Continued….. 6. https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/Pentagon%20Fuel%20Use%2C%20Climate%20Change%20and%20the%20Costs%20of%20War%20Revised%20November%202019%20Crawford.pdf


7. https://theconversation.com/the-defense-department-is-worried-about-climate-change-and-also-a-huge-carbon-emitter-118017

8. https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2023/06/08/if-dod-cares-about-security-in-africa-it-must-reduce-co2-emissions/

REMEMBERING STEVE BIKO

One of South Africa's most illustrious anti-apartheid icons, Stephen (Steve) Bantu Biko, was born on this day in 1946.

From an early age, he demonstrated intellectual and political prowess. While in high school, he became involved in student activism against the racist apartheid policies. This resulted in his expulsion from school. However, he managed to find another school through the help of his elder brother. After successfully completing high school, he enrolled as a medical student in the Black section of the segregated University of Natal. He continued with his political activism and helped found the South African Students Organisation (SASO) in 1969 to represent the interests of Black students, whom he felt were being discriminated against in the White-dominated National Union of South African Students (NUSAS).

Continued……. Within the auspices of SASO, Biko founded the Black Consciousness Movement (BMC), which aimed to liberate the minds of Black people from apartheid propaganda, which constantly told them they were inferior to White people.

By the ‘70s, Biko's activism had gained nationwide acclaim. He was one of the leading Black voices that filled the gap created by the banning of liberation movements such as the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) in the 1960s.

However, his activism eventually put him in the racist regime's crosshairs. He was arrested on 18 August 1977 in Eastern Cape province and detained by the notorious 'security' branch of the apartheid police force. While in detention, Biko was severely tortured, leading to his death on 12 September.

Biko's shocking death sparked outrage across South Africa and beyond. More than 20,000 people turned up for his funeral in his hometown of King Williams Town.

Despite being brutally cut short, Biko's life was so impactful on his country's society impact it continues to be felt today. His death at the hands of the apartheid regime robbed the country of a future leader who would have played a key role in post-apartheid South Africa, a country he was so passionate about.

In his memory, we've selected this clip, where he speaks about the South Africa he envisioned. In this prophetic speech, Biko warned that if racist economic structures were not dismantled, the majority of Black people would remain trapped in poverty - even after the fall of apartheid.

Some fifty years later, Biko's words ring true. In today's South Africa, White people still hold over two-thirds of the country's wealth, despite making up less than ten per cent of the population.

Sources:

https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/099125003072240961/p1649270b73f1f0b5093fb0e644d33bc6f1

https://www.ictj.org/node/35024

https://www.npr.org/2024/06/14/nx-s1-5003237/south-africa-anc-da-national-unity-government-coalition

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw9yx5w9577o

https://theguard.co.za/new-cabinet-members-to-be-sworn-in/

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/afrikaner-police-admit-to-killing-stephen-biko

TRAORÉ BONDS WITH BURKINA FASO CHILDREN

Burkina Faso President Ibrahim Traoré recently dedicated half of his busy work day to hosting more than 200 children on 21 November to commemorate World Children's Day, which falls on 20 November.

Originating from the Sahel state's 13 regions, the youngsters began the day on a patriotic note, raising the national flag alongside Traoré. Watch as a child representative briefs the head of state on their legislative meeting, where child labour in the nation's mines and maternal and children’s healthcare were among the topics discussed.

Some have described Traoré, 36, as a reincarnation of President Thomas Sankara (1949-87), Burkina Faso's assassinated pan-Africanist leader. Along with Mali's Assimi Goïta and Niger's Abdourahamane Tiani, the three have booted the French military, curbed French influence in media, begun nationalising natural resources, and established the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) confederation that shares defence, economic and foreign policies.

Continued……Africa is the world's youngest continent, with a median age of 19. With leaders like Traoré (@capitaineib226 on X) inspiring the youth, Africa's future is in good hands.

Video credit: BF1 Television (@bf1tv on X)

Sources:

https://lefaso.net/spip.php?article134353

https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/africas-median-age-about-19-median-age-its-leaders-about-63

https://trtafrika.com/insight/ibrahim-traore-why-burkina-fasos-leader-attracts-attention-14479334

https://www.facebook.com/arfsBlog/posts/world-childrens-day-burkina-faso-the-president-of-the-transition-head-of-state-c/896715458485368/

https://www.ecofinagency.com/public-management/0602-45178-burkinas-captain-ibrahim-traore-signals-major-shift-amidst-ecowas-departure-cfa-exit-may-follow

CNN CAUGHT LYING IN SYRIA

CNN has made the news for publishing what fact-checking organisation Verify-Sy says is a staged story of a Syrian prisoner gaining freedom after allegedly enduring jail time under the now-fallen government of Bashar al-Assad. International correspondent Clarissa Ward claimed to have witnessed the release of the man, who Verify-Sy says is Salama Mohammad Salama, an alleged extortionist and thief who worked in Syrian Air Force intelligence.

While CNN can mislead its global audience with a staged story, other media, like African Stream, are banned for publishing factual reports that challenge those in power. In September, tech giants Meta, Alphabet, TikTok and Stripe deleted our accounts after we published a story about how all US presidents since George W Bush have bombed Somalia.

To support the fight for media integrity, follow us on X (@african_stream) for factual, anti-imperialist content. You can also find us on Bluesky, Patreon, Rumble, Telegram and X.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has filed criminal complaints against tech giant Apple and its French and Belgian subsidiaries for using conflict minerals in its supply chain.

Congo's legal team claims Apple is guilty of covering up war crimes, money laundering, handling stolen goods and misleading consumers about the ethical sourcing of its products. They say Apple benefits from minerals extracted through illegal mining operations in the country and then laundered through complex global supply chains, making the tech giant complicit in human-rights abuses. Apple has countered by saying it audits suppliers and funds organisations working to ensure minerals are responsibly acquired.

Continued……Apple's products, which are widely available for sale, are unfortunately contributing to the exploitation of children working in mines. This, in turn, is fuelling Congo's unending resource-war - involving more than 100 armed groups in the mineral-rich eastern part of the country. The local communities in Congo are the ones bearing the brunt of this exploitation, a fact that cannot be ignored.

In an unrelated case in March, 16 plaintiffs, including four former miners and legal representatives of child miners who lost their lives, lost a case against five US tech giants (Dell, Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple and Tesla) accused of benefiting from child labour. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Colombia ruled 3-0 in favour of the companies, absolving them from claims of human-rights abuses in DR Congo's cobalt-mining operations.

Continued….. In March 2024, the UN reported that the number of internally displaced people in DRC had reached 7.2 million, with more than 80% of displacements caused by armed attacks and clashes.

Sources:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn8g540wz3jo

https://qrius.com/congo-sues-apple-alleges-firm-used-pillaged-minerals-in-products/

https://nation.africa/kenya/news/africa/congo-files-criminal-complaints-against-apple-in-europe-over-conflict-minerals-4860252

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-17/congo-sues-apple-alleging-pillaged-minerals-in-products

https://abcnews.go.com/International/us-court-absolves-top-tech-companies-congos-child/story?id=107839639

https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/democratic-republic-congo/democratic-republic-congo-internally-displaced-persons-and-returnees-march-2024

WASTEFUL PENTAGON REVELS IN IMPUNITY

The US often sanctions African officials for corruption.

For example, in May 2024, it slapped five Ugandan officials with visa restrictions, including Parliament Speaker Anita Among, accused of ‘significant corruption tied to her leadership of Uganda's Parliament.’

In contrast, watch as US Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, whose department failed yet another audit, dismissed US comedian and commentator @jonstewart (X) when he pressed her on the Pentagon's failure to account for billions of taxpayer dollars in expenditures. In November 2024, US Under-Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)/Chief Financial Officer Mike McCord announced the Pentagon had yet again failed an audit of its $824 billion budget.

Continued…..Continued….. In this clip from a more extensive reaction video that you can view on X and Rumble, we provide a Pan-Africanist context to this exchange between Stewart and Hicks.

Join the conversation by subscribing to our X handle, @african_stream. You can also find us on Bluesky, Telegram, Patreon and Rumble.

Sources:

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/us-sanctions-current-former-ugandan-officials-for-corruption-human-rights/3235595

If you want to support our work, please consider joining our Patreon! Our African-centered videos take many hours to conceptualise, develop, research, noscript, present and edit. We need your support to sustain the production value of the channel and to help us reach new audiences. Join our community at patreon.com/AfricanStream, where we'll provide some of our members with great perks! Link in Bio!

SAHELIAN WOMEN SPEAK OUT AGAINST IMPERIALISM PART 1

Over the past couple of years, since military leaders in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger military seized power to chart a path towards pan-African unity and sovereignty, life has changed dramatically for the working class and farmers across Africa’s western Sahel and Sahara region.

Perhaps no sector has been as impacted as women. While we hear their voices less often and these conservative cultures tend to minimise them, women are at the forefront of defending and building the trio of nations’ Alliance of Sahel States (AES).

African Stream journalist Inemesit Richardson travelled to each of the three countries to talk to women, who say the Western imperialist warfare - which armed terror groups that have wreaked havoc on the Sahel over the past decade - has disproportionately impacted women.

Continued……Gender-based violence is a reality in wars and, in the Sahel, paramilitary death squads have specifically targeted women. Women also suffer from increased poverty as they lose their husbands and sons to the fight against terrorism. This situation has only politicised women, who have become some of the most well-organised and outspoken critics of the imperialist system.

Nigerien women have joined organisations such as Les Femmes Engagées pour la Sauvegarde de la Patrie (Women Engaged to Safeguard the Homeland) and Les Sentinelles de la Patrie (Sentinels of the Homeland), which have recruited several hundred to several thousand women since the 26 July 2023 coup d’état that ousted a Western aligned leader. Meanwhile, women across the Sahel draw inspiration from assassinated Burkina Faso President Thomas Sankara (1949-87), who spoke incessantly about the need to emancipate women within the African liberation struggle.

Sahelian women place themselves within an obscure tradition of female militantism and political leadership, as represented by Aoua Keïta, the pan-African feminist and socialist who worked alongside Modibo Keïta (no relation) in Mali, and Sarrounia, Niger's brave woman warrior who fought the French colonising army in the 19th century.

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If you want to support our work, please consider joining our Patreon! Our African-centered videos take many hours to conceptualise, develop, research, noscript, present and edit. We need your support to sustain the production value of the channel and to help us reach new audiences. Join our community at patreon.com/AfricanStream, where we'll provide some of our members with great perks! Link in Bio!

FUSE ODG: WHY ‘BAND AID’ SUCKS FOR AFRICA

In 2014, Ghanaian-British artist Fuse ODG declined an invitation to join Band-Aid's 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' 30th-anniversary remake. The charity single was first released in 1984 to fundraise for famine relief in Ethiopia.

This year, on the 40th anniversary, he's released his response track called 'We Know It's Christmas' - and has been vocal, as in this clip from a recent LBC radio interview, in his criticisms of patronising and counterproductive Western aid initiatives for Africa.

He argues that although Band-Aid has raised millions over the years for those affected by various humanitarian catastrophes - from famine in East Africa to ebola in West Africa - its narrow portrayal of the continent as a charity case and a place eclipsed by war, suffering, and disease, has done more harm than good.

Continued……. This, he says, has resulted in Africa and its people being dehumanized by undignified imagery and its potential not being realized as the negative depiction discourages investment into the continent as a viable market of opportunity - contributing to the perpetual cycle of poverty rather than alleviating it.

Many agree with his critique: in a Guardian newspaper article in 2023, Nigerian author Moky Makura wrote that the charity song "triggered the birth of a patronizing industry whose mission it was to 'save Africa.'" Since its release, aid has become an entire industry, seemingly helpful in the short term but whose longer-term impact is ultimately negative - as many, like Fuse ODG, contend.

Research has shown that Africa loses more each year than it receives in aid and that aid has only stunted development and economic growth on the continent - something Zambian economists and author Dambisa Moyo terms 'Dead Aid.'

Furthermore, Fuse ODG argues that not only do Band-Aid's lyrics perpetuate stereotypes and offer a one-dimensional view of the continent, but they are also offensive and reductive.

Video credit: @LBC

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/oct/10/live-aid-led-to-the-patronising-save-africa-industry-we-dont-need-a-musical-about-it

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/19/turn-down-band-aid-bob-geldof-africa-fuse-odg

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/dec/20/world-of-dread-and-fear-bob-geldof-try-eating-catfish-lagos-bush-bar-band-aid-elnathan-john

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If you want to support our work, please consider joining our Patreon! Our African-centered videos take many hours to conceptualise, develop, research, noscript, present and edit. We need your support to sustain the production value of the channel and to help us reach new audiences. Join our community at patreon.com/AfricanStream, where we'll provide some of our members with great perks! Link in Bio!

HOW APARTHEID MADE WHITE SOUTH AFRICANS RICH

According to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), 64 per cent of Black South Africans are living in poverty. However, only one per cent of their White counterparts are poverty-stricken.
The anomaly is not just in the numbers; the reality on the ground also shows that South Africa is still a country of two different societies existing side by side, one rich and primarily White, and the other, poor and Black.

This glaring inequality between the two demographics has been a source of intense debate for decades. One question that is often asked is why this situation remains unchanged even after the fall of the apartheid system in 1994. Could White people be more prosperous because they are more hardworking?

Continued……South African media personality Dan Corder has got the answer to this question. It is an answer that most racists might not like. In this video clip, Corder explains the different racist policies and laws that the apartheid regime put in place to give White people a head start - one that they’re still profiting from today.

Source

https://www.power987.co.za/featured/sas-poverty-statistics-64-black-6-asians-1-white/

https://youtu.be/ZhM__MrjBpk?si=b4kXY3A49YDgx5X5

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Léopold Sédar Senghor was Senegal’s first president, and a prominent poet. He is also accused of further entrenched Senegal into France's sphere of influence after flag independence. As a politician he promoted and maintained close relationships with France. He became a French citizen in 1933 and he served as a minister in France before serving as the president of Senegal. He was the first African elected into Académie Française, a French institution that serves as the worldwide authority on the preservation of the French language. He also served as the dean of the National School of Overseas France (ENFOM), a French school designed to prepare the future generation of African leaders to serve French interests. By the time he came to political prominence in the 1940s, he advocated for further integration within the French empire rather than independence.

Continued……In his own words from the time, his people must “assimilate the spirit of French civilization,” so that it “ fertilizes indigenous civilizations and brings them out of their stagnation... “ While others began calling for independence, Senghor called for a federation which would have maintained Senegal's status as an "overseas territory of France."

As the president of Senegal, Senghor was often criticised for promoting and maintaining neo-colonial policies turning Senegal into a bastion of la Francafrique (as French neo-colonialism came to be known). France maintained the CFA franc, a French military presence and deep financial and cultural ties with the 'former' colonial power. Revolutionaries including Omar Blondin Diop waged serious struggle against Senghor resulting in Diop's political imprisonment and death.

After more than 20 years in power, he quit to dedicate himself entirely to his passion for writing poetry. He died at the age of 95 on December 20, 2001.

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If you want to support our work, please consider joining our Patreon! Our African-centered videos take many hours to conceptualise, develop, research, noscript, present and edit. We need your support to sustain the production value of the channel and to help us reach new audiences. Join our community at patreon.com/AfricanStream, where we'll provide some of our members with great perks! Link in Bio!

SUDAN’S FIRST FEMALE POLITICIAN

Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim began her fight against imperialism at a young age. Fighting for the emancipation of women in Sudan and the people as a whole, she shattered gender barriers to become Sudan’s and Africa’s first female parliamentarian member in 1965. Fatima used her political power to push for women’s rights and fiercely challenged social norms. Quite the task in what was a fiercely conservative country that less than ten years prior was being ruled by both the British and Egyptians, with the British colonialist really calling the shots. What a woman! Let’s peek into Fatima’s life and how she inspired the next generation of Sudanese women.