Continued……The prison holds no more than 44 people out of the 8,800 detained nationwide. According to World Prison Brief, Burkina Faso’s prison rate is 39 people out of every 100,000. Meanwhile, the UN reports the average global imprisonment rate is 144 detainees out of 100,000.

The government of assassinated President Thomas Sankara (1949-87) first developed the concept in 1986. Now, President Ibrahim Traoré, whom many see as a ‘Sankarist,’ is revitalising it.

Credit: @rtburkina / @faso7_BF / @sigbf

Sources

https://trtafrika.com/africa/how-an-open-air-prison-in-burkina-faso-is-giving-inmates-a-second-chance-16592199

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_0Za6C9lhU

https://globaledge.msu.edu/countries/burkina-faso/economy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQJxnm74AGk

https://wellcomecollection.org/stories/thomas-sankara-and-the-stomachs-that-made-themselves-heard

https://www.prisonstudies.org/country/burkina-faso

https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/briefs/Prison_brief_2024.pdf

https://www.kampalaedgetimes.com/burkina-fasos-prison-reform-for-inmates

https://www.minute.bf/burkina-1-mois-de-travail-dinteret-general-est-compensatoire-a-3-mois-de-prison-ministre-de-la-justice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCMCANSIZz4

Neo-colonialism is a carefully designed control mechanism for maintaining a colonial power’s interests under the illusion of independence. Therefore, any nation lacking genuine economic, political and cultural autonomy remains enslaved and far from sovereign.

With capitalism as its guiding principle, neo-colonialism only perpetuates inequality, posing a serious threat to world peace, as pointed out by Kwame Nkrumah (1909-72), a Pan-Africanist revolutionary and the first prime minister and president of Ghana, featured in this week’s ‘Wednesday Wisdom.’

Sources:

https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/nkrumah/neo-colonialism/introduction.htm#:~:text=A%20State%20in%20the%20grip,sanction%20of%20a%20major%20war.

It’s official! The Alliance of Sahel States (AES) has placed its official logo on a flag unveiled on 22 February in Bamako, Mali, one of three AES member-states. The other two are Burkina Faso and Niger.

The flag features the AES logo over a green background, meant to symbolise the growth, hope, rebirth, and renewal that can come with the alliance’s immense natural resources and a prosperous future together.

The AES logo, released to the public on 30 December 2024, features a radiant sun shining on a majestic Baobab tree, representing the life and the diversity rooted in the Sahel’s culture, under which one finds the silhouettes of various people, representing the demographics of these states. This part of Africa’s arid Sahel region is home to more than 60 ethnic groups and about 76 million people.

Continued……The logo also features a map of the AES territory, but without the internal borders that have defined the three member-states for close to 65 years following flag independence from France. The three golden stars represent each state, all of which ousted Western-aligned leaders over the past few years, establishing a confederation on 6 July 2024.

The AES aims to form a single Pan-African federation with one citizenship and a federal government. Already, it has launched a passport for AES citizens.

Sources

https://burkina24.com/2025/02/22/aes-lancement-du-drapeau-de-la-confederation-des-etats-du-sahel/

https://www.minute.bf/aes-le-logo-et-sa-signification

https://iwgia.org/en/burkina-faso.html

https://pksoi.armywarcollege.edu/index.php/country-profile-of-mali-social

https://www.britannica.com/place/Niger

https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/niger-population

https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/mali-population

https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/burkina-faso-population

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/07/08/the-sahel-stands-up-and-the-world-must-pay-attention

https://africanstream.media/revolutionary-aes-passport-hammer-blow-to-colonial-borders

A WARNING TO KENYA: BEWARE UAE AND RSF!

Kenya’s increasing involvement with both the United Arab Emirates and the paramilitary group Abu Dhabi backs in Sudan - the Rapid Support Forces - bodes ill for the country. That is the warning from Ahmed Maglad, a Sudanese doctor. He points to Chad and the Central African Republic, as well as his own country, all of which have been victims of the RSF. He predicts Kenya’s president William Ruto will end up a UAE puppet, like - he claims - Chad’s leader.

Kenya has allegedly been used as a conduit between the UAE and the RSF. A Reuters report claimed that planes shipping weapons to the genocidal militia have often used Mombasa as a transit point. Kenya is also a key player in the gold-smuggling business according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, with high-ranking officials implicated - and the UAE being the biggest customer.

Continued……Nairobi has also shielded the RSF politically - for example, with the red-carpet welcome accorded to RSF chief Hemedti in January 2024 and the recent platforming of the paramilitary, as it outlined plans to carve up Sudan with a rival government in RSF-controlled areas. Ruto even reportedly shared a flight with Hemedti’s brother Abdulrahim Dagalo in November 2024.

Since their emergence in the early 2000s, the RSF - formerly known as the Janjaweed - has been synonymous with heinous human-rights abuses and war crimes, including genocide. Its war against the Sudanese military has created what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis - with 13-million displaced and half the country facing acute food insecurity. In May 2024, the US envoy to Sudan estimated that up to 150,000 people had already been killed.

video credit: https://x.com/McLad84/status/1893100154204373139

Sources

https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/blog/early-warning-risks-for-violence-against-civilians-in-chad

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/sudan-paramilitary-funelling-weapons-military-vehicles-central-african-republic

https://www.reuters.com/world/uae-flights-flood-airstrip-un-says-supplies-weapons-sudan-rebels-2024-12-12/

https://globalinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Marcena-Hunter-and-Ken-Opala-Tarnished-hope-Crime-and-corruption-in-S-Sudans-gold-sector-GI-TOC-May-2023-.pdf

https://globalinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/All-that-glitters-Revelations-from-a-Kenyan-gold-smuggler-GI-TOC-September-2023.pdf

https://www.facebook.com/Sudania24TV/posts/pfbid0ZKqXAGe4Bzus1PBizPdDvq9h2jRbrjiMa3XLn5ip2p5aEt9XrwXSZ7PRckBNfToGl

https://www.rfi.fr/en/africa/20241127-war-in-sudan-leaves-13-million-people-displaced-and-more-than-half-the-population-malnourished

https://www.ipcinfo.org/ipc-country-analysis/details-map/en/c/1157066/?iso3=SDN

Today, we remember Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old Black boy fatally shot by neighbourhood watch captain George Zimmerman in a gated community in a suburb of Orlando, Florida, USA.

Zimmerman claimed to act in self-defence on 26 February 2012 when he shot Miami-born Martin, whom he termed a 'real suspicious guy.' Martin was a teenager guilty of no crime. Yet, the US media questioned him post-mortem for wearing a hoodie sweatshirt, holding a bag of Skittles candy and a can of iced tea as he took an evening stroll.

Police said they could not arrest Zimmerman due to Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' law, which allows people to defend themselves using lethal force. However, Florida's governor appointed a special prosecutor to investigate.

Continued……Martin's death sparked widespread protests across the US, leading to the launch of the global Black Lives Matter movement. Despite the outcry, a court acquitted Zimmerman. Meanwhile, the US Department of Justice's investigation concluded Zimmerman's action did not constitute a hate crime.

The case raised alarms among white supremacist groups and individuals who provided material support to Zimmerman. One 'Muslim-free' Florida gun shop sold Zimmerman's painting of a Confederate flag, which supporters of the pre-abolition US South used during the US Civil War (1861-65). It has since symbolised a longing for the days of US chattel slavery.

Zimmerman is reportedly of partial Afro-Peruvian descent, which some people later used to dismiss that he was prejudiced against Black people.

To this day, institutionalised white supremacy reigns, allowing innocent Black people in the US to be slain with impunity.

NEXT KENDRICK LAMAR OUT OF CONGO?

The world might be on the brink of discovering the next Kendrick Lamar.

Dogo Browny, a groundbreaking 13-year-old rap talent from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has captivated audiences with his powerful lyrics and dreams of becoming the next A-list rapper.

Browny has struck a chord with a growing fan base, which says he embodies authenticity in an increasingly commercialised rap scene, channelling genuine emotion and lived experiences into his music.

In this recent rap, he channels the daily struggles of children in war-torn DRC, saying they are grateful for life, even if danger, hunger and death surround them.

Continued……A recent UNICEF report revealed that the Rwanda- and Uganda-backed M23 militia’s latest campaign to seize territory in the eastern DRC since January has spiked reports of s*xual violence against children. Many have fled from fighting multiple times, dwelling in unsafe camps without adequate nutrition and medical supplies. They are unable to continue with schooling, potentially handicapping them for a lifetime.

Browny is nurturing his extraordinary gift at the Invisible Kids Academy, a non-profit institution located in Goma city, in the DRC’s war-torn North Kivu province. The academy provides orphaned children with opportunities to express themselves through art, dance and music, offering them a glimmer of hope. His rap tackles harrowing themes, such as child soldiers, gender-based violence, displacement, massacres, the exploitation of natural resources and political assassinations.

For three decades, foreign interests have battled via proxies armed and trained by Rwanda and Uganda for control over DRC’s estimated $24 trillion in mineral resources, k*lling around 6-million people by 2010 and potentially many more since. The conflict has internally displaced over 7 million, leaving more than 25 million ‘food insecure,’ per the UN. Recent fighting has displaced over 700,000 people since January alone.

Video credit: @invisible_kids_academy243 (IG)

Sources

https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/drc-faces-persistent-food-insecurity-crisis-affecting-over-25-million-people

https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/children-eastern-democratic-republic-congo-increasingly-exposed-sexual-violence

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgy0d3pgv0o

https://www.icrc.org/en/document/sexual-violence-survivors-democratic-republic-congo

https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/children-young-nine-face-mass-sexual-violence-and-mutilation-drc-save-children

caritas.org/2010/02/six-million-dead-in-congos-war

SUDAN ARMY ENDS SIEGE OF EL-OBEID

The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have broken a two-year siege of the city of El-Obeid in North Kordofan by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). It comes just days after the paramilitary - sponsored by the United Arab Emirates - unveiled plans to launch a rival government in those parts of Sudan under its control.

El-Obeid serves as a strategic hub connecting the capital Khartoum to Darfur, and has been a contested location since the proxy war began. Analysts say that the RSF planned to use El-Obeid as a launch point for operations in western Darfur. The breaking of the siege was celebrated by locals, with trucks reportedly entering the city to deliver much-needed humanitarian aid.

Continued……. The SAF and the RSF have been engaged in a proxy war since April 2023, with the army predominantly holding the northern and eastern regions while the paramilitary controls most of the western Darfur region and parts of the south. On-the-ground reports indicate that the SAF has made significant advances against the RSF in the west. With El-Obeid back under military control, there are suggestions that plans may be underway to break the RSF’s siege on El-Fasher by moving through Babanusa and El-Obeid. Recent fighting near El-Fasher has forced the medical charity Doctors Without Borders to suspend operations at the nearby ZamZam camp, which is experiencing famine and is reportedly home to about 500,000 displaced individuals. However, Western powers have done little to curb their backers in the Gulf.

While the US has sanctioned the leaders of both the RSF and the SAF, it continues to turn a blind eye to the UAE, a close Western ally, bankrolling a militia responsible for genocide. How has Abu Dhabi escaped sanctions? Well, its gold-smuggling and financial ties are woven into the same Western system that profits from conflict while claiming to uphold human rights.

The ongoing conflict in Sudan has displaced over 11-million people (internally and abroad) and around half the population is food insecure, according to the UN. The death toll is widely feared to have exceeded 150,000.

sources:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce8ve60r53yo?at_medium=social&at_campaign=Social_Flow&at_format=image&at_campaign_type=owned&at_link_origin=BBCAfrica&at_link_type=web_link&at_bbc_team=editorial&at_ptr_name=twitter&at_link_id=E618B56C-F2A5-11EF-87A5-FDEF98B95BB0

https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/sudan-s-rsf-allies-sign-charter-to-form-parallel-government-4939040

HOW U.S. BLOCKED GADDAFI’S $1 BN FOR BLACK PEOPLE

In 1996, the US State Department rejected an application from Louis Farrakhan, the head of the Nation of Islam, to accept a $1-billion donation from sanctioned revolutionary Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The Clinton administration claimed that Gaddafi was a dangerous figure - alleging that he supported terrorism. Libya, a once-thriving African nation, posed such a threat to the West that US and Western media launched a smear campaign against Gaddafi. This campaign culminated in the NATO-led bombardment of 2011, which resulted in the overthrow and death of Gaddafi, and turned Libya into a war zone. African Stream’s Wambura Mwai breaks it down.

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

On 21 February, Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi sent an emissary to Bamako, Mali, to deliver a message to President Assimi Goïta.

Goïta (@GoitaAssimi on X) and Malian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdoulaye Diop (@AbdoulayeDiop8 on X) received Congo’s Minister of Justice Constant Mutamba Tungunga (@ConstantMutamba on X) and the Congolese ambassador to Mali, Christophe Muzunga (@RDC_Minafet on X).

While the public does not yet know the details of what they discussed, many speculate that the meeting concerned the Rwanda- and Uganda-backed M23 rapidly taking over parts of eastern DRC in January and February 2025. So far, M23’s campaign has forced more than 700,000 Congolese off their lands.

Congo, one of the most resource-rich countries worldwide, has long been plundered by imperialist industrialised powers for its riches.

Continued……. Mali, on the other hand, is currently part of the AES, a confederation established on 6 July 2024 between Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. The AES is at the forefront of defending Africa’s sovereignty and fighting to exercise greater control over its resources.

Some describe the ongoing three-decade-long, Western-backed war over resources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as a crisis of imperialism, with the potential to impact all of Africa. After all, Ghanaian leader Kwame Nkrumah (1909-72) once declared, ‘The Congo is the heart of Africa. Any wound inflicted upon the Congo is a wound to the whole of Africa.’ 

Yet, today, Congo is under attack, and some of the world’s greatest imperialist powers fund the two states behind M23: Rwanda and Uganda. Only recently has the US sanctioned a few Rwandan and M23 officials, the European Parliament recommended suspending a Rwanda minerals agreement and freezing aid, and the UK sought to end aid to Rwanda. 

Could the DRC-Mali meeting be the Pan-African link-up necessary to chart a sovereign path for Congo?

Sources:

https://burkina24.com/2025/02/22/mali-rdc-assimi-goita-recoit-un-emissaire-du-president-tshisekedi/

https://yop.l-frii.com/tensions-avec-le-m23-assimi-goita-recoit-un-emissaire-du-president-tshisekedi-mystere-sur-le-contenu-de-leur-discussion

https://www.state.gov/sanctioning-drivers-of-violence-in-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/european-parliament-seeks-freeze-eu-aid-rwanda-over-congo-conflict-2025-02-13

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/25/uk-suspends-aid-to-rwanda-over-alleged-support-for-drc-rebels

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/02/1160486

Continued……https://archive.ph/Y9LSo

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/02/24/eu-to-review-raw-materials-deal-with-rwanda-over-drc-conflict-top-diplomat

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://tradingeconomics.com/rwanda/net-official-development-assistance-and-official-aid-received-us-dollar-wb-data.html

https://borgenproject.org/foreign-aid-to-rwanda/

https://www.dw.com/en/drc-conflict-pressure-mounts-on-rwanda-as-m23-seize-bukavu/a-71638481

https://archive.ph/4LLBT

https://archive.ph/FwxZl

BLACK RHYTHM NOT PRODUCT OF SLAVERY DNA -MILES DAVIS

February is designated in the United States as Black History Month, a time to honour our brothers’ and sisters’ achievements and rich heritage. One part of the celebrations involves music, where Black people have dazzled with our talent and racked up awards over the decades, helping weave the fabric of globalised US music, even if our musicians weren’t appropriately credited or rewarded.

However, some within the US empire seem to think that our people’s musical prowess is merely a byproduct of our painful history with slavery, suggesting that music was an outlet for channelling suffering.

Continued….. This notion was put to the test in this clip from a 1989 interview. CBS reporter Harry Reasoner (1923-91) posed a rather misguided question to the legendary jazz trumpeter, bandleader and composer Miles Davis (1926-91). However, the famously cool and collected musician had none of it. Davis pointed out that he hailed from a well-off background and that Reasoner’s question was just another tired stereotype suggesting that Black musicians have rhythm in their DNA, a supposed gift from our enslaved ancestors. As Davis calmly explained to Reasoner, Africans play the blues not out of sorrow, but out of sheer love for the art.

So, let’s crank up the volume and celebrate Black musical achievements without letting played-out tropes crash the party!

Video credit: 60 Minutes / @CBS

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_gZqZfq9xA

https://www.milesdavis.com/

https://music.si.edu/story/musical-crossroads

https://plus.pointblankmusicschool.com/black-history-month-us-10-black-artists-that-redefined-music/

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/foster-musical-movements/