Statement against the lynching and death of a young Congolese man in Brazil

We denounce and condemn the racist violence against Moïse Mugenyi Kabagambe, a 24-year-old Congolese man who was lynched and killed on the night of January 24th on the upscale Barra da Tijuca beach in Rio de Janeiro. While collecting the 200 reais owed to him by his employers at a kiosk, Moïse was beaten by five men with sticks, stones, and kicks for more than 15 minutes, according to security camera footage from the scene. As if that weren't enough, the perpetrators then tied him up with ropes on the steps near the beach.

Moïse did not resist. He had been living in Brazil for almost ten years after fleeing the Democratic Republic of Congo due to the violence that threatened him and his family.

We join the call to action and the protest of Congolese collectives, Black mothers, and the Black movement in Brazil because we believe that the level of brutality and the fact that Moïse was Black is not a coincidence in that country. Rather, it stems from a colonial mindset with concrete effects on entire families in the daily lives of those in the urban peripheries and within the prison system. In the last two decades, through the presence of other Black communities in Brazil—Afro-diasporic and refugee communities in neighborhoods and workplaces—this mindset has been revived. 

As we write this statement, the attackers remain in jail, but Moïse's family has not yet had access to the video of the attack, nor to the accounts of the accused or the witnesses.

We demand transparency and a break in judicial secrecy in the Moïse case!

We express our condemnation of racism and xenophobia!

Justice for Moïse!

February 7th 2022
CLACSO Working Groups
Borders: Mobilities, Identities and Trade
South-South Migration
Afro-descendants and counter-hegemonic proposals
Civilizational crisis, reconfigurations of racism, Afro-Latin American social movements
Caribbean critical thinking on race and racism
Border Studies Group (UACM, Mexico)

This statement expresses the position of the aforementioned Working Groups and nor necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.