Cincinnati, OH––Isaiah, three-year old African boy, fell into the gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio on May 28, 2016. The child is doing fine now after receiving a concussion and minor scrapes.
Isaiah was in the gorilla enclosure with a 400-pound teenage lowland gorilla, who the zoo named Harambe, for approximately ten minutes before the zoo’s animal response team killed the animal with a shotgun.
Video footage of the incident shows the animal dragging the little boy across the moat in the enclosure. Witnesses stated that Harambe tossed the boy around.
Michelle Gregg, the boy’s African mother, is heard telling her child “mommy’s right here” and to “be calm” in the video.
The Cincinnati Zoo employees shot and killed Harambe and explained in a statement that the gorilla was shot with lethal force instead of a tranquilizer because the child’s life was in immediate danger.
The whole world has seen this child’s traumatic experience with Harambe.
“Gorilla Lives Matter”
Colonial or white ruling class media wasted no time in digging up the past of the boy’s parents and criminalizing them. White media has brought up the father’s “criminal past” in their efforts to blame him for the death of the gorilla even though the father was not even at the zoo that day.
Members of the white population are “mourning” the death of Harambe, erecting vigils and protesting at the zoo, and making statements like “justice for Harambe” and “all lives matter.”
Their tears quickly turned into anger, as social media users are now making attacks on the child’s parents and questioning their parenting skills. White people have even created petitions and Facebook groups which blame the mother for the death of the gorilla.
Twitter posts even called for the mother to be shot instead of the gorilla.
Where was the outrage for Tamir Rice?
Another city in Ohio, Cleveland, is where 12-year-old Tamir Rice was murdered at a playground by cop, Timothy Loehmann. The murderous cop Loehmann was never charged, and the city declared that no wrongdoing took place.
The general white population did not mourn the death of Tamir. They did not set up any vigils, Facebook groups or petitions to charge Loehmann for the murder. There were no social media posts calling for the murderous cops to be shot.
The gorilla’s death has received much attention and outrage partly because his species is endangered. The zoo expected to start breeding Harembe within a few years and contribute to the species population growth.
Where was the outrage over the fact that Tamir Rice, Aiyanna Jones, Mike Brown, Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland and countless others were not allowed to contribute to the population of African people?
Free Africa if you care about gorillas so damn much!
The blame for the killing of the gorilla is being misdirected toward African people as usual.
Lowland gorillas are indigenous to West Africa. Their natural habitat consists mostly of the Congo, Angola and Cameroon regions.
The number one threat to their existence is imperialism and parasitic capitalism. The gorillas are endangered because imperialists extract Africa’s resources by deforesting the gorillas’ natural habitat and draining Africa’s timber. The timber from the deforestation is used to fulfill the capitalist desires of the white ruling class.
Africa’s resources are expropriated, leading to the destruction of its people and animals.
The primary contradiction that led to Harambe’s death is that the white ruling class destroyed his habitat and put him in a zoo to begin with.
It is not due to “bad parenting” as colonial media would like us to believe. African mothers’ parenting skills certainly weren’t being questioned when they were/are raising white babies.
Zoos operate under the guise of preserving these animals. Zoos emerged and still function, however, as a form of entertainment for white people, at the expense of captive wild animals from around the world.
“Exotic” animals for show are a byproduct from the exploitation and destruction of Africa’s lands.
Harambe the gorilla would be enjoying his natural habitat somewhere in West Africa if imperialism wasn’t causing havoc in Africa.
Imperialism killed Harambe way before the zoo’s staff shot the bullet.
White people have no qualms when gorillas are killed in order to preserve their comfort and privilege. When Harambe was killed to preserve the life of an African child, however, they created an uproar.
If the white population truly care about gorillas, they will join the fight against parasitic capitalism. Once Africa is free, her animals will also be freed.
Izwe lethu i Afrika!
Africa is Our Land!
Uhuru in this lifetime!
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