This archive report was first published on 12 June 2020.
June 12, 2020, marked a day of reckoning for those who have long been oppressed by systems of power. The Rev Al Sharpton's powerful eulogy at George Floyd's funeral served as a poignant reminder of the forces of evil that have allowed police brutality against black people to thrive for far too long.
Sharpton's words were a call to action, urging those who have been silenced to rise up and demand justice. He noted that the gods had other plans for Derek Chauvin, the white police officer who knelt on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes, thinking that the incident would go unnoticed and forgotten like many others.
But the people defied curfews, social distancing, and public assembly to take to the streets, protesting the murder of George Floyd and proclaiming 'black lives matter.' Protests broke out in many parts of the world, with people of all races coming together to demand change.
Meanwhile, in Burundi, President Pierre Nkurunziza died of a reported heart attack, leaving behind a legacy of ruthless repression and human rights abuses. Nkurunziza's regime was marked by extrajudicial killings, torture, disappearances, and the systematic crushing of dissent.
It is a stark reminder that the gods are indeed at play, and that justice can be served in the most unexpected ways. As Sharpton said, 'there is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and miseries.'
