SOUTH AFRICA ACTIVISTS DEMAND TRADE EMBARGO ON ISRAEL

Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters recently gathered outside African Rainbow Minerals in Johannesburg, accusing the company of exporting coal to Israel while South Africa takes Israel to the International Court of Justice over genocide in Gaza. Activists from the BDS Coalition say nearly 500,000 tons of coal have been exported from Richards Bay to Israel’s Port of Hadera since October 2023.

The Richards Bay terminal is jointly owned by companies including ARM, Glencore, Anglo, South32 and Exxaro. While ARM claims it doesn’t handle coal sales directly, its close ties to Glencore have drawn scrutiny.

Protesters say the imminent arrival of two coal cargo ships in Israel was the final straw. They’re now calling for the South African government to back up its genocide case with concrete action—starting with an energy embargo on Israel.

Continued……. As global institutions like the UN and ICC gather evidence of war crimes in Gaza, demonstrators argue that no South African corporation should be supplying a country accused of such atrocities.

What do you think should South Africa cut all exports to Israel?

Sources

https://www.ewn.co.za/2025/04/04/call-for-african-rainbow-minerals-to-stop-selling-coal-to-israel

https://www.ewn.co.za/2025/04/04/call-for-african-rainbow-minerals-to-stop-selling-coal-to-israel
https://oec.world/en/profile/bilateral-country/isr/partner/zaf

https://oec.world/en/profile/bilateral-country/isr/partner/zaf

https://allafrica.com/stories/202504040207.html

https://groundup.news/article/glencore-urged-to-stop-selling-coal-to-israel/

https://www.ewn.co.za/2025/04/04/call-for-african-rainbow-minerals-to-stop-selling-coal-to-israel

https://www.ewn.co.za/2025/04/04/call-for-african-rainbow-minerals-to-stop-selling-coal-to-israel

Continued……Others express understanding, arguing that Zimbabwe has limited options due to the impact of over two decades of Western sanctions, which have severely hit the economy and driven millions to emigrate. These responses highlight the complex political and economic dynamics at play. Do you think Zimbabwe is tackling this right?

Sources

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq5wwp5eelxo

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/zimbabwe-government-honours-commitment-compensate-192000594.html

https://harare.diplo.de/resource/blob/2664728/c034e91b006318526743f77ca42e201d/240524-advertisement-invitation-compensation-for-bippa-farms-data.pdf

https://african.business/2025/02/apo-newsfeed/zimbabwe-government-honours-its-commitment-to-compensate-investors-under-bilateral-investment-protection-and-promotion-agreements-bippas

https://www.newzimbabwe.com/zimbabwe-to-pay-white-farmers-us331-million-in-move-to-rework-debt/

https://www.ecofinagency.com/finance/2611-46181-zimbabwe-approves-331mln-compensation-for-white-farmers-to-tackle-debt-crisis

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/jan/16/zimbabwe.chrismcgreal

https://www.thezimbabwean.co/2024/10/the-real-story-behind-britains-withdrawal-from-zimbabwes-land-reform-exposing-corruption-and-mismanagement/

https://www.paperpublications.org/upload/book/Unfulfilled%20Promises%20Britain-1104.pdf

WHY DO DOMINICANS DENY THEIR AFRICAN ROOTS?

Why do so many Dominicans deny their African roots? Over 90 per cent of Dominicans have African ancestry, according to various sources, including Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr, and Americas Quarterly.

Yet, for generations, national identity has been shaped by a Eurocentric lens inherited through Spanish colonialism. Unlike its neighbour, Haiti, which embraced its African heritage after independence, the Dominican Republic distanced itself.

Is the conversation changing now with the younger generations? Let us know in the comments.

Sources

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/black-in-latin-america

https://minorityrights.org/country/dominican-republic

Continued…….. https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/my-struggles-as-a-black-american-in-the-dominican-republic/

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIHan1LxAys/?igsh=X1p0dlhoTk9N
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/227/monograph/book/17842
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/1/18/dominican-republic-justifying-the-unjustifiable#:~:text=Deeply%20needed%20to%20the%20 antagonistic,off%20an%20imagined%20Haitian%20invasion.
https://www.npr.org/trannoscripts/138601410
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIHan1LxAys/?igsh=X1p0dlhoTk9N

ISRAEL’S LIES CONTINUE UNRAVELLING

Israel claimed its 23 March k*lling of aid workers was based on a perceived threat. This was unequivocally debunked by video footage recovered from one of the slain medic’s mobile phones, which proved this wasn’t a tragic mistake, but yet another chapter in a longstanding Israeli strategy: fabricate a threat, blame the victims, and manufacture sympathy.

This is a tactic Israel has employed for decades, long before its current onslaught on Gaza, which began on 7 October 2023. In May 2021, for instance, Israel bombed a media tower in Gaza housing Al Jazeera and the Associated Press, claiming it contained H*mas assets. The claim was later found to be entirely baseless. In the last 18 months alone, Israel has made multiple false allegations. At the onset of its 7 October offensive, Tel Aviv claimed that Palestinian fighters had beheaded children and committed mass r*pe of Israelis. Both accusations were proven false due to a lack of evidence.

Continued……. In November of the same year, Israel alleged Al-Shifa Hospital was a H*mas base holding hostages, complete with tunnels and elaborate command centers beneath it. Yet, following its two-week siege that destroyed Gaza’s largest and most advanced hospital, no evidence was produced to substantiate the claim. These fabrications are routinely circulated and regurgitated by its longtime ally and funder, the US, which hypocritically and chronically labels others as vessels of misinformation.

Rights groups continue to document numerous instances where Israeli forces knowingly targeted Palestinian civilians. On 31 October 2023, for example, an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Gaza k*lled 106 civilians - including 54 children - in an attack “absent [of] any apparent military target,” according to Human Rights Watch. Meanwhile, Israel continues to associate all Palestinian civilians with H*mas, using this narrative to justify collective punishment. In January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that this practise supports a “plausible claim of g*nocidal acts.”

Sources

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/world/middleeast/gaza-israel-aid-workers-deaths-video.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/06/world/middleeast/gaza-aid-workers-killed-israel.html

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/4/palestinian-aid-workers-likely-shot-execution-style-forensic-expert-says

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-military-says-killing-15-aid-workers-gaza-caused-by-sense-threat-2025-04-07/

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250409-survivor-recounts-israeli-attack-in-gaza-that-killed-15-aid-workers

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/15/give-us-10-minutes-how-israel-bombed-gaza-media-tower

https://theintercept.com/2023/11/21/al-shifa-hospital-hamas-israel/

https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/07/15/israel/palestine-unlawful-israeli-airstrikes-kill-civilians

https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/al-shifa-medical-complex-witnesses-one-largest-massacres-palestinian-history-enar

https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/04/04/gaza-israeli-strike-killing-106-civilians-apparent-war-crime

https://www.icj-cij.org/node/203447

‘THIS IS NOT A DEMOCRACY, THIS IS A REVOLUTION!’

President Ibrahim Traoré has warned against attempts by foreign forces and their agents to put a stop to Burkina Faso’s popular and progressive revolution. In this clip, he again draws attention to an alleged plot to do just that - being organised from neighbouring Ivory Coast (referred to by him here as ‘Lagoon side’ after Ébrié Lagoon). He says their plan is to make his country go again through ‘the events of ‘87’ - which saw the assassination of revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara, to whom Traoré has often been compared.

Continued……. Traoré also muses on the concept of democracy. He is adamant that, in the true sense of the word, it is currently inapplicable. A popular and progressive revolution such as the one he is leading right now needs to be completed first.

Since coming to power in a coup in 2022, Traoré has worked to transform the country, pushing it towards greater food sovereignty, industrialisation and overall self-determination. His international critics denounce the revolutionary process as undemocratic. These outlets and institutions focus on Traoré’s military background and decry what they deem backward ‘military rule.’

Today, the definition of democracy has become so warped that it is taken to mean simply voting in an election every 4-5 years. Little does it matter if the people have any real say in policy or are engaged in any political activities between election cycles. In a country such as the United States, thousands of people fight tirelessly against their government’s warmongering, from the Iraq invasion in 2013 to the support for Israel and its ongoing destruction of Palestinian Territories. These citizens plead and beg for universal healthcare, but all demands fall on deaf ears. We are made to believe that this is democracy because there was a vote, irrespective of how limited the options are.

Hear Us Roar: https://news.1rj.ru/str/AfricanStream

CAMEROON’S FATHER OF INDEPENDENCE

The great Cameroonian Independence leader Ruben Um Nyobè would have turned 112 this week. Born in Nyong-et-Kéllé on 10 April 1913, he led the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC), an anti-colonial pan-African organisation with socialist leanings. Nyobè and the UPC fought for complete independence, refusing to submit to neo-colonial rule. In 1955, the UPC was banned and, three years later, Nyobè was murdered by the French military for continuing the fight for freedom.

On 13 March 1959, the United Nations General Assembly agreed that France’s colonisation of Cameroon should end, leading to Cameroonian independence on 1 January 1960. However, the UPC was still banned in the country and president Ahmadou Ahidjo was picked by France to ensure French interests post-independence.

Continued……. Thus, the UPC continued their struggle under the leadership of Félix-Roland Moumié, until he was killed by a French spy in 1960, and then Ernest Ouandié, until he was killed by the Ahidjo government in 1971.

The legacy of Ruben Um Nyobè has long been buried. It is now coming to light as more Cameroonians and Africans seek out their revolutionary history.

Sources

https://www.counterfire.org/article/cameroon-neo-colonised-before-independence/

https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/82062-cameroon-um-nyobe-hero-symbol-french-colonial-crimes.html

https://face2faceafrica.com/article/felix-moumie

https://www.dibussi.com/2008/01/saturday-januar.html