NELSON MANDELA: WEST’S ENEMIES ARE NOT OURS

This clip of Nelson Mandela’s 1990 interview with PBS journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault (@charlaynehg on X, @charlaynehg_ on IG) could not be more timely given the ongoing geopolitical tensions between South Africa and the West, particularly the US. 

At the time, Mandela told Hunter-Gault that the West was being unreasonable in expecting South Africa to align with the former’s interests and disavow Cuba, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and their respective leaders at the time, Yasser Arafat and Fidel Castro. He pointed out that in the fight against apartheid, South African freedom fighters could not enlist the United States’ support. Cuba and the PLO, on the other hand, aided the African National Congress party and its armed resistance wing, Umkhonto weSizwe (MK). Therefore, South Africa would not forsake its allies.

Continued….. Over three decades later, not much has changed when it comes to how the West expects the rest of the world to treat its allies and foes. In February, the US suspended HIV/AIDS funding to South Africa, a move Julius Malema (@julius_s_malema on X, @julius.malema.sello on IG), president of the Pan-African party, Economic Freedom Fighters (@effsouthafrica), recently argued is simply ‘revenge’ for the strong stance it has taken against Israel’s onslaught against Palestinians in Gaza. In December 2023, South Africa filed a case with the International Court of Justice, charging Israel with violating the UN G*nocide Convention. Since then, the US and Israel have manoeuvred via lobbying and threats to place pressure on South Africa to drop the case.

Video credit: @pbs

Sources

https://www.newarab.com/news/explainer-how-s-africa-palestinian-struggles-are-linked

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2024/08/how-cuba-helped-end-apartheid-at-cuito-cuanavale

https://dirco.gov.za/south-africa-delivers-evidence-of-israel-genocide-to-icj/

https://pepfarwatch.org/pepfar-funding-freeze/

TUPAC ON WHY WE’RE RIGHT TO BE ANGRY!

In this clip from a 1994 MTV News interview, hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur (1971-96) explains how frustration with a defunct system can build up - and boil over. At first, people ask politely for change… but when nothing is done to address their distress, over time, politeness turns to rage.

The Civil Rights Act outlawing race-based discrimination was signed in 1964. Over six decades later, policies rooted in centuries of racism and White-supremacism continue to impact Black people in the US.

For example, in the prison-industrial complex, Black people are disproportionately incarcerated: while they make up only 13% of the US population, they account for nearly 40% of all people in jail.

Continued…. In 2024, Black people accounted for almost 23% of those killed by police.

Instead of finding solutions to such urgent matters, the US continues to ignore its obligations to the descendants of those whose enslaved labour it benefitted from for over 400 years. Worse, the current Trump administration took the retrograde step of scrapping policies such as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) that were introduced as attempts at redress.

sources

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/research/racial_and_ethnic_disparities

https://mappingpoliceviolence.org

https://www.sentencingproject.org/reports/the-color-of-justice-racial-and-ethnic-disparity-in-state-prisons-the-sentencing-project/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/06/30/1964-civil-rights-act-turns-60/73892426007/

https://apnews.com/article/trump-dei-executive-order-diversity-inclusion-f67ea86032986084dd71c5aa0c6b8d1d

https://www.opb.org/article/2025/02/18/trump-administration-gives-schools-deadline-end-dei-programs-risk-losing-federal-money/

AFRICA LOSES MORE THAN IT RECEIVES IN AID

Following the announcement that USAID would end operations, the Sputnik news outlet hosted African Stream’s William Sakawa for an African perspective on the issue.

While some see the ending of aid from Washington as a loss for Africa, others point to the fact that more wealth leaves our continent (around $192 billion a year) than enters it (some $134 billion - of which around $30 billion is aid).

Much of this loss can be put down to illicit outflows, and if these were curbed, aid would hardly be necessary. That would be even more true if Africa were fairly compensated for its abundant natural resources, rather than relentlessly exploited by the same multinationals that dodge our taxes.

Credit: https://en.sputniknews.africa/20250307/usaid-in-africa-development-partner-or-trojan-horse-1070959784.html

Sources

https://www.medact.org/app/uploads/2014/09/Honest-Accounts-report-v4-web.pdf

BRAZIL CARNIVAL SHOWS SOLIDARITY WITH CONGO

Brazil’s annual carnival is truly a spectacle to behold. Vibrant costumes, lively samba music and impressive displays dominate the streets before the 40-day Christian observance of charity, fasting and prayers called Lent.

Carnival’s Afro-centric indulgences make clear the impact of Afro-Brazilians, who comprise more than half of Brazil’s population. Their ancestors had been kidnapped in what is now Angola and the Congo, dragged onto ships and forced to labour in the former Portuguese colony starting in the 16th century.

Continued……That’s why it was heartening for many of our people to see Congolese flags flying on a parade truck this year as a show of solidarity. It comes during a time when many still don’t know about the heartbreaking Western-backed violence that creates the conditions necessary for looting the mineral-rich eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Between 1998 and 2010, the conflict k*lled about 6 million people. Amidst a recent escalation to capture the DRC’s east, the Rwanda- and Uganda-backed M23 militia had k*lled more than 8,500 people between January and late February 2025, according to Congolese authorities. Meanwhile, more than 7 million Congolese live in refugee camps after being forced off their lands.

Tech giants like Apple, Dell, Google, Microsoft and Tesla use the DRC’s minerals to power smartphones, laptops and electric cars, among other technologies, which has led many to call out Western powers.

Video credit: @tonton.gloire.98 (TikTok)

Sources

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

https://x.com/trtworld/status/1891713201529585939?t=fzTl_dqH4ZpCPa3HtAkfwA&s=19

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/01/1159541

https://www.riocarnaval.org

https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-430?p=emailAkOMNUDrTod0o&d=/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-430

https://apnews.com/article/brazil-slavery-angola-quilombo-rio-de-janeiro-valongo-48e614e15b317a3ee96a0422c8d7317a

https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/violence-democratic-republic-congo

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/over-8-500-people-killed-since-january-in-fighting-in-eastern-democratic-republic-of-congo/3495683

JULIUS MALEMA: DEFYING U.S. BULLYING, STANDING WITH PALESTINE

In this 6 March clip from his speech to the South African National Assembly, revolutionary Julius Malema asserted that South Africa will not bend to the will of the US despite its bullying tactics, such as aid cuts and threats of sanctions. Instead, South Africans would continue standing in solidarity with the Palestinians.

The US and South Africa have been embroiled in geopolitical tensions since Cape Town announced a new law that seeks to address the uneven distribution of land in a country where white settlers, who comprise less than 8 per cent of the population, hold over 70 per cent of private farmland. European colonialists and the apartheid regime dispossessed Black South Africans of their lands for decades.

Continued……Malema (@julius.malema.sello on IG, @julius_s_malema on X), president of the Pan-African political party, Economic Freedom Fighters (@effsouthafrica), argued that the Trump administration’s outrage over alleged ‘racial discrimination’ against white settlers and the unfounded claim of ‘white g*nocide’ in South Africa has little to do with the land expropriation law. He said these claims obscure that the US has been lobbying and threatening on behalf of its ally, Israel, over South Africa’s case claiming Israel violated the UN G*nocide Convention in Gaza.

The US has bankrolled $22.7 billion for Israel’s onslaught of Palestinians since 7 October 2023. According to the Lancet medical journal, Israel had k*lled as many as 186,000 people by early July 2024.

Video credit: @parliamentofRSA (X)

Sources

https://dirco.gov.za/south-africa-delivers-evidence-of-israel-genocide-to-icj/

https://www.trtworld.com/africa/all-you-need-to-know-about-south-africas-land-expropriation-law-18263403

https://pepfarwatch.org/pepfar-funding-freeze/

https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201802/landauditreport13feb2018.pdf

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

https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/papers/2024/USspendingIsrael