Racism, colonialism and human rights: an ongoing struggle

There is a growing number of movements that question or outright oppose certain rights and that, at the same time, are beginning to be normalized in different spaces. Racial violence is also part of this reality and continues to grow, while various groups seek to confront it, demand reparations and require that those who hold positions of power be held accountable for their actions.

Liliane Umubyeyi and her fight for racial justice

A news piece published by Amnesty International tells the story of Liliane Umubyeyi, who helped found African Futures Lab with the aim of rewriting the narrative surrounding Africans and people of African descent.

Liliane recounted that when she was a child living in Rwanda, the political climate was violent. When she was 10 years old, she and her family had to flee to Kenya and then to Cameroon because of the 1994 Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi.

She studied law, earned a doctorate and worked for various human rights organizations, including the United Nations. Through those experiences she realized the disconnect between human rights and racial justice. She noticed the impact of colonialism when it came to solving problems. The organizations she worked for had a Eurocentric mindset when it came to designing how political and legal systems should work.

By founding Africans Futures Lab, she became an activist. Her main goal was to change the culture of impunity regarding racial injustices, as well as the narrative surrounding the development of their societies.

The marks of colonialism in Africa and Europe

Since the second half of the 19th century, they were seen as people who needed to be saved and supported. African immigrants and people of African descent were also blamed for the socioeconomic problems of the countries of the Global North, when it was that very African population that helped create the wealth of the colonial powers and their development through the exploitation of resources and their labor.

Children born in Africa to African mothers and European fathers were forcibly separated from their families between 1948 and 1961 under Belgian colonial rule in Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Liliana remembers hearing how a relative of hers had been torn from his mother’s arms as a child. That same mother sent him letters for many years trying to find him, but she had neither the resources nor the knowledge of the language to search for him effectively.

The colonial countries were instrumental in the perpetration of the various human rights violations. Belgium was instrumental in turning socioeconomic categories into ethnic categories in Rwanda, and France facilitated the conditions that led to the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Belgium apologized, but France has not addressed the issue of reparations. It has only acknowledged moral responsibility. It is very difficult for human rights spaces to decide to address crimes related to racism and the violations perpetrated by colonialism and neocolonialism.

Reparations and accountability for racial injustices

Since 2021, African Futures Lab has worked to hold states and private actors accountable for historical and contemporary racial injustices in Europe and Africa. Its founders state that the need to address the consequences of colonialism and the current manifestations of a global system of racial domination has rarely been considered.

African Futures Lab aspires to build a future in which the dignity and rights of Africans and people of African descent are protected and respected. The organization works by publishing evidence-based research reports and policy papers that expose how historical and contemporary racial injustices manifest in Africa and Europe; it launches campaigns to raise awareness about racial injustice, organizes and actively participates in conferences, and empowers emerging and established leaders through fellowship programs.

The story of Liliane Umubyeyi shows that the consequences of colonialism and racism have not remained in the past. There are still injustices that need to be acknowledged and redressed, as well as a debt owed to those who were affected by these systems for years.

In this sense, the work of organizations such as African Futures Lab is essential to make these stories visible, demand reparations and seek to hold those in positions of power accountable for their actions.