ELAINE BROWN: FEMINISTS VS. BLACK PANTHERS

When former Black Panther Party Chairwoman Elaine Brown spoke about the Black Panther Party’s food programmes, particularly ‘Free Breakfast for Children,’ which grew to provide more than one meal a day, an interviewer kept interrupting by asking, ‘Who cooked?’ 

Brown snapped back by relaying that bourgeois feminists like Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan had pushed the false narrative that the Black Panther Party was a chauvinist movement, reducing the party’s revolutionary work to traditional gender roles. She said these women, entrenched in their class interests and disconnected from the realities of the Black revolutionary struggle, sought to undermine the party’s anti-imperialist politics.

In a party where women comprised an estimated half of the membership, Brown explained that the party assigned roles based on one’s capacity, not on assumed gender roles: ‘If you could cook, you would be cooking. If you could handle a gun, you would be handling a gun.’

Continued......Activist and author Angela Davis estimated women made up as much as 66 per cent of the party. According to the Guardian, Davis wrote the following in the foreward of a 2022 book, 'Comrade Sisters: Women of the Black Panther Party': ‘Because the media tended to focus on what could be easily sensationalised … There has been a tendency to forget that the organising work that truly made the Black Panther Party relevant to a new era of struggle for liberation was largely carried out by women.’

As Columbia University professor Bernard E. Harcourt writes, ‘Cooperation is what people turn to when there is no state, or when the state is actively repressing them.' The Black Panthers’ programmes addressed the immediate social and economic needs of marginalised communities that the capitalist-imperialist US government had neglected by providing food, clothing, ambulances, drama classes, legal education and prison reform campaigns, among other programmes.

Video credit: @_AfroMarxist

Sources

https://antiauthoritarianplaybook.substack.com/p/black-panther-party-community-survival

https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/black-panther-party-challenging-police-and-promoting-social-change

https://bppaln.org/programs

https://noirpress.org/black-panthers-community-programs

https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3883&context=jssw

https://gender.stanford.edu/news/women-were-key-black-panther-party

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/rank-and-file-women-black-panther-party-their-powerful-influence-180971591

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/sep/04/sisters-revolution-women-of-black-panther-party

https://the1313.law.columbia.edu/2024/02/12/bernard-e-harcourt-conditions-of-necessity-the-black-panther-party-and-cooperation

WHITE S. AFRICAN PROF DESTROYS TRUMP’S GENOCIDE LIE

In a dramatic meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House on 21 May, US President Donald Trump doubled down on the discredited allegation of state-sanctioned 'genocide' against the descendants of Dutch colonial settlers in South Africa.

During the meeting, Trump presented images and videos of what he claimed was evidence of a so-called 'White gen*cide' in the African nation. Most of the 'evidence' has turned out to be false.

However, this has not come as a surprise to many people who already knew that the claims of 'white gen*cide' have always been false. Even the purported victims of the 'genocide' have on numerous occasions come out to state that no such thing is happening in South Africa.

Continued……In this CBS news interview, renowned South African international relations professor Piet Croucamp (@pietcroucamp on X) tells journalist Debora Patta (@Debora_Patta on X) that not only are White South Africans not facing any state-sanctioned plan to wipe them out, but they are also thriving economically.

Croucamp states that the settlers continue to dominate many areas of the country's social and economic arenas, something rarely associated with 'persecuted minorities.'

The academic points out that Trump's continued deliberate peddling of falsehoods against the African country could be a result of his close relations with South African right-wing groups, which for years have been at the forefront of spreading the allegations of gen*cide. He also explains that it could be a way to punish a country for taking policy positions that are in stark contrast to those of the United States.

Credit: CBS new/TikTok

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

U.K. TO MAURITIUS: DIEGO OR NO DEAL!

On 22 May, the UK's Prime Minister Keir Stammer announced he’d signed a deal to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. However, there was a caveat. London agreed to grant sovereignty to Port Louis on condition that Britain retained a 99-year lease on Diego Garcia (the archipelago’s largest island) for military purposes. 

In 1965, Britain detached the Chagos Islands from Mauritius during decolonisation. Native Chagossians were forcibly removed to make way for a UK-US military base on Diego Garcia. They have long sought justice, and were reportedly not informed ahead of the signing of the new deal. They had been largely excluded from negotiations and have expressed feelings of betrayal by the agreement. The deal restricts their right to return, particularly to Diego Garcia.

Continued……. Critics say the deal prioritises British and US military interests over the needs of the displaced community. It ensures the Western allies maintain strategic control over the territory. It’s another clear sign that the UK has no genuine appetite for confronting its colonial and neocolonial legacies.

Diego Garcia also hosts a migrant detention camp, which has been embroiled in accusations of human-rights abuses. Moreover, the US uses the base to launch drone strikes and military operations in West Asia, including Yemen. US attacks on Yemeni political and military movement Ansar Allah (commonly known as the Houthis) have caused civilian casualties. The US says its airstrikes on Yemen are a response to the Houthis’ blockade of ships in the Red Sea, which have disrupted shipping. However, many suspect that these strikes are no more than retaliation for the group’s support of Palestinians.

The UK and US military-industrial complexes seem determined to exert their might on the Global South. Diego Garcia is a strategic site they refuse to release from their grip. By dictating terms rather than enabling genuine self-determination or extending reparative justice to Chagossians, the UK displays its imperial arrogance. Its 'goodwill' is merely performative.

Sources

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/clyvv04wk8zt?post=asset%3A519086c5-6e97-4e93-abc9-5361ddb630e7

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

https://news.sky.com/story/politics-latest-starmer-will-vow-to-cut-cost-of-regulation-in-major-speech-today-12593360

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/22/uk-court-temporarily-blocks-deal-to-hand-chagos-islands-to-mauritius

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/british-briton-royal-courts-of-justice-mauritius-richard-tice-b1229298.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcBOYd6JW3A

https://www.biot.gov.io/about/history/

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy78ejg71exo

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/02/middleeast/us-b2-bombers-diego-garcia-intl-hnk-ml

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2025/04/02/us-sends-f-35s-to-middle-east-as-strikes-on-houthis-continue/

https://ipdefenseforum.com/2025/05/u-s-bolsters-diego-garcia-base-to-support-indo-pacific-allies-partners/

https://theaviationist.com/2025/04/16/b-2-using-gbu-57-mop-yemen-reports/

INEQUALITY IN KENYA: VIEW FROM KIBERA

Despite Kenya’s capital Nairobi enjoying a giant share of the nation’s wealth, a lot of it is concentrated in the hands of a small elite. The vast majority of city residents live in poverty.

We visited Nairobi’s biggest slum - Kibera - to shine a light on the stark inequalities that exist in Kenya. Our film looks at the causes, the role of land distribution, government failures, the role NGOs play in perpetuating the crisis and, most importantly, what action Kibera residents are taking.

Let us know your views in the comments.

AFRICAN LIBERATION DAY

In celebration of African Liberation Day today, we honour the unbreakable spirit of the dream of a free and united Africa. It’s an annual call to action, a time to renew our commitments to the struggle for liberation and unity. Some people wrongly think it celebrates the founding of the African Union. It was actually started in support of African national liberation struggles against settler or Portuguese colonialism in the 1960s and 1970s. And it still has huge relevance today. Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have formed the Alliance of Sahel States to push back against French neo-colonialism. Resource-rich DRC, Sudan and the diaspora in Haiti are examples of where Africans continue to be oppressed.

Continued……While some refer to it as 'Africa Day,' we'll use the full noscript until the continent has freed itself from imperialism. To learn more about African Liberation Day or to see if there is an event near you, check out africanliberationday.net.

Are you observing African Liberation Day this year? Let us know how in the comments.

CONFRONTING AN IRAQ WAR ARCHITECT!

Here's a flashback to 2019, when African Stream's future founder and editor-in-chief confronted one of the architects of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Ahmed Kaballo spotted Alistair Campbell on the other side of a London train station - and wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to give him a piece of his mind. Campbell served as UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's communications chief. He played a key role in drafting intelligence assessments in the build-up to the invasion.

As Washington's sidekick, the UK rolled into Iraq, justifying its involvement using false claims that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). Campbell was instrumental in selling that lie!

The war resulted in the deaths of 654,965 Iraqis, with 601,027 of these being violent deaths, according to the Lancet Medical Journal.

Continued……. Research conducted by Opinion Research Business (ORB) puts the number even higher at over 1 million. Whatever the figure is, the war was undoubtedly a disaster, causing regional instability and the rise of the ISIS terror group, which now has operations in Africa too and is one of the key insurgent groups destabilising the Sahel.

Far from spreading democracy, the US unleashed an era of terror in the region, with effects felt to this day. The town of Fallujah, for example, has abnormally high rates of cancer and congenital disabilities, as reported by truthout.org. One of the authors is quoted as saying Fallujah had 'the highest rate of genetic damage in any population ever studied.'

Still, folk like Campbell get to retire peacefully and enjoy a pension without facing the consequences of the murder of hundreds of thousands of civilians. Feel free to tell @campbellclaret (X) what you think about that. Let us know if you agree with @AhmedKaballo (X) 's view.

Sources
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-14159483

https://www.channel4.com/news/iraq-war-alastair-campbell-on-the-dodgy-dossier

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/03/the-iraq-invasion-20-years-later-it-was-indeed-a-big-lie-that-launched-the-catastrophic-war/

https://unherd.com/newsroom/alastair-campbell-i-wish-iraq-had-never-happened/

https://truthout.org/articles/iraq-wars-legacy-of-cancer/

Continued……https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-Living-Museum-of-the-Ju-hoansi-San-is-located-in-Grashoek-a-small-village-near_fig14_326648178

https://neweralive.na/rape-accused-british-tourist-denied-bail

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14734779/British-tourist-65-accused-molesting-dozens-children-Namibias-San-tribe-forcing-strip-remote-living-museum.html

NAIROBI CELEBRATES AFRICAN LIBERATION DAY

Here's a throwback to when the African Stream team took part in a special pan-African event in Nairobi to mark 2024’s African Liberation Day (25 May).

There was music, as well as speeches and shows of solidarity through song. Legendary figures such as Kwame Nkrumah, Amílcar Cabral and Patrice Lumumba loomed large in our thoughts as we discussed and planned for the final liberation of the motherland. African Liberation Day is not just an event, but the continuation of struggle in the face of ever-evolving means of subjugation, such as neocolonialism.

The proud tradition has its roots in the 1958 Conference of Independent African States in Accra, Ghana, where leaders united against colonialism and laid the groundwork for pan-Africanism. At the conference, Kwame Nkrumah founded African Freedom Day - on April 15th.

Continued……. Just over five years later, on 25 May, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was formed by 32 independent African states. African Freedom Day was moved to this date and rebranded African Liberation Day.

It has since served as a global platform to promote African unity, political awareness and the struggle against imperialism, playing a key role in supporting liberation movements and advancing the goal of African freedom through revolutionary organisation.

Here are some of the highlights from what was by all accounts a great day. How are you marking the 2025 edition?

Sources

https://www.modernghana.com/news/236966/nkrumah-and-pan-africanism.html

https://face2faceafrica.com/article/read-kwame-nkrumahs-iconic-1963-speech-on-african-unity

https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/nkrumah/neo-colonialism/introduction.htm

https://www.kdrtv.co.ke/politics/ruto-reveals-how-he-got-2500-acre-farm-in-taita-taveta/

https://liberationnews.org/chad-and-senegal-kick-out-french-troops-following-the-lead-of-the-alliance-of-sahel-states/

France is feeling the pinch of African teeth on its behind. The French military has been booted out of the Sahel, as have French propaganda outlets - while mining giant Orano lost its licence in Niger. But rather than listen to African concerns about French colonial and neo-colonial exploitation, President Emmanuel Macron insulted the entire continent in January by claiming Africans forgot to say ‘thank you’ for all that France had done for them. Do we need to remind him what his predecessor, former French President Jacques Chirac, said? In March 2008, Chirac admitted, “Without Africa, France will slide down into the rank of a third [world] power.” Monsieur Macron, this week’s proverb is for you.

WHAT BBC PARTIALITY TELLS US OF AFRICOM'S LANGLEY

Africans should be aware and cautious of the empire’s ability to change its face to be more palatable without a fundamental change in form and substance. One of these tricks involves carefully filtering candidates and employees to advance its agenda.

As part of our reaction to former footballer Gary Lineker’s (@GaryLineker on X) recent BBC interview, when he took a journalist, Amol Rajan (@amolrajan on X), to task on impartiality, we watched US intellectual Noam Chomsky offer another perspective. In the 1996 soundbite we played, he said BBC hosts do not self-censor but believe their positions due to years of imperial grooming. Chomsky says it's no accident, as BBC journalist Andrew Marr (@andrewmarr9 on X) would not have been hired if he held opinions to the contrary.