WHY IS AFRICA CLOSED TO AFRICANS?

We hear a lot about Africans having a hard time travelling abroad but far less about the difficulties they face visiting other African countries. It’s a bigger problem than you might have imagined - and one it’s high time to address.

ALABAMA BRAWL NIGER STYLE

One of our favourite posts of 2023 was when merged two stories together and made this hilarious meme video where we took the now-viral clip of the Alabama Street Brawl and combined it with how Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso declared that they would join forces with Niger to defend the nation against a possible ECOWAS attack led by Nigeria.

The original video went viral because it showed Africans collectively coming together to defend black security, set on by a mob of white people for just doing his job. We are constantly told that Africans are disunited, but this was a very visceral display of that unity, with a 16-year-old brother even jumping from a boat and swimming to support the security guard who was being attacked. Another theory is that after scores of videos circulated on social media of Africans in America and elsewhere being brutalised by police officers and racists, it is refreshing to see a video of Africans fighting back and embodying the words of Malcolm X:

Continued…“I don’t call it violence when it’s self-defence; I call it intelligence.”

If the video has taught us anything, it’s we must come together and defend one another, whether on the streets or that we come together as Africans to defend Niger from Western aggression. We must develop the appropriate attitude of “touch one, touch all” when defending African people and states from imperialism.

Mali and Burkina Faso did the right thing by rushing to Niger’s defence as soon as imperialist forces threatened it. Guinea quickly followed suit. When we unite to fight our shared enemies, we become a real force to reckon with. Divided, we are weak; united, we are strong. As President Ibrahim Traoré of Burkina Faso stated, “Africa needs to be able to unite, and the more united we are, the more effective we are.”

THE AMAZIGH NEW YEAR CELEBRATION

The Amazigh people of North Africa celebrate the arrival of the year 2974 on January 12th! That’s according to their calendar. Their new year - known as Yennayer - has been an official day off in Algeria since (the Gregorian) 2018.

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DEATH OF AFRICANS ‘GOOD’ FOR PLANET

The mainstream media churned out many a headline in 2023 that our editors felt the need to fix for them. Everyone from the BBC and France 24 to Bloomberg and the New York Times, has been at the receiving end of African Stream’s red pen. But the headline correction that stood out most for us this year was this one from the Atlantic.

The original loudly proclaimed that war in Congo has “kept the planet cooler” - i.e., has been good for Mother Nature… as if the devastation inflicted on the Congolese were a price worth paying for a healthier environment.

To be fair, the subheading was: “The grim ironies of climate change.”

But bear in mind that the conflict in Congo has cost nearly 6 million lives and displaced almost 7 million. (No sane Western editor would run with “The Holocaust’s environmental benefits” as a headline - even if there had been some such imagined consequences!)

Continued….The article’s writer matter-of-factly observed that war had hindered the economic exploitation of the Congolese rainforest. What Ross Anderson missed, though, is that DRC timber is one of the resources fuelling conflict as rival armed groups jostle over the charcoal and timber trade. Not very climate-friendly, is it?

And, however hard the war is raging, Western conglomerates have not ceased their relentless exploitation of Congo’s men, women and children - sending them to toil in dangerous and super-polluting mines. Moreover, in the greed-driven quest to exploit Congolese resources, countless villages have been wiped out, patches of forest cleared, and rivers poisoned by mineral extraction.

But the main point is this - Western editors and journalists, please write about Africans in a way that grants them the human dignity they deserve.

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NIGER CAPTURES FRENCH CROISSANTS

Winding down the year, we look back at one of the strongest and most successful scenes of collective action. Upon the French refusing to exit Niger, the people took it upon themselves to make them eat their words. For weeks, Nigeriens camped outside French sites, including in this video where a delivery of croissants was intercepted by Nigeriens.

It was no isolated incident as water deliveries to the French embassy were intercepted as well. Word is the situation was so dire the French had to resort to eating dog food.

The campaign worked, and the French ambassador soon left, closely followed by French soldiers, with the last expected to leave by end of year.

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Africa is often blamed for the world’s overpopulation but in reality, it has the biggest space to accommodate more people. This week African Stream looks at the facts surrounding the overpopulation problem on the motherland.

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BUSHMEAT MARKET TOUR

For many Africans, bushmeat is an essential part of their diet - and, some would argue, far superior to the industrially-farmed livestock popular around the world. Whether it’s crocodile, monitor lizard, porcupine, grasscutter, monkey, snake or pangolin - it can transform your ordinary jollof rice into a prized delicacy.

Watch as we visit a Nigerian bushmeat market and chat to its lively sellers, operating in plain sight of day, despite the authorities banning their trade over health and safety concerns.

WARNING: CONTAINS SCENES OF ANIMAL SLAUGHTER

WHY WE HAVE TO TELL OUR OWN STORIES

As we wrap up the year, we touch on a crucial topic: Taking control of our own narrative! Not only in cinema but in the news, academia and beyond. Here’s a breakdown at why Africans must tell their own stories.

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SEVERUS: THE AFRICAN CAESAR

Did you know that Britain was once ruled by an African? Meet Lucius Septimius Severus - the man from what is now Libya who rose to become a Roman emperor. He possessed military skill and introduced progressive policies, as well as commissioned some of the empire’s finest architectural delights. And, like many an emperor, he had his decadent streak! African Stream’s very own empress Brenda Mwai brings us his story.

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‘ALIENS DID IT!’ A RACIST CONSPIRACY

Ancient, pre-colonial African civilisation is stunning - too stunning for some racists to handle. They’d rather believe wonders of the world like the pyramids were created by aliens than by Africans. Clinton Nzala breaks it down.

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HAITIAN INDEPENDENCE DAY

The Haitian revolution was the most successful revolt led by enslaved Africans against a colonial power. Haitians celebrate this victory every year on January 1st - Haitian Independence Day.

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FATHER OF AFRICAN FILM

One hundred and one years ago, the “father of African film”, Ousmane Sembène, was born in Ziguinchor, Senegal. Sembène’s career began modestly, working a number of manual jobs. In 1944, he was drafted into a corps of the French Army where he was forced to fight in World War II.

After returning to Senegal, he participated in the 1947 Dakar–Niger Railway strike. Later that year he made a break for France where he actively engaged with the French trade union movement by joining the General Confederation of Labour and the communist party. While in France he helped to lead yet another strike to halt a shipment of weapons destined for use in the war against Vietnam. These acts of class consciousness and international solidarity would become reoccurring themes in his future creative work.

After teaching himself to read and write in French, Sembène began writing fiction. His first novel, Le Docker Noir (The Black Docker), released in 1956, highlights the life of an African dock worker.

Continued…..In 1960, Sembène released Les Bouts de Bois de Dieu (God's Bits of Wood), a fictional account of the Dakar–Niger Railway strike. While he found great satisfaction in tackling social issues in his writing, he began to consider that film might be a “more effective tool” for his activism. “To summarize history using our oral tradition,” he said, “cinema is an important tool for us.”

As a filmmaker, Sembène sought to challenge colonial modes of film production and expression. He directed films in various African languages including Wolof, Fulfulde, and Mandinka. Sembène's choice to incorporate indigenous languages into his films was a deliberate effort to represent the rich cultural and linguistic tapestry of Africa. It aligned with his broader mission of decolonizing African cinema and promoting authentic narratives rooted in local experiences. This viral clip from the film Caméra d'Afrique speaks to an idea that African artists today should remember: Europe (the West) should not be the center of our world.

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PLO‘S 2023 AFRICA POSITIVES!

2023 has been a memorable year for Africa. Although we have gone through a lot, there is also a lot of positive news to take into the new year. Unfortunately, a lot of it may not end up in your newsfeeds.

Ahmed Kaballo, our CEO at African Stream, asked Pan-African scholar PLO Lumumba about what he saw as the biggest positives this year in Africa. He had much to say, from Tanzania to Nigeria - there is much to be hopeful about!

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SAVING THE ATLAS LIONS

European colonialism is one of the reasons the strongest, most magnificent lions in the world almost disappeared. Here's the story of what happened to North Africa’s great Atlas lions and how Morocco is trying to save them.

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BRAZILIAN DANCE AFRICAN ROOTS

Did you know that the traditions that formed the foundation for capoeira were created in Western and Central Africa?

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THE UPC: CAMEROON’S TRAGIC INDEPENDENCE HEROES

The Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC) fought and died for both the independence and unity of Cameroon, as well as that of Africa, but they paid a terrible price as a result.

While the Cameroonian War of Independence is often referred to as the ‘Forgotten War’ due to the fact that it was overshadowed by the more successful Algerian Revolution at the time, the history of this struggle continues to shape Cameroon in the present.

It was the elimination of the UPC leaders that allowed France to install Ahmadou Ahidjo and later Paul Biya, who have ruled over the country since independence.

The UPC worked hard to build relationships with other Pan-African organisations and leaders, from Kwame Nkrumah to Patrice Lumumba and Ahmed Ben Bella. And while we may have lost that round, the struggle is not over. The UPC’s objective of a unified and liberated Africa lives on.

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MOTHER AFRICA BUILT EUROPE AND AMERICA

Would the West as we know it be possible without Africa? When you think about the extent to which European and American societies depend on African resources, it becomes clear that our continent is the foundation stone for much of the world. As Pan-African scholar PLO Lumumba puts it in this clip, Mother Africa ‘built’ the world - and keeps on building it! Problem is, Mother Africa has been enslaved, robbed and exploited. She is more than ready to help people and societies beyond our continent to realise their potential, but on her own terms - from a position of respect, equality and dignity.

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‘AMERICA IS THE BIGGEST GANG IN THE WORLD’

“America is the biggest gang in the world.”

Legendary rapper Tupac explains how US foreign policy is no different to the gang mentality seen on America’s streets. If it doesn’t like something, it steams in to show who’s boss – whether it’s Cuba or Yugoslavia where war had raged around the time Tupac gave this interview. Since then, of course, the US has carried out a string of interventions which included the destruction of Libya in 2011.

Tupac was more than a hip-hop hero, he was an activist dedicated to African liberation in America. And he had a way of speaking that resonated with millions.

Does his view of US foreign policy ring true with you? Have a listen and tell us.