The struggle of the Black Panthers is alive today. It is a struggle for political recognition and representation, for equal rights and emancipation from systemic oppression and persistent exploitation. The Black Panthers were not ambivalent about their goals, theirs was an internationalist, socialist, abolitionist program. For many activists today, the slavery paradigm has not ended but has merely transformed into the prevalence of prison labour and institutional racism. The slaveowners have been liberalised, the new masters are faceless corporations run for the benefit of disparate financial interests. Black liberation has not been achieved, and this is why we are seeing a new generation of activists who call themselves the ‘new abolitionists’.

Panel discussion ‘Persistent coloniality, the new pan-africanism and international solidarity’ with Seada Nourhussen, JeanPaul Paula and Firoze Manji.

JeanPaul Paula (born 1986, Willemstad) works as a stylist, creative director, judge on Hollands next top model and activist. He has build up a big portfolio of work by working together with a very diverse group of people and brands. e.g. Jean-Baptise Mondino, Fka Twigs, Lacoste and Nike. In addition to his work in fashion, jeanpaul is fiersly committed to both the Black Lives Matter and Trans Lives Matter movements.

Simone Zeefuik is an Amsterdam based writer and organizer whose work centres around on representation and inclusivity. With her articles and the event she organizes or co-hosts, she focuses on Africentred perspectives, (de)colonial vocabularies, museums, (digital) archives and the illegalized members of the Afro-Dutch communities. She organizes film screenings and panel discussions at Amsterdam's Bijlmer Parktheater and views documentaries for IDFA (International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam). As a lecturer and workshop host she works with universities, colleges and museums in the Netherlands as well as Belgium. Her interests are film, theatre, literature plus pan-Africanist and decolonial resistance movements. Nerd-wise, biographical films have a special place in her expertise.

Firoze Manji is a Kenyan-born author, activist, editor and publisher. He is the founder and former editor of Pambazuka News, an online news magazine. He was the former Africa director for Amnesty International and former CEO of the Aga Khan Foundation. He has published widely on health, social policy, human rights and political sciences, and pan-Africanism and has authored and edited a wide range of books on social justice in Africa, including on women’s rights, trade justice, on China’s role in Africa and on the recent uprisings in Africa. He is co-editor, with Sokari Ekine, of African Awakenings: The Emerging Revolutions; co-editor with Bill Fletcher Jr. of Claim No Easy Victories: The Legacy of Amilcar Cabral, and project-managed the publication of Silence Would Be Treason: Last Writings of Ken Saro-Wiwa.

Seada Nourhussen was until the end of 2018 a columnist for Trouw and until the beginning of 2018 she was an inland reporter for 12 years and then Africa editor of Trouw. Previously she worked for the cultural editorial staff of Elsevier and was economics and art editor at de Volkskrant. She wrote the book 'Bloedmobieltjes, Coltan in Congo' (KIT, 2011) about the war behind gadgets and co-authored the collections WTF?! Becoming an adult after September 11th (Prometheus, 2011) and Weg uit Babylon (Augustus, 2008). The anthology Zwart (Black, Atlas Contact, 2018), Afro-European literature in the Low Countries, also appeared a few moments ago. She plays an active role in the Dutch debate on Africa and racism and regularly acts as a panel member or leader of debates. She is also currently working on a new book.

Symposium ‘All Power to the People’ was organised by West Den Haag within the framework of the exhibition of Emory Douglas on 29.11.2018.