Mali has taken French media outfit La Chaîne Info (LCI) off air for two months for allegedly broadcasting ‘false information’ about its army and Russian allies. On 27th July, LCI ran a programme analysing an ambush on Malian troops and Wagner mercenaries by Tuareg-led rebels in the northern part of the Sahel country. The broadcast, noscriptd “Wagner Decimated in Mali: the Hand of Kyiv,” suggested the influence of Ukrainian intelligence in the ambush. In it, Bamako claims, military consultant Michel Goya “disparaged and made gratuitous assertions” about Malian troops and Wagner forces. 84 Malian troops and 47 Wagner soldiers were reportedly killed in the Tuareg-led attack. Mali broke off relations with Ukraine on 4th August following the incident.

In April 2022, Mali permanently suspended French broadcaster France 24 and Radio France Internationale (RFI) and also temporarily took France 2 off air in February 2024.

This is a quote form a 2005 column in the New Yorker’s satirical Shouts & Murmurs section by US humorist Jack Handey noscriptd ‘What I’d Say to the Martians.’ But its strikes us as a fitting denoscription of Western foreign policy over the last half millennium.

Western Europe developed through the enslavement of Africans and colonialism in the Americas, Africa and Asia. 532 years ago, Christopher Columbus landed on the island of Quisqueya and renamed it Hispaniola. He and his men then proceeded to brutally enact one of the most thorough and rapid genocides in human history. The Europeans sought two things: gold and slaves. And they were willing to unleash an apocalypse to achieve their goals. Columbus enslaved around 1,500 Indigenous Taíno people and made every Taíno over the age of 14 search for gold or face death. The Indigenous population of the island was massacred - reduced from around 300,000 to a mere 500 within 56 years of Columbus’ arrival.

Continued….. This is just one example of the brutality that lies at the heart of Western development. Once the Indigenous population of the Americas was practically eradicated, the European enslavement of Africans went into overdrive, leading to the shipment of tens of millions of Africans to the Americas. Places in Western Europe such as Liverpool, Bordeaux, Nantes and Sevilla grew from villages to large wealthy urban centres thanks to the slave trade. Africa was ravaged, first for its people and later for its raw materials.

Now, Western countries claim that the people they colonised are ‘invaders,’ flocking to Europe in large numbers. But, given the past five centuries of history, who really invaded whom?

Seen at Nottinghill's Carnival. Children defending children 🍉

3D MOSAIC ART FROM THROWN AWAY FLIP-FLOPS

Flip-flops are the footwear of choice for many Africans but these rubber and plastic slippers have a very short life. Most of them end up in landfills and can take up to 80 years to decompose.

Nigerian artist and environmentalist Konboye Ebipade Eugene is using his art to raise awareness about plastic pollution and social stigmas. He collects discarded footwear from dumpsites and riverbanks and transforms it into colourful portraits.

African Stream went to Abeokuta in Nigeria and sat down with Eugene to learn the ins and outs of his craft.

How do you rate his work and philosophy?

Artist: @konboyeeugene (Instagram)

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AKALA ON CULTURAL APPROPRIATION

Nothing wrong with enjoying another person’s culture or adopting some of its trappings and rituals - so long as you respect that culture. So argues British rapper and activist Akala in this clip from an Oxford Union debate.

One of the examples he gives is London’s Notting Hill Carnival - the 2024 edition of which has just wrapped up. The event began in response to race riots in the area and the murder of a Black man from Antigua- something that seems to have been forgotten by some of the participants in recent years. Like many events with radical roots, its commercialisation has defanged it.

This point is especially relevant given the return of race riots to the UK’s streets a few weeks back, when far-right thugs sought to harm Black and Brown people, attacking mosques and migrant hotels. The battle Claudia Jones (the Carnival’s ‘mother’) started in 1966 goes on.

Continued……Another example Akala cites is people wanting Caribbean music and food but being upset when there are actual Caribbeans in the establishment. It can also be seen in the approach to tourism in Africa. Today, communities are being evicted to make room for wildlife conservancies, usually accessible only to well off, typically ‘Western, patrons - an Africa without Africans, as conservancy expert Mordecai Ogada argues.

Kingslee James McLean Daley - aka Akala - is also an author and a poet. In 2006, he was voted the Best Hip Hop Act at the MOBO Awards and has been included on the annual Powerlist of the 100 most influential Black British people in the UK. Akala is known for his powerful lyrics and speeches, where he sheds light on injustices and socio-economic issues in the UK and beyond.

Do you agree with his views on cultural appropriation?

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‘BOONDOCKS’ CREATOR: 10 PEOPLE CONTROL U.S. MEDIA

More and more people are waking up and asking important questions about where they are getting their news and information. There is awareness of the biased perspectives that are marketed as politically neutral within mainstream US media. Even when media outlets do admit to certain ideological leanings such as the openly right-wing Fox News Channel owned by the larger Fox corporation, the political scale within US corporate media remains incredibly skewed.

Continued……On the extreme right we have Fox News, but then liberal or centrist (if not right-leaning) outlets such as MSNBC (owned Comcast) by or CNN (owned by AT&T) are as far left as mainstream US media gets, meaning not to the left at all. This is because US corporate media is extremely concentrated in the hands of very few mega conglomerates owned by a tiny handful of billionaire CEOs.

In this video political cartoonist and creator of the TV series ‘The Boondocks,’ Aaron McGruder talks about the concentration of media into 10 hands and the censorship and distraction that comes along with that. Today the majority of US media is dominated by just five corporations: Paramount Global (formally Viacom and CBS), Comcast, AT&T, The Walt Disney Company (which also owns ABC and ESPN), and the Fox Corporation. That means that many of the other popular media channels are owned and controlled by these larger conglomerates.

This is why it is so important to seek alternative sources of information, especially from independently-funded media outlets. If you would like to support our work and keep independent media alive, consider joining our Patreon.

Video Credit: http://C-Span.org

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ALGERIAN AND MOROCCAN ENVOYS BRAWL IN TOKYO!

The fight over Western Sahara’s independence has seen violence break out - in Japan! Tokyo was hosting a summit on African development last Friday (23rd August) and among the attendees was a representative of the Polisario Front, which seeks liberation and wants to create a Saharawi republic in a region occupied by Morocco. This enraged Rabat’s delegate to the session, who went to remove the card bearing the republic’s name. However, Algeria’s envoy saw what was about to happen and moved in - tackling the Moroccan to the floor. The stunt led to the session being suspended.

Rabat refuses to hold a referendum in Western Sahara on whether the region should have its independence recognised - despite the African Union and the UN backing this. Donald Trump, when he was president, recognised Moroccan sovereignty over it in exchange for Rabat normalising ties with Israel.

Emmanuel Macron has also thrown his weight behind Morocco - with an appreciative King Mohammed VI inviting the French president to Rabat. Spain, after hosting a Polisario Front leader for treatment, promptly changed tune and backed Moroccan claims when Rabat weaponised its border with Ceuta - a small EU territory in North Africa belonging to Madrid.

What do you think about the drama in Tokyo? Do you think Morrocco should finally allow the Saharawi people to have their sovereignty recognised?

On 26th August, 2024, Denmark announced that it would be shutting down its embassies in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and Bamako, Mali. But Copenhagen said it also intends to open three new ones - in Senegal, Rwanda and Tunisia. This is part of its new strategy in Africa, which includes appointing special representatives for the Sahel and the Great Lakes region of the continent. Denmark also wants to strengthen its presence within Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana.

Burkina Faso and Mali have both had anti-imperialist coups, ushering in revolutionary governments that have begun a process of decoupling from the Western sphere of influence. On 9th August, Mali expelled the ambassador of another Northern European country - Sweden - after Stockholm threatened to stop aid to Mali for geopolitical reasons (linked to Bamako's break in diplomatic relations with Ukraine).

Continued…. The two Sahelian countries, along with neighbouring Niger, have preferred to work with countries such as Russia and Iran over countries in the West.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen made it clear that Denmark is seeking to increase European appeal within Africa - in a bid to curb Russian and Chinese influence. He stated, "We have a clear interest in the African countries looking towards us in Europe as they chart the course for their future."

Do you think Denmark's new strategy in Africa will succeed or do you think that it’s too late to overcome African distrust of Europe?

DAM TRAGEDY WORSENS SUDAN’S HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

The Arbaat Dam in eastern Sudan collapsed on 25th August following heavy rainfall - triggering an urgent humanitarian crisis. The ensuing flooding has devastated nearby villages, claiming the lives of around 60 people and leaving many more unaccounted for. Surging waters - unleashed after the dam, with a capacity of 25-million cubic litres, gave way - swept away houses, animals and people. This disaster was caused by an unusually intense rainy season that’s affected 10 states and already claimed 132 lives, according to the Health Ministry. The World Health Organisation reports 11,327 cholera cases, 316 of them fatal, since June. North and East Sudan have been particularly affected by flooding. Local officials estimate that about 50,000 homes have been destroyed in the Arbaat area, north of the Red Sea town of Port Sudan.

Continued……Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan inspected the flooded area near the town, which has become Sudan’s de facto capital, hosting the government, diplomats and aid agencies - with Khartoum, the official capital, engulfed in war. The flooding has exacerbated Sudan’s already dire humanitarian situation, as aid deliveries are hindered by flooded roads. 16 months of fighting between comrades-turned-rivals al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary’s Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo have displaced 10.7-million Sudanese internally. Another 2-million have fled the country, and 25.6-million (half the population) are suffering crisis-levels of hunger.

According to Arab News, US rapper Macklemore ‘did not give a reason’ for cancelling his upcoming October concert in the United Arab Emirates. And that shockingly dishonest piece of journalism by the Saudi Arabian English daily newspaper has angered many of its online readers.

Macklemore issued a public statement on August 25, saying he’d cancelled the Dubai show because of the UAE’s role ‘in the ongoing genocide and humanitarian crisis’ in Sudan. He also said on Instagram, ‘Until the UAE stops arming and funding the RSF [Rapid Support Forces] I will not perform there’.

The headline (which we’ve corrected) is predictable, given the UAE has backed Saudi Arabia’s war against Houthis in Yemen. However, it’s worth reminding the Arab News of some other facts it left out.

Continued….. A January report by a UN panel of experts says since April 2023, the UAE has armed the RSF through eastern Chad, Libya and South Sudan.
Among the weapons supplied are ‘drones modified to deliver outlawed thermobaric bombs, howitzers, multiple-rocket launchers and anti-aircraft weapons such as MANPADS [Man-Portable Air Defence Systems]’

The 16-month war between the RSF militia and Sudanese Army, has killed tens of thousands of people. Conservative estimates put the figure at 18,000. Over 10-million Sudanese have been internally displaced, while another two-million have fled the country. Over 25-million (half the population) are starving.

MYTHS THAT FUEL XENOPHOBIA IN SOUTH AFRICA

Xenophobic incidents have become an almost daily occurrence in South Africa, from inflammatory anti-immigrant rhetoric to physical attacks.

African immigrants are among those targeted most, with many describing the trend as Afrophobia. It’s fuelled by false claims about ‘floods of foreigners’ propagated by politicians and sections of the media.

African Stream’s Clinton Nzala breaks down some of the myths and how they scapegoat immigrants for the social and economic challenges facing the country.