WHEN AFRICANS IN AMERICA FOUGHT TO LIBERATE ETHIOPIA

Do you know the story of John C. Robinson? He was an African-American pilot who volunteered to help Ethiopia in its resistance against Italian fascist colonialism. His tale is worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster, yet finding big bucks for Black history has never been easy. But @etancomics have now turned Robinson into a comic-book superhero. In this clip, their founder explains why.

Which African legends would you like to see turned into comic book (and Hollywood!) heroes?

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Our African proverb of the week comes from Ghana and offers some humour paired with a deep message. Sometimes we need to adjust our position to find a solution, no matter how big the problem.

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KILL N-WORD STOP KILLINGS

Seventy per cent of Baltimore is Black, and its homicide rate makes it one of the most dangerous cities in the world.

For the last decade, there have been around 300 killings a year in a population of just over 600,000. But what are the causes? Community activist and organiser Brother Alton blames a lack of self-respect among the Black community as a result of 400 years of systemic oppression and white supremacy. And he’s working hard to reduce violence by mentoring Black males to be their brothers’ keepers.

In this clip, he powerfully reminds them to stop using the derogatory n-word when referring to each other. a term created by racist whites to dehumanise our people. He says, ‘You can kill a n****r, but you can’t kill your brother.’

Continued….Baltimore’s homicide rate fell below 300 in 2023 for the first time in years. Politicians typically credit targeted police enforcement for the drop. However, we feel community activists like Brother Alton are the ones who deserve the credit.

According to the US Department of Justice, over 80 per cent of homicides across the country involve Black men. Explanations are complex, but maybe wider adoption of initiatives like Brother Alton’s could help.

Watch the clip and tell us what you think.

Video credit: @mrleagueofmen

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WHITE BANK PRESIDENT STEALS FROM FREEDMEN

Black people in the United States have survived perpetual annihilation tactics designed to rob them of their human rights. The intentional financial marginalisation of the Black community has long fueled wealth disparity in the US between the black and white communities. The story of the Freedman's Bank is just one example.

Continued….The bank was allegedly founded to help formerly enslaved Africans build savings for future generations. One only needed a nickel to open an account. Soon, the bank had more than 61,000 depositors. However, all of the bank's trustees were white. They lobbied the US Congress to relax the bank's charter. They then proceeded to gamble the savings away. They gave money to friends. They invested in elaborate yet frivolous construction projects. When the bank collapsed, Black people lost the equivalent of $77 million when adjusted for inflation. Considering the interest they were owed, Jesse Van Tol, president and CEO of the US-based National Community Reinvestment Coalition, estimated a loss of between $118 billion and $139 billion in today's dollars.

The tragedy of the Freedman's Bank is that white people played with Black people's resources, knowing they could get away with it. And, they were right. Academics and historians who have studied the case argue a consequence was Black people lost trust in banks.

Have you heard this history before? What do you think?

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THEY MUST NOT DIE: STORY OF SCOTTSBORO

On March 25th, 1931, nine Black boys in Alabama, USA were falsely charged with r*ping a White woman. They would then be sentenced to death. Labelled a legal case of lynching, this case, known as the Scottsboro Boys case, blew up across the country and the world as a major part of the early Civil Rights Struggle.

Continued….The Scottsboro Boys case was a pivotal moment in Black history in the United States that had rippling effects that would impact generations to come. The international struggle to free the Scottsboro Boys led to the largest resistance movement against racism in the US justice system in history. The international impact of the Scottsboro case was so far reaching that a Sedition Bill was passed in Ghana (then the British colony of the Gold Coast) to prevent Africans from agitating in support of the Scottsboro Boys.

While the case did officially bring about certain legal reforms to the carceral system, such as mandating the presence of Black jurors in cases with Black defendants, this would often go unenforced throughout the 20th century and into the present. In one example, Black revolutionary Assata Shakur would go on to be sentenced to life in prison by an all-White jury. In 1986, a court ruled that race could not be used as a factor in the initial establishment of a jury pool. In 2021, there were two high-profile cases in which nearly all-White juries acquitted White men for shooting and killing Black men - the murders of Jake Blake and Ahmaud Arbery.

Africans in the United States and throughout the diaspora continue to struggle against a racist criminal justice system in which they are disproportionally incarcerated.

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🚨 SUDAN’S HUNGER EMERGENCY 🚨

The UN is warning that Sudan is on the brink of the world’s largest hunger crisis. Agencies warn that hundreds of thousands of children and new mothers are likely to die.

This suffering adds to the misery of a civil war that’s killed thousands, displaced millions, destroyed critical infrastructure and unleashed genocidal violence - all to massage the egos of two generals and their foreign backers.

African Stream has teamed up with Sudanese activist Duha Aldaw to make this urgent appeal for more attention and action on the hunger crisis that is destroying Sudan’s next generation.

Please share this video, as well as your suggestions in the comments.

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YOUNG ACTIVISTS DISRUPT PRO-ISRAEL U.S. SENATOR

‘Your stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict does not reflect the views of the people.’

That was the message young activists and Palestinians who had lost relatives in the Gaza Strip had for US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on 4 March at the highly-charged annual meeting for the Brooklyn Heights Association, a neighbourhood group for an affluent, predominantly white riverfront enclave within New York City’s Brooklyn borough.

Activists told Gillibrand in front of a crowd of hundreds of primarily middle-aged and elderly residents that by consenting to the provision of weapons to Tel Aviv, Gillibrand and other US leaders are complicit in Israel’s military assault that has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Continued….They added that her failure to stop the suffering that the Israeli military operation has inflicted on Palestinian women raises questions about her long-standing claim to be an advocate for women’s rights. Women and children make up about 80 per cent of fatalities since 7 October. About 180 women give birth each day in unsanitary crowded shelters without anaesthesia, clean water or food for infants.

A report says US-based grassroots political groups @pslnational, @palyouthmvmt and @AlAwda organised the action, while anti-war group @Brooklyn4Peace held placards at the entrance of the church where the meeting occurred. Some disrupters were seen on video being pulled away by police, though no arrests were reported.

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APARTHEID ISRAELI OFFICERS TERRORISE PALESTINIAN CHILD

This clip shows surveillance camera footage from a shop in Hebron in the West Bank in which Israeli soldiers twice slapped a boy, demanding he remove his shirt and ripping it apart before him, his family and a person behind the counter.

The clip, reportedly from two weeks ago, has gone viral on social media.

Since the 7 October escalation in the 75-year Palestine-Israel conflict, the Palestinian Health Ministry has reported Israeli fire has killed 435 Palestinians in the West Bank. Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said children made up 100 of those killings.

Continued….For instance, during the first week of the Muslim month of fasting, Ramadan, Israeli police shot dead a 12-year-old Palestinian boy for setting off fireworks.

Despite more than seven decades of documented Israeli settler-colonial violence against Palestinians, as well as Israeli bombardments and a blockade killing more than 32,000 Palestinians since 7 October, Western countries continue to veto UN Security Council ceasefire resolutions, provide financial aid to Israel, and supply weapons and other forms of military assistance.

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‘WEST USING GENOCIDE TO WARN HUMANITY’ - COLOMBIA PREZ

Colombian President Gustavo Petro recently speculated at a meeting of Caribbean and Latin American leaders that Western countries may be supporting Israel’s bombardment and siege of the Gaza Strip to provide an example of the consequences of disobeying imperialist forces.

‘What is happening to Palestine can happen to you,’ Petro relayed to the sixth summit of regional bloc Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC, or Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños in Spanish).

Israel’s bombardment and siege has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians after five months of Israeli attacks that Western arms have aided. Meanwhile, more than 2 million people are starving due to an Israeli siege.

Does Colombia’s president have a point? Let us know in the comments.

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REMEMBERING VICTIMS OF SLAVERY

The 25th of March is International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. During four centuries, between 10-12 million Africans were forcibly transported across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.

The barbaric practice had catastrophic consequences for Africa, with horrendous loss of life and the exploitation of its resources and people. For the Americas, slavery enabled vast economic development.