The resilience, creativity, and genius of African peoples wherever they are found in the world will always be apparent. It is without doubt this pandemic is unraveling and laying bare its core principles that devalue life while at the same time the myths that have supported the systems and structures that create an illusion of a social contract rooted in ideals such as equality and justice are in fact being exposed in the most brightest and boldest way possible. What we are witnessing is the implosion of what Charles Mills calls the racial contract. A contract that is rooted in white supremacy, expressed in economic, political, social, medical interactions.

These expressions are global as they are engrained in the cultural milieu of an European antiquity where Europe discovered itself through unbridled expeditions of exploitation over centuries.

And let’s be honest, this narrative that suggests that: we are all in this together is, but another contradiction rooted in yet another temporality of Western economic, political, social, cultural systems imploding under the weight of its fictitious existence. We are not in this together. The science, material realities, data show, in the Diaspora, people of African descent are dying at disproportionate rates.

A few weeks ago, French scientist suggested that vaccines be tested in African communities.1 It has been reported that in 2014, during the West African Ebola outbreak, more than 250,000 blood samples were collected from patients by laboratories in France, the UK, and US without informed consent as patients underwent testing and treatment for Ebola.1 But this practice is not new, and we do not have to go deep into the past…in 1996, in Kano State, Nigeria, where there was a meningitis outbreak, Pfizer conducted clinical trials to test a drug it was developing without the consent of patients. Similar trails were conducted in Zimbabwe in 1994, funded by the US-based CDC and NIH which resulted in adverse effects for patients.2

We can go on and on throughout the African world: Tuskegee Experiment, Henrietta Lacks, the entire practice of gynecology during chattel slavery in the U.S.

History shows, data shows, practices show that we are in this…but not together.

But through all of this, Africa, Africans and people of African descent have relied upon principles that are rooted deep in ancestral and historical genealogies that are articulated in traditions, cultural expressions, & rituals that will prove, as they have throughout global history to provide paths out of crisis, natural or otherwise.

Today, we speak with Kenyan street artist, project curator and trainer, Kerosh who is based in Nairobi.

We explore the implications of COVID19 in Kenya.

Our show was produced today in solidarity with the Native/Indigenous, African, and Afro Descendant communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; and Ghana and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all peoples!

Enjoy the program!

For more:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diVWr_eLdnM

1. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/ebolas-lost-blood-row-samples-flown-africa-big-pharma-set-cash/

2. https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/medical-colonialism-africa-200406103819617.html

https://www.kenyanvibe.com/kenyan-graffiti-artist-wisetwo-paints-largest-murals-in-east-africa/

https://www.facebook.com/anidanarts/posts/introducing-kerosh-kiruri-the-second-artist-who-will-be-coming-to-work-with-the-/1104133713080496/

https://www.tuko.co.ke/102997-make-cool-150k-month-graffiti.html

Image: https://www.wendiartit.com/2017/03/meet-kerosh-part-i.html