NO MORE WHITE LIES

Africa may have rid herself of colonisers, but many history books are still woefully under the yoke of colonial narratives. Europeans liked to paint themselves as having brought ‘civilisation’ to the ‘savages’ of Africa. But really, theirs is a story of rape, murder and pillage - of the destruction of native customs, culture and identities by the imposition of foreign rule.

In this clip, singer-songwriter Erica LeShai lashes out at what she calls the ‘White lies’ still dominating not just historical discussions but people’s beliefs. In particular, she vents her frustration at how people become really upset when these falsehoods are pointed out to them. Whether these ‘lies’ are conscious or subliminal, she insists that until there is a proper reckoning and admission - until a correction of the narrative is embraced by all sides - progress is impossible.

Do you think that’s true?

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BRICS DOLLAR THREAT EXPLAINED

Watch this video to understand why the West is worried about the BRICS economic alliance expanding to include five more member states.

For those who don’t know, BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Last year, it welcomed Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

These countries are rich with resources and increasingly use their currencies instead of the US dollar. If they successfully replace the dollar’s hegemony, it could be a nightmare for the United States and its European allies.

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BLACK HISTORY MONTH HIJACKED

Imperialists have tried to appropriate everything from African music to artefacts and other sectors of African identity.

In this clip, Abbas Muntaqim, a community organiser and podcaster, broke down how Western imperialism and corporate media have hijacked Black History Month. Historian Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History began ‘Negro History Week’ in 1926 in the United States. In 1970, Kent State University (Ohio) students launched a month-long event to highlight the historic oppression of Black people and celebrate our achievements in the face of systemic white supremacy. After it gained popularity, US President Gerald Ford announced in 1976 that every February would be commemorated as Black History Month.

Now, it is commemorated in a few European countries and, as of 2020, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ivory Coast, Comoros, Senegal and Cameroon take part, too.

What do you think of Muntaqim’s remarks? Let us know in the comments.

ISRAELI RACISM TOWARDS AFRICAN REFUGEES

Israel is home to tens of thousands of African refugees, the majority from Eritrea and Sudan. However, despite being a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, it refuses to grant asylum to the majority - treating them instead as economic migrants.

Prominent Israeli politicians have often been guilty of whipping up anti-African sentiments. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for example, reportedly called for all Africans to be deported after violent clashes within the Eritrean community in the streets of Tel Aviv in September last year.

But it’s not just politicians. Some Israelis have actively protested against the presence of Africans in their country, fearing their further integration - for example, by rallying against the inclusion of the children of refugees in Israeli schools.

Continued….In this clip from a few years back, US journalist Abby Martin visited one such rally - and captured on film some of the vile anti-African sentiments expressed by participants, including placards calling for refugees to stop having children.

While racism and xenophobia are by no means unique to Israel, the decades-long mistreatment of Palestinians and the sheer brutality of the current war in Gaza - widely seen as genocidal - make one wonder just how deep the rot is.

As always, your thoughts on this are most welcome.

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CONGO REFUGEE TENTS SOAKED IN RAIN

Heavy rain has soaked mattresses and makeshift tents for hundreds of thousands of displaced people in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to footage X user @joe__bassey has posted.

Around Goma, the capital of the North Kivu province, these shelters made of plastic tarps litter the landscape. Congolese have fled recent escalating violence between the M23 militant group and DRC government troops.

Continued…Humanitarian organisations are stretched to the limit as they struggle to provide enough water, shelter, medical support and income-generating opportunities for the stream of newly displaced people. The UN says more than 25 million people—a quarter of the 104-million population—require urgent assistance in the eastern provinces. About 6.5 million Congolese are internally displaced, 2.6 million have returned from escaping abroad, nearly 1 million have fled to neighbouring countries, and 527,000 non-Congolese have taken refuge. That makes the DRC’s displacement crisis second only to Sudan’s.

In 2023, the UN reported 50,000 suspected cholera cases that caused 470 deaths. Measles transmission more than doubled from 2022 to 2023, exceeding 320,000 cases and causing more than 6,000 deaths.

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SAHELIAN TRIO’S EXIT REVEALS ECOWAS’ WEAKNESS

The West African bloc ECOWAS has had a bit of a change of tune lately. It was threatening to take military action in Niger not long ago - and imposed harsh sanctions on the country over its revolutionary new leadership. But after Niger and its allies Burkina Faso and Mali exited ECOWAS in protest and solidarity, the bloc now says it wants to extend an olive branch. But really what’s happened is that it’s realised it’s nothing without the Sahelian trio - as African Stream’s Ahmed Ghoneim explains in 90 seconds.

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RESPONSE VIDEO TO MICHAEL RAPAPORT’S
‘NO APARTHED IN ISRAEL’

Michael Rapaport has struck again. In a self-filmed, expletives-ridden rant, the US actor thinks he’s proved to the world that there is no apartheid in Israel - by walking down a Jerusalem street asking people if they can tell him where to find it and getting no answer. Our man William Sakawa blows his ‘methodology’ out of the water in this response video - in which he ‘proves’ there are no slums in Nairobi… by wandering around the high-end suburb of Karen in search of them!

The Kenyan capital’s biggest slum is just a minute’s drive away, of course - just as what’s been described by many as the world’s biggest concentration camp, the Gaza Strip, is not far from Jerusalem.

Israel’s discriminatory policies against Palestinians are well recorded. In a report, the Jerusalem-based human rights group B’Tselem found that Israel’s governance systematically promotes Jewish supremacy.

Continued…..Palestinians, even those who are citizens, frequently face unequal treatment in terms of access to basic services such as education, healthcare and infrastructure when compared with Israeli citizens.

Israel has implemented laws and policies that systematically favour Jewish citizens over Palestinians in areas such as land ownership, residency rights and access to resources. This includes restrictions on Palestinian movement, control over building permits and differential treatment in legal proceedings.

Palestinians in the occupied territories encounter numerous checkpoints, roadblocks and barriers to movement - while Jewish settlers enjoy unrestricted movement on roads and infrastructure that Palestinians are prohibited from using. Israel’s ongoing construction of settlements in occupied Palestinian territories, deemed illegal under international law, is also seen as a deliberate effort to alter the demographic makeup of these areas and maintain Jewish dominance, further entrenching the apartheid-like conditions.

What do you think - does apartheid (do slums) exist in Israel (Kenya)?

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GHANA PARLIAMENT PASSES ANTI-LGBTQ LAW

Ghana’s parliament just passed an anti-LGBTQ+ bill that imposes a five-year prison sentence for anyone who identifies as such and/or for the ‘willful promotion, sponsorship or support of LGBTQ+ activities.’

The bill now moves to President Nana Akufo-Addo’s desk to be signed into law. He previously said he would do so if that is the will of Ghana’s majority.

The US State Department said it was ‘deeply troubled,’ and urged a review of the bill’s ‘constitutionality.’

Same-sex relations have been illegal since the colonial era, and the ban is enshrined in Ghana’s constitution. Offenders face three years in prison.

The US further warned the bill would undermine ‘Ghana’s valuable public health, media and civic spaces, and economy.’

Winnie Byanyima, executive director of the United Nations AIDS agency, warned punitive laws make it harder to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic, undermining public health.

What do you think about this bill? Let us know in the comments.

WHEN ISRAEL ROLLED OUT THE RED CARPET FOR A NAZI SYMPATHIZER

Whenever anyone criticises Israel’s atrocities they are swiftly labeled as anti-Semitic at best and a N*zi at worst. Even Nelson Mandela, not long after being released from 27-years in prison, was described as such for his support of the PLO and Yasser Arafat. But what many don’t realise is that Israel once warmly welcomed and feted a well-known N*zi sympathiser, that is, the one and only apartheid-era South African prime minister John Vorster.

In 1976, Vorster visited Israel as a guest of then-prime minister Yitzhak Rubin. However, three decades prior, in the 1940s, Vorster was arrested and detained for 14 months for being a member of Ossewa Brandwag, a right-wing racist organisation infamous for its rabid support of Ad*lf H*tler and his N*zi party.

Continued….In fact, he was a co-founder of the group, which gained notoriety in the 40s due to its opposition to South Africa backing the United Kingdom during the Second World War. Vorster’s Ossewa Brandwag organisation, whose members publicly wore swastikas and performed N*zi salutes, preferred H*tler’s Germany. They also allegedly spied on the South African government on behalf of Hitler and threatened the African country’s Jewish population.

All of that, yet Vorster’s disreputable history was not enough to stop the Israeli government from rolling out the red carpet for his visit.

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U.S. EMBASSY SCAM IN NAMIBIA?

In this video, a Namibian woman criticises the US embassy in Windhoek for not refunding visa fees after rejecting Namibians who would like to go to the United States for work, holidays or education. She explained the US embassy took 3,600 Namibian dollars ($186 USD) from the lady next to her, then denied a visa without any explanation.

This is a common occurrence for Africans, who, as of 2021, faced some of the highest rejection rates for non-immigrant visas after Laotian and North Korean citizens. In Nigeria, the US embassy rejected two out of every three student visas in 2022. And, when rejected, the US policy is no refunds.

How should Africans win justice in such situations? Or should we figure out how to make Africa a place we can thrive? Let us know what you think in the comments.

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This disgustingly racist image was posted by Dmitry Rogozin - a Russian senator who previously served as deputy prime minister.

In a tweet on X, Rogozin compared African-American US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to a monkey. Under a picture of Austin (who was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer) standing with other politicians, Rogozin wrote: ‘Before his illness, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin loved being photographed with pygmies.’ Next to the picture of Austin, he’d added one of a gorilla captured by Pygmies.

The post sparked a backlash on social media. But Rogozin doubled down and next posted a video showing Ukrainians performing a folk dance, followed by a clip of dancing chimpanzees. This time his racist caption was: ‘Monkeys should be called monkeys.’

Rogozin later claimed that the X account that made the post was run by a bot. However, many find that hard to believe, as the account in question is verified and - in the past - he has used it to issue official statements.

Continued….While Austin is the current head of the engine room of the war-mongering US empire, attacking him like this reveals the deep-seated racism that African people are subjected to both in the West and the East.

Rogozin’s post not only shows how prevalent and tolerated racism is in Eastern Europe, including Russia, but flies in the face of Moscow’s diplomatic attempts to position itself as an ally of African people in their fight against imperialism by the West.

If a senior government official can publish such vile, racist content, one can only wonder what is said behind closed doors.

What are your thoughts on this incident?

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‘REVERSE RACISM IS A WHITE LIE’

Saira Tao and Regina Jackson, co-founders of Race2Dinner, an initiative to start honest conversations about race in the United States, broke down in this clip why reverse racism is impossible and simply a ‘white lie.’

Let us know what you think in the comments.

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YASSIN BEY IN SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINE

Rapper Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) has been a longtime supporter of the Palestinian cause. In his words, Israel’s four-month assault on the Gaza Strip, which has killed over 30,000 people, mainly women and children, is an unnecessary evil.

In this video, Yasiin takes issue with leaders around the world, including those in the US, who are complacent in the killing of children in Gaza.

“If you can’t rely on the way… the light of your own conscience to know right or wrong, then Godspeed to you and get out of my face.”

CHAD OPPOSITION LEADER KILLED AHEAD OF ELECTION

Reports say Chadian government forces killed opposition leader Yaya Dillo Djérou in a 28 February attack on his party’s headquarters. The government blamed the Socialist Party Without Borders (PSF) leader for a recent fatal attack on the internal security agency’s headquarters. In the meantime, internet and telephone services have been cut off for civilians in the capital of N’Djamena.

This comes ahead of an election in May that could return Chad to civilian rule. Transitional President Mahamat Déby, a four-star military general and son of France-aligned former President Idriss Déby, seized power in a 2021 military coup.

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MASSACRE AT FOOD AID CONVOY, OVER 100 PALESTINIANS KILLED

The Israeli military reportedly killed 112 Palestinians and injured 750 people on 29 February as they tried to get flour and canned goods from aid trucks southwest of Gaza City.

Israel said it opened fire because thousands of Palestinians had allegedly surrounded about 30 trucks, trampling people.

The attack happened on the day the death toll in the Gaza Strip surpassed 30,000. The Israeli military has been bombarding the 41-kilometre-long enclave for almost five months.

About 21,000 children and women have been killed, making up 72 per cent of the death toll.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the attack requires an independent investigation.

Gaza is on the brink of famine, with food and medical supplies running out after Tel Aviv escalated a blockade on 7 October that began in 2007.

DIASPORA URGED TO DEFEND ETHIOPIA’S AMHARA

These are dark days for Ethiopia’s Amhara people - one of the country’s largest ethnic communities. In mid-February, government troops allegedly conducted a series of extra-judicial killings, going door-to-door and massacring dozens of civilians in the Amhara region.

It follows a rebellion by the so-called Fano group - an Amhara militia that fought with the army in the civil war against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (a war that ended in November 2022). Fano is angered over government plans to disarm militias and state repression against the Amhara people following the end of the war with the TPLF.