A clash on Sunday, 14 July, between the army and militias k*lled more than 50 people in the village of Kinsele in Mai-Ndombe province, in the western part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Reports say 42 Mobondo militiamen lost their lives alongside nine Congolese soldiers and one civilian woman.

The Mobondo militia—comprised of Yaka people—formed in 2022 when their ethnic group revolted against the customary tax system that the Teke people imposed.

NGOs say the conflict is over land rights. However, violence and ethnic tensions across the Congo are linked to and exacerbated by an imperialist resource-extractivist system forming the base of the country’s economy. This has led to increased poverty, resource scarcity, displacement, deaths and the neglect of social services for the Congolese majority.

GAMBIANS ANGRY OVER POLITICIANS' WAGE BOOST

Youth-led protests in The Gambia are demanding plans to boost salaries for politicians and the judiciary are scrapped.

They’re against the unpopular Judiciary Officers Bill and National Assembly Remuneration Bill and voiced their anger in the capital, Banjul. Calling themselves ‘Concerned Gambians’ demonstrators chanted ‘reject the bill, we are tired’

They've put forward an eight-point list of demands to authorities including better compensation for public servants and equitable allocation of natural resources.

It comes at a time of high inflation which topped 18 per cent last September, and follows protests in Kenya that saw IMF tax-hikes abandoned.

Video credit @cecild84 @EYEAFRICA TV

SHAKUR: 2PAC’S REVOLUTIONARY GODMOTHER

Today (July 16th) we’re marking the 77th birthday of Assata Shakur. You may know her as the former member of the Black Liberation Army who’s on the FBI’s most-wanted list. However, did you know she was also the revolutionary godmother of legendary rapper 2PAC and is often referenced in hip-hop lyrics?

Our quick look at her life, resistance and persecution will help you understand her cause celebre status. She was controversially convicted of the m*rder of a US policeman, broke out of jail and escaped to Cuba, where it’s thought she’s still living. In 2013, she wrote an open letter in Havana, describing the flaws in her trial. You can read it @https://hoodcommunist.org/2024/03/07/an-open-letter-from-assata-shakur/

GAMBIA UPHOLDS FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION BAN

In a major win for women’s rights. Gambia’s parliament has rejected calls to decriminalise female genital mutilation (FGM).

It was made illegal in 2015, but earlier this year a male MP tabled a bill to lift the ban, amid claims it was an attack on the country’s culture. However, parliamentarians overwhelmingly voted against his proposal on July 15th.

The result’s been welcomed by rights activists who say FGM violates the dignity of women, although it’s still practiced widely across the country. According to UNICEF, about 73 percent of Gambian girls and women between the ages of 15 and 49 have undergone FGM.

FORMER OPPRESSORS ‘TAKING BACK’ SOUTH AFRICA

It’s a well-known fact that South Africa has the world’s most unequal society.
There’s a massive wealth gap between the rich, who are mostly White, and the poor, who are mostly Black.

According to a report by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), as of 2021, 64 per cent of Black South Africans were living in poverty compared to only one per cent of White citizens.

This is not a coincidence but a result of the failure by post-apartheid leaders to fully transform the country’s social and economic systems.

It’s a point driven home in this clip by Professor Bonang Mohale, the Chancellor of South Africa’s Free State University.

He also accuses the ruling African National Congress (ANC) of bringing back the ‘oppressors’ by forming a unity government with the White-led Democratic Alliance (DA) party.

Listen in and tell us what you think.

THE ALLIANCE OF SAHEL STATES: REVOLUTIONARY DEMOCRACY OR DICTATORSHIP?

You’ve probably seen the headlines, ‘Democracy is crumbling in the Sahel.’ But what exactly is democracy, and who gets to define it? In the West, the term refers to participation in an electoral system that brings forward new presidential candidates every several years. However, outside of the occasional election, many citizens are disengaged, having no way to be involved in decision-making processes regarding the economy, foreign policy, domestic security and other concerns.

Continued….. The Sahel is different. Three countries in this arid region south of the Sahara Desert, known as Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, have formed a confederation under the newly established Alliance of Sahel States (AES). They have embarked on an alternative path where they share a common economy and foreign policy. Military leaders govern the three countries, but this is not the repressive, brutal military rule we sometimes see. Instead, this is closer to former Burkina Faso President Thomas Sankara’s (1949-87) style of ‘coup governance,’ which he referred to as a popular and democratic revolution.

African Stream journalist Inemesit Richardson went to all three AES countries to hear directly from the mouths of the people: What is democracy, and are these Sahelian states currently democratic?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

‘IF YOU WANT TO LEAD US, YOU MUST LISTEN TO US’ - KENYAN YOUTH

Kenya’s youth-led anti-government protests have made global headlines, inspiring calls for mass action over shoddy governance in several African countries.

Booker Ngesa Omole (@bookerbiro on IG and X), national vice-chair of the Communist Party of Kenya (@communistske on IG, X and TikTok) reckons the heart of the issue is President William Ruto’s failure to acknowledge that sovereign power resides in the people who elected him.

Ruto has come under fire for brutally cracking down on nationwide demonstrations over a now-shelved International Monetary Fund-backed finance bill. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights says police have k*lled at least 50 Kenyans and arbitrarily detained 682. Further, 413 people were injured, and 59 were reported abducted or missing in connection with the protests.

Continued….. With a median age of 18.8 years, Africa has the world’s youngest population. But many of its leaders abide by a withering system of taking orders—and perhaps bribes—from Western imperialist powers and saying it is their God-given right to do so.

Check out this clip from ‘Pan-African Attitude’ podcast episode 11, and let us know what you think.

Amid all the changes happening in the Sahel, one figure stands taller than many others - Burkina Faso’s leader, Ibrahim Traoré. His youth, his energy, his Pan-Africanism, his revolutionary zeal, his military fatigues and beret - all mark him out. But these attributes are strongly reminiscent of another charismatic Burkinabe leader - the man who gave the country its name under his revolutionary leadership, Captain Thomas Sankara. We don’t know if Traoré also has a penchant for playing the electric guitar and composing national anthems as Sankara did, but in terms of political will and Pan-African vision and determination, he seems to be the re-embodiment.

Continued….. Thomas Sankara came to power via a coup d’état at the young age of 33. President Ibrahim Traoré came to power at the young age of just 34 –making him the world’s youngest president. Both presidents had been radicalised through experience in Marxist organisations, and both became staunch Pan-Africanists. Ibrahim Traoré’s early organising experience was through The National Association of Burkina Students (ANEB), a Marxist student trade union. Since coming to power he has surrounded himself with Sankarists, Pan-Africanists and socialists. Apollinaire Joachim Kyélem de Tambèla was Ibrahim Traoré’s choice for prime minister. Prime Minister Kyélem was a part of the Sankara revolution in the 1980s, participating in the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs) and was even approached by Sankara to work with the government.

Alas, Sankara and his cause were betrayed when he was assassinated in 1987. But the people of Burkina Faso and the other Alliance of Sahel States of Mali and Niger are organising quickly to defend Traoré and avoid a similar fate. Here’s a quick look at what the two captains have in common.

Long-time Rwandan President Paul Kagame won the Central African country’s 15 July election with 99.15 per cent of votes, according to the electoral commission’s preliminary results. 

Two other contenders, Frank Habineza and Philippe Mpayimana, each garnered less than 1 per cent of votes, helping secure another five-year term for Kagame until 2029. 

Some have praised the 66-year-old former rebel commander for steadily growing Rwanda’s economy and promoting racial harmony following the 1994 genocide.

Continued…. However, others criticise him for his role in the First and Second Congolese Wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and for suppressing Rwandans’ freedoms and supporting the M23 rebel militia in the eastern DRC. Kigali denies involvement in Congo’s deadly resource war that has raged since the late 1990s. 

The election also occurred after newly seated UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced he’d scrap an asylum deal with Rwanda that netted the African country $350 million, which it said it would not return.

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WARNING: MULTINATIONALS WILL GET AFRICA’S LAND

Michael Parenti, a renowned political scientist and historian, sounded the alarm over the on-going foreign land grab in Africa a quarter of a century ago. In this clip, from 1999, he mimics the imperialist attitude held by many Western multinationals and politicians.

He mentions the pharmaceutical industry, and there’s a prime example. Sudan’s al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory, established in 1997, catered for most of Sudan’s pharmaceutical needs and even exported products to other African and West Asian countries. The government distributed 15 per cent of the factory’s products free-of-charge to low-income people. The site also produced virtually all of Sudan’s veterinary medicine.

Continued….. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who was embroiled in a sex scandal with a White House intern in 1998, bombed the al-Shifa plant as a distraction on the pretext it was making chemical weapons and had ties to Osama bin Laden. The consequences on the health of the Sudanese people were devastating.

And there aren’t just historical examples. Today, in Eastern Africa, corrupt government officials are uprooting Maasai people to make way for foreign investors. They include the royal family of Dubai, who want an exclusive game reserve for hunting expeditions. The Maasai’s displacement is being done partly through harsh government actions, including arrests, confiscation of livestock and lethal violence.

Parenti warned about the neo-colonialist mindset decades ago. It’s still here and we’ll keep exposing it.

Video credit: The Michael Parenti Library.

PROTESTS DEMAND RUTO RESIGNATION

Kenya’s youth-led anti-government protests have entered their fifth week with no sign of letting up. What started as demos against a now-shelved IMF-backed finance bill has morphed into calls for President William Ruto to resign.

Not even the embattled leader’s dismissal of his entire cabinet, on July 12th, has placated protesters demanding radical change in Kenya’s political and economic structures.

Ruto has come under fire for brutally cracking down on nationwide demonstrations. National watchdog, Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, reports at least 50 k*lled , 413 injured, 682 detained and 59 abducted/missing.

With increased global media attention, protesters feel they can put enough pressure on Ruto to leave office.

TUNISIANS CONTINUE STANDING UP FOR PALESTINE

Hundreds gathered outside the French embassy in Tunisia on 16 July to protest Israel’s continued massacre of Palestinians in Gaza, aided by European and US arms, diplomatic cover and funding.

Demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and placards that read ‘stop the genocide.’

The protest came in the wake of an Israeli airstrike that killed at least 90 people and wounded 300 others in Gaza’s Al-Mawasi camp, designated by Israel as a humanitarian zone.

Since 7 October, Israel’s military onslaught has k*lled more than 38,000 Palestinians. However, British medical journal Lancet reports the casualty figure could be as high as 186,000 people. Further, most k*lled in Israeli airstrikes have been women and children, despite Israel’s claim that its military operation targets H*mas members.

FRANK ZAPPA ON U.S. ARROGANCE

Though the United States has only existed for a few hundred years, it maintains effective control over peoples all over the world, with cultures thousands of years older. Musician and composer Frank Zappa (1940-93) highlighted the absurdity of this relationship in this 1982 clip.

The United States has long exploited African cultures for profit. Between slavery on the unceded Indigenous territories now known as the United States and neocolonialism around the world and in Africa, our people’s labour, resources, and cultural products (like hip hop) helped build the US economy.

Zappa said the United States has always had more to learn from other cultures than vice versa. He further questioned how a country that is not focused on maintaining a culture can exist.

Let us know what you think in the comments.

Video credit: Manhattan Cable TV

AMERICA’S WEALTH GAP, BROUGHT TO YOU BY SLAVERY

A quick search of US cities with the highest disparity in generational wealth provides a good case for reparations. According to GoBankingRates, cities like Newport and Palm Beach are home to many families born into ‘old money.’

Incidentally, those cities also have a history of slavery. Rhode Island, for example, was a key node for the European slave trade across the Atlantic, while Florida’s very beginnings as a US territory stemmed from its purchase from Spain. This measure meant to strengthen slavery on Southern plantations by denying potential runaways the former haven of Florida.

Even with supposed emancipation, the US has never come to terms with the legacy of slavery.