Mama Africa
How are you doing Mama
Mama Africa
Long time me no see you Mama
”Breaking News!” the bedroom tv screamed at me. It was about five days after the horror of Las Vegas and that carnage and my own personal loss (my mom having died 7 weeks before) had my nerves at the near-breaking point. “What now?” I wondered. “Breaking news,” said the CNN on-air personality. She then went on to inform her audience that a car had plunged into a London crowd and that police were working to determine if this was terrorism. By now, I guess that we are all agreed that “working to determine whether this was terrorism” is code for determining the color of the skin of the perpetrator, right? Black and brown? Terrorism. White? Lone Wolf.
It turned out that eleven people were injured and the incident was ultimately judged to be not an act of terrorism but just an accident. Thousands of car accidents happen all over the world every single day, why was this worthy of the screaming breaking news treatment, I wondered? Someone(s) at CNN decided that lives in a predominately white country were in danger and so their viewers would be most interested to know of it. And it would be especially sexy — bring in more eyeballs, you know — if a black or brown person had anything to do with it because then it would be TERRORISM!!!
Over 300 human lives lost in Somalia
All of that to get to this:
The death toll in the bombing that hit the centre of Mogadishu on Saturday continues to rise, with more than 300 people now believed to have been killed and hundreds more seriously injured.
The scale of the loss makes the attack, which involved a truck packed with several hundred kilograms of military-grade and homemade explosives, one of the most lethal terrorist acts anywhere in the world for many years.
On the day of the attack on the defenseless Somalians, CNN had a couple of reports — the first one I saw was with their customary breaking news banner; they abandoned the scare tactics for the second report. I guess the slaughter of 200 Africans only merits one screaming headline. Thereafter, the story of the carnage in Mogadishu was relegated to the crawling chyron.
The US Mission to Somalia issued a statement:
The United States condemns in the strongest terms the October 14 terrorist attacks that killed and injured scores of innocent Somalis in Mogadishu. We extend our deepest condolences to the families of those who perished and wish a speedy recovery to individuals injured in the blasts. The United States lauds the heroic response of the Somali security forces and first responders and Somali citizens who rushed to the aid of their brothers and sisters.
Such cowardly attacks reinvigorate the commitment of the United States to assist our Somali and African Union partners to combat the scourge of terrorism to promote stability and prosperity for the Somali people and their regional neighbors.
I guess Somalia will have to do with that from our government and our media. The man in the White House couldn’t be bothered to utter a single word about this terrorist attack as he was so busy fighting black guys in the NFL...and golfing. Golfing is hard work, you know. And newsrooms across the nation can’t be bothered to expend too much energy talking about a bunch of people who only a few people care about anyway.
The death toll of 302 is expected to rise. Nearly 70 people were missing, based on accounts from relatives, said police Capt. Mohamed Hussein.
"My son has gone missing since the day of the attack. I would be very lucky if I had a portion of his body," Abdulkadir Mohamud said, breaking down in tears. "I do not have even his flesh. Please bring my son back."
With nearly 400 people wounded, with some burned beyond recognition, international aid arrived to help overwhelmed hospitals.
I charge CNN, MSNBC, and the networks with the crime of devaluing black lives and ignoring black pain. I charge them with perpetuating and aiding and abetting white supremacy. I’m looking at you, Anderson Cooper, Don Lemon, Jake Tapper, Wolf Blitzer, the morning crew, and the whole news department. I’m looking at you MSNBC — your whole news department. You are all guilty!
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Mama Africa
I've been waiting, yearning, looking
Searching to find you
I've been crying, praying hoping
That I may find you Mama