Continued……. Meanwhile, other groups, like Japanese in the US and Jews, have received reparations on no conditions.

Would this be a good topic for a university course, ‘Hypocrisy 101: How Europe Profited from Slavery, Then Pretended It Had Nothing to Do With It’? Let us know in the comments.

Sources

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/caribbean-countries-seek-trillion-slavery-reparations-b1106585.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crlnrjd3087o

https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20230705-france-s-top-court-denies-appeal-for-reparations-by-descendants-of-slaves

https://www.rfi.fr/en/africa/20171204-macron-rules-out-reparations-colonialism

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/slavery-reparations-britain-mp-ignore-b2433013.html

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/british-lawmakers-accuse-starmer-colonial-mindset-slavery-reparations-debate-2024-10-27/

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/rising-populism-should-not-stop-discussions-reparations-says-african-union-2025-04-08/?taid=67f5bf9a9c16590001598302

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/rising-populism-should-not-stop-discussions-reparations-says-african-union-2025-04-08/?taid=67f5bf9a9c16590001598302

https://africarenewal.un.org/en/magazine/reflecting-brutal-transatlantic-slave-trade

https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-894?p=emailAcOX7bY4qQIl.&d=/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-894

https://www.internationaljournalcorner.com/index.php/ijird_ojs/article/download/132947/92154/323032?__cf_chl_tk=0Pgeq11L7YV5I7BxZzKgWYfrPEcxUnhzQ.DegQWhn8A-1745303054-1.0.1.1-y9jUmWuEcoyaIMq8m1urX7KKrzGcDSQPo2kL36p0zYA

https://www.dw.com/en/portugal-says-no-plans-to-pay-colonial-reparations/a-68939449

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/king-apologises-netherlands-historic-role-slavery-2023-07-01/

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/king-apologises-netherlands-historic-role-slavery-2023-07-01

https://www.fairplanet.org/story/namibians-unimpressed-with-germanys-compensation-offer-for-colonial-genocide

WHITENING LATIN AMERICA... DID IT WORK?

In the 19th and 20th centuries, Argentina, Brazil and Cuba pursued a controversial policy known as ‘blanqueamiento’ or whitening. Governments set a goal of ‘improving’ the racial composition of their populations by encouraging immigrants from Europe to settle the occupied lands and mix with the African and Indigenous populations. Immigrants were promised land, jobs, and a better life. These policies were a direct extension of European colonialism, rooted in white supremacy and racial hierarchy to ensure wealth remained in white hands.

This history reminds us why the struggle for Pan-African unity and liberation remains crucial today.

Sources

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/racial-subordination-in-latin-america/spanish-america-whitening-the-race-the-unwritten-laws-of-blanqueamiento-and-mestizaje/254E9DBB292F852D542CC9F13AC827C1

Continued…….. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-labor-and-working-class-history/article/abs/two-dangers-one-solution-immigration-race-and-labor-in-cuba-19001930/7FBBBD6E9AE6A9ECF12C3468CE06118F

https://digpodcast.org/2022/12/04/race-in-latin-america

https://travelnoire.com/history-whitening-brazil

https://oxfordre.com/latinamericanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.001.0001/acrefore-9780199366439-e-894?d=%2F10.1093%2Facrefore%2F9780199366439.001.0001%2Facrefore-9780199366439-e-894&p=emailAGTsqGURI5Aeg#:~:text=Brazil%20also%20received%20over%20five,Italians%2C%20and%20700%2C000%20Spaniards).

https://economics.uccs.edu/sites/g/files/kjihxj2156/files/2021-11/Immigrant-Nationality.pdf

https://library.brown.edu/create/fivecenturiesofchange/chapters/chapter-4/immigration

Loveman, M (2009). 'The Race to Progress: Census Taking and Nation Making in Brazil (1870-1920)'

https://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article-abstract/89/3/435/27589/The-Race-to-Progress-Census-Taking-and-Nation?redirectedFrom=fulltext

https://africasacountry.com/2024/12/brazil-is-an-african-country#:~:text=Today%20more%20than%2050%20percent,20%20years%20came%20from%20Haiti.

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/black-in-latin-america/resources/lesson-plan-race-and-government-policy-in-revolutionary-cuba/198

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/31/argentina-white-european-racism-history

TOGO INDEPENDENCE DAY

On this day in 1960, Togo declared independence from French colonial rule. The West African nation took its place on the world stage as a sovereign country, with Sylvanus Olympio elected as its first president - a symbol of hope and self-determination for a new generation.

But it also marked the beginning of a new struggle. Olympio wanted to remove his country from the French-controlled CFA franc. Tragically, his vision was cut short. In 1963, he was assassinated in front of the US embassy. His killers were soldiers who’d served in the French army during the war in Algeria, and included Gnassingbé Eyadema - who would go on to oust Olympio’s successor, Nicolas Grunitzky, in a military uprising four years later.

To this day, it’s unknown who ordered the killing - with France denying accusations it was involved.

Eyadema ruled Togo for 38 years, winning many disputed elections. Following his death in 2005, he was succeeded by his son and current president, Faure Gnassingbé.

Continued……. Sources

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM4wka4r4Vs

https://www.theafricareport.com/142678/togo-who-killed-sylvanus-olympio-the-father-of-togolese-independence/

https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/96268/30_The-Succession-of-Faure-Gnassingbe.pdf

SOME GHANAIANS CELEBRATED NKRUMAH COUP?

Since US Africa Command (AFRICOM) General Michael Langley recently accused Pan-Africanist Burkina Faso President Ibrahim Traoré of using the country’s gold to support a ‘junta regime,’ the events of 1966 in Ghana serve as a cautionary tale.

As content creator @kobe_boujee (IG) shares in this video, a section of Ghanaians celebrated the CIA-orchestrated coup against Ghana’s first leader and Pan-Africanist, Kwame Nkrumah (1909-72).

Following his ouster, the new administration, friendly to the West, reversed much of Nkrumah’s progressive policies. Nkrumah worked toward reducing external dependence; and advocated policies boosting agriculture; built the Akosombo Dam that facilitated growth of industry; and initiated housing projects, public transportation systems, and labour rights initiatives. He also nationalised key sectors and promoted the development of local industries to create jobs and boost the economy.

Continued……. Following the coup against Nkrumah, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) came through with austerity policies in tow. The coup led to the privatisation, mismanagement or neglect of industries like Ghana Airways, Ghana Film Industry Corporation, Ghana Rubber Estates Limited, Ghana National Trading Corporation, Ghana Sugar Factory and Ghana Timber Marketing Board. 

Today, the West African country imports a wide range of products, a far cry from Nkrumah’s vision of self-sufficiency. According to the Ghana 2023 Trade Report, imports made up 21.5 per cent of Ghana’s GDP in 2021. Moreover, as of 2022, it had gone begging to the IMF a record 17 times.

Do you think Ghanaians would have celebrated his ouster if they knew what was to come?

Video credit: @kobe_boujee (IG)

Sources
https://expressnewsghana.com/2025/02/24/remembering-osagyefo-dr-kwame-nkrumah-a-visionary-leader-and-the-unfulfilled-potential-of-his-overthrow/

https://www.theghanareport.com/ghana-a-country-that-demonised-its-hero-dr-kwame-nkrumah/

https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/business/Why-Nkrumah-rejected-an-IMF-programme-in-1965-1652780

https://agricjournalist.com/kwame-nkrumahs-state-farms-ghanas-agricultural-dream

https://statsghana.gov.gh/gssmain/fileUpload/Trade/Ghana%202023%20Trade%20Report.pdf

https://africa.businessinsider.com/local/lifestyle/south-africas-eff-rejects-us-claims-on-burkina-faso-gold/0s9t45m

https://ghana.dubawa.org/tag/international-monetary-fund-imf

Every year, on 27 April, South Africans commemorate Freedom Day - marking the country’s first democratic elections, held on this day in 1994, in which citizens of all races were allowed to participate.

The elections were a watershed moment for the country, as millions of voters queued up outside polling stations to hammer the final nail into the coffin of a system that had oppressed Black South Africans since 1652, when Dutch colonialist Jan Van Riebeck landed on the shores of modern-day South Africa.

As had been expected, the African National Congress (ANC), the country’s most prominent liberation movement, convincingly won the vote. After decades of bloody struggle, the ANC finally transitioned from a liberation movement to the country’s new rulers.

Continued……Hope was in the air - ‘Free at last!’ - or so they thought…

Three decades on, many are questioning whether the transition fulfilled the hopes and aspirations of the people who stood in the long queues outside voting booths in 1994. The economic conditions for most of the Black citizens have remained unchanged. According to a 2021 report by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), 64% of the country’s Black people live in poverty - a figure significantly higher than the poverty rate among the White population, standing at only 1%.

Unemployment also remains disproportionately high among Black South Africans. Data released by the country’s official statistics agency in early 2024 showed that the unemployment rate among Black people stood at 37.6% - versus 7.9% among White people.

The land question also remains unresolved. White people still own the lion’s share of the country’s arable land (over 72%, according to the last major land-ownership census in 2017) - despite making up less than 8% of the population. Black people, who account for about 80% of the country’s citizens, own less than 4% of the land. These statistics raise the question of whether freedom really did arrive in 1994.

Credit: Apartheid Museum

Sources

https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099125303072236903/pdf/P1649270c02a1f06b0a3ae02e57eadd7a82.pdf
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/racial-divide-south-africas-economy-2024-09-23/#:~:text=The%20official%20unemployment%20rate%20was,South%20Africans%20of%20mixed%20race.
https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/south-africas-first-democratic-elections

S’ LEONE FIRST LADY: BIG BRO RULES OUR MINERALS

On 27 April 1961, Sierra Leone proudly raised its green, white and blue flag, declaring independence from British colonial rule. As the nation celebrates 64 years of sovereignty, voices like that of First Lady Fatima Maada Bio remind us that the fight for true independence is far from over.

Bio has tried to engage with the pressing issues facing her nation. In this video, she cautions against the pervasive influence of external powers - or Big Brother, as she brands them.

The reality is stark: every mining enterprise in Sierra Leone is under foreign ownership. Even after gaining independence from British colonialism, the UK continues to manage the nation’s electricity supply.

Continued……. What pathways lie ahead? Bio says that any attempt to disrupt the existing power dynamics invites external funding for opposition movements, leading to instability and chaos. This turmoil renders governance nearly impossible. Yet, she also says that the status quo cannot persist. After all, if a nation cannot secure its own energy resources, how can it hope to empower and educate its citizens?

But let’s focus on freedom from British rule today. Happy Independence Day to all Sierra Leoneans - at home and around the world.

Video Credit: Havard T.H. (YouTube)

Sources

https://rootstoglory.com/happy-independence-day-sierra-leone-april-27-1961/?utm_sourc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMuk82iVUxw&t=2s