The protester who waved a flag expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and Sudanese people during Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday has been released without charges after police detained him but could not determine any charges to press against him.
The protester, 41-year-old Zül-Qarnaįn Nantambu, was hired as a dancer in Lamar’s performance. During the halftime show, he stood on top of a car used as a prop and unfurled a combination of the Sudan and Palestinian flags as Lamar performed one of his top songs, “Not Like Us.” The flag said “Sudan” and “Gaza” on it, and included images of a heart and a raised fist.
Footage of Nantambu’s protest, which was cut from the national broadcast, shows that he was quickly chased and tackled by event security and removed from the field. He was then detained by New Orleans police, which said in a statement that “law enforcement is working to determine applicable charges in this incident.” The NFL banned him from all future NFL events.
Police said that they did not arrest the protester, and released him after the incident without pressing any charges. The production company behind the show said that they were not aware that Nantambu was going to wage his protest.
Nantambu has explained in interviews that he saw an opportunity to speak out on atrocities being inflicted on people in Sudan and Gaza when he received notice that he had been hired to be part of the performance. His faith as a Muslim inspired him to act, he said.
“As a practicing Muslim, our Prophet Mohammad teaches us: if you see a wrongdoing, or you’re aware of a wrongdoing, you must stop it,” Nantambu told Al Jazeera in an interview. “So I had an opportunity on a grand scale to bring awareness of speak out against a wrong [against] our Muslim brothers and sisters. Because we’re spiritually connected in Islam, and we’re human and we’re connected with empathy for humanity.”
Nantambu also told NBC that he was inspired by Lamar’s performance, which included symbolic use of the U.S. flag, to speak out. “He had the people formulate the American flag; he had two big black flags with his record label,” Nantambu said. “And he talked about ‘the revolution being televised,’ and he talked about consciousness.”
According to Fox, which broadcast the Super Bowl, and media research firm Nielsen, Sunday’s Super Bowl broke a record for the most widely-watched program aired in the U.S. of all time. This is the second year in a row that the Super Bowl has broken viewership records; various Super Bowl programs dominate top lists of the most-watched programs in the U.S. of all time.
During last year’s Super Bowl, Israel launched a horrific attack on Rafah, in southern Gaza, with many commentators noting that it appeared to be timed specifically while Americans were distracted by the event. The Gaza Health Ministry said that Israel massacred at least 67 Palestinians during the game. Rafah was then sheltering 1.5 million forcibly displaced Palestinians, designated as a “safe zone” by Israeli forces.
In Sudan, over 12.5 million people have been forcibly displaced by a civil war that launched in April 2023. A deadly famine has gripped a swath of North Darfur, and could be spread even further, with famine researchers unable to determine the breadth of the catastrophe.
The conflict has escalated in the past week, the UN reported, with 275 people killed between January 31 and February 5. Researchers have estimated that over 61,000 people have been killed as a result of the fighting in Sudan.
The Trump administration is set to heighten the atrocities in Sudan and Palestine. Trump is threatening total ethnic cleansing of Gaza and fueling Israel’s assault of the occupied West Bank with weapons transfers and diplomatic support. Meanwhile, the administration’s freeze on foreign aid has cut lifesaving humanitarian aid in Sudan, which experts say could endanger the lives of tens of millions of people, including millions of children.
The atrocities against people in Sudan and Palestine are being done “on a wide scale, and nobody is really giving it the light that it should get,” Nantambu told Al Jazeera. “I wanted to show the solidarity to those afflicted by this and their families and loved ones that they’re being remembered here in America — not just by me, but by others.”
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