{"id":294670,"date":"2025-05-05T12:00:54","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T11:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=294670"},"modified":"2025-05-05T10:36:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T09:36:20","slug":"from-haiti-to-gaza-from-congo-to-the-climate-apartheid-a-call-for-humanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/05\/from-haiti-to-gaza-from-congo-to-the-climate-apartheid-a-call-for-humanity\/","title":{"rendered":"From Haiti to Gaza, from Congo to the Climate Apartheid: A Call for Humanity"},"content":{"rendered":"

This refrain echoes through centuries of struggle\u2014from 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\u2014a\u00a0crime against humanity \u2013 or better a genocide<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

The Haitian Blueprint<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the late 18th century, the enslaved of Saint Domingue\u2014Africans branded, chained, and shipped across the Atlantic\u2014launched the world\u2019s first successful anti-slavery revolution. Without aid from abolitionist allies or the so-called “civilized” world, they dismantled Napoleon\u00b4s French imperialism armada and declared Haiti a free \u00a0republic in 1804.<\/p>\n

This revolution wasn\u2019t merely political\u2014it 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\u00a0humanity<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The response? France and the Western world imposed brutal isolation, financial extortion, and political sabotage, rendering Haiti the \u201cGaza-upon-Atlantic\u201d\u2014punished for daring to rewrite the terms of freedom.<\/p>\n

Congo: The Green Utopia\u2019s Bloody Underbelly<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2014minerals mined predominantly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, often under the control of militias, in conditions mirroring slavery.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0 European Union’s foreign policy chief: \u00abEurope is a garden and the rest of the world a jungle\u201d.<\/p>\n

Climate Apartheid<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2014they are everyday realities. Food prices are soaring. Livestock have no pasture. Communities are unraveling. And yet, mineral extraction\u2014driven by corporate profit and Western demand\u2014continues to ravage ecosystems and people alike.<\/p>\n

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

Gaza: The Modern Frontier of Dehumanization<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, on the shores of the Mediterranean, Palestinians endure what some have dared to call “Gaza-upon-Mediterranean”\u2014a 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.<\/p>\n

This is where the Haitian, Congolese and Palestinian struggles converge\u2014not 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\u2014but homeless in their homeland<\/p>\n

Humanitarianism vs. Humanity<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen this script before\u2014first in the holds of slave ships, then in the ghettos of colonized lands. Now in refugee camps, open-air prisons, and drought-stricken villages.<\/p>\n

And yet, to call this a \u201cCrime Against Humanity\u201d remains controversial. Why?<\/p>\n

Because acknowledging it would require naming and dismantling the ideological architecture that holds the modern world in place\u2014capitalism, coloniality, white supremacy, and impunity for powerful states.<\/p>\n

Will We Dare to Know?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2014it is continuity.<\/p>\n

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\u2014as it already is\u2014we will hear the same tired lie:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not know.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

But we do know. We\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong>Ra\u00efs 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 Za\u00efre). He is also an activist and peace practitioner. Ra\u00efs 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. Ra\u00efs is also Co-editor of the Transcend Media Service (TMS). You can reach him at rais.boneza at gmail.com. http:\/\/www.raisnezaboneza.no<\/em><\/p>\n

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