By Owei Lakemfa
Three events made Monday, June 16, 2025, a sobering moment for me. On that day, back in 1976, news filtered that the killer Apartheid security forces which had been terrorising African countries like Zambia, Botswana and Lesotho, had turned on unarmed school children in South Africa.
The Nigerian society was so conscious then that I recall adults in Lagos, explaining to us that school children like us were being gunned down. This is what became known as the Soweto Massacre. Then, the iconic photograph by Sam Nzima surfaced. It was the image of the lifeless body of 12-year-old Hector Pieterson being carried by the youngster, Mbuyisa Makhubo, with Hector’s 17-year-old sister, Antoinette Sithole, running along-side. Hector was one of about 700 children massacred by the Apartheid regime which had the backing of countries like the United States and the United Kingdom.
The simple demand of the 20,000 children who began the protests, was that the decision to impose the racist Afrikaans language in schools, be rescinded. They also demanded an end to Apartheid in education in which White children attended superior schools free, while Black children paid fees to receive poor education. In those days, the Apartheid regime spent 42 rand on each Black child, and 644 rand on each White child.
Then Nigeria, which, on the Apartheid issue, had its head firmly on its shoulders, issued a call for Nigerians to donate funds to the liberation struggle to free Africa from colonialism. Yes, the struggle in South Africa was not primarily about Black leaders replacing the White fascists. It was a de-colonisation war to destroy the settler-colony and replace it with a mass democratic system. One in which the mass of the people will have bread on the table, clothes on their backs, education and healthcare for all, and land for the landless.
The goals of the struggle which were championed by the African National Congress, ANC, and the Pan African Congress, PAC, are yet to be met.
I recall the story in the newspapers about Teboho “Tsietsi” MacDonald Mashinini, the leader of the children uprising, visiting Nigeria. He died in Guinea in 1990 where he was in exile. His memory eventually faded. But that of the Soweto Children Uprising, is kept alive by the act of the Organisation of African Unity, OAU, now AU, which declared June 16 the Day of the African Child. This is the second event that made me sad. Mainly, African leaders created the Day for the continent’s children without major follow-up. For instance, the Day reminds me as a Nigerian, the twin tragic facts of children, like those of Chibok being mass-abducted by terrorists. The other issue is that a country like Nigeria which over 70 years ago, in its Western part, introduced free and compulsory education, today has over 18 million children out of school. The children roam the streets begging for food, while a number of them are recruited by criminal gangs, bandits and terrorists.
However, on Monday, June 16, 2025, the United Nations Hall in New York, echoed with my petition before its Special Committee on Decolonisation. I could not be physically present, but the internationalist Esteli Capote read out my petition which demanded that the world body frees humanity from the inhuman and criminal shackles of colonialism.
My petition before the world body read: “I am Owei Lakemfa, President of the Society for International Relations Awareness, SIRA, an African think tank on foreign affairs. I am also an International Co-coordinator of the End Colonialism Movement, ECM.
The ECM holds as an eternal truth, the United States of America, USA, Declaration of Independence that: “all men are created equal…”
The ECM is built on the foundations of the United Nations, UN, International Bill of Human Rights and, the 1960 UN “Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.”
The UN Charter defines colonies as “territories whose people have not yet attained a full measure of self-government.”
It is tragic that by June 2025, there are still over 60 such colonies in the world. We are, however, encouraged that in May 2025, Britain returned Chagos, a group of 60 islands it seized 60 years ago when Mauritius gained independence.
Puerto Rico
The ECM stands before you today, June 16, 2025, to demand the immediate and peaceful decolonisation of Puerto Rico (Borikén). It is a territory of 3.4 million people with over five million other Puerto Ricans living outside their homeland largely due to colonialism.
Puerto Rico was colonised by Spain in 1493. However, during the Cuban-Spanish-American War of 1898 the United States of America, USA, invaded Puerto Rico, and occupied it.
Ladies and gentlemen, The Treaty of Paris, negotiated on December 10, 1898 between the USA and Spain without the representation of the Puerto Rican people, is in violation of international law as it ignored the recognition of Puerto Rico as a nation.
The USA has not carried out a decolonisation process in Puerto Rico in accordance with UN Resolution 1514 (XV) to which it is a signatory. Conversely, it has through the Treaty of Paris, the Foraker and Jones Acts and imposition of a non-representative constitution, strived to create the false impression that Puerto Rico is not a traditional colony.
Today, it is 127 years after the USA occupied Puerto Rico. The only logical step is to let its people go free!
The ECM, therefore, deems it vital that:
*The case of Puerto Rico should be elevated as a topic for the United Nations General Assembly, UNGA.
*The Puerto Rico Observer seat in the United Nations revoked in 1950, should be restored.
*In accordance with the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV) of 1960 and, the position of the UN Special Committee on Decolonisation, Puerto Rico should be granted independence.
We also suggest that the UN admits all colonies into the United Nations General Assembly, UNGA, just as India and the Philippines were admitted in 1945 while still being British and American colonies respectively.
Also, the ECM urges countries like the USA, United Kingdom, France, Morocco and New Zealand who still maintain colonies, to enter into negotiations with the colonised peoples in order to peacefully and completely decolonize the human race. Thank you.”
Humanity had three great challenges which questioned our claims to be superior to other earthly beings: Slavery, Apartheid and Colonialism. We have virtually eradicated the first two. We have the duty to eliminate the third.
You can contribute to this historic struggle by campaigning for the eradication of colonialism just as humanity did against slavery and Apartheid.
Also, you can establish or join organisations like the End Colonialism Movement, ECM, dedicated to eradicating the scourge, worldwide.
