Francia Márquez Mina

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Amherst, Massachusetts, at a forum organized by Agustin Lao, a professor and a board member of the Afro-descendants of Latin America and the Caribbean (ARAAC).

Márquez Mina, Wangari Maathai, Berta Cáceres

In 2015, Francia Márquez Mina received a national human rights award for her struggle in defense of the Earth and against the forced displacement of her community. In 2018, her struggle against ecological disasters led to her receiving the prestigious international 2018 Goldman Environmental Prize. Márquez’s fight in defense of the Earth is reminiscent of the struggle by environmentalist Wangari Maathai (1943–2011) to create the Green Belt Movement (GBM) in Kenya. Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004—the first African woman to win the award. Márquez Mina’s struggle for the conservation of the environment is also reminiscent of another environmental justice woman, this time from Honduras: Berta Cáceres. Cáceres was assassinated on March 3, 2016, but had received a Goldman Prize in 2015. Last year, the government of Honduras acknowledged Cáceres as a national heroine.

Márquez Mina represents, to a large extent, the environmentalist struggles of Maathai and Cáceres. Like Cáceres, Márquez Mina has suffered verbal and physical attacks, as well as unending racial assaults, to which she has made forceful responses.

In November last year, she participated in the Climate Change Summit in Egypt, where she reaffirmed that “it is not possible to talk about climate the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a key regional body that promotes economic cooperation among member states to raise living standards and promote economic development.

After a unanimous endorsement by the 15-member body, Tinubu addressed several controversial issues, among them the number of countries led by unelected leaders. West Africa has witnessed six military coups since 2020, marking a backslide of democracy in a region that previously saw progress in shedding its “coup belt” moniker.

There was also an attempted coup in Guinea-Bissau, whose president, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, passed on the rotational chairmanship of the bloc to Tinubu after the vote.

“On peace and security, the threat has reached an alarming level and needs urgent actions in addressing the challenges. In this regard, change without talking about its effects on historically excluded populations.”

‘400 years ago, my ancestors left these shores enslaved. Today I return in freedom’ we must remain committed to the utilization of all regional frameworks at our disposal to address the menace of insecurity,” Tinubu said in a statement.

This past November, I participated with Márquez Mina in a workshop about historical reparations for the slave trade, which forced more than 30 million of Africa’s children into slavery in the Americas and the Caribbean. Márquez Mina demanded reparations for this crime against humanity. She called for a global summit on reparations that would link Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the entire diaspora.

She reaffirmed this position in Geneva at the U.N. Permanent Forum on People of African Descent in December of last year.

Her recent tour of three strategic African countries—South Africa, Kenya, and Ethiopia—reaffirms the dreams of her ancestors. She said her ancestors were enslaved and taken to Colombia, but today she has returned free and with messages of hope for fighting together for a better world.

During her high-level visit to Africa, 17 cooperation agreements were signed: eight with South Africa, two in Ethiopia, and seven in Kenya. Similarly to the South-South approach of Mwulimu Julius Nyerere, former president of Tanzania, Márquez Mina believes there is hope in the South. Perhaps the approach of the Africa-South America Summit (ASA), initially proposed by President Lula da Silva (Brazil), Olusegun Obasanjo (Nigeria), and Hugo Chávez (Venezuela), will be vindicated.

While he addresses regional matters, Tinubu must also contend with challenges to the legitimacy of his own election. Only 25 million votes were cast out of a population of 220 million, or 27% of the total population. Of 87 million Nigerians registered to vote, two-thirds failed to do so. Finally, Tinubu himself received only 9 million votes – a very small number.

Speaking on the Al Jazeera podcast “The Inside Story,” Aisha Yesufu of Citizens Hub in Washington, D.C., observed: “The outcome of the election is not a reflection of the way the people voted. That’s what’s in contention now…There was rigging, there was violence...It was a political coup…That has to stop.”

Last week, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it had received 215 case files from the Nigerian police in relation to electoral infractions during the 2023 general elections.

“It was a very contested election,” said Ovigwe Eguegu of Afripolitika, “and there’s still a case in court…We must continue to move forward but there must be justice...It remains to be seen how the president can fulfill his promises.”