Dr. Adeyinka Olaiya
Re: Deputy Gustavo Sayer’s Offensive Remarks Against the People of Africa We, the intelligent people of Africa, find it disheartening that a parliamentarian, a citizen who was elected by the people, would stoop so low as to use derogatory language to belittle the capabilities of the African people, the very cradle of humanity. Congressman Gustavo Gayer, a federal deputy affiliated with PL, a liberal party in Brazil, ignorantly compared the intelligence of an African person to that of a monkey during a live podcast in Brazil.
This uninformed individual, who probably climbed the ladder of success through questionable means, fails to grasp the fact that the first black person to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, back in 1982, was Nigerian, Professor Wole Soyinka.
Not to mention the late Chinua Achebe, who not only shattered records but also sold over 20 million copies of his renowned novel “Things Fall Apart.” The parliamentarian who dared to compare an African person’s ability to discern right from wrong to that of a monkey clearly lacks an understanding of why Nelson Mandela of South Africa fought for justice and spent 27 years in prison for what he believed was right.
It is disheartening that a people who had millions of their families forcefully abducted from Africa and transported to Brazil as slaves to build the very foundation of the nation are now deemed lacking in intelligence to discern right from wrong.
It is evident that this congressman will attempt to hide behind the shield of politics to defend his words, but we, the African and Afro-descendant community in Brazil, will continue to denounce all forms of racial, social, and ethnic discrimination.
We condemn, unequivocally, Deputy Gustavo Gayer’s derogatory remarks against the African race. Let justice prevail.
Journalist/Brazil
