Tribute to Freedom fighter Dr. Arcelin Obiang Nsang
(El Libertador 1936-2009) y su familia. 16/08/2010
era el verano de 1991, yo, Obiang Nsang, tenia 14 años y vivia en Barcelona, Catalonia, ‘Spain’. During the summer my grandparents used to send me to summer camp so I will leave them alone for a few weeks. The youth workers on that special summer camp, decided to take us for a day to Banyoles. I still remember when I entered the Francisco Darder Natural History Museum. There, I saw chickens with four legs, sheep with two heads and other taxidermied unique beasts. There as well, there was foetus of twins in pots. Suddenly, in the middle of this dark and dusty room, I bumped into this man in a glass cabinet. It was an Afrikan man without doubt. He was standing majestic with his spear and his shield which obviously did not protect him from being stuffed (taxidermed) by Eduard Verraux. As soon as I saw it, my legs got weak and I was supported to get outside of the museum. There, at the door, I was trying to understand and comprehend what I just saw. My father had just died, and seeing this Afrikan man it just remind me of how unpleasant some people can make our afterlife. Human Dignity, for us, is not given even when we are death.
The corpse ‘El Negre de Banyoles’, as this taxidermed African was known by the Catalans, was exhumed from his place of eternal rest and taken to France and Europe where it was exhibited during the 1830s. ‘El Negre de Banyoles’, was purchased by Francisco Darder who put it on Exhibition on his museum in Banyoles (Girona, Catalonia, Spain).
For decades, the great African stand mute, immobile and powerless with his feet trap and his heart swapped and stopped by the taxidermy process without anyone being bothered about him. This was until, Dr. Alphonse Arcelin, a Haitian maroon, who lived in Cambrils, Catalonia, where he was a doctor and a counsellor for the Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSC) began a campaign to return the dignity to the great African man (El Negre de Banyoles) and to all the African people and Humanity. He campaign for the body to be return to Southern Africa where the great hunter was believed to belong. He was thought to be a member of the Khoisan ethnic group. The great maroon, Dr Alphonse Arcelin, may his soul rest in peace, said that “El Negre the Banyoles” was an "affront to humanity" and to "black people" in general. Dr Alphonse Arcelin, found a great opposition against his campaign including from his own party members. Catalonia was at that time about to display the great 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. They classified Dr Arcelin as a traitor to the Catalan people. He further found a lot of resistance from the local people who saw our African ancestor as a local fixture in Banyoles.
Dr Arcelin intensified his campaign, as the great maroon that he was, and planned and threaten for all African Athletes to boycott the upcoming Olympic Games in Barcelona. This was confronted by locals giving Easter eggs to their children with the shape of ‘El Negre’ and T-shirts with the slogan “Keep el Negre” and “Banyoles loves you Negre”. Abella who run the museum said that “El Negre” was their property and that people should leave them alone. This ‘gentelman’ and ignorant of Afrikan believes said that, human rights only apply to living people, not to the dead, forgetting that our family (the Afrikan family) is “Thoes who were, thoes who are and those who will be”.
Dr. Arcelin may his soul rest in peace, fought and fought. The body of our ancestor “el Negre” was concealed during the Olympic Games. But Dr. Arceline, continued his fight to ensure that the body will be returned to the motherland and buried as he deserved. The fight continued for another seven years. During this fight Dr Arcelin and his family, who I was honoured to meet one of their members in July 2010 during a Pan-African conference in Madrid, Spain, lost all their money, home and even professional career; but he did not, even for one instance, loose the maroon spirit to fight for the dignity of our ancestor and the dignity of not only the African race but the human race. He said that: "It was incredible that at the end of the 20th century, someone still dared to show a stuffed human being in a show case, as if it were an exotic animal".
The body finally arrived to Tsholofelo Park in Gaborone, Botswana for a historic reburial. It arrived in a coffin covered by Botswana’s national flag. Dr Arcelin was made heroe of Botswana and his fight was echoed in all the press and media. People in Botswana shouted his name whiles he stand satisfied looking at the traditional ceremony, that he had dreamed for more than a decade.
Dr Alphonse Arcelin, died on 17/08/2009. Today 17/08/2010 we, Afrikans worldwide, should celebrate the life and legacy of ‘the liberator’. Dr. Alphonse Arcelin, is a role model and an example to follow. He inspired many Africans in Spain to get organised and to fight for the dignity of Africans everywhere, alive or death. He further demonstrated that perseverance is the biggest weapon that we have in our hands. Dr Alphonse Arcelin was born in Miragoane, Haiti in 1936. He settled in Spain in 1957 to study medicine; when he finalised his studies he practiced as a Dr in Libia and Zambia, until 1979 when he came back to Spain and settled in Cambrils, Catalonia. He never lost contact with Haiti and he kept communication with his town. He collaborated in humanitarian projects to provide his home town with sanitary equipment and computers. Dr. Alphonse Arcelin died on the 17/08/2009 in Cuba at the age of 73.
UHURU!
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