WEST USING PROXIES TO CARRY OUT WAR IN CONGO

The West has always wanted the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to remain in turmoil. Those are the words of Pan-African scholar PLO Lumumba.

During a recent appearance on African Stream’s flagship podcast, ‘Pan-African Attitude,’ Lumumba highlighted how Western governments have used Africans to sow division in the Congo to facilitate the exploitation of its resources.

He gave an example of how US and Belgian intelligence services groomed the DRC’s longtime president, Mobutu Sese Seko (1930-97), to overthrow revolutionary leader Patrice Lumumba (1925-61) and take power from 1965 until 1997.

He added that using proxies has continued into modern times, giving credence to allegations that the West is using Rwanda and Uganda to foment strife and conflict in the Congo while facilitating the transit and laundering of suspected conflict minerals whose proceeds help perpetuate violence.

Watch the rest of this conversation by heading to our YouTube channel.

This week’s African Proverb is an invitation to stop and think before doing anything stupid. In particular, think about your own vulnerabilities before going on the attack - if you can’t take it, don’t dish it out! You might end up with egg on your face, or worse. (But what if it’s an egg fight?)

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A UNIFIED AFRICA WILL FREE THE DIASPORA

Revolutionary Pan-African leader and founding member of the @aaprpinternational Kwame Ture once stated, ‘Until Africa is free, no African anywhere in the world will ever be free or respected.’

Africans scattered across the diaspora, living far off in places like Europe or the Americas, find themselves without a home base to defend them. Ture said if Africa unified based on socialism, it would be powerful enough to punish countries that enact brutal acts of violence against Black civilians, such as in the United States.

In what ways do you think life would change for Africans of the world if Africa unified? Drop your ideas in the comments.

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THE REAL STORY VS HOW MAINSTREAM MEDIA REPORT IT

We all know the mainstream media only ever likes to report on Africa and Africans when it’s ‘bad’ news. But does it actively try to twist reality to make us look bad? You might think so when comparing this headline and its cropped image (left) with the full image (right). Many would argue that the way the image is used in the reporting misleadingly suggests the Black individual in the foreground is the suspected criminal - whereas the full image reveals she is actually the arresting officer. Are we being over-sensitive here?

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Egypt has announced it will formally join South Africa’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) gen*cide case against Israel due to its recent attacks on Rafah, and in the central and northern Gaza Strip.

Rafah is the enclave’s southernmost city, where Israel months earlier had advised Palestinians to flee to avoid its military onslaught.

An anonymous Egyptian official also allegedly told the Associated Press that the 1979 treaty with Israel that established diplomatic relations between the two states is at ‘high risk’ if Tel Aviv expands its military offensive in Rafah. Cairo has long said it will not accept Palestinian refugees and refuses to open safe corridors to protect Palestinians’ right to their land.

Continued…. The ICJ’s interim ruling in January found gen*cide ‘plausible’ since the 7 October escalation in the 75-year Israeli occupation of Palestine and ordered Israel to take a series of measures to prevent gen*cidal acts. However, since then, Israel’s military onslaught has killed more than 9,000 Palestinians, bringing the death toll to more than 35,000, with most being women and children.

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WHITE PRIVILEGE DURING A TRAFFIC STOP

While watching this video, keep asking yourself - what if she’d been Black?

It shows a White woman arguing with, insulting and repeatedly refusing to comply with a police officer - after breaking the speed limit, not pulling over and driving all the way home.

How many African-Americans have been executed by US cops on the flimsiest of pretexts? This clip showcases White privilege in action.

In many ways, American policing has been a continuation of racist policies that go all the way back to slavery. By 2000, Black people made up almost half of the state prison population but only about 13% of the US’s.

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Kenyan President William Ruto’s hope to address the US Congress went poof!

US House Speaker Mike Johnson has turned down a few Democratic legislators’ recent request for Ruto to address a joint session of both houses of Congress due to ‘scheduling constraints.’ It would have been a first for a Kenyan leader and the second time for an African head of state. In 2006, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf addressed the US Congress.

In the past, some world leaders aligned with Washington have addressed all 535 US legislators. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are recent examples.

Continued….. Ruto has advocated deploying Kenyan police to Haiti with Washington’s financial aid, and he has expressed support for US ally Ukraine. Recently, Kenya lined up behind US ally Israel amid its military onslaught in the Gaza Strip.

Ruto’s state visit to the United States is set for 23 May. The last African head of state to do a US state visit was Ghanaian President John Kufour in 2008.

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UN CHIEF: RAFAH FACES 'EPIC' DISASTER

The UN Secretary-General fears an ‘epic humanitarian disaster’ as Israel intensifies its assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Speaking at a press conference in Kenya, Antonio Guterres warned there were no tents or food left for the thousands of fleeing Palestinians.

On Sunday, Israeli forces pushed deeper into Rafah where more than a million civilians have been sheltering.
Over three hundred thousand have fled the city in the last few days, according to the UN, with most heading to the badly-damaged city of Khan Yunis or the crowded Mawasi tent camp.

More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 2023 when Tel Aviv launched its offensive on the besieged enclave. The majority of those killed are women and children, despite Israel claiming its offensive is targeting H*mas fighters. Conditions for survivors are bleak. In March the UN warned over half the Strip’s population faces imminent famine due to Israel’s blockade of food and aid.

In 1985, police accused the group of parole violations, contempt of court, illegal possession of firearms and making 'terroristic' threats. The resulting fire claimed the lives of 11 people, including five children, in the headquarters and destroyed 65 nearby homes. Only one adult and one child survived the attack.

In 1996, a US federal court ruled that the city used excessive force and violated constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure in the 1985 raid and bombardment.

Continued….. The court ordered the city to pay $1.5 million to a MOVE bombing survivor, Ramona Africa, and the families of two killed group members. In 2005, a court awarded $12.83 million to residents of the Black working-class neighbourhood who had lost their homes.

In 2021, a controversy ensued when a Princeton University forensic anthropology course allegedly did a 'case study' using the remains of two of the children killed in the aerial bombing. The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology had held their remains before transferring them to Princeton. After protests and public scrutiny, Princeton retired the course. The city stated the families had not claimed the remains after the bombing. However, in May 2021, Philadelphia Health Commissioner Thomas Farley resigned under pressure after news that, in 2017, he ordered the cremation and disposal of victims' remains without either identifying them or contacting members of the family. A day after Farley's resignation, staff at the Medical Examiner's Office found a box labelled 'MOVE' containing uncremated remains.

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Things have been tense in West Africa ever since three anti-imperialist popular coups swept through the Sahel states of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. The latter country was hit especially hard with sanctions by regional bloc ECOWAS - including threats of military invasion.

Niger’s southern neighbour Benin took part in the economic assault on Niamey. Porto-Novo shut its border for trade. However, when Niger formally exited ECOWAS in January this year, sanctions were lifted in an apparent bid to persuade it to stay. But while Benin reopened the border, Niger has kept it shut - citing security concerns.

The loss in trade seems to be hurting Porto-Novo more, as it’s now banned Niamey from using its ports to export oil to China - until cross-border trade resumes. Niamey says Benin’s blockade violates economic agreements between the two countries.

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U.S. POLICE VIOLENCE JUST LIKE THE 60s

We’ve sewn together two clips filmed six decades apart, that show the same thing: Police violence in the US. The top footage captures officers quashing civil rights protests in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963.
The one below it shows officers hurling to the floor Emory University professor Caroline Fohlin at recent pro-Palestinian protests.

She says they smashed her head on the concrete after she confronted them for 'pummelling’ a young student on campus. She’s been charged with disorderly conduct and could face a year in jail. Just one of hundreds of university protesters detained and bearing the brunt of heavy-handed police crackdowns nationwide.

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Are we back in 60s America?

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WESTERN 'CIVILISATION' A FAÇADE

How often do we hear about the merits of the so-called 'Western civilisation'? 

Eurocentric people tell us Western values have brought out the best in humanity and held the world together.

However, the West has also been at the centre of some of the most brutal and horrendous crimes that humanity has witnessed, as Shahid Bolsen, the founder of the digital platform Middle Nation, points out in this recent clip.

Whether it is genocide, enslaving people or brutally occupying foreign lands, the West's fingerprints have been on the crime scene.

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U.S. STUDENT WALKOUT OVER ISRAEL

This was a scene repeated across US universities at the weekend. Students walking out of their commencement ceremonies as part of pro-Palestine protests.

In this clip dozens leave the event at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) on May 11th, during a speech by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. It was expected following his support for police breaking up earlier protests on Virginia campuses.

According to local media, students chanted ‘No books, no peace, let the knowledge increase’ and ‘Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.’ They, like many others, want their college to stop investing in Israeli-linked companies.

There have been around 2,800 arrests on campuses across the US since the first pro-Palestinian protests erupted mid-April.

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CHAD ELECTION RESULTS

Chad’s incumbent ruler, Mahamat Déby, won a landslide victory in the recent presidential election - but the opposition is crying foul.

Déby’s main rival was assassinated ahead of the vote, and the opposition says its people faced intimidation and threats in the run-up to the May 6th poll. Their candidate, who came second, alleges vote-rigging and has urged people to protest the result.

Déby has been cozying up to the French, for whom Chad is one of their ever dwindling places of influence in Africa, having been kicked out of the Sahel. So France for one will be celebrating the outcome.

What do you think of Déby‘s retaining power in Chad?

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Two years ago, a serene Saturday at Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, New York, turned into a nightmare when an 18-year-old, clad in military attire and streaming his actions via helmet camera on Twitch, unleashed terror with a rifle.

The assailant, Payton Gendron, went on a rampage that claimed the lives of 10 individuals and left three others wounded. In a chilling display of racially motivated extremism, he targeted 11 Black and two White victims before ultimately surrendering to authorities. The livestream captured the horror in real-time, broadcasting the unfolding tragedy to a shocked audience.

The aftermath of the massacre reverberated far beyond Buffalo, highlighting the legacy of racial tensions, gun violence and the alarming rise of hate crimes plaguing the US.

The shooter had penned a racist manifesto online before his targeting of the majority-Black neighbourhood. The cover page featured the Sonnenrad, also known as The Black Sun. It’s a symbol that was popularised in Nazi Germany and continues to be used among White supremacists. The manifesto included reference to a popular White supremacist theory known as The Great Replacement, which argues that non-European people will soon outnumber the European population in the West, and must therefore have their numbers reduced through fear and fatality.