https://www.state.gov/guinea-bissau-independence-day/
Secretary Pompeo,
We commend you for recognizing the great victory of the people of Guinea Bissau to liberate themselves from the foreign domination and colonial occupation of the Portuguese and establish their national independence 47 years ago today. The brave people of Guinea Bissau, consisting of the Balanta, Fulani, Mandinga, Papel, Manjaco, Beafada, Mancanha, Bijago, Felupe, Mansoaca, and others, took up arms against those who invaded their land in 1446 and and claimed an unnatural authority seeking to enslave them.
On August 3, 1959, in Bissau, the Portuguese invaders massacred fifty of the above people who were on strike. Exactly one year later, a day of solidarity of the struggling peoples was held and condemned the Portuguese colonialists. Another year later, on August 3, 1961, in the face of the fiercely negative attitude of the Portuguese Government which refused to adopt a peaceful solution for the elimination of the colonial domination, The African Independence Party, known as the “PAIGC”, stated,
“in consideration of the firm will of our peoples to free themselves from the colonial yoke, whatever the means needed;
in consideration that this liberation must be achieved urgently, and that our peoples are ready to achieve it;
in consideration of the peculiarly difficult circumstances that our peoples face in the struggle against Portuguese colonialism;
in consideration of the necessity to prevent new colonial wars in Africa and to maintain world peace;
THE AFRICAN INDEPENDENCE PARTY
proclaims 3 August 1961 as the date of the passage of our national revolution from the phase of political struggle to that of national insurrection, to direct action against the colonial forces;
declares that all its militants and cadres are mobilized for direct action in the national liberation struggle;
invites all the nationalist organizations of our countries to improve their organization, to strengthen their preparation for the struggle of liberation of Guinea and Cape Verde and to co-ordinate their action in the United Front for the Liberation of ‘Portuguese” Guinea and Cape Verder (FUL);
reaffirms the active solidarity of our peoples towards the struggling people of Angola;
reaffirms the will of our peoples at any moment, by way of negotiation, to seek a peaceful solution to the conflict which sets them against the Portugese Government, in accordance with their inalienable righ to self-determination and national independence;
appeals to all peace- and freedom-loving peoples, particularly African and Asian peoples, to give practical and immediate aid to our peoples struggling against foreign domination.
Forward with our liberation struggle! Down with Portuguese colonialism!”
The first stretch of territory liberated by the forces of the people, led by the great Balanta warriors, was the the island of Como. In an effort to recapture this critical, strategic area the Portuguese invaders, with a total of 3000 well equipped men, including about 2000 elite soldiers and officers transferred from Angola, attacked in January of 1964. After 75 days of fighting and 900 killed and wounded, the people of Guinea Bissau drove the “superior forces” of the Portuguese invaders into the sea!
Such was the warfare that led to the independence of Guinea Bissau, proclaimed on this day, 47 years ago.
Secretary Pompeo, I remind you that the liberation and independence of the people of Guinea Bissau is not yet complete.
From 1668 to 1829, 145,000 people were shipped from the slave trading port at St. Louis, Senegal. From 1668 to 1843, 126,000 people were shipped from the slave trading port of Bissau on the coast of modern day Guinea Bissau, West Africa. These are the lands were Balanta people were living. From these two slave trading ports, 6,400 people were brought to the Gulf Coast, 10,000 people were brought to the port at Charleston, South Carolina, 4,500 people were brought to Chesapeake, and 1,400 people were brought to New York. From 1761 to 1815, records show that 6,534 Binham Brassa (Balanta people) were trafficked from their homeland and enslaved in the Americas. That’s an average of at least 121 Balanta per year.
Though there was no Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide at that time, the trafficking of these people (including children), the inhuman brutality and enslavement are all considered today by the international community as crimes of genocide. In addition, the trafficking, enslavement and genocide are also considered now as violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The liberation struggle and independence of the people of Guinea Bissau is not yet complete. The Balanta, Fulani, Mandinga, Papel, Manjaco, Beafada, Mancanha, Bijago, Felupe, Mansoaca, and others who were taken to the Americas - North, South and Central - as well as the Caribbean, are still living under foreign domination in the lands of their captivity and enslavement.
On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” At that time, no provisions to return to their ancestral homeland were given to the descendants of the Balanta, Fulani, Mandinga, Papel, Manjaco, Beafada, Mancanha, Bijago, Felupe, Mansoaca, and others. No land was given or set aside for them. Then, in 1868, without conducting any kind of plebiscite to inform the people of their rights and options and allow them the opportunity to exercise self-determination by making a free and informed decision about their future destiny, the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution imposed “citizenship”, effectively nullifying their “freedom” and imposing rights and obligations that they never consented to.
Since then the Balanta, Fulani, Mandinga, Papel, Manjaco, Beafada, Mancanha, Bijago, Felupe, and Mansoaca, along with other peoples taken from other territories in Africa and brought to the United States, have suffered the oppression and crimes documented in the following presentations and appeals to the international community:
September 2, 1924 - The Universal Negro Improvement Association Petition of Four Million Negroes of the United States of America to His Excellency the President of the United States Praying for a Friendly and Sympathetic Consideration of the Plan of Founding a Nation in Africa for the Negro People, and to Encourage Them in Assisting to Develop Already Independent Negro Nations as a Means of Helping to Solve the Conflicting Problems of Race
1946 - The National Negro Congress Petition to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations Stating The Facts on The Oppression of the American Negro.
October 23, 1947 - W.E.B. DuBois AN APPEAL TO THE WORLD!: A Statement on the Denial of Human Rights to Minorities in the Case of Citizens of Negro Descent in the United States of America and an Appeal to the United Nations for Redress.
December, 1951 - William Patterson and Paul Robeson We Charge Genocide: The Historic Petition to the United Nations for Relief from a Crime of The United States against the Negro People . The petition detailed, among other things, 152 incidents of killings of unarmed Black men and women by police and lunch mobs between 1945 and 1951.
1977 - The New Afrikan Prisoners Organization (NAPO) petition to the United Nations.
December 11, 1978 - The National Conference of Black Lawyers, the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, and the Commission on Racial Justice for the United Church of Christ petition to the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.
1994 - Mr. Silis Muhammad Petition for Reparations to the UN under 1503 Procedure – to the UN Working Group on Communications on behalf of African Americans. This was followed up in 1997, 1998, 199 and 2000 with written and oral statements urging the Commission on Human Rights
May 1997 - the National Black United Front historic Genocide Petition Campaign Against the United States Government and traveled to the United Nations Human Rights Center in Geneva, Switzerland to present the petition with over 200,000 signatures to Mr. Ralph Zacklin, Officer in Charge of High Commission of Human Rights, Centre for Human Rights. Also, this same Petition/Declaration was submitted to the High Commission of Human Rights in New York on May 27, 1997.
September 3, 2001 - Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney presented United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson two documents as evidence of the US governments violations of both US and international law and, in particular, specific violation of the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The first document given to Robinson was a confidential Memorandum 46, written by National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski on March 17, 1978 and it details the federal government's plan to destroy functioning black leadership in the United States. This document provides a critical insight into the federal government's concern at the apparent growing influence of the African American political movement. The second document is a report entitled "Human Rights in the United States [The Unfinished Story - Current Political Prisoners - Victims of COINTELPRO]" and it was compiled by the Human Rights Research Fund, headed by Kathleen Cleaver. This document provides an overview of the counterintelligence program which, from the 1950s to the 1980s, was implemented in the United States against political activists and targeted organizations.
November 22, 2010 - The National Conference of Black Lawyers and the Malcolm X Center for Self Determination report on Political Repression – Political Prisoners to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review, Ninth Session of the Working Group on the UPR Human Rights Council.
Secretary Pompeo, like other people taken from Africa and enslaved in the colonies that would become the United States, the Balanta people have never ceased to struggle for their liberation. This has been evidenced most recently by the efforts of Balanta heroes such as Reverend Eustace Blake, militant pastor of the St. James AME Church in Newark, New Jersey, who told his 2,000 member congregation before the Newark riots, “the price of freedom ain’t cheap”; Ella Baker, the leading strategist of the Civil Rights Movement who said “Until the killing of black men, black mothers’ sons, becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a white mother’s son, we who believe in freedom cannot rest until this happens”; John Blake, who tried to work within the system by serving as President Nixon’s Director of Job Corp. When such non-violent efforts to obtain civil rights failed to liberate the Balanta people in America, other Balanta people, like Stephen Hobbs, became more militant and joined the Black Panther Party and other organizations that were attacked by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) COINTELPRO effort to prevent the liberation and independence movement of the people from Africa suffering foreign domination in America.
Direct attacks on Balanta people were committed on January 27, 1997 by the Chicago Police department, the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), and the United States Secret Service against Balanta descendant Ras Nathaniel, a graduate of Yale University studying international law at the Nkrumah-Washington Community Learning Center. He was attacked again as a combatant in America’s Drug War, on August 6, 1999.
The most recent attack, which received international condemnation, was committed against the unarmed Balanta descendant Jacob Blake on August 23, 2020 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The worldwide Balanta People’s Union, represented by six zones on four continents, condemned this attack.
Therefore, Secretary Pompeo, since you “offer your best wishes to all Bissau-Guineans all over the world” and acknowledge and congratulate the Independence of Guinea Bissau, we invite the United States Government to do its part to complete the liberation and independence of Guinea Bissau by negotiating with us and the Government of Guinea Bissau, a peaceful Reparations and Repatriation treaty that would provide the justice due to the Balanta, Fulani, Mandinga, Papel, Manjaco, Beafada, Mancanha, Bijago, Felupe, and Mansoaca people in America who have yet to be returned to their independent homeland.
Respectfully,
Siphiwe Baleka, Founder & President
Balanta B'urassa History & Genealogy Society in America
Senior Heritage Ambassador, Director of Research and Development Balanta
United House of Ancestry
balantasociety@gmail.com
