NAIVASHA: KENYA’S COLONIAL SIN CITY

The World Rally Championship’s Safari Rally Kenya 2025 is in full swing. The annual event, which wraps up Sunday, takes place in Naivasha, attracting thousands of fans.

But pleasure seekers used to come here long before the racing competition drew in the crowds. In the heyday of the British Empire, Naivasha was known as an African Las Vegas. Cocaine-fuelled orgies, wife-swapping parties, crimes of passion and hedonism were standard fare for a group of mostly British aristocrats and adventurers who settled near the Aberdare Mountain Range between the 1920s and 1940s. Their decadent lifestyle earned them the nickname ‘the Happy Valley set’ and is the subject of films and books depicting their antics, such as White Mischief.

African Stream’s Wambura Mwai paid a visit to find out more.

DRC RAP PRODIGY CHANNELS PATRIOTISM

Dogo Browny, a young rap sensation from the Democratic Republic of Congo, ignites a flame of patriotism with his latest track, encouraging them to rise above the shadows of past and present hardships and recognise the beauty of their homeland.

At just 13 years old, Browny is earning accolades for the sincerity of his message, drawing from his own experiences as a child in one of the most tumultuous regions of the globe. His music bravely addresses grim realities such as child soldiers, gender-based violence, displacement, massacres, the plundering of natural resources and political killings. To repeat, he’s 13 years old.

Continued….. The DRC, home to the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest after the Amazon, boasts an estimated $24 trillion in mineral wealth and a youthful population with a median age of just 15.8 years. This vast central African nation, nearly two-thirds the size of Western Europe, possesses all the elements necessary for a thriving, stable and influential presence on the world stage.

However, three decades of a foreign-backed resource conflict have led to a tragic mass-loss of Congolese lives - 6 million by 2010, with countless more killed since. Over 7-million people are displaced, and more than 25 million face food insecurity, as reported by the UN. As the global race for cobalt, coltan, tantalum and other rare minerals intensifies, the DRC has become a focal point for ‘conflict minerals’ that fuel foreign technology industries.

Yet Browny holds firm in his belief that the Congolese people’s deep love for their homeland will empower them to overcome these dire challenges. The question remains: will the adults of the nation - especially its leaders - listen to the heartfelt wisdom of this young voice?

Video credit:
@invisible_kids_academy243, @dogo_browny

Sources

https://database.earth/population/democratic-republic-of-the-congo/median-age

LET’S TALK ABOUT TENNESSEE WHISKEY

We present you the story of Nearest Green, the first known Black master distiller in history - and the man who taught Jack Daniel the art of distilling whiskey. For a long time, Dan Call, a Lynchburg Tennessee reverend, was credited with teaching young Jack the art of whiskey distillation. As a result, Nearest’s craftsmanship - although not altogether erased - was underemphasised.

In 2016, on the 150th anniversary of the Jack Daniel’s brand, Brown-Forman - the company which owns the Jack Daniel’s distillery - made the decision to publicly reveal that it was in fact Nearest, not Rev Call, who had taught Daniel. In 2017, he was acknowledged by the company as the first master distiller behind the JD brand, with Daniel as the second.

Continued……. Their decision, though welcomed, was also received with scepticism by critics who questioned the intention - with some suspecting it was just a marketing ploy to cash in on the growing awareness of the critical role of enslaved African labour in distilleries and other US businesses.

Nonetheless, Nearest’s story caught the attention of entrepreneur and author Fawn Weaver (@FawnWeaver on X, @Fawn.Weaver on Instagram), who committed to honouring Nearest’s legacy. She bought the farm out in Tennessee where Daniel learned under his apprenticeship and created the Black-owned whiskey brand Uncle Nearest, which finally saw Nearest’s name make it onto the label in 2017.

Sources

https://www.nearestgreen.com/about-nearest-green/

https://theconversation.com/the-story-of-nearest-green-americas-first-known-black-master-distiller-164311

https://www.theimpactmagazine.com/lifestyle/legacy-unveiled-nearest-greens-triumph-from-slavery-to-excellence-a-tale-resonating-with-black-resilience/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr0oseCa5Xs

https://www.history.com/articles/jack-daniels-enslaved-distiller-nathan-nearest-green

https://www.whiskeyuniv.com/g-nathan-nearest-green#google_vignette

https://www.searchablemuseum.com/the-man-behind-tennessee-whiskey-distilling-the-truth/

https://time.com/6993030/master-distiller-nathan-nearest-greens-history-essay/

GRABBING GHANA’S GOLD WEALTH

Did you know that 98.3% of Ghana’s gold is in the hands of multinational corporations, mainly from the US and Canada? Despite being one of the largest exporters of gold in the world, Ghana only sees 1.7% of this return in wealth.

African Stream’s Kenneth Kaigua explains the country’s resource curse, identifying the root problem of foreign capital controlling large-scale operations in the West African country.

Should the country that once led the march towards pan-African unity and economic independence change course or continue being the Western world’s Gold Coast?

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

The Malawi government has imposed a two-year ban on the importation of several products that can be accessed or manufactured within the country.

Minister of Trade and Industry Vitumbiko Mumba’s 13 March order outlawed importing fruits and vegetables, Irish potatoes, maize flour, toothpicks, fresh cow’s milk, peanut butter, eggs, processed meats, rice, bottled water, wooden furniture, and shoes, among other items for its 21-million people.

Mumba warned of stiff penalties for those who violate the ban.

Continued….. The move aims to stimulate the country’s manufacturing sector and address Malawi’s severe foreign-currency shortage over the last four years created by too few exports and too many imports, leaving it struggling to raise the $50 million required to cover the monthly import bill for commodities, such as fertiliser, food, fuel and medicine. Since October 2024, a fuel shortage has caused long queues at gas stations.

In June 2023, Ralph Tseka, the country’s central bank spokesperson, warned that its reserves were nearly empty and could not cover a month’s worth of imports. From a recent peak of $319,000 in September 2024, imports dropped to $276,000 in January 2025. Meanwhile, a recent peak of $188,000 in exports in August 2024 plummeted to $67,000 in January.

Manufacturers have welcomed the import ban, seeing it as an opportunity to fill the gap in available products that the ban created.

However, others, like Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry Chief Executive Officer Daisy Kambalame, have warned that the ban could further hinder efforts to enhance continental and regional trade, as a bulk of imported goods come from countries, such as South Africa and Zambia.

Malawi is a signatory to various continental and regional free trade agreements, such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), ratified in January 2021, allowing it access to a continental market that generates a Gross Domestic Product of $3.4 trillion.

Sources

https://apanews.net/malawi-bans-import-of-locally-available-goods/#:~:text=The%20Control%20of%20Goods%20(Import,also%20on%20the%20restricted%20list.

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/10/18/very-thin-budget-forex-shortage-triggers-cost-of-living-crisis-in-malawi
https://english.news.cn/20241024/f5e2dfcb69b74f5baf50960be6d0cbc2/c.html

https://www.maraviexpress.com/government-bans-importation-of-food-items-and-other-goods-that-are-locally-produced-in-malawi/
https://www.centralbanking.com/central-banks/reserves/7958981/malawi-central-bank-official-says-reserves-nearly-empty#:~:text=A%20spokesperson%20for%20Malawi's%20central,north%20struggles%20with%20drought%20conditions.

https://www.mitc.mw/index.php/media-centre/latest-news/190-free-trade-area.html

https://tradingeconomics.com/malawi/imports#:~:text=Dec%202023-,Malawi%20Imports,Zambia%2C%20United%20States%20and%20China.

https://www.mwapata.mw/_files/ugd/dd6c2f_5e970fb3e82f4652b806737ea07802f4.pdf?index=true

https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/malawi-trade-agreements

https://mwnation.com/govt-imports-ban-draws-mixed-views

Revolutionary Guyanese writer and activist Walter Rodney would have been 83 years old today. We remember the guerrilla intellectual, who left a lasting legacy on academia and the struggle for social justice.

Rodney's intellectual journey began at university in Jamaica, where he rejected the path of a technocrat and instead focused his curiosity on Africa during its period of independence.

He earned his PhD from London’s School of Oriental and African Studies aged 24. His research challenged established narratives on Europe’s role in the slave trade and exposed the detrimental effects of European colonialism on Africa's development.

Continued……Rodney's determination to make a difference took him to Tanzania‘s Dar Es Salaam University, where, in the late ‘60s, he taught and left his mark on a generation of historians living under the leadership of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.

Returning to Jamaica, he embraced the struggles of the marginalised and connected with students and the working poor through his teachings and community engagement. His ability to bridge the gap between intellectuals and the masses was met with government surveillance and eventual expulsion from Jamaica. This sparked widespread riots and cemented his radical legacy.

Throughout his life, Rodney remained dedicated to the cause of social justice, forging alliances with intellectuals, including Rastafarian leaders and Black-power activists. Notably, his impact extended to figures such as Ralph Gonsalves, who now serves as the prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

After his expulsion from Jamaica, Rodney returned to Tanzania, where he played a key role in the Dar Es Salaam school of intellectual inquiry. There, he completed his magnum opus, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, which continues to provoke passionate debates among historians and pan-Africanists today.

Tragically, his life was cut short when he was killed by a car bomb in 1980. 30,000 showed up to send him off at his funeral, illustrating how dearly he was held by the people.

WORLD IS MUCH LARGER THAN U.S.

South Africa is going through a bit of a rough patch in relations with the US. The country seems to have become Donald Trump’s favourite African punching bag. The outspoken leader has cut off foreign aid over what he alleges is the “unjust racial discrimination” of Afrikaners - White descendants of Dutch colonisers who ran the apartheid regime that denied basic rights to the Black majority until 1994.

His concerns relate to the new Land Expropriation Law, which seeks to address historical injustices regarding the distribution of land among South Africa’s White and Black communities - with the latter reportedly possessing only some 4% of privately-owned land, despite making up some 80% of the population. (White South Africans also control a disproportionate amount of the nation’s wealth: for every rand held by a typical White household, a typical Black household possesses just 5 cents, according to a 2024 article in the journal Review of Political Economy.)

Continued……. Pretoria’s relations with the US were already strained under President Joe Biden. Bipartisan legislation introduced in February 2024 aimed to penalise South Africa for pursuing a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. The previous year, South Africa faced a backlash from Washington for conducting naval exercises with Russia and China, as well as for allegedly supplying arms to Russia.

In this clip, former deputy South African president Dr. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka points out that her country has the right to establish relationships with any nation it pleases, as any sovereign state is ennoscriptd to establish beneficial peer-to-peer relations.

South Africa is a founding member of the BRICS economic bloc, which is expanding and gaining influence globally at the expense of the US. Could that - along with Pretoria’s commitment to upholding Nelson Mandela’s legacy of supporting Palestine - be contributing to its troubles with imperialist forces?

Video credit: SABC News

Sources

https://time.com/6087699/south-africa-wealth-gap-unchanged-since-apartheid/

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09538259.2024.2318962#d1e167

https://www.sahrc.org.za/index.php/sahrc-media/news/item/1446-10-percent-of-south-africans-own-90-percent-of-the-country-s-wealth-report

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/12/world/africa/south-africa-russia-us-lawmakers.html

https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099125003072240961/pdf/P1649270b73f1f0b5093fb0e644d33bc6f1.pdf

https://www.theafricareport.com/337233/us-lawmakers-warn-south-africa-over-hamas-ties/

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/new-legislation-us-congress-seeks-punish-south-africa

https://unric.org/en/south-africa-vs-israel-14-other-countries-intend-to-join-the-icj-case/

https://lse.shorthandstories.com/racial-wealth-divides-in-the-UK-and-South-Africa/

WALTER RODNEY’S AFRICAN LIBERATION DAY SPEECH

Today, we celebrate what would have been Walter Rodney’s 83rd birthday. Rodney was killed at the age of 38 in a bomb explosion in the Guyanese capital, Georgetown.

At the time of his death, many speculated that the state had ordered his killing, but the government denied this for decades.  The scholar’s brother Donald later revealed that, on the fateful day, he had collected a bag that contained a walkie-talkie radio from a man called Mr. Smith, who was afterwards identified as a state agent.  A few moments later, the radio exploded and killed Walter Rodney, who had been in the car with Donald.  The state claimed that Rodney had been killed by a bomb that he intended to use to attack a prison where a group of men accused of treason were being held.

Continued……In an unexpected turn of events, on 10 June 2021, Attorney General Anil Nandlall admitted that Rodney had indeed been a victim of a state-sanctioned hit.

The killing of Rodney robbed the world of a distinguished historian and pan-African leader.  While Rodney was born in the Caribbean and educated in Jamaica and the UK, he identified strongly with Africa and chose to spend a formative part of his career in Tanzania.  His scholarship has long served as a bridge linking Mama Africa to her scattered children across the world.

To mark his birthday, we share this video of a speech he delivered at an African Liberation Day event held in San Francisco in 1972, sending a clear message to his African brothers and sisters worldwide:  Africans of the diaspora are indeed Africans!

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

RESOURCE CURSE: DRC DANGLES MINERALS DEAL BEFORE TRUMP

Seeing Donald Trump try and get his hands on Ukrainian minerals as payment for US support appears to have inspired the Congolese president. Félix Tshisekedi has reportedly offered Washington access to resources that are crucial to the US tech sector - in return for a security pact. But how can Kinshasa trust the US to protect Congo when Washington is also propping up the very forces that are plundering it?

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has an abundance of cobalt, lithium, copper and tantalum - used in modern technologies such as smartphones and electric vehicles. But it’s also deliberately kept unstable. It’s bogged down in a costly war in the east of the country against the M23 militia, a proxy for neighbouring Rwanda, which is plundering the region’s mines and flooding supply chains with conflict minerals.