• rare
• December 17, 2025

Declaration of June 16, 2025

Each year, the Commemoration of the Soweto Massacre on June 16, 1976 is an opportunity to celebrate the commitment, courage, struggles and sacrifices of African children and youth to liberate and rebuild Africa and the Black Diaspora.

Paying tribute to them and ensuring that their memory is never forgotten is a duty for all true Black revolutionaries. This is particularly important for those who were also school and student activists and young activists and who were at the forefront of the trade union, political, social and environmental movements as well as the struggles against imperialism, neocolonialism, racism and capitalism that have taken place on the Continent and in the Diaspora since 1976.

The Heroes and Martyrs of Soweto continued the struggle inherited from our Ancestors; we followed in their footsteps and carried on their fight; subsequent generations of school and student activists took up the torch and continued the struggle. This historical continuity testifies to the age-old courage and unwavering determination of Black children and youth throughout history and across the globe to liberate and rebuild their countries and communities. For this, they deserve the eternal gratitude, thanks, and respect of Africa and its Diaspora.

But, for those of us who are not pan-African amnesiacs, Soweto is unfortunately also the most striking symbol of African revolutions betrayed, hijacked, usurped and stolen.

Indeed, instead of the promised liberation, the reparations, compensation, and restitution owed, the hoped-for recovery of ancestral lands, and the regaining of control over our wealth and labor, the struggle in South Africa resulted instead in the emergence and seizure of power by an opportunistic and ambitious African bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie. Eager to sit at the table of their European masters, these comprador Black elites hastened to forgive and reconcile with their white oppressors, slave owners, colonialists, thieves, rapists, and perpetrators of genocide, dividing the country’s resources and wealth among themselves at the expense of the African masses. The most tragic consequences and expressions of this betrayal were the self-flagellating distraction of the misnamed ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ and the Marikana Massacre. Indeed, these two events showed that, instead of being used against the white invaders, slave traders, genocidal instigators and profiteers of the abuses, exactions, horrors and crimes of colonization and Apartheid (the guilty ones), the propaganda and repression tools of the South African state were instead turned against the African masses (the victims of these crimes).

Elsewhere on the continent, the hijacking and theft of our revolutions has been perpetrated by defectors from the ranks of the criminal, incompetent, and corrupt dignitaries, servants, profiteers, and executioners (civilian and military) of the regimes that oppress us. These are indeed former ministers, high-ranking officials, officers, and non-commissioned officers who realized they no longer had the slightest chance of satisfying their thirst for power and safeguarding their privileges by remaining within the regimes and under the tutelage of leaders as criminal, corrupt, and incompetent as themselves. It is therefore in order to survive politically, rehabilitate themselves socially and prosper professionally and economically that these sellouts have transformed themselves into 25th-hour opponents or messianic putschists, not out of a late love for the country, a sudden anti-imperialist conviction or even a sense of guilt and a desire for repentance that they never felt.

But no sooner had they found themselves in the opposition or at the helm of their countries than these hypocritical and opportunistic scoundrels hijacked the narrative, blurred the lines, and usurped the leadership of our struggles against their former local employers and foreign imperialist masters. Unfortunately, they benefit from the support and assistance of renegade former Comrades who, because they are too fearful, cowardly, incompetent, and undisciplined to make the revolution themselves, have transformed into their zealous errand boys, their obsequious courtiers, their fanatical pan-African griots, and their cynical pan-African bootlickers!

We firmly say “No!” to these pan-African opportunists, pan-African renegades, and pan-African scoundrels!

On this historic day of June 16th, we call upon the True African Revolutionaries (RARE) of the Continent and the Diaspora to:

1. Make a firm resolution never again to let opportunists, social climbers and imposters hack, steal, usurp and betray our revolutions.

2. Realize that we do not need former ministers, military personnel, police officers, militiamen, or any other defectors from African regimes to overthrow them and seize power. The truth is that if these defectors stage coups or leave the existing regimes, it is simply because they have understood that we are close to victory. Switching sides or staging coups are therefore nothing more than opportunistic strategies to survive politically and preserve their interests, advantages, and class privileges acquired by oppressing, exploiting, raping, and massacring the masses, activists, progressives, and revolutionaries of their countries.    

3. We must cease being tolerant, patient, and complacent with pan-African opportunists, pan-African cynics, pan-African renegades, pan-African scoundrels, pan-African traitors, confused pan-Africans, pan-Obamaists, (neo)pan-Africanists, and pan-African militarists. We must break ideologically and politically with them, while being critical and uncompromising with our own weaknesses, shortcomings, and contradictions.

4. We must prepare ourselves for battle to reclaim the African Revolution(rare)by all necessary means.

To this end, we invite all True Black Revolutionaries of the World to join us for the launch of a common platform , so that the betrayal of Soweto, the betrayal of Khartoum, the betrayal of Bamako, the betrayal of Ouagadougou, the betrayal of Niamey, the betrayal of Conakry, the betrayal of Libreville, the betrayal of Douala, the betrayal of Ndjamena, the betrayal of Port-au-Prince, in short, that no hijacking of popular struggles and no betrayal of our revolutions by opportunistic civilian or military elites will ever happen again in the Black world!

Life and Eternal Glory to the Heroes and Martyrs of Soweto!

May the Ancestors continue to guide, protect and empower the True African Revolutionaries (RAREs) .

May they grant them a) the wisdom to recognize and identify opportunists, renegades, imposters, usurpers, traitors, sellouts, collaborators, cowards and fearful people, as well as b) the courage to unmask and systematically denounce them, c) the determination to remove them without restraint and d) the necessary means to successfully steer the ship of the True African Revolution (rare) for which the Children and Youth of Soweto gave their lives 49 years ago.     

Done in Soweto, BoisKayman, Adwa, Yaoundé, Harare, San Basilio, Caracas, Havana, on June 16, 2025

“Proudly Ancestral, Uncompromisingly Revolutionary, Radically Maatic”

Reclaiming the African Revolution < rare@reclaimingtheafricanrevolution.com >