by A Scribe Called Quess?
“We are like a slave under a master with no place to go. The master[…] is ICE.” So said some of the 43 Cameroonian men detained in an ICE concentration camp in Pine Prairie, LA in a video published on Juneteenth this year. The men have been locked up by ICE for as much as 19 months with no end in sight. Racist Judge Scott Laragy has dismissed or “lost” evidence presented by the men while abusively telling them to shut up and trying to intimidate them into signing voluntary deportation during trials, adding to the 20% rate of African migrants facing deportation versus other immigrant groups with larger populations in the US. In response, they waged a 10-day hunger strike that landed them in solitary confinement where they were forced to drink toilet water. All this in a concentration camp where one out of five detainees have tested positive for COVID. The treatment of the men is illegal, as they qualify to seek asylum in the U.S., a right guaranteed by the Constitution for non-citizens fleeing political persecution in their homelands.
In their native Cameroon, a civil war has been waged by the dominant French-speaking government against the Southern, English-speaking region of Cameroon since 2016. This genocidal war is rooted in 55-year-old tensions between the two regions that have existed since British Cameroon established independence in 1961 and joined French Cameroon. Colonization left a deep divide that has festered over time as the French-speaking majority has tried to dominate the English-speaking minority to control their oil supply. This type of capitalistic oppression born of European colonization is all too common in the motherland. And its effects lead to refugee crises and migrants seeking safety in the U.S., the very country that helps perpetuate the oppression that led to the migrants’ crisis in the first place.
As U.S. citizens, we can use our privilege to raise up the voices of our oppressed workers overseas. When interviewed by WV, Divine of the Cameroonian 40 encouraged folks on the outside to help the world hear their cry by contacting them for interviews, sharing their story on social media, and waging demonstrations on their behalf as New Orleans Worker’s Group comrades did on August 14th when they drove a motorcade to Pine Prairie and raised their voices in solidarity with the men. To learn more ways to support, email neworleansworkersgroup@gmail.com.