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BALANTA RESPONSE TO THE UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE ANTHONY J. BLINKEN ON THE 49TH GUINEA BISSAU INDEPENDENCE DAY
https://www.state.gov/guinea-bissau-national-day-2/
Secretary Blinken,
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 49 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.
As President of the Balanta B’urassa History and Genealogy Society in America (BBHAGSIA), I would like to call to your attention the following:
Territories now within the jurisdiction of the Republic of Guinea Bissau were invaded following a declaration of total war made on June 18, 1452 in the document known as the Dum Diversas.
The Dum Diversas total war declaration officialy launched, under the color of law, the crime against humanity that became the “trans-atlantic slave trade” and was further sanctioned by monopoly contracts called Asientos.
Both civilians and combatants were captured as prisoners of war and trafficked to the Americas in the Dum Diversas War that lasted 521 years and ended when the Republic of Guinea Bissau declared its independence on September 24, 1973.
The Anglo-American colonies became complicit in the crime against humanity in 1619. Since then, 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.
The 1949 Geneva Convention, Article 4 (1) defines prisoners of war as
“Members of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict, as well as members of militias or volunteer corps forming part of such armed forces.” Article 5 states, “The present Convention shall apply to the persons referred to in Article 4 from the time they fall into the power of the enemy and until their final release and repatriation. Should doubt arise as to whether persons, having committed a belligerent act and having fallen into the hands of the enemy, belong to any of the categories enumerated in Article 4, such persons shall enjoy protection of the present Convention until such time as their status has been determined by a competent tribunal.”
The new Geneva Convention Protocol on Prisoners of War, which the United States has signed but not yet ratified and which went into force for some states on 7 December 1978, has provided in Articles 43 through 47 broader standards for prisoners of war, who come from irregular and guerilla units, than the terms of the 1949 Article 4. Article 45 of the 1978 Protocol states that a
“person who takes part in hostilities and falls into the power of an adverse Party shall be presumed to be a prisoner of war… if he claims the status of war, or if he appears to be entitled to such status, or if the party on which he depends claims such status on his behalf.”
Until recently, the descendants of the people who were taken from Guinea Bissau as prisoners of the Dum Diversas War, could not identify themselves because of the ETHNOCIDE that was committed against them. However, because of the advent of the African Ancestry DNA test, such descnendants can now identify themselves. It should be noted that, according to the Geneva Convention, these living descendnats are still classified as PRISONERS OF WAR since they have NEVER BEEN RELEASED AND REPATRIATED.
Secretary Blinken, I remind you also that on October 20, 1972, Amilcar Cabral, the great leader of the people’s liberation struggle for Guinea Bissau independce, met with 120 African Americans in New York and explained to them that,
“You see, Portugal is an underdeveloped country - the most backward in Western Europe. It is a country that doesn’t produce even toy planes - this is not a joke, it’s true. Portugal would never be able to launch three colonial wars in Africa without the help of NATO, the weapons of NATO, the planes of NATO, the bombs of NATO - it would be impossible for them. This is not a matter for discussion. The Americans know it, the British know it, the French know it very well, the West Germans also know it, and the Portuguese know it very well.
We cannot talk of American participation in NATO, because NATO is the creation of the United States. Once I came here to the US and I was invited to lunch by the representative of the US on the United Nations’ Fourth Committee. He was also the deputy chief of the US delegation to the UN. I told him we are fighting against Portuguese colonialism, and not asking for the destruction of NATO. We don’t think it is necessary to destroy NATO in order to free our country. But why is the US opposing this? He told me that he did not agree with this policy (US support of NATO) but that there is a problem of world security and in the opinion of his government it is necessary to give aid to Portugal in exchange for use of the Azores as a military base. Acceptance of Portuguese policy is necessary for America’s global strategy, he explained.
I think he was telling me the truth, but only part of the truth because the US supports Portugal in order to continue the domination of Africa, if not over other parts of the world. I must clarify that this man left his position in the UN and during his debate in the US Congress took a clear position favourable to ours and asked many times for aid to Portugal to be stopped, but the government didn’t accept.”
Secretary Blinken, members of BBHAGSIA started the process of repatriation and naturalization last year as part of the Decade of Return Initiative to Guinea Bissau, launched by BBHAGSIA with the cooperation of the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Guinea Bissau. As a signatore to the Geneva convention, both the United States and Guinea Bissau have a legal obligation to negotiate the final release and voluntary repatriation of our members to our ancestral homeland. Of course, adequate resources for our return and integration must be included as reparations in any such negotiations.
On this 49th anniversary of the Indpendence of Guinea Bissau, we request your good offices to call on the appropriate departments in the United States government to work with BBHAGSIA and initiate negotiations between the government of the United States of America and the Republic of Guinea Bissau in compliance with the Geneva Convention and other intruments of international law, and in the spirit of the Charter of the United Nations and the Declaration of Human Rights.
Respectfully,
Brassa Mada aka Siphiwe Baleka, Founder
Balanta B'urassa History & Genealogy Society in America (BBHAGSIA)
Member, Inclusive Policy Lab of the UNESCO E-team for the People of African Descent and the Sustainable Development Goals
Member, International Civil Society Working Group for the United Nations Permanent Forum of People of African Descent (IWG-PFAD)
Member, NCOBRA International Affairs Commission & Health Commission
Coordinator, #savesoil Guinea Bissau
Coordinator, Lineage Restoration Movement (LRM)
