Thread by @ekverstania

[THREAD] #AskingAutistics and allies, especially people in Africa or of African descent throughout the world: We need your help. A bad thing has happened for #DisabilityRights in Africa: ABAI has sponsored an American, Ashley Knochel, to promote ABA in Africa by formalising it.

There has been a neocolonialist trend with aggressive ABA infiltrations from America into Ghana, Kenya and other countries for some time now, including a CARD-associated organisation in South Africa; but this latest move is worse.

This American person has established a Pan-African Association of Behaviour Association along with Kenyans, and they are launching this Saturday.

facebook.com/panafricaaba/

#ActuallyAutistic activist @karen_muriuki is the founder of Kenyans Living with Autism. She urgently needs our support in creating awareness of the global opposition which autistic people have towards ABA, and of the importance of listening to #AutisticWhileBlack people.

We need Kenyans working in education, health and other services to be aware that this is a human rights violation. We also need people in other African countries to know that this is terrible, because the ABAI is determined for this colonisation to spread.

The Autistic Strategies Network is in the process of launching an educational initiative for autism professions (especially Speech & Language Therapists, but also OTs and teachers). This will be on our site hopefully by next week:

autisticstrategies.net

We have support for this from some professional bodies. But this alone won't be enough. We need your voices. We particularly need the voices of people who understand how Western ableists exploit Africans to help put a stop to this.

We need people who can show African parents who are increasingly lured into abusing their children in this way what compassionate relationships with their disabled children can look like.

If you're white, then as an ally, please lift up the voices of Black Africans who are opposed to what is happening and who deserve to be respected. Because they are telling us what they need in the world, and it's not ABA.

Please follow @karen_muriuki for updates. Karen will be moderating a disability rights talk with other Kenyans here on Twitter on Saturday. We'd appreciate your support at this event as well.
twitter.com/i/spaces/1Mnxn…

@karen_muriuki Nonspeaking autistic Africans are among those who have spoken out saying #ABAisAbuse. Zekwande Mathenjwa of the Zekwande Foundation (@AutisticSpeak) asks #HumanRights activists and allies to support the #BanABA movement in Africa.

Zekwande's Personal Assistant, @neutralmothjpg, is a former ABA therapist who is now an anti-ABA campaigner. Mic wants other therapists to #ListenToNonspeakers.

Four autistic Africans took part in the making of #LISTEN early in 2021. This award-winning short film, narrated by autistic African polyglot Bobby Shabangu, is about listening to nonspeaking people instead of to people who speak over them. autisticstrategies.net/keyword/listen/

African autists are among the nonspeakers who have explained why ABA is wrong for people like them. (Quotes appear in this article.) autisticstrategies.net/nonspeaking-au…

The words of a handful of nonspeaking South African autists are being celebrated throughout the world in events such as SpellX and Boards & Chords.

But this is not enough. There are three million or perhaps many more nonspeaking autistic Africans who have a right to communication. Nonspeakers who have a means to communicate desperately want others like them to be helped too.

autisticstrategies.net/rise-of-the-no…

But the ABAI and PAABA are not interested in their words. They ignore disabled Africans and tell parents to focus on behaviour, using ABA to obliterate autistic coping skills. They want African professionals to follow Ashley Knochel's lead.

They are training African professionals into a Westernised ableist model of disability that violates the #CRPD (UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities).

@karen_muriuki and others want African leaders to respect the CRPD.

autisticstrategies.net/karen-muriuki-…

Who are the ABAI who are facilitating this infiltration of ABA into Africa? They are the same organisation that has given a platform of 'credibility' to the torturers at the Judge Rotenberg Center in Massachusetts who traumatise disabled people using electric shocks.

I wrote this article two years ago, at a time when African activists were trying unsuccessfully to get people in the parent-led Pan-African Congress on Autism to listen to prominent autistic activists like @MorenikeGO.

tania.co.za/global-autism-…

They chose instead to listen to Ashley Knochel and the ABAI.

The ABAI wants to start Ashley Knochel and her African collaborators "to support individual African nations interested in developing country-specific licensure".

I'm working with officers in one professional registration body to at least block this from happening in South Africa.

I am an 8th generation descendant of European colonists in Africa. Some of my ancestors were Huguenots (Protestants who fled religious persecution in France) and some came with Moravian (German) missionaries. Most ended up as famers and tradespeople. One was a soldier.

What's the point of mentioning this?

Because in colonisation, religion and financial exploitation travel on the same ships.

ABA is a cult, and its missionaries, no matter how sweet-talking, have utter contempt for the disabled people they come to 'save'.

(Who would work so hard to silence people they respect?)

As autism researcher Prof. Petrus de Vries (an INSAR leader) told young people while on a speaking tour of South Africa a few years ago (sponsored by an ABA group): "You can make a LOT of money in ABA."

Investors know.

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1378320758888357889

On Saturday 6 November 2021 (instead of celebrating the silencing of autistic people along with PAABA) you can join @karen_muriuki and other Kenyan disability activists right here on Twitter to hear their message of #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs.

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1455657701619519502

But that's not all. Also on Saturday 6 November, you can #ListenToNonspeakers from Africa and other countries at a time that suits you, as SpellX will be hosted in 6 virtual salons in 6 time zones across the world. And it's free. Register now at i-asc.org/spellx-2021/

SpellX 2020 was absolutely the best thing that I experienced in all of last year. There are some new African contributors this year, including Oratile Pheko, who'll be taling about "Acceptance of Autistics". i-asc.org/spellx-2021/

Akha Khumalo, who became Africa's first nonspeaking autistic blogger at the age of 8, will be presenting on Neurodiversity. Here's Akha's blog: akhaswords.home.blog/2019/11/16/mak…

ABA is a giant international monster with tentacles that reach out to capture vulnerable people in remote places to give them a sense of control.

But the monster hasn't yet seen the determination of the autistic people of Africa.

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1199777211311673348?t=izHUdd-QDHmYv_PsnPP8Ng&s=19

Someone asked, "Where in Africa?"

The answer is, ALL of it. They want to spread ABA around the whole continent. 'Culturally responsive' doesn't mean listening to disabled Africans. It means finding creative ways of infusing Western ableism into Africa.

saba.abainternational.org/grants/interna…

Starting soon: Disability rights event with on Twitter spaces with Kenyan @thecushitegirl and others, moderated by @karen_muriuki: twitter.com/i/spaces/1Mnxn…

Moments after I posted a comment on the PAABA launch, my comment was deleted and I was blocked from posting. These people want to formalise human rights abuses as therapy in Africa and they're pretty determined to silence autistic people. #BanABA

facebook.com/autisticstrate…

The organisers said they spent TWO YEARS planning their launch and working on their code of ethics. NOT ONCE did they consult with actual autistic people or other disability rights activists on what would be ethical for ACTUAL DISABLED PEOPLE. They are now blocking comment.

African autistics tried for years to get the people behind this to listen, and they would not hear us out. They just kept on telling us why ABA is good.

Karen Muriuki is now talking about the Kenyan Constitution and Kenyan organisations for people with disabilities, and combating stigma and other human rights violations.

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1456998368803176460

Lots of technical glitches, so we will reschedule for later this week on Google Meet.