For the past couple of years now, Senegalese people have taken to the streets across the country to denounce the neo-colonial rule of Macky Sall and to fight for his anti-imperialist rival Ousmane Sonko.

Sall, a close French ally, has worked hard to keep Sonko off the election ballot. The latter rose to prominence within Senegalese politics unveiling corruption and the use of offshore tax havens by a Canadian company to evade nearly $8.9 million in taxes. He has previously run against Sall, promising to rid Senegal of its French-controlled CFA-franc currency, which grants tremendous economic control over Africa's economy to the European Union.

Continued….In the run-up to Senegal's election year, Sonko was convicted of rape charges that were then cleared and dismissed. Protesters throughout the country insisted that the allegations were a political tactic to keep Sonko out of the 2024 elections. While the charges were dropped, he has since been sentenced to two years in prison for "corrupting youth." His supporters point out that this misdemeanour charge shouldn’t render him ineligible to compete in this year’s race. However, the Senegalese Constitutional Council has decided to disqualify both him and another prominent opposition candidate.

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BLINKEN ON WEST AFRICA TOUR

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was just in the Ivory Coast on the second leg of his West African tour, after visiting Cape Verde. He was in the stands as Equatorial Guinea thrashed Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) host Ivory Coast with a 4-0 final score. He is expected to later land in Angola and Nigeria. It’s been bounced around that the US is trying to win over some African countries and keep others loyal to counter increasing Russian and Chinese activity in Africa. For example, the 60,000-seat Allasane Ouattara stadium that hosted the 22 January match is Chinese-built.

Continued……With the Sahel experiencing widely popular coups that have ejected Western allies in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, the United States is doubling down on the rhetoric of democracy. The Alliance of Sahel States is likely to be high on the priority list. Former colonial power and NATO member France’s military has been shown the door in all three countries, and Russia has emerged as one of the preferred security and development partners. Niger’s Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine was last week in Moscow with a delegation to discuss partnership on issues like security and economy. Burkina Faso’s Ibrahim Traoré had engaged Russia on constructing a nuclear power plant during 2023’s Russia-Africa Summit. In Mali, Russia is constructing West Africa’s biggest refinery, with an expected annual output of 200 tons of gold. We take it that the United States will be looking to re-consolidate its position in the region.

Blinken’s visit comes just days after China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi continued China’s diplomatic tradition of 34 years by making Africa the first destination of its foreign minister in a new year. The outcome of Blinken’s visit remains to be seen, as is whether the US will successfully dislodge China and Russia in Africa. Africa has expressed its disinterest in mere rhetoric and pandering in favour of material benefits. The United States’ $55 billion pledge for Africa at the US-Africa Leaders Summit is woefully short of what China has spent on infrastructure projects, for example.

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Continued….And who can blame them? There’s a massive list of high-profile stars that have suffered racist abuse, from Romelu Lukaku in Italy, Vinicius Junior in Spain to Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka in England. And yet all we see is a few life-time bans for a handful of offending fans.

After the terrible scenes in Udine, FIFA President Gianni Infantino called for the automatic forfeit of games for teams whose fans commit racial abuse. But is that enough? We back the united stance shown by the Milan players who downed tools and walked off the pitch in disgust. That seems to be the only option left and they were brave enough to take it. What do you think?

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ANC: PUTIN WELCOME

Flashback 2023:

The West loves to put other people in the dock, but immediately when the shoe is on the other foot, they throw a tantrum. A vicious one, for that matter, and you don’t need to look far for examples.

Last year the West warned South Africa was obliged to arrest Vladimir Putin if he turned up at the BRICS summit in Johannesburg. The Russian president has an ICC arrest warrant hanging over him for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

However, those calls were rejected by South Africa’s ruling party. And their message was eloquently delivered by Fikile Mbalula, the ANC’s Secretary General, during a feisty interview with the BBC. He also pointed out the West’s hypocrisy regarding war crimes.

As it turned out, Putin opted to attend the summit virtually, so the hosts wouldn’t be put in an awkward position.

Continued….The saga highlights some truths about the West’s much-hyped commitment to human rights and so-called rules-based order. The same Western countries that clamoured for Putin’s arrest are not interested in the possible war crimes committed by Israel against the people of Palestine. The US, the UK, Germany and other Western countries are all opposed to the genocide case brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Could it be the West has lost the zeal for fighting war crimes? Or are they more comfortable with atrocities committed by their allies?

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‘GERMANY’S LOST PLOT OVER GAZA’

Why can’t Germany or any country in the EU call out Israel’s genocide in Gaza? Irish MEP Mick Wallace asks the question as he rips into the bloc with this thumping speech at the European Parliament.

After rattling off the grim Palestinian death toll, he wonders how Berlin can stay silent, given its role in World War Two’s holocaust and its little-known genocide in Africa. That saw over 75% of Namibia’s Herero and Nama people killed, with their skulls shipped to Europe. Historians regard it as the first genocide of the 20th century.

Listen to Wallace’s fiery soundbite. There were a few claps but mainly silence afterwards. Says it all.

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AFRO-PALESTINIAN CHILDREN SING FOR PALESTINE

The African diaspora has lived in Palestine for centuries, mixing with the local populations and forging an Afro-Palestinian identity. In both the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, Afro-Palestinians have contributed to the Palestinian liberation struggle for decades. In this video clip, Afro-Palestinian children sing and dance for liberation in a music class. These children live in the Gaza Strip, currently the most dangerous place for children on Earth, according to a UNICEF spokesperson who was quoted in December. Israel’s military operation has killed more than 11,000 Palestinian children since the 7 October escalation in the Palestine-Israel conflict.

Video credit: @m_abu.samra @solbandgaza

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US President Joe Biden has a long and contradictory record when it comes to race. While he is currently lauded for his 'progressive outlook' - the appointment of judges and diverse staff - past remarks paint a very different picture.

In the mid ‘70s, Biden worked alongside segregationists to sponsor a bill that would limit the power of courts to order school desegregation via busing (that is, by sending children to schools in other districts to make them more diverse).

Decades later, this revelation led to the mic-drop moment in Kamala Harris’s campaign for the presidential nomination, when she opportunistically blasted him as having personally impacted her education as a young girl.

His relationship to those segregationists would continue. At the 2003 funeral of notoriously racist Senator Strom Thurmond, Biden said during his eulogy that “Strom was a product of his time. But he understood people. He cared for them. He knew how to get things done.”

Continued….During a 1994 interview, where he advocated for US military invasion in Haiti, Biden claimed that “If Haiti just quietly sunk into the Caribbean, or rose up 300 feet, it wouldn’t matter a whole lot in terms of our interests.”

In 2010, Biden warmly eulogised Senator Robert Byrd, a former high-ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan, saying he was “one of my mentors” and that “the Senate is a lesser place for his going.”

Even with this sordid history, Biden remarked in a 2020 Breakfast Club interview that “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t Black.”

Many critics in the US suggest that it is important to understand Biden's mixed record on race in order to understand his upcoming campaign strategy. What do you think?

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AFRICA HAS TO STAY POOR FOR WORLD TO BE RICH

The failures of Western-imposed economic policies in Africa make sense once you realise it is intentional sabotage. Here, Howard Nicholas, senior lecturer of economics at the International Institute of Social Studies, explains how an entire system exists to keep Africa poor so it will always remain a source of cheap raw materials and cheap labour. Africa subsidises the living standards of the rest of the world with almost none of its wealth benefiting Africans.

Take Niger, for example, where a significant amount of the uranium that France uses to power its electricity grid is from, yet the Sahelian nation is among the poorest in the world. This unfortunate situation is not limited to Niger but common across the continent. African countries produce most of the minerals and resources that the modern world needs to function, so how can Africa still be poor?

Continued….A lot has been invested to maintain the status quo. When Lumumba in DR Congo pledged to utilise Congolese resources to benefit Congolese people, the CIA, Belgium and Britain had him assassinated and placed the puppet Mobutu in his stead. Burkina Faso saw its ‘self-reliance’ and ‘self-sufficiency’ champion Thomas Sankara murdered by France and the puppet Compaoré installed. Similar events happened with Kwame Nkrumah, Maurice Bishop, Samora Machel, the list goes on.

Have a listen to Dr Nicholas’ remarks and let us know what you think.

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PLO TO NORTH AFRICA: EMULATE NASSER, GADDAFI

Just a few days ago an Algerian football fan and influencer turned up in Ivory Coast for AFCON and slagged off the host nation. She basically said her country should divorce itself from poor uncivilised African countries and link up with the likes of Spain and Portugal instead. It stoked plenty of debate about the superiority complex of some African Arab states and their relationship with the rest of the continent.

Well, we got the thoughts of Pan-African scholar, PLO Lumumba, who didn’t shirk the challenge. He went through the Arab slave trade and highlighted the recent appalling treatment of African migrants in Tunisia and Libya. He also took aim at Morocco’s desire for ‘proximity to whiteness’. So much so, they once left the African Union to court European Union membership.

Continued….But Lumumba insists it doesn’t have to be like this and remembers previous North African leaders, such as Nasser and Gaddafi, who preached African unity. The question is: why don’t other leaders want to do the same? Have as listen, join the debate and leave your comments below.

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GHANA TEAM BUS ATTACKED

Ghana and Ivory Coast fans went on the rampage as their sides faced a humiliating exit from AFCON. The Ghana team bus was attacked after a 2-2 draw with Mozambique in the last group game. And in Abidjan, fuming Ivory Coast supporters smashed local buses after Equatorial Guinea thumped the hosts 4-0.

The Black Stars are definitely out of the tournament, but there’s a small chance the Elephants could still make the last 16 as one of the four best third-placed teams. Although to be honest, like these buses, that possibility looks grim.

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