Photo: Sébastien Tanguay Le Devoir Mayor Khalid Kamau and his dog Zion, named in reference to African Zionism and the Promised Land sung particularly in Rastafari culture.
Sébastien Tanguay in South Fulton
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- United States
The first Black Lives Matter (BLM) activist to take control of an American city, Mayor Khalid Kamau took the reins of South Fulton, a suburb of Atlanta, in 2021, steeped in idealism and socialist hopes for “the most African-American city” in the country. Three years and several disillusionments later, the activist who dreamed of changing his country is now thinking of leaving it, disappointed by the scent of decline which, according to him, surrounds the American empire.
It is in an affluent area of South Fulton, crossed by a toponymy that evokes french prestige like Versailles Drive or Montclaire Estates, that khalid kamau receives Le DevoirThe brick house that welcomes us is certainly worth a few million. “It belongs to a friend,” assures Khalid Kamau, welcoming us without pomp, a hooded jacket on his back despite the heat of the day combined with that of the furnace in action.
This opulent setting contrasts with the socialist commitment of this extraordinary 48-year-old mayor, who explains that he uses the double lowercase in his name to express “the primacy of the community over the individual, in respect of the African Yoruba tradition.”
Photo: Elijah Nouvelage Getty Images via AFP Khalid Kamau, mayor of South Fulton, Georgia, raises his fist while participating in the nineteenth Black History Parade from Atlanta.
Once in power, one of his first acts was to take up residence in the Camelot Condominiums, a housing complex in South Fulton that is royal in name only. Corrupted by crime, drugs and poverty, Camelot was languishing in the indifference of previous administrations when the new mayor decided to attract the spotlight by becoming the neighbor of its deprived population.
The adventure lasted 10 months. “It wasn’t the murders or the rats that made me leave,” assures Khalid Kamau. It was the mold that was starting to affect my lungs more and more. » At least 15 homicides have taken place since 2019 in the complex, according to a review of local newspapers. The mayor's spotlight on Camelot did not completely dispel its dark side: empty alcohol bottles and used syringes littered the playground during the passage of Devoir at the end of March. The corpse of a cat was also rotting in the parking lot.
Black Lives Matter in power
< p>Coming from the most militant and committed activism, khalid kamau took power in 2021, determined to bring his hometown to the entire left. The platform that elected this Bernie Sanders emulator promised more affordable housing, higher wages, shorter work weeks — and a city hall openly dedicated to serving as a lever to emancipate its African-American population.
“If there was any place where a platform inspired by the ideals of Black Lives Matter had a chance to take root, it was here,” says khalid kamau, speaking of South Fulton, a city of 112,000 predominantly Afro people. -Americans. Bet won: carried by his slogan “Black On Purpose”, he won the town hall with almost 60% of the votes… at the end of an election where less than 14% of the electorate voted visited the polls.
This victory due to 8% of the population of voting age did not cool the ardor nor the ambitions of the one who took the plunge political to take head-on the changes he demanded from the streets in his former life. Before becoming a councilor, then mayor, Khalid Kamau demonstrated against the politicians he now endorses, protesting all the way to Atlanta City Hall to denounce police brutality and the rollback of rights.< /p>
Little socialist revolution in South Fulton
His rise to power marked the start of a small revolution in South Fulton. City workers saw their base pay jump to $15, then $20 an hour, nearly four times the minimum hourly wage of 5 $.15 current in Georgia. South Fulton has also increased the purchase of coveted land by private developers to create parks accessible to the community.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000“A developer wanted to build inexpensive townhouses which threatened to lower the value of surrounding properties. We instead bought the land he was eyeing, illustrates the mayor, to build a park which will increase the value of the surrounding area. That’s exactly what socialism is: getting a community to pool its resources to improve its quality of life. »
It is also a way of responding to the precept of “liberation of the land” dear to Malcolm X, an influential thinker in the mayor’s career, who campaigned for the creation of a territory by and for blacks within the United States.
The mayor also wants to take advantage of the proximity of Atlanta airport, the busiest in the world, so that South Fulton becomes the spearhead of a market stretching from London to Cape Town.
“We want to establish a reverse triangular trade to circulate dollars and products among the black diaspora scattered across Europe, Africa and America,” explains Khalid Kamau. A form of economic revenge on history, he insists, “where slaves were trafficked a few centuries ago.”
A mayor in handcuffs
Three years in power and some legal disputes have, however, eroded the mayor's idealism. Six of the seven municipal councilors campaigned against his victory in the last election and “they have since fought tooth and nail to block our reforms,” says Khalid Kamau – to the point of taking legal action to oust him from town hall.
“The mayor never understood that there is a difference between activism and governance,” says Councilor Natasha Williams-Brown. He perceives his role as an elected official as a vehicle to promote his program and he mocks municipal democracy. The result is that he uses authoritarian methods and has done nothing, absolutely nothing, for the city. »
Photo: Sébastien Tanguay Le Devoir Councilor Natasha Brown-Williams accuses Mayor Khalid Kamau of using taxpayers' money to promote and impose his political beliefs.
The breaking point between the mayor and the council took place in July 2022. The mayor, accuses Natasha Williams-Brown, had rallied his base in a particularly heated session where the police had to intervene. “Our physical security was compromised. We then understood that it was impossible to negotiate with him. »
The headlines showing Khalid Kamau in handcuffs in July 2023 did nothing to clean up the climate at city hall. The mayor faces a criminal charge stemming from a break-in at a private property in South Fulton a year ago. While awaiting his trial, he maintains his innocence and claims that the house seemed “abandoned” to him.
The “systematic” obstruction of the council, which he believes he is swallowed up by “people who derive their wealth from their proximity to the white power circles of Atlanta”, disabusing him of the capacity of politics to change society.
“It was a very frustrating experience being mayor,” he laments. I'm constantly banging my head on the status quo for $40,000 a year, a salary barely enough to afford an apartment, let alone buy a house. » In the realm of capitalism, the power of money, he concludes, still rules the world.
“I don’t know if I’m going to run again. With the influence that wealth has on politics in this country, I might have a greater impact as a millionaire than as mayor. »
Return to the Jim Crow era
Violations of the right to abortion, accessibility of voting and positive discrimination in universities, decided by an American Supreme Court which leans to the right, discourage him regarding his country's hopes of redemption.
“In a slowly warming bath, you end up boiling alive,” says khalid kamau. Across the United States, there are still thousands of Confederate monuments that celebrate a war fought to keep my people enslaved. States are even interfering in history classes to make the truth about the Civil War illegal, under the pretext that it polarizes and instills shame in white children. Yet they should be ashamed — not of being white, but of what their ancestors did. »
He recalls that he belongs to the first generation of African-Americans born with “the right to vote, the right to eat in the same cafeteria as white people and the recognition of one’s human dignity.” His mother, a nurse, could not visit public libraries; his accountant father, born in Birmingham, Alabama, experienced the era of black churches burned by supremacist reactionaries. As Donald Trump approaches the doors of the White House again, he worries that his country is sliding “little by little towards a new Jim Crow era” — and believes more and more firmly that the place of black people may be located somewhere other than the United States.
“I have friends who moved to Africa and their only regret is not having left this country earlier, he concludes. We built it and it continues to reject us. I even wonder, today, if America is still worth fighting for. »
This report was financed with the support of the Transat-Le Devoir~60 International Journalism Fund ~i>.