From Haiti to Gaza, from Congo to the Climate Apartheid: A Call for Humanity

TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 5 May 2025

Raïs Neza Boneza - TRANSCEND Media Service

This refrain echoes through centuries of struggle—from the plantations of Saint Domingue to the besieged neighborhoods of Gaza, from the mineral-rich soil of the Congo to the burning plains of Southern Africa. Today, as humanity faces mounting climate catastrophe, global inequality, and ethnic cleansing, we must ask: how did we get here? And how long will we refuse to name the violence for what it is—a crime against humanity – or better a genocide?

The Haitian Blueprint

In the late 18th century, the enslaved of Saint Domingue—Africans branded, chained, and shipped across the Atlantic—launched the world’s first successful anti-slavery revolution. Without aid from abolitionist allies or the so-called “civilized” world, they dismantled Napoleon´s French imperialism armada and declared Haiti a free  republic in 1804.

This revolution wasn’t merely political—it was philosophical. It exposed the hollowness of European Enlightenment ideals that preached liberty while profiting from human bondage. Haiti shattered the Black Code, a legal doctrine codifying the terror and torture of slavery, and replaced it with an unflinching fidelity to humanity.

The response? France and the Western world imposed brutal isolation, financial extortion, and political sabotage, rendering Haiti the “Gaza-upon-Atlantic”—punished for daring to rewrite the terms of freedom.

Congo: The Green Utopia’s Bloody Underbelly

Fast-forward to the present, where the green energy revolution is touted as the solution to the climate crisis. But what powers the batteries of electric cars, smartphones, and solar panels? Cobalt, coltan, lithium—minerals mined predominantly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, often under the control of militias, in conditions mirroring slavery.

The so-revered transition to a green future risk reproducing the very structures of exploitation it claims to overcome. Like during the industrial revolution where Leopold II , the king of Belgium massacred more than ten million Congolese and even more mutilated to fuel the Rubber that the automobile industry need by then.

Deforestation, forced displacement, and systemic violence in the Congo are not “local problems.” The environmental destruction they cause transcends borders. Climate change, like colonialism, is global. It cares nothing for man-made borders, nor does it spare those who have contributed the least to its making. We are tending to a green utopia instead, well phrased in 2022 by former  European Union’s foreign policy chief: «Europe is a garden and the rest of the world a jungle”.

Climate Apartheid

Southern Africa, for instance, is experiencing its driest agricultural season in more than 40 years. Erratic rainfall, scorching temperatures, and declining water access are not abstract threats—they are everyday realities. Food prices are soaring. Livestock have no pasture. Communities are unraveling. And yet, mineral extraction—driven by corporate profit and Western demand—continues to ravage ecosystems and people alike.

Let us be clear: this is not unfortunate collateral damage. It is the predictable outcome of a system that prioritizes capital over life.

Gaza: The Modern Frontier of Dehumanization

Meanwhile, on the shores of the Mediterranean, Palestinians endure what some have dared to call “Gaza-upon-Mediterranean”—a site of ongoing, systematized violence. Their land is bombed, their homes erased, their history denied. Yet international silence prevails. The reason? The refusal to name the slaughter of civilians as a crime against humanity better a genocide. To do so would mean violating a geopolitical taboo.

This is where the Haitian, Congolese and Palestinian struggles converge—not geographically, but morally. They are punished for asserting their humanity. They are erased from narratives of progress. Both are refused the dignity of legal recognition, even in suffering. But they are all full members of humanity—but homeless in their homeland

Humanitarianism vs. Humanity

The world has grown adept at deploying “humanitarian” missions that do little to challenge the systems producing crisis. This modernized version of abolitionism offers relief but avoids justice. It soothes guilt without addressing complicity. It processes people as data, not as equals.

We’ve seen this script before—first in the holds of slave ships, then in the ghettos of colonized lands. Now in refugee camps, open-air prisons, and drought-stricken villages.

And yet, to call this a “Crime Against Humanity” remains controversial. Why?

Because acknowledging it would require naming and dismantling the ideological architecture that holds the modern world in place—capitalism, coloniality, white supremacy, and impunity for powerful states.

Will We Dare to Know?

If Napoleon had foreseen that his brutal methods would later inspire Hitler, would he have seen Africans as humans instead of property? Would those who invoke the Holocaust today recognize its echoes in Gaza? The point is not comparison—it is continuity.

We stand at the edge of what could become the greatest crime against humanity yet. Climate collapse, resource wars, and ethnic cleansing are converging. And when it unfolds—as it already is—we will hear the same tired lie:

“We did not know.”

But we do know. We’ve always known. From the Caribbean Arawaks holocaust to the Congolese. From Haiti to the Gaza pogrom. From past to present. The story is one of violated humanity. The call is for fidelity to humanity. Not charity. Not compromise. But truth. Justice. And global solidarity.

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Raïs Neza Boneza is the author of fiction as well as non-fiction, poetry books and articles. He was born in the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (Former Zaïre). He is also an activist and peace practitioner. Raïs is convener of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment for Central and African Great Lakes and uses his work to promote artistic expressions as a means to deal with conflicts and maintaining mental wellbeing, spiritual growth and healing. He has travelled extensively in Africa and around the world as a lecturer, educator and consultant for various NGOs and institutions. His work is premised on art, healing, solidarity, peace, conflict transformation and human dignity issues. Raïs is also Co-editor of the Transcend Media Service (TMS). You can reach him at rais.boneza at gmail.com. http://www.raisnezaboneza.no

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 5 May 2025.

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