Brazil intensifies genocide against Africans in preparation for 2016 Olympic Games

BRAZIL— The Brazilian government has upped its colonial violence against Africans in Rio de Janeiro since the International Olympic Committee (IOC) named the city as the host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics. The Olympics are set to begin on August 5, 2016.

The event, which takes place every four years, is a highly sought-after and viable means by which the ruling class can generate outstanding revenue and profit. As a result cities and countries worldwide submit bids to host the Olympic games.

Moreover, it is another way for a country to pretentiously display its development, tourist attractions, culture and natural beauty.

These economic benefits, however, never extend to the African working class and poor peasantry.

In fact, in every host city where we exist, we Africans have been treated as impediments to this economic gain.

The presence of the colonized African working class—marked by poverty-stricken communities—is considered damaging to the beauty of the city, an eyesore for tourists visiting the host city for the games.

Leading up to the 2012 Olympics in London, the government poured millions of dollars into improving and beautifying the city, while its African residents lived in severely impoverished and underdeveloped boroughs.

As is custom for European imperialists, the city resorted to intensifying its war against the African community. They pushed Africans out of their homes by raising the cost of living.

In addition to this, they increased the presence of police who, through their terrorism, murdered Mark Duggan and led to an African rebellion widely known as the 2011 England Riots.

The same is happening in Rio.

Africans under full assault

Brazil hosted the 2014 FIFA World Cup and is now preparing for the summer Olympic Games.

As such, Africans contained within Rio’s infamous favelas (slums) are facing an onslaught of attacks as the city is looking to push us to the outskirts of the city.

There are 600 favelas in Rio alone and they hold roughly 1.3 million people, or 22 percent of Rio’s total population, according to the 2010 Census, which, we are sure, is a gross underestimation.

While the city’s population grew by four percent over the last 10 years, the population of the favelas swelled by nearly 30 percent, indicating that more Africans are falling into grave poverty.

Africans have the shortest life span, the highest rates of poverty, are the least paid, and are the primary victims of police violence, which has continued to increase.

In 2014, the police killed 580 people, up 40 percent from 2013.

At least 645 people were murdered by the police in 2015.

One in five, or 20 percent, of all homicides in Rio are committed by the police.

Eighty percent of these victims are Africans between the ages of 15 and 29.

Africans in Brazil charge genocide!

In recent years there has been a resurgence in consciousness amongst young Africans in Brazil.

What is generally known as the Movimento Negro has been at the forefront of the fight against colonial State violence.

Africans in Brazil aptly define the conditions and violence against which they contend as genocide!

Africans around the world have fought against genocide since our forcible extraction from Africa over 500 years ago.

Four out of every five homicide victims in Brazil are African.

These conditions exist across the entire African world!

In 2015, the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) launched the Africans Charge Genocide campaign which petitions the United Nations to charge the U.S. government with the crime of genocide against African people.

We call on our fellow Africans in Brazil to unite with us in this campaign work by joining the African Socialist International (ASI)!

The ASI gives us an opportunity to foment a united international front against imperialism.

Join the African Socialist International!

Sign the Africans Charge Genocide petition!