Continued….. Nkrumah is still very influential among Pan-Africanists today. A thinker and writer, one of his most famous books is 'Neocolonialism - The Last Stage of Imperialism.' Africans continue to draw inspiration from his contribution to Pan-African thought. His still-relevant ideas are a testament to his foresight and understanding of the African struggle. We honour his memory by carrying on the struggle he devoted his life to: to free Africa for the benefit of its people.

How has he inspired you?

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S’ LEONE FIRST LADY: BIG BRO RULES OUR MINERALS

As Sierra Leone celebrates Independence Day, the country’s First Lady warns the nation’s still controlled by ‘Big Brother’ And in this frank interview, Fatima Maada Bio explains how international powers continue to exert control.

Every single mining company in Sierra Leone is foreign owned. And despite breaking free from British colonial rule on April 27th, 1961, the UK still runs the country’s electricity.

So what can be done? If you try to change the status quo, she says, external forces fund opposition uprisings and sow chaos. The country then becomes ungovernable. But whatever happens, Sierra Leone’s First Lady says things can’t remain as they are. After all, if you can’t control your electricity, how can you make sure you can educate your people?

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AFRICA’S VISA DISASTER

Why are Africans making life hard for themselves by closing colonially-imposed borders to each other? Why does an African from one part of the continent need a visa to visit any other part? It makes no cultural or economic sense - hindering trade and intra-African relations.

Here’s South African entrepreneur Vusi Thembekwayo making the point powerfully to an audience in Nigeria. He relates his absurdly roundabout travel route from South Africa and compares it with the effortless ease with which he can move around Europe.

Is this a leaf we should be taking out of Europe’s book?

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DREAM BETRAYED: SOUTH AFRICA'S 30 YEARS OF 'FREEDOM'

On April 27th 1994, there was excitement across South Africa as millions of South Africans queued up outside polling stations to participate in the country’s first democratic election, in which citizens of all races were allowed to participate.

It was more than just an election. Many saw it as the final nail into the coffin of a system that had oppressed Black South Africans since 1652 when Dutch colonialist Jan Van Riebeck arrived at the shores of modern-day South Africa.

As widely expected, the African National Congress (ANC), the country’s most prominent liberation movement, convincingly won the election.
After decades of bloody struggle, the ANC finally transitioned from a liberation movement to the country’s new rulers.

Hopefulness was in the air, free at last, or so they thought!

Continued….. Hopefulness was in the air, free at last, or so they thought!

Three decades later, many are asking if that transition delivered and met the hopes and aspirations of the masses who stood in the long queues outside voting booths in 1994.

African Stream has been on the ground in South Africa, examining the country’s painful past and the long road to freedom and how its indigenous population feel three decades after the end of apartheid. Please watch and give us your thoughts in the comments.

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KAUNDA: UNSUNG HERO OF AFRICA’S FREEDOM STRUGGLE

On 27th April, 1924, one of Africa’s liberation heroes - Kenneth Kaunda - was born in northern Zambia. Kaunda, fondly known as KK and Super Ken, was not only Zambia’s founding president but a Pan-Africanist icon who gave the best of his 97 years of life to ensuring that every single inch of African land was free of colonialism. As President of Zambia, Kaunda led other African leaders to form the coalition of Frontline States, a collection of countries in southern and East Africa that had gained their independence in the early 1960s. The group played a key role in mobilising resources and support for the armed struggle against racist and colonial regimes in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Namibia, Mozambique, Angola and South Africa.

Continued…. These efforts helped to ensure that, by the 1990s, most colonial regimes in Africa had collapsed or were on the verge of collapsing. The contribution of less widely known heroes such as Kaunda must never be forgotten.

Had you heard of him before?

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JEWISH STUDENT CONDEMS GAZA MASSACRES

Pro-Palestinian protests continue at colleges across the US, with students remaining defiant. They include Jared Kannel, who gave this viral interview at Columbia University in New York.

He believes authorities are labelling the rallies ‘anti-Semitic’ to deflect from Israel’s ‘non-stop massacre of Gaza.’ Jared also reveals he was raised a Zionist, but realised he was on the ‘wrong side’ after understanding the Palestinian perspective. He was speaking after police began arresting students and dismantling their camp on college grounds.

Despite police crackdowns, similar protests keep going across the country, with students staying resolute. They say they want their schools to divest funds from entities connected with Israel and cut ties with Israeli institutions.

Jared typifies the mood during this interview with TRT World, the Turkish news outlet.

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Our African proverb of the week comes from Cameroon and reminds us there are more important things than material wealth. If you’re blinded by money when making big decisions, like getting married, then you’ll suffer eventually. Are there similar proverbs in your country? Please share in the comments.

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DRC PUTS APPLE TO TASK ON ‘BLOOD MINERALS’

The DRC government is threatening legal action against Apple for mining ‘blood minerals’ in the country’s war-torn east. Lawyers have sent the big-tech firm a cease and desist notice, ordering it to stop using ‘illegally exploited’ materials in its products.

It’s claimed Apple buys so-called 3T minerals that are smuggled to Rwanda and laundered into the international supply chain. Cash from their sale is thought to fund armed groups which run illegal mines and commit human rights abuses.

Continued….. The DRC has seen a sharp uptick in violence in recent months. In October 2023 alone, more than 200,000 people were displaced during fighting between M23 and other Congolese militias. Since the 1990s more than six million have been killed in the country’s east, with more than seven million displaced. It’s been a silent crisis that’s been very lucrative for multinational giants, even as Africans pay the highest price.

So, will this move by DRC lawyers have an impact? It follows a US federal appeals court ruling in March that said big-tech firms were not liable for the use of child labour in Congo mines. According to judges, the multinationals only have a buyer-seller relationship with suppliers.

Well, the stakes have just got higher. Apple has three weeks to respond. Let’s wait and see.

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AFRICAN LEADERS, STOP SELLING OUR COUNTRIES

In this video, 23-year-old rapper and Pan-Africanist based in Kenya @realsensicalsense ranted about many African leaders upholding the neo-colonial system. 

For centuries, the world’s industrial powers have treated Africa as an open market for cheap raw materials to fuel their economies. At the end of the European slave trade and throughout the colonial period, Europeans forced Africans into a global economy that disadvantaged Africa and other colonised regions of the world. Today, most African countries are nominally free.

Continued….. Yet, African states still find themselves beholden to unfair trade deals, widening the gap between the industrialised Global North and the extractivist economies of the Global South. It’s a race to the bottom at the expense of our lands and people.

Every country is looking out for its interests. In some cases, two countries can strike a mutually beneficial deal. New collaborations between Russia and African countries like Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are allowing these Sahelian states to move away from France’s stranglehold and develop new industries. 

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JUDGE JOE BROWN: OJ SIMPSON WAS INNOCENT

The mainstream media describes former US football player OJ Simpson as someone who got away with murdering his ex-wife and her friend in 1994 in Los Angeles.

Approximately 95 million people worldwide watched this ‘trial of the century’ on television. The case highlighted the racial split in the United States, with 75 per cent of white people believing Simpson was guilty, while 70 per cent of Black people said he was innocent.

In light of Simpson’s 10 April death from cancer at the age of 76, we re-visit this @fallenstateTV interview with Judge Joe Brown, a former lawyer and TV personality who ran for mayor of Memphis, Tennessee. His insights on the contradictions he saw in the prosecution's case might pique your interest. 

Do you agree with him? Let us know in the comments.

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PLO: TIME TO DITCH ‘INHERITED’ MODELS
OF GOVERNMENT

Ever wondered what Africa would be like now had the European colonisers never come? What kind of societies would we have, and what kind of leaders?

This is no mere exercise in fantasy. According to Pan-African scholar PLO Lumumba, we need to think hard about the kinds of government we really want on our continent - because, right now, we are making do with systems inherited from the colonisers, which are not fit for our purposes.

He goes further. We need to see beyond the artificial borders imposed on our lands. Division doesn’t help us on the global stage. What’s the point of 54 nations with little clout when united? They’d hit the ball out of the park.

Lumumba is the first to admit that it’s easier to talk about all this in grandiose terms than actually making it happen. Watch him here passionately plea to Africa’s young to seize this ‘inter-generational project’ by the horns.

Are you on board? So what’s the plan?

APARTHEID CANNOT BE REFORMED

He was no fortune teller but the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) party's Johnson Mlambo correctly predicted a partial overhaul of South Africa's apartheid system would not lead to the total emancipation of the country's people. In his words, 'Apartheid cannot be reformed.'

Lo and behold, his words ring true some three decades after racial segregation officially ended. Despite achieving what many see as political freedom, South Africa is still characterised by high levels of poverty among its majority Black population and currently ranks as the mos unequal country in the planet. It’s the result of apartheid-era economic systems and structures that were never properly dismantled by successive governments.

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ICE CUBE: MUSIC INDUSTRY FEEDS PRISONS

In this clip from the Club Random Podcast, TV host Bill Maher sits down for a discussion with West Coast rapper Ice Cube.

@icecube explained how the same people who own US private prisons own the labels and how they directly or indirectly make sure that the music feeds the US prison system.

In the US, Black people are five times more likely to be incarcerated than white people.

In Ice Cube’s words, this is a process of social engineering that musicians unwittingly take part in, contributing to the cycle of imprisonment affecting young Black men.

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JOSHUA MAPONGA: AFRICANS WILL FIND THEIR WAY HOME!

It’s no secret that many Africans are seeking new lives outside of their continent, and that the diaspora is already large. But Zimbabwean-born public speaker, intellectual and preacher Joshua Maponga says that’s a trend that will inevitably reverse, as Africans everywhere become ever more conscious of the harm that imposed ways of thinking have done - once their subjugation (mental and physical, colonial and neo-colonial) ends and they reconnect with their own forms of spirituality, their traditions and culture. Maponga has a great faith in the next generation of Africans, do you share it?

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