Continued……. Many have been confused by the Trump administration’s recent decision to shut down USAID, an agency that has claimed to advance US foreign-policy interests and ‘open markets’ for US companies. US Senator Chris Murphy recently admitted on CNN, ‘USAID chases China all over the world, making sure China doesn’t monopolise contracts for critical minerals and port infrastructure all around the world.’

Video credit: @MrWinMarshall (X)

Sources:

https://www.moore.army.mil/infantry/magazine/issues/2021/Summer/pdf/7_Thielenhaus_txt.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20241209133304

https://www.soc.mil/USASFC/Documents/1sfc-vision-2021-beyond.pdf

https://x.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1886505754959454303

NO LET-UP IN CONGO’S HORROR: LEOPOLD II TO M23

The recent surge in violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has resulted in the eastern city of Goma falling under the control of Rwanda- and Uganda-backed M23 rebels.

The three-decade-long conflict - largely over natural resources - has thrown the Congo into one of the worst humanitarian crises in Africa.

However, as Maurice Carney, co-founder and executive director of Friends of Congo, points out, the roots of the Congo’s oppression and plunder stretch back much further. From the brutal reign of King Leopold II of Belgium to subsequent dictatorships, the DRC has been trapped in a spiral of relentless turmoil.

Video credit: Friends of Congo

Hear Us Roar: https://news.1rj.ru/str/AfricanStream

SHOWDOWN: NIGERIA’S DANGOTE VS GLOBAL OIL GIANTS

There is a straight line from colonial exploitation to modern-day neocolonialism. Most African countries don’t process their raw materials. Instead, value is added abroad, and finished products are reimported, benefiting foreign companies.

When Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, announced that Nigeria would be moving up the value chain and that he would be building a 20-billion dollar, 650,000-barrels-a-day refinery that would meet domestic needs and export to the rest of Africa, ending the country’s age-old reliance on global oil giants, local importers and state regulators - who for decades have lived comfortably in those giants’ pockets - lost it.

Continued……. Efforts to sabotage the project, the largest single-train refinery in the world, which began operations in January of 2023, got underway. The Dangote refinery, which represents a threat to the West’s lucrative refinery-products market share, has been struggling to acquire enough feedstock of Nigerian crude. Some of Europe’s largest refineries, including Shell and TotalEnergies, have for decades had a stranglehold on Nigeria’s oil industry. They essentially refused to sell crude to the Dangote refinery, insisting on a $6 premium above market price - forcing it to source crude from Brazil and the United States at a higher price.

However, the tides are shifting. A new OPEC report reveals that the Dangote refinery has begun impacting European refiners, whose margins are being squeezed. The refinery has surpassed the capacity of Europe’s largest facilities, reducing Nigeria’s dependence on petroleum-product imports from Europe. According to OPEC, gasoline production in Nigeria is freeing up significant volumes in international markets, requiring Europe to find new buyers and adjust trade flows. Experts warn that the Dangote refinery could end the $17-billion-per-year gasoline trade from Europe to Africa, dealing a major blow to European refiners.

African Stream’s Erick Gavala takes a deep dive into this high-stakes showdown. Your reactions in the comments are appreciated.

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ASSATA SHAKUR ON IMPERIALISM

The liberation of Black people will not come out of an individualistic pursuit of capitalist success - as embodied by figures such as Rockefeller or DuPont. That path only perpetuates systemic exploitation and inequality. As exiled political activist Assata Shakur puts it in this clip, the same system that subjugated the people of Vietnam and Black people in America cannot bring about our freedom. Liberation will arise out of socialism.

She highlights the importance of international solidarity, as the systems of oppression are themselves international. A break from capitalism will facilitate a world centred on human dignity, ecological sustainability and collective welfare.

Have a watch and please share your thoughts.

Hear Us Roar: https://news.1rj.ru/str/AfricanStream

BURKINA FASO’S PEOPLE ARE ITS BIGGEST RESOURCE

In 1983, in what was then known as Upper Volta—now Burkina Faso—a revolutionary 33-year-old military captain known as Thomas Sankara (1949-87) rose to power through a popular coup d’état that shaped the trajectory of the country for years to come. Sankara’s radical leadership inspired millions worldwide in just four years as president. Many Africans see him as the gold standard for an African leader. 

In this clip, Milton Allimadi, journalist, author, and co-founder of US-based newspaper Black Star News, explained why Sankara still commands respect decades later.

For example, Thomas Sankara’s literacy campaign increased the literacy rate from 13 per cent in 1983 to 73 per cent in 1987. Plus, his government planted over 10 million trees and built roads and railways.

Continued…….. Furthermore, he recruited women into government and reduced public servant salaries and government expenditure on luxuries. His anti-corruption campaign was so firm that he rode a bicycle to work and, upon his death, Sankara only had $350 in his bank account.

French-backed assassins k*lling Sankara helped revert Burkina Faso to a neo-colonial state under Sankara’s comrade-turned-enemy, President Blaise Compaoré. A 2014 popular uprising forced him to step down, and nearly a decade of instability followed.

However, since 30 September 2022, the state in Africa’s arid Sahel region appears to be back on the tracks Sankara set it upon under the leadership of Ibrahim Traoré, who came to power in a people-backed coup d’état. Severing military cooperation ties with France and opposing Western aid from the IMF and World Bank have placed the country on the path of liberation and self-sufficiency.

Sankara had asserted that ‘he who feeds you controls you,’ a philosophy shared by Congo’s revolutionary leader, Patrice Lumumba (1925-61), who declared that meaningful political independence must be ‘accompanied by rapid economic and social development.’ Unfortunately, the Congo veered off Lumumba’s charted course following his brutal assassination by Belgian-, UK- and US-backed Congolese forces.

Sources:

https://www.thomassankara.net/facts-about-thomas-sankara-in-burkina-faso/?lang=en

https://www.thenation.com/article/world/thomas-sankara-trial/

https://hoodcommunist.org/2023/03/02/the-homeland-or-death-accomplishments-of-the-traore-government-in-burkina-faso/

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2014/10/31/burkina-faso-ghost-of-africas-che-guevara

https://africacenter.org/spotlight/understanding-burkina-faso-latest-coup/

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/23/timeline-burkina-faso-unrest

https://africacenter.org/spotlight/understanding-burkina-faso-latest-coup

https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/lumumba/1960/08/31.htm

VICTOR DREKE: CUBAN REVOLUTIONARY DEDICATED TO AFRICAN FREEDOM

Cuban commander Víctor Dreke may be one of the greatest African freedom fighters you may not have heard of. He began to chart his revolutionary path as a teenager, joining the struggle as a 15-year-old student. The white supremacist and neo-colonial regime of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista (1901-73) pushed him to rebel. At 18, he fought as a soldier, struggling in central Cuba’s Escambray Mountains against Batista’s reactionary forces.

Continued………Dreke was a part of the Cuban revolution from the first day that it triumphed, and he continued to defend it amidst imperialist and counterrevolutionary attacks. This elder was already a commander when the United States tried and failed to put an end to the revolution through the 1961 Bay of Pigs attack.

But, Dreke did not only fight for Cuba. He dedicated a significant portion of his life to the struggle to liberate the African continent. He was second-in-command of Cuban forces after Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara (1928-67) when they went to Congo to assist pro-Lumumba fighters. He was a comrade and combatant alongside anti-colonial revolutionary Amilcar Cabral (1924-73) and the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC). He met many Pan-Africanist leaders, such as Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah (1909-72). 

Today, at the age of 87, he is the president of the Cuba-Africa Friendship Association, which works to strengthen Cuban-African relations and continue the fight for Africa’s emancipation.

African Stream’s Inemesit Richardson interviewed Dreke during a recent visit to Cuba.

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HAIR PARTY FOR BLACK GIRLS IN MARTINIQUE

@hairpartyclub (IG) organised a party on the Caribbean island of Martinique to show African girls how to care for their natural hair while celebrating their beauty and uniqueness. The club welcomes girls aged 7 to 11 and aims to inspire, educate, and instil a sense of pride in their heritage to help boost their confidence. The hair party club creates an environment for the girls to connect with their roots and culture in a meaningful way.

Video credit: @iamatanga (Instagram)

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WANNA SELL YOUR HOUSE? BEST NOT BE BLACK

The fight against racism in the US has been ongoing since the first Africans disembarked from slave trading ships. Centuries later, Africans still fight to be treated with dignity and fairness as humans amidst state-sanctioned police violence, mass incarceration, discrimination in many sectors of life including housing, and a wealth gap.

Take Abena and Alex Horton, a couple seeking to sell their home in Jacksonville, Florida. The New York Times highlighted their case in 2020, reporting that the first appraisal valued their home at $330,000, significantly below their expectations. Suspecting racial bias, Abena, a Black woman, removed all signs of her African heritage from their home, including family photos and culturally significant books. She and their 6-year-old son left her white husband alone in the house to meet the second appraiser, who valued the house at $465,000, a more than 40 per cent increase.

Continued……Far from being an isolated case, Black neighbourhoods are consistently undervalued compared to those in white areas, costing Black homeowners $156 billion in cumulative losses, according to a 2018 report published by US polling company Gallup and think tank the Brookings Institution. The report found that a home in a majority-Black neighbourhood is likely to be valued at 23 per cent less than a nearly identical home in a majority-white neighbourhood.

Video credit: @PBDspodcast (X)

Source:

News:
https://archive.ph/zzeeF