Human Rights Defender of the month: Martial Pa’nucci

Martial Pa’nucci is a child of what is fondly known as Africa’s second liberation. In 1990 when he was born, the Republic of Congo, like many other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, was undergoing a transition from one-party rule to multi-party democracy, following the collapse of the Soviet Union.     

Yet developments in ordinary people’s lives were not as optimistic. Pa’nucci was born in one of Brazzaville’s ghettos to a polygamous family of two mothers and 19 siblings, where survival was a daily exercise in courage. When he was two, his father died, followed in quick succession by many of his siblings. Pa’nucci did not start school until he was nine, and he had to do odd jobs – from barbering to plumbing to earn his stay there, lest he dropped out like many of his peers. 

 These circumstances were his first illumination to the gross inequality around him, which eventually stirred his human rights consciousness. A gifted vocalist and wordsmith, by the time he was done with Primary school, Pa’nucci had started composing amateurish hip-hop music, slowly nurturing a talent that would become a defining part of his public identity. But Music was not just that for him. It was an act of resistance, he says: 

“Music was my way of trying to reclaim who I was – a refusal to be defined by my circumstances and their limitations. So, I started singing about my people in a way that extolled our unique attributes and endowments. So, music was my way of restoring my and my people’s agency in defining who we were,” he says.

His dogged determination paid off, and in 2010, he was admitted to the Marien Ngouabi University  to study Literature and African Civilization, the first in his entire family to do so. But by that time, Pa’nucci had grown increasingly impatient with the status quo, and had, through his music, become an outspoken activist for social and political reform.  

“There are certain realities that were truly infuriating. For my entire primary school for example, we were sitting in dust or on grass, with no seats. Very many children in Congo still undergo that reality. So, I started asking; why do generations of Congolese children continue to study in dust when there are trees all around us, when Congo is part of the equatorial rain forest region? These issues were concerning me, and naturally, they found their way into my music,” he says. 

It was this revitalized activism at university that registered him on the radar of Congo’s security apparatus.  Soon, he was increasingly blocked from performing at events, and he started receiving warnings from anonymous numbers to back off his activism.  

But rather than dissuade him, the warnings served to reinforce Pa’nucci’s resolve. In 2014, together with a group of youth activists formed Ras-le-bol (translated as “I have Heard Enough”), a citizens’ movement to sensitize and conscientize young people about the social, economic and political issues pertaining the country ahead of the 2014 elections.  

When the Republic of Congo’s long-ruling President Dennis Sassou Ngueso amended the country’s constitution to run for another term in a 2015 referendum widely rejected as a sham, Pa’nucci and his Ras-Le-Bol colleagues intensified their citizens’ sensitization campaign, intensifying collision with the government authorities. After President Ngueso was returned to power following elections in early 2016, the Congolese police turned their guns on Pa’nucci and his other colleagues who had given them much trouble in the lead up to elections.  

“They started trailing us and intimidating our family members to reveal our whereabouts. So, we would change out of several taxis on a single journey, and sleep at different locations because the police was looking for us in all our known addresses,” he says.

By July 2016, it had become evident that Pa’nucci could no longer safely stay in Congo. He escaped to Senegal, and later to Burkina Faso, where he sought and gained asylum. With a new lease of freedom, Pa’nucci continued to perform and release music, confronting several issues, from France’s continued neo-colonial hold on its former colonies, to deriding long-staying authoritarian presidencies in Africa.  

In 2020, while enroute to perform at a University Students’ Gala in Senegal, he was arrested on arrival at the airport in Dakar. Months earlier, he had released a new album – “#2020Chronicles – Chronicles of decolonization,” in which he derided several African Presidents, including Senegal’s Macky Sall for their oppressive and authoritarian streak. After recording a video of his detention and sharing it on Facebook, he was eventually released and deported back to Burkina Faso.  

Pa’nucci insists he will not be cowed, but his resolve has come at great cost to himself and his family, for which he was the main breadwinner. At the time of his exile, he had started his PhD studies in Congo, which he had to abandon. For seven years since he left for exile, he has not been able to see his mother or the rest of his extended family. His brother, the last-remaining sibling from his mother’s nine children died early this year, and Pa’nucci could not go to bury him.  I asked him, what keeps him going despite the immense personal sacrifice:

“We cannot all just keep quiet, and surrender. We must remember that the peace we enjoy today wherever we may be, was struggled for, which means we also have a generational responsibility to ensure that we leave a freer world for those who come after us,” he says.

See more HRDs of the Month

Human Rights Defender of the month: Martial Pa’nucci

Martial Pa’nucci is a child of what is fondly known as Africa’s second liberation. In 1990 when he was born, the Republic of Congo, like many other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, was undergoing a transition from one-party rule to multi-party democracy, following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Yet developments in ordinary people’s lives were not as optimistic. Pa’nucci was born in one of Brazzaville’s ghettos to a polygamous family of two mothers and 19 siblings, where survival was a daily exercise in courage. When he was two, his father died, followed in quick succession by many of his siblings. Pa’nucci did not start school until he was nine, and he had to do odd jobs – from barbering to plumbing to earn his stay there, lest he dropped out like many of his peers.

Human Rights Defender of the month: Veronica Almedom

Veronica Almedom is a poster child of successful immigration. A duo Eritrean and Swiss citizen, she was born in Italy, and grew up in Switzerland where she permanently resides. Her parents are some of the earliest victims of Eritrea’s cycles of violence. When Eritrea’s war of independence peaked in the early 1980s, they escaped the country as unaccompanied minors, wandering through Sudan, Saudi Arabia, before making the hazard journey across the Mediterranean into Europe. There, they crossed first to Italy, and finally, to Switzerland, where they settled first as refugees, and later, as permanent residents.

Human Rights Defender of the month: Omar Faruk Osman

Omar Faruk’s career, and the passion that drove it, were the product of his circumstances. He was born in 1976, in the first of strong man Mohamed Siad Barre’s two-decade rule over Somalia, which was characterized by gross rights abuses and barely existent civic space. He came of age in the 90s when those abuses and rights violations were peaking, as his country was engulfed by a ruinous civil war following the collapse of the Siad Barre dictatorship.

Human Rights Defender of the month: Rita Kahsay

When the Ethiopian Federal Government representatives and those of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) signed a peace agreement in Pretoria, in November last year, the two parties were hailed for ending arguably the deadliest conflict of the 21st century, in which over 600,000 people had died.
But long before the negotiators for peace got around to an agreement, there were many other unsung heroes, who, through individual and collective efforts helped sustain the world’s gaze on the dire situation in Tigray, despite the Ethiopian Government’s determined efforts to hush it up.

Human Rights Defender of the month: Godfrey Kagaayi

Born 33 years ago, in Bukoba, northern Tanzania, Godfrey Kagaayi did not have to look elsewhere for inspiration to tackle the daunting challenge of mental health. By his own admission, the family and community in which he was raised were fertile grounds for the same.
His family had crossed the border into Uganda when he was barely 5 months, settling into present day Rakai district. But the Rakai of the 90s was a difficult place for a child to make their earliest memories: In 1990, Uganda’s first ever case of HIV/AIDs was reported in the district, setting off a decade of suffering and anguish for many of its residents. Taking advantage of the Rakai’s fishing and polygamous lifestyle, the novel virus spread like wildfire, killing people in droves and leaving untold heartache in its wake.

Human Rights Defender of the month: Hiader Abdalla Abu Gaid

Hiader Abdalla Abu Gaid is one of the lucky survivors of Sudan’s latest conflict.

He was born 36 years ago, in Almalha locality, North Darfur state, the third born in a family of 10. Then, Darfur was not the hot bed of war and conflict it has since become infamous for. Although the region, predominantly inhabited by Sudan’s black population remained segregated by the predominantly Arab government in Khartoum, its people co-existed in thriving, predominantly subsistence communities. In Almalha, people reared camels and cattle, while others tended crops. The community was also famed for its hospitality to strangers, welcoming outsiders who ended up staying, owning land, and intermarrying with their hosts.

Human Rights Defender of the month:Immaculate Nabwire and Daphne Nakabugo

In personality, Immaculate Nabwire and Daphne Nakabugo could not be more different. Where the former is loud, if free-spirited, and mischievous, the latter is quiet, reticent, and predominantly solitary. Together though, they are the quiet champions behind DefendDefenders’ digital skilling programs, equipping (women) human rights defenders with critically transformative – and sometimes, life-saving digital tools and skills.
“You’ll be surprised how many people out there, including the literate are not exposed to the idea of digital safety. And as technology gets more advanced, it is getting ever more lucrative for hackers and other malign actors, which means that the urgency of the need for digital security skills for everyone cannot be over-stated,” says Daphne.

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