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.

Continued……That state of affairs has suited Western firms (such as Apple, Dell, Google, Microsoft and Tesla ) quite well. Though they pretend to condemn conflict minerals, they quietly profit from the chaos as an unstable Congo keeps prices down.

The toll on the Congolese has been devastating. More than 8,500 people were killed between January and late February 2025, according to DRC’s authorities. More than 7 million live in refugee camps.

There’s no doubt Kinshasa needs help fending off the aggressor in the east. But the prospect of DRC surrendering its minerals to a Western superpower that is also propping up the very forces that are plundering it has dismayed many - including the sister in this video (@giathehousegoddess). As a pan-Africanist, she fears the Congo will surrender its sovereignty to neocolonial control instead of seeking alliances with fellow African nations. She also notes that this is another prime example of Africa’s resource ‘curse’ not being a curse at all, but an imperialist ploy whereby the richest nations in resources remain the poorest in development. Congo should be the most prosperous nation on the planet but instead is one of the poorest and most suffering.

Video credit: @giathehousegoddess (IG)

Sources

https://www.mining.com/congo-offers-us-europe-minerals-in-exchange-for-peace/

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/17/amid-conflict-why-does-the-drc-want-a-minerals-deal-with-trump

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/oct/12/phone-misery-children-congo-cobalt-mines-drc

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2013/09/conflict-minerals-from-the-congo-is-your-cellphone-made-with-them.html

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

PT. 3: GRENADA’S EDUCATION REVOLUTION 🇬🇩

In March 1979, the revolutionary New JEWEL Movement (with JEWEL standing for ‘Joint Endeavor for Welfare, Education, and Liberation’) overthrew Grenada’s Western-aligned government of Eric Gairy (1922-97).

The new government led by President Maurice Bishop (1944-83) adopted several measures to transform the country and entrench the revolution.

In this March 2024 video produced by Salifu Mack, we look at how the government used education to build its revolution between 1979 and 1983 and how literacy led to increased political participation. Ordinary Grenadians developed the country’s annual budget and built ties with other revolutionary states.

Let us know in the comments how your country could learn from this experience.

Nothing beats self-reliance and preparedness when facing challenges. Relying chiefly on external assistance can leave you vulnerable when that aid is no longer available. This week's proverb speaks to recent developments. The Trump administration issued a 90-day freeze on US foreign aid, including critical programmes for AIDS relief. This abrupt suspension has severely impacted HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention efforts in several African countries, such as Kenya and Nigeria. If our leaders prioritised taking control of our abundant resources and utilising them to benefit the African masses and not foreign multinational corporations, we would become stronger and less prone to outside shocks.

WHY BLACK RACE REPRESENTS PEACE

No Black nation in the modern world has ever enslaved anybody, colonised another people, imposed its language on others or possesses weapons of mass destruction. That’s the observation of life coach Franck Zanu (@zanuprojectrethink - IG), who in this clip considers the deeper significance of this fact. He says it shows that the Black race is a symbol of peace. This might seem a stretch, given how many wars have been fought on our continent, even post colonialism. But many of those wars were due to continued meddling by our former colonisers.

Video Credit: @FranckZanu (YouTube)

USAID IN AFRICA: ‘WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING’

In a recent X post, tech billionaire Elon Musk agreed with Dr Arikana Chihombori-Quao, a former African Union ambassador to the United States, who lauded the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). While speaking with journalist Steve Clemson (@scclemons on X), @HEDrArikana (X) argued in this clip that USAID had interfered in Africa, adding that its dismantling is a ‘wake-up call’ for Africans to build a self-sufficient continent.

Continued……Musk is no stranger to controversy, as he fuelled US President Donald Trump’s attack on South Africa for alleged ‘unjust racial discrimination’ of Afrikaners, descendants of Dutch colonists who ran the apartheid regime that denied fundamental rights to the Black majority until 1994.

Maybe it takes one imperialist to recognise another. Whatever may be the case, dismantling USAID amplified many Global South people’s criticism that the agency worked to keep many places, including the continent, subservient to the US. The mere threat of destabilising governments not towing Washington’s line has kept many countries obedient.

In February, US Congressman Scott Perry alleged USAID funded Boko Haram, ISIS and Al Qaeda, which came after years of Nigerians pointing to foreign powers funding Boko Haram.

Video credit: @aljazeera

Sources

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/africasource/trumps-dismantling-of-usaid-offers-a-new-beginning-for-africa

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55229894

https://newscentral.africa/usaid-funded-boko-haram-other-terror-groups-us-lawmaker

https://appliednetsci.springeropen.com/articles/10.1007/s41109-020-00264-4

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1197570/deaths-caused-by-boko-haram-in-nigeria

https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/newsletter/2025/01/29/inklings-what-make-trump-aid-freeze-chaos

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/3/3/why-some-in-the-global-south-are-not-mourning-the-demise-of-usaid

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1903671188754252133

ON THIS DAY: THE U.S. ARRESTS ITS YOUNGEST EXECUTION VICTIM

On this day in 1944, the discovery of two white girls’ corpses in a ditch in South Carolina led to the tragic execution of the United States’ youngest victim, George Stinney, Jr. 

Authorities had wrongfully accused the 14-year-old Black child of murdering Betty June Binnicker, 11, and Mary Emma Thames, 7.

On 23 March 1944, the girls, who had been riding bicycles in search of passion flower berries, stopped to ask Stinney and his younger sister if they knew where to find ‘maypops.’ That was the last time the girls were seen alive, as their bodies were found the next day.

Following an interrogation without Stinney’s parents present, plus a rushed investigation and a coerced confession, an all-white jury convicted Stinney in just 10 minutes after a two-hour trial on 24 April 1944, in which he had no proper legal defence. Despite widespread pleas for mercy, he was sentenced to death by electrocution.