Continued….. Well, she certainly has charisma, as you’ll see from this interview in Lagos. If she wins the contest, she’ll represent Nigeria at the Miss Universe Pageant taking place in Mexico in November.

Side note putting women in competitions and judging which one looks the best is not something African Stream endorses. We do however endorse Chidimma strength and resilience after everything she has been through and we definitely endorse her message of African unity.

OBAMA IS A NEO-COLONIALIST

Barack Obama is not our friend, and he certainly is not our liberator. That’s what Pan-African organiser Dedan Wa Waciuri explained in this video.

The Mapinduzi (@mapinduzi_252 on IG) organiser explained how the first Black US president has more in common with Blaise Compaoré, the Western-backed former president of Burkina Faso (1987-2014) who is responsible for revolutionary president Thomas Sankara’s (1949-87) assassination. Waciuri also raised the name of Mobutu Sese Seko (1930-97), the former president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who helped oust the DRC’s first democratically elected prime minister, Patrice Lumumba (1925-61). Waciuri also referenced Kwame Nkrumah (1909-72), the first president of the Republic of Ghana and a staunch Pan-African leader, who wrote a book noscriptd, ‘Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism.’ 

Continued….. ‘The essence of neo-colonialism is that the state which is subject to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty,’ Nkrumah wrote. ‘In reality, its economic system and, thus, its political policy is directed from outside.’

Neocolonialism requires African leaders who look like their people to lead African countries while doing the bidding of the imperialists.

Barack Obama was also a neo-colonialist. During the Obama era, people were excited to rap along to lyrics like Young Jeezy’s ‘My president is Black, my lambo is blue.’ But who did Obama actually answer to? Not to the Black communities suffering a water crisis in Flint, Michigan, or militarised police violence in Ferguson, Missouri. Yet, he did seem to make the Pentagon happy. Obama led the largest US military expansion across the African continent in history. He led a NATO invasion of Libya that murdered Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi (1942-2011), destroying the once-prosperous North African state. He multiplied the drone bombings raining down on Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Libya.

Let us know what you think in the comments.

Video credit: @bigklfa600 on TikTok, @dedanwaciuri on IG, @waciuri_dedan on X

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Africa should be colonised again - that’s the view of the founder of the infamous Blackwater (now Constellis) mercenary group, Erik Prince, expressed in an interview last November. The private military contractor’s business model is, of course, parasitic on neo-imperialism - meeting the need for manpower to put down any resistance. In September 2007, Blackwater contractors in occupied Iraq killed 17 unarmed civilians at a roundabout in Baghdad. If Prince’s wish came true, it would mean eliminating Africa’s best leaders and replacing them with puppets.

Continued….The precedent was set during the Cold War, when visionary pan-Africanists like Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah, Samora Machel, Thomas Sankara and others were either killed or toppled, replaced by stooges like Mobutu Sese Seko and Blaise Compaoré. Prince claims Africa is incapable of governing itself. False. Witness the Sahel trio Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger redefining what is possible. Could it be the prospect of an Africa free from neo-colonialism that Prince wants to nip in the bud? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

REMEMBERING EMMETT TILL

Young Emmett Till had his life violently cut short on this day (28th August) in 1955. Racists lynched the 14-year-old.

This happened after he was falsely accused by Carolyn Bryant of whistling at her and threatening her. Two men, one of them her husband, kidnapped Emmett, tortured him to death, mutilated his body and dumped it in a river.

Even after the men confessed to the murder, they were acquitted by an all-White jury.

Emmett’s vile murder shaped the Black civil-rights movement in America. 250,000 people attended his funeral. Close-up photographs of his face and body, and the television coverage of the funeral, turned his lynching into a global symbol of racial injustice.

But even in death, racists won’t leave Emmett alone. White nationalist and supremacist groups over the years have found ways to desecrate his memorial marker - located at the place where his swollen and disfigured body was discovered.

Continued…..
Who knows what a life this beautiful boy would have gone on to have. His fate is a cause of great sadness and a reminder of the atrocities our people have had to endure. May he inspire our continued resistance.

Continue to rest in peace, Emmett Till.

NIGER’S UNKNOWN REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY

Niger is a country that made headlines in July 2023 as a military coup shifted the status quo. Thousands of Nigeriens took to the streets to demand the departure of French and US troops as well as unification with neighbouring states, Burkina Faso and Mali. More recently, Niger’s government has been following calls from the people to end control of French uranium exploitation in the country. 

But where does this radicalism come from?

It turns out Niger has a deep history of revolutionary struggle waged on the part of the ‘talakawa’ meaning the ordinary people in the Hausa language. These talakawa masses formed the Sawaba Party in the 1960s to fight for socialism and Pan-Africanism. A courageous freedom fighter named Djibo Bakary led the party.

Today, many Nigeriens remember Bakary as Niger’s foremost revolutionary. This is his story. 

TRUMP NOT SORRY FOR WANTING INNOCENT BLACK TEENS DEAD

Donald Trump is seeking a second stint as US President. The businessman-cum-politician is known for his controversial statements, and Africans in particular have been on the receiving end of some of Trump’s most derogatory vitriol - for example, his branding Haiti and African nations ‘sh*thole countries.’ He’s pledged to curb immigrants from countries he deems beneath America’s dignity, never mind that the US is the biggest neo-colonial imperialist around:

Continued….. it has more guns than citizens, 600+ mass shootings per year, nearly 2 million locked up in prison, is the biggest weapons supplier to Israel, which has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, and the wrecker of Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam...

In this clip, we get a taste of Trump’s deep disrespect for, and devaluation of, Black lives. In 1989, Trump took out full-page ads in several newspapers to advocate for the death penalty for five Black and Latino teenagers falsely accused of assault and rape in New York’s Central Park. The Central Park Five, as they became known, each served between five and 13 years - before being exonerated in 2002, when the actual attacker confessed.

SOUTH AFRICA BELONGS TO AFRICANS

Imagine someone stole your house at gunpoint, kicking your entire family out and keeping generations down the line out. Now, your family remains homeless. At what point does that house rightfully belong to the thief’s family?

That’s what’s happened to many Africans in South Africa during European colonialism. However, decades after apartheid was dismantled, Afrikaaner nationalists have built a white-majority town, Orania, stirring the country’s debate on the lingering impacts of colonialism.

Lunga Mantashe told us Orania’s existence is possible because South Africa’s constitution and Freedom Charter are missing a critical component.

Continued……Mantashe, a member of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (@mypaconline), was a guest recently on ‘This Week in Africa,’ African Stream’s livestream collaboration with @authentic_african.

Those who criticise the Freedom Charter hold an unwavering commitment to Indigenous land rights, as gen*cide, violence and poverty have accompanied land dispossession.

‘We regard it as the sacred duty of every African state to strive ceaselessly and energetically for the creation of a United States of Africa from Cape to Cairo and Madagascar to Morocco,’ said Robert Sobukwe, founder of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania.

Is Mantashe on to something, or do settlers have a legitimate claim to occupy land without submitting to the African majority? Let us know in the comments.

Head to our YouTube channel and find the complete livestream under our playlist for ‘This Week in Africa.’

THE FIGHT FOR THE FORESTS IS A FIGHT AGAINST IMPERIALISM

Imperialism, as Lenin argued, is the highest form of capitalism. Capitalism, the dominant global economic system, is premised on viewing the planet as a resource to exploit - its overriding objective being to maximise profits from that exploitation as rapidly and extensively as possible. This goes a long way towards explaining the ecological collapse facing the world today, marked by climate-change extremes, such as droughts and flooding. The one natural line of defence - trees - has been decimated over centuries on the altar of profit over humanity.

Imperialism is like an arsonist - and we are left to fight the fires it starts: witness the suffering imposed on Congo and Sudan for their resources, such as cobalt and gold.

Continued……Pan-African icon and Burkina Faso’s revolutionary leader (1983-1987) Thomas Sankara fought against this, including on the environmental front. He marshalled a nation to halt the spread of the Sahara, launching a massive tree-planting drive to ‘re-green’ the country, halt soil erosion and foster sustainable agriculture. His ‘fight against the desert’ was both ideological and existential, a means to empower the impoverished nation and guarantee its survival. The initiative required every household, village, school and business to plant saplings and tend to tree nurseries.

He also understood the importance of a united African front to achieve this endeavour, saying, “Today, the desert is creeping into Burkina Faso, but tomorrow it will be Ivory Coast’s turn and then Liberia’s.”

His ideas live to this day. Despite slow progress, at least 20 countries in the Sahel belt are participating in the creation of a ‘Green Wall,’ a belt of vegetation at the edge of the Sahara desert to halt its spread. It faces major challenges, such as insecurity, insufficient funding and a lack of political will.

Do you think Africa needs more leaders like Sankara?

LOWKEY EXPOSES ISRAELI LINKS TO BRITAIN’S FAR-RIGHT

In this interview with African Stream, rapper and activist Lowkey runs through the links between far-right groups in the UK and Israel.

Recent riots that swept Britain targeted minority groups after misinformation was spread over the fatal stabbing of three children. It was wrongly claimed the attacker was a radical Islamist illegal migrant, and the false narrative was used to stir up racial hatred.

Lowkey believes the riots that ensued were part of a wider effort to push the Muslim community from political activity. Many people, he says, are unhappy at the political mobilisation of Muslims ‘off the back’ of Israel’s destruction of Gaza. He goes on to outline links between Israel and far-right groups, such as the English Defence League and its co-founder Tommy Robinson.

Lowkey was speaking to African Stream CEO Ahmed Kaballo during our flagship podcast Pan-African Attitude.

Have a listen and gives us your view on his assessment.

Namibia's justice minister barred an Israel-bound ship carrying military cargo and explosive materials from sailing through Namibian waters or docking at the country's principal port on 26 August, part of a global trend to block arms to Israel amidst its 10-month military onslaught in the Gaza Strip.

When the MV Kathrin arrived from Vietnam, Minister Yvonne Dausab reminded the Namibian cabinet, international relations ministry, works ministry, and the safety and security ministry of the southwestern African country's obligations under international law.

She said it would be encouraging if all countries, particularly African countries, followed suit by taking action within their power and scope.

Continued….. Namibia shows solidarity with Palestine because of their shared history of colonisation. The southwestern African country was the victim of the 20th century's first gen*cide, when German colonial forces k*lled and employed collective punishment against the Herero and Nama peoples. After the Europeans, white-led apartheid South Africa controlled Namibia from 1920 to 1990.

In January, Namibia criticised Germany for supporting Israel in a gen*cide case that South Africa had brought against it.

Image credit: Bernd U.

SAUDI SNAPS UP ETHIOPIAN LAND TO FEED ITSELF

Is there a new Scramble for Africa?
Writer @DJ Bwakali gives another example of a foreign country sweeping up swathes of the continent for its own benefit.

A Saudi company is growing rice on thousands of hectares of fertile land in Ethiopia in order to feed the Gulf state.
The firm’s signed a 50-year lease with the government and claims it’s creating jobs and wealth. However, Bwakali argues there are few trickle-down benefits for locals.

Other similar projects in Ethiopia span an area the size of Belgium and have displaced thousands of people. They’ve ended up losing their livelihoods and connection to ancestral lands.

Continued….. The leases are often lopsided in favour of foreign entities, who pay as little as $3 per hectare and enjoy tax breaks. They also undermine the food security of a country that’s suffered terrible famines.

Bwakali describes it as a modern-day ‘Scramble for Africa’. If you factor in the news of Emirati sheikhs buying huge tracts of African land in carbon-offsetting deals, it’s hard to miss his point. Blue Carbon, chaired by Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook al-Maktoum, has signed deals that involve a fifth of Zimbabwe, 10% of Liberia, 10% of Zambia, 8% of Tanzania and millions of hectares of Kenyan forests, according to The Guardian.

Bwakali wants all land-lease agreements renegotiated with local populations, who should have the final say.

Do you think that can happen?

Video credit: @djbwakali

GLOBAL SOUTH NEEDS OWN SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKS

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, popularly known by his initials ‘AMLO,’ says social media giants’ continued censorship of Global South voices should spur its people to create their social media platforms.

The Mexican leader argued that only opinions aligning with those of the class to which wealthy social media executives belong have free rein on their platforms.

The events of the last few months validate AMLO’s arguments. Since the 7 October escalation in the 76-year Israeli occupation of Palestine, hundreds of pro-Palestine accounts have been suspended, deleted or restricted on platforms such as Meta and X, while Zi*nists’ accounts promoting gen*cide against Palestinians appear to have largely been left untouched.