ARTICLE: ALUTA COMBATANTS

The social movement theory of unionism never meant anything to me until this evening

, when I had an experience I would forever remember. I had gone to visit a female friend in her school that blessed evening.

The state government had insisted on increasing the state university’s school fees. The government in conjunction with the school authority had failed in doing the bidding of the student union after several hours of pleas and negotiations. The student union had also held several congresses with the remaining students who would rather have their heads off their neck to sit back and allow the government do that.

A decision was reached, the student’s were going to hold a protest, and the Aluta combatants would have to be at their peak to make it a success. No wonder, the tension that evening was so thick that you could have cut it with a saw.

”Let’s get out of here”… I said quickly, but being the natural on-looker that my friend was, she patted me on the shoulder saying…”Sancho abeg, I can’t afford to miss this o”...

Just about then, the rampaging Aluta combatants rendered an interesting song to the delight of the tensed and booming crowd…

“Spirit of aluta, fall upon us,

When aluta comes, intoxicate us like wine,

Spirit of aluta, fall upon us,

Spirit of aluta, come and descend on us.”

The word “Aluta“ in the real sense classically means “Struggle”, the word is widely associated with a Struggle for freedom or liberation of people from any form of Oppression, Repression or Subjugation.”Aluta” is a household word used in Africa when the generality of the Africans were charting and chanting for freedom from the Colonial Masters during the Colonial Era.

It was also in course of my inquisitiveness that I realized the full phrase of the shortened word “Aluta” is “Aluta Continua, Victoria Ascerta”, meaning, “The Struggle Continues, Victory is Certain”, which is fashioned after the Portuguese saying “A luta Continua, Vitoria E certa”- “The Struggle Continues, Victory is Certain”.

The combatants chanted the phrase repeatedly as they danced round the burning tires, just like the legendary South African songstress, Miriam Makeba did in her song titled “Aluta Continua” which she released during the anti-apartheid struggle.

Tire fires is commonly used by resistance movements in Nigeria, because they effectively shut down transportation routes, such as roads and highways and exactly what those combatants did, as all vehicles, motorcycles ,vans, trailers and ”keke Napep” as the yellow tricycle is fondly called, were parked metres away from the main scene of the incidence. Travelling passengers were fast in blaming the government for not adhering to the bidding of the union, some were reluctant in blaming the government but instead blamed the union, while others who had nothing to say were silent and joined the on-looking population.

The leader of the combatants mounted the wooden-carved podium as he hurriedly addressed his fellow “Aluta” combating comrades and the teeming onlookers ,who had already outnumbered the combatants, “No Retreat , No Surrender”, he said as he concluded his well-fashioned Martin Luther King (jnr) speech .

“There is more to Singapore than those big, tall buildings you see in travel pamphlets”, Herwin Van Johari once said, and this I realized, as a team of armed mobile policemen alighted from a black bullet-proof bullock van, firing and shooting tear gas riffles … [although, the riffles were not fired directly at the crowd, but the ground instead]…It didn’t take long before the unsuspecting multitude began to run “helter scatter”, just like the Nigerian rapper Eedris Abuldakareem mentioned in his song titled “Nigeria Jagajaga”.

The lachrymator is a non-lethal chemical weapon that stimulates the corneal nerves in the eyes to cause tears, pain, and blindness and mainly used in riot control.

The supposed tense scenes became more interesting when the combatants began to remove their handkerchiefs from their pockets, soak it in an unknown hydrocarbon solution, and then used it in wiping their face. They were baying for blood.

What guts!!! Never seen unionism this strong, what was the hydrocarbon solution meant for? Were these combatants not mistaking unionism for hooliganism? Were they not endangering their lives? Were they not going too far? Should the police have done that?

Those were questions I never found answers to, as i suddenly found myself standing in front of a cafeteria, miles away from the scene, breathing heavily, and my legs as heavy as those of an elephant. The leader of those mobile policemen must have realized the combatants were well prepared for the protest and were not going to give up the protest, before he ordered his men to fire those gun shots into the air, which effectively scattered the rampaging combatants…”

“Death is most terrifying to those who have yet to live”, Dan Pearce once said, and I recall George R.R.Martin saying in his “A Game of Throne” article,” what do we say to the Lord of Death? Not today”.

The road was that clear; you could have seen those black-uniform men swing their guns in the air, as they majestically patrolled the empty road. I never thought of searching for my friend as all that filled my thought was my missing $50 Nike palm slippers. I had saved most of my earnings to buy that slide … [poor sancho]..., and was now going to lose it as an on-looker in an “Aluta” protest that turned violent. I quickly boarded a motorcycle heading to my direction, meditate on the scene I had witnessed, as I returned home bare footed.

           (IG:@alexisancho, Twitter:@proflexane #oshamo.)