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.

Continued……. We can see that with the US Africa Command (AFRICOM), which, despite serving white-supremacist interests in Washington, has a Black face as its commander in the form of General Michael Langley. This contradiction, again, is no accident, as Langley probably sincerely believes his stance from years of conditioning to believe in US supremacy. On 3 April, he testified to the US Senate Armed Services Committee that Burkina Faso President Ibrahim Traore is using the country’s reclaimed gold to protect himself at the cost of the people. Africans worldwide took their indignation at Langley’s comments to the streets on 30 April, perhaps paving the way for an African awakening demanding sovereignty.

What other examples can you think of regarding empires grooming people to work against ordinary people? Please share your thoughts.

If you'd like to hear more, watch the whole episode on our Rumble, Patreon and YouTube (@ahmedkaballo4170) accounts.

Soundbite credit: @BBC

Sources

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/06/politics/michael-langley-marines-black-four-star-general/index.html

https://hellovybes.com/us-general-michael-langley-accuses-ibrahim-traore-of-misusing-gold-reserves/

MEDICAL APARTHEID: GAZA PATIENTS LEFT TO D*E

In this recent clip, a doctor who volunteered in Gaza explains that hospitals there are collapsing due to Israel's escalated siege causing catastrophic shortages of equipment, fuel, and staff, as well as its airstrikes destroying health infrastructure. These conditions are leading to avoidable deaths, including those of children, the elderly and the chronically ill.

In April 2025, Israeli warplanes put al-Ahli Arab Hospital out of service, one of at least 36 hospitals that Israel has struck since October 2023, often with 2,000-pound US bombs to allegedly destroy H*mas 'bunkers.' According to the British charity Medical Aid for Palestinians, Israel had k*lled at least 1,400 healthcare workers between October 2023 and May 2025. Targeting medical facilities and personnel is a war crime, according to the Geneva Conventions.

Continued…….. In addition to air strikes, hospitals are short on life-saving materials due to the Israeli blockade on food, medical supplies, and humanitarian aid to Gaza. Dozens of trucks brimming with aid remain stuck at border crossings. In July 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Gaza's health sector needs approximately 80,000 litres of fuel daily, as the lack thereof has diminished the life-saving capacity of Gaza’s healthcare system. In particular, Israel's onslaught has halted cancer treatment, cardiac procedures, maternity services, and dialysis in Gaza. Fuel shortages have plunged hospitals into darkness, forcing physicians to work by the light of their cell phones.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 11 per cent of children in some areas of Gaza are experiencing ‘global acute malnutrition,’ with 57 child deaths due to starvation reported between 2 March, when Israel reimposed an aid blockade, and 13 May. The crisis has forced Al-Shifa Hospital to treat about 5,000 patients per day, more than seven times its 700-patient capacity. Doctors perform surgeries without proper anaesthesia and antibiotics while bandages run low.

Video credit: @60minutes (X) / @cbs (X)

Sources

https://english.palinfo.com/news/2025/04/10/337084/

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/who-warns-permanent-impact-hunger-generation-gazans-2025-05-13/

https://www.msf.org/five-ways-war-gaza-impacting-palestinians-health

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/gaza-aid-trucks-border-famine-imminent-rcna144830

https://www.un.org/unispal/document/highlights-of-the-noon-briefing-25jul24/#:~:text=The%20UN%20Office%20for%20the%20Coordination%20of,the%20functioning%20of%20vital%20services%20across%20Gaza.&text=This%20is%20about%20100%2C000%20litres%20per%20day%2C,the%20most%20basic%20humanitarian%20operations%20each%20day.

https://youtu.be/ayIOnmB54EM?si=4_hnYlxm0pRzdrdR

https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/1400-healthcare-workers-killed-israels-systematic-attacks-gazas-health-system

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/israel-gaza-humanitarian-aid-un-1.7539737

https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/16/05/2025/last-hospital-treating-cancer-patients-in-gaza-goes-out-of-service

https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/gaza-humanitarian-response-update-10-23-june-2024

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/05/1163166

KILL THE BOER SONG EXPLAINED

On 21 May, US President Donald Trump hosted his South African counterpart at the White House. Cyril Ramaphosa had hoped the meeting would end months of sour relations between the two countries after Trump repeatedly made baseless allegations that White South Africans are persecuted.

However, thanks to Trump, the meeting quickly turned into a PowerPoint presentation of outright fake news and half-truths. From a video that Trump falsely claimed showed gravesites of victims of the alleged mass killings of White South Africans, to lies about the South African government allowing violent land grabs, the US president dished it all out.

However, most of Trump's venom was directed towards one man: Julius Malema, the leader of South Africa's Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) opposition party. According to Trump, he was the one leading the alleged persecution.

Continued………Trump played a 2023 video of Malema singing an apartheid-era song - K*ll the Boer. Trump claimed the song was a call for the k*lling of White people. Fake news!

In fact, the song emerged during the struggle against apartheid. 'Boer' means farmer in Afrikaans, the language spoken by South Africans of Dutch descent. However, in the South African context, it loosely refers to all White people who are of Dutch origin, the group that designed, crafted and dominated the apartheid system.

So when freedom fighters sang about 'k*lling the Boer,' they were not talking about k*lling individual Boers but about bringing down the racist, oppressive system of apartheid. And now, when Malema and his EFF supporters sing about shooting the Boer, they are talking about ridding the country of the remnants of that system, which perpetuates the economic misery that many Black South Africans still endure.

The song calls for an end to the race-based economic inequality that’s seen the White-minority continue to hold the lion's share of the national cake. These are facts that Trump already knows but chooses to ignore. But when were facts ever important to Trump?

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

BURKINA FASO DOOMSDAY REPORTS EXPLAINED

The mainstream media have presented a dire image of Burkina Faso in recent weeks. Western analysts suggest that the country’s military under President Ibrahim Traoré has failed to repel terrorists groups. Videos of armed militants have been circulated to reinforce the idea of a collapsing state. However, this narrative overlooks key developments and appears suspiciously timed, surfacing shortly after Traoré's public alignment with Russia and criticism of Western powers.

Continued……. The Burkinabe government asserts it is regaining control. Key indicators - such as a sharp drop in inflation and increased agricultural output - support that claim. Construction and infrastructure development further contradict the image of a failed state.

The supposed experts cited in panic-mongering reports often lack direct ties to the region and are backed by Western defence-funded think tanks or European Union institutions. This casts doubt on the true motive behind the doomsday reports.

As David Hundeyin (@davidhundeyin on IG) argues in this video, what’s being sold as news may actually be strategic disinformation designed to manipulate public opinion and justify foreign political agendas in West Africa. What’s your take?

Video credit to @HotSpotHotSpot (X)

Sources
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/al-qaeda-affiliate-claims-200-soldiers-killed-in-burkina-faso-attack/ar-AA1ER20Z

https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/BFA/burkina-faso/inflation-rate-cpi

https://www.aljazeera.com/program/featured-documentaries/2025/2/19/offensive-agricole-burkina-faso-africas-new-directions

https://africanpropertymagazine.com/2025/01/10/roofing-revolution-burkina-fasos-building-boom/

https://www.csis.org/people/beverly-ochieng

AFRICA LIBERATION DAY: GHANAIANS SUPPORT TRAORÉ AND AES

On 25 May, Ghanaians marched with slogans such as ‘Hands Off the AES!’, affirming their support for the recently formed Alliance of the Sahel States, comprising Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. In 2024, the trio exited the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional bloc and formed the AES confederation after ousting Western-aligned leaders in people-backed coups d’état. They went on to expel former French colonial forces from their countries and reclaim natural resources from foreign entities.