IS 'WAKANDA FOREVER' A PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE?

While many of our people celebrated the release of the ‘Black Panther’ film franchise in 2018 for depicting a narrative that could empower Africans, West Africa Weekly's (@westafricaweek on X) founder and investigative journalist @DavidHundeyin (X) has put forth a perspective that many Africans may not have considered.

Continued.......
In this clip from a 2023 episode of ‘theREN Experience’ podcast, Hundeyin argued that ‘Black Panther’ is psychological warfare on Africans, potentially shaping how we view ourselves. Africa's largest resource is its 1.52-billion population that is neglected by poor governance and continued colonial exploitation. Yet, ‘Black Panther’, Hundeyin argues, only puts forth that Africans are an unintelligent group whose only source of strength is vibranium, a fictional metal, and that power can only be obtained through violence. Moreover, the fictional country of ‘Wakanda’ is isolated, contrary to the real-life integration and cooperation needed for Africans to thrive despite European-colonial borders.

Do you think ‘Black Panther’ is Hollywood’s best offering for empowering our people, or is it just another tool of psychological warfare? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Video credit: @renatusmshomba (X) and @therenexp (X)

HUMANITARIAN CRISES AFFECT 123M AFRICAN SCHOOL CHILDREN

This month, the African Union Annual Humanitarian Symposium brought together delegates to discuss the ongoing humanitarian crises in Africa and its impact on internally displaced children. Displacement robs children of their childhoods, disrupting access to education, as they are forced to constantly flee from danger.

In a poignant speech, Mahlaba Mamba, Eswatini's Permanent Representative to the African Union (@MfaicSd on X), shared alarming statistics: Humanitarian crises affect an estimated 123 million school-aged children, with 46 million out of school.

Continued.........Without proper education, the future for these children looks bleak. A @UNICEF report highlights that nine out of ten children in sub-Saharan Africa cannot read and understand a simple text by the age of 10. Looking at the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Sudan due to a proxy war, @SaveTheChildren reported more than 2.8 million babies, toddlers and preschoolers have been displaced across Sudan, and the situation is rapidly deteriorating for children of all ages.

Video credit: @_AfricanUnion (X)

SOURCES:

https://x.com/_AfricanUnion/status/1859529244600119301?t=6uDfRlXR1OzI034c8OV3cg&s=19

https://www.unicef.org/esa/stories/unicef-joins-forces-africa-union-prioritize-education-2024#:~:text=Quality%20is%20also%20of%20concern,ESARO's%20flagship%20programmes%20for%202024.

https://dtm.iom.int/reports/dtm-sudan-mobility-update-10

https://www.unicef.org/esa/stories/unicef-joins-forces-africa-union-prioritize-education-2024#:~:text=9%20out%20of%2010%20children%20in%20sub%2DSaharan%20Africa%20could%20not%20read%20and%20understand%20a%20simple%20text%20by%20the%20age%20of%2010

https://www.savethechildren.net/news/over-28-million-children-under-five-forced-their-home-across-sudan#:~:text=More%20than%202.8%20million%20babies%2C%20toddlers%20and%20preschoolers

CHINUA ACHEBE: WE MUST WRITE OUR OWN STORIES

In 1988, renowned Nigerian poet and novelist Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) reflected on the literature he studied at university. Upon reading these works closely, Achebe realised that the so-called ‘savages’ often resembled characters that looked like him, African, while the stories portrayed white people as heroes. He explained that without a conscious understanding of this narrative, what may seem like ‘innocent’ fictional tales can misinform Africans who have endured the oppression of slavery and colonialism. 

Achebe's solution? Africa must take control of its history by writing about it. 

Please share your thoughts on this perspective.

Video credit: ‘A World of Ideas,’ @PBS

HOW RAP REC INDUSTRY PUSHES BLACK YOUTH INTO JAIL

The US record industry is complicit in America’s prison-industrial complex. When rappers write lyrics about police brutality, the execs shoot it down. But glorify gang violence and prison, and they’re happy to release your record. Here’s New Jersey hip-hop artist Wise Intelligent spitting some truths on the issue.

ALT-RIGHTER: ‘GENIUS EUROPEANS’ NOT SLAVES BUILT U.S.

This clip is a reminder of what our brothers and sisters in the US are still up against. In it, alt-right leader Richard Spencer claims that America’s current economic prosperity has nothing to do with enslaved African labour - but rest solely on “European geniuses”!

He denies slaves in the cotton industry played a pivotal role in the development of contemporary American capitalism, influencing not just the South, but the entire nation's economy, propelling it to the top of global markets.

By the mid-19th century, cotton became America’s largest financial asset and its most critical export. The profits from cotton were fundamental to the North's industrial rise and, by 1860, the Mississippi River Valley was home to more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in the country.

Continued.........Moreover, slavery helped establish financial tools such as credit lines and mortgages. A wide financial network involving bankers, lawyers, investors and traders in the North evolved for the sole purpose of streamlining the business of subjugation.

According to Edward Baptist, professor of history at Cornell University and author of 'The Half Has Never Been Told,' the financial systems of North America were directly tied to slavery in the South, with the wealth generated by enslaved labor being funnelled into global markets, creating a kind of financial empire centred around the whipping, beating, killing and sexual abuse of African people in America.

Video credit: TV One TV (YouTube)

SOURCES:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsCbHwZn3qE

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2014/09/baptist-book-relates-slaverys-role-shaping-america

https://nature.berkeley.edu/agroecologylab/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/How-slavery-became-the-building-block-of-the-American-economy-Vox.pdf

https://www.history.com/news/slavery-profitable-southern-economy#

https://equitablegrowth.org/new-research-shows-slaverys-central-role-in-u-s-economic-growth-leading-up-to-the-civil-war/

BARBADOS PM CHANNELS AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY AT UN

In her address at the 79th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley reminded delegates of the African humanist philosophy of ubuntu.

‘Ubuntu’ is a South African Zulu and Xhosa word that roughly translates to 'humanity towards others.' The New World Encyclopedia defines ‘ubuntu’ as ‘embodying all those virtues that maintain harmony and the spirit of sharing among the members of a society.'

Mottley said ubuntu should be used as a guiding principle to carve out a new path of goodwill for the collective prosperity of all nations and all people.

Video credit: United Nations (YouTube)

SOURCES:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUvWnTesK3w

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Ubuntu_(philosophy)

THE APPLE AND THE TREE: ELON MUSK'S PRO-APARTHEID GRANDFATHER

Elon Musk's father, Errol Musk, recently told South Africa’s @podcastwithmacg (X) how his ex-wife Maye's father, Joshua N. Haldeman, was a pro-apartheid white Canadian who moved to South Africa to support the Afrikaner regime that took power in 1948.

In his book, ‘The International Conspiracy to Establish a World Dictatorship and the Menace to South Africa’ (1960), Haldeman claimed Black South Africans’ accounts of mistreatment under the white-led apartheid regime were part of a false ploy to brainwash the public. Haldeman abhorred the widely growing opposition to the apartheid regime at the time, claiming, ‘the white man has always developed the country he inhabits to the benefit of all concerned,’ and that African civilisations had ‘built nothing and discovered nothing.’

Continued...........Meanwhile, many have criticised Tesla founder and X owner Elon Musk for promoting narratives that downplay the generational impact of slavery in the Global South. For instance, on 15 October, Musk retweeted a post highlighting the supposed ‘good’ of the British Empire. Adding his perspective to the tweet, he wrote, ‘Not many people these days know that the British Empire was the driving force behind ending the vast majority of global slavery. Slavery or de facto slavery was standard practice throughout the world from the dawn of civilisation until a few hundred years ago. It is even discussed at length in the Bible, for example.’

Such rhetoric not only glosses over slavery’s atrocities and the British empire’s barbaric nature but also overlooks well-documented historical facts, such as the British government's decision to compensate enslavers for the loss of their ‘property’ while the enslaved received nothing. Moreover, after abolishing slavery, Britain colonised territories that now amount to 56 modern countries.

Does the apple truly not fall far from the tree after all? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Video credit: @podcastwithmacg (X)

SOURCES:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-world-according-to-elon-musks-grandfather

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH1U5x8LXgs

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/global-trends/elon-musk-says-british-empire-ended-global-slavery-indians-say-have-some-shame/articleshow/114262071.cms?from=mdr#

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1846211256622968856