BURKINA FORCES HOLD OFF 3,000 TERRORISTS DJIBO TOWN SECURED

Burkina Faso’s Armed Forces have released a video of a huge contingent of motorbike-riding terrorists descending on the northern town of Djibo. For hours, the local garrison, with air support, mounted a stiff resistance against the onslaught from more than 3,000 assailants. Thankfully the army was victorious, and Djibo remains in government hands.

Burkina Faso is reeling from a security crisis that stems from NATO’s arming of Libyan rebels to overthrow Gaddafi. More than 30% of the country lies in rebel control, a situation that led to the coup that saw Captain Ibrahim Traoré rise to power. Thanks in part to a new security alliance with Mali and Niger, the war to regain territory has seen progress, with insurgents no longer able to pass as freely through the three countries’ porous borders.

Much of this progress is taking place following the expulsion of French troops.

Continued….NATO member France proved incapable of containing the security crisis it had created in the Sahel and is accused by Mali and others of actively supporting the terrorists. A few weeks ago, Mali recaptured Kidal, a town the military was forbidden to enter by France in 2021.

With France’s departure, these three Sahelian countries have charted a different security path. In Burkina Faso’s case, this included the enlisting of volunteers from the population and the entry of Russia as a military partner. To many Sahelians, the results speak for themselves.

DIED FOR FREEDOM, NOT TO VOTE

You often can find Dhoruba bin Wahad, former political prisoner and co-founder of the Black Liberation Army, speaking out to set the record straight on what he considers a misinterpretation of the goals of the African liberation struggle in the United States.

For example, our people 'dying for the right to vote' is commonly cited as why Africans should dedicate themselves to the US political system. But, bin Wahad, as well as other human rights defenders, such as Kwame Ture, Malcolm X, and Jamil al-Amin, have said this phrase falls short of the intentions of liberation fighters. They were clear that their participation in the Civil Rights Movement was not simply about gaining access to the right to vote. It was seen as one of many potential tools for liberation to which African people in the United States had not yet gained access. 'By any means necessary' means you exhaust every option available to you.

Continued….However, Dhoruba offers that the right to vote has been decontextualised over the years. Does the tactic work? We don't know because it has been touted as the only solution for Africans, the majority of whom are poor and working class in the United States. Malcolm X, Ture, and al-Amin have said strong independent organisations are a prerequisite for effectively leveraging the power of the right to vote. In the shadow of an intense and ongoing period of state repression that began in the 1960s, many do not believe such an organisation has been sustained for the liberation struggle.

With the 2024 US presidential elections on the horizon, what lessons can we take from these veterans of our people’s struggle?

WHITE PRIVILEGE FOR DUMMIES

Some people actually still think that White privilege is a myth - created by ‘angry’ people of colour as a tool to bash Whites.

They believe, for example, that poverty rates are higher among Africans because they make the racist assumption that we are somehow lazy. Never do they entertain the possibility that we are, in fact, hindered every step of the way by systemic political and economic oppression rooted in slavery, colonialism and neo-colonalism.

In this clip, spoken-word artist Kyla Jenée Lacey breaks down the concept of White privilege for those who still do not get it or believe in its existence.

2 AFRICAN MEN FREED IN U.S.

Many cheered as two African men were exonerated a few days ago in the United States. Jabar Walker was released after serving 28 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Accused of killing of two men in 1995, inconsistent witness testimony was used to place Walker behind bars. A witness statement in his favor was ignored, while another witness admitted to taking what amounted to a bribe from the district attorney's office. Meanwhile, Wayne Gardine, a Jamaican national, also was exonerated after being imprisoned in 1994 on a drug trafficking charge. He won parole last year, but the US government immediately placed him in an immigration detention center to begin the process of deporting him to the Caribbean island of his birth. His immigration status continues to remain uncertain, despite the exoneration, according to a New York Times report.

Continued….Wrongful conviction of minorities, especially Africans, is prevalent in the United States. An infamous case is that of 14-year-old Emmett Till, abducted, tortured and lynched in 1955 for allegedly sexually harassing a white woman in the US state of Mississippi. Years later, the woman, Carolyn Bryant, revealed to a historian and author that she had fabricated parts of her testimony.The same goes for Clarence Brandley, an African who was wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in 1981 for rape and murder in the US state of Texas. Brandley was released in 1990 and sued state-government agencies for $120 million, which he did not obtain.

The US prison system has been used to continue the forced labour of Africans after slavery was abolished in 1865. That's because the country’s 13th amendment allows slavery as punishment for a crime. Africans in United States are incarcerated at five times the rate of their white counterparts, providing labour for a lucrative prison-industrial complex.

Since 1989, more than 3,400 people have been exonerated, according to the US-based National Registry of Exonerations. That means wrongfully charged people have spent more than 30,000 years in prison.

AFRICAN CARDINAL: DON’T CRIMINALISE HOMOSEXUALITY

As Ghana looks to mirror Uganda and introduce tough anti-LGBTQ laws, resistance has come from an unlikely source. Cardinal Peter Turkson is often touted as a future pope and says homosexuality should not be criminalised in his country. He blames the recent drive to jail offenders on Western anti-LGBTQ lobby groups who’ve given aid to African countries.

It’s an issue that continues to split opinion, as Ghana lawmakers debate whether to jail homosexuals for up to ten years. While Pope Francis seems to adopt a similar position to Turkson, Roman Catholic bishops in Ghana insist homosexuality is a ‘despicable sin’. Local politicians, like Sam George, also believe the pro-LGBTQ movement is a result of cultural imperialism imposed by the US.

It’s a hugely divisive topic that Cardinal Turkson discusses during this interview with the BBC. Have a listen and give us your thoughts.

SENATOR: RUTO IS IMF SELLOUT!

A Kenyan senator has accused President William Ruto of putting the interests of Western financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund ahead of his country's.

Okiya Omtatah Okoiti says the policies that Ruto is implementing at the behest of these two bodies are going to impoverish the country and make Nairobi subservient to Western powers.

The East African nation is currently grappling with an economic crisis that has left many citizens struggling to afford basic commodities. The depreciation of the Kenyan Shilling against the US dollar and other currencies has significantly reduced the purchasing power of many households.

President Ruto's decision to remove subsidies on essential commodities and increase taxes has added to the economic woes besetting Kenyans.

What would your advice to Ruto be?

‘GREATEST BRIT’ CHURCHILL’S IMPERIALIST RACISM

Britain still lionises its war-time prime minister Winston Churchill. He’s credited with being a driving force against Hitler and the Nazis. Yet the dyed-in-the-wool imperialist oversaw some Hitleresque policies of his own. Here’s a real lion’s perspective on Churchill’s deep racism.

ISRAEL’S WAR AGAINST BLM

Israeli diplomats and lobbyists have for years now considered the Black Lives Matter movement an enemy and persistently tried to drive a wedge between BLM and the African community across the US. African Stream’s Ahmed Ghoneim breaks down why Israel goes after the BLM movement and who came out on top in this sinister battle to control the narrative surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

CORNEL WEST: CEASEFIRE NOT ENOUGH

Activist and US presidential candidate Cornel West has stood repeatedly with Palestine throughout the years. And calling out Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip has become a focus of his election campaign. But he’s also calling out politicians who remain silent over the unfolding genocide.

According to West, demanding a ceasefire takes about as much courage as joining a ballet team. However, few have taken a stand against Israel’s killing of 15,000 Palestinians in just a few weeks. And he blames the core of the problem on the US war machine and the likes of Joe Biden and Donald Trump who do its bidding.

West doesn’t hold back at this recent campaign event in Los Angeles. He says many things we agree with, but can someone like him actually make a difference in US politics?

The Senegalese navy has seized nearly three tonnes of pure cocaine from a vessel it intercepted 150 km off the coast, in one of the country’s biggest drug hauls, according to naval and military sources.

Drug smugglers often use West African countries as a transit point to ship cocaine from South America to Europe. The region has also become a significant consumer of drugs in recent years, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

The UN body says between 2019 and 2022, at least 57 tonnes of cocaine were intercepted in, or en route, to West Africa, primarily in Cape Verde (16.6 tonnes), Senegal (4.7 tonnes) and Benin (3.9 tonnes).

In January 2023, Senegal's navy seized more than 800 kilos of cocaine from a ship off the coast of Dakar. In October 2022, Senegalese customs seized 300 kilos of cocaine, worth nearly $40 million, that was transported in a refrigerated truck coming from neighbouring Mali.

HERO'S WELCOME FOR BURKINA TROOPS IN FALAGOUNTOU

The Sahel is on a roll. Weeks after the recapture of the Malian town of Kidal, Burkina Faso has taken back Falagountou, a town in the north, close to the Nigerien border. In this video, residents are said to be giving the Armed Forces’ detachment leader a hero’s welcome for a job well done.

This victory comes after the gendarmerie—troops responsible for internal security—recently repelled an attack in Alkoma, a rural commune in Falagountou, where terrorists drove in on motorcycles and vehicles. The same occurred on Sunday, 100 miles to the west of Falagountou in the town of Djibo, where the gendarmerie squashed an attack of a reported 3,000 motorcycle-riding terrorists.

Continued….The Sahelian countries of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have faced a security crisis ever since NATO overthrew in 2011 Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, spurring terrorist groups throughout the Sahara Desert and the neighbouring Sahel region. Burkina Faso has lost up to 40 per cent of its territory to the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, according to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). However, recent developments show Burkina Faso has been undergoing the process of reclaiming land after last year's coup ousted President Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba. Terrorism has killed thousands of Africans and displaced millions, creating an economic and humanitarian burden in the Sahel region.

Burkina Faso is Africa’s fourth-largest gold producer and the 14th largest in the world. Since 2016, these groups have denied the developing country much needed revenue by stealing $140 million in gold to finance their activities, according to a 2020 report the government had commissioned.

In this light, the scenes of celebration in Falagountou make perfect sense. Coupled with President Ibrahim Traoré’s push for greater state control of Burkinabe resources, there’s much to be optimistic about.

WHY DID THEY LIVE SO LONG

It is often said the good die young, but does that mean the opposite is also true and the wicked die old? Well, forgive us for thinking like this. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has just passed away at the ripe old age of 100.

He was responsible for implementing policies that propped up racist apartheid regimes in Africa. It was Kissinger's manoeuvres that extended the shelf life of the Rhodesian and South African racist regimes. He ensured that despite their brutal oppression of Black citizens, they continued to receive material and diplomatic support from the US. For instance, he visited South Africa in September 1976, a few months after the apartheid regime had massacred hundreds of school children. The trip was widely seen as a show of solidarity with the murderous government, which was facing international outrage over the atrocity. He also worked closely with South Africa in their futile attempt to overthrow Angola's leftist leaders in 1975.

Continued….However, Kissinger isn't the only one. Take former President Ronald Reagan, who kept going into his nineties.

It was Reagan who invaded the nation of Grenada in 1983. After the invasion, Reagan apologized to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for invading 'her colony', but the Grenadian people got no apology.
The Reagan administration also alleged to have funnelled Cocaine into inner-city predominantly Black communities to raise funds for the Contras, counterrevolutionary rebels fighting against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. It also supported and propped up Panamanian narco-dictator Manuel Noriega.

In a surprising twist of events, Reagan's predecessor, George H.W. Bush, who also served as his number two, invaded Panama in 1989 and overthrew and arrested Noriega. It is not sure if Bush's actions were motivated by a genuine change of heart about narco-dictators or just the fact that Noriega was no longer useful to the US. However, what is certain is that Bush also enjoyed a long and peaceful life.

Of course, we don't seriously think old age is a reward for wickedness.

But Kissinger's death did make us ask: How come they always live so long?

BARBADOS PM: AFRICA IS IN US IN SO MANY WAYS

On November 30th 1966, the Caribbean island nation of Barbados broke the yoke of British colonialism after more than 360 years. Since then, the day has been characterised by colourful celebrations to commemorate this historic occasion.
To mark this historic day and to celebrate the unity of African people all over the globe, we look back at a speech delivered by Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, at the first Africa-CARICOM on September 7th, 2021. The historic summit was a virtual event chaired by Kenya’s former president, Uhuru Kenyatta, and was attended by leaders of CARICOM and the African Union. The summit aimed to foster unity and integration between Africa and the Caribbean in various fields, such as trade, investment, health, climate change, culture and education.

Continued….It also recognised the historical and cultural links and the everyday challenges between Africa and the Caribbean. Mia Mottley acknowledged that the summit was historic and called for more flights, cooperation and reparations between Africa and the Caribbean. The PM said, rightly, that Africa and the Caribbean are not only connected by blood but also by destiny.

NOVEMBER NEWS WRAP

November, like the rest of the year, has seen its fair share of African stories; good and bad. From the ‘flood of the century’ hitting the Horn of Africa to Nigeria’s scandalous attempts to buy a presidential superyacht in the midst of an economic crisis.
Here’s our breakdown of events across the continent over the last month.