AFRICAN REMAINS FOR SALE IN UK

Skulls and other human remains from the Ekoi (West Africa), Jivaro (South America) and Naga (India and Myanmar) peoples were recently listed for auction by Swan Fine Art in Oxfordshire. The sale sparked outrage, with groups such as the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) leading calls for the removal of these items. In response to the condemnation, the auction house took down the remains, while some activists are pushing for the them to be repatriated to their respective communities.

Continued.....Critics argue that the auction reflects the lingering legacy of colonialism, as descendants of European colonisers continue to profit from the exploitation of indigenous peoples. A spokesperson from the FNR stated that the sale perpetuates "a racist, colonial and violent depiction" of the Naga people, highlighting the impunity with which such actions are carried out. Similar incidents have occurred in the UK before - for example, Semley Auctioneers in Dorset selling ancient Egyptian skulls - underscoring the ongoing dehumanisation of non-European cultures.

Further compounding this issue, the British government has been criticised for failing to address its role in these practices.

Continued.....The family of Kenyan freedom fighter Koitalel Arap Samoei, whose skull was taken to the UK as a trophy, has faced numerous obstacles in their efforts to have it repatriated. This resistance reflects a broader unwillingness to confront the country's colonial past and the enduring impact it has on indigenous communities.

Sources
News of sale and blowback
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/swan-fine-art-auction-human-remains-lord-boateng-b2626451.html

Britain holds on to Koitalel’s skull
https://nation.africa/kenya/counties/nandi/nandi-seek-koitalel-samoei-s-skull-artefacts-3587850

BURKINABE HONOUR SANKARA’S LEGACY

On Tuesday, it was the 37th anniversary of Thomas Sankara's assassination. That may seem a long tome ago, but the people of Burkina Faso still come out in large numbers every year in the capital Ouagadougou to remember him. At this year’s event, government officials, ambassadors and members of civil-society came together to pay tribute to his life and legacy. They gathered at the Thomas Sankara Memorial - the site of his assassination.

African Stream was also there - speaking to Burkinabe about the significance of the ceremony within the context of the newly formed Alliance of Sahel States (AES). The AES is a pan-African, anti-imperialist confederation seeking to unify Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. It’s a project that’s very much in line with Sankara’s vision for his homeland and Africa.

Continued......Today, his life and legacy are more important than ever as the current president of Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Traoré, works to put the country back on a 'Sankarist' path. While Sankara only spent four years in power in Burkina Faso, he transformed the country through literacy campaigns, public-health drives, environmental projects, infrastructure development, food sovereignty, increased power for women and more. He is believed to have been murdered by his right-hand man Blaise Compaoré, who was found guilty of his assassination by a Burkinabe court in 2022. Many also believe that the CIA and France were involved in the plot. Compaoré ruled over Burkina Faso for 27 years after Sankara's death until he was overthrown in a popular insurrection in 2014.

SOURCES:

https://fr.africanews.com/2022/04/06/burkina-faso-blaise-compaore-condamne-a-vie-dans-le-proces-sankara/

https://fr.africanews.com/2022/04/06/burkina-faso-blaise-compaore-condamne-a-vie-dans-le-proces-sankara/

https://www.thomassankara.net/who-killed-thomas-sankara-by-bruno-jaffre/?lang=en

https://fr.africanews.com/2021/11/01/burkina-faso-commemoration-de-l-insurrection-populaire-de-2014/

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/niger-burkina-faso-mali-military-leaders-sign-treaty-to-become-confederation/3268224

NIGERIA FUEL TANKER EXPLOSION KILLS 150

At least 150 people have died in Jigawa State, Nigeria, after a fuel tanker overturned and exploded. One reason for the high death toll is that people rushed to collect petrol after the flipped vehicle sprang a leak. Videos from the scene show a massive fire spreading across the area, with dozens of bodies burnt beyond recognition. President Bola Tinubu expressed his condolences to the families who lost loved ones and pledged support for those affected, promising a comprehensive review of fuel-transportation safety protocols nationwide.

Crashes involving tankers are common in Nigeria, as road transport is the most popular method of moving cargo across the country, which has inadequate rail infrastructure. Just a month ago, a similar tragedy occurred when a fuel tanker collided with another truck, resulting in 48 deaths after an explosion.

Continued.......Despite the dangers associated with salvaging fuel from these accidents, residents continue to risk their lives to obtain the precious ‘liquid gold.’ This latest incident comes at a time when petrol has become a valuable commodity, especially after Tinubu removed subsidies, causing gasoline prices to soar and plunging the country into a severe economic crisis.

According to the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, several hundred fuel spills occur nationwide each year. In 2020 alone, there were 1,531 petrol tanker crashes, leading to 535 deaths and injuring 1,142 people, according to Nigeria’s Federal Road Safety Corps.

HOW TRUTH ABOUT HAITI IS SUPPRESSED

During the 79th session of the UN General Assembly (New York, 24-30 September 2024), the president of Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council (TPC), Edgar Leblanc Fils, delivered a poignant speech. However, it was overshadowed when a clip showing him taking a swig of water from a large pitcher surfaced and went viral. That was rather convenient for some - for, in his speech, he highlighted how the West was largely to blame for the challenges faced today by Haiti, which was once a prosperous nation but suffered profoundly under oppression and colonisation.

Continued......The island gained independence after the Haitian revolution in 1804 - the world's only successful slave revolt. This played a role in ending slavery in all French colonies and inspired neighbouring countries to seek independence. France only recognised Haiti's independence in 1825, but it also demanded an indemnity that drained the island nation's resources, pushing it into a cycle of impoverishment. Leblanc referred to this as "a form of punishment for our audacity in breaking free from slavery." Haiti continues to struggle under the influence of foreign interventions.

In this clip, online social commentator @humannoresource guides us through his speech and its suppression by the media. Please share.

Video credit: @humannoresource

SOURCES:

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/haitian-groups-seek-billions-reparations-france-2024-04-18/

HILLARY CLINTON SPEECH DISRUPTED
WAS 1 MILLION IRAQIS NOT ENOUGH?

Despite repression, protests have not wavered against US funding, arming and providing diplomatic cover for Israel as it continues more than a year of an onslaught and siege in Gaza. 

Disrupting speeches has been a popular tactic, as in this video where a protester interrupted a live event in Chicago featuring former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, calling out her support for the US war on Iraq and the current Israeli military onslaught in Gaza. Clinton has said calling for a ceasefire would ‘perpetuate the cycle of violence.'

As if the killings and destruction in Gaza were not enough, the US, through unlimited support, is stoking the flames as Israel escalates attacks in Lebanon, Iran, Syria and Yemen.

Continued.....As Africans, we can't let Clinton off the hook because she infamously said, ‘We came, we saw, he died’, in response to NATO-backed Libyan rebels k*lling Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. That wreaked chaos, collapsing the state and turning what once was Africa’s most prosperous country into three warring territories with open-air slave markets.

Do you think the Democratic Party's alignment with Israel will cost them the election, as the protester says at the end of the video? Let us know in the comments.

Video credit: @directactions4palestine (IG) with support from @palfeminist (X), @uspcn (X)

SOURCES:

Disruption
https://www.instagram.com/p/DBFfuSuPT4n

US complicity in Israeli crimes
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-has-undeniable-complicity-gaza-war-killings-say-former-us-officials-2024-07-03/

We came we saw he died
https://www.thewrap.com/hillary-clinton-gaddafi-we-came-we-saw-he-died-video-32058/

Libya after Gaddafi
https://www.npr.org/2021/06/27/1010676961/libya-remains-unstable-nearly-a-decade-after-muammar-gaddafis-ousting

Clinton's Gaza quote
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/14/hillary-clinton-israel-hamas-ceasefire-00127116

KÉMI SÉBA FREED AFTER DAYS OF
QUESTIONING BY FRANCE

French police have released pan-African activist and founder of @urgencespanaf (X) Kémi Séba - after days of questioning. He was arrested in Paris on 14 October 2024 in connection with a probe into alleged collusion with a foreign power “with the aim to foster hostility or acts of aggression against France." Although no charges were pressed, he could face decades in jail if eventually prosecuted and found guilty.

Continued......Séba, a citizen of Benin and bearer of a Nigerien diplomatic passport, was stripped of his French nationality in summer. The technical reason given was a clause 237 of the Civil Code: "A French citizen who in fact behaves like the national of a foreign country may, if he or she holds the nationality of that country, be declared to have lost the status of French citizen by decree following the assent of the Conseil d'État." Yet it was widely seen as punishment for his anti-French activism in Africa.

Séba is a prominent organiser in the francophone part of our continent - known for his staunch anti-imperialist and pan-African stance. His NGO, Urgences Panafricanistes, has chapters across Africa and the Caribbean, including in Benin, Burkina Faso, Congo, Ethiopia, Niger and Senegal, as well as Haiti and Martinique. Its website states that the organisaiton is known "to contribute more effectively than any other African organisation in the 21st century to the resurgence of the fight against neocolonialism, in particular through its actions against the CFA franc and Western military bases on Mother Earth."

Séba is a proponent of so-called multipolarity, the idea that global power should not be concentrated in the hands of any one civilisation or bloc.

SOURCES:

https://www.africanews.com/2024/10/17/france-beninese-activist-kemi-seba-freed/
https://www.africanews.com/2024/10/17/france-beninese-activist-kemi-seba-freed/
https://libreinfo.net/kemi-seba-juan-branco/
https://www.africanews.com/2024/10/17/france-beninese-activist-kemi-seba-freed/
https://fr.africanews.com/2024/10/16/arrete-a-paris-le-militant-panafricaniste-kemi-seba-risque-30-ans-de-prison/
https://www.africanews.com/2024/10/17/france-beninese-activist-kemi-seba-freed/
https://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/kemi-seba-a-perdu-la-nationalite-francaise-20240709
https://lessor.org/societe/lactiviste-franco-beninois-kemi-seba-a-perdu-sa-na/
https://lefaso.net/spip.php?article132065
https://fr.africanews.com/2017/08/30/kemi-seba-l-activiste-anti-franc-cfa-tout-feu-tout-flamme/
https://senego.com/niger-kemi-seba-declare-la-presence-de-bases-militaires-francaises-au-benin-le-gouvernement-beninois-reagit_1701402.html
https://www.instagram.com/p/C2kFpbhgjoJ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
https://www.instagram.com/p/C03-aP2I9gu/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
https://www.instagram.com/p/C0beSL6Id9W/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
https://www.instagram.com/urgences_panafricanistes/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
https://urpanaf.org/qui-sommes-nous/

KENYA’S DEPUTY PREZ IMPEACHED

So Kenya’s Senate has impeached the country’s deputy president. Rigathi Gachagua was found guilty of inciting ethnic tensions and threatening judges - but not of charges of corruption and money-laundering. It means he won’t be able to stand for public office again. Relations between Gachagua and his (now ex) boss William Ruto have soured lately, with the former accused of funding protesters opposed to the latter’s now-shelved IMF-backed tax hikes. Senators pressed ahead with removing the deputy president despite his not having appeared and testified before them - his lawyers say he was hospitalised with chest pains. And Ruto has already nominated Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki as successor, though the High Court has ruled the appointment can’t go ahead until an appeal by Gachagua is dealt with. So, is this a welcome case of accountability? Or was it a witch-hunt that also helped distract from bigger problems facing the government?

Continued......Sources
https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/kenyan-senate-votes-to-dismiss-deputy-president-from-office-by-impeachment/ar-AA1stC6b

NIGER HONOURS REVOLUTIONARIES, NOT COLONISERS

On 15 October, the anniversary of revolutionary Burkina Faso President Thomas Sankara's assassination, the government of Niger re-named street names and monuments after him and other great Pan-Africanists. A portrait of a French coloniser, Parfait-Louis Monteil, was replaced with the image of Sankara and a memorial of his likeness was remade in his honour using images.

The Nigerien capital of Niamey's Charles de Gaulle Avenue was named after the great Nigerien freedom fighter Djibo Bakary, founder of the Sawaba Party, a mass socialist Pan-Africanist party that campaigned against French neo-colonialism. When Bakary was exiled from Niger, he was embraced by presidents, such as Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Modibo Keïta of Mali and Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea. He and his comrades received military training in China and Algeria to launch a guerilla struggle to liberate Niger, which was unsuccessful.

Continued......
Francophone Plaza was also re-baptised as the Alliance of Sahel States Plaza after the anti-imperialist Pan-African federation aiming to unify Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger into a single federal state with an eye on unifying the whole continent.

This is just one of several steps toward decolonisation since President Abdourahamane Tiani came to power through a military coup d’état on 26 July 2023. Like neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali, Niger has expelled the French military from its soil. Niger also became the first country to boot the US Africa Command (AFRICOM). Niger's government has also revoked the mining license of the French company, Orano, which was exploiting Niger's uranium deposits. Niger nationalised water after kicking out a private French company and decreased the public cost of medical treatments by 50 per cent. Nigerien citizens organise regular rallies to express support for the Tiani-led government.

What do you think of Niger re-naming their streets and monuments? Let us know in the comments.

SOURCES:

https://fr.sputniknews.africa/20241016/niamey-rebaptise-les-rues-et-monuments-portant-des-noms-francais-1068708980.html

https://roape.net/2024/07/05/djibo-bakary-and-nigers-fight-for-real-liberation/

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/last-french-troops-leave-niger-military-cooperation-officially-ends-2023-12-22/

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/16/politics/us-military-niger-withdrawal/index.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0kked7ydqyo

https://en.sputniknews.africa/20240106/niger-decides-to-nationalize-its-water-sector-terminates-contract-with-french-company-1064489763.html

https://www.aa.com.tr/fr/afrique/niger-santé-réduction-de-50-du-coût-des-soins-dans-les-structures-publiques/3311292

WHO KILLED MOZAMBIQUE’ PRESIDENT?

On the night of 19th October, 1986, a plane crashed, killing Mozambique’s President Samora Machel. But why it ploughed into mountains on the border with South Africa remains a mystery. We look at suspicions the apartheid regime was behind the tragedy following years of conflict with Maputo. Machel was a roaring revolutionary and pan-Africanist who not only liberated his homeland from colonial rule but also supported South African liberation movements seeking to rid the continent of the last vestiges of colonialism. At the time of the fatal crash, he was 53 years old.SOURCES:https://mondediplo.com/2017/11/12Machel

https://omalley.nelsonmandela.org/index.php/site/q/03lv02167/04lv02264/05lv02335/06lv02357/07lv02372/08lv02378.htm

https://mg.co.za/article/2016-10-18-there-is-still-no-clarity-on-probe-into-samora-machels-death-30-years-ago/

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-20694109

https://mg.co.za/article/1998-07-10-how-samora-machel-signed-his-own-death/

TREVOR NOAH ON HOW MEDIA DEHUMANISES VICTIMS

What’s in a name? A lot. Compare ‘pig’ and ‘pork.’ One is a cute pet, farm animal or cartoon character - the other, lunch. Now compare ‘human’ with ‘Palestinian’ - one has rights (to life, safety, dignity, respect, freedom, self-determination), the other - apparently none of these, with Israel’s war of destruction on Gaza and its people still going unchecked by the West.

The point was made by South African comic Trevor Noah - in a conversation with US journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Imperialists have long used language as a means of dehumanisation - all the more effectively with the rise of mass media. Kenya’s Mau Mau freedom fighters were branded ‘terrorists’ for resisting the British occupiers, while Somali civilians are simply ‘collateral damage’ - the US falsely insisting its drones only kill terrorists.

Video Credit: @What Now

Continued.....
Sources
Western media complicit
https://countercurrents.org/2024/04/gaza-genocide-complicit-western-mainstream-media-lie-for-war-criminal-apartheid-israel/

Blurring lines
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/5/failing-gaza-pro-israel-bias-uncovered-behind-the-lens-of-western-media
https://www.middleeasteye.net/big-story/cnn-israel-bias-laid-bare-norm-not-exception

Same treatment given to other Western victims
https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/asia-and-africa/african-history/mau-mau
https://www.npr.org/2019/03/20/705090399/u-s-airstrikes-in-somalia-may-amount-to-war-crimes-says-rights-group


Active link: https://youtu.be/IPbD9PZ5FP4?si=rZr5BF0qACKgICjV&t=2272

MAURICE BISHOP'S MESSAGE TO AFRICANS IN THE UNITED STATES

Today, 19 October, marks the 41st anniversary of Maurice Bishop's assassination. Reactionaries within his party had turned against Bishop, ordering a firing squad to execute the Caribbean revolutionary and leader of the Grenadian revolution, along with several of his comrades. The US government under Ronald Reagan used this as a pretext to invade Grenada militarily and put an end to their socialist revolution.