July 28, 2007...8:57 pm
HAITI TO GUINEA
Haitians often say that when they die they want to be returned home to Guinea (or Ginen) referring to the Gulf of Guinea on Africa’s West Coast where many Africans were taken as slaves and Haitians are thought to be among their descendants. Yet, even in death, a Haitians’ return to West Africa may be fraught with the same violence and imperial repression as they experience in Haiti.
The following video was shot in Conakry, Guinea, on January 22 of this year, and shows a massacre of peaceful demonstrators by the Guinean army and mercenaries hired from neighboring Guinea-Bissau by the Guinean government. The unions led a national strike for jobs, food, shelter, running water, functioning electricity and the resignation of its ruler of 23 years, Lansana Conte. The people of Guinea got none of the things they demonstrated for and estimates suggest that close to 1,000 people were killed. Unfortunately, this is a scenario that will be most familiar to the people of Haiti.
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