Not every leader is a guardian of the people. Some opt to sell out their own people for power and privilege. Take African presidents who lick the boots of their European or US counterparts. A good example is Mobutu Sese Seko, a puppet propped up by the West after the assassination of pan-African hero Patrice Lumumba during the Cold War. He’s one of the goats this week’s proverb warns us against. Can you name others?

AFRICA CIVILISED EUROPE TWICE

Africans civilised Europeans - twice. Watch Pan-Africanist writer John G. Jackson explain how.

First, he notes how the Greeks learned from Egyptians, and passed on their knowledge to the Romans. Then, after the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe entered the so-called ‘dark ages.’ These were not as ‘dark’ in terms of knowledge and learning as the name suggests, but European culture was transformed by the arrival of the Moors from North Africa. Their conquest brought with it ‘light’ - so much so, claims Jackson, that the Moors re-civilised Europe.

Western textbooks often ignore this inconvenient side of the story, as it grates with their implicit ‘victor’s’ narrative that Europeans are superior. Jackson urges Africans to write their own histories. Only in this way can a truer, more inclusive and comprehensive narrative gain traction - one that acknowledges and respects Africa’s phenomenal contribution to world civilisation.

From exploitation to expulsion—that’s been the pattern for many migrants to the United States. The US Department of Homeland Security has terminated the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for about 7,900 Cameroonians in the US, due to expire in June.

In a statement, US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said the conditions in Cameroon no longer merited US protection, even though parts of Cameroon remain wracked by conflict and political repression.

The US grants TPS to nationals of designated countries facing armed conflict, natural disasters or political instability. But like most US immigration tools, its application reveals deep racial biases. While Washington continues to sell weapons, fund security forces and benefit from economic deals with some repressive governments in Africa, like Cameroon, it now claims the country is ‘safe’ enough to boot its nationals into the same chaos Western foreign policy helped fuel.

Continued……Unfortunately, it’s not an isolated move. In March, the Trump administration announced plans to revoke the temporary status of over 500,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela—mostly Black and Brown populations.

An estimated 14,600 Afghans in the US are next to be expelled in May.

Further, Washington has revoked the visas of hundreds of international students in a bid to clamp down on pro-Palestine protests at university campuses across the US.

Since taking office, Trump has focused on ‘mass deportation,’ which he emphasised during his election campaign.

Is it a coincidence that many of the migrants targeted for deportation come from countries that have resisted US dominance or suffered from its imperial machinations? Let us know in the comments.

Sources

https://chicagoreader.com/news/is-bobby-rush-in-trouble

https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/20721?current_search_qs=%3Ffilter%3D1%26PreviousSearch%3DSearch%252cLastName%252c%252c%252c%252c%252cFalse%252cTrue%252cFalse%252c41-42-43-44-45-46-47-48-49-50-51-52-53-54-55-56-57-58-59-60-61-62-63-64-65-66-67-68-69-70-71-72-73-74-75-76-77-78-79-80-81-82-83-84-85-86-87-88-89-90-91-92-93-94-95-96-97-98-99-100-101-102-103-104-105-106-107-108-109-110-111-112-113-114-115-116-117-118%252cLastName%26CurrentPage%3D12%26SortOrder%3DLastName%26ResultType%3DList%26Command%3D13

From exploitation to expulsion—that’s been the pattern for many migrants to the United States. The US Department of Homeland Security has terminated the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for about 7,900 Cameroonians in the US, due to expire in June.

In a statement, US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said the conditions in Cameroon no longer merited US protection, even though parts of Cameroon remain wracked by conflict and political repression.

The US grants TPS to nationals of designated countries facing armed conflict, natural disasters or political instability. But like most US immigration tools, its application reveals deep racial biases. While Washington continues to sell weapons, fund security forces and benefit from economic deals with some repressive governments in Africa, like Cameroon, it now claims the country is ‘safe’ enough to boot its nationals into the same chaos Western foreign policy helped fuel.

Continued……. Unfortunately, it’s not an isolated move. In March, the Trump administration announced plans to revoke the temporary status of over 500,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela—mostly Black and Brown populations.

An estimated 14,600 Afghans in the US are next to be expelled in May.

Further, Washington has revoked the visas of hundreds of international students in a bid to clamp down on pro-Palestine protests at university campuses across the US.

Since taking office, Trump has focused on ‘mass deportation,’ which he emphasised during his election campaign.

Is it a coincidence that many of the migrants targeted for deportation come from countries that have resisted US dominance or suffered from its imperial machinations? Let us know in the comments.

Sources

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgeng08qe7zo

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/10/10/2023-22375/extension-and-redesignation-of-cameroon-for-temporary-protected-status

THE MAGAZINE TRYING TO TAKE DOWN THE AES?

Jeune Afrique may be one of the most popular magazines in Francophone Africa. 

However, throughout the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), the publication is under intense scrutiny for churning out hit pieces undermining the revolution underway in Africa’s Sahel region. The AES is composed of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, all of which underwent successful people-backed coups d’état over the past few years that ousted Western-aligned leaders.

Jeune Afrique (“Young Africa”) is based in France, but run by Tunisian businessmen who live in the Ivory Coast and are close to Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara. 

Ouattara has criticised the AES and maintains friendly relations with France and other Western countries. 

Continued……. AES leaders have accused the Ivory Coast of trying to sabotage their revolutionary process. Perhaps there is truth to that claim. In July 2024, the French publication, Le Monde, published an article alleging the Ivory Coast was working with the United States to install a new US Africa Command (AFRICOM) military base in the village Odienné, close to the border with Mali and Burkina Faso.

Video credits: @rtburkina, @africanews, @ortntele (X) / @telesahel (IG), @bf1tv (X) / @bf1_tv (IG), @RTI_info (X) / @rtiinfo (IG)

Sources

https://africatechfestival.com/africacom/sponsors/jeune-afrique/#:~:text=Profile,and%20reaching%20650%2C000%20regular%20readers

https://www.lalettre.fr/fr/medias_presse-ecrite/2023/01/19/jeune-afrique--l-ombre-du-pouvoir-ivoirien-derriere-l-arrivee-de-nouveaux-actionnaires,109903957-fac

https://www.jeuneafrique.com/1549405/politique/au-burkina-faso-ibrahim-traore-sauveur-ou-dictateur/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew594SoGjJk

https://www.modernghana.com/news/1383918/i-coast-ghana-urge-juntas-to-rejoin-w-african.html

https://www.africaintelligence.com/west-africa/2025/02/03/ouattara-has-discreet-dinner-with-macron-in-paris,110370513-bre

https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2024/07/09/chasses-du-niger-les-etats-unis-redeploient-leur-dispositif-militaire-en-cote-d-ivoire_6248264_3212.html

LUXURY BRANDS ARE JUST WHITE SUPREMACY MONETISED

What if the logo on your luxury handbag is less about craftsmanship and more about colonial hangovers? The recent revelations by Chinese manufacturers and TikTokers about how little global luxury brands really pay to produce their products has triggered a variety of reactions - from people feeling conned, to others saying they knew it all along. But beyond the shock of exploitation lies a more cunning truth. In this clip, influencer @supremetingz breaks it down. She says luxury brands exemplify the capitalist commodification of White superiority: consumers don’t fork out more for correspondingly higher quality products, but for the illusion of being elevated in an artificially imposed hierarchy.

Continued…….. The psychological manipulation is especially pernicious in the case of Black and marginalised consumers, who are sold the idea that proximity to Whiteness (as represented by these brands) is tantamount to value, while for White shoppers, it reinforces their pre-existing sense of superiority. The price tag is just the beginning, the bigger scam is that your worth increases the closer you get to Whiteness. What do you think?

Video credit: @supremetingz (TikTok)

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

TYRED OF WASTE? NIGERIA'S SOLUTION

Did you know the world throws away over a billion used car tyres yearly? It's creating a massive pile of non-biodegradable waste that's, of course, not good for our planet.
But there are ways to recycle them. We meet a Nigerian entrepreneur who's turning them into kids' playgrounds, among other things.
Amazingly, her company is the only one of its kind in Africa, and she calls on governments and multinationals to do more to help.
Getting a grip on climate change shouldn't just be down to a small firm like hers.
Hopefully, this short film will inspire others to follow in her tracks.

Continued……..
Sources

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/eight-countries-could-run-out-hiv-treatments-due-usaid-cuts-who-says-2025-03-17/

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/03/1161416#:~:text=%E2%80%9CWe%20will%20see%20a%20%E2%80%A6real,deaths%20recorded%20globally%20in%202023

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c871q33yvjpo

https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/data-and-trends/global-statistics

https://www.afro.who.int/health-topics/hivaids#:~:text=There%20are%2025.6%20million%20people%20living%20with%20HIV%20in%20the%20African%20region.&text=In%202022%2C%20about%20380%2C000%20people,AIDS%20related%20illness%20in%202022.&text=HIV%20infection%20is%20often%20diagnosed,or%20absence%20of%20HIV%20antibodies.

https://healthpolicy-watch.news/africa-cdc-aid-cuts-will-result-in-millions-more-african-deaths/#:~:text=Earlier%20in%20the%20week%2C%20the,a%20result%20of%20USAID%20cuts.

https://www.dw.com/en/south-africa-usaid-cuts-could-prompt-over-500000-hiv-deaths/a-71777420

https://www.state.gov/pepfar/

https://hivresearch.org/pepfar

https://data.one.org/analysis/health-financing

https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/04/26/african-governments-falling-short-healthcare-funding#:~:text=On%20April%2027%2C%202001%2C%20African,budgets%20to%20improve%20health%20care.

https://archive.ph/q61tn#selection-1349.1-1349.171

https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/life-after-usaid-africas-development-education-and-health-care

https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/life-after-usaid-africas-development-education-and-health-care#:~:text=In%20the%202023%20fiscal%20year,primarily%20in%20the%20African%20region.

https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/tanzania/news/national/africa-loses-over-50-billion-every-year-due-to-graft-says-au-body-4816946

UNFINISHED REVOLUTION PART 2: HOW FOREIGN POWERS BULLIED SUDAN!

In October 2020, Sudan shocked the world by agreeing to normalise relations with Israel, a political nemesis for over 50 years. The decision came after the Sudanese military had pledged to continue sending troops to fight in the Saudi-led war on Yemen, which to many signalled that the Sudanese masses were still not in charge of their beloved nation.

Continued………Why did Sudan agree to normalise relations with Israel after the transitional government initially said it was a decision for a future democratic government, not a transitional one? Why did Sudan agree to continue to send its soldiers to Yemen to die in a war that had nothing to do with Khartoum? In this 2021 documentary presented and produced by African Stream's CEO and Founder, Ahmed Kaballo, which was filmed two years before the Sudanese Proxy war broke out, Kaballo asks whether the transitional civilian government was ever really in charge moreover, if the revolution was stolen by the military generals with the support of foreign powers whose interests lie in contrast to that of the Sudanese people.

The documentary lays out the pitfalls that would ultimately lead foreign powers with vested interests in Sudan to back opposing generals in the war that broke out on April 15th 2023, which has had a devasted impact on all Sudanese people.

Continued….. Noah also explained how apartheid was not developed in a vacuum, as the government of South Africa sent emissaries around the world to study racism in places like Australia, the Netherlands and the United States.

Despite apartheid officially ending in 1994, Black South Africans remain disproportionately poverty-stricken and unemployed, leading to wealth inequality and lack of property ownership. Meanwhile, white settlers held 72 per cent of private farmland in the country in 2017, according to the South African Department of Rural Development and Land Reform. However, white South Africans constituted less than 8 per cent of the 2022 population, per the South African government's statistics office.

Post-apartheid efforts, such as the 1995 Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the 2003 Black Economic Empowerment legislation, and land reform, have attempted to redress the injustice. However, the progress has been slow and often criticised as symbolic or insufficient.

Apartheid is no longer the law, but its architecture remains. As Noah demonstrated, racism in South Africa is not just something that occurred. It is a living reality.

Video credit: @breakfastclubam (IG and X)

Sources

https://bcrw.barnard.edu/event/white-rights-what-apartheid-south-africa-learned-from-the-united-states

https://www.facinghistory.org/ideas-week/south-africans-respond-american-racism

https://lithub.com/trevor-noah-on-growing-up-in-south-africa-under-apartheid/#:~:text=My%20mother%20lied%20and%20said,I'm%20from%20another%20country.

https://harvardpublichealth.org/equity/apartheid-legacy-south-africa-health

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED613962.pdf

https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201802/landauditreport13feb2018.pdf

https://www.gov.za/about-sa/south-africas-people

TREVOR NOAH: APARTHEID TOOK CUES FROM U.S.

Apartheid was a system of race-based segregation enforced by the South African regime of white settlers between 1948 and 1994. It controlled every detail of the life of non-white people—Blacks, Coloureds and Indians—where they were allowed to live, with whom they could marry, where they could work, and even which hospital or school they could go to.

In this clip, comedian Trevor Noah (@trevornoah on IG and X) explained that apartheid extended to criminalise his existence. ‘Me being born was illegal. My dad couldn't be on my birth certificate,’ he told ‘The Breakfast Club,’ a New York-based radio programme. His Xhosa mother and Swiss-German father were in an illegal relationship, according to apartheid law. 

Sometimes, truthful messages are delivered in a harsh tone, but that doesn't make them any less honest. @GeorgeGalloway certainly didn't mince his words in his 27 March X post. The former UK parliamentarian and leader of @workerspartygb echoed sentiments that have been the subject of long-standing debate among many Africans. While we know the colonial powers ensured former colonies remained economically and politically dependent on them even after colonialism, surely, decades later, isn't it time we broke free?

Continued……. Some of us argue that Africa's dependence on the West prevents African people's progress; others view this argument as an oversimplification of the complex dynamics of global inequality and exploitation.

Many African leaders have sought sovereignty for their nations and a breakaway from Western dependency. To address inequalities created by colonialism, Zimbabwe's former president Robert Mugabe, for instance, sought to take back an estimated 74% of the country's total arable land that was stolen by fewer than 5,000 white settlers - who made up just 0.2% of the population - through land reforms. Rather than plead for Western handouts, he aimed to rebuild his nation as a dignified homeland for all Zimbabweans.

Similarly, Patrice Lumumba, the Democratic Republic of Congo's first Prime Minister, sought to liberate his country from the shackles of colonial exploitation to establish a genuinely sovereign nation, whose vast resources would primarily benefit the Congolese people for the first time in centuries. Both leaders faced fierce resistance from the West. Lumumba was k*lled in January 1961, in a Belgian and US-backed assassination, and Zimbabwe, under Mugabe, was subjected to punitive sanctions that devastated the country's economy.

Today, the Alliance of Sahelian States (AES), made up of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, continue to face resistance from the West, aided by pliant governments in neighbouring countries and weak institutions such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which function as extensions of global imperialists.

Considering neocolonialism alongside other historical and present realities, do you think voluntary dependence on the West is the primary barrier to progress in Africa?

Sources

https://x.com/georgegalloway/status/1905323309799272645?s=46

https://news.un.org/en/story/2010/09/352972

https://www.fao.org/family-farming/detail/en/c/884521/

https://www.africanews.com/amp/2017/02/21/president-mugabe-turns-93-eu-extends-economic-sanctions/

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/10/17/patrice-lumumba-congo-washington-00121755

https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/487930/ECOWAS-France-The-chronicles-of-a-predator-and-its-prey

https://www.securityincontext.com/posts/ecowas-whose-best-interests