Hundreds of people walked through downtown São Paulo on Monday, April 14, demanding justice for Senegalese street vendor Ngange Mbaye, another victim of the Military Police (PM).
The protesters, most of them Senegalese, wore t-shirts printed with the face of Mbaye, a street vendor who was attacked and murdered by military police on Friday, April 11, in the Brás region, in the capital of São Paulo.
“If he had been arrested, I would have taken care of him, brought him food. If he had a broken foot, I could have taken him to the hospital. But the police officer killed him,” laments Senegalese Soda Diop, known as Mama. She has been working for almost two decades providing support to newly arrived immigrants in the capital.
“They don’t have the right to kill. They have every possibility of letting us live,” protests Mama, emphasizing that the police have the resources to carry out arrests without killing the person.
Before being murdered with a shot to the chest, Ngange Mbaye had his goods seized and was beaten by agents.
“It wasn’t an accident. It was a situation that had already been announced,” says José Pedro dos Santos Neto, a street vendor. He and other Brazilians who work on the city’s streets joined the Senegalese to denounce police violence against these workers.
Neto reports that, before Ngage Mbaye’s murder, street vendors had contacted the city government, the Labor Prosecutor’s Office and the Military Police ombudsman’s office to report police violence. “We had already warned them in no uncertain terms that the worst was going to happen. And it’s sad to say: if nothing is done now, this story will repeat itself,” he says.
Councilwoman Luana Alves (PSOL) emphasizes that the crime against the Senegalese national is a consequence of delegated operations, which function as agreements between the City Hall and the Government of the State of São Paulo, allowing PM agents to reinforce policing in the city during their time off.
These operations focus on street vendors. “There is no public policy to regulate street vendors in São Paulo,” the parliamentarian denounces.
At the demonstration, university professor Mamou Sop Ndiaye recalled another case of violence against a Senegalese man. A year ago, Serigne Mourtalla Mbaye, known as Talla, fell from the 6th floor after police action in the building where he lived on Guaianases Street, in downtown São Paulo.
“We are here to say that killing Senegalese people is not normal. It cannot be normalized. Police violence against Black people is well-known in all forms, but it is on the verge of a pandemic that we need to eliminate,” he says.
During the protest, demonstrators sold T-shirts with Ngange Mbaye’s image for Rs 50 to raise funds to help the victim’s family. The street vendor left behind his wife, who was seven months pregnant. According to the family’s lawyer, Adriano Santos, who is also a member of the Public Security Committee of the OAB (Brazilian Bar Association), they were going to hold a baby shower last Sunday, April 13.
Parliamentarians were barred from meeting with city hall
The protesters walked from the Republic Square to the city hall building, where representatives of the Senegalese community met with the deputy mayor of São Paulo, Colonel Mello Araujo (PL). Among the participants in the meeting was Babacar Ba, honorary consul of Senegal in São Paulo.
Margarida Bernardina dos Santos Ramos, from the Street Vendors Forum and the Street Vendors Struggle Movement, the police ombudsman in São Paulo, Mauro Cesari, councilwoman Luana Alves and the co-deputy of the Feminist Caucus, Simone Nascimento (PSOL) were barred from the meeting.
“What happened today is unbelievable. They didn’t allow members of parliament to enter, nor did they allow me, from civil society. So we don’t know what they discussed in there,” Ramos protested.
At the end of the meeting, Babacar Ba, in an interview with Brasil de Fato, informed that there will be a new meeting this Tuesday, April 15.
“We are going to return to the city hall so that, together with other street vendors, whether Senegalese, Congolese, Ivorian or Brazilian, we can discuss how to legalize the work of street vendors,” he says.
Body will be taken to Senegal
According to Alves, the Senegalese consulate will guarantee the transfer of Ngange Mbaye’s body.
“There is a religious issue, which the consulate supports in the transfer, if it is a Senegalese citizen who died in a situation of violence,” explains the parliamentarian. “So this situation has been resolved. Although I think the Brazilian government should cover the expenses of the Senegalese consulate,” she suggests.
The parliamentarian highlights that the Brazilian State must compensate the victim’s family and hold the city of São Paulo accountable.
Present at the demonstration, actress and activist Mariama Bah, calls for the federal government’s attention to the issues of African immigrants. “This was an issue at the National Immigration Conference [held in November 2024]. Public policies that we do not have lead to these types of tragedies, which are announced tragedies, which could be avoided with other measures,” she says.
For her, the federal government, the city government and the state of São Paulo must be held accountable for the street vendor’s death. “We need our rights to be guaranteed and, yes, they need reparations for the young man’s family. For us, this is an objective, it is a fight and it is an urgent matter for us.”
This article was initially published by Brasil de Fato in Portuguese.
