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.

On 20 December 1956, the Montgomery bus boycott ended after 13 months. The political and social mass action started on 5 December 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama. It was triggered by the arrest of a Black woman, Rosa Parks, four days earlier.

On 1 December, Parks refused to comply with an order to vacate a row of seats in the ‘Coloured’ section of a bus to make room for a White passenger. She was arrested and charged with violation of the Montgomery City code. Under the Jim Crow-era laws, the city’s buses were segregated on a racial basis.

Her arrest for civil disobedience motivated the African community to boycott Montgomery buses. Though the boycott was initially supposed to be a one-day event for the day Rosa appeared in court, its success prompted the organizers to continue it indefinitely.

Continued……. They formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) to coordinate the boycott. Dr Martin Luther King Jr was chosen as its leader.

Under the MIA’s guidance, Black people devised various means to avoid using buses. These included walking, cycling, and carpooling. The boycott greatly impacted the income of the bus company that operated the buses, as Black people accounted for more than 60% of its customers. Despite the hardball tactics of the city authorities to end the boycott, the Black community refused to yield.

On 1 February 1956, the MIA took their fight to the courtroom when they filed a lawsuit in the US District Court challenging the legality of the city’s bus segregation system. In a June judgment, the court ruled that segregation was unconstitutional. Unsatisfied with the judgment, the city appealed to the US Supreme Court.

On 13 November, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s ruling and ordered the desegregation of buses in Montgomery and all parts of the country where such laws were present. The order went into effect on 20 December 1956, 381 days after the boycott had started.

The boycott’s success proved that nothing is out of reach once Black people unite.

Sources

https://www.wesleyan.edu/mlk/posters/rosaparks.html
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/montgomery-bus-boycott

AFRICAN CURVES: ENVY OF 19TH-CENTURY EUROPEAN WOMEN?

The bustle dress was a very popular dress during the Victorian era. It was a fashion accessory for upper-class women. Even though this dress was integrated into the couture fashion industry during the 19th century, the origin of its design lies in a very dark past: the exploitation of African women's bodies.

This dress design was inspired by the body features of Sarah Baartman, who was an enslaved Khoi Khoi woman from Cape Town, South Africa. She was displayed as a freak throughout her life in Europe and even after death because of these features.

It’s ironic that a woman whose body features and race, which was considered inferior, were the inspiration behind a fashion trend that once was a marker of wealth and European sophistication.

AFRICAN STREAM CEO TO FATHER: WHY DID YOU LIE TO ME

In this clip from a recent interview on our Pan African Attitude Podcast, African Stream's CEO Ahmed Kaballo, sits down with his father, Sidgi Kaballo - a prominent economist, academic and Central Committee member of the Sudanese Communist Party - to discuss life under occupation by the UAE- backed Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary in Sudan's capital Khartoum.

Sidgi, who stayed on for seven and a half months in the capital after the outbreak of the proxy war (15 April 2023), recounts his first-hand experience of the hostile RSF militia, including an incident where one of them struck him with a stick while they ransacked his home.

Continued……The clip begins on a lighthearted note, as Ahmed asks his father why he lied about his injury. Sidgi had insisted he was fine when his concerned son shared, via the family WhatsApp group, a dream he’d had about a bomb hurting Kaballo senior. Humorously, Sidgi replies that he didn’t lie because it wasn’t a bomb that hit him.

You can watch the full episode on X, Patreon and Rumble.

MACRON BERATES STORM-HIT MAYOTTE

‘You’re lucky to be part of France!’ That was the message from French President Emmanuel Macron to the frustrated residents of Mayotte, an Indian Ocean archipelago, who are dealing with the aftermath of a severe cyclone.

Macron visited Mamoudzou, the capital of this ‘overseas territory’ (which has been under French control since 1843), a day after Cyclone Chido hit on 18 December, causing massive destruction to the island, which has some 320,000 residents.

The cyclone left homes in ruins, knocked out power, damaged water facilities and blocked roads with debris. It’s the worst storm to strike Mayotte in nearly a century.

Continued….. Reports indicate that 31 people have died, with many more unaccounted for, so the actual numbers could be even higher. Locals are frustrated with the slow response in getting much-needed aid.

Macron's chilly welcome points to bigger issues in Mayotte. The island faces a staggering poverty rate of nearly 80%, which is five times that of mainland France, and almost 40% of the population is unemployed. Critics argue that Paris, located 12 hours away by plane (8,000 km), tends to ignore the archipelago. France keeps its grip on Mayotte, along with other territories such as Réunion and New Caledonia, to strengthen its claims in the Indo-Pacific region.

Is it time for Mayotte to break free from its long-standing reliance on France?

Video credit: @brutofficiel (TikTok)

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/19/world/europe/mayotte-france-cyclone-destruction.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c89x0j1le4lo

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/12/19/world/emmanuel-macron-france-mayotte-cyclone-intl-hnk/index.html

https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/5039943?sommaire=5040030

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14650045.2023.2294794#d1e119

https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/country-files/regional-strategies/indo-pacific/the-indo-pacific-a-priority-for-france/france-in-the-south-west-indian-ocean/article/the-union-of-the-comoros-and-mayotte#:~:text=Mayotte%20became%20an%20official%20French,%2C%20and%201892%20for%20Moh%C3%A9li).

https://www.melusinapress.lu/read/1981-5500-mxxx/section/5dec61e6-5565-4ba6-b08f-6232a01f5526

ZIMBABWE'S PLAN TO PAY WHITE FARMERS CAUSES CONTROVERSY

In October, Zimbabwe's Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube announced that the country would spend $20 million to pay some white farmers whose land was expropriated in early 2000 during its land reform programme.

According to Ncube, only farmers who were citizens of countries with Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (BIPPA) during the land reform programme would be eligible for the payments. BIPPAs are treaties between two countries that aim to protect and promote investments made by citizens in each other’s countries. Zimbabwe had BIPPAs with Denmark, Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland during the land reform programme.

Continued……. Since 2019, Zimbabwe has announced plans to compensate some white farmers, causing heated debates across the continent and beyond. Some, such as Julius Malema (@julius_s_malema on X), president of South Africa's Economic Freedom Fighters (@effsouthafrica), say the 2019 decision is tantamount to selling out. Others say Western sanctions have beaten Harare into submission imposed in the wake of the land reform programme carried out to address racially-based land ownership imbalances caused by colonialism.

The two decades of sanctions have left Zimbabwe's economy in tatters, forcing one-quarter of citizens to leave the country just between 2003 and 2013. Sanctions also have forced the government to seek rapprochement with the West under unfavourable terms.

We spoke about this during our end-of-year review podcast. Please watch and add your thoughts in the comments. 

Don’t forget to follow us on Bluesky, Patreon, Rumble, Telegram and X.

Sources:

https://www.africanews.com/2019/04/12/zimbabwe-land-compensation-malema-slams-sellout-mnangagwa

https://www.news24.com/fin24/international/zimbabwe-fails-to-pay-white-farmers-20241217

https://www.africanews.com/2023/05/15/afdb-working-to-raise-billions-to-compensate-zimbabwes-white-farmers

https://www.herald.co.zw/zim-okays-compensation-for-92-bippa-farms/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3591728/#:~:text=It%20has%20been%20estimated%20that,of%20immigrants%20in%20Southern%20Africa.

Thomas Sankara on the subtler forms of imperialism as we celebrate what would have been his 75th birthday. The Burkinabe revolutionary was born on 21st December 1949.

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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!

SOUTH AFRICA’S GENOCIDE CASE RESCUED INT’L LAW

Many will remember 2024 for South Africa’s landmark g*nocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). In January, the ICJ issued a provisional ruling that Israel is committing acts of ‘plausible’ g*nocide against the Palestinian people and that it must ‘take all measures in its power’ to prevent acts that could fall under the UN G*nocide Convention, set up after the Holocaust in World War II. The ICJ also said Israel should ‘prevent and punish’ any incitement to g*nocide.

In our end-of-year review, African Stream Editor-in-Chief Ahmed Kaballo reckoned South Africa’s ICJ case drew a line in the sand and that imperialists will be hard-pressed to wage another war under the pretext of ‘Responsibility to Protect,’ given their utter complicity in the ongoing horrors in Palestine. He cited the shameful example of Germany, which sides with Israel.

Continued……. Yet, between 1904-08, Germany committed the 20th century’s first g*nocide against the Namaqua and Herero peoples in Namibia. Today, Germany is the second-largest supplier of weaponry to Israel after the United States.

Many people say South Africa rescued humanity and international law. The question is whether states will continue to follow international law.

Subscribe to our X handle, @african_stream, to stay updated on the biggest stories in Africa and beyond. Follow us on Bluesky, Patreon, Rumble and Telegram, too.

Watch, subscribe, like and share⬇️

https://youtu.be/e46Nmw1neZc

HARRIET ‘MOSES’ TUBMAN!

Abolitionist and suffragist Harriet Tubman was nicknamed “Moses” because she led enslaved people to freedom. One hundred seventy-three years ago, in December 1850, Harriet orchestrated and led her first rescue mission. Having escaped slavery on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in September 1849, Tubman dedicated her life to rescuing others, all while risking her own life in the process. History books hail Tubman as the first woman to lead an armed raid into enemy territory as she guided Union troops up the Combahee River in South Carolina to destroy Confederate stockpiles of weapons, food and cotton and freed more than 700 enslaved African Americans. She was also referred to as a “train conductor” because she guided escapees along a network of safe houses and secret routes in the United States that were used by African Americans seeking to reach Canada, known as the “Underground Railroad.” Catch a ride down the tracks of history to learn more about this inspirational African woman.

SANKARA LIVES ON

One of Africa's most significant leaders, Thomas Sankara, would have turned 75 today. We remember his life and legacy but also pose serious questions about his death. While the CIA and France have been asked to disclose their records, much remains classified. How was Thomas Sankara assassinated? Who was involved? Here's what we know so far ...

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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!

TWO KITES REACTION: HUMANISING GLOBAL SOUTH VICTIMS

With much of what passes as music, especially hip-hop, glorifying inter-communal killings, drug use and abuse of women and vulnerable groups, UK rapper Lowkey’s recent track Two Kites is a breath of fresh air. 

In this video, we react to part of his new album, Soundtrack to the Struggle 3 - noting how he humanises victims of conflict in a manner largely missing from the mainstream’s narrative around the Global South.

The story @Lowkey0nline (X) tells here reminds us that war victims are more than just numbers. They are teachers, students and loved ones with dreams and relationships. Two Kites also shows audiences the emotional resilience that persists in these harsh realities.

You can find more African Stream content on Bluesky, Patreon, Rumble, Telegram, and X.

TOXIC U.S. PESTERING NIGERIA TO GO GMO

Another day, another revelation about how the US will not let African nations determine their own policies.

A new investigative report reveals how activists against pesticides and GMOs in Nigeria are being smeared with the help of dollars stumped up by Washington - much to the delight of US agrochemical giants such as the health-scandal-embroiled Monsanto.

Having been at the receiving end of a US State Department smear campaign ourselves, we can only relate too well with what the activists targeted are going through. But it ultimately affects every Nigerian, as President Tinubu has already given the green light to GMO crops in his country - despite stiff opposition.

Sources:

https://x.com/GRVlagos/status/1868379150366679327

SANKARA THE ANTI-DEBT ICON

On Thomas Sankara’s birthday, we look back at one of the legendary speeches regarding foreign aid from the pan-African icon and former leader of Burkina Faso. He advocated self-sufficiency, the elimination of the entire continent’s debt, and not relying on aid, which always comes with strings attached. Burkina Faso’s Captain Ibrahim Traore is trying to keep Sankara’s legacy alive, but only with the support of the people will that dream be fulfilled.

AFRICA'S INDEPENDENCE-ERA SELL-OUTS

Africa got flag independence, while the colonisers retained the tools of power - such as control of Africa's economies via chokehold institutions like the World Bank and IMF.

For this to work, they needed compliant Africans - collaborators willing to take out true African heroes like Thomas Sankara and Patrice Lumumba.

In this report, African Stream’s William Sakawa looks at four of the worst offenders among African leaders when it comes to serving foreign interests at the expense of their own people - including DR Congo's Mobutu and Kenya's Kenyatta.

Who do you think the biggest traitor was?

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: S. AFRICA’S CRAZY COALITION GOVT!

2024 was a year of elections. Voters in more than 60 countries went to the polls. Some incumbents hung on to power, while others got the boot.

One of the countries where elections took place on our continent was South Africa, where the ruling African National Congress (ANC) lost its majority for the first time since coming to power in 1994, after the fall of the apartheid regime.

Its failure to secure a majority saw the former liberation movement go into coalition with other political parties - including, astonishingly, with its longtime nemesis, the rightwing Democratic Alliance (DA).

The political marriage between the ANC and the DA has led to fears that the country is falling into the hands of pro-Western interests. This can only further delay efforts to emancipate the nation fully and improve the welfare of the majority-Black population, which has yet to see any social or economic mobility worth writing home about.