Essay: Strength in unity: Community supports Mamadou Dembele after attack
Many of you know that I’m Mr. Collaboration. Systems change is difficult, if not impossible, to accomplish without collaboration and partnership. Not that it happens without starts and stops, and jerkiness, and sometimes it just does not happen.
I’m always excited when a new opportunity presents itself. I always see the possible, not the impossible. Particularly if it has some potential for benefiting our underserved, and Black, Indigenous and other people of color (BIPOC) communities.
Courtesy photo
On Nov. 22, 2023, there was an attack on Mamadou Dembele, a prominent business person within our Seacoast community. His attackers were not arrested, and what followed was four months of questions and uncertainty. Dembele was injured both on a physical and mental level, but the uncertainty also caused further harm.
Recently, warrants for the arrests of his attackers were issued, and the process of seeking justice for Dembele is now winding its way through the court system.
As the chair of the Business Alliance for People of Color (BAPOC-NH), it was important for BAPOC to step up and support Dembele through this challenging time and to advocate for justice on his behalf. We immediately came together, and with organizations such as Black Lives Matter, Seacoast NAACP, Manchester NAACP, Black Heritage Trail of NH, NH Center for Justice and Equity, and New England BIPOC Festival, we put on a demonstration at the African Burying Ground in Portsmouth on a cold and rainy Sunday. We had great turnout from the community and local media.
The day of the demonstration, we formed a coalition of sorts. Over the next four months we met, communicated and wrote letters to the state police and the attorney general’s office. We have expressed our concerns to state authorities about process and timelines in collegial and respectful ways. In return, state authorities have opened their doors to us and have been as transparent as possible without any compromise to their investigation. In this process, we have been able to serve as a group of concerned citizens and organizations pursuing justice and well-being for Dembele.
What has resulted is the recognition that in unity there is strength.
This is nothing new. For all of human history, structural and systemic change has occurred when people have come together to rectify an injustice and make progress. In New Hampshire this is particularly important because our communities of color are newer, and they are in areas where the population is growing.
By coming together as a coalition of BIPOC-serving organizations, we can work with communities and state leaders to ensure that we are getting the resources, protection and justice guaranteed to all communities. We are thankful to all the BIPOC nonprofit organizations and leaders mentioned here that see the wisdom in acting together. Through this process we hope to set up strong lines of engagement and communication for the long-term benefit of our communities.
We look forward to working with state authorities to engage, listen and inform those across the state willing to engage in civil conversations with us. As we continue to build this coalition, we hope that others engaged in this important work of social and economic justice will also join with us, because on some level we are all Mamadou.
This article is featured in the spring-summer 2024 issue of 603 Diversity.
603 Diversity’s mission is to educate readers of all backgrounds about the exciting accomplishments and cultural contributions of the state’s diverse communities, as well as the challenges faced and support needed by those communities to continue to grow and thrive in the Granite State.
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