Africa,

Do not be fooled by distance.

Do not be fooled by geography.

Do not be conned into division that seeks to make you think that you are different from a Black person in the rest of the world.

What is happening in America today is a physical manifestation of the undercurrent of our oppressive relationship with the rest of the world; a chunk of which that seeks to exploit the African continent.

As a Black person, to look at what is happening in America today and choose not to engage is to choose to ignore a history of oppression that knows no boundaries.

As Africans, we did not do it alone. That’s how we ended up with Che Guevara in Angola and Algeria. How we ended up with weapons for warfare from Russia and America. And how we had money and military training from the African Diaspora (including Black people in America).

Pan-Africanism got you your freedom because Kenya and Africa was surely not going to do it by itself.

The Negritude Movement brought together philosophies that pushed for decolonisation on the continent as well as inspiring the Civil Rights Movement.

Kwame Nkrumah said that Ghana’s independence was meaningless without the independence of Africa.

Your freedom as a Black person on the African continent is meaningless without the freedom of Black people in the rest of the world.

I feel strongly that solidarity means that no matter what problems we are facing here in our country and on our continent, we should also be standing with our brothers and sisters in America.

When Malcolm X talked about The Black Revolution he talked about all Blacks around the world.

When you get unfair trade deals, it will be because you are not expected to ask for more.

Because you are Black and your leaders can’t argue against a united racist heritage that continues to plunder your resources.

Why would it be my business to care about Black Lives Matter?

Because as long as you are Black it does not matter where you come from.

When a gun is pointed at you by a policeman, he won’t bother to ask you if you are Kenyan or African. You are Black and that’s all that matters.

The global movement is founded on the ideals of Pan-Africanism.

Decolonisation then inspired the Civil Rights Movement and in turn the Civil Rights Movement supported decolonisation.

In both places people had their internal problems but they fought against the oppression of Black people. Together.

The fatigue you see in America today is the fatigue your forefathers felt deeply 60 years ago.

What little political and economic freedom we have scraped together today is the result of a global movement against Black oppression.

It was on the basis that; you are a Black person in the US as much as you are a black person in Africa.

Here our oppression was colonialism. To the world then and now, it was racism. You were considered incapable then as you are now.

Something had not been sitting right with my spirit from some Kenyans and other Africans on the protests in America. Somehow folks have forgotten that less than 60 years ago we were in the same position on the African continent and civil rights leaders joined us in war.