The killing in America of an African American man, George Floyd and Gambian national Momodou Lamin Sisay has sparked protests around the world calling for the civil rights of black people to be respected not only in America but around the world.
Black people in America have long felt marginalized and targets of racism and random killings by police officers. Many of them see these as systemic racism citing the hundreds of killings of black people over the years.
Officials in the United States of America and other western nations have repeatedly denied that there is systemic racism, claiming that many of these killings are the works of ‘a few bad apples’.
After the brutal murder of George Floyd which saw him lose his breath under the knee of a white police officer, black people around the world called for something to be done. Protests have been reported in almost all parts of the world calling for justice not only for Floyd but for comprehensive reforms to prevent a repeat of this horrible incident.
As a Gambian national was also killed around the same time, the Government of the Gambia tasked the Gambian Embassy in Washington to engage the US government to investigate the killing.
Gambians on Saturday also took to the streets to protest the killing of not only Momodou Lamin Sisay but for all black people in the United States of America. They delivered a petition to the American Embassy in the country demanding justice for all.
In many countries in the West, protesters have brought down statutes believed to glorify people who either supported or benefitted from slavery and the exploitation of the black race. Here at home, calls have been made for the renaming of a town named after Winston Churchill, a former British Prime minister.
These calls are gaining traction around the world but many are not hopeful that they will attain much change in the near future.
