TO BE FRANC, IT'S FINANCIAL REPRESSION

A financial weapon of repression against former colonies? We look at the CFA franc in Africa 78 years after it was introduced, and why it might be high time to ditch it.

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JON STEWART ON U.S. SYSTEMIC RACISM

In case you’re after a quick summary of America’s racist history towards Blacks, Jon Stewart doesn’t do a bad job. During a minute-long blast, he points out a few home truths that got his guest back-pedalling.

This clip is from The Problem with Jon Stewart, a show that aired on Apple TV last year. Funnily enough, the programme was scrapped two months ago over ‘creative differences’ between Apple and Stewart.

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PLO ON HAITI & WHY KENYA FORCE IS NOT PAN-AFRICAN

Pan-African scholar and lawyer PLO Lumumba shared his views with African Stream on the announced deployment of Kenyan cops to Haiti. Heralded as a humanitarian, Pan-African initiative, he says the fact that it’s happening at Washington’s behest completely undermines it - as the US is one of the main destabilising forces on the island, alongside the likes of France. It was after a Kenya-Canada meeting that Kenya’s Foreign Minister Alfred Mutua made the announcement, with the US pledging to foot the bill - up to $200 million.

Haiti has been deemed in need of urgent intervention due to a security crisis driven by mounting gang violence.

Continued….However, given that the US itself faces similar problems, while the likes of Jamaica have been under a state of emergency for a significant part of the year, it’s unclear why Haiti should get special treatment.

If stability in Haiti were the noble cause the West pretends it is perusing, why has it at every turn sabotaged Haiti’s development? France made Haiti pay slave owners and the US robbed Haiti’s gold. It also propped up the dictatorship of François Duvalier and orchestrated the overthrow of the popular leader Jean Aristide.

With a Kenyan court halting the deployment of Kenyan officers to the island for now, PLO Lumumba says it should be a time for reflection. By all means, let Africa help its brother nation in the Caribbean - but it must be a homegrown initiative, not one pushed down Haiti’s throat by the West. Why should Kenya be the ‘Black face’ of American imperialism?

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FALLACIES OF AFRICAN HEADS OF STATE

We’ve all heard them talk, charming words, excellent cadence, captivating delivery..... but do they have anything to offer us beyond fiery speeches? Well it turns out that the only thing they have to bring to the table is neo-colonialism. Do you agree with us or did we miss the mark?

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THE REAL LION KING

We all grew up on the Lion King but what if we told you it’s not really about Mufasa, Scar, Simba and Naila. It’s actually about West African royalty. Specifically, Sundiata Keita, the founder of the great Mali Empire. The REAL Lion King! Ahmed Ghoneim flies through the history behind the Disney classic.

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MALEMA EXPOSES FRENCH COLONIAL TAX

Watch how Julius Malema, president of South African Pan-Africanist party Economic Freedom Fighters, exposed the French colonial tax several African states pay because they are required to place their reserves in French banks and use the CFA franc as their currency. CFA stands for 'Communauté Financière Africaine,' or African Financial Community.

Ultimately, this means certain African countries don't control their economies, nor their resources, to which Western powers often have first dibs.

As several of France's colonies, such as Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Guinea, cut ties with French institutions, a grassroots thrust has emerged to create African economies and pan-African policies that have been weakening France's neocolonial influence across the continent.

Let us know what you think of Malema's remarks during this 2016 lecture at the Oxford Union in England.

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MALCOLM X: UNITED AFRICANS IN THE AMERICAS

Malcolm X, a legendary human-rights advocate and Pan-Africanist, was in a constant pursuit of African unity in the Western Hemisphere. In this excerpt, he explains how Africans across the Americas need to unite against colonialism, domestically and abroad. He also criticised the absence of an organisation to pursue this form of unity and coordination between Africans, from Canada to the United States, and from Cuba to Brazil.

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MISLEADING MYTHS AND MUGABE’S LAND REFORM

Mugabe and his land reform have a pretty bad rep. Here we Afri-x-plain what its real failures and successes were, and bust some common myths.

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PUSHING BACK THE SAHARA

The world’s largest hot desert is growing. But an ambitious plan to grow an 8,000km long, 15km wide Great Green Wall of Africa across the entire width of the continent - designed to trap the sands of the Sahara, slow and even reverse the spread of the desert - is underway.

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