The Oxford Black Students Union is blessed to be inviting one of the most formidable freedom fighters of our time – Benny Wenda.
Benny is a West Papuan independence leader, international spokesman for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), and founder of the Free West Papua Campaign.
In his youth, he witnessed the massacre of his fellow tribespeople and family at the hands of the occupying Indonesian military, and the subsequent displacement from his ancestral homeland to accommodate for Western corporations bloodthirsty for the region’s natural resources.
Since being appointed leader by highland tribal elders, Benny has fought for his people’s liberation and organised resistance to Indonesian occupation, culminating in his exile in 2003 upon escaping a death sentence. Benny has since been granted political asylum by the British government and continues to fight for international recognition of West Papuan sovereignty and the plight of its people.
Join us this Thursday evening as he shares his remarkable life story of resisting neo-colonialism and the vices of global capitalism in his homeland of West Papua.
