There is a reckoning taking place around the world over how we remember our history. Though much of the focus has been to take down monuments that celebrate racist colonial figures, this story is about a new monument going up in Houston, Texas - that will document and restore the dignity of millions of people killed around the world during the horrific chapter of colonization.

The project is being led by Dr Emmanuel Neba-Fuh, an unwavering advocate of human rights who is determined to shed light on a dark period in our past that most people would rather forget.

According to Emmanuel, for most of our history - from the age of discovery, subjugation of the Americas and Africa, the Transatlantic Slave Trade, conquest of the Middle East, and Asia, colonization was the global face of racism.

The brutal killing of millions of innocent men, women, and children during the era of racial terrorism was wrong, unjust, and casts a shadow across the world that compromise our commitment to a more inclusive society. An ugly past that never passed, colonization with effects still visible - did real psychic damage not just to Black people, but to White people too.

Emmanuel believes that if we don't appropriately respond to historical crimes as a fiduciary/moral duty and educate people of every color and creed, we will never be able to recover from centuries of racial injustice.

To enable people to have a sense of just the scale of what this violence was, Emmanuel turned his attention to investigating crimes that traumatized and shaped communities of color, culminating with a 700-page legendary classic book - “Triumph of Racism: The History of White Supremacy in Africa & How Shithole Entered the U.S Presidential Lexicon,” which now lie in the shelves of the U.S. Library of Congress.

In 2021, he founded an ambitious organization - Racial Healing International and took on a bold project: to construct a United Nations Colonization Memorial to honor victims of colonization.

78 years ago, the landmark UN Charter which guaranteed international peace and security came as a daybreak light of hope to millions of indigenous people of color who had been seared in the flames of colonization for centuries.

When the architects of the United Nations wrote the magnificent words of the Trusteeship System, they were signing a promissory note to which every inhabitant of colonized territories was to fall heir. The Trusteeship System was a promise to supervise and promote the advancement of inhabitants of Trust Territories and their progressive development towards self-independence.

It's a shocking and disturbing reality that instead of honoring its sacred obligation, the United Nations defaulted on that promise insofar as its Trusteeship Council is concerned. Suspicious of the ever-increasing decolonization ambitions of the UN General Assembly, colonial powers who had imperial claims on their former colonies effectively hijacked the Trusteeship Council and ensured it broke from the norms of the UN, ignore decolonization appeals and set a new standard of barbarity. The new racial order within the Trusteeship Council was one in which it was entirely natural for colonized peoples to be imprisoned, terrorized, and exterminated.

Colonial powers made it clear that if folks of color try to resist enslavement, if they try to prevent the partition of their kingdoms, deny their master’s language, or insist on gaining independence - in other words, if they do anything that upsets or complicates White supremacy, White dominance, and political power they will be killed.

Under the watchful eyes of the UN Trusteeship Council, conquered territories across the world were drenched in the blood of their revolutionary heroes, who were killed in the worst of circumstances - from targeted assassinations to extrajudicial executions, massacres, and genocide.Emmanuel wants to call the international community to acknowledgement, to repentance, to shame and to healing. Along with the memorial, he is also galvanizing support for a museum, designed to teach people more about the ugly parts of colonization.

By blocking motions, preventing multilateralism that is based on democratically evolved global consensus, UNSC suffers from gridlock, political sclerosis and its inaction have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind. In the face of multiplying conflicts around the world, UNCM will be a sacred space for truth-telling, reflection, and commemoration of victims including those of UN inaction.

Mindful that the most effective and powerful organ of the UN - the Security Council which takes decisions relating to war and peace remains a legalized caste system and the most significant legacy of colonization,

Cognizant that there is no permanent representation for former colonies of color, even though they constitute the largest UN membership, and two thirds of the issues addressed at the UN concerns them,

Cognizant of the fact that the United Nations lacks a proactive strategy to address an overdue reckoning, and its former colonial masters cover up for-one-another and refuse to address unatoned-for crimes whose effects are still visible,

Mindful that evasion or denial of responsibility in the face of legitimate accusations looks like complicity, give the appearance of supporting the actions of predecessors, and delegitimizes the emotional wounds of victims’ descendants,

Emmanuel believes that it is a double tragedy when accusers and accused cause one another further damage following colonial atrocities. One of the best ways that the United Nations can offer a less damaging and more restorative experience for everyone involved - the survivors, their descendants, and the international community - is to proclaim UNCM to meet the demands of a new age.

With more than 20 years of strategic management and leadership experience spanning a huge array of subjects including History, Politics, Philosophy, and International Development – Emmanuel is committed to help people understand that colonization was not just brutal footnotes in history but reflected a belief in racial differences that reinforced segregation, apartheid, barbaric wars of decolonization, and has resulted in a pattern of racial discrimination and prejudice today.

Before championing RHI and the UNCM initiative, Emmanuel was President of Community Engagement and Impact at DV Consult Inc. in Maryland, where he developed the organization’s overarching strategic vision and oversaw the management of its charitable programming. He also offered advice and expertise to the company, improving its business performance in terms of operations, profitability, management, structure, and strategy.

Prior, Emmanuel served as Permanent Representative of the African Parliamentary Alliance for United Nations Reforms (APAUNR) in Geneva – Switzerland, where he played a pivotal role in advocating for UN reforms as a human rights issue, while ensuring Parliaments of Africa, especially members of the C-10 speak with one voice in pushing the African Common Position on UN Reforms as enunciated by the Ezulwini Consensus and the Sirte Declaration..

Earlier in his career, Emmanuel was Amnesty International (UK Section) Speaker for Schools, Colleges, and Universities. At the 2004 Amnesty International AGM in Manchester, he delivered a successful-far-reaching Arms Trade Motion which enormously contributed to the organization’s role in championing the first ever United Nations Global Arms Trade Treaty.

In 2008, Emmanuel led a barefoot campaign to 10 Downing Street London, delivering a petition to the British government and raising huge public awareness of the plight of refugees.

A multi-award-winning Refugee Rights campaigner who has scooped one of the highest accolades in Britain, Emmanuel has travelled widely, often campaigning for human rights with passion, humanity, and cogency.  He holds a Diploma in Management from Cambridge Tutorial College, Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Applied Community Work and Social Care from the University of Derby, Master of Arts, and PhD in Church History from Newburgh Theological Seminary Indiana, and is currently on a Religion, Conflict and Peace program at Harvard University.

Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is what Emmanuel has spent his life fighting for. He strongly believes that the world can be a better place, even though there was colonization. But if we don't talk about the horrific chapter of racial injustice that casts a shadow around us, if we don’t shine the light of truth on the destructive violence that traumatized people of color and caused real psychic damage not just to Black people but White people too, we're not going to get there.