Donia Human Rights Center Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Lecture | Still Struggling to Cross That Bridge: Connecting the US and African Civil Rights Movements

I grew up in the diminishing shadows of the African liberation movements. My childhood recollections were filled with long political debates among my parents, their friends, older cousins, and uncles about memories of leaders like Biko of South Africa, Senghor of Senegal, Nkrumah of Ghana, Nyerere of Tanzania, Nasser of Egypt, and Patrice Lumumba of the Congo.  Naturally, this history has shaped my political consciousness.

Later in my life, I discovered that at the same time, another liberation movement was unfolding across the Atlantic, where young men and women of African descent were challenging a system that disregarded their humanity; they also vigorously strived for equality, justice, and human rights. In this conversation I am going to have with you, I will seek to illustrate how the quest for liberation and decolonization in Africa parallels the civil rights movement in America; both movements are reflecting our extended struggle to cross over that bridge towards a peaceful and just society.