Continued…….. Looking at incidents such as the US detention of pro-Palestine protester Mahmoud Khalil, the US/UK persecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (@wikileaks on X), and the US chasing whistleblower Edward Snowden (@snowden on X) tells a different story. The West tolerates speech only if it doesn’t threaten Western interests.

Have a watch, and let us know what you think.

Check out the complete conversation on Editor-in-Chief Ahmed Kaballo’s YouTube channel (@ahmedkaballo4170).

Soundbite credit: @BBC

Sources
https://apnews.com/article/columbia-university-mahmoud-khalil-ice-440828980a4ee7bf4ddcf3d123e02b3e

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/20/julian-assange-appeals-in-most-important-press-freedom-case-in-the-world

https://www.thereviewgeek.com/where-is-edward-snowden-now/

https://www.football365.com/news/gary-lineker-set-early-bbc-exit-date-revealed-position-untenable-deleted-post

LARGEST REMAINING ANTEBELLUM PLANTATION MANSION BURNS DOWN

On 15 May, the Nottoway Plantation in the US state of Louisiana, the largest remaining antebellum (pre-Civil War) mansion in the US South, was reduced to ashes. 

Built in 1859 by enslaved Africans for sugar plantation owner John Hampden Randolph, the 4,923-square-metre mansion containing dozens of rooms stood as a stark symbol of the United States' history of slavery. 

The cause of the fire is still unknown, but the incident elicited reactions online. While some recognised the mansion’s seeming grandeur and painful racial past, Black people viewed the destruction as a form of symbolic justice, with the ashes representing their ancestors' suffering.

Sources

https://nypost.com/2025/05/16/us-news/fire-guts-nottoway-plantation-largest-antebellum-mansion

https://www.foxnews.com/us/americas-largest-remaining-antebellum-mansion-burns-down-devastating-fire.amp

Continued……. https://www.thedailybeast.com/souths-biggest-antebellum-mansion-nottaway-plantation-mysteriously-burns-to-ground

https://www.nottoway.com

https://betweennapsontheporch.net/tour-nottoway-plantation-in-white-castle-louisiana

https://www.slam.org/collection/objects/21083

'Lost Plantations of the South' (2009), pages 184-185 and 191: https://archive.org/details/lost-plantations-of-the-south-by-marc-r-matrana-2009

Continued……Sudan recently cut diplomatic relations with the UAE, accusing it of aiding the RSF with advanced weaponry. Despite UAE denials, the UN and media sources point to evidence of Abu Dhabi supplying weapons to the RSF-controlled parts of Sudan, using neighbouring Chad as a transit hub.

While the RSF reportedly launched drones that targeted civilian and military infrastructure in military-controlled areas over the past two years, they had not reached Port Sudan, the army's wartime capital and a humanitarian and diplomatic hub, until the 4 May attack, according to Reuters.

The UN says the foreign-backed proxy war has caused the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with 25 million Sudanese facing ‘acute food insecurity’ and 5 million children and mothers suffering ‘acute malnutrition.’ The UN’s International Organization for Migration estimates the war has internally and externally displaced 15 million Sudanese, with 4 million outside the country. 

Accurate death toll estimates are difficult to come by because the war has destroyed Sudan’s health infrastructure. However, a year into the war, US envoy Tom Perriello reported the figure as high as 150,000.

Sources

https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/north-africa/sudan-accuses-uae-of-may-4-drone-attacks-on-port-sudan-5049734#google_vignette

https://archive.ph/KL5wA

https://www.mwakilishi.com/article/diaspora-news/2025-05-13/kenyan-pilot-killed-as-aircraft-shot-down-in-sudans-darfur-region

https://archive.ph/Lu9sH

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/04/1162096#:~:text=Half%20the%20population%20facing%20hunger,and%20mothers%20suffering%20acute%20malnutrition.

https://archive.ph/OkgaW

https://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/conflict-resources/how-the-rsf-got-their-4x4-technicals-the-open-source-intelligence-techniques-behind-our-sudan-expose/

https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/sudan/humanitarian-crisis-sudan-statement-humanitarian-coordination-forum-hcf

https://dtm.iom.int/reports/two-years-conflict-sudan-visualizing-worlds-largest-displacement-crisis

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

https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1a/k1aa8blq7d

TREASON IN TANZANIA? OR DICTATORSHIP?

Tanzania is facing growing scrutiny as the trial of opposition leader Tundu Lissu fuels concerns about a potential slide into authoritarian rule.

The 57-year-old, a prominent figure in the CHADEMA party, faces charges of treason - a crime that carries the death penalty in Tanzania. He was arrested in April for allegedly inciting Tanzanians to disrupt the upcoming presidential elections in October, from which his party is barred.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s administration is now under intense criticism for what many perceive as a systematic erosion of civil liberties and the deployment of heavy-handed tactics to silence dissent. She is also under fire for her crackdown on Lissu’s external supporters. Kenyan activists were barred from showing their solidarity with Lissu in court and deported from Tanzania shortly after their arrival. Among them were Kenya’s former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, ex-justice minister Marth Karua and human-rights advocates.

Continued…….. The situation in Tanzania reflects a troubling trend in East Africa. Uganda’s opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, also faces treason charges in the lead-up to the January 2026 presidential elections. Transnational repression is rising, with opposition figures pursued across East African borders, abducted and imprisoned back home. Last November, Besigye was pursued by Ugandan security agents in Nairobi and forcibly taken back home to face treason charges.

Tanzania, under the stewardship of pan-African leader Julius Nyerere (1922-1999), was a secure refuge and sanctuary for liberation movements, particularly from southern Africa. Guided by the Arusha Declaration of 1967, which shaped Nyerere’s domestic and foreign policies, Tanzania cooperated with African liberation movements and worked with other states to achieve African Unity. 

Sources

https://issafrica.org/iss-today/samia-suluhu-hassan-drops-the-pretence-of-reform

https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/elections-in-tanzania-a-model-african-country-slides-into-dictatorship-a-4eebde15-1c80-47b4-af8d-66f4e0b24d25

https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/tanzanian-tundu-lissu-in-court-to-face-treason-charges-5047478

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/24/tanzania-tundu-lissu-court-treason-opposition-detained

https://archive.ph/T2eQ4

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czdynd8l4pqo

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/04/tanzania-stop-repression-of-opposition-leaders-and-immediately-release-tundu-lissu/

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4vdkmpg04o

https://archive.ph/nUNGz

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/11/ugandas-opposition-politicians-abduction-in-kenya-continues-a-growing-and-worrying-trend-of-transnational-repression/

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO FOR TRAORÉ!

The show of solidarity that was on display recently around the world for Burkina Faso’s president was a powerful moment for pan-Africans.

Revolutionary leader Ibrahim Traoré appears to be in the West’s sights. Allegations coming out of Washington and another failed coup attempt in April created a sense of urgency. People gathered in Accra and in London and beyond to send a message to any would-be imperialist interventionists: hands off Traoré!

During a US Senate hearing, Michael Langley, the Pentagon's top commander for the Africa region, had accused Traoré of using national gold reserves to pay for private security. The allegation of corruption was apparently intended to tarnish the leader’s reputation as a man dedicated to improving the lives of his people. Worse, many saw it as the start of an opinion-shaping propaganda campaign ahead of possible US action.

Continued……. Many have compared Traoré to Burkina Faso’s equally revolutionary leader, Thomas Sankara (1949-1987). He was assassinated during a Western-backed power grab in 1987. Africans do not want a similar fate to befall Traoré.

Activists in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago joined the global show of solidarity. They gathered at the Kwame Ture Education and Development Centre in the capital, Port of Spain. They held banners with messages of support for Traoré and the Burkinabe people. In this clip, one of the speakers at the event delivers a powerful message about what African unity can achieve.

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

WAS COLONIALISM BENEFICIAL?

We recently sat down to react to British TV channel GB News’ segment on the benefits of colonialism. GB News contributor Carol Malone (@thecarolemalone on X) argued the world should thank Britain for things like education, transport and sanitation. The caucasity!

Of course, we disagree, so African Stream journalist Erick Gavala (@erickgavala on IG) takes us through Europe’s blood-soaked trail on the continent.

Continued……The Belgians in Congo, the French in Algeria, Germany in Namibia and Tanzania, and the Dutch Cape Colony in southern Africa all committed horrific atrocities against Africans. And none of it was to the benefit of the indigenous population, whose forced labour, oppression and natural resources enriched Europeans, as historian Walter Rodney (1942-80) argues in ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.’

Have a watch, and please let us know what you make of it.

You can check out our whole reaction on Editor-in-Chief Ahmed Kaballo’s YouTube channel (@ahmedkaballo4170).

Sources
https://www.dw.com/en/tanzanians-welcome-germanys-apology-for-maji-maji-massacre/a-67286643

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/12/23/how-to-pay-for-genocide-the-cost-of-germanys-colonial-crimes-in-namibia

https://worldhistoryedu.com/second-boer-war-1899-1902-history-major-causes-phases-concentration-camps-outcome/

https://blog.prif.org/2025/03/26/dealing-with-germanys-first-genocide-why-bilateral-negotiations-with-namibia-failed-and-what-the-new-government-must-do/

https://www.britannica.com/place/South-Africa/The-Delagoa-Bay-slave-trade

https://ala-choice.libguides.com/c.php?g=1354626&p=10001551

MALCOLM X: ONLY A STRONG AFRICA WILL GET RESPECT

This week marks 100 years since Malcolm X, one of the most eminent Pan-Africanist icons, was born in Omaha in the US state of Nebraska.

Born at a time of widespread oppression of Black people both in the United States and in Africa, a commitment to the global African people’s struggle marked Malcolm X's life.

The founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity firmly believed that for African people at home and in the diaspora to be respected, the African continent needed to become economically and militarily strong.

In this video, Malcolm X (1925-65) explained how the Chinese began to command respect worldwide as a force to be reckoned with culturally, economically, and militarily under People’s Republic of China founder Mao Zedong (1893-1976).

Continued………Malcolm X said the lesson for us Africans was clear: Unite! Just like the Chinese state could unite a population of 540 million in 1949, according to a 2020 commentary in the journal ‘China Population and Development Studies,’ Africa needs an integrated state to unify our growing population of over 1 billion. Watch him make the point by explaining how a r*cist saying quickly fell out of use once China became powerful.

Perhaps the revolution underway in the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), comprising Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, would have brought a smile to Malcolm X’s face. On 6 July 2024, the three states established an anti-imperialist confederation on their path to one governance in Africa. In less than a year, the AES has repeatedly demonstrated that the journey to a unified African state might still be long, but it is possible.

Sources

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/19/al-sharpton-malcolm-x-100th-birthday-civil-rights-trump

https://mg.co.za/thought-leader/2025-05-19-malcolm-x-at-100-our-shining-prince

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42379-019-00042-5#:~:text=Abstract,to%201.4%20billion%20in%202018.

Just a week after US President Donald Trump granted asylum to reportedly as many as 59 Afrikaners over alleged racial persecution in a country where minority white settlers own more than 70 per cent of private farmland, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the White House to try and iron out the rough patch between the two countries. What Ramaphosa may have intended as a constructive dialogue morphed into a contentious display reminiscent of a TV reality show.