LULA AND AFRICAN UNION’S DIPLOMACY
LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA won a miraculous Brazilian election victory on 10th October, 2022. Like Donald Trump’s defeat in 2020, President Bolsonaro’s refusal to follow the rules of democratic election is creating a civil war condition.
In 1964 the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) sponsored military coups in Indonesia and Brazil. Both regimes slaughtered thousands member of ‘’Communist’’ parties.
The killings protected big landowners from the redistributed land to millions of landless serfs. Afro-Brazilians would have enjoyed the economic freedom which Fidel Castro had brought to Blacks in Cuba.
In 2022, President Biden is faced with the prospect of Bolsonaro, a former PLOLWDU\ RFHU ZLWK PHPRULHV RI WKH tradition of 1964 military coup. Since 2018 he reversed all the pro-people policies of Lula’s eight years of rule, and openly shown admiration for Donald Trump’s
Like Trump, Bolsonaro encouraged his supporters to resort to violent rejection of Lula’s victory.
The Brazil of 2022 carries memories of HFRQRPLF EHQHÀWV IURP /XOD·V HDUOLHU UXOH while Afro-Brazilians had witnessed the ‘’miracle’’ of Barack Obama’s being elected DV WKH ÀUVW $IULFDQ ² $PHULFDQ SUHVLGHQW of racist United States of America. The ¶·2EDPD (ͿHFW· KDG DOUHDG\ SURGXFHG WKH ÀUVW $IUR &RORPELDQ ZRPDQ WR EH HOHFWHG as Vice President.
This socio-political change clashes with the prospect of defeat by it enemies in a free and fair election; and creates an appeal for a resort to violence by rejecting the principle of a shared political community whose rules for electing political leaders is accepted by both winners and losers.
The United States had since the 1801 revolution by Africa’s descendants in Haiti, been fearful of its impact on their own Black population. Across South America fear of Blacks had been common. In Argentina, African soldiers led charges in the hope that their numbers would be depleted by casualties.
After the 1959 revolution in Cuba, Castro’s policies of access to free and high quality education to Afro-Cubans put to shame the poverty and virtual illiteracy to America’s Blacks.
During Lula’s regime, Cuba sent medical doctors and nurses to run clinics in rural and urban slums of Brazil. Medical care was combined with political HGXFDWLRQ ,Q /XOD KDV EHQHÀWHG from high voting by Afro-Brazilians whose political awareness had been built. By the time President Bolsonaro expelled Cuban doctors from Cuba, the roots of votes for Lula in 2022 had already been planted.
Critics accused Bolsonaro of callous LQGLͿHUHQFH WR KXJH QXPEHUV RI GHDWKV from COVID-19 because its victims were predominantly Afro-Brazilians and other slum residents; thereby serving the useful role of depleting future voters for Lula.
The Police went around destroying religious symbols of Yoruba and Luba religious worship for fear of their appealing to their Gods for Lula’s victory. Increasing Police killings in ‘’favelas’’ (slums) targeted political activists.
Professor Ade Ajayi drew much attention to the Yoruba Diaspora in Brazil and the Caribbean. Moslem descendants from Hausa, Wolof, Mandingo, Fulani and other African groups also got attention in the UNESCO’s ‘’History of Africa’’ research.
However, political work has not accompanied this scholarly initiative. Universities of Ife, Ibadan and Dakar have been slow to counter the widespread scandal in the Americas of denying education to Afro-Brazilians, AfroColombians, Afro-Mexicans, AfroPeruvians, and Afro-Americans.
In the 1960s, Stanford University built its ‘’Overseas Campuses’’ in several European countries. Similar campuses by Ibadan and Ife in north-east Brazil would KDYH KDG ULSSOH HͿHFWV ERWK LQ WKH UHJLRQ and across West Africa. A novel project by an African-American Harvard scholar is XVLQJ VFLHQWLÀF WUDFNLQJ RI JHQHDORJLHV WR link individuals in the Diaspora to ethnic groups in Africa. Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, is the latest to trace her bloodline to Nigeria.
Mexico’s movies are in Nigeria without Afro-Mexican artists in them. Nollywood’s entry into the Caribbean is lacking support by university research about Brazil.
American propaganda against Cuba has UHPDLQHG PRUH HͿHFWLYH WKDQ WKH ODFN RI health care by millions of Nigerians. South Africa’s predominantly white medical establishment forces doctors trained in Cuba to go through another re-education programme before they can practice in South Africa’s impoverished communities lacking medical care.
,Q KLV ÀUVW HLJKW \HDUV LQ SRZHU /XOD opened gates into African countries for Brazilian corporations. It is not clear that Lula himself urged African government WR GHPDQG WKDW VWDͿ RI WKHVH FRPSDQLHV at management level should be AfroBrazilians. Likewise, demands that these companies build and fund a school for children from Brazil’s slums to study in Africa.
A 1980 study found that there were no Afro-Brazilians in the country’s diplomatic VWDͿ %UD]LO·V (XURSHDQ LPPLJUDQWV OLYH with fear of Black people outnumbering them. Donald Trump and Bolsonaro and their Pentecostal Churches are stoking toxic ideologies of racist hate. Africa must support Lula’s as a prophet of LOVE purge hearts and minds for a region of CARNIVALS.