CRIMES OF APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA: SHARPEVILLE MASSACRE

South Africa recently commemorated 30 years since the end of the oppressive apartheid system. It’s a milestone that calls for celebration, but also for reflection - on the price that many paid for the nation's freedom.

More often than not, anniversaries like this tend to focus on the role that prominent anti-apartheid icons played in the struggle. But their achievements would have been impossible without the support of the many people who tenaciously stood up against the apartheid regime, even at the cost of their own lives.

Continued….. South Africa's history is scarred with atrocities committed by that regime’s security apparatus against Black citizens who simply demanded their rights. One particularly grim example is the Sharpeville massacre, perpetrated on 21st of March, 1960, when security forces killed 69 unarmed Black protesters in the township of that name in Vereeniging. The victims had taken to the streets to demonstrate against laws that required Black people to have a permit to travel around the country.

This clip is from our full-length documentary looking at the state of South Africa 30 years on from the fall of apartheid, which you can find on our YouTube channel. Your reactions in the comments are appreciated.

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Here’s a shocking statistic: Comprising roughly 56% of the total population, over 87% of people killed by police in Brazil are Black. That’s according to a 2023 report by the Security Observatory Network, which studied violence in the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Ceará, Pernambuco, Maranhão, Pará and PIaui (just eight of Brazil's 26 states, including its federal district). And the grim trend has been highlighted again with the death of a Senegalese father-of-two.

Africans in São Paulo are demanding answers after Serigne Mbaye fell from a sixth-floor window while police raided his apartment. Officers claim the 38-year-old died while trying to escape as they searched his home for stolen mobile phones.

Continued…The incident was recorded as accidental death and sparked protests. Military police then broke up crowds with tear gas and rubber bullets, injuring one person.

Demonstrators say the death and police response is another example of persecution of the Black community in the city. And they’re calling on the ministries of Justice and Human Rights to take action.

One of Serigne’s neighbours, who witnessed the raid, said internal video footage disappeared from the building shortly afterwards. Police body-cam footage has also been kept under wraps.

Continued…. A building attendant claimed it was the fourth police raid on the premises in a few months, adding: ‘ I was here the first time it happened. A policeman told me, ‘’I’m going upstairs.’’ When I asked if he had a search warrant, he told me, ‘‘my face is the warrant’’ and busted in. That’s how it is around here’
Other residents heard screams for help just before Serigne fell from his window, while others say military police officers were heard saying, ‘The piece of trash got tossed’ and ‘the piece of trash fell.'

Popularly known as Talla, Serigne migrated to Brazil seven years ago in search of a better life. His wife, Mama, was from Cape Verde and they had a daughter and son. Mama told reporters: ‘We’re all so angry, not only us Senegalese but all Africans and Brazilians who knew him. Everybody knew Talla and not just him. There are many Tallas with the same story.’

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EUROPEANS’ SUPREMACIST VIEWS OF AFRICANS

For centuries, the European mind has perceived Africans and Africa as uncivilised and backward, as expressed in the poem, ‘The White Man’s Burden.’ White supremacy was used to justify slavery and colonisation.

However, much of African culture and history tells a different story. We are a mighty and intelligent people, whether we trace our roots to Egypt, or to the Dogon astral people of Mali or elsewhere on this vast continent.

Human rights activist and lawyer Brian Kagoro weighs in during this clip from the 10th National Security Symposium, jointly organized in May by the Rwanda Defence Force Command and Staff College as well as the University of Rwanda. The theme was ‘Foreign Interference in Africa: The Enduring Destabilising Factor.’

So, let us know: How can we build up Africa, regardless of how others view us? Jot your thoughts below.

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PLO: EUROPEANS REALISED AFRICANS = PROFIT

Here’s a quick reminder from PLO Lumumba that the abominable European slave trade was perpetrated not just by the dominant states there but even by what he calls “now very quiet” powers - like the Danes and the Norwegians. PLO also makes the point that - while the Europeans may have initially come to Africa in search of trade - they soon realised that, amid a growing need for labour back home, the African human being was the most profitable ‘commodity’.

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JULIUS MALEMA: APARTHEID ECONOMY
NEVER ENDED

South Africans have just marked three decades since apartheid officially ended. But while the collapse of that oppressive system no doubt improved the lives of the country's indigenous Black population, there are concerns that the racist regime's economic structures remain mostly intact - and continue to deny Black people opportunities to fully participate in the country's economy.

In this clip from 2016, Pan-African politician and leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters party Julius Malema explains how this was no accident, but rather a result of the terms of the agreements that leaders of the-then liberation movement and now-ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC) reached with White capitalists in the run-up to the end of apartheid.

Is this how you see it?

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Our African proverb this week reminds us that certain things come to pass whatever we think or do - what does the sun care whether the cock crows or not?

You could read it as a kind of fatalism: accept the inescapable ways of the world. Or perhaps as a kind of optimism: more sunny days always lie ahead!

How do you read it?

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BLACK TOWN CLEARED TO MAKE WAY FOR U.S. AIRPORT

Throughout US history, vibrant Black communities have often faced the devastating force of so-called ‘progress.’

One poignant example occurred in Willard, Virginia, an unincorporated Black settlement that formerly enslaved people seeking freedom and opportunity founded after the Civil War. By the early 20th century, Willard had blossomed into a bustling town with businesses, schools and churches, away from the apartheid Black folks had to endure in white-run cities and towns.

Continued…. However, as in the case of many other Black towns in the United States, impending construction of a new international airport displaced Black residents, with the US government handing one Willard family just $8,000 to leave by 19 September 1958, according to a survivor. Authorities bulldozed the town to make way for Washington Dulles International Airport, which serves diplomats, politicians and civilians just 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of Washington DC.

The airport was named after anti-communist US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles (1953-59), who implemented US Cold War policy in Korea, Vietnam, Iran, Guatemala, Africa and many other places where US interventions, coups, proxy wars and military interventions took place. His brother, Allen Dulles, served as CIA director from 1953 to 1961. During that time, he oversaw coups in Iran and Guatemala, as well as the Project MKUltra mind control program and the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, among other ‘feats.’

Video credit: @moorthreads_store

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A SECRET AFRICAN-AMERICAN LANGUAGE

A secret language of enslaved Africans in the United States has survived since the 18th century. Tutnese, also known as Tut, was developed in order to teach literacy during the era of chattel slavery. In linguistic genealogy, it is referred to as ‘cant,’ a family of languages designed intentionally to exclude or mislead observers, in this case, White-settler colonialists, enslavers and their acolytes. It was for this reason that the Tut language remained clandestine.

Throughout the United States, harshly enforced anti-literacy laws targeting enslaved, and sometimes free, African-descendants remained on the books for well over a century (between 1740 and 1867). Why? Effective, widespread and cohesive communication and literacy skills among African people meant increased chances of organised rebellion against the status quo - precisely what White society feared.

Continued…. In effect, Tutnese was developed as a means of communication and education to ensure the safety of Black people from their enemies (and, hopefully, successful rebellions against tyranny). Even up until the 1970s, many Black families were encouraged to keep the language a secret.

Teaching Tutnese publicly is heavily discouraged due to its historical development. It is unknown how many people actually speak the language today. However, researchers have found Tutnese spoken among African-descendant people in Canada, Mexico and even West Asia.

When it comes to the traditions of African people, do you believe that more gatekeeping is necessary? Or do you believe in a culture of mass organisation with closed-door secrecy among ourselves to move forward?

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FRANCE TARGETTED COUNTRIES THAT CHOSE SOVEREIGNTY

The facts are as follows:

On 28 September 1958, France held a constitutional referendum in the country and its colonies. The question was as follows: 'Do you approve of the Constitution offered by the Government of the Republic?'

Countries that voted 'yes' joined the 'French community,' a status that would come with continued French military and economic domination. Countries that voted no were issued immediate sovereignty from formal French rule.

While many African leaders at the time waged national campaigns to join the French community, only Guinea's Ahmed Sékou Touré voted no. He famously declared, 'We prefer liberty in poverty to slavery in riches.'

Continued…. However, it was not his decision alone. Guinean people turned out 85.5 per cent to vote 95 per cent against the constitution.

Then France launched Operation Persil to destabilise the country and try to turn citizens against Sékou Touré. Before the campaign, French nationals destroyed much of Guinea's infrastructure on their way out. During the campaign, France deployed spies to counterfeit the new Guinean currency and encourage revolt.

At the time, Pan-African leader of Mali, Modibo Keïta, voted to remain a part of the French community. France said those who voted against the constitution would achieve independence separately from the other African states. Keïta identified this as a Balkanisation tactic and attempted to instead form a Pan-African entity with Senegal known as the Mali Federation. Within two years of independence, Keïta would withdraw from the 'French community,' expelling French troops, closing the French military base in 1961, and creating a sovereign currency in 1962.

Today, 12 former French colonies in Africa use the CFA franc currency, as does former Portuguese colony Guinea Bissau and former Spanish colony Equatorial Guinea. After a coup overthrew Keïta, Mali re-adopted the CFA franc. Guinea is the only former French colony in West Africa with a sovereign currency.

Let us know what you think of Arikana Chihombori-Quao, the African Union's former permanent representative to the United States, breaking it down in this clip.

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This illustration by Carlos Latuff vividly captures the crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Rwanda and Uganda have played significant roles in destabilising the vast, mineral-rich central African country for the past 30 years - through invasions and funding militia groups to fight against DRC troops and Kinshasa-backed militia. In 2023, a UN report concluded that Rwanda aids and supports the M23 rebel group, supplying cash and weapons.