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.

Continued………. During a live press conference at the White House, Trump presented a series of videos showcasing South African political rallies, particularly focusing on Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) President Julius Malema (@Julius_S_Malema of @EFFSouthAfrica). Trump also presented a stack of print-outs that allegedly demonstrated racial attacks against white people. Footage played on a large screen, including that of Malema chanting ‘K*ll the Boer,’ an anti-apartheid song that refers to Dutch settlers. Boer means 'farmer' in the Afrikaans language, and is generally used to refer to white settlers who descend from Dutch colonialists, the group that dominated the apartheid regime that ruled South Africa between 1948 and 1994.

The video presentation culminated by showing a field of crosses, which Trump claimed was a burial site for over 1,000 white farmers. However, South African reports say the videos showed a 2020 multi-racial protest of temporary crosses after a farming couple was murdered.

In a post on X, Malema reacted to the press conference by referring to Trump and Ramaphosa as 'a group of older men [meeting] in Washington to gossip about me.' He dismissed Trump's allegations about discrimination against white settlers and a ‘white g*nocide’ as unfounded. The latter term has become a rallying cry for those who oppose South Africa's land expropriation law that aims to rectify lingering apartheid-era racial inequities. According to Malema, Ramaphosa didn't need to visit the US, noting the US possesses intelligence that makes clear no g*nocide exists.

Sources

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce9vvljen0xo

https://www.ewn.co.za/2025/05/21/julius-malema-reacts-to-trump-playing-eff-clips-to-justify-false-sa-white-genocide-claims

https://www.news24.com/southafrica/debunking/donald-trump-confronted-cyril-ramaphosa-with-a-collection-of-misinformation-20250522-0311

https://iol.co.za/news/politics/2025-05-19-malema-criticises-ramaphosas-us-trip-as-a-waste-of-time-during-critical-budget-crisis

https://www.facebook.com/economicfreedomstruggle/videos/eff/1762302561002339

AFRIXPLAINED: MUGABE’S LAND REFORM - GOOD OR BAD?

With issues related to colonial-era land grabs by White settlers in South Africa making headlines, we are reminded of how the West condemned former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe (1924-2019) for his land reforms. For Zimbabweans, it was a vital step towards reclaiming sovereignty and addressing historical injustices. These reforms led to a boost in agricultural production. However, the sanctions they triggered from the EU and the US led to considerable economic difficulties.

Continued……. Research conducted between 2000-2010 in Masvingo province, one of the areas where the land reform was implemented, has revealed that mainstream media narratives did not fully capture the complexities of the situation. In our in-depth look at the issue, we speak with Ian Scoones - the author of Zimbabwe Land Reform. He dispels several myths surrounding Mugabe’s policy.

A more nuanced understanding invites a reevaluation of the reforms’ impact. Have a watch and let us know if you think they were ultimately worth it.

Sources

https://agrarianstudies.macmillan.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/colloqpapers/12scoones.pdf

SOUTH AFRICAN ‘REFUGEE’ WHO
DIDN’T BRING MOM!

"Here's a look at one of those so-called 'refugees' that Donald Trump has just welcomed from South Africa. (The US president falsely claims there's a gen*cide against White people there.) 46-year-old Charl Kleinhaus says he took up the asylum offer because he feared for his life. Yet he didn't bother to bring his mother to the US, leaving her in South Africa. He must hate her, because he told the BBC that there's a gen*cide there - targeting the likes of her.

Oddly, the US Department of Homeland Security (@DHSgov on X) didn't bar him from entry to the US. Since 9 April, it's been screening foreigners' social-media activity for anti-Semitic views - saying such views would count negatively in immigration decisions. In a now-deleted post on X, Kleinhaus branded Jews 'dangerous and untrustworthy. Looks like the reality is that only those who oppose Israel's onslaught on Palestinians get banned.

Continued…….. In this video, South Africa-based broadcaster Dan Corder (@dancorderonair - Instagram) exposes why Kleinhaus' story of victimhood is far from the reality of someone genuinely fleeing danger.

Video Credit: @dancorderonair (Instagram)

Sources

https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom/news-releases/dhs-to-begin-screening-aliens-social-media-activity-for-antisemitism

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c98p3eple9eo

https://apnews.com/article/south-africa-us-refugees-trump-afrikaners-16e34760b93cfa66f15b4cd8380743c1

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/5/15/theyll-be-back-white-afrikaners-leave-south-africa-to-be-refugees-in-us

https://www.nbcnews.com/world/africa/trump-musk-south-africa-refugee-claims-white-farmers-genocide-rcna20632

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/addressing-egregious-actions-of-the-republic-of-south-africa/

NOTTOWAY PLANTATION TOUR: 'SLAVES WERE TREATED WELL'

Black people in the US who are descendants of enslaved people have furiously commented on a video that has surfaced of a history tour at the Nottoway Plantation, where a fire on 15 May destroyed what was once the largest pre-Civil War plantation mansion. 

In the video, a tour guide in period attire described the supposed benefits of the lives of the enslaved people, claiming our ancestors were treated ‘fairly well.’

Watch the video and let us know what you think.

Video credit: @11Alive (X), @KPRC2 (X)

Sources

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

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

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJzXHrBpv2Q/?igsh=eGZsZGJ0cnZobWRi

WE SHALL NOT PUT OUR HEAD DOWN!

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Israel's onslaught has k*lled 53,000 Palestinians. Meanwhile, the Lancet medical journal estimated in July 2024 that the death toll is at least 186,000. And there seems to be no end in sight.

In this clip from May 2024, Reverend Reginald Wayne (@rwsharpejr on X) of the Chicago-based Fellowship Ministry Baptist Church (@fellowshipchi on X) gave a passionate speech at Morehouse College's commencement exercises in Atlanta, denouncing those who are complacent with Israel’s military onslaught of the Palestinian people in Gaza. 

Continued……. The US continues to send billions of dollars in weapons to Israel. Former US President Joe Biden approved $26 billion in ‘military aid’ during his term. In early February, the US State Department signed off on more than $7.4 billion in bombs and missiles. Then, the US Senate approved $8.8 in arms in April. 

Wayne reminds us that we cannot ignore the hypocrisy of a world that demands our silence in the face of injustice. When those in power, those who shape the narratives and control the airwaves, urge us to sit down and stay silent, we must stand up and speak out. Listen in and share your thoughts.

Video credit: @morehouse (X)

Sources

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/supreme-court-rejects-appeal-from-dylann-roof-who-killed-9-people-in-a-black-church

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/18/why-did-israel-break-the-ceasefire-in-gaza

https://fellowshipchicago.com/meet-pastor-sharpe

https://morehouse.edu/events/signature-events/commencement/virtual-celebration/baccalaureate

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/07/israel-weapons-sale-gaza

https://abc7.com/dylann-roof-south-carolina-church-shootingo-emanuel-african-methodist-episcopal/801013

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/25/us/politics/us-foreign-aid-egypt-israel.html

WOULD YOU SAY THAT TO A JEW?

Would the UK-based GB News panel featured in this clip lecture a victim of the Holocaust on the supposed benefits the massacre of Jews brought? No! Yet, why do they make the same claim for Africans?

In this clip from our longer reaction to the soundbite, African Stream journalist Sanna Arman takes aim at the blatant double standards, arguing that attitudes haven’t shifted much since the end of colonialism, with Africans still seen as subhuman.

Arman dismantles that logic and pointed out that if British education had been so great, the panellists would have been more informed of British imperialism's devastating consequences on the world. However, the information is readily available to any journalist, so the panellist is choosing to be ignorant out of r*cism.

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

Continued…….. Don't forget to head to Editor-in-Chief Ahmed Kaballo's YouTube channel (@ahmedkaballo4170) to watch our complete reaction.

Soundbite credit: @GBNEWS (X)

Sources
https://ebrary.net/173755/sociology/frantz_fan_n_dehumanization_inferiorization_epidermalization

On this day, 23 May 1926, Joe Slovo, described by many as the 'most hated' white person by South Africa's apartheid regime, was born Yossel Mashel Slovo in Lithuania to Jewish parents. He moved to South Africa at age 8.

Slovo eventually became a communist and commander of the uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). 

However, his political activism began in the 1940s, when he served as a shop steward in the National Union of Distributive Workers (NUDW), founded by supporters of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA). In 1942, he joined the CPSA.

Inspired by the Soviet Red Army's fight against the N*zis, he joined the South African military, serving in North Africa and Italy. He then became a member of the multiracial radical military veterans' group, the Springbok Legion.

Continued……. Slovo studied law alongside Mandela at the University of Witwatersrand, graduating in 1950. Soon after, the government listed him and his wife, Ruth First, as communists under the Suppression of Communism Act, which curtailed their activism and forbade the press from quoting them. The law also banned the CPSA, which re-emerged in 1953 as the South African Communist Party (SACP.)

Despite this, Slovo helped draft the 1955 Freedom Charter that called for a non-discriminatory, democratic South Africa. The state detained him several times in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

In 1961, he helped found the MK, the ANC's armed wing, jointly formed by the ANC and SACP. Two years later, he went into exile, spending 27 years in Angola, Britain, Mozambique and Zambia. From there, he planned and coordinated military strikes, leading the regime to declare him 'public enemy number 1.' South African state media outlets routinely called him a 'traitor.'

In 1982, apartheid operatives shipped a mail bomb that killed Ruth in Mozambique. They had three daughters together.

In 1990, Slovo began participating in negotiations to end the apartheid state. He then served in 1994 as a Minister for Housing, but he died of cancer on 6 January 1995.

Rest in power, Joe Slovo!

Sources

https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/joe-slovo

https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/slovo/index.htm

https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/ruth-first-joe-slovo-against-apartheid/

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/ruth-first/

WHITE SOUTH AFRICAN DENIES TRUMP’S GENOCIDE CLAIMS

Cyril Ramaphosa has gone though the ordeal that is a Donald Trump White House press meeting. True to form, the US president used the opportunity to try and get his South African counterpart (and the world) to accept that there is a ‘White gen*cide’ happening. Trump has a lot of political capital riding on that debunked idea: he’s offered White South Africans ‘asylum.’ Ramaphosa, for his part, remained calm, despite numerous attempts to bait him.

Continued……. Interestingly, some White South African farmers have gone on record to rubbish the idea that they are being targeted. Indeed, Black farm workers and farmers are also being murd*red in South Africa. The murd*r rate in South Africa is very high, but the share of White farmers is negligible versus the overall picture.

Sources
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fact-checking-trumps-claims-of-white-farmer-genocide-in-south-africa

https://www.dw.com/en/south-african-farmers-refute-trump-no-white-genocide/video-72623251

https://www.dw.com/en/white-south-africans-leave-for-us-under-trump-refugee-plan/a-72511336

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-has-undeniable-complicity-gaza-war-killings-say-former-us-officials-2024-07-03/

WHY HAITI’S FLAG IS SACRED

This week, Haiti celebrated its national flag day (18 May). It commemorates the creation of the Haitian flag. This was sewn together by a seamstress called Catherine Flon in 1803 from the remains of a French flag from which revolutionary leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines had torn out the white strip. Times are tough on the Caribbean island amid instability and continued foreign meddling by forces that never forgave its people for expelling the slave masters. But that didn’t stop islanders marking the 222nd anniversary with vibrant and colourful celebrations. In this video, our sister @mintahtumbao (IG) breaks down the symbolic importance of the day to Haitians and why the Haitian flag has a deep meaning for Black liberation in general: Haiti was the first Black republic to claim independence after a successful slave revolt. For Haitians, the flag isn’t just political - it’s sacred.

Video Credit: mintahtumbao (IG)

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

TRAILER: INEQUALITY IN KENYA’S
BIGGEST SLUM

Nairobi is Kenya's wealthiest county, yet this prosperity is inaccessible to the majority of its residents, who reside in slums. The biggest of these is the gigantic, overcrowded, insanitary Kibera slum. Our new in-depth video looks at how it came to be, meets some of the residents and learns about the challenges and hardships they face. The film also looks at why it’s so difficult to change the status quo. Here’s a snippet - you can watch the full documentary on our YouTube page.

DATA DEBUNKS TRUMP'S R*CIST 'WHITE G*NOCIDE' CLAIM

US President Donald Trump erroneously claimed a 2020 protest honoured murdered white farmers in South Africa as evidence of a 'white g*nocide' during his 21 May meeting at the White House with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. 

The video displayed white crosses to symbolise deaths in the farming sector over many years. It was not a burial site, yet Trump created the impression that mass k*llings of white farmers have taken place.

The reality is South Africa's high crime rate affects everyone, not just white farmers, who comprised 0.035 per cent of murder victims between April 2024 and December 2024, with farm attacks which mostly kill Black workers making up a total of 0.2 per cent of murders.

Continued……Trump's focus on white farmers reeks of racial bias, ignoring the disproportionate number of Black South Africans, especially farm workers, who are also victims of violence. The stark contrast between the South African government's crime data and Trump's narrative demonstrates to us that the US president is engaging in a form of white supremacist propaganda, one that parallels that of groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, which made propaganda material to justify their existence as saviours of the 'white race.'

What was the response from Ramaphosa, leader of one of Africa's biggest economies? Watch out for a follow-up on social media, or check out our complete reaction on Editor-in-Chief Ahmed Kaballo's YouTube channel (@ahmedkaballo4170).

Sources
https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-showed-videos-crosses-context-south-africa-genocide/story?id=122056100

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/is-south-africa-dangerous-to-visit-where-rank-worst-countries-safety/

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/us/politics/zelensky-showdown-trump.html

https://www.kenyans.co.ke/news/112348-cnns-larry-madowo-reveals-racist-abuse-after-reporting-trump-ramaphosa-meeting

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/22/fact-check-do-trumps-white-genocide-claims-to-ramaphosa-hold-up

EU CHIEF SAYS EUROPE MUST UP
GAME IN AFRICA

Former colonialists and neo-imperialists just can’t leave Africa alone, can they?

In this 2023 video, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen calls for more European involvement in the Sahel and urges for a new strategic partnership with our continent. She predicted more instability in the Sahel as a result of the revolutionary coups, which overthrew Western-aligned rulers. She ignored the fact that the citizens of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger were overwhelmingly in support of the anti-imperialist revolutions in their countries. She would have the world believe that the legacies of French colonialism and US imperialism in Africa are not a factor in the ejection of Western troops and diplomats from the Sahel.

Von der Leyen betrays neo-colonialist European plans for Africa by saying that the European Union will work with ‘legitimate governments and organisations in Africa,’ diplomatic-speak for African leaders in the pocket of imperialists.

Continued……For context, in 2024, the EU and European member states provided $370 million of the total African Union (AU) budget of $605 million. And in 2023, French president Emmanuel Macron lobbied the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to intervene militarily in Niger, which ousted the West’s puppet president Mohamed Bazoum and kicked out French troops and diplomats.

Could von der Leyen’s call for partnerships, which includes the much-touted €150 billion Global Gateway Investment Package for Africa, be a Trojan horse to entrench neo-colonialism in our continent? Given Europe’s history with colonialism and support for puppet African leaders doing its bidding, there is every reason for Pan Africanists to stay vigilant.

Video credit: France 24

Sources

https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/eu-chief-seeks-new-approach-to-africa-to-counter-russia/

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2021/696161/EPRS_BRI(2021)696161_EN.pdf

https://www.trtworld.com/europe/borrell-admits-eu-spending-training-failed-to-bolster-democracy-in-africa-14936436

https://www.oiip.ac.at/en/publications/the-european-union-and-the-sahel-the-day-after/