Brenda Odimba
Brenda Odimba | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Brenda Odimba at the Beguinage church | |
| Born | 1989 Brussels, Belgium |
| Education | Master degree in Chemical Engineering (Université libre de Bruxelles, 2012) Master in Management (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 2020) |
| Occupations |
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Brenda Odimba (also spelled as Brända Audimba) is a Belgian engineer and decolonial activist. Odimba was one of the activists supporting the spokespeople of the 2021 hunger strike of undocumented migrants in Belgium.[1] Odimba founded the association Mwasi asbl (NewSisterhood).[2]
Early life[edit]
Odimba was born is Brussels in 1989. Her father is Belgian and her mother was born in Congo. Her mother lived in Belgium as an undocumented worker for a number of years.[3] Odimba studied at Université libre de Bruxelles and Vrije Universiteit Brussel.[4] She is a trained Chemical Engineer.[5]
Decolonial activist[edit]
Odimba is a decolonial activist.[6] She helped organize the George Floyd protests in Belgium in 2020[3] and was part of an unofficial Black Lives Matter movement.[5]
In April 2023, Odimba helped draw attention to a police shooting of a psychiatric patient in Brussels, at Fond’Roy Clinic. The clinic called the police on its patient after the patient became agitated. A collective of health professionals alleged that the skin colour of the patient was a deciding factor in the way the police handled the situation, resulting in the death of the patient, a Black man, while Odimba highlighted the fact that this incident of police violence was a result of the intersocietality of racism and validism.[7]
Protest at the Béguinage Church[edit]
Odimba acted in support of the 2021 hunger strike of undocumented migrants in Belgium, which took place at the Béguinage Church in Brussels.[8] Odimba called on the Belgian government to align its legislation on undocumented migrants with the rules of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations.[9] After the hunger strike had been brought to an end, Odimba denounced the rhetoric of Sammy Mahdi, the Belgian State Secretary for Asylum and Migration at the time, as manipulative. Odimba deplored that the strike had as an unintended consequence to divide the undocumented population between those who took part in the strike and those who didn’t.[10]
Climate justice activist[edit]
Odimba is also an environmental activist. In 2021, she was one of the thousands of plaintiffs who took the Belgian public authorities to court over their failing to take action to meet the international climate targets.[11] Odimba also wrote and protested against EACOP, a mega project in Africa by Total Énergies (oil industry).[12]
References[edit]
- ^ "Grève de la faim des sans-papiers: 250 personnes manifestent leur soutien en face de Bruxelles-Central" [Hunger strike of undocumented workers: 250 people show their support at Bruxelles-Central]. L'Avenir (in French). 17 July 2021. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
- ^ "Open brief: voor de vrijlating van de Vermeer Drie" [Open letter: for the release of the Vermeer Three]. DeWereldMorgen (in Dutch). 14 November 2022. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
- ^ a b Schultz, Teri (10 June 2020). "Will cities in Belgium take down statues of Leopold II?". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
- ^ "Amour et humanité pour les sans-papiers (carte blanche)". Le Vif. 21 July 2021. Retrieved 9 December 2022.
- ^ a b Schulz, Teri (5 June 2020). "Belgians Target Some Royal Monuments In Black Lives Matter Protest". NPR. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
- ^ "La troisième saison des Grenades série d'été a débarqué sur La Première" [The third season of the Grenades summer series has landed on La Première]. RTBF (in French). 28 June 2022. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
- ^ Taylor, Lukas (3 April 2023). "Police shooting of psychiatric patient in Brussels may have been racist, activist claims". The Brussels Times. Retrieved 8 June 2023.
- ^ "Ik, Belg, kind van sans-papiers" [Me, Belgian, child of an undocumented migrant]. DeWereldMorgen (in Dutch). 17 July 2022. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
- ^ "Brenda Odimba sur les grévistes sans-papiers : "Le Roi doit agir, il est le garant de la Constitution"" [Brenda Odimba on undocumented strikers: “The King must act, he is the guarantor of the Constitution”]. BX1 (in French). 20 July 2021. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
- ^ Murphy Madia, Sarah (19 September 2022). "Why undocumented migrants went on hunger strike in Belgium". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
- ^ Birchard, Rosie (26 March 2021). "Belgians sue state over climate targets". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
- ^ "Nouveau projet pétrolier de TotalEnergies: une bombe climatique et sociale" [New TotalEnergies oil project: a climate and social bomb]. Le Soir. 23 May 2022. Retrieved 13 January 2023.