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update on Africatown, and more on Irom Sharmila
I promise it won't be all activism all the time at asakiyume dot livejournal dot com, but sometimes things happen all at once.
Back in 2010, when I was doing research for Pen Pal, I found out about Africatown, a unique community in Mobile, Alabama, home to descendants of people brought to America on the last slave ship, in 1860. People in this community spoke African languages well into the twentieth century. When I went to Alabama, I visited a memorial in the community (pictures here), and I've always thought it would be great if someone from the area were to write a history of it--or historical fiction.
But alas, what's happening instead is an oil pipeline is being put right through the community, with no communication with community members, jobs promised but not delivered--the typical story of disregard of the wellbeing of people in minority communities. As one protestor points out, a violation of the Environmental Justice Act of 1984. As this protest was being filmed, the construction crew were demolishing a baseball field at the local elementary school--now the children can't go out for physical education. The pipeline also runs right next to a community garden.
The community seems well organized and has at least some support in the wider area. Hopefully their protest will be heard and some changes will be made to the route of the pipeline . . . though where and how. . . can it be stopped altogether--who knows. . .
Meanwhile more on Irom Sharmila, from the previous entry. She has a court date this Thursday.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
amaebi took the initiative and wrote to John Kerry, in his capacity as secretary of state, via this handy contact form, to ask that he press the Indian government on her behalf and on behalf of her cause. Inspired, I did too. I'll enclose the letter under a cut in case anyone else would like to send a letter and wants some thoughts on talking points.
If people would like to write to Sharmila directly, I do have a contact address. Send me a message via LJ, and I'll share it. I intend to write her myself, tonight or tomorrow.
For thirteen years, Irom Sharmila, a citizen of Manipur State in India, has been on hunger strike to protest India's Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which grants the Indian armed forces immunity from prosecution for actions they commit in so-called "disturbed areas" such as Manipur and Kashmir. They can, and have, carried out rapes and massacres, and the local population has no recourse.
Because a hunger strike endangers one's life, and because committing suicide is a crime punishable by a year's imprisonment, Irom Sharmila has been subject to a yearly cycle of arrests, force-feeding in isolation in a prison hospital, release, and re-arrest. A concerned friend of hers reports that her next court date is March 13. I urge the US Department of State to contact the government of India and express concern over the condition of Sharmila's detention and, even more important to Sharmila herself and to the people living in areas subject to the AFSPA, urge India to repeal this law. Most of civil society condemns it; it is simply a matter of emboldening politicians to stand up to the military.
I promise next entry will be something lighter!
Back in 2010, when I was doing research for Pen Pal, I found out about Africatown, a unique community in Mobile, Alabama, home to descendants of people brought to America on the last slave ship, in 1860. People in this community spoke African languages well into the twentieth century. When I went to Alabama, I visited a memorial in the community (pictures here), and I've always thought it would be great if someone from the area were to write a history of it--or historical fiction.
But alas, what's happening instead is an oil pipeline is being put right through the community, with no communication with community members, jobs promised but not delivered--the typical story of disregard of the wellbeing of people in minority communities. As one protestor points out, a violation of the Environmental Justice Act of 1984. As this protest was being filmed, the construction crew were demolishing a baseball field at the local elementary school--now the children can't go out for physical education. The pipeline also runs right next to a community garden.
The community seems well organized and has at least some support in the wider area. Hopefully their protest will be heard and some changes will be made to the route of the pipeline . . . though where and how. . . can it be stopped altogether--who knows. . .
Meanwhile more on Irom Sharmila, from the previous entry. She has a court date this Thursday.
amaebi took the initiative and wrote to John Kerry, in his capacity as secretary of state, via this handy contact form, to ask that he press the Indian government on her behalf and on behalf of her cause. Inspired, I did too. I'll enclose the letter under a cut in case anyone else would like to send a letter and wants some thoughts on talking points.If people would like to write to Sharmila directly, I do have a contact address. Send me a message via LJ, and I'll share it. I intend to write her myself, tonight or tomorrow.
For thirteen years, Irom Sharmila, a citizen of Manipur State in India, has been on hunger strike to protest India's Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which grants the Indian armed forces immunity from prosecution for actions they commit in so-called "disturbed areas" such as Manipur and Kashmir. They can, and have, carried out rapes and massacres, and the local population has no recourse.
Because a hunger strike endangers one's life, and because committing suicide is a crime punishable by a year's imprisonment, Irom Sharmila has been subject to a yearly cycle of arrests, force-feeding in isolation in a prison hospital, release, and re-arrest. A concerned friend of hers reports that her next court date is March 13. I urge the US Department of State to contact the government of India and express concern over the condition of Sharmila's detention and, even more important to Sharmila herself and to the people living in areas subject to the AFSPA, urge India to repeal this law. Most of civil society condemns it; it is simply a matter of emboldening politicians to stand up to the military.
I promise next entry will be something lighter!
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Reminds me of a work of art at the MFA called Black River, which seems to be about environmental degradation caused by oil spills in the Niger Delta, and how few people actually benefit from certain natural resources.
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Oil really is a blight.
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Africatown is frustrating too. Yet more environmental injustice. And the fact that the injustice is being committed on a people and place with that direct connection to the massive injustice of the slave trade is amazing.
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The situation with Sharmila, too. I have misgivings about hunger strikes as a tactic, and yet sometimes that's the only type of protest you feel able to make.
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irom sharmila