The year had barely started when the news broke that fourteen year-old Kelyan Bokassa was stabbed to death, having endured twenty-seven wounds at the hands of two knife-weilding teenagers in Woolwich, south-east London. The attack happened almost six years to the day that another fourteen year-old, Jaden Moodie died having been repearedly stabbed in Leyton east London, after being run over by his assailants’ car. (1)
What was particularly heart-wrenching about Kelyan’s death was that his mother, Marie said that she was traumatised and shocked by his death, but not surprised: “I feel hurt because I tried to prevent it. I’ve tried so many, so many times. I screamed it, I said ‘my son is going to be killed’.” As a further reference point, Jaden Moodie’s mother moved 140 miles from Nottinghamshire to London after becoming fearful for his safety. (2)
Not surprisingly, the media narrative revolves around gangs and our people; involvement in it. The Metropolitan Police’s illegal “Gangs Matrix” that effectively criminialised thousands of Afrikan young people between the ages of twelve and twenty-four, certainly help fuel the narrative. (3) But even a cursory look at Kelyan’s and Jaden’s cases and many others for that matter, reveals a backstory of worried families trying to prevent their children getting ensnared into crime by engaging with various authorities and agencies. This orientation exposes the competing demands of safeguarding our children versus the “school to prison pipeline.” (4) But, while the latter is clearly charging full steam ahead, driven by finance capital, the former continues to flounder miserably. (5)
Consequently, the community has no option but to meet the challenge head on. This includes challenging the perspectives that dominate the public discourse. At the forefront of this are activists like Sis. Donna Murray-Turner who accuses the Metropolitan Police of playing politics with statistics about young Black men and knife crime and their suggestions of “normalised behaviour” that our community needs to “talk” about, but ostensibly without looking at the factors causing it such structural racism in schools and society at large and poverty. She draws attention to the “ghettoisation” of our problems where Black young men realize nobody really cares about the experiences and they are on their own. If special educational needs (SEND) are added to the equation the problems are accelerated, given that “A black Caribbean FSM boy with SEND is 168 times more likely to be permanently excluded than a white British girl without SEND.” (6) It’s noteworthy that Hassan Sentamu, recently convicted of murdering fifteen year-old Elianne Andam and Axel Rudakubana who pled guilty to the Southport murders were both diagnosed as being on the austistic spectrum. (7)
Meeting the challenge head on requires an assessment what resources and structures we possess to tackle the “low intensity warfare” being waged on the Afrikan community. (8) Some years ago there was a real buzz around the need for rites of passage programmes that doesn’t appear to exist currently to the same extent. (9) However, rites of passage are founded of cohesive structures, value system, institutions and leadership that the community subscribes to.
Given that any type of dysfunctionality renders our community easy prey from without, the task must be towards building the necessary resilience from within encompassing family structure/dynamics and interpersonal relationships towards a nationbuilding agenda. It’s a task that the Pan-Afrikan People’s Parliament should give serious consideration to.
(1) BBC News (20/01/25) Teen attacked with machetes on bus home, court told. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8057l4ye4yo; Sarah Lee (11/12/19) Jaden Moodie: The child groomed and killed in London’s drug war. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-50665961
(2) Vinnie O’Dowd, Ellie Price, Frankie McCamley & Aurelia Foster (08/01/25) Mother not surprised son killed on London bus. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp9n9xyjlzgo; Lee. Op. cit.
(3) Enfield Dispatch (05/12/24) Londoners urged to seek justice over Met’s discriminatory ‘gangs matrix’. https://enfielddispatch.co.uk/londoners-urged-to-seek-justice-over-mets-discriminatory-gangs-matrix/
(4) Catch 22 (17/06/24) The prevalence of school exclusions in the UK, their root causes, and the importance of preventative offerings over reactive interventions. https://www.catch-22.org.uk/resources/the-prevalence-of-school-exclusions-in-the-uk/
(5) Jessica Frank-Keyes (10/11/23) City of London awash with drug money, top MPs warn. https://www.cityam.com/city-of-london-awash-with-drug-money-top-mps-warn/; Avinash D Persaud (27/04/17) London: the money laundering capital of the world. https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/economics/44253/london-the-money-laundering-capital-of-the-world; Rajeev Syal (13/12/09) Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor https://www.theguardian.com/global/2009/dec/13/drug-money-banks-saved-un-cfief-claims
(6) Whitney Crenna-Jennings (21/12/17) ‘A black Caribbean FSM boy with SEND is 168 times more likely to be permanently excluded than a white British girl without SEND. Why?’ https://www.tes.com/news/black-caribbean-fsm-boy-send-168-times-more-likely-be-permanently-excluded-white-british-girl
(7) Tristan Kirk (16/01/25) ‘The real me is evil’: Elianne Andam’s killer Hassan Sentamu was troubled child with history of violence. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/elianne-andam-murder-croydon-hassan-sentamu-killer-b1205289.html; Liam Thorp (22/01/25) Alder Hey responds to Axel Rudakubana questions. https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/alder-hey-responds-axel-rudakubana-30838110
(8) Dr.Mutulu Shakur, Anthony X Bradshaw, Malik Dinguswa, Terry D. Long, Mark Cook, Mateos Adolfho And James Haskins (1988) Genocide waged against the Black Nation, through behavior modification/orchestrated by counterinsurgency and low-intensity warfare in the U.S. penal system. The research committee on international law and Black Freedom Fighters in the United States. p. 17. http://freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC513_scans/Mutulu_Shakur/513.genocide.waged.against.black.nation.12.1988.pdf
(9) Afrika Speaks with Alkebu-Lan on Galaxy Radio (15/04/19) How can we get to grips with youth violence? https://alkebulan.org/2019/04/15/afrika-speaks-with-alkebu-lan-on-galaxy-radio-150419-how-can-we-get-to-grips-with-youth-violence/
Can we save our young people?
1) Should we now expect our young people to be killed?
2) How do they get caught up in the ‘gangs’ narrative?
3) What is the significance of mental health/special needs?
4) How can we develop the structures to address these issues?
Our Special Guests:
Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and an Afrikan-Centred Education Consultant. Bro. Ldr is a veteran activist of over 40 years standing, a featured columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily Affirmations and Education: An African-Centred Approach To Excellence.
Sis. DonnaMurray-Turner: is an Equity Consultant with a decades worth experience working with institutions within the criminal justice system. She is also a credible VAWG/DASV practitioner and is currently a student at London Metropolitan University where she is studying an MA in Women & Child Abuse Studies. Sis. Donna is a noted public speaker and host and delivered her first TEDx Talk in 2021 during lockdown. She is a mother of three young adult children and lives in Croydon.
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