Continued…Despite many setbacks, the UPC worked tirelessly to build relationships with other Pan-African organisations and leaders, from Kwame Nkrumah to Patrice Lumumba and Ahmed Ben Bella. Their objective of a unified and liberated Africa, though not yet achieved, continues to inspire us in the ongoing struggle.

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U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: ‘NO GENOCIDE IN GAZA’

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin insisted no evidence indicates Israel is committing g*noc*de in the Gaza Strip during a 9 April appearance before the US Senate Armed Services Committee.

Austin’s comments come as Israel’s military operations have killed more than 33,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, with 25,000 being women and children.

In a case South Africa launched, the International Court of Justice on 26 January ruled the g*noc*de charge ‘plausible.’ A final ruling on whether Israel has violated the 1948 UN Genocide Convention may take years. However, the court also required Israel to take steps to avoid g*noc*dal acts. Israel has gone on to kill an additional 7,000 Palestinians since the ruling.

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KAGAME DENIES BACKING M23 HERE’S WHAT A UN REPORT SAYS

In the week commemorating three decades since the g*nocid* that killed some 800,000 Tutsis (including some Hutu and Twa people), Rwanda’s Paul Kagame has denied his country is backing the M23 rebel group - which is formed of ethnic Tutsi, and is fighting in neighbouring DRC.

However, a UN report released in December 2023 casts serious doubt on Kagame’s narrative. It presented strong evidence that M23 in fact enjoy the support of Rwanda’s military.

A recent flare-up in violence in DR Congo’s east has seen hundreds of thousands displaced, as the rebel group made inroads. The instability has been lucrative to the dozens of armed groups operating in the country, who profiteer from activities like illegal mining, human-trafficking and use of child labour in the resource-rich country.

Please have a watch and let us know your verdict.

Is Rwanda backing the M23?

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FORMER UK HOME SECRETARY: NO GENOCIDE, NO STARVATION

Despite the appalling death toll and suffering in Gaza, former UK Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, said this: ‘I very strongly rebut suggestions that Israel is in breach of international law. That there’s a genocide, that there’s a forced starvation.’

Many, including ourselves, are stunned and disagree. Despite six months of indiscriminate bombing, Braverman also questions the staggering Palestinian body count published by the Gaza Health Authority. We contrast her claims with those of UN experts.

Please watch and comment.

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A DREAM BETRAYED?

It was a murder that almost set South Africa ablaze. Chris Hani, the chief of staff at the ANC’s armed wing, was shot dead outside his home on 10 April, 1993. It happened at the height of delicate negotiations between the liberation movements and the apartheid government. After his killing, many felt the ANC sold-out to White-monopoly capital. As a result, the Black community still lives with broken promises made decades ago.

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NAIVASHA: KENYA’S COLONIAL SIN CITY

The World Rally Championship traditionally descends on Kenya in March/April every year, when thousands of pleasure-seeking fans head to the main action in Naivasha. As African Stream’s Wambura Mwai finds out, the town’s seedy past may have something to do with the wild parties often accompanying the event.

A Las Vegas in the heart of the Kenya colony, that was Naivasha’s reputation in the heyday of the British Empire. Cocaine-fuelled orgies, wife-swapping parties, crimes of passion and hedonism were standard fare for a group of mostly British aristocrats and adventurers who settled near the Aberdare Mountain Range between the 1920s and 1940s. Their decadent lifestyle earned them the nickname the “Happy Valley set” and is the subject of films and books depicting their antics, such as “White Mischief”.

Have a watch and pile in with your comments.

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WESTERN HYPOCRISY OVER AID WORKER MASSACRE IN GAZA

When seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen were killed by Israeli occupying forces in Gaza last week, the reaction of Western leaders and media changed dramatically. The usual lines of: Do you condemn H*m*s? Israel has a right to defend itself, and the Palestinians started this war; all suddenly disappeared. Instead, Tel Aviv was criticised and calls for a ceasefire and accountability were made. So why the change of tune? Anything to do with European lives being lost?

Ahmed Ghoneim looks at how Palestinian lives haven’t mattered in a six-month war that’s killed over 33,000 Palestinians including more than 15,000 children.

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HAITI: PUNISHED FOR REVOLUTION

In this clip, one of Haiti’s staunchest defenders - Randall Robinson, a lawyer-activist who once went on hunger strike over US treatment of Haitian refugees (and got the Clinton administration to change its policy!), and who passed just over a year ago - lays out two key facts about the world’s first Black republic: the West has never forgiven the Caribbean nation for liberating itself from its shackles, and the island will always be a natural home for oppressed freedom fighters the world over. Haiti had to be made an example out of. France, for example, used military threats to extract huge amounts in reparations for ‘lost earnings’ from highly profitable slave plantations - in what was essentially a heist. Hear Robinson tell it, and let us know - who’s got Haiti’s back now?

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The passing of revolutionary fighter and independent Algeria’s first elected president Ahmed Ben Bella on this day in 2012 marked the end of an era.

Born in 1916 under French colonial rule, Ben Bella’s journey to prominence began during World War II, in which he fought for France and for service in which he was later awarded the Croix de Guerre. However, the massacre of Algerians by French forces on May 8th, 1945, was a turning point - it spurred Ben Bella to organise resistance against colonial oppression.

His leadership of the National Liberation Front (FLN) during Algeria’s war for independence was instrumental to the country’s liberation in 1962.

Continued….. Following independence, he held significant political roles, serving as prime minister and later as first elected president. His tenure was marked by efforts to rebuild Algeria and implement reforms aimed at national development, including campaigns for literacy and land redistribution.

Internationally, Ben Bella was a proponent of Pan-Africanism and sought to strengthen alliances among emerging nations. He collaborated with leaders such as Gamal Abdel Nasser, Kwame Nkrumah and Che Guevara to support liberation movements across Africa. Despite his overthrow in 1965 and years of isolation, Ben Bella remained committed to advocating for reforms and global solidarity until his death at the age of 95. His legacy as a champion for the oppressed and an advocate for socio-economic equality continues to inspire generations.

Rest with the ancestors, Ahmed Ben Bella.

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HOW TIGRAY COMMUNITY SAVED AXUM TREASURES

Not all of Africa’s treasures were looted - it helped, for example, if you hid it under a mountain!

That’s what the ancestors of Ethiopia’s Tigray community did in the town of Axum.

Locals knew from folklore that there was something special under the local mountain, so when a road-construction project started drilling into the rock a decade or so back, they urged the authorities to intervene.

This they did, and what they found only added to Axum’s fame - already dubbed an ‘open air museum’ and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1980.

In this clip, travel vlogger Weyni Tesfin (aka @planbacktoafrica) tells the tale in full from the site itself.

Do you think you’ll visit?

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