Our proverb this week is from Sudan. Parents often want seemingly contradictory things for their children - for example, for them to stay close to home and family (roots), but also to go out into the world and succeed (wings). A good upbringing and strong family bonds are the perfect foundation from which to reach new heights.

'ITALIAN LEATHER'? NO, IT'S NIGERIAN!

Africans have denounced Western luxury fashion brands for exploiting the continent's resources, craftsmanship, and cultural heritage, having not provided returns and credited the respective communities.

Isa, a Hausa man residing in New York, took to TikTok to pat his lawyer sister's back for taking luxury fashion brands to court on behalf of the Nigerian leather manufacturers producing leather for them. Instead of getting credit, the final products using their leather were marketed abroad as 'Italian Leather.' After winning the case, fashion houses, rather than stamping their leather goods with ‘Nigerian leather,’ began using ‘Genuine Leather.’

Many brands have drawn inspiration from African cultures, using traditional patterns and designs in their collections without proper attribution or compensation. Other top brands, such as Gucci, Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton, also have been called out.

Credit: @isa_bako (TikTok)

Sources:

https://the49thstreet.com/made-in-italy-or-made-in-nigeria-the-ruse-behind-italian-leather

https://www.fashionghana.com/site/truth-about-italian-leather

https://marieclaire.ng/exploring-nigerias-rich-leather-tradition-history-craftsmanship-and-market-potential

ANOTHER CASE OF RACIAL PROFILING BY UK COPS?

Northamptonshire Police in the UK have been accused of using excessive force in the arrest of a Black university student named Santino on 8th August. A video posted by him on his X account (@Santino1o) shows CCTV footage of a police officer in plain clothes chasing him before pinning him down. Shortly after, other policemen arrive on the scene and help to handcuff him. Santino claims he was injured in the encounter and that the rough treatment continued at the police station. He says that he was helping a homeless man, but the police, suspecting him of being a drug dealer, pursued and arrested him.

The incident has reignited discussion about police conduct and treatment of minorities.

Video credits: @theshadesborogh and @Santino1o

Continued... Santino's experience comes in the wake of anti-immigrant riots that rocked the UK in late July and early August. Black and Asian UK residents were attacked and racially abused by anti-immigration mobs, while some had their property and businesses vandalised.

What’s your reaction to Santino’s experience? Let us know.

Sources:

https://uknip.co.uk/news/uk/midlands/police-face-criticism-over-alleged-excessive-force-against-university-student/

https://tscnewschannel.com/2024/09/10/police-face-criticism-over-alleged-excessive-force-against-university-student/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/28/far-right-activists-filmed-hassling-asylum-seekers-in-hotels

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/aug/06/some-threatened-to-kill-us-asylum-seekers-left-fearful-by-far-right-mobs

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg55we5n3xo

https://medium.com/@Reg_Left_Media/quilliam-imploding-but-still-no-answers-44a139bcfc98

https://5pillarsuk.com/2018/11/09/academic-rubbishes-quilliam-grooming-gangs-report/

https://medium.com/@Reg_Left_Media/sajid-javid-maajid-nawaz-quite-probably-the-worst-piece-of-research-ive-ever-read-c751e313ff58

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/dec/15/child-sexual-abuse-gangs-white-men-home-office-report

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65174096

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/944206/Group-based_CSE_Paper.pdf

RAPAPORT MOCKS LEBANESE VICTIMS OF ISRAELI TERRORISM

Many have denounced once-relevant, pro-Israel US actor and comedian Michael Rapaport for mocking an unprecedented attack involving exploding pagers and walkie-talkies.

The explosions over 17-18 September in Lebanon k*lled 37 people (including two children) and injured 3,250 (with 200 critically injured).

While Israel has not officially claimed responsibility for the attacks, unnamed Israeli officials told the Washington Post that the explosions 'marked the culmination of a multi-year investment in penetrating Hezbollah's communications, logistics and procurement structures.'

Western security sources allegedly told Reuters that Israel's secretive military intelligence Unit 8200 was involved.

Video credit: @MichaelRapaport (X)

Continued... During an 18 September visit to the Ramat David Air Force base in northern Israel, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant seemed to hint at Israel's involvement, saying, 'We are at the beginning of a new era in this war, and we need to adapt ourselves.'

According to the BBC, an unnamed British Army munitions expert said the pagers and walkie-talkies could have contained fake electronic components holding between 10 grams and 20 grams of military-grade high explosives.

UN human rights experts have condemned the attack in Lebanon, describing it as a 'terrifying violation of international law.'

Legal scholar Lama Fakih, the Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, pointed out that the use of an explosive device whose exact location could not be known is 'unlawfully indiscriminate' and a 'booby trap.'

Israel is a signatory to Article 7(2) of the Amended Protocol II of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, added to an international law on the use of conventional weapons in 1996.

The pager attack has sparked fears of a wider regional war in West Asia. Israel's bombed southern Lebanon on 20 September, k*lling at least seven women and three children, as well as two senior Hezbollah officials. In response, Hezbollah retaliated the next day by launching missiles into northern Israel.

Sources

Sources
Right to r*pe
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/9/everything-is-legitimate-israeli-leaders-defend-soldiers-accused-of-rape

Blockade of aid trucks
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-right-wing-settler-attacks-gaza-aid-whos-behind-them-whos-suffering/

Bombing aid trucks
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/gaza-aid-convoy-deaths-al-rashid-israel-idf-hamas-rcna141497

Israeli involvement in pager attacks
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/17/middleeast/lebanon-hezbollah-pagers-explosions-intl/index.html

Frustration with situation in north
https://www.straitstimes.com/world/middle-east/israelis-in-north-worried-but-used-to-hezbollah-threat

Hezbollah raison d'etre
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/26/five-questions-answered-why-were-israel-hezbollah-attacking-each-other

THE REAL REASON WE GOT BANNED

More reactions are coming in over the US government's assault against African Stream and the subsequent bans of our channel on several social-media platforms, including YouTube and Instagram.

In this clip, content creator @pokepreet1 explains how the attack on African Stream was motivated by the US government's desire to control the media narrative by branding any outlet that doesn’t toe Washington's line 'Russian propaganda.'

He also touches on how the mainstream US media fails to report issues and events from an African perspective. Perhaps this is the reason why most Black people in the US do not trust the country's media. A June 2024 survey by the Pew Research Center found that less than ten per cent of Black people in the US believe that news outlets provide the 'full story' when covering the African community.

Video credit: @pokepreet1

Sources:

https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2023/09/26/black-americans-experiences-with-news/

Shocking videos have gone viral showing Israeli soldiers throwing three Palestinians they appear to have k*lled off a building in the occupied West Bank.

However, according to the New York Times, the bodies are 'seemingly lifeless.' We've went ahead and did them a favour by correcting the headline.

A 10-hour Israeli operation in Qabatiya, a town south of Jenin, k*lled a total of seven Palestinians and injured 11. In the videos, viewers can see soldiers dragging a body across a rooftop before throwing it over the edge. The soldiers then swing another body by its limbs over the side before throwing it off. Then, a soldier kicks a third body toward the edge of the roof, causing it to fall out of view.

Under International Humanitarian Law, Rule 113, each party to the conflict must take all possible measures to prevent the dead from being despoiled (or pillaged). Mutilation or other maltreatment of corpses is also prohibited.

Continued... The US White House described the Qabatiya incident as 'deeply disturbing.' Meanwhile, US National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said that if the video can be corroborated, 'it clearly would depict abhorrent and egregious behaviour by professional soldiers.'

Since 7 October 2023, Israeli forces and settlers have k*lled more than 700 Palestinians in the West Bank, including Jerusalem. NGO Save the Children reports that Israel has k*lled or injured five Palestinian children on average every day in the West Bank since October.

In the Gaza Strip, Israel's military onslaught has k*lled more than 41,000 Palestinians. A report in the British medical journal The Lancet estimated the death toll could be as high as 186,000 as of early July.

Sources

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240920-israeli-soldiers-throw-palestinian-bodies-off-rooftop/

https://news.sky.com/story/idf-confirms-review-after-israeli-soldiers-filmed-pushing-lifeless-bodies-from-roofs-in-west-bank-raid-13218146

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/white-house-says-footage-of-israeli-troops-throwing-bodies-off-roof-deeply-disturbing/3336099

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn8jg0x5xg8o

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/20/middleeast/idf-investigating-soldiers-throwing-bodies-off-west-bank-roof-intl/index.html

https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule113#Fn_28E57177_00004

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/20/israeli-soldiers-filmed-pushing-bodies-off-rooftop-in-deadly-west-bank-raid

https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-soldiers-qabatiya-west-bank-ae65d70f7da5db4603ba1b7c77f2ccd3

https://www.newarab.com/news/shock-video-shows-palestinians-thrown-roof-israeli-army

https://www.npr.org/2024/02/22/1230604077/israel-hamas-war-hostages-prisoners-dead

https://www.savethechildren.net/news/five-palestinian-children-killed-or-injured-average-every-day-west-bank-october

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/12/gaza-death-toll-indirect-casualties

AFRICANS ARE NOT PUPPETS

Why are Africans deemed incapable of forming their own political opinions without external influence? That’s the question our sister Adiaha Young asks in this video clip, in response to the US assault against our channel with the false claim of being 'Kremlin propagandists.' Following the baseless allegation by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on 13th September, African Stream has been banned from platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

Video credit: @AdiahaYoung (Instagram)

Continued...
Young highlights that, for a long time, the West has portrayed Africans as lacking the intellectual capacity to form and own independent political opinions. Whenever they’ve stood up against imperialism, the West claimed that there was a ‘foreign master' pulling the strings behind the curtain. When citizens of countries such as Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia, Angola and Mozambique rose up to fight against racist settler-colonial regimes, they were quickly labelled agents of 'Soviet Communism' and not citizens who were genuinely fighting for their freedom.

Decades later, the West is still using the same tactics.

Sources

https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP79T00472A000600050005-6.pdf

PROJECT 2025 REP: LONGER SLAVERY BETTER FOR HAITI

Project 2025 has become a buzzword on the Internet, conjuring up nightmare scenarios because it proposes to deport undocumented migrants, increase fossil fuel production, 'deweaponise' the CIA and FBI, and cut government spending, among other items.

In this 19 September hearing, US Congressmember Gregorio Casar interrogated Project 2025 advisory board member Mark Krikorian about comments he made about Haiti a few years ago.

Krikorian, executive director of the right-wing Center for Immigration Studies, among about 100 groups supporting Project 2025, told Casar that Haiti would have benefited from an extended colonial period, even if that meant prolonging slavery.

The exchange took place during a US House of Representatives Oversight Committee hearing noscriptd, 'A Legacy of Incompetence: Consequences of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Policy Failures.' Krikorian was one of several witnesses testifying on a range of issues.

Video credit: @RepCasar (X)

Continued... Throughout his career, Krikorian has referenced white nationalists such as Kevin MacDonald, John Friend, and Jared Taylor. To give you an idea of who these people are, MacDonald once stated, 'Jews are just going to destroy white power completely, and destroy America as a white country.' Taylor said, 'Blacks and whites are different. When Blacks are left entirely to their own devices, Western civilization—any kind of civilization—disappears.' Krikorian told Casar this his organisation once ran an email service that provided links to the writings of these individuals.

Voting alone will not stop the US government from codifying right-wing agendas like Project 2025. That's because Republicans and Democrats agree on the vast majority of policies, despite the culture wars they engage in over women's rights and LGBTQ rights. However, by joining an organisation to fight for Black liberation and Pan-Africanism, we can build mass power to obstruct the path the US long ago embarked on.

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKvjLoRztQ0

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/jared-taylor

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/06/14/center-immigration-studies-distributes-essay-holocaust-denier

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/kevin-macdonald-american-anti-semitism

https://www.project2025.org

https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/project-2025-jasmine-crockett-19779691.php

Sources:

Steve Biko
http://www.mandela.gov.za/mandela_speeches/1994/940214_press.htm
Kofi Annan
https://press.un.org/en/2001/sgsm7787.doc.htm
Cyril Ramaphosa
https://publicsectormag.net/2023/05/09/media-freedom-a-pillar-in-democratic-south-africa/
Malcolm X
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/280633-if-you-re-not-careful-the-newspapers-will-have-you-hating


Onslaught
https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-remarks-to-the-press-29/

Nefarious plans
https://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_wayne_ma_080103_africom_3a_the_recolon.htm

CNN effect. Manufacturing Consent
https://institute.aljazeera.net/en/ajr/article/1365

NBC vs African Stream
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/black-americans-disinformation-election-social-media-rcna157096

VOA vs African Stream
https://www.voanews.com/a/african-stream-distorts-u-s-military-s-mission-in-somalia/7762717.html

Blinken Presser
https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-remarks-to-the-press-29/

ZI*NIST INFLUENCER MOCKS ISRAELI TERROR VICTIMS

The world has seen the worst of Israel’s moral depravity for close to a year now. You might have seen the protests in support of the ‘right to rape Palestinian prisoners’, the blockade of aid trucks to Gaza and the bombing of civilians as they received aid. This video adds to that long list, showing Israeli social media influencer Einav Avizemer mocking the Lebanese victims of the latest terrorist attack that news reports and officials have pegged on Israel, even though it hasn’t officially claimed responsibility.

Video credit: @EinavAvizemer (X)