PLO LUMUMBA ON AFRICAN RESPONSIBILITY

Following 8 months of intense fighting in Sudan, the question today is not if the country is hurtling toward an all-out civil war but if anything can be done to stop it. So far, more than 6 million civilians have been internally displaced, another million have sought refuge in neighboring countries and the death toll is in the thousands.

In a recent exclusive interview with African Stream in our Nairobi office, Pan-Africanist scholar PLO Lumumba and African Stream CEO Ahmed Kaballo urged Africans to speak up against injustice anywhere it rears its head because it might just catch up with them, if they shrug it off as a distant conflict. Its an impassioned call, give it a watch and let us know your thoughts in the comments section below

AFRICA’S WHIZZKID INVENTOR

Meet the amazing teenager from Malawi whose clever inventions are transforming his community. He’s only 17 years old, but has found a way to give everybody free internet, has built his own radio and is now looking to harness solar power!

WHY IS SLAVERY TAUGHT IN U.S. BUT NOT AFRICA?

US-based Ghanaian-Liberian comedian Michael Blackson is also a philanthropist - he’s opened a modern school that’s free to locals kids in his hometown of Agona Nsaba in Ghana.

He says it’s not just about giving children opportunities, but also about changing the curriculum in African classrooms. Because one thing he says is often left off is African history - in particular, the history of slavery. Blackson says he learned more about this topic in school in the US than he ever did in school in Ghana, which came as a shock.

He says he’s going to make sure his school teaches it, so that the students have a more complete self-understanding. As he explains in this clip, he’s worried there’s a kind of ‘cover up’ of this past across Africa - a legacy of colonial ‘brainwashing’ when African education systems were being first set up.

Continued….It’s certainly part of the African Stream mission to give Africans full self-knowledge about their past and present - because it’s only from this basis that progress can be made. What are your thoughts on this? Should African self-awareness be more future-oriented instead?

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COULD BIKO PLAN SAVE SOUTH AFRICA?

In today's South Africa, White people still hold over two-thirds of the country's wealth, despite making up less than 10 per cent of the population. The economic divide is as bad as it was during apartheid.

But this shouldn’t surprise you. Some fifty years ago, anti-apartheid icon Steve Biko warned the wealth-gap would remain unless racist economic structures are dismantled. His solution was simple, a combination of state and private enterprise.

He wanted the government to run strategic industries like mining and forestry and own land for the benefit of the people. That hasn’t happened. In fact, it’s estimated just 3,5000 individuals own 15 per cent of all wealth in South Africa.

Biko railed against racist policies from an early age, which saw him expelled from school. While at university he founded the South African Students Organisation (SASO) to represent the interests of Black students.

Continued…..And later he established the Black Consciousness Movement (BMC) to counter apartheid White propaganda which constantly told Blacks they were inferior.

In 1977 Biko was detained by the notorious ‘security’ branch of the apartheid police force. He suffered a brain haemorrhage after being beaten by officers. Instead of taking him to hospital, police transported him to a Pretoria prison. It was a journey of more than 700 kilometres that he endured chained in the back of a pickup truck. Within hours of his arrival, he died. He was just 30 years old.

Biko’s shocking death sparked outrage across South Africa and beyond. More than 20,000 people turned up for his funeral in his hometown of King Williams Town. The country was robbed of a future leader who would have played a key role in the post-apartheid South Africa.

He was born on December 18th 1946, and to mark his birthday we've decided to run this speech. He outlines his plans for a prosperous, fair, South Africa. Could this action plan work today?

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SISTER AT COP28: WE NEED UBUNTU!

An African delegate blasted the damage that the top 100 energy companies have created through their extractive work. Her remarks came at the most recent United Nations climate-change conference (COP28), held in the United Arab Emirates.

Greenpeace Africa Climate and Energy Campaigner Thandile Chinyavanhu said these companies have been responsible for 71 per cent of global greenhouse-gas emissions since the 1980s.

But, the sister not only criticised the damage done in Africa. She offered a solution: Follow the African principle of Ubuntu. That is a Bantu term meaning ‘humanity to others.’ It’s sometimes translated as ‘I am because we are.’ In Xhosa, a language widely used in southern Africa, ‘Ubuntu’ means the ‘belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity.’ It is a philosophy that supports collectivism over individualism.

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POPE BRANDS ISRAEL’S WAR TERRORISM

Pope Francis has equated Israel’s war in Gaza with terrorism. He cited the recent killing “in cold blood” by IDF snipers of a mother and daughter taking refuge in a Catholic church in the Strip. He noted that the building housed only unarmed civilians - including families, the sick, and nuns. It’s the second time in less than a month that the Pope has used the word ‘terrorism’ to describe Israeli actions in Gaza.

The number of people killed in Israel’s military in Gaza has now surpassed 20,000 - among them some 7,000 children - with over 50,000 injured.

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MURDER, ARRESTS ROCK DRC VOTE

DRC President Felix Tshisekedi will bid for re-election this Wednesday. But his government is accused of falling back on old-style repression tactics ahead of the ballot.
Murders and arrests of opposition figures in recent months have seen human rights groups lambast his government, as the race for the leadership comes to a head.

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SOUTH AFRICA’S EX-PRESIDENT TURNS BACK ON ANC

As South Africa’s 2024 elections approach, the country’s ruling party and former liberation movement, the African National Congress (ANC), continues to bleed support and members.

The latest to turn his back on the party is its former leader and South Africa’s former president, Jacob Zuma. At a media briefing on 16th December in Johannesburg, he said he would throw his weight behind a newly formed political organisation called Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK). The new party’s name also happens to be the name of the armed wing of the ANC during the liberation-struggle days, something that has not gone down well with the ruling party, which has vowed to launch a legal challenge over the ownership of the name.

Zuma says that, while he will campaign and vote for the new party in the 2024 elections, he will remain a member of the ANC.

Continued….He said his voting intention is necessitated by the leadership style of the current South African president and boss of the ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa, whom he accuses of being an agent of ‘White capitalists’ opposed to the progress of Black South Africans. Zuma claims the ANC has changed into an organisation that many party veterans “can longer recognise.”

Zuma was forced to step down both as party leader and president in 2017 over corruption allegations. Despite his unceremonious exit from power, he commands a formidable following within and outside the ANC. He has been a member of the party since the late 1950s and has held several senior positions, including those of party vice-president and president. More than 400 people died during riots that broke out in July 2021 in response to Zuma’s incarceration on contempt-of-court charges.

What do you make of his latest intervention?

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EGYPT UN ENVOY BLASTS ‘EVIL’ ISRAEL

This is an Egyptian diplomat at the UN calling out the West’s double standard over Israel’s destruction of Gaza.

Amr Essam says while all terrorism should be denounced as evil, so too should the bombing of hospitals and the sieging of civilians.

Since October 7th more than 19,400 people have been killed in Gaza, about 70% of them women and children.

RUTO TO EXPORT 2,500 KENYANS TO SAUDI

In yet another controversial announcement by Kenya’s president, William Ruto, 2,500 skilled labourers will be sent to work in Saudi Arabia. This is due to a mounting unemployment crisis at home and pressure to secure foreign currency. It is just days after his deputy, Rigathi Gachagua, urged the Kenyan diaspora to stay abroad, as the country has no jobs and the government continues to rely on remittances. This year, Kenyans had sent home $349 million, according to the Central Bank of Kenya. Earlier, Kenya’s government said it would send workers to Israel in the steps of Malawi.

Continued….The broader implications remain unaddressed. Labour and human rights abuses against Africans have been well documented in the Persian Gulf region, and no safeguards seem to have been put in place. Additionally, the opportunity cost of developing labour only to export means a manpower shortage for continental needs. As Kenya flagged off nurses to Europe, the town of Naivasha reported in July that 20 child deaths have occurred each month in a hospital.

Africa has a long way to go before development, and it is unclear how exporting the best of its talent will bridge the gap. Have a watch, and let us know what you think.

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Some eights months after fighting broke out between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, civilians continue to pay the ultimate price.
Over 12,000 people have been killed and thousands more injured, according to the Armed Conflict and Event Data Project. The United Nations reckons nearly 25 million people desperately need humanitarian aid.
What’s more, the conflict is spreading with devastating consequences.
Not so long ago the city of Wad Madani, in east-central Sudan, was considered a safe haven for refugees. However, it’s now engulfed by fierce clashes, forcing a considerable chunk of its population to flee.

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This is for the seven African countries who refused to back a UN resolution calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

The mayor of Northern Israeli town, Metula, has openly stated he wants Gaza flattened and turned into a museum ‘just like Auschwitz.’

In case you didn’t know, that’s the concentration camp in Poland where more than a million jews were killed by Nazi forces during the holocaust. David Azoulai’s disgusting comments come as the number Palestinians killed by Israel in just over two months approaches 20,000. Most of them are women and children.

Despite the massacre, Liberia voted against the recent UN General Assembly resolution, while Cameroon, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Malawi, South Sudan and Togo abstained. A shameful show of hands. As long as they continue to effectively support Israel, the likes of Azoulai will feel emboldened. There’s no excuse. ALL African countries must take a stand.

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SOUTH AFRICA’S ANC LOSES APPEAL AMONG ITS FORMER LEADERS

Former South African president, Thabo Mbeki, has joined the long list of liberation stalwarts, who have turned their backs on the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), over allegations of corruption and gross mismanagement.

Speaking during a public lecture in August at the University of South Africa in the capital of Pretoria, the ANC heavyweight said he would not campaign for the party he has called home for more than six decades if it does not change its trajectory. He accused the ANC of becoming a home for criminal, corrupt and greedy elements, a departure from the values it had espoused as a liberation movement fighting apartheid.

Continued….In recent months, the ANC, which is the continent’s oldest liberation movement, has the lost support of both ordinary citizens and its former officials. Opinion polls indicate 2024 will hand the party its worst electoral performance since coming into power in 1994.

The country has in recent years witnessed a rise in unemployment, violent crime and general economic decay, leading to rising anger against the ruling party. This has added to the frustration over the party’s perceived failure to transform apartheid-era economic structures that continue to confine many Black South Africans to the economic periphery.

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South Africa is threatening to prosecute its citizens caught fighting for Israel in Gaza. There are reports some have already joined the IDF, but Pretoria warns they could be breaking international law and face charges back home. They also need permission from their government to fight in overseas conflicts, but Pretoria is firmly against Israel’s assault on Gaza and describes it as genocide. It’s also called on the International Criminal Court to investigate Tel Aviv over war crimes.

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