Continued…….. Observers say the government’s discomfort was evident, not because the students were wrong, but because they were right. The parallels between the fictional play and real-life protest were undeniable. And in a move reminiscent of both colonial administrators and post-independence strongmen, the state chose censorship.

But the silencing failed. The High Court overruled the ban and reaffirmed the students’ right to perform. Yet when the troupe tried to take the stage, police responded not with applause, but with tear gas - dispersing the audience and disrupting the performance. This isn’t the first time Butere Girls’ High School has faced state repression for using theatre to speak truth to power. In 2012, their play Shackles of Doom was banned for exposing ethnic inequality and corruption.

Kenya remains uncomfortable when the oppressed find their voice, especially when that voice comes from the mouths of youngsters. And yet, in true pan-African spirit, what was meant to suppress has only amplified the students’ message. Their courage has gone viral, igniting nationwide support and reminding the world that Kenya’s youth, like young people across Africa, are refusing to be silenced.

Sources
1.https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/counties/article/2001515621/court-reinstates-butere-girls-drama-team-for-nationals
2.https://staging.the-star.co.ke/news/realtime/2025-04-09-malala-alleges-arrest-over-echoes-of-war-school-play?utm_source=chatgpt.com
3.https://staging.the-star.co.ke/news/realtime/2025-04-09-malala-alleges-arrest-over-echoes-of-war-school-play?utm_source=chatgpt.com
4.https://www.knchr.org/Articles/ArtMID/2432/ArticleID/1201/Statement-on-Mukuru-Murders-and-Updates-on-the-Anti-Finance-Bill-Protests

5. https://paradigmhq.org/press-release-a-new-report-on-the-state-of-safety-and-security-of-bloggers-in-kenya-has-been-released/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

GABON LANDSLIDE: A WIN FOR FRANCE, U.S.?

According to Gabon’s interior ministry, Brice Oligui Nguema - the country’s transitional leader - won the recent presidential election by a landslide. The vote, held on 12 April 2025, was of intense interest to the now-defunct US Agency for International Development (USAID), which invested $5 million into the process. France too was keeping a close eye, as it has a military base in the country and French firms rely on Gabon’s resources. Paris had much at stake. Nguema is from the long-reigning Bongo dynasty, which has historically maintained tight relations with Paris and Washington. He came to power via a coup d’état on 30 August 2023, overthrowing his cousin Ali Bongo.

Continued…… The family’s long-standing ties to the West raise the question whether this was truly an election for Gabonese democracy or just another power shuffle that suits foreign interests.

Sources

https://www.africanews.com/2025/04/13/brice-oligui-nguema-wins-gabon-presidential-election-with-9035-of-the-vote/

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/9/1/has-gabons-all-powerful-bongo-dynasty-really-lost-its-55-year-grip

https://ga.usembassy.gov/the-united-states-announces-new-efforts-to-support-democratic-governance-in-gabon/

A Former Labour Party MP pointed out UK Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs David Lammy’s hypocrisy after he criticised Israel’s attacks on medical facilities in an X post and its repeated bombardment of Al-Ahli Hospital, following another airstrike on the hospital on 13 April. Zarah Sultana pierced at Lammy’s performative sympathy with six simple words: ‘Stop selling arms to Israel then.’

Since Israel’s onslaught on Gaza began on 7 October 2023, Israel has fabricated narratives to justify its systematic targeting of hospitals in Gaza, leaving them in states ‘beyond denoscription,’ according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In November 2023, Israel’s two-week siege of another Gaza hospital, Al-Shifa, under false allegations that it was a H*mas base holding hostages, complete with tunnels and elaborate command centres beneath it, culminated in the destruction of what was once Gaza’s largest and most advanced hospital.

Continued……The irony in Lammy’s statements lies in the fact that the UK has licenced at least $660 million worth of military exports to Israel since 2015. 

By July 2024, the Lancet medical journal had estimated that Israel had k*lled more than 186,000 Palestinians in Gaza. Yet, the UK issued 108 new licences between October 2023 and May 2024. The UK also supplies the components for F-35 fighter jets and Israeli drones used in attacks on the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Between July and September 2024, the UK approved an additional $14.5 million in military supplies to Israel. Moreover, the Royal Air Force (RAF) has conducted at least 518 surveillance flights around Gaza since December 2023 according to an investigation by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV).

In September 2024, Lammy announced the suspension of some of London’s licenses for arms sales to Israel, but these only made up a fraction of total sales: 30 out of a whopping 350. Therefore, the UK remains complicit in what the International Court of Justice provisionally ruled in January 2024 as a ‘plausible’ gen*cide.

Sources

https://caat.org.uk/data/exports-uk/overview?region=Israel&date_from=2024-07

https://www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2025/03/12/israel-arms-exports-labour-uk/

https://www.oxfam.org.uk/get-involved/campaign-with-oxfam/gaza-israel-crisis-sign-petition-call-for-ceasefire-now/does-the-uk-sell-arms-to-israel/

https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-9964/CBP-9964.pdf

https://x.com/zarahsultana/status/1911408149636026459

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/10/blinken-lammy-uk-israel-arms-suspension-00178184

https://newint.org/arms/2025/uk-one-step-closer-ending-arms-sales-israel

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c89g0yn5yv5o

‘END SUDAN WAR BY BLOCKING EMIRATI WEAPONS!’

Today marks two years of Sudan’s devastating war. In this clip, African Stream’s CEO explains to the TRT news channel how the proxy conflict can be brought to an end. The so-called international community needs to pressure the United Arab Emirates - the main supplier of weapons to the genocidal Rapid Support Forces paramilitary, which has also been receiving funds and logistical support from Abu Dhabi. The biggest hindrance to that is the US, for whom the UAE is a vital ally in the Middle East.

Continued……. Two years of brutal fighting have torn Sudan apart. Half the population is facing acute hunger. Millions are displaced, either internally or in camps across the border. The destruction of hospitals and the wider health system has not only aggravated the humanitarian catastrophe but also made accurate reporting on the number of people killed and injured next to impossible. However, by any reasonable estimate, tens if not hundreds of thousands have died.

Video Credit: TRT World

Sources

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/03/1161611

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crln9lk51dro

ZIONISM’S GRIP ON AFRICAN LIBERATION

On this day in 1960, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was founded. While it started as a largely student-run organisation in the US Civil Rights movement advocating for voter rights and desegregation, it radicalised over time, favouring Pan-Africanism and coming out against US imperialism and Israel during the Six-Day War. 

SNCC advocated for connecting Black people’s struggles in the US to global movements against colonialism and oppression. The group officially ceased to exist in 1973, but its opposition to Israel in 1967 was the first nail in the coffin, as it lost funding shortly thereafter.

Today, many Black people in the US are shocked by the number of African politicians, celebrities, and friends supporting Israel’s military onslaught in Gaza.

In late 2023, African Stream took a look at the history of Zi*nist manipulation of Black people in the United States.

Continued……. Let us know if your friends, relatives and favourite celebrities have surprised you with their support for Israel.

Sources

https://snccdigital.org/

https://www.history.com/articles/sncc

https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/sncc/#:~:text=April%2015%2C%201960%3A%20Student%20Nonviolent%20Coordinating%20Committee%20Founding,-Time%20Periods%3A%2020th&text=The%20Student%20Nonviolent%20Coordinating%20Committee,February%201%20of%20that%20year

SUDAN: ECONOMIC LINK BETWEEN FRIENDS-TURNED-FOES

Today, on the second anniversary of the foreign-backed proxy war in Sudan, we post a throwback to an insightful conversation from mid-December 2024.

During Episode 17 of the ‘Pan-African Attitude’ podcast, African Stream Editor-in-Chief Ahmed Kaballo (@ahmedkaballo on X) sat down with his father, Sidgi Kaballo, a prominent academic, politician and leading member of the Sudanese Communist Party.

The senior Kaballo delved into the economic roots of the war, linking it to Sudan’s military-industrial complex and the country’s natural resources.

Continued……Both the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the United Arab Emirates-backed Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (infamously known as Hemedti), maintain a monopoly over the trade of commodities like gold. Kaballo offered that competition over control of these resources is a key factor in the rift between the two leaders of the warring factions, who were once close allies collaborating to recruit Sudanese on behalf of Saudi Arabia in its war with Yemen.

Interestingly, the friendship began in Darfur at a time when both the Sudanese army and the Janjaweed militia it funded committed a g*nocide against the non-Arab Darfuris. Today, the RSF is mainly composed of former Janjaweed members. Meanwhile, Darfur continues to be the site of atrocities, with both SAF and RSF targeting civilians.

The war, which began on 15 April 2023, has resulted in catastrophic human loss and displacement. By May 2024, the US Special Envoy to Sudan Tom Perriello estimated that the conflict may have claimed as many as 150,000 lives. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine further estimated that over 61,000 people were killed in Khartoum alone during the first 14 months of the conflict. 

The humanitarian crisis is immense: More than 14 million people have been displaced and over half of Sudan’s population remains in dire need of humanitarian assistance. The war has devastated infrastructure, disrupted food supplies and led to widespread disease. The UN has also confirmed famine in at least five areas, including North Darfur.

Sources

https://english.aawsat.com/features/4948606-al-burhan-hemedti-friends-foes-rift-ignited-sudan

https://www.dailysabah.com/world/africa/sudan-conflict-deepens-as-al-burhan-hemedtis-foreign-backing-soars

https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/horn-africa/sudan/two-years-sudans-war-spreading

https://sudantransparency.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/GoldSectorEN.pdf

https://www.reuters.com/article/world/exclusivesudan-militia-leader-grew-rich-by-selling-gold-idUSKBN1Y01DQ/

https://www.rfi.fr/en/africa/20250330-sudan-booming-wartime-gold-trade-flows-through-the-uae

https://www.africaintelligence.com/eastern-africa-and-the-horn/2022/07/25/inside-sudan-s-labyrinthine-military-industrial-complex,109801622-ge0

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/04/sudan-faces-worsening-humanitarian-catastrophe-famine-and-conflict-escalate

https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/famine-confirmed-sudans-north-darfur-confirming-un-agencies-worst-fears

SUDAN’S PROXY WAR: TWO YEARS OF HELL

Sudan's proxy-war enters its third year today, 15 April, 2025.

Civilians continue to be caught in the crossfire and subjected to all kinds of abuse and torture, particularly by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). No meaningful action has yet been taken against the genocidal paramilitary’s main external backer and weapons supplier, the United Arab Emirates.

Experts agree that Abu Dhabi's well documented role has prolonged the war, leading to one of the world's worst humanitarian crises - with over 30-million people reportedly in need of urgent assistance. In this video, we take stock of the current situation and look at how the last 24 months have affected the Sudanese people.

Continued……. The UAE is a key Middle Eastern ally of the US. Is that why the world - Washington included - is just standing by rather than trying to pressure Abu Dhabi to give up its RSF support?

Sources

https://www.foreign.senate.gov/hearings/conflict-and-humanitarian-emergency-in-sudan-an-urgent-call-to-action

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crln9lk51dro
https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/04/1162096

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/07/world/africa/sudan-genocide-numbers.html

https://www.rescue.org/article/crisis-sudan-what-happening-and-how-help

https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/power-struggle-sudan

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/16/us-imposes-sanctions-on-sudans-army-chief-abdel-fattah-al-burhan

https://www.reuters.com/world/us-impose-sanctions-sudan-rsf-leader-dagalo-sources-say-2025-01-07/

https://usun.usmission.gov/statement-by-ambassador-linda-thomas-greenfield-on-the-determination-of-genocide-in-sudan/

https://hmh.org/library/research/genocide-in-darfur-guide/

https://www.icc-cpi.int/darfur

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/16/sudan-unrest-what-is-the-rapid-support-forces

https://www.genocidewatch.com/single-post/evidence-points-to-uae-involvement-in-sudan-civil-war

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2vvjz652j1o

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jul/25/smoking-gun-evidence-points-to-uae-involvement-in-sudan-civil-war

https://www.genocidewatch.com/single-post/evidence-points-to-uae-involvement-in-sudan-civil-war

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/21/world/africa/uae-sudan-civil-war.html

https://www.lasillavacia.com/silla-nacional/el-engano-del-coronel-quijano-asi-envian-a-exmilitares-colombianos-a-sudan/

https://apnews.com/article/sudan-war-icj-uae-8b27cb3b8e4fef5b05a6b45084c967c7

https://ntvkenya.co.ke/news/kenya-in-spotlight-as-sudans-rsf-plans-to-announce-parallel-government-in-nairobi/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/09/uk-to-co-host-global-conference-with-aim-of-resolving-sudans-civil-war

Some people find the French accent comical, others charming - but either way, no self-respecting Frenchman is seriously going to doubt his intellectual capabilities or self-worth if he doesn’t sound like a native of England when speaking English as a second language. Likewise, the English - gentle mockery aside - don’t regard their French counterparts as inferior.

Continued….. But for many Africans, it’s different. Even though English may be our second or third language, some of us suffer from an inferiority complex if we don’t speak it in the same way as the former ‘master’ does. During colonialism, it was drilled into our ancestors’ minds that English (or French etc.) was the language of a superior culture and an indicator of intelligence. They were taught enough to get on with the menial jobs reserved for them, while our own languages and cultures were gradually erased.

This conditioning has persisted down the generations. And thanks to this linguistic imperialism, non-Africans also still look down on us if we don’t speak English (etc.) ‘properly.’ This week’s words of wisdom from playwright Alice Childress remind us that we still have work to do when it comes to decolonising our - and their - minds.

Sources

https://libquotes.com/alice-childress

YOUTH POET TO UN: ‘PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MORALS ARE!’

On 25 March, the UN held its annual International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, which, according to the body’s website, provides an ‘opportunity to honour and remember those who suffered and died at the hands of the slavery system,’ as well as ‘raise awareness about the dangers of racism and prejudice today.’

Among the speakers this year was former United States Youth Poet Laureate, Salome Agbaroji (@salomeagbaroji on Instagram). Her powerful, eight-minute speech emphasised ‘the peculiarity of [the] strange and bitter crimes’ of Europeans when they approached foreign peoples and declared ownership over them. She argued that restitution for the ills of slavery is a matter of restoring dignity; not of the enslaved, but of the enslavers. Further, she added that true remorse is not shown through words but concrete action. Yet, the silence of former slaving nations remains deafening.

Continued….. The UK, for example, declares that slavery is a dark stain on the nation’s history - yet refuses to pay reparations as redress for the centuries of progress attained at the expense of the Africans it enslaved and colonised (this, despite the fact that the UK compensated slave owners for the supposed loss of their ‘human property’).

Moreover, to add insult to injury, some ex-slaving nations are determined to cling on to stolen African artefacts. Experts estimate that over 80% of plundered African artefacts remain in European museums. The British Museum, in particular, holds over 70,000. Meanwhile, Belgium’s Royal Museum has nearly 200,000, with another 75,000 in Germany’s Ethnological Museum and almost 70,000 in France’s Quai Branly Museum.

Sources

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBLdwp5l99o

https://www.npr.org/2019/08/12/750549303/across-europe-museums-rethink-what-to-do-with-their-african-art-collections

https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/05/15/africa-art-museum-europe-restitution-debate-book-colonialism-artifacts/

https://amp.dw.com/en/africas-lost-heritage-and-europes-restitution-policies/a-59763966

Continued……This was followed by a visit from French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot to Algeria on 6 April, signalling a thaw in relations, but it seems that progress has now stalled.

Anti-French sentiment runs deep in Algeria, a country that endured a brutal war of independence against France from 1954 to 1962 that k*lled as many as 1.5 million Algerians. Relations soured significantly last July when Macron expressed support for Morocco’s claim over the contested Western Sahara territory, which angered Algeria and led to the recall of its ambassador to France.

Algeria says that 5.6 million of its citizens perished during 132 years of French colonial rule, along with those who suffered from injuries from landmines and radiation due to French nuclear tests in the Algerian desert.

Sources

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2y9dl5xzlo

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1vdl92zlzqo

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62xw575w9yo
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250413-algeria-protests-after-consular-official-indicted-in-france

https://www.dw.com/en/algeria-protests-to-france-over-detaining-consular-official/a-72230799

https://www.voanews.com/a/europe_report-frances-colonial-past-algeria-spurs-criticism-little-action/6202543.html

https://www.britannica.com/place/Algeria/Colonial-rule

https://www.newarab.com/news/algeria-says-56-million-died-under-french-colonialism