Sources

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/26/global-witness-congo-conflict-minerals

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2024-09-04/debates/E36EC701-65B9-4730-9CB3-AA09FF81BCDA/SecurityInTheDemocraticRepublicOfTheCongo

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/mar/15/sunak-stays-silent-on-rwandas-role-in-drc-war-crimes-to-save-uks-migrant-deal

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-rwanda-development-partnership-summary/9dba78ce-012e-417e-9ff3-2f31b5cf5fac

https://medium.com/%40david.himbara_27884/british-politicians-hopelessly-smitten-with-the-rwandan-dictator-paul-kagame-b0ee18e63a05

https://medium.com/%40david.himbara_27884/kagames-british-propagandist-mitchell-earns-us-55-802-annually-from-rwanda-as-senior-advisor-on-fa97c7ee1e5c

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/andrew-mitchell-rwanda-war-q82lp737t

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/jan/18/rwanda.tonyblair

GAZA’S FATE IN EGYPT’S HANDS?

The plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza is unfolding, with immense pressure on Egypt to accept a US proposal that would relocate about 2 million Palestinians. This plan could effectively end the dream of Palestinian statehood, weaken Palestinian resistance, and bring Israel closer to its settler-colonial goal of establishing ‘Greater Israel,’ stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates. 

However, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has rejected the idea, fearing domestic unrest among the ardently pro-Palestine population. Plus, if Palestinian resistance fighters wind up as refugees in Egypt, Sisi has pointed out Israel could use that as a reason for a pre-emptive military campaign that could occupy Egypt, harkening back to Israel’s past occupations of Sinai.

Egypt’s alliance with the US came after acknowledging Israel’s existence in 1980, already delivering at least $84 billion in US aid despite Egypt’s human rights violations. 

Continued….. The question remains: Will Egypt succumb to US pressure and accept the relocation plan, or will it stand firm, risking the wrath of imperial forces?

African Stream journalist Wambura Mwai (@mwaibrenda on IG) takes a look.

Sources

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/14/trumps-gaza-takeover-plan-puts-egypt-in-a-tough-spot

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4m3wx9w04o

https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2025/feb/13/trump-doubles-down-on-plan-to-empty-gaza-this-is-what-he-has-said-and-whats-at-stake

https://themedialine.org/headlines/egypt-rejects-trumps-gaza-plan-warns-of-regional-fallout

https://www.newarab.com/news/what-could-egypts-alternative-trumps-gaza-plan-include

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-spearheads-arab-scramble-alternative-trumps-gaza-plan-2025-02-14

https://abcnews.go.com/International/trumps-threats-pull-aid-egypt-jordan-accept-palestinians/story?id=118757291

EPISODE 4: BEFORE ROSA PARKS, THERE WAS CLAUDETTE COLVIN

On this day 70 years ago, 2 March 1955, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat to a white woman. Her courageous act of defiance led to her arrest nine months before Rosa Parks’ (1913-2005) infamous civil disobedience, igniting the flame for a legal battle that would ultimately dismantle racist bus segregation in the United States.

In this episode of ‘Decolonised Minds,’ we explore the now 85-year-old’s story.

Despite her pivotal role, the public largely forgot Colvin’s role, perhaps buried under the weight of time and overshadowed by more widely recognised figures of the US Civil Rights Movement. Yet, her bravery as a teenager helped lay the groundwork for the historic Montgomery bus boycott and a Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation on public buses unconstitutional.

Her story is a powerful testament to the importance of every voice—no matter how young or marginalised—in the fight for justice.

RAMAPHOSA SERVES WHITE ELITES - MALEMA

Accusations and counter-accusations of being apartheid-era agents, spies or collaborators have flown around the South African political landscape for decades. One of those who frequently faces these allegations is the country’s current president, Cyril Ramaphosa. Ramaphosa’s opponents claim that he was planted in the country’s liberation movement in the 1980s by the White elite to protect their economic interests in a future Black-led government after the fall of apartheid.

In this February 2024 clip, Economic Freedom Fighters party leader Julius Malema adds his voice to those who allege that Ramaphosa is a sellout. According to Malema, Ramaphosa was a project of the Oppenheimer and Menell families, rich White South Africans that have owned and controlled a vast segment of the country’s economy, especially the mining sector, for decades.

Continued……Malema asks how Ramaphosa, who has never been a mine worker, set up and rose to the top of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), a powerful union and a strong ally of the African National Congress (ANC) in the 1980s. He concludes that Ramaphosa’s rise was a result a backroom deals with the Oppenheimers and other powerful White South African capitalists. He also accuses Ramaphosa of bringing these businessmen into the inner circle of Nelson Mandela, the country’s first post-apartheid leader, hence compromising him as well.

While no solid evidence has been provided to back the accusations against Ramaphosa, his meteoric rise from an activist to a businessman worth more than $450 million, according to Forbes, will always raise questions and speculations.

Credit: Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)

Sources

https://www.forbes.com/profile/cyril-ramaphosa/
https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/south-africa/2019-02-14-cyril-denies-lekotas-claims-of-selling-out-comrades-during-apartheid/

This week’s proverb is a reminder that your actions are what define you the most. Think of Kenya posing as regional peace broker while giving a platform to the genocidal Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group as it unveiled plans to carve up Sudan.

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

ANCIENT EGPYT WAS A BLACK AFRICAN CIVILISATION

In a bid to present our ancestors as primitive people, European anthropologists and historians would discount the contributions of Africans towards civilisation. Ancient Egyptian civilisation is a case in point. Its achievements were often presented as the products of a White culture - for example, by the likes of French Egyptologist Gaston Camille Charles Maspero (1846-1916).

More recently, British writer Graham Hancock even suggested that Egyptian civilisation was (at the time) impossible to achieve without assistance from an advanced race - be it alien or some lost civilisation.

Continued……In this clip from the Cairo Museum, a lecturer in African history, civilisation, religion and culture dispels these myths using hair samples from ancient Egyptians to show that they were undoubtedly Black Africans.

Sources

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/archaeology-v-graham-hancock-joe-rogan-hosted-showdown

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/history-of-egypt-volume-i-gaston-maspero/1120323247

CONGO RAP PRODIGY SHINES AMIDST WAR

Dogo Browny, a remarkable 13-year-old rap prodigy from Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), is making waves in the vibrant music scene of his war-torn city.

Recently, local event organizer and dancer Bush Sebar offered Browny (@dogo_browny243 on IG) the opportunity to showcase his freestyle skills in the studio, perhaps marking a turn in the life of a young artist navigating the chaos brought on by the three-decade-long, Western-backed conflict over minerals. In January, Rwanda- and Uganda-backed M23 rebels seized Goma, k*lling at least 3,000 people and displacing over 700,000, as reported by the UN.

Fans of Browny celebrate his authenticity in a rap landscape increasingly dominated by commercial interests. The teen pours emotion and personal stories of orphaned children into his tracks. His lyrics confront harsh realities like child soldiers, gender-based violence, displacement, massacres, the exploitation of natural resources and political assassinations.

Continued……He is honing his exceptional talent at the Invisible Kids Academy, a non-profit in Goma that helps orphaned children express themselves through art, dance, and music, providing security amidst the violence.

For 30 years, Western powers have funded proxies, armed and trained by Rwanda and Uganda, to control the DRC’s estimated $24 trillion in mineral wealth. The violence had k*lled around 6 million people by 2010 and possibly many more since. The ongoing conflict has displaced over 7 million individuals, leaving more than 25 million facing food insecurity, according to the UN. The recent surge in violence has resulted in the displacement of over 700,000 people just since January.

Video credit: @invisible_kids_academy243 (IG) @bush_sebar_congo (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

AARON BUSHNELL'S 1ST DEATH ANNIVERSARY

WARNING: Graphic images

This week marks the first anniversary of US airman Aaron Bushnell dying after setting himself ablaze outside the Israeli embassy in Washington on 25 February 2024 as a protest against the US Air Force providing targeting intelligence to Israel in its military onslaught against the Palestinians in Gaza.

The 25-year-old recorded himself approaching the embassy, stating his refusal to be ‘complicit in g*nocide.’ He then doused himself in a flammable substance and shouted, ‘Free Palestine!’ as he ignited the flames. Bushnell succumbed to his injuries on the same day. One individual named Xylem, who had collaborated with Bushnell in efforts to assist the homeless in San Antonio, Texas, described him as ‘one of the most principled comrades I've ever known.’

Continued……The US has been the largest provider of military, financial and political support to Israel since World War II. On 1 March, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio invoked emergency powers to circumvent Congress and deliver $4 billion worth of weapons to Israel. Shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Washington in early February, the Trump administration notified Congress of a more than $7 billion arms sale to Israel, bypassing the usual review process. 

The Biden administration had also bypassed Congress in reinforcing Israel’s onslaught. Plus, it vetoed three UN Security Council resolutions that called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Since 2019, the US has allocated $3.8 billion annually in aid to Israel. 

Israel's military onslaught against the Palestinian people in Gaza has k*lled over 46,000, including around 18,000 children, by the time the ceasefire deal was agreed upon in January, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. In July 2024, the Lancet, a British medical journal, mentioned that the death toll could be more than 186,000. A peer-reviewed study published in January 2025 in The Lancet indicated that the death toll had been undercounted by 40 per cent during the first nine months of the conflict.

Sources

https://il.usembassy.gov/military-assistance-to-israel/

https://www.dsca.mil/press-media/major-arms-sales/israel-munitions-and-munitions-support
https://archive.ph/AXxZT

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/02/us/politics/rubio-arms-israel.html

https://www.state.gov/military-assistance-to-israel

https://apnews.com/article/israel-weapons-us-sale-netanyahu-trump-gaza-c53a61873314be2336c3733b97d89ff3

https://www.cfr.org/article/us-aid-israel-four-charts

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/how-many-palestinians-has-israels-gaza-offensive-killed-2025-01-15/

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gaza-war-toll-likely-significantly-undercounts-deaths-says-study-2025-01-09/