FRIENDS PHOTOS GOES VIRAL
A photograph of three lifelong friends from Dundalk taken at the Black Lives Matter protest at the Market Square last Tuesday has gone viral on social media around the world as a powerful symbol of hope.
The photo of teenagers Kiitan Amao, Moyo Badun and Sean Hill, which was taken by local photographer Fra Lucchesi, has been featured on NBC News and People magazine in the United States, the Italian edition of Elle magazine and Metro in the UK as well as a host of other websites around the world, including South Africa and Paskistan.
Kiitan uploaded the photo along with another one showing him with his two best friends at a birthday party when they were just little kids, to his Twitter account. He never guessed what would happen next as amassed over one million likes and been retweeted 215,000 times. What particularly caught people’s attention was the sign being held aloft by Sean which read I’m not black but I see U. I’m not black but I hear. I’m not black but I will Fight 4 u.’
Fra, whose grandfather came to Dundalk from Italy, says it was the sign which caught his eye but he never imagined that the photo would become such an iconic image when he posted it on his Facebook page and it was subsequently shared by Kiitan.
‘I thought it might get 10 or 15 likes on Twitter but not a million,’ says Kiitan. He admits to be ‘overwhelmed’ by the response to his post but says he is ‘ happy’ that people liked the message.
The three, who grew up close to each other in the Muirhevnamor area of town, have been friends since they were three years of age.
‘We went to the same kindergarten and the same primary school, that’s how our friendship grew,’ says Moyo. ‘Ever since then we’ve been friends.’
‘Colour has never come into our friendship,’ he says.
Even when they went to different post-primary schools, with Moyo going to Dundalk Grammar School, Kiitan to The Marist and Sean to Colaiste Ris, they kept in touch and their friendship was strengthened by their love of football, as the three of them played with Muirhevnamor FC, winning the league together.
Sean, who now plays for Warrenpoint FC, says he often witnessed his friends getting verbal abuse from other players.
‘We have been friends since we were three. A lot of people would ask me why I spent so much time with them. It never bothered me and made me more deter
mined to stay friends with them. I have witnessed them both getting quite a lot of racial abuse.’
He would always speak up for them as it hurt him to see his friends being subjected to abuse.
When they heard that a rally was being organised by young people to protest over the death of George Floyd in police custody in the United States and to highlight the problem of racism in Ireland, they felt it was important they go along together.
‘It is a matter of getting our voices heard,’ says Kiitan. ‘If I want change the only way I can do that is to do is to enforce it myself. I can’t watch it from the sidelines. I felt I had to go and speak’.
He reveals that he has encountered racism all his life, although when he was younger, he wasn’t always aware of it. ‘As I grew up and became more aware of the situation around the world, I will always speak out against racism when I realised it was not just me who was experiencing it but a lot of people.
‘It was a big thing for me,’ says Sean who also spoke at the protest, reaffirming his support for his friends and his abhorrence of racism.
The three teens are delighted that the story of their friendship has made such a huge impression around the world.
Speaking to TODAY Parents on NBC Kiitan recalled ‘Sean’s parents and Moyo’s parents took me in like their own and was always in my corner. They did this because their sons and I created such a rare bond.”