WeeklySA_AdminCHANGE: Black activists have joined hands together with the United Nations to eliminate racial discrimination in north Africa and the Middle East
By Special Correspondent
“One day, on my way to work, I stumbled upon a Black woman and her child, sitting in front of a hospital in Yemen. The woman was profusely sobbing. I asked what was wrong, and she said that she and her son had just been evicted from the hospital because they were Black, hence dirty.”
Noman Al Hothaifi vividly remembered this scene, some 20 years later. He described it as the turning point that made him decide to quit his inspection job at the Ministry of Public Works and Highways and turn into an advocate for the human rights of Yemen’s Black community.
“I felt I had the obligation, as a Black person myself, to speak against this injustice,” Al Hothaifi said, “and this is how my struggle against racial discrimination in Yemen all started. I wanted to defend the rights of my people, to fight for them.”
Al Hothaifi (51) is the President of the National Minorities Council of Yemen. He is currently the most prominent advocate for the rights of people of African descent in Yemen.
“In Yemen, national legislation is not discriminatory,” Al Hothaifi said. “However, racial discrimination heavily prevails in social practices which were passed on from generation to generation, since the Abyssinian occupation of Yemen.”
The Black activist refers to this occupation, in which the country was invaded and discriminatory practices such as slavery were introduced against the Black inhabitants, as the historical turning point that isolated Black Yemenis, and caused them to live in isolation, “in the shadows of society,” as he described it.
From the year 525, Yemen passed through a period of conflict with the Abyssinians lasting for 50 years that was followed by the Persian control of Yemen. This led to a state of political, tribal and religious division. The Persians wanted to defeat the Romans by defeating the Abyssinians in Yemen. In 575 A.D., a 7500 strong Persian Army along with another 800 prisoners and the backing of some Yemeni tribes, defeated the Abyssinians.
“Black Yemenis were merchants, nobility, and royalty,” Al Hothaifi said. “The occupation created social schisms and Black people were suddenly frowned down upon and looked down upon. We became some sort of secondary race, treated like slaves, stripped from all our rights, we were not allowed to own property, practice trade or send our children to school.”
for human rights for Africans in Yemen
Al Hothaifi helped establish many civil and human rights organizations representing people of African descent in Yemen. The most prominent was the National Union of the Marginalized, of which he has been President since 2007. He is also the founder of the voice of the Marginalized Voice News.
For Al Hothaifi, racial discrimination in Yemen evolved from historic discrimination, which later enshrined in the people’s customs and traditions.
“Arab culture is all about customs and traditions, and ours are quite discriminatory against Black people,” Al Hothaifi said. “They [traditions] dictate how we [Black people] should get married and how we should bury our dead.”
Having participated in various workshops and training courses on human rights, Al Hothaifi said the absence of social justice is a main culprit behind racial discrimination in the country.
“Racial discrimination and practices need to be clearly criminalised in national legislation,” he said, “otherwise the rule of law will remain far out of reach in my country.”
Al Hothaifi said education is a main agent of change in society. He described anti-racism as a social practice that needed to start from home and children’s classrooms.
“Black children are constantly bullied in Yemeni schools,” he said. “However, thanks to the advocacy and awareness raising efforts of our alliance, we have seen an increasing number of Black students graduating from high school and enrolling in local [or international] universities.”
Al Hothaifi took part in the Regional Meeting for the Middle East, as part of the International Decade for People of African Descent (IDPAD) organized by OHCHR in October 2022. The meeting brought together Black activists from the region, to discuss challenges and opportunities. Al Hothaifi said he was delighted to be able to “make new friends who share a common vision and a common struggle.”
During the meeting, several Black activists from the region came together and decided they would want to create a regional network for anti-discrimination activists.
“It may be just a dream” Al Hothaifi said. “But all dreams start with baby steps, don’t they?”
Four months after the regional meeting, this dream materialised.
On March 21 2023, Al Hothaifi joined by 33 other Black activists from 13 countries in the MENA region, to officially launch the first Regional Network for Development and Anti-Racism in the Middle East and North Africa (RNDAR-MENA). The network is supported by UN Human Rights. Al Hothaifi is the network’s first president. He called the network the culmination of a lot of hard work and hopes.
“Today, [the network] is a concrete tool that will strengthen human solidarity to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination especially in the region where the gap widens between international human rights law and the bitter reality of daily life,” he said.
*This story is part of an occasional series by individuals or organisations that stand up for human rights – chosen by UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk to highlight racial justice as part of his Human Rights 75 Initiative, which promotes the hearing of the voices of defenders acting against racism.
Comment
CHANGE’S GOTTA COME
Inevitably, the much-awaited report into the current state of South Africa’s arts, commissioned by the Campaign for Free Expression, has painted an unpalatable picture that has always been in the public knowledge.
Again, not surprisingly, given the perennial grievances by the country’s arts community have largely remained unaddressed by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture and its agencies, such as the National Arts Council (NAC) for some time.
Worse, the department’s mandate to develop and promote excellence in the arts and encourage the provision of opportunities for people to practice the arts largely remain unaccomplished. And so its mission to promote the appreciation, understanding and enjoyment of the arts; promote the general application of the arts in the community.
Yet, it is common occurrence that – for a long time – there has been a disjuncture between department and, not only with its own avowed noble mission, but also with the large sections of its constituency, who have been complaining that it simply failed to serve them. In fact, the departed Minister Nathi Mthethwa spent a long time in office dousing the flames stoked by accusations of corruption and inefficiency in his portfolio.
It is no exaggeration that he was largely no longer taken seriously by most of his portfolio’s stakeholders, even when he sometimes merited a serious listen. In fact, if he did not heave a huge sigh of relief when the axe fell during a recent Cabinet reshuffle, the large sections of his constituency must inevitably have.
In his wake the unpalatable picture will have undeniably tarnished his contentious legacy. Thanks to the much-awaited report into the arts and cultural sector – commissioned by the Campaign for Free Expression – that ultimately vindicated the artists’ long-held grievances against Mthethwa, the NAC and the department in general.
Opening a can of worms, the report quoted from a wide-ranging sample of creatives who did not have much complimentary to say about the department and boards of its agencies – except horror: political meddling, nepotism and cronyism in the disbursing of grant funding to artists.
In many instances, surveyed artists spoke of harbouring fear to rock the boat by standing up to fight for their rights – lest they be targeted and deprived the very grant funding they solely depended on. An unedifying example was last year’s 60-day sit-in by a coterie of creatives at the NAC offices, which served as a testament of the high levels of frustrations and consternation among the sector.
At the risk of sounding like a scratched record, enough has been said already anyway, the rot in the department and its agencies must be stop. Immediately. Change’s gotta come – and must be galvanised by the winds of change sweeping with the recent advent of the new incumbent, Minister Zizi Kodwa, the new broom that must sweep clean.
Might we remind the Minister that progress is impossible without change.
