Title: Migration: The Racist Murder of George Floyd as A Decolonial Metaphor to Unscramble Africa
Authors: Chinedu Nwadike
Chidi E. Nwokike
Volume: 7
Issue: 12
Pages: 98-104
Publication Date: 2023/12/28
Abstract:
Migration, racism and neo-colonialism are among the major concerns of the modern world especially with respect to the circumstances of peoples of African descent. The racist murder of George Floyd, an African American by a white police officer, Derek Chauvin and three other police officers of the Minneapolis Police Department, United States on 25 May 2020 once more resurrected the horrors and trauma of the transatlantic slave trade and its implications for the modern world. By using a framework synergised from New Historicism, Critical race theory, and a historical approach that undertakes critical review of select socio-historical events, data gathered and analysed in this research established that both George Floyd's "I can't breathe" and his overall social circumstances under the knee of a racist white American officer of the law is a crucial analogy that resonates with Africa in the context of colonialism and neo-colonialism. Among the findings is the view that since the fifteenth century, Africa has been groaning under the knee of Europe and America and the weight keep scrushing Africa's potentials and future prospects even in contemporary times. Furthermore, this research makes some recommendations among which is a fundamental call to "unscramble"Africa and "re-map" its localities in line with the preferences of indigenous populations and in contradistinction from the foreign interests of neo-colonial forces.