Advocacy Against Testing COVID-19 Vaccines on African People. In Solidarity on behalf of the Worldwide Constituencies,

African European Women’s Movement ‘Sophiedela’ and African Union African Diaspora Community Council (Europe Region),
African Diaspora Sixth Region Community Council (WHS) and affiliated Pan-African Movements, Organizations, Networks, Experts and other Activists,
DiasporaEngager
Global Diaspora News,
U.N.I.A. RC2020 for Garveyites,
Global African Diaspora Union,
Teaching Artist Institute,
Global African SHEROES Union,
Sub Regional Diaspora Council Guadalupe,
The Drammeh Institute,
December Twelfth Movement International Secretariat,
International Secretary-General, International Association Against Torture,
PARCOE (Pan Afrikan Reparations Coalition of Europe),
Wanafrika,
IYPAD Barbados NGO Chapter
Reparation Movement Barbados
Etc.

To the Director of Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Honorable Dr. John Nkengasong

&

The African Union Commission, via Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission,

H.E. Kwesi Quartey

April 9th, 2020

REGARDING: ADVOCATING AGAINST THE REQUEST OF TESTING COVID-19 VACCINES ON AFRICAN PEOPLE IN AFRICA AND ABROAD & PROPOSAL FOR NECESSARY ACTION PLAN

Honorable Dr. Nkengasong and H.E. Kwesi Quartey,

On behalf of Global African People, Pan Africanists, Activists and Networks from across the Worldwide Diaspora including:

• Initiators of the ‘Global African Women’s Day, March 16,
• The Drammeh Institute,
• Global African SHEROES Union,
• African European Women’s Movement ‘Sophiedela’,
• African Diaspora Union,
• Her Majesty Queen Mother Dòwòti Désir Hounon Houna II,
• DiasporaEngager (World’s #1 Global Diaspora Engagement Platform),
• Global Diaspora News, and the
• Initiators of the ‘African Union African Diaspora Decade of Return 2020-2030’ (https://decade-of-return.com)

We would like to express our profound condolences to the global community to those who have lost family members due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We extend our prayers to all world leaders, Heads of State and Governments, health organizations, health professionals (e.g. doctors, nurses, etc.), scientists and researchers for the immense responsibility of optimizing health care efforts in order to find a cure for the virus and to save lives.  We would also like to thank the leadership of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for keeping us informed of measures being taken to ensure the health, safety, and measures to prevent the exponential growth of the virus throughout the African continent.

Honorable Dr. Nkengasong, as you are an expert in epidemiology and transnational healthcare, we understand that your office is abreast of the current request for research and proposals to test the COVID-19 vaccine and/or other potential drugs in Africa and on African people.  As members of the collective Diaspora, we are totally opposed to the suggestion to test European/American manufactured vaccines in Africa on Africans.

Meanwhile, our global African constituency is in direct alignment and support of the strong statement made by the UN Director-General for Health, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, whereby he rejected the notion of testing any COVID-19 vaccine in Africa or on People of African Descent. It is very important to be assured that African Leaders will not allow African people to be used as test subjects.

Through this message, we stand in solidarity AGAINST vaccine testing trials in Africa and on African people and any other form of discriminatory treatments of the African Diaspora.  What we are particularly in favor of is nondiscriminatory policies related to testing COVID-19 vaccines in the nations or states and environments where the number of infections and deaths is the highest, which as of now is not in Africa. Even so, people of African descent should not be the main or only focus of such testing. No leaders should use the rationale of “poverty”, lack of resources, or the “misinformation” of some Africans and/or people of African descent to abuse their rights. 

We look forward to your leadership and actions alongside those of the African Union Commission. We hope that you agree with us and with the popular opinion of global discussions taking place daily among healthcare workers, families, and the global African communities.  We hope too that you will relay our message to other leaders it may concern and that together, as people united for a common goal, we will defeat this pandemic not only in Africa but across the globe without putting the primary burden of the risks associated with the testing on people of African descent.

At last, we thank you in advance for your attention to this matter and for your commitment to protect African people globally including measures that are being taken to control and respond quickly and effectively to threats and risks related to COVID-19.  We look forward to your timely response.

Honorable Excellency Kwesi Quartey, through you, this letter is being jointly sent to the African Union Commission. Our specific request to the African Union Commission is to put this urgent issue on the Agenda of the next scheduled AU Assembly meeting for a majority vote among the Heads of state to oppose any such vaccine testing in any African territory. We realize that this is a very important time to show a United Africa and its Diaspora and, most of all, a Unified African leadership and solidarity, against even the possibility of activating this vile vaccine testing scheme.

Africans will not be used as “guinea pigs” any longer. Whenever such a process has been used in the past, thousands of those who received vaccine test shots died and others were mutilated and affected by various side effects by the said “medicine” put into those vaccines while most African researchers are not even seriously involved in the research which led to them. 

We are looking forward to your response.

In Solidarity on behalf of the Worldwide Constituencies,

• Dr. Barryl A. Biekman, African European Women’s Movement ‘Sophiedela’ and African Union African Diaspora Community Council (Europe Region),
• Her Majesty Queen Mother Dòwòti Désir Hounon Houna II,
• Professor Dr. David Horne, Leader of the African Diaspora Sixth Region Community Council (WHS) and affiliated Pan-African Movements, Organizations, Networks, Experts and other Activists,
• Dr. Roland Holou, DiasporaEngager / Global Diaspora News,
• Akili Nkrumah, President-General, U.N.I.A. RC2020 for Garveyites,
• Bishop Dr. Chidiebere Anelechi Ogbu, Leader of the Global African Diaspora Union,
• Kim Poole, Teaching Artist Institute,
• Angele Sayles, Global African SHEROES Union,
• Line Hilgros, Sub Regional Diaspora Council Guadalupe,
• Iman Drammeh, The Drammeh Institute,
• Viola Plummer, President of December Twelfth Movement International Secretariat,
• Roger Wareham, International Secretary-General, International Association Against Torture,
• Dr. Esther Roniyah Stanford-Xosei, PARCOE (Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition in Europe) & Europe-Wide NGO Consultative Council for Afrikan Reparations (ENGOCCAR),
• Professor  Dr. Atumni Toasije, director of the Pan-African Studies Center,
• Nyahuma Obika, Former High Commissioner of Trinidad and Tobago to Nigeria; Former Ambassador of Trinidad and Tobago to Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Algeria, Guinea, Congo and Senegal,
• Sidney O. Francis Martin, Central American Black Organization (CABO) & Organization Negro Centra Americana (ONECA),
• Reverend Buddy A. Larrier, IYPAD Barbados NGO Chapter; Reparation Movement Barbados.

Copy to:

• High Commissioner on Human Rights, H.E. Ms. Michelle Bachelet, via the Office, Dr. Mactar Ndoye,
• UN Director-General for Health, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,
• UN Commission on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, via CERD-member, Professor Dr. Verene Shepherd,
• UN Working Group of Experts on People of African descent, via the Chairperson, Professor Dr. Ahmed Reid,
• UN Independent Eminent Experts for the implementation of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action, via the Chairperson, Dr. Edna Roland,
• Heads of State and Government of the Caribbean Community, via the Chairperson, H.E. Mrs. Mia Amor Mottley.


Notes: If you would like to add the name of your organization to those who signed this letter, please email [email protected] for review and consideration. Thank you.