Continued….Since booting the French out, Mali - along with Burkina Faso and Niger - has moved to curtail French influence by suspending Paris-based media outlets. All three Sahelian states have banned France 24 and Radio France International. Mali has also banned French-funded NGOs.

In a particularly controversial case involving France 24 in Burkina Faso, the channel aired an interview in March 2023 with the head of al-Qaeda’s North African wing. It’s that interview that prompted Ouagadougou to pull the plug on the station.

In the comments, do you support the Sahelian allies’ French media - propaganda - blockade?

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TRAORÉ: ECOWAS NO LONGER FIT FOR PURPOSE

West-African bloc ECOWAS may once have been a good thing - motivated by certain Pan-African ideals - but it is no longer fit for purpose. That’s one of the messages of Burkina Faso’s president, Ibrahim Traoré, in this clip from an interview with veteran Cameroonian journalist Alain Foka.

He was discussing the decision of his country, along with Mali and Niger, to quit the regional alliance - citing also a lack of assistance in the war on terror and a lack of compassion. He reiterated his commitment to Pan-Arianism, inviting any fellow African who wishes to come to Burkina Faso.

Traoré also spoke about how his people had risen to the challenge posed by insurgents - signing up in large numbers to assist the army in its bid to reclaim territory seized by them. And he touched on why a coup - though never desirable - was ultimately necessary in Burkina Faso.

Hands up in the comments who thinks this man is a real leader!

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REAL REASON FOR KENYA’S HAITI DEPLOYMENT EXPOSED

An MP from Kenya’s ruling party has let slip - live on TV - what may be the REAL reason the government wants to deploy police units to Haiti.

Nelson Koech, who heads the Defence, Intelligence and Foreign Relations Committee, was asked what was in it for Nairobi - and didn’t blush when he said: possibly, gold, silver and iridium. He stressed that Haiti was mineral rich, and that Kenya’s help in terms of providing security assistance via boots-on-the-ground policing would be appreciated - and worth Kenya’s while.

Koech’s candid comment is worth bearing in mind next time his boss President Ruto tries to justify sending Kenyan officers to Haiti as an act of brotherly solidarity and altruism.

Continued….Indeed, given Kenya’s own security challenges, it needs every cop it can get to police the home front - but access to minerals seems the sort of thing that might prompt the likes of Ruto to sacrifice security at home. (And he needs a boost to the budget, given the expenses he clocks up jet-setting round the world!)

As always, we’d love to know your thoughts on this revelation.

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JOY REID SAYS QUIET PART OUT LOUD

A recent hot-mic moment left MSNBC’s Joy Reid red in the face.

Reid didn’t realise her mic was still turned on as a soundbite of US President Joe Biden played. He was calling for more ‘security’ at the Mexico-US border, where 2.5 million ‘encounters’ between migrants and US Customs and Border Patrol agents took place in fiscal year 2023. Biden’s proposal ties increased border-security funding to an aid package for Israel and Ukraine. For many, this looks like the start of an inevitable war in West Asia involving Iran.

The US has accused Iran of sponsoring Palestinian group H*m*s and Yemen’s Houthi rebels, both of whom are engaged in conflicts with Washington’s beachhead in the region, Israel. Tel Aviv has repeatedly requested Washington’s support to help cut off the ‘head of the snake,’ referring to Iran.

Reid ended that night’s show by walking back her comment, but what do you make of it?

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BLACK HAWK DOWN HOLLYWOOD’S LIES

Hollywood never lets the facts get in the way of a good war movie. And 22 years after Black Hawk Down was released, we’ve decided to set the record straight about the Battle of Mogadishu.

You see, it wasn’t just US personnel from a helicopter that perished as they steamed into the East African country during a civil war in 1993. As we often see in conflict, scores of civilians were killed in the crossfire in densely populated areas. A point dodged by the Oscar-winning film, which also dehumanised Somalis.

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SUDAN’S FIRST FEMALE POLITICIAN

Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim was a beacon of courage and a pioneering force in Sudanese history. She shattered gender barriers to become not only Sudan but Africa’s first female member of parliamentarian in 1965. And she used her political power to push for women’s rights and challenge social norms. It was not an easy task in what was a fiercely conservative country that less than ten years prior was being ruled by both the British and Egyptians, with the British colonialist really calling the shots.

We look at her life and achievements and how she inspired the next generation of Sudanese women.

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MALI’S SURPRISE FOOTBALL ARMY

There’s plenty of passion ahead of AFCON’s quarter-finals. But instead of hatred, fans of two rival teams are showing a whole lot of love. Burkinabes have come out in support of Mali who beat them to reach the last eight. And they’ll be backing The Eagles when they face hosts Ivory Coast on Saturday. Understand their Pan-African history and you’ll understand why. It must be one of the biggest bromances in football!!! Can you think of one bigger?

1/4 final draw.

Nigeria v Angola
DR Congo v Guinea
Mali v Ivory Coast
Cape Verde v South African.

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BLACK ERASURE IN ARGENTINA

Argentina is Blacker than it likes to admit. “Mexicans descend from the Aztecs, Peruvians from the Incas, but Argentinians descend from ships from Europe,” so goes an old saying that encapsulates Argentina’s perception of itself as a nation of White Europeans that never had Blacks. Afro-Argentines formed almost half of the population of Argentina in 1778, but an evidently systematically implemented anti-Blackness policy reduced them to 30% of the population by the time the country gained independence from Spain in 1816.

Several decades of racial politics and alleged extermination campaigns followed where they were slowly yet steadily wiped out and their rich Black culture erased from the nation’s collective consciousness. Today, statistics show Afro-Argentines form a paltry 0.4% of Argentina’s total population, making it the Whitest country not just in Latin America but the Whitest country outside of Europe.

Continued….Evidently, there were no racially-oriented laws in Argentina, such as South Africa’s apartheid or the Jim Crow laws in the United States, but the country created a lot of obstacles that prevented Black people from accessing lands, the labour market and education. Over the centuries, Black and indigenous people chose to strategically increasingly mix with and pass off as White to escape marginalisation. Some of the country’s biggest stars can trace their lineage back to Black slaves. However, compared to other South American teams, the all-White, always-White roster of the soccer team must have piqued your curiosity.

This Whitening process was attempted throughout much of the Americas, in places such as Brazil, Uruguay as well as the United States, when the American Colonization Society set up Liberia as a home for freed slaves. What makes Argentina’s story unique in this context, however, is that it successfully pushed to build its image as a White country. Ex-president Domingo Faustino Sarmiento once said towards the end of the 19th century that it would be impossible to see Blacks in Argentina unless one travelled to Brazil. African Stream’s Brenda Mwai lays out the case.

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