a result, some countries, such as Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, and Uganda, have taken steps to curb police brutality and hold officers accountable for excessive use of force in the implementation of lockdown orders. These have included making statements that police should respect citizens’ rights; investigating cases of abuse, especially when filmed; and charging officers with assault, though no trials have been held yet. However, these actions do not reflect lessons learned in either direction—Africa is not providing models for the United States and the changes discussed in U.S. cities and in Congress are not yet providing an example for other countries beyond the general focus on ending police brutality.

You served as U.S. ambassador to South Africa. What lessons could the United States learn from South Africa’s struggle with racism?

No matter who holds power and whatever the race of the police officer or chief, there is a need to dismantle the structural inequality left from legacies of discrimination and to abolish the white supremacy that is at the root of it all. The main lesson is: a luta continua, i.e., the struggle continues!

South Africans’ struggle against racism and African Americans’ struggle for civil rights have often been mischaracterized as peaceful. Both movements were marked by extreme government-sanctioned violence largely carried out by police. Police and security forces were deployed to maintain the political and social order of legal discrimination and Black subjugation in order to perpetuate white supremacist ideologies.

With the advent of majority rule in South Africa, the African National Congress ruling party attempted to transform the police force, renaming it the South African Police Service and instituting reforms intended to build trust in the police. However, the legacy of apartheid remains today as economic power, access to services, and educational opportunities largely remain with the white population.

The criminalization of poverty continues today in South Africa just as it does in Black communities in the United States. Poverty and soaring unemployment are still found in largely segregated Black communities in South Africa. Policing is far more aggressive, brutal, and unaccountable in these poorer communities. In the United States, the heightened police suspicion of all Black people can lead to overreactions that quickly become deadly.