HAIR RELAXERS IN THE DOCK: DO THEY CAUSE CANCER?

African women are among the biggest consumers of hair relaxers - chemicals used to straighten hair. Often, especially in the diaspora, this is driven by societal pressure to fit in, with traditional Afro styles mocked or branded unprofessional. As if that wasn’t bad enough, new research suggests hair relaxers could cause uterine cancer.

A group of African women in America are now leading the charge against cosmetic industry heavyweights like L’Oreal and Revlon. They’ve filed a lawsuit against a dozen companies, accusing them of failing to warn customers of the dangers of their hair relaxers.

According to a study done by the National Institute of Health, women of colour who used relaxers more than four times in 2022 were twice as likely to develop cancer.

African Stream’s Brenda Mwai digs deeper into this story, which could be an issue for so many of our sisters. Please share and let us know your reactions and concerns in the comments.

ZIONISM'S GRIP ON AFRICAN LIBERATION

Many African people are shocked by the number of African politicians, celebrities, and friends coming out in support of Israel on social media. But African support for Israel is just as old as the Zionist manipulation of African freedom dreams and liberation struggles around the world. African Stream takes a look at just one of those histories of manipulation that took place in the United States.

Let us know if your friends, relatives and favourite celebrities have surprised you.

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ZOOMING IN ON DIOP’S PHOTO ART

Meet the Senegalese photographer who uses his art to build bridges between Africa and its diaspora.

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Niger is suing ECOWAS over sanctions that have crippled the West African country since the summer coup. Lawyers for the military rulers say the bloc’s punitive measures have caused untold economic hardship on one of the world’s poorest countries. The ECOWAS court in Abuja will decide on the case on December 7th. Some of blocs members refuse to recognise Niamey’s new leadership and claim they don’t have the authority to launch the lawsuit.

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AFRICAN POLITICIAN: LOYALTY TO ISRAEL A MUST

The entire US political apparatus is founded upon and fueled by imperialist conquest and colonialism. Who can then be surprised that support for Israeli settler colonialism fits like a glove? You may have noticed that almost every seemingly progressive US congress member, who says they want to make change from within, ends up selling out to Israel. It’s by design! US politicians defend the interests of the United States, not of the people within its borders. More than one US politician—including President Joe Biden—has said supporting Israel benefits the United States.

In this clip, former US congressmember Cynthia McKinney spoke to Press TV journalist Marzieh Hashemi about what happened when she refused to pledge allegiance to the Zionist state of Israel.

Do you still think it is possible to change the system from within? Let us know in the comments below.

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TURE MASTERCLASS ON ZIONISM

If you want to understand the difference between Zionism and Judaism, here’s an unforgiving summary by pan-Africanist Kwame Ture.

Zionism is imperialism and originated from atheist Europeans determined to give Jews their own homeland. Judaism is a monotheistic religion derived from Black people in Africa. In this 1995 clip, Ture argues the two terms are deliberately mixed to make people think they are one of the same thing. As a result, anti-Zionist views get termed anti-Semitic.

Ture was often accused of popularising anti-Israel sentiment within the Black nationalist movement. He led the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party in the US and was Honorary Prime Minister of the Black Panther Party.

Continued….During this time the FBI secretly identified him as the man who would succeed Malcolm X and began a targeted counter-intelligence campaign. That spurred Ture to move to Africa, where he lived in Ghana and then Guinea between 1968-1969. It was there he changed his name from Stokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael and campaigned for revolutionary socialist pan-Africanism. To him, any African who aided and abetted Zionism worked against the interests of Africa.

Ture’s views were direct and uncompromising, as you’ll see from this interview at Howard University. He died from cancer three years later.

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PIRACY RETURNS TO SOMALIA

A commercial Iranian fishing vessel has been hijacked off the coast of Somalia. It’s the first such incident in years, with piracy in decline in the region since the launch of EU naval patrols in 2008. While mainstream media brand Somali hijackers pirates, the root cause of the problem is often overlooked - overfishing, much of it by foreign ships, has destroyed local livelihoods, as has the dumping of toxic waste, including nuclear, off Somali shores. The hijackers of the Iranian vessel are demanding a large ransom. The EU naval mission says it will look into the incident, and there are allegations aired on Somali TV by people connected to the ship that Somali maritime police have been unresponsive.

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‘TIGHTEN YOUR BELTS!’ RUTO PREACHES AUSTERITY WEARING $2,800 BELT

Kenya’s President Ruto has come under fire for sporting a $2,800 (KSh. 425,000) Stefano Ricci crocodile belt while urging Kenyans to ‘tighten their belts’ at a church service in the capital Nairobi. This out-of-touch display is reminiscent of Marie Antoinette’s ‘let them eat cake.’

Ruto’s government, in a year, has imposed taxes on basic commodities and stripped subsidies, sending sky high what was already an unsustainable cost of living for the average Kenyan.

The president has embarked on more than 42 foreign trips in a year, as well as surpassed and supplemented the Presidential Office’s budget.

Continued….Government officials have been seen driving top-of-the-range vehicles in a country where many struggle to afford a single meal, tertiary education is in a funding crisis and the youth unemployment rate is soaring.

With Ruto’s campaign promise to roll out a ‘bottom-up’ economic model nowhere close to realisation, does his administration have its priorities right?

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Talk about putting your head in the sub-Saharan sand. Just before his recent trip to ally Nigeria, French Foreign Trade Minister Olivier Becht said France is 'absolutely not being driven out Africa, and we are not in decline at all.'

Well, for some reason, he’s ignoring the three recent anti-French coups in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali which resulted in the expulsion of French troops.

He's also ignoring figures for the last two decades. The New York Times reported France accounted for 10 per cent of Africa’s international trade in 2000, but that’s been slashed by half. And it said future market trends don’t look good either. African banks are replacing French ones, while French construction companies are losing out to Turkish and Chinese firms.

Becht even had the audacity to claim: 'We make some of the best products in the world', 'which meet environmental standards', 'which take account of local populations' and 'which seek to create added value'.

Continued….Really? Didn’t France extract uranium for decades from Niger which somehow remained one of the world’s poorest and least developed countries?

Do you think his comments seem delusional?

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CHIHOMBORI ON TRAUMA OF COLONISATION

The legacy of colonisation not only left countries impoverished but also made it difficult for former colonies to push back. But that’s changing. According to Arikana Chihombori - a Pan-Africanist and former diplomat - people across Africa are waking up to the true extent of the mistreatment they’ve suffered at the hands of (neo-)colonialists, and are demanding a new way of doing things.

She gives the example of Niger, whose revolutionary new government has kicked back hard against French exploitation. She likens it to a class of students realising that together they can stand up to the school bully. Slowly but surely our collective trauma is turning into our strength - as it fuels our desire for justice.

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It is with a heavy heart that we have received the tragic news that our dear colleague and friend Roqiya Sabeg passed away on Friday, 24th November. Roqiya was 29 and a brilliant journalist who represented FIFA, African Stream, Al Jazeera and TRT World during her career.

A Muslim woman of Algerian descent raised in the UK, Roqiya was a passionate anti-colonialist who dedicated her life to standing up for the oppressed around the Global South.

For African Stream, Roqiya covered protests against police brutality in France, Algeria's war of independence and a piece on the woman who established the world's first university in North Africa.

One of her last requests was to focus on the Israeli war in Gaza, comparing it to the Algerian war of independence against France's brutal colonialism.

Continued….During this massacre of innocent Palestinians, Roqiya represented journalists around the world and made a courageous public statement against Israeli apartheid and oppression - a powerful speech which was covered by the world's biggest outlets.

It is hard to believe that such a kind and beautiful soul full of life was taken from us at such a young age. It remains a lesson for all of us not to take any day in our lives for granted. We would like to dedicate this post as a tribute to her life and legacy - which will never be forgotten.

Please kindly donate to a charity in her memory via the link below and we ask you all to keep her in your prayers as much as possible. May God grant her family and friends the patience to make it easy for them all in this difficult time.

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إِنَّا لِلَّٰهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُون

ISRAEL PUNISHES DEAD PALESTINIANS

Death is generally seen as a final break from the troubles and indignities of this world. However, if you’re a Palestinian who dies under Israeli detention or is killed by Israeli forces during an alleged attack, the oppression continues even after you are dead.

Israeli authorities allegedly refuse to release the bodies of dead Palestinians until they have served their ‘full sentence’. And it means relatives sometimes don’t receive the body of their loved ones for decades.

According to the Palestinian National Initiative, 142 dead Palestinians are being kept in refrigerators while more than 200 are buried in so-called numbered graves, where they are only identified by a number.

Continued…..It’s widely seen as a form of posthumous punishment, denying families an opportunity to give dignified burials. Israel has also used the practice - which breaches international law - as leverage in political negotiations.

Mustafa Barghouti, from the Palestinian National Initiative, recently explained the grim policy on Al Jazeera.

In the tumultuous waters of the Horn of Africa off the coast of Somalia, what the mainstream media dubs ‘piracy’ has reemerged. But for many in the Somali community, at home and in the diaspora, they are not pirates but patriots who should be hailed for being unofficial guardians against illegal fishing and polluting.

In a region plagued by civil war and political instability, these so-called pirates have, in the past, positioned themselves as defenders of their maritime resources. With foreign vessels exploiting Somali waters for illegal fishing, some locals view the vigilantes as a line of defence against the plundering of their seas and the dumping of toxic nuclear waste.

Continued….The resurgence of Somali vigilantism at sea is perhaps unsurprising. An EU-naval mission (Operation Atlanta) has been mandated to police Somali waters, but foreign vessels still catch stocks worth $600 million via illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

The recent attempted hijacking of an Israeli-linked commercial vessel, the Central Park, in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday was carried out by five Somalis and not Yemeni Houthis, as initially reported.

‘KAREN’ ABUSING PALESTINE SUPPORTER GOES VIRAL

Well, it turns out anything non-white people do, including peaceful pro-Palestine protests, can easily trigger ‘Karens’

Here, a woman unleashes a tirade of abuse at a demonstrator in Georgetown, Washington, who was peacefully protesting on a sidewalk.

The level of racism and Islamophobia is off the charts. And the clip, posted just a few days ago, has gone viral.

Unfortunately, many Palestine supporters have faced abuse as they take a stand against Israel’s onslaught of Gaza, which has killed over 15,000.

The protester is called Hazami and shows an ice-cool reaction. How would you respond in this scenario?

'ISRAEL UPHOLDING LAW IN GAZA' - UK MINISTER

According to the UK, Israel is not breaking international law as it continues to pummel the Gaza Strip.

So far, over 15,000 Palestinians have been killed during the onslaught. And five countries, including South Africa, have called on the International Criminal Court to investigate.

But despite accusations Israel is committing the crime of collective punishment against Palestinians, London has doubled down.

During this interview on Sky News, the UK’s Trade Secretary said Tel Aviv has always acted within international law and ‘applauded them for doing so’.

She's unfazed by the fact two-thirds of Palestinians killed are women, children and the elderly. And a near-complete blockade has cut off food and energy supplies to Gaza.