Sean Jacobs's Blog, page 340

Hey, Donald Trump, Here Are Some Things You Might Not Know About the U.S. and Latin America

Good news for comedians everywhere: Donald Trump—the guy famous for his tacky reality TV shows, his opulent towers and his obscene fortune—just announced today that he will be joining the small set of 1,045-odd hopeful conservative politicians as he will be the newest addition to the group of Republican candidates for the presidency of the United States. Bad news everyone: Donald Trump, again, wants to be president of the United States.

His chances are, thankfully, slim, and in a pool of 27 (!) Republican candidates it is very unlikely he gets his party nomination for the U.S. elections next year. Like his previous attempts at the presidency of the United States (in 1988, 2000, 2004 and 2012), this time he might also retire before the elections. And like those other attempts, this one might also not be more than a publicity stunt, something suitable for a man who has made great deal of his fortune by working the media attention to his divisive opinions in his favor.

But he is already using this supposedly political platform to spew hatred and misconceptions. He probably knows his audience very wells and knows what do they want to hear. In a speech he gave today outside of his Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan, he appealed to the fear that many of his followers have of difference, of otherness (immigrants, Muslims, the usual targets), and he appealed to the sense that American exceptionalism is vanishing and needs to be restored.

In his speech he said:

When was the last time anybody saw us beating, let’s say, China in a trade deal? They kill us. I beat China all the time. All the time. (…) When did we beat Japan at anything? They send their cars over by the millions, and what do we do? When was the last time you saw a Chevrolet in Tokyo? It doesn’t exist, folks. They beat us all the time.

When do we beat Mexico at the border? They’re laughing at us, at our stupidity. And now they are beating us economically. They are not our friend, believe me. But they’re killing us economically.

The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you. It’s true, and these are the best and the finest. When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

But I speak to border guards and they tell us what we’re getting. And it only makes common sense. It only makes common sense. They’re sending us not the right people. 

It’s coming from more than Mexico. It’s coming from all over South and Latin America, and it’s coming probably — probably — from the Middle East. But we don’t know. Because we have no protection and we have no competence, we don’t know what’s happening. And it’s got to stop and it’s got to stop fast.

After repeating how Mexico is “stealing” American business and describing the North American nation along with China and ISIS as the U.S.’s biggest enemies, he went on:

I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively, I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.

Let’s not delve too deeply on his obviously xenophobic comments and ignorance in the history of human migration. Let’s not stay too much on how Trump’s ludicrous assertion that Mexicans and other Latin American immigrants to the United States are all rapists until proven innocent (or “good people,” I assume). Let’s not think what the world would like with a man like this as the head of the United States.

Instead, let’s focus on giving Trump some reading material on what the United States brings to Latin America. He could, for example, read about how the U.S.-funded war on drugs has devastated Colombia and Mexico, killing thousands, displacing millions and empowering drug cartels. He could find out more about how the United States government has fueled gang violence in El Salvador. He could also look at the U.S. bloody history of “political” intervention in Central America that has left many Hondurans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans with no better choice than to try to make the deadly way north. Or he could read about the “sketchiest” (to put it lightly) things the DEA has done in Latin America and beyond.

Maybe afterwards he’ll understand why so many Latin Americans are forced to flee their countries. But maybe he already knows about all of this, and he only cares about getting enough rating to keep making his millions. Who knows? I don’t. But in any case I would strongly advice him to use his building skills to build a wall around himself.

Hillbrow invasion with @YoungstaCPT

Cape Town-based wordsmith Youngsta’s been in Johannesburg for a few weeks, here on a mission to build bridges and shake a few industry players’ hands, all the while invading the city with his brand of Kaapse rap. It’s been roughly five years of steady hustle and grind for the emcee whose claim to fame is having released 24 mixtapes in a period of eighteen months. Youngsta’s gone on to perform music with DJ Ready D, release albums with well-renowned DJs such as Hamma (who used to rap in Braase Vannie Kaap way back when), and form Deurie Naai Alliance with Arsenic, one of the Cape’s most consistent producers.

He’s also built a movement called Y?Generation, an “army of street soldiers” by his definition. The idea to build a community-centered movement  was inspired by the sense of stillness and helplessness anyone who grew up in the hood has felt or experienced at different points in their life. Things didn’t pan out as envisioned. Instead of loosing momentum, Youngsta thought he’d stiek uit and reach out to people in different areas whose life outlook and focus were as sharp. “[Knowing] we all had common goals in music & social developments, we joined up,” says the affable and engaging rhyme-spitter when talking about Y? Generation via e-mail..

Youngsta invited me along on a mini-tour of the gully and gutter streets of Hillbrow the other day. The goal was to go from one end to walk the length of its streets while taking the odd picture. It turned out to be a session filled with interactions only possible in Jozi — a spaza shop owner who could recite Nas’ ’94 album Illmatic line-for-line; a walking 90s rap cliche (Fubu gear, Timbs, durag) who looked well into his forties and had a stall which resembled his personal wardrobe; and a homie who tried to charge us money in order to have a picture taken, while trying to sell us crusty weed at the same damn time!

All in all, it was an incredible day! More pictures are on Youngsta’s facebook page.

What’s the word? Sister/woman have you heard from Manenberg?

To honor the June 16, 1976 Soweto Uprising, aka Youth Day, the Rock Girls are on a five-day road trip, from Manenberg to Port Elizabeth. These girls embody all that is powerful and hopeful about Youth Day. They live the injunction of organizer Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living!”

Based in Manenberg, Rock Girls was begun in 2010 by human rights lawyer and activist Michelle India Baird, who has worked for decades for women’s and children’s rights in the United States and in South Africa.

In 2010, Baird was volunteering at the Red River School in Manenberg, on the Cape Flats. Established in the mid 1960s as a Colored `enclave’, Manenberg has increasingly become identified with gang violence, which means among other things with intensifying gender-based violence. It’s a hard place for adolescent women to negotiate gender and personhood … but they do, every day, and that’s where Rock Girls comes in, making change in Manenberg.

In 2010, Baird saw, in her words, that “girls were not participating in the after-school running programme because they did not feel safe on the sports field. [We] began documenting the conditions around and at school, and created a plan to make their environment safer, starting with a safe place to sit at school when the older boys and gangsters harassed them.” So, Grade 6 girls designed a bench, painted murals, planted a garden, and organized like hell to make their school a safer place. They put the bench near the tuck shop on the school grounds, and declared the space a Safe Space. There are now eight benches around Cape Town, with another five pending.

The girls started meeting regularly, and organizing, at the Manenberg People’s Centre Library. Last year, when they heard about the abduction of hundreds of schoolgirls from Chibok, Nigeria, they said, “Let’s go find them.” That began a conversation about pan-African women’s and girls’ rights and situations, especially as regards everyday safety for women and girls. Meanwhile, the meetings became more difficult, due to increased gunfire nearby.

Undeterred, the girls decided to hit the road, to see South Africa, to meet girls in communities like their own, and to organize like hell. This week, it’s a five-day trip. The girls have studied reporting with the Children’s Radio Foundation and photography with Iliso Labantu photographers. According to Baird, this is a test drive. The next trip, they hope to drive north … to Rwanda. Stay tuned.

Soweto Youths of 1976 deserve better than Badvertising

South African ad agencies continue to prove intolerable. This time it’s Cape Town agency Black River FC, which decided it was a good idea ahead of the 39th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising on June 16 to re-imagine a Sam Nzima photograph taken on the day. The iconic photo is of a distraught 17-year-old Antoinette Pieterson running alongside 18-year-old Mbuyisa Makhubu, who was carrying the lifeless body of Antoinette’s 13-year-old brother Hector.

Hector was just a baby, but that did not stop the apartheid regime’s police force from shooting him and at least 175 others dead for having the temerity to reject an education system designed to teach them little else than to say “yes, baas” to the commands of white people.

So how did Black River FC on behalf of its client, 24-hour pay-TV music station Channel O, decide to reimagine this awe-inspiring history?

Easy. They replaced Hector’s body with a graduation gown and parchment, turned Antoinette’s frown upside-down, and transformed the look of terror on Mbuyisa’s face to one of jubilation. That’s how it works, right? South Africa is free and today’s youth should “live the dream of the youth of ‘76 died for” by going to school and graduating. Oh, and watching Channel O, of course.

The ad is a dime-a-dozen stay-in-school public service announcement that, to conceal its vacuity, appropriates gratuitously and superficially iconography from the country’s revolutionary history. It is lazy. But it’s worst crime is that the message does not accord with the reality faced by the majority of young South Africans.

Because, 80% of the country’s public schools schools are dysfunctional. Only a third of high school graduates in any one year attain grades that will allow them to enter university, should they so wish, and far fewer of those admitted actually end up graduating. Further-education-and-training colleges are in a state of disarray and subject to both real and perceived quality problems – both by students and the market place. That’s without even considering the cost of higher education, which is prohibitively set for many young people.

And it’s also without considering what is taught at schools, universities and colleges – which #RhodesMustFall, #OpenStellenbosch and other student-led movements have shown still centres Western and phallocentric knowledge, histories and paradigms as the norm and any attempts to usher in plurality are met with resistance.

Is it unsurprising then that 41% of young women and 31.6% of young men are neither employed nor enrolled at an education institution – and black kids in particular have limited economic mobility.

That we have not had another June 16 – a time when young people were aware of the raw deal they were being dealt and stood up against it – is probably thanks to people like the bright sparks behind this ad. They perverted history to sell young people false dreams and avert their eyes from the real. They’re also probably part of the group of people behind the truly astonishing number of South African ads that suggest black folk will dance for anything.

Oh, and four decades later we still don’t know where Mbuyisa is. Papering over a person whose whereabouts are still unknown, whose family is still clinging to the hope he might still be alive, is an appalling way to remember the past and live the present ethically.

I wonder what Mbuyisa’s family will say to of his image.

Should South Africa have arrested President Bashir?

Twitter lit up on Sunday and #Bashir was trending worldwide.  As the African Union summit convened in South Africa, the fate of Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir seemed to hang on a pending decision from a South African judge and the question was: Will South Africa arrest President Bashir and hand him over to the International Criminal Court?

Six years ago, the ICC issued a warrant for the arrest of Bashir for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Darfur. He has so far avoided arrest by carefully selecting the dozen countries that he has visited since he became an “ICC fugitive.” Human rights organizations have followed scrupulously Bashir’s travel schedule and each time, have campaigned vigorously for his arrest.

Credited with having one of the most independent judicial systems on the continent, South Africa was poised to be the stage for a dramatic – if not theatrical — legal showcase. As soon as Bashir landed, the Southern Africa Litigation Centre introduced before the Pretoria’s High Court a request to issue a warrant for the arrest of Bashir on Sunday. The court issued an interim order that Bashir must not be allowed to leave the country until a final decision be made on the application on Monday morning. After 24 hours of conflicting reports regarding Bashir’s whereabouts, it is now clear that he has left South Africa, pre-empting the Pretoria High Court ruling.

This in itself is a huge development and will have many political implications. But to be sure, even if the court had decided that the South African security forces must arrest Bashir, putting handcuffs on the Sudan’s president may have only been wishful thinking. For one, Bashir could take refuge in Sudan’s embassy in Pretoria, and South Africa would not be able to go in and arrest him. Such an instance would have resulted in the Assange scenario, and it is not sure whether the Zuma administration wants that.

Moreover, it may well be that South Africa’s domestic laws provide for the arrest of Bashir, but it is still not clear whether South Africa is obligated by international law to arrest Bashir. As crazy as it may sound, Bashir may still have head of state immunity. There are certainly opposing sides on this debate among international law scholars.

Because the ICC prosecutes “the most serious crimes of concern to the international community”, the Rome Statute, which is its founding treaty, doesn’t allow for immunity. It means that by ratifying the Satute and joining the Court, states signs away the immunity of their officials. But Sudan hasn’t done so. The ICC gained jurisdiction over the Darfur crisis through a UN Security Council resolution. The question becomes then whether a mere UNSC resolution can strip a head of state from his/her immunity? Those who argue that the UNSC resolution overrides Sudan’s non-party to the ICC status often invoke the case of Charles Taylor to make their point. But Dov Jacobs here and here argues that nothing under international law obligates South Africa to arrest Bashir.

To be sure, anything related to the ICC is as much about law as it is about politics, despite the denegation of the purists. Why else would the UNSC have the power to refer situations to the ICC, including in states that have opted not joined the Court? Is there any international body more political than the UNSC?

Why then should we fault South Africa for taking into consideration political calculations in deciding whether to arrest Bashir or let him sneak out of the country? Had South Africa arrested Bashir, that would have sent shockwaves throughout the African Union that may well have been fatal to the organization’s survival. As South Africa is one of the powerhouses of the organization (and keeping in mind the African Union’s official position is that its member states should not cooperate with the ICC to arrest Bashir,) one may also wonder what could South Africa gain from arresting Bashir?

This may well be Bashir’s last trip outside of Sudan, as it’s getting hot out there for an ICC fugitive. For the ICC, this dramatic showdown is certainly a positive outcome that points to its increased legitimacy and relevance. The question remains to be seen whether the African Union will still stand behind Bashir, or quietly withdraw its support.

Weekend Music Break No.77

Weekend Music Break, your weekly round up of hot tunes and music news from around the African Continent and its diaspora, is here!

This weekend we have Belgium based Congolese artists Badi and Fredy Massamba’s team up “Belgicain”; Show Dem Camp puts out an Afro-House song featuring Iye on the hook; still in the house zone, but in Angola, Maya Zuda and Bebucho Que Cuia present “Dois a Dois”; French-Senegalese rapper Booba heads to South America once again to shoot the video for his song “Tony Sosa”; Nigerian Davido sets his sights across the Atlantic by teaming up with Philadelphia gangsta rapper Meek Mill; Another cross-Atlantic collaboration sees a pair of Americans and a pair of Brits trading verses over a ominous R&B-trap beat; In preparation for the launch of his new album, Sarkodie also launches a trans-Atlantic gangsta-rap collabo this week, here he goes to dancehall territory with Stonebwoy and Jupiter; The Havana Cultura project recently shared “Madres” by Daymé Arocena, a live performance dedicated to the Orixa Yemaya (Yemoja, Iemanjá); Seattle-based Chimurenga Renaissance heads to the ruins of Great Zimbabwe for their track “Pop Killer”; and finally, F’Victeam, a Congolese dance squad, shoots a martial arts themed Ndomobolo/Decale video (embedding disabled so watch it here). Enjoy!

Refugees vow to ‘return home’ after meeting with ‘appalling’ British holidaymakers

This piece is a response to a recent article in the Daily Mail.

Among the Syrian and Afghan refugees landed on the Greek island of Kos there has been talk of returning to their home-countries after their stay has been disturbed by the ‘awkward’ behavior of British holidaymakers.

“It is truly appalling,” one grandmother of seven complains, “They are ruining our entire running-away-from-war-torn-states-in-search-of-a-better life experience. They have turned our whole desperate-flight-to-freedom into a nightmare, and we will certainly think twice about returning to Kos next year.”

With over 1,200 migrants arriving in Kos over a very short period of time, Kos has become a popular destination amongst those fleeing for their lives. But, with the nuisance of conceited discourses and rampaging prejudice, will it remain so?

“As we landed, we were accosted by a primitive tribe here who call themselves “holiday-makers”” says a young father, while ladling broth into his malnourished daughters mouth; “We were disgusted by their overfed, sweaty appearance! The men wear white tennis socks in sandals, and the women are crimson and sometimes hit us with rolled up copies of The Sun,”.

The migrants have labeled the holidaymakers ‘charter people’, referring to organized package charter trips being the holidaymakers main form of transportation. There have been reports of how the charter people cause unease by sitting around in restaurants being hobby-racists and blustering about their deluded and mall-placed outrage. Some have even described how holidaymakers sometimes watch as people do everyday things like hanging laundry, cooking on woodstoves, or crying over brutally murdered family members.

“We came to Europe in search of a better life for our children.” Says a widowed mother of four, “We have heard stories of Europe as a place where basic human decency and compassion are respected. So far, thanks to the holidaymakers, we have been disappointed. Perhaps living in a conflict-zone is better than living in a society where people are so utterly self-centered and disconnected.  ”

A group of refugees are already attempting to construct a return boat out of fish and chips wrappers and broken prossecco bottles. However, others profess a desire to befriend the charter people. One man even came to the aid of a young holidaymaker.

“She was badly injured, all we could ascertain was that she worked a journalist for the Daily Mail” says a former Syrian doctor, who rushed to the woman’s aid. “At first it seemed a simple case of rectal cranium immersion. However, by the time I got there it was too late. The woman had already lost all sense of perspective.”

For some more insight on the European migrant situation, check out what we’ve written about African migrants to Europe here and here. And, listen to our discussion on the wretched European immigration policies and the complex geo-politics behind passage across the Mediterranean on our podcast.

Hipsters Don’t Dance Top World Carnival Tunes for May 2015

Apologies for the late arrival. Hipsters Don’t Dance is back with their May chart of World Carnival tunes. Enjoy this roundup, and remember to visit the HDD blog for all their great up-to-the-time-ness out of London!

Burna Boy x Soke

After a few swings with some sub-par sounding singles, Burna is back with this contemplative effort. As well as signing to a major US label (Universal), Burna also teased a collaboration with the one and only Heavy K. We can’t wait for that one to drop.

Henry Knight Ft. Yemi Alade, Di’ja & Joe el x Olopa

Sometimes all you need for an upgrade is to add Yemi Alade to the remix and we are there. Olopa has been a staple in our DJ sets for a year now due its unrelenting pace. Sadly not all the MCs keep up with its speed but it’s a fun listen.

Coptic – Keep Shining ft M.anifest

As you can probably tell we are big fans of M.anifest and this collaboration with fellow Ghanian, Coptic, is a call to arms to other MCs. Coptic produced for the likes of P. Diddy and Snoop Dogg and now he can add M.anifest to that list.

Project Kamutupu x Kamutupu

Something a little smoother now, and it’s Lusophone house from Project Kumutupu, which is now our favourite thing to say. The video itself is beautiful as well.

Goon Club Allstars x Rudeboyz EP

We were privy to this release back in November when we first met Moleskin from GCA. He told us at the Future Sounds of Mzansi premiere in London about his plans for this EP. He wanted to release raw pure club music with no hype apart from the music itself. No exoticism, no promos, just the music. The club world is embracing this EP which is amazing to see and anything that highlights Africa in a positive manner we are happy to share.

Do our passports continue to be punished for being African?

Late last week, I was informed that I would not be able to travel to Dubai for an important meeting scheduled months ago. Like other countries across the globe, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) halted travel for those with Guinean, Liberian, and Sierra Leonean passports during the height of the Ebola outbreak. It has not lifted these restrictions.

The miniature red suitcase I had packed lay abandoned on my wooden floor. I caressed my dark green Liberian passport as if to reassure this inanimate marker of identity that my citizenship was not on trial here. The specter of Ebola had simply triumphed over reason.

Yet, the irony of this episode hasn’t escaped me. Dubai is a hub for cross continental travel. In 2013 alone, the UAE boasted the fifth largest international migrant pool in the world—hosting 7.8 million foreign residents out of a total population of 9.2 million. Furthermore, foreign labor migrants account for 90 percent of the country’s private workforce, mostly from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.

Unlike the US and UK, where anti-immigrant sentiments have reached fever pitch, the UAE seems more pliant to international travelers. So, naturally, I thought it was odd when I attempted to complete the online visa form and Liberia was not listed as an option for ‘present nationality’. Nor were Guinea and Sierra Leone.

This was punishment for simply being born in Africa with a particular African passport. Even the organizers of the meeting were shocked, disbelief sprinkled in their conciliatory e-mails and phone calls. All diplomatic channels had proved futile. The verdict was irreversible. I would not be getting on that plush Emirates flight.

Never mind that Liberia was declared Ebola-free on May 9, exactly one month ago.

Never mind that I have not been to my homeland in over 10 months. Nor was I asked about recent travel there.

Never mind that my country and its people are slowly trying to recover from an invisible foe that killed nearly 5,000 and infected about 11,000.

In the past year, I’ve seen my passport scrutinized more intently than ever before, but the UAE blanket bias felt like adding salt to a fresh wound. At first, I experienced blinding rage with a touch of indignation. The kind that gurgles in the pit of your gut, and then explodes. Then I was amused by the absurdity of it all. If I were traveling directly from Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone and had a passport from a country on UAE’s list of exemptions, I would have gotten a visa on arrival with ease. No questions asked.

Mild acceptance slowly seeped in, reminding me that we maintain immigration hierarchies as a form of erasure and silencing. In our obsession with citizenship tiers, West is best. North trumps South. And white is inevitably right.

Never mind black/brown solidarity. Or does that even exist?

I have shied away from returning home fearing the kind of immobility that sees people not as complex beings but as nameless, faceless ‘threats’ to national security. A sedentarist kind of metaphysic that keeps certain people in their place. People like me.

Truth be told, the natural human compulsion for mobility is currently under threat because of irrational immigration bans such as the UAE’s. For all the rhetoric about globalization’s free flow of ideas, capital and technology, the world remains obsessed with restricting the movement of people who don’t fit into our neat boxes of what is tolerable or even desirable. The UAE saga is a microcosm of a larger debate about the need for immigration reforms worldwide.

The scapegoating of migrants across the globe deflects attention from the fact that most countries have failed to improve the quality of life of their domestic citizens. Afro-fobic attacks in South Africa, Australia’s Pacific Solution, and the plight of Rohingya Muslims off the coast of Indonesia are extreme examples. Immigration is framed as a zero sum game, with finite rights and resources available to a select few.

I watch migrants who look like me risk their lives on sardine-packed, rickety boats to cross the Mediterranean, and know intuitively that they wouldn’t flee if they had a choice. With each desperate attempt to cross over, what they are effectively saying is that Europe must make amends for waging unjustifiable wars and supporting authoritarian regimes in some of their countries of origin.

Centuries ago, Africans were so eager to escape lives of bondage, some dove to sudden death in the Atlantic. They were the first forced migrants I can recall. Now, many of us travel across these same waters for short-, medium- and long-term trips. Not because of some deep, abiding love for life abroad, but because it gives us a measure of flexibility. It keeps us physically connected to the rest of the world.

And for someone like me with chronic wanderlust, the ability to travel unencumbered is almost as necessary as oxygen itself. Although a self-professed transnational, I used to be suspicious of Liberians who changed their nationality out of convenience. But after interviewing more than 200 of us across five urban centers in West Africa, North America and Europe for my doctoral thesis on citizenship construction and practice, I have become more empathetic. Many of us make the switch because of the access so easily denied me by the UAE.

But we shouldn’t have to.

I can’t say I would ever consider exchanging my passport for another, especially since Liberia prohibits dual citizenship. Yet, the UAE debacle has shaken me to the core. It’s made me acutely aware that citizenship is both personal and political.

Peace deployed as a weapon in Angola

On April 16th, Angolan security forces, including a heavily armed rapid intervention police unit, raided a religious encampment under the leadership of self-proclaimed prophet José Julino Kalupeteka with the aim of arresting him. Kalupeteka’s controversial religious sect, dubbed “A Luz do Mundo” (Light of the World), was known to shun certain state-sponsored activities such as vaccination campaigns, the national census and public schooling. About 3,000 people were living peacefully in the hilly encampment when the police struck.

Much has been written about the Mount Sumi event both in English and Portuguese by several reputable sources: Aslak Orre writing for the CMI, Rede Angola’s Luísa Rogério and Maka Angola’s Rafael Marques. But almost two months after the tragic events in Huambo and even an official statement from the UN Human Rights Office (promptly slammed by the Angolan government), we’re nowhere closer to knowing what exactly happened in Mount Sumi, Huambo, why it happened, and how many people perished. The Angolan government speaks of “only 13 dead”, while others, including prominent civil society activists and opposition parties, speak of a massacre of more than a thousand civilians.

What is clearer, however, is the government and its security forces’ violent relationship with its citizenry. Ironically, it deploys the discourse of peace as a weapon.

The raid was a failure. Several policemen were killed by sect members armed with machetes, for reasons as of yet unclear, and an unknown number of civilians died. The first reports by state media here in Angola mentioned only the fallen policemen; it was only days later that we learned that civilians had been killed as well. It’s here that reports begin to significantly diverge. Immediately after the massacre, the government cordoned off the area to any and all civilians and declared it a military zone. It took a full two weeks for the first visitors, parliamentarians from UNITA, the main opposition party, to be granted access, closely followed by the leader of the country’s third largest party (CASA-CE) and then Rede Angola’s journalists. All three say that something macabre took place.

That such an event can take place 13 years after the ruling MPLA signed its landmark peace accord with UNITA, effectively ending Angola’s 27-year civil war, is cause for great concern. It underscores the regime’s deep, systemic unease with sectors of the public that it doesn’t control, including certain religious groups, human rights activists, opposition parties, and protesting youth, and their willingness to use disproportionate violence against these groups.

While the state acts violently, it speaks of peace. The government goes to great pains to highlight the country’s thirteen years of peace as an act entirely of its own making and less that of the Angolan people. State media refer repeatedly to President José Eduardo dos Santos as the Architect of Peace, adding another brick in the wall of his cult of personality. Peace has allowed for our national reconstruction. Peace has allowed for our economic boom. Peace has allowed for the creation of our billionaires, our Marginal, our Miss Angola pageant, our takeover of Lisbon’s expensive Avenida da Liberdade and half their banks to boot. It’s a discourse that removes the Angolan people from the equation and casts them not as willing participants of peace and an essential part of its maintenance, but as beneficiaries who owe something to the state.

Thus, peace is brandished as a weapon. Speaking ill of the government or complaining about it means that you don’t want the peace it’s so generously given you. Protesting against the gross mismanagement of public funds means you are a nuisance and not invested in peace. Asking too many questions means you don’t like peace. Protesting about it in the streets means you actively want a return to war. The government’s official mouthpieces — the national newspaper and the national television channel (the only ones with national reach) — use this line of thinking to devastating effect.

For example, the regime has actively promoted violence against peaceful, law-abiding demonstrators as a way to “keep the peace.” One of the most notorious examples of this was when an unidentified man, using a pseudonym, was broadcast live during the nightly news program physically threatening demonstrators with violence if they did not stop their (tiny) public protests. He was doing so, he said, in order to maintain peace.

It’s important to note that this use of peace as a weapon to silence criticism and stifle civic conscience isn’t just limited to rhetoric. During the wave of (tiny) anti-government protests in Luanda (in 2011, 2012, and 2013), state-sponsored militias carried out brutal attacks against unarmed youth demonstrators both during and before the protests. But the sheer economic reality of this mindset is even more revealing. As Tom Burgis writes in his book, The Looting Machine,

Angola’s 2013 budget allocated 18 percent of public spending to defense and public order, 5 percent to health, and 8 percent to education. That means the government spent 1.4 times as much on defense as it did on health and schools combined. By comparison, the UK spent four times as much on health and education as on defense. Angola spends a greater share of its budget on the military than South Africa’s apartheid government did during the 1980s, when it was seeking to crushing mounting resistance at home and was fomenting conflict in its neighbors.

That a post-conflict nation is spending so much of its budget on defense when its population is woefully undereducated and its health system oversees one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world is frankly maddening. Angola has wasted a decade of double-digit economic growth and the highest oil prices in its history on guns. During peacetime.

As Kalupeteka’s sect can attest, the country’s heavily-armed security force doesn’t need much provocation to “enforce peace.” Even if it means combating its own population.