Continued……The issue of Western double standards on human rights came to the fore again in 2024 when the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and when South Africa brought its (ongoing) genocide case against Tel Aviv to the International Court of Justice. Western nations simply continued to support Israel, as exemplified by the US supplying it with GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bombs and Poland’s resolution in January to protect Netanyahu from arrest during the 80th commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz.

As African Stream, we have felt the sharp end of this hypocrisy. We have faced consequences for maintaining an independent editorial stance that diverges from the foreign policies of Western nations. Our refusal to adopt their enemies as our own has led to bans from social-media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

Sources:

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240207-in-history-nelson-mandela-walks-out-of-prison-a-free-man

https://opiniojuris.org/2024/08/09/symposium-on-unbroken-bond-tracing-the-ties-between-african-and-palestinian-anti-colonial-struggles-when-nelson-mandela-was-considered-a-terrorist-and-the-natural-alliance-between-south-afric/

https://www.jfeed.com/news-israel/sretab

https://apnews.com/article/poland-israel-netanyahu-warrant-duda-auschwitz-anniversary-3b672818016198f4247917e3587e2913

https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-state-palestine-icc-pre-trial-chamber-i-rejects-state-israels-challenges

Continued……Faye tapped Sonko to head the National Council for Memory and Management of Historical Heritage, a new government agency tasked with renaming streets. The Dakar-based Front for Anti-imperialist, Popular and Pan-African Revolution (FRAPP) is leading the charge for a more Senegalese flavour in the capital’s nomenclature. FRAPP members argue that so many French colonial street names keep painful colonial memories alive.

One particularly bitter memory is the massacre of 'tirailleurs senegalais' (Senegalese troops serving the French colonial army) on 1 December 1944. When they protested for better pay, French colonial soldiers opened fire, k*lling as many as 400, according to scholars. Then, in 2012, then-French President François Hollande admitted France’s role in the massacre. He promised to hand over French archives on the incident on its 70th anniversary, but that never happened.

However, on the 80th anniversary, Faye rewrote Senegal's story with physical markers to ensure the Senegalese never forget their heroes.

Sources:

https://www.france24.com/en/video/20250109-decolonising-senegal-s-streets-roads-in-dakar-are-being-renamed-for-local-heroes

https://archive.ph/tgfsq

https://theconversation.com/the-time-has-come-for-france-to-own-up-to-the-massacre-of-its-own-troops-in-senegal-35131

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/2/6/from-street-names-to-textbooks-senegal-is-rewriting-french-colonial-memory

https://iafrica.com/senegal-rewrites-colonial-legacy-by-renaming-streets-and-revising-textbooks/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=senegal-rewrites-colonial-legacy-by-renaming-streets-and-revising-textbooks

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/le-monde-africa/article/2025/01/17/in-senegal-the-authorities-want-to-do-away-with-french-street-names_6737122_124.html

https://africa.businessinsider.com/local/lifestyle/senegal-set-to-rename-streets-buildings-in-move-to-erase-french-colonial-legacy/hbc5tl4

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/the-past-that-the-west-wants-all-to-forget-the-african-slave-trade/2753330

https://www.france24.com/en/video/20250109-decolonising-senegal-s-streets-roads-in-dakar-are-being-renamed-for-local-heroes

https://www.france24.com/en/video/20250109-decolonising-senegal-s-streets-roads-in-dakar-are-being-renamed-for-local-heroes

Allegations of treason in South Africa - after Donald Trump pulled the plug on aid to the country. The US president cited a new South African law allowing (in certain cases) land expropriations without compensation.

Now ex-South African president Jacob Zumba’s MK party is claiming Trump was influenced by a propaganda campaign waged by the so-called AfriForum, a group that looks out for White Afrikaner interests. The group was actively lobbying against the expropriation law in the US media ahead of the aid cancellation.

MK supporters dressed in military garb (pictured) sang anti-apartheid songs as they went to Cape Town police station to file their treason case against AfriForum. MK leader John Hlophe said, “Treason has been committed, we contend, by them [AfriForum], because they are plotting against our government.”

Continued…. South Africa’s land reform is intended to correct a historical injustice. Most of the good land in the country ended up in the hands of the White Afrikaner minority. Under the new law, in certain circumstances - if deemed ‘just and equitable’ and ‘in the public interest’ - land can be seized back by the state without recompense.

In 2017, a government report revealed White settlers still held 72% of privately-owned farmland, yet they make up only 7.3% of the population, according to a 2022 census.

Sources:

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/south-african-party-accuses-white-group-treason-over-trump-attack-2025-02-10/?taid=67aa0fc6374ab800011a73f5&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-signs-executive-order-aimed-south-africa-white-house-official-says-2025-02-07/

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn01z1yy0jno?at_ptr_name=twitter&at_campaign=Social_Flow&at_link_type=web_link&at_link_id=480F2C6A-E220-11EF-B589-BA7A2E75F565&at_campaign_type=owned&at_bbc_team=editorial&at_medium=social&at_link_origin=BBCAfrica&at_format=image

https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/we-belong-in-africa-orania-rejects-donald-trumps-offer-insists-on-staying-in-south-africa-667b7433-ee86-423e-a603-f9a03c281978

https://x.com/AyeeNdeM/status/1888203063015416243

AFRICANS UNITE AGAINST NEO-N*ZIS IN OHIO

Residents of Lincoln Heights neighbourhood in Ohio’s Cincinnati have rallied together following a 7 February incident involving over a dozen armed neo-N*zis waving sw*stika signs and hate-filled banners and yelling racial slurs. Police made no arrests, saying that while the events were disturbing, they did not constitute a violation.

In a town hall meeting following a 10 February rally, residents questioned if police truly protect them, with Lincoln Heights resident Kachara Talbert noting, ‘It’s just super unfortunate because when it comes to African Americans, you guys arrest first and ask questions later. And, I just feel like you guys didn’t do that in that moment.’

Continued……. The community, also disappointed in police merely escorting away the neo-N*zis, have taken it upon themselves to protect their community by exercising their right to bear arms as stipulated by the US Constitution’s Second Amendment.

Similar incidents have occurred over the years where US police forces create a buffer for protesting white-supremacist groups and escort them away from counter-protesters. The 2017 ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, stands out as an example.

Sources:

https://www.wvxu.org/local-news/2025-02-10/lincoln-heights-residents-neo-nazi-rally

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lIpFChQMXM&t=87s

https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/hamilton-county/lincoln-heights/we-need-a-full-investigation-lincoln-heights-residents-question-police-response-to-neo-nazis-in-cincinnati

https://local12.com/news/local/cincinnati-community-unites-peace-march-rally-protest-neo-nazi-hate-love-message

https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/finding-solutions/armed-lincoln-heights-residents-watch-for-neo-nazis-as-lawmakers-search-for-solutions-to-hate-groups-displays

https://local12.com/news/local/residents-demand-answers-better-response-police-neo-nazi-rally-lincoln-heights-unauthorized-demonstration-town-hall-meeting-nazism-hate-protest-hamilton-county-sheriff-department-evendale-lockland-swastika-flag-transparency-cincinnati-ohio

https://www.propublica.org/article/police-stood-by-as-mayhem-mounted-in-charlottesville

NEW YORK INMATE DEATH RULED HOMICIDE

The numbers don’t lie! US police forces are on a killing spree. In 2024, US law enforcement killed 1,366 people, setting a new record, according to data analysed by Mapping Police Violence. But the true horror isn’t just in the rising body count. It’s in who suffers the most. Black people are 2.8 times more likely to be killed by law enforcement than white people.

These statistics and body-camera footage from December 2024 of officers beating 43-year-old Robert Brooks to death while handcuffed raises alarms. 

The medical examiner’s office ruled his death a h*micide, with the autopsy report revealing Brooks died from ‘asphyxia due to compression of the neck, as well as the death being due to actions of another.’

Continued……. Body camera footage shows Brooks restrained on a medical examination table at the Marcy Correctional Facility while officers repeatedly punched him in the face, stomach and groin. Other clips show a prison officer placing something in Brooks’ mouth before striking him and another officer hitting Brooks in the abdomen with a shoe. Unfortunately, the medical examiner pronounced Brooks dead the following day.

New York State Governor Kathy Hochul has called for criminal charges against the officers but history tells us the system is designed to shield its enforcers. More than a dozen correctional officers and two nurses have been suspended without pay, and one officer has resigned. Brooks’ son, Robert L Brooks Jr, has filed a lawsuit against the individuals involved in the attack, the then-head of the prison facility, and the commissioner of the state’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

At the time of his death, Brooks was serving a 12-year sentence and had been transferred to Marcy from the nearby Mohawk Correctional Facility on the day of the incident. The details surrounding Brooks’s transfer remain unclear.

Sources:

https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g9vy9jz9po

https://apnews.com/article/new-york-prison-death-robert-brooks-lawsuit-be7ca2d6cc2d6f916514010e8d0a577c

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/06/us/robert-brooks-ny-homicide/index.html

https://apnews.com/article/new-york-prison-death-brooks-autopsy-bd9a38fd8940f2b3e210767dec5e11f4

https://ag.ny.gov/osi/footage/robert-brooks

THERE IS NO GENOCIDE AGAINST WHITE SOUTH AFRICANS

If you’ve seen Elon Musk’s recent X posts, you might be forgiven for thinking that pan-African politician Julius Malema is calling for gen*cide against White South Africans.

Musk’s accusations revolve around Malema’s chanting anti-apartheid song ‘K*ll the Boer.’ Oppressed Black South Africans used to sing it in protest against the racist regime, which was dominated by settlers of Dutch origin, also known as Boers.

The song targeted the apartheid system and not individual White people - a point nicely made in this video sketch by content creator Rathbone. He says claiming that the song is calling for the k*lling of White people is as absurd as suggesting that anyone who fought against the Nazis was against all Germans.

Continued……. Rathbone’s argument that the song is neither hate speech nor incitement to gen*cide is supported by a 2022 South African High Court judgement, which ruled that it was simply a struggle song.

In the video, Rathbone also touches on how the apartheid system gave @elonmusk the jumpstart he needed to end up as the world’s richest man. Hence, the tech baron has an axe to grind with those who continue to fight against the vestiges of the racist system.

Credit: Rathbone clips/Instagram

Sources:

https://groundup.org.za/article/judge-rules-kill-boer—kill-farmer-not-hate-speech/

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1888589439334584813

DRC PROXY WAR IS ECONOMIC, NOT ETHNIC

Some have tried to justify the Western-backed, three-decade-long proxy mineral war in the Congo, claiming it is an ethnic war. They say the Rwanda- and Uganda-backed M23 rebels, whose capture of Goma city has k*lled nearly 3,000 Congolese and displaced hundreds of thousands in the most recent vicious cycle of violence, are fighting for marginalised Congolese Tutsis.

Despite mounting evidence that the scramble for Congo’s vast resources has caused tensions between the players, people continue to believe it’s an inter-ethnic battle, which only muddies the waters and makes the war seem more complex than it is.

Continued……With such narratives flying about, in Episode 18 of our ‘Pan-African Attitude’ podcast, Editor-in-Chief Ahmed Kaballo (@ahmedkaballo on X), journalist Sanna Arman (@sannario_ on X), and journalist Erick Gavala hosted an insightful conversation with Maurice Carney, co-founder and executive director of Friends of the Congo (@congofriends), a US-based advocacy organisation. In this clip, he explained why the war in the Congo is one of strategic and economic interests rather than an internal ethnic crisis.

You can watch the complete 6 February episode on our X, Rumble and Patreon platforms.

Sources:

https://friendsofthecongo.org/mission-vision

https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/democratic-republic-congo/faced-gun-what-can-you-do

https://cd.usembassy.gov/statement-of-concern-related-to-certain-minerals-supply-chains-from-rwanda-and-eastern-democratic-republic-of-the-congo-contributing-to-the-ongoing-co

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/5/2/blood-minerals-what-are-the-hidden-costs-of-the-eu-rwanda-supply-deal

http://cdn-globalwitness-production-2.s3-website-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/archive/files/import/drc_release_uk_final.pdf

https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/DRC%20S%202002%201146.pdf

This week’s word’s of wisdom are widely accredited to Burkina Faso’s revolutionary former president Thomas Sankara (1949-87). They were used on a placard by @naa_akorfaaaaaa (X) during an October protest in Ghana against illegal mining and its devastating environmental consequences.

Throughout Africa, only a handful of businessmen, politicians and their Western counterparts benefit from the continent’s immense wealth of resources, while impoverished local communities suffer the effects of pollution from non-ethical mining.

Sankara reminds us that we could choose comfort for all over luxury for a few.

Source:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn9dn8xq92jo