The country became a close friend of revolutionary governments worldwide from Cuba to Vietnam.

Under Modibo Keïta, revolutionary Mali placed great emphasis on cultural preservation and development. National Youth Week was instituted as a cultural showcase bringing together various ethnic groups and regions to represent their heritage. The event is largely responsible for the prominence of Mali's famous musicians today, such as Salif Keïta.

Modibo Keïta was overthrown in a Western-backed coup in 1968 and sent to prison, where he died almost a decade later, aged 61.

Mali has struggled to find stability since Keïta‘s ouster. The last decade has been marked by militant violence after a Tuareg rebellion in 2012 was hijacked by al-Qaeda-linked extremists, who occupy most of the country's north. The neocolonial CFA franc currency that Modibo Keïta replaced was reintroduced to the country following his overthrow.

Men pass, but their ideas live on. Long live Modibo Keïta!

KING CHARLES’S PORTRAIT: RED FOR DANGER

A painting of King Charles III has caused a stir online.

British artist Jonathan Yeo said his strokes meant to communicate the king’s ‘deep humanity.’ However, the painting’s blood-red background has creeped out many online, saying it alludes to the British royal family’s violent legacy of colonialism. ‘Looks like he’s going straight to hell,’ one social media user wrote.

The British empire reigned over 412 million people—23 per cent of the global population—in 1913. At its peak in 1920, it controlled about 22 million square kilometres, nearly 17 per cent of the global land area.
Currently, King Charles III is the biggest landowner in the world, according to financial experts at Invezz, which said the king and the royal family own over 6.6 billion acres of land or 17 per cent of the world’s land area. That’s 37 times more than the next largest landowner, the Catholic Church, which, according to Invezz, owns some 177 million acres.

Continued….. Most of the king’s holdings are in former British colonies, after having displaced indigenous people.

The royal family also played a vital role in the European slave trade. King Charles II set up two shipping companies in the 1660s and 1670s, monopolising the slave trade between West and Central Africa and the Americas. The company undertook nearly 250 slave trafficking voyages between 1680 and 1688.

In 1678, the British parliament passed a law allowing merchants’ companies to join the sinister trade. In total, British ships trafficked about 3.4 million Africans to sell in the Americas during the European slave trade.

More recently, shortly after Charles’s mother had become queen, the British imprisoned, tortured and k*lled about 100,000 Kenyans during a state of emergency between 1952 and 1960.

Those are just a few of the British Empire’s crimes.

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UAE’S AFRICAN LAND GRAB

There’s a new scramble for Africa few are talking about. Countries are buying up huge swathes of the continent’s forests to off-set their own carbon footprints. And UAE is one of the biggest buyers. The Middle East petrostate aims to be a net-zero nation by 2050 and has snapped up African forests covering the size of Great Britain. But this sell-off comes at a huge cost for local populations.

According to NGO, Fern, millions of people depending on Africa’s wildlife havens for their livelihood, are having their rights violated and sold off to a foreign entity. Meanwhile, major oil and gas producers of the world get to ‘whitewash’ their image as polluters. They can also make millions by selling their stake in forests to other polluting nations in the form of ‘carbon credits’. Ahmed Ghoneim looks at the dirty game being played in Africa as the world strives to go green.

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TWO AFRICAN PRESIDENTS HANG OUT IN TOWN

It’s not often you see two African presidents out for an evening stroll in the city together. But that’s exactly what happened a couple of months back. In this clip, you can see the presidents of Eritrea and Somalia wandering through downtown Asmara - casually interacting with locals, amid minimal security. There were hand shakes, high fives and big smiles all round, and the promenade included a stop-off at a coffee house.

Of course, Isaias Afwerki and Hassan Sheikh Mohamud had some very important business besides socialising and checking out the capital’s nightlife. They were holding security talks amid heightened tensions in the region, after Ethiopia (from which Eritrea broke away) recognised (Somalia’s) breakaway Somaliland in return for access to the sea.

Continued….. Relations between Eritrea and Somalia haven’t always been great either, with the latter previously accusing the former of providing insurgents with weapons - something Asmara brands a lie put about by Addis Ababa.

But judging by the videos of their relaxed walkabout, the two presidents get on well enough - so it could signal a new era in bilateral ties.

The videos also contradict the typical Western portrayal of Afwerki as an autocratic ruler… would you agree?

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ON THE GROUND: CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY STUDENTS FORCE ISRAEL DIVESTMENT

On 9 May, African Stream journalist Inem Richardson visited a student encampment at California State University, Sacramento, California’s first state university campus and among the first universities in the United States to announce it would meet students’ demands for divestment from Israel.

The university said it will divest $4.5 million it has ‘indirectly’ invested in Israel.

While the university’s policy change did not officially reference Israel, it stated, ‘CSU Sacramento opposes and condemns all acts of gen*cide, ethnic cleansing, and other activities that violate fundamental human rights.

Continued….. CSU Sacramento will not engage in any activity or enter into any agreement that conflicts with these values.’ 

The student encampment lasted 10 days and around 100 students marched on 7 May. 

Richardson later visited a student encampment just 13 miles (21 kilometres) away at the University of California Davis. Check out what students had to say.

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PAUL NEWMAN MASTERCLASS: US-ISRAEL HYPOCRISY

Washington has long applied double standards when it comes to the rule of law, particularly in relation to Israel.

In this 1983 video, actor Paul Newman brings up another hard-to-argue-against example. The U.S. downplayed Israel's downing of Libyan-Arab Airline Flight 114 in 1973, but caused an uproar when the Soviet Union downed Korean Airlines Flight 007 in 1983. The incident was used to justify astronomical US defence spending.

Well, forward wind to today and not a lot has changed. While demanding Russia’s president is prosecuted for war crimes in Ukraine, the US defends Israel’s war on Gaza, despite the ICJ warning of plausible genocide.

Watch Paul Newman get a round of applause on the Phil Donahue show, as he highlights Washington’s selective moral outrage.

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OTA BENGA: THE BOY EXHIBITED IN A HUMAN ZOO

How Western colonisers practised barbarism in the name of science. The Tragic story of Ota Benga.

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ALI ‘MAKE SOME NOISE’ BONGO GOES ON HUNGER STRIKE

Gabon's deposed president, Ali Bongo, who last year pleaded with friends around the world to “make some noise" after he was overthrown in a military coup, has gone on hunger strike - in protest over his and his family’s alleged torture. According to the family's lawyer, two of his youngest sons, Jalil and Bilal, have decided to join him on the hunger strike.

Ali Bongo was placed under house arrest in the capital, Libreville, along with Jalil and Bilal, after a group of Gabonese soldiers staged a coup and annulled the results of the country's disputed presidential election in August 2023, in which he was declared the winner with 64.27% of the vote. He was set to rule the Central African nation for a third term, having succeeded his father, Omar Bongo, who had been in power from 1967 to 2009 (when he died).

Continued.....In October 2023, Gabon's new leadership also imprisoned the deposed first lady, Sylvia Bongo, and her eldest son, Noureddin Bongo, on corruption and embezzlement charges. On May 14th, the family's lawyer claimed in a statement cited by AFP that both had been subjected to physical assault while in custody.

The oil-rich Central African nation is part of OPEC and was colonised by France until 1960, when it became independent. It is currently under the leadership of Brice Oligui Nguema, a military officer who is serving as interim-president.

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PRO-PALESTINE TIKTOKERS SPOOK U.S. SENATOR

So, US senator and former presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, has finally admitted the truth. A US ban on TikTok aims to combat the spread of information sympathetic to Palestine. He was speaking during a forum staged by the Washington-based think-tank, McCain Institute. And there wasn’t much protest from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was sat alongside him. It follows accusations the app, which has servers in China, promotes pro-Palestinian accounts. Too bad.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk, who owns X, and Mark Zuckerberg, who owns Meta, overwhelmingly support US foreign policy. Their apps are accused of censoring those challenging Western mainstream narratives, but there’s no talk of taking them down. Get the picture? So much for free speech.

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ILLEGAL MINERS TERRORISE SOUTH AFRICAN RESIDENTS

Huge job losses in South Africa’s mining sector and widespread poverty have seen the illegal mining sector boom. And that’s also led to a boom in violent crime, as gangs vie for control of abandoned mines. Residents of a slum near Joburg are pleading with the authorities to do more, amid a surge in rapes and murders - blamed on illegal mining gangs. It’s led to a debate about what the root cause of this violence really is: is it pure criminality, or rooted in the lack of opportunity most face? Let us know your views on the issue in the comments.

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UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS STUDENT SPEAKS OUT FOR PALESTINE

On 9 May, African Stream journalist Inem Richardson visited the University of California Davis student encampment set up in solidarity with Palestine. An encampment representative and law student, Stanford McConnehey, shared that imperialism links the struggle in Palestine with the struggles waged in Africa, the Caribbean and the world at large. His analysis demonstrates US students are aware of the violence of 'Yankee' imperialism wherever it rears its ugly head, whether through US military bases that encircle the world, funding proxy wars, performing coups d’état, providing arms and other ways the United States uses to protect its economic dominance.

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Libyan authorities have arrested and jailed several high-ranking customs officials for attempting to smuggle abroad about 26 tonnes of gold - worth nearly $2 billion.

The smuggling operation, planned to be executed through the Misrata International Airport in Western Libya in December 2023, was foiled after leaked phone calls between the customs officials and a commander in the joint operations force led to their capture. Libyan law authorises only the country’s central bank to export gold.

Libya has been plagued by political instability since NATO’s 2011 overthrow and killing of Muammar Gaddafi. The country is split between Abdelhamid Dbeibah’s UN-recognised government in Tripoli and a rival administration in the east, backed by strongman Khalifa Haftar.

Continued…Libya has become a key hub for illicit gold-trafficking over the past decade, according to the non-governmental The Sentry. Additionally, Libya has one of the highest human-trafficking ranks in the world, scoring 8.5 out of 10. Slave auctions have been documented in Libya as thousands of migrants transiting the unstable North African state are caught and sold off by traffickers.

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RANIA KHALEK: PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE
MORALLY RIGHT

Watch @BTnewsroom’s @RaniaKhalek dismantle mainstream media’s coverage of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. While on the UK's Piers Morgan Uncensored show, she made three key points.

First, is the disinformation that came out following the October 7th escalation of hostilities between Palestine and Israel. Claims, including 40 beheaded babies, were used to justify the slaughter of tens of thousands of Palestinians. Interestingly, while even segments of Israeli media walked back those allegations, Western media remains stubborn.

Second, there was the claim that Israeli massacres of Palestinians were justifiable since H*mas attacked first. She points to the hypocrisy and dehumanisation of Palestinians because if they regarded Palestinians as humans deserving of dignity, outlets like Piers Morgan’s, would place the recent hostilities in their 75-year context of oppression and subjugation of Palestinians.

Continued…. Thirdly, on whether she condemns H*mas, a question fronted to nearly every pro-Palestine guest on his show, she says no. That would be akin to condemning slaves for rising against their enslavers. It's a mirror of brother Malcolm X’s response when he was asked whether he condemned the Mau Mau who fought the British to liberate Kenya from colonialism.

Tell us what you think of her straight talking.

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CONGO: DAY OF RECKONING FOR RWANDA COMING

A sombre mood filled the city of Goma in DR Congo’s east as the city laid to rest victims of rocket attacks on nearby refugee camps.

The atrocities, which Kinshasa says were carried out by the M23 rebel group with assistance from Rwanda, were perpetrated on May 3rd. They killed 35 people - mostly women and children.

During the funeral, Modeste Mutinga, DRC’s minister of social action and humanitarian affairs, angrily warned Kigali that it would face trial at The Hague for this and other alleged war crimes. Mutinga said the attacks were a reflection of the 'cruelty and guilt of Rwanda and its leader Paul Kagame.'

The United Nations and others have also accused Rwanda of being the force behind M23. Kigali has denied the allegations.

What do you think? Should Kagame stand trial as a war criminal?

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THE U.K. STARTED ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

Under UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s ‘Stop the Boats’ initiative, the United Kingdom will begin deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda within several weeks, according to reports. But does the UK have any right to worry about so-called 'illegal immigration’?

In a 6 May livestream with @authentic_african, African Stream journalist Inem Richardson called out Britain's colonial history as the root of the modern 'migration crisis.' The pair explored reasons why Rwanda might have agreed to such a collaboration with the UK and Rwanda’s history in similar deals.

Watch the whole livestream, 'UK Begins to Deport African Asylum Seekers to Rwanda,’ on our YouTube channel under the ‘Live’ tab.

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