As a Pan-Africanist news outlet, we advocate for our people to build a united and prosperous continent. However, we must point out this example of imperialist powers extracting our wealth when some Africans need to move to the Global North to find a way to make a living because neo-colonial powers have collaborated with pliant African ‘leaders’ to continue exploiting us on the continent.

London-based LAGO Collective, a research and creative collective on migration, culture and the arts, has found that Africans lost approximately $67.5 million in rejected Schengen area visa application fees to Europe in 2024. The Schengen area comprises 29 EU and non-EU countries, representing the world’s largest visa-free travel zone, according to the EU. Africa represented 40 per cent of the total amount accrued from non-refundable application fees for denied visas.

Continued……‘The poorest countries in the world pay the richest countries in the world money for not getting visas,’ according to LAGO Collective founder Marta Foresti, whom CNN interviewed. Based on data the organisation has analysed since 2022, African countries face rejection rates as high as 50 per cent.

For the UK, the numbers are equally exploitative and extortionate: In 2024, rejected visas for African passport holders cost nearly $68.8 million, bringing the total revenue generated by the UK and the EU to at least $136 million.

Although data doesn't exist on African losses due to rejected US visa-application fees in 2024, official government records show high rejection rates, with Liberians experiencing as much as a 79 per cent rejection rate for B visas that cost $185 per application. These fees are also non-refundable.

Sources

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/21/travel/africans-europe-schengen-denied-visas-applications

https://www.semafor.com/article/05/26/2025/rejected-visa-application-to-europe-cost-africa-68m

https://independentnews.co.sz/14534/news/africans-lose-millions-to-visa-denials-in-2024

https://www.chr.up.ac.za/dce-opinion-pieces/3808-op-ed-bridging-the-gap-towards-a-fairer-schengen-visa-process-for-african-applicants

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20240716104622512

https://theconversation.com/africans-who-apply-for-schengen-visas-face-high-rejection-rates-migration-scholar-explains-why-232286

https://www.henleyglobal.com/publications/africa-wealth-report-2024/comparing-visa-rejection-rate-africans-versus-world

https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/schengen/visa-policy/short-stay-visas-issued-schengen-countries_en

https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Non-Immigrant-Statistics/RefusalRates/FY24.pdf

https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/schengen-area

https://ke.usembassy.gov/worldwide-nonimmigrant-visa-fee-increases

BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY DENIES THE OBVIOUS ON GAZA

The British government is refuting a reality that has been livestreamed and documented to the world for over 19 months now: Israel’s military onslaught against Palestinians in Gaza, with the support of the United Kingdom. 

UK Member of Parliament Zarah Sultana (@zarahsultana on X) called out the UK for denying weapons sales to Israel, to which UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy (@DavidLammy on X) feigned ignorance and then accused Sultana of being ‘keen on clickbait.’

Continued……. In reality, like many Western countries such as Germany, Italy and the US, the UK has provided support to Israel for decades and since the 7 October escalation of Israel’s 77-year occupation of Palestine. In addition to the nearly $173 million in arms sales, Britain has abstained from UN resolutions calling for a ceasefire. The UK has also reportedly flown fighter jets from Cyprus to aid Israel in its military onslaught against Palestinians.

Israel had k*lled as many as 186,000 Palestinians by July 2024, according to British medical journal The Lancet. The UN also reported on 12 May that '470,000 people in Gaza are facing catastrophic hunger' as Israel blocks aid deliveries.

Video credit: @BBC

Sources
https://www.aol.co.uk/news/britain-abstains-un-vote-demanding-215935237.html

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext

https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2025/05/16/labour-military-exports-israel/

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-spy-planes-continue-fly-over-gaza-corbyn-tables-inquiry-bill

https://abcnews.go.com/International/gazas-entire-population-faces-critical-levels-hunger-report/story?id=121706450

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9q4w99je78o

https://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/ipc-overview-and-classification-system/en/

AFRICAN LIBERATION DAY 2025: SOCIALISM AGAINST IMPERIALISM

In a powerful display of solidarity and a renewed commitment to the continent's liberation, the Communist Party Marxist-Kenya (CPM-K, @Communistske on X) spearheaded a three-day conference culminating in the 62nd African Liberation Day celebrations in Nairobi.

Drawing local and international delegates, the event served as a platform to garner support for Pan-African unity and reignite the struggle for socialism against imperialism.

African Liberation Day is celebrated every year on 25 May to mark the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963. Yet, the dream of a united Africa under the principles of scientific socialism, as envisioned by Pan-African leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972), Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-1970), and Sékou Touré (1922-1984), remains unfulfilled.

Continued…….. The key reason is that our true independence has been hindered by bureaucratic capitalism, which is pushed by African elites in cahoots with imperialist interests.

The conference served as a clarion call for a unified Pan-African front to dismantle neocolonial systems. Delegates highlighted the need for greater collaboration among African nations, fostering self-sufficiency and resisting external pressures undermining the continent's interests. The Alliance of Sahel states (AES) is a guiding light in revolutionary Pan-African unity by ejecting French and US troops, consolidating security and foreign affairs and reclaiming control over their natural resources.

International solidarity, as exemplified by Cuba under its revolutionary leader Fidel Castro (1926-2016), added to the event's flavour. Though enduring a blockade from imperialists, Cuba assisted liberation movements in southern Africa, hastening the downfall of apartheid and colonialism without taking anything from Africa in return.

The battle for Africa's liberation is far from over. It demands unwavering unity, a rejection of neocolonial economic models, and a steadfast commitment to socialist ideals that promise a future of genuine independence and prosperity for all Africans.

Sources

https://www.citizen.digital/news/kenya-to-host-62nd-african-liberation-day-commemorations-in-nairobi-n363343

https://africanliberationday.net/

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jid.3470

https://kujenga-amani.ssrc.org/2024/04/10/dysfunctional-capitalism-in-africa-and-the-theory-of-squanderation/

https://liberation.ndfp.info/editorial/the-scourge-of-bureaucrat-capitalism/

https://panafricanreview.com/not-yet-uhuru-africas-elusive-quest-for-true-liberation/

https://au.int/en/pressreleases/20250524/au-marks-africa-day-2025-call-justice-unity-and-forward-momentum

https://www.thoughtco.com/fidel-castro-1779894

www.cubainafrica.com

https://hoodcommunist.org/tag/kenyan-land-and-freedom-army/

https://www.communistpartyofkenya.org/87-recent-news/336-towards-a-global-struggle-solidarity,-socialism,-and-the-defeat-of-imperialism

https://fightbacknews.org/articles/nato-the-anti-war-movement-and-the-decline-of-u-s-imperialism

WHAT EXPLAINS TRUMP'S FAKE-NEWS CAMPAIGN AGAINST SOUTH AFRICA?

African Stream dug into US President Donald Trump’s claim that South Africa is committing g*nocide against white farmers. 

During South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 21 May meeting at the White House, Trump displayed some irrelevant, poorly sourced articles, and he played a video of white crosses set up by the roadside as evidence of the ‘white g*nocide.’ As African Stream Editor-in-Chief Ahmed Kaballo pointed out, who would bury their loved ones by the roadside, especially if they worried about a g*nocide?

So, was Trump misinformed or lying? We believe Trump is not ignorant, given the US president has access to a wealth of intelligence at his disposal. Trump is likely pushing a false narrative for political purposes.

Continued……Additionally, considering the number of mainstream Western news outlets pointing to the contrary, the disinformation is likely more strategic than accidental, designed to appeal to a specific ideological base like white supremacists.

Kaballo suggested it could have something to do with US right-wing political initiatives like Project 2025 and fears of a low white birth rate in the US, which would place whites in the minority by 2050. White supremacists use their population decline to justify exclusionary immigration policies and the expulsion of Black and Brown populations. Was that why Trump welcomed and granted refugee status to as many as 59 white settlers from South Africa?

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

Soundbite credit: @AP on X

Sources
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/21/us/politics/trump-south-africa-president-white-farmers-video.html

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/10/south-africa-most-unequal-country-in-the-world-report

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/white-genocide-south-africa-examining-trumps-oval-office/story?id=122052444

https://www.npr.org/2025/05/22/nx-s1-5406400/trump-confronts-south-africas-president-with-false-claims-of-white-genocide

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9wg5pg1xp5o

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c977njnvq2do

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-us-will-become-minority-white-in-2045-census-projects/

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/01/politics/trump-immigration-what-matters

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/20/south-sudan-deportations-donald-trump-00360762

On 28 May 2014, poet, writer and activist Maya Angelou joined our ancestors. 

Angelou has been a critical figure in Black literature, pushing back on white-supremacist narratives about our people by celebrating us in all of her work. One thing Angelou (1928-2014) never failed to do was connect the global oppression of Africans in the diaspora to our people on the continent. 

In her words here, she reminds us of the significance of history as we shape our future. Angelou pointed out that detaching a people from their roots can cause a loss in direction. As a descendant of Africans kidnapped and forced into slavery in the Americas, Angelou asserted the importance of understanding where we come from.

Continued……Furthermore, her apt words make clear that not knowing our history can make us susceptible to the oppressor's narratives about us. For example, Africans who have internalised the oppressors' narrative that they are inferior to Europeans have attempted dangerous acts of erasure, such as skin bleaching, a trend in many parts of the continent and beyond.

Arguably, liberation begins with mental decolonisation, as it is from this that complete liberation can come to fruition. Understanding African history, where we have been and our current reality is crucial to knowing where we are heading.

Over a decade since her death, Maya Angelou's work continues to inspire our journey toward liberation. May she continue to rest in power.

Sources

https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/16/archives/-for-years-we-hated-ourselves.html

K*LL THE BOER' IS NOT A CALL FOR MURDER

If you watched the cringe meeting between US President Donald Trump and his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa (@CyrilRamaphosa on X), we might have to forgive you for thinking that Pan-Africanist politician Julius Malema (@julius_s_malema on X, @julius.malema.sello on IG) is calling for g*nocide against white settlers in South Africa by singing the anti-apartheid song, ‘K*ll the Boer.’

Settlers of Dutch origin are also known as Boers.

During the 21 May meeting, Trump displayed videos of Malema at political events, claiming they were evidence of the opposition politician's alleged g*nocidal campaign. The US president went so far as to ask why Ramaphosa's government had not arrested Malema.

Trump's unfounded claims bypass the song’s context. It emerged with Black South Africans singing it on the streets in the 1980s and early 1990s in response to the apartheid regime’s violence unleashed against the Black majority. 

Continued….. The EFF leader has repeatedly said that his singing the song is neither hate speech nor inciting violence against white settlers but is merely a reminder to South Africans that the struggle against the economic and social exclusion of Black people is not yet over. Indeed, white settlers comprise only 7 per cent of the population but control most of the economy and own 72 per cent of private farmland. 

A 2022 South African Equality Court judgement ruled that the tune was simply a struggle song.

Further, a court recently dismissed the ‘white g*nocide’ claim in a separate case, calling it ‘not real’ and ‘clearly imagined.’ 

Of the murders that took place in South Africa between April 2024 and December 2024, only 0.035 per cent involved farmers, whose race the government had not distinguished in culling the information.

Video credits: @CNBC, @SABCnews and Judiciary of South Africa (@OCJ_RSA)

Sources

https://iol.co.za/news/politics/2025-03-27-just-in-constitutional-court-dismisses-afriforums-leave-to-appeal-kill-the-boer-kill-the-farmer-as-hate-speech

https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/5/23/trump-s-treatment-of-south-africa-s-ramaphosa-irks-africans-1519

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/about-kill-the-boer-chant-in-trumps-south-africa-white-genocide-video-8479105

https://thepost.co.za/news/politics/2025-03-27-da-teams-up-with-afriforum-to-urge-ramaphosa-to-condemn-kill-the-boer-song

https://groundup.org.za/article/judge-rules-kill-boer---kill-farmer-not-hate-speech

DAIRY FACTORIES OPENING ACROSS BURKINA FASO

In the heart of West Africa, a revolution is underway. Watch this powerful clip from Ghanaian YouTuber Wode Maya (@mrghanababy on IG), who recently visited Burkina Faso to document the country’s bold steps toward sovereignty, starting with cow's milk.

On 27 March, Burkina Faso inaugurated the first state-owned Faso Kosam-branded dairy factory in the capital of Ouagadougou. Then, on 18 May, Burkina Faso opened another Faso Kosam dairy factory in the city of Fada N'Gourma. The government also plans to open three more in the municipalities of Bobo Dioulasso, Koubri and Dori. The facilities would allow Burkina Faso to produce yoghurt, butter, cheese and powdered milk.

‘Only 2 per cent of national milk production is currently collected and processed, while almost 12 billion CFA francs [$20 million] are spent each year on importing dairy products,’ Alain Sawadogo, Faso Kosam’s director, told Libreinfo.

Continued……. The Faso Kosam project aligns with Burkina Faso's objective of food sovereignty and industrialisation, which President Ibrahim Traoré has promoted. On 20 February, Burkina Faso also inaugurated a flour mill called the Moulin Double Star in the town of Gampèla, on the outskirts of Ouagadougou. Furthermore, on 16 December 2024, Traoré inaugurated the second SOFATO tomato paste factory in the northern Yako department. The first factory launched on 30 November in Bobo Dioulasso, the country’s second-largest city, located in the southwest.

These new factories aim to transform how Burkinabé people consume food, reducing dependence on exports by relying on what farmers and workers can produce domestically. Former revolutionary leader of Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara (1949-87), famously stated, ‘Where is imperialism? Look at your plates when you eat. The imported grains of rice, corn, and millet – that is imperialism. Let's not look any further.’ He championed the message: ‘Produce what you consume and consume what you produce.’

Today, Traoré seems to have not only taken Sankara's message to heart. He's implementing it.

Video credit: @mrghanababy (IG)

Sources

https://www.sig.gov.bf/actualites/agenda-du-gouvernement/details?tx_news_pi1%5Baction%5D=detail&tx_news_pi1%5Bcontroller%5D=News&tx_news_pi1%5Bnews%5D=2135&cHash=2d9dc240e49bce55497cec8ed3069537

https://libreinfo.net/laiterie-la-premiere-unite-de-faso-kosam-officiellement-inauguree/?amp=1

https://web.facebook.com/rtburkina/videos/la-société-faso-kosam-inaugure-la-2e-unité-de-production-de-lait-à-fada-ngourma/647655124936031/?_rdc=1&_rdr#

https://www.aib.media/burkina-le-president-traore-inaugure-une-usine-de-production-de-farine-de-ble-construite-a-15-milliards-par-un-particulier/

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14kpo0SUEEuBCV0TYLo8dJy3cJvqQKQeC/view?usp=sharing
(page 196 of PDF)

https://web.facebook.com/rtburkina/videos/consommons-ce-que-nous-produisons-produisons-ce-que-nous-consommons-prônait-le-p/1581728859366178/

OUT OF TOUCH RAMAPHOSA JOKES ABOUT HIS ENCOUNTER WITH TRUMP

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has attempted to make light of his infamous public humiliation by United States President Donald Trump during their recent meeting at the White House, which was dominated by discredited claims of genocide against South Africa’s white settlers.

Shortly before Ramaphosa’s speech at the 2025 Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium taking place in the city of Cape Town, the auditorium lights dimmed, prompting Ramaphosa to joke that it reminded him of the 21 May meeting with Donald Trump.

While Ramaphosa might have found the humiliating encounter hilarious, many Africans did not find the public humiliation of an African leader by a Western right-wing figure to be a laughing matter. This is because the disrespect that Trump showed towards Ramaphosa had less to do with the South African leader and more to do with contempt towards Africans as a collective.

Continued….. While Trump’s conduct reflected his views about Africans, which are well-documented, the meeting also perpetuated the racist notion of African leaders needing to have their decisions or conduct approved by Western leaders.
There is also nothing to laugh about an encounter where numerous falsehoods were spread about an African country and its people. Nobody in Europe was laughing when Trump pulled on a similar stunt on Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky.

Is this all lost on Ramaphosa?

Another factor that makes it impossible to find anything hilarious about the Trump-Ramaphosa interaction is that the South African leader completely failed to take advantage of the exchange to effectively dispel the false and malicious ‘white genocide’ conspiracy theory that the likes of Trump have spread for years without any evidence.
Mr President, you are the only one laughing.

Credit: Newzroom Africa/X

The US House of Representatives passed a bill on 22 May that would impose a 3.5 per cent tax on immigrants' remittances abroad, down from the initial 5 per cent proposal. The 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' that now moves to the US Senate for approval before needing US President Donald Trump's signature would affect part of the over $100 billion annually that streams from the global African diaspora back to their native countries.

Continued….. The UN says 2023 remittances amounted to more than twice foreign governments’ ‘development assistance’ and direct investment in Africa. Critics describe the proposed tax on remittances as an attack on the Global South, as they pay for school fees, medical expenses, housing and businesses on the continent. 

Republican lawmakers proposed the bill to allegedly curb illegal immigration, but all it appears to do is extract from already-taxed wages, illustrating how imperialist states control colonised people’s financial capacity.

For centuries, we have fought European colonisers who imposed taxes and exploited our lands and peoples. If this bill passes, our continent’s brain drain will be transformed into a cash drain.

This begs the question: Will the African countries defend their citizens abroad or keep quiet while the West remakes imperialism for the 21st century on the backs of their people abroad?

Sources

https://gfrid.org/diaspora-remittances-grow-to-record-sh671-billion-in-a-year

https://familyremittances.org/idfr-2024/events-activities/kenya

https://www.facebook.com/cgtnafrica/posts/the-kenya-national-bureau-of-statistics-reports-that-diaspora-remittances-rose-b/1142198744613175

https://peopledaily.digital/business/diaspora-remittances-jump-14pc-to-sh674-1b-in-2024

https://www.financialexpress.com/business/investing-abroad-internet-slams-us-bill-to-impose-5-tax-on-nri-remittances-says-this-is-new-form-of-stealing-3844915

https://www.kenyans.co.ke/news/112092-how-new-5-us-excise-tax-remittances-could-impact-money-sent-kenya

https://www.firstpost.com/explainers/trump-remittance-tax-impact-on-indians-us-diaspora-nri-13888902.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/republicans-tax-remittances-immigrants-send-home-rcna206842

https://www.un.org/osaa/news/digital-remittances-africa

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1/all-actions?overview=closed&q=%7B%22roll-call-vote%22%3A%22all%22%7D

PALESTINIAN CHILD TRYING TO ESCAPE ISRAEL’S SCHOOL BOMBING

This clip shows 5-year-old Ward Jalal Al-Shaikh Khalil looking for a way out of a classroom after Israel's 26 May airstrike on a Gaza City school where she and her family had sought shelter. Israel k*lled at least 35 people in the Fahmi al-Jerjawi School.

Before managing to escape, she watched her mother and four siblings - Abd al-Rahman (17), Muhammed (14), Maria (13) and Silwan (11) - burn to death, according to the Middle East Eye. Speaking to the news outlet, her uncle, Iyad Muhammed al-Sheikh Khalil, said, ‘She is devastated. Her situation is indescribable. I don't know how she will recover, or if she ever will.’

Israel's onslaught that began on 7 October 2023 has k*lled one or both parents of nearly 40,000 children.

Continued……It is the ‘largest orphan crisis in modern history,’ as Dr. Ola Awad, president of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), reported in a 5 April statement. Although Ward’s father also survived the bombing, he was left in a critical condition and rushed to the intensive care unit (ICU).

Francesca Albanese, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said in March, ‘There are reasonable grounds to believe Israel is committing g*nocide.’ Yet, despite widespread reporting of Israel's atrocities and the world watching a plausible g*nocide unfold on our screens in real-time, Israel has not been held accountable.

Efforts to seek justice for Palestinians, such as South Africa’s g*nocide case at the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Galant, have been met with resistance. On 6 February, long-time Israel ally, the United States, placed sanctions on ICC ‘officials, employees, and agents, as well as their immediate family members.’ Washington also slashed funding to Pretoria, in a move many view as a retaliation for challenging Israel at the ICJ and standing with the Palestinian people against settler-colonialism.

Sources

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/gaza-girl-devastated-after-family-killed-israeli-strike

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz9yjj54v3xo

https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/c4g39x87q0go

https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2025/5/26/palestinian-child-filmed-trying-to-escape-fires-after-israeli-attack

https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/portals/_pcbs/PressRelease/Press_En_ChildDay05042025E.pdf

https://www.un.org/unispal/document/genocide-as-colonial-erasure-report-francesca-albanese-01oct24/

https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-state-palestine-icc-pre-trial-chamber-i-rejects-state-israels-challenges

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/imposing-sanctions-on-the-international-criminal-court/

'AIN’T I A WOMAN?’ AIN’T THE TRUTH

On 29 May 1851, at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, Sojourner Truth - an unflinching abolitionist, formerly enslaved African woman and women's rights advocate - delivered one of the most revolutionary speeches in Black liberation history that’s famously known for the line, ‘Ain’t I a woman?’ 

Historians have since challenged whether Truth uttered those words. Nonetheless, many regard Sojourner's speech as a direct rebuke to both white supremacist patriarchy and the racist erasure of Black womanhood in early feminist movements.

Today, her legacy remains a rallying call, not only for Black women rights, but also for the liberation of all oppressed people across the globe. Here, we break down the controversy surrounding Sojourner’s speech.