Continued……While African leaders such as Burkina Faso’s Ibrahim Traoré chart new, sovereign paths for their nations and inspire the continent to move away from Western dependency, others, like Ruto, seek to deepen their ties with the West. There is an awakening taking place both at home and abroad. Africans are hungry for freedom after centuries of Western exploitation, but the US is using faces and voices like Langley’s in an attempt to stop this. Unlike Ruto, who is willing to sacrifice the African struggle for genuine independence to be a darling of the West, Traoré seeks just partnerships in the interest of his people. Clearly, it’s the Rutos, not the Traorés, that the West champions.

In June 2024, while Ruto was deploying Kenyan police officers to the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince as part of the US-backed Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS), unrest at home was at an all time high. Dissatisfied young Kenyans were on the streets, protesting the 2024 Finance Bill (which sought to raise taxes), chanting ‘Ruto must go!’ However, their peaceful calls for better living standards were met with state violence: police and army forces opened fire, reportedly killing at least 63 people.

Yet, the US, usually quick to tout ‘democratic values,’ remained silent and did not sever ties with Ruto’s government. Meanwhile, in Burkina Faso, Traoré’s popular support is met with Western campaigns aimed at discrediting his leadership. Perhaps how the West views African leaders is an inappropriate yardstick for who truly serves African interests. Take the poll below and let us know your views in the comments.

Sources

https://www.dvidshub.net/image/8782144/africom-commander-langley-key-leaders-visit-eastern-africa

https://ke.usembassy.gov/deputy-chief-of-mission-marc-d-dillard/

https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/investigations/2025/01/13/haiti-depth-why-kenya-led-security-mission-floundering

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy7772v3j89o

https://www.dw.com/en/kenya-sends-more-troops-to-haiti-to-fight-gang-violence/a-71339807

https://www.dw.com/en/kenya-sends-more-troops-to-haiti-to-fight-gang-violence/a-71339807

https://www.blackagendareport.com/useunatos-regime-change-playbook-burkina-faso-and-captain-ibrahim-traore

https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/general_langley_opening_statements.pdf

https://khrc.or.ke/press-release/2024-a-year-of-blatant-state-repression-through-regime-policing/

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8jexr9yv0do

AFRICAN DIASPORA DEFENDING ETHIOPIA

On this day, 84 years ago, Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie arrived in Addis Ababa from exile, marking the end of a five-year occupation and Benito Mussolini’s dream of colonial expansion. 5 May is now celebrated as Patriots’ Victory Day, an enduring reminder of Ethiopia’s history as the only African nation that successfully resisted colonisation despite fighting an overwhelming enemy with limited resources.

The Second Italo-Ethiopian War (1935-1937) saw thousands of Africans worldwide mobilise to fight the colonialists; this event reminded observers of what we witnessed in recent weeks by the support the global African community has shown Burkina Faso. Driven by indignation at US AFRICOM General Michael Langley’s attack on the country’s revolutionary president Ibrahim Traoré, tens of thousands have mobilised in protest with the clarion call, ‘Hands off Burkina Faso!’

Continued……Having witnessed the West’s destruction of Gaddafi’s Libya after years of demonisation in the West and the murders of Patrice Lumumba and Thomas Sankara before that, Africans are saying ‘enough is enough’ - much like they did against Italy as Rome tried to take Ethiopia.

Sources

https://dayhist.com/holidays-and-occasions/patriots-victory-day-ethiopia

https://ghana.dubawa.org/explainer-u-s-general-langleys-comments-on-burkina-fasos-traore-social-media-uproar/

https://issafrica.org/iss-today/did-nato-intervene-in-libya-just-to-get-rid-of-gaddafi

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

https://www.rt.com/africa/589422-africa-burkina-faso-france/

https://warwingsdaily.com/wars/the-second-italo-ethiopian-war-1935-1936/

https://press.et/herald/?p=34256

KEEP UP THE ENERGY FOR TRAORÉ!

The fight for African sovereignty, with its most recognisable advocate, Burkina Faso’s Ibrahim Traoré, has moved up a gear - and we mustn’t let the momentum slow.

That’s the message of US-based content creator @lexlos3r (IG), who was impressed by how diaspora communities the world over rallied in reaction to remarks by the Pentagon’s top commander in Africa, Michael Langley - who had suggested Traoré was corrupt, alleging that he used state gold reserves to shore up his private security.

Langley’s words struck an especially ominous note coming ahead of another thwarted coup in Burkina Faso. Many suspect the Pentagon is preparing an intervention and is trying to tarnish the revolutionary leader’s reputation to make such meddling more palatable.

Continued…….. While the overwhelming global show of support for Traoré is welcome, we must remain vigilant and keep the tempo up to forestall any nefarious plans by former colonisers and modern imperialists. Each of us, in our own way, is a crucial part of this fight, and we should not let our guard down.

Video credit: @lexlos3r (IG)

Sources

https://westafricaweekly.com/support-for-burkinabe-captain-traore-grows-worldwide-amid-anti-imperialist-struggle/

https://issafrica.org/iss-today/in-burkina-faso-traore-s-legacy-could-extend-beyond-popularity-and-promises

https://mimimefoinfos.com/pan-africanist-kemi-seba-rallies-support-for-ibrahim-traore-ahead-of-major-demonstration-in-burkina-faso/amp/

https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/general_langley_opening_statements.pdf

https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2025/04/10/meet-ibrahim-traore-burkina-fasos-retro-revolutionary

https://wacsi.org/a-resounding-ovation-what-ibrahim-traores-reception-reveals-about-the-youths-perception-of-leadership/

https://www.trt.global/afrika-english/article/03eb4ce7df6c

RUTO & BUSH: GOOD FOR THE ‘SOLE’!

William Ruto may rarely put himself in the shoes of his own people (judging by the harsh policies he’s tried to inflict on them during a cost-of-living crisis) but the out-of-touch Kenyan president was given a chance to do just that recently. During one of his public speeches, a member of the crowd flung a shoe at the flashy leader with a penchant for expensive outfits and VIP travel. The message ought to be loud and clear even to someone as tone deaf as Ruto. Like many so many before him, Ruto has become a middleman for empire, smiling for photo ops abroad while imposing suffering at home. And as history shows us, when the people have had enough, they don’t need fancy methods or expensive campaigns. Sometimes, a shoe is all it takes to shake the powerful.

Continued…….. And the incident’s put him in someone else’s shoes too: recall that in 2008 George W. Bush was ambushed by an Iraqi journalist, who flung two shoes at the US president in protest over Washington’s invasion of his country. If only they’d both gotten the boot instead!

Sources

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy5rxed1wnvo

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iraq-war-journalist-threw-shoes-george-w-bush-muntazer-al-zaidi-on-only-regret/

https://africa.businessinsider.com/local/markets/the-high-cost-of-living-in-kenya-persists-despite-its-decline-in-inflation/v833xze?op=1

https://www.reuters.com/article/world/third-of-kenyan-budget-lost-to-corruption-anti-graft-chief-idUSKCN0WC1I4/

Continued……. Haitians are not fleeing their homeland by choice. They are escaping the wreckage created by centuries of white supremacy, capitalist extraction and foreign domination since Haiti’s 1804 revolution that ousted French enslavers. Western interventions have created an unstable society that many Haitians have been trying to escape.

However, instead of solidarity from the Dominican Republic, they are met with raids and forced removals.

Sources

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/23/americas/dominican-republic-haiti-hospital-crackdown-intl-latam/index.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8egxlxz5po

BLACK FACES IN HIGH PLACES
WON'T SAVE US

For a long time, many Black people were under the illusion that more representation in positions of power would result in a more equitable society. Yet, year in, year out, we see Black people ascending to powerful positions only to become champions of the very values - or lack thereof - that the status quo represents.

Today, we bring back this powerful moment from April 2024 when professor Ruha Benjamin challenged this notion in a speech delivered at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. Her message was simple yet poignant: ‘Black faces in high places are not gonna save us.’ That is, we shouldn't expect our rights to be defended by fellow Black people simply because they hold professional, political or economic power.

Her words are highly relevant following the unfounded accusations flung by the head of US Africa Command (AFRICOM), General Michael E. Langley, at Burkina Faso's revolutionary President Ibrahim Traoré.

Continued…….. Langley - just like former US President Barack Obama, who oversaw US military operations across the African continent - is simply an imperial mouthpiece. Faces and voices like theirs are used to advance Western interests and maintain systems of global exploitation, as well as the US military-industrial complex, all under the illusion of inclusion.

Somalia and Libya have already been on the receiving end of US power. Today, Washington appears to be circling round West Africa - poised to pounce on an African leader who has dared to stand up against the West. And laying the groundwork for that, is a Black face in a high place: General Langley.

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

RACIST MOM RAKES IN OVER $600K

Hitting the jackpot in the US is all too easy if you are a racist white person under the spotlight for hate speech, or worse.

Such is the case for Shiloh Hendricks, who unleashed a racist tirade, calling a 5-year-old Somali child and a Somali man the N-word on 28 April in Rochester, Minnesota. But instead of consequences, Hendricks is cashing in. Since starting a fundraiser on GiveSendGo, a Christian crowdfunding platform reportedly used by white nationalists and far-right extremists, she has rapidly raised more than $600,000, well on its way to her $1 million target. Hendricks claims her life and that of her family have been threatened since Sharmake Omar’s video went viral, sparking outrage from social media users. Omar, the man speaking in the video, is unrelated to the child in question.

Continued…….. Donors have also expressed solidarity with Hendricks, with one identifying himself as an ‘Average White Man,’ praising her for ‘bravery’ and hoping she will now afford to live in a ‘nicer neighbourhood, one free of these savages.’ Let that sink in: Racism against a Black child has become a profitable enterprise.

Another example of a white person using GiveSendGo to raise funds is Kyle Rittenhouse. He shot and k*lled two Black men and injured one person protesting the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in 2020 in Wisconsin.

'N***er' is an offensive term used to describe a Black person, derived from the Latin 'niger,' meaning 'black.' Though it's usage started during US slavery, commercial rap music popularised the N-word in the late 20th century. It should not surprise anyone then that a 2015 YouGov survey for the BBC radio programme 'Newsbeat' found 27 per cent of 18- to 29-year-olds in the UK think it's acceptable to use the N-word in some circumstances and 22 per cent said they had used it amongst friends.

While Hendricks’ actions wouldn’t affect the child’s or Omar’s ability to obtain their basic needs in the United States, it reminds us that such utterances are a product of racial capitalism, an economic system whereby the ruling class sows division to keep a group of people oppressed so it can reap profits. Indeed, our people in the US have endured slavery, marginalisation and suppression going back four centuries.

Moreover, politicians' promises to bring about justice have gone unfulfilled as they serve the system, too.

Video credit: Sharmake Omar

Sources

https://www.aol.com/minnesota-mom-rakes-over-500k-171027251.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/video/video-shows-woman-using-racist-slur-on-playground-238830661724

https://www.givesendgo.com/ShilohHendrix

https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2024/06/15/racial-discrimination-shapes-how-black-americans-view-their-progress-and-u-s-institutions-2/#:~:text=to%20achieve%20success.-,Most%20Black%20adults%20say%20they%20experience%20racial%20discrimination,of%20their%20race%20(23%25).

https://www.mncompass.org/topics/demographics/cultural-communities/somali

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJPEZQAsLKc/?igsh=MWg5dTdoZ2lrdHExbg%3D%3D

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/08/joe-biden-racial-justice-voting-rights

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/karmelo-anthony-kyle-rittenhouse-givesendgo-fundraiser-b2744348.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/11/09/the-n-word-an-entrenched-racial-slur-now-more-prevalent-than-ever

https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-32252405

https://naacp.org/resources/naacp-official-position-use-word-nigger-and-n-word

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/nigger

‘We don’t see any American Dream. We’ve experienced only the American Nightmare.’

Migrants in the US facing deportation would undoubtedly agree with that quote from Pan-Africanist revolutionary Malcolm X (1925-65). 

Many could potentially find themselves in the central African country of Rwanda if ‘early’ discussions to receive deported migrants pan out, according to Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe, speaking on 4 May to state broadcaster Rwanda TV. 

The announcement follows US Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying the US is seeking countries to accept deportees, with Rwanda eager to cash in on a US asylum deal after the UK Supreme Court ruled a similar agreement unlawful. Newly-elected UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer scrapped the deal in 2024, with Kigali declining to return $300 million given to facilitate deportations.

Continued…….. The deportation talks with the US coincide with ongoing efforts by the Trump administration to broker a peace deal between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The Rwanda- and Uganda-backed M23 militia’s escalation that seized large swaths of eastern DRC earlier this year displaced more than 1 million people and k*lled at least 7,000, leading the country to approach the US for security in exchange for an exclusive minerals deal. The escalation came amidst a three-decade-long foreign-backed war over an estimated $24 trillion in mineral reserves that had k*lled as many as 6 million by 2010.

Critics say Rwanda is trying to whitewash its human rights record, which the UN and other rights organisations have flagged. The US Department of State had previously highlighted Rwanda’s record of arbitrary or unlawful arrests and k*llings, harsh prison conditions, and transnational repression of people in other countries, among other allegations. But for the US, human rights have never stood in the way of mineral access.

Despite its human rights record, Rwanda is ready to receive ‘some of the most despicable human beings,’ in the words of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for dollars. 

Sources

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c367g52x7l6o

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/5/rwanda-confirms-talks-with-us-over-receiving-deported-migrants

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rwanda-talks-washington-accepting-deported-migrants-us-minister-says-rcna204772

https://www.theafricareport.com/383058/trump-turns-to-rwanda-in-search-for-migrant-deportation-deal/

https://archive.ph/aArwN

https://www.state.gov/reports/2023-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/rwanda/

https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/united-states-and-rwanda-differ-over-human-rights-abuse-1298836

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq55yqn0322o

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/09/europe/rwanda-asylum-uk-starmer-intl-latam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GML1ketVPmU

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/24/m23-militias-advance-in-eastern-drc-has-killed-7000-since-january-un-told

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/04/1162351

https://www.caritas.org/2010/02/six-million-dead-in-congos-war

SUPPORT THE AES: EVERYONE HAS A ROLE TO PLAY

The Pan-African revolution is here. It is no longer limited to the realm of theory. Instead, it is underway in the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), comprising Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

In this video clip from a July 2024 podcast episode, African Stream Editor-in-Chief Ahmed Kaballo reminded us that everyone has a role to play in defending the Sahel revolution.

Continued……Over the past few years, these three countries in Africa’s Sahel region successfully ousted Western-aligned leaders through people-backed coups d’état. Since then, the AES was formed on 6 July 2024 to share policies for greater collaboration to eventually create a Pan-African federal state. The dream is to build continental-wide governance.

As Kaballo said, if you’re a filmmaker, use your skills to share the AES revolution on screen. If you’re a writer, write articles about the AES. If you’re a teacher, teach your students about the revolution or send resources to the Thomas Sankara Center @burkinabooks (IG) in Burkina Faso and Niger. If you’re an academic, defend the Sahel in your research. If you’re a lawyer, use international law to protect the three countries under attack by neo-colonial ‘human rights’ institutions. These are just a few ways to contribute, as everyone has a role to play.

Africans, this is our revolution, and we may only have one shot at defending it. Time and time again, imperialists have overthrown our revolutionary processes, k*lled our leaders and destroyed our countries, leaving the masses of our people in destitution. We can put an end to this. But only if we go all out this time. We must defend and protect the Alliance of Sahel States.

FATHER CHARGED WITH COP MURDER DAY AFTER POLICE FATALLY SHOOT SON

On 1 May 2025, US police gunned down another young Black man: 18-year-old Ryan Hinton. Officers in Ohio reportedly killed him after claiming he was pointing a gun at them. Released body-cam footage leaves that assertion unclear. A un-used gun was retrieved at the scene. Hinton was reportedly fleeing from a stolen vehicle. Adding to the family tragedy is that his father, Rodney Hinton Jr., has since been arrested on suspicion of killing a police officer by deliberately running him over - he’s been charged with aggravated murder. Reports suggest he had been left distraught after being shown the body-cam footage by police.