Continued….. They’re asked to identify which of a range of cartoon characters with various skin colours satisfies given traits. Without fail, good attributes get assigned to the light-skinned ones, and bad qualities - to the dark-skinned ones.

But this isn’t an innate human tendency, it is the product of centuries of racial hierarchy entrenched through Western education, media and social conditioning. The biases persist globally, shaping perceptions in Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America, where colonial histories and Western cultural dominance continue to elevate whiteness. More critically, the test confirms the idea that a White-superiority complex is built into young minds by the education - or rather, the indoctrination - that they receive from an early age.

How does this clip make you feel?

Sources

https://kennethclark.commons.gc.cuny.edu/the-doll-study/

S. AFRICAN SURGEON WHO CURED DEAFNESS WITH 3D PRINTING

In 2019, South African surgeon Mashudu Tshifularo made history by becoming the first doctor to perform a 3D-printed middle-ear transplant, successfully restoring the hearing of a 35-year-old accident survivor. His work has revolutionised ENT (ear, nose and throat) surgery in South Africa and around the world. In 2000, he became the first and only ENT professor in his country. His groundbreaking work has garnered global recognition, earning him the Africa Genius Award. It’s also been referenced in the hit television show Grey’s Anatomy. Beyond his medical achievements, Tshifularo is a dedicated pastor and author, driven by a passion for transforming lives.

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

‘AIR FRANCE IS A LIAR’

On 7 August 2023, Air France suspended all flights to Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, shortly after an anti-imperialist coup brought President Abdourahamane Tiani to power in Niger. 

A few days later, on 12 August 2023, the airline walked back their decision, announcing it would resume flights to Burkina Faso. However, this time, Burkina Faso’s National Agency for Civil Aviation (ANAC) refused to permit Air France to operate until the West African country approved of its flight routes. Finally, in early October 2023, Air France submitted a request to Burkina Faso’s Ministry of Transport to resume flights. In response, President Ibrahim Traoré’s government stated that France’s government would have first to change its travel advisory warning against Burkina Faso.

France and the United States classify Burkina Faso as a ‘red zone’ country, and the US ranks Burkina Faso as a level 4 security risk, indicating the most danger.

Continued……
However, in this recent clip, Traoré argued that this classification has much more to do with politics than with security concerns. For this reason, he encourages Burkinabé citizens to share the truth about life in Burkina Faso wherever they can.

Video credit: @rtburkina

Sources

https://apanews.net/burkina-faso-sets-condition-to-resume-air-france-flights

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/burkina-faso-travel-advisory.html

‘HISTORY OR HIS STORY?’ - RAP PIONEER

Today we celebrate the birthday of the brilliant conscious poet and godfather of rap, Gil-Scott Heron (1949-2011). This brother left a permanent mark on music, poetry and culture at-large with his profound lyricism and jazzy instrumentals. Some credit him with being, if not among the originators of hip hop, then certainly a source of inspiration for the music.

Heron’s work was inherently and deeply political. Writing and performing with a purpose, his voice wailed for revolution and the liberation of Africans worldwide. While his most popular poem, “The Revolution Will Not be Televised,” served as the perfect ballad to the Black Power Movement, his song, “Johannesburg,” raised awareness of the conditions for Black South Africans under apartheid.

Continued……In this poem, ‘His Story,’ recited during his 1982 concert Black Wax, Heron shows how mainstream colonial rhetoric and language shapes our perception of Africa and the world. Performed over forty years ago, it remains relatable and relevant. Though born in Chicago, Heron’s poetic stanzas focus uniquely on the African continent.

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

On 1 April, 1955, the African National Congress (ANC) urged South African parents to withdraw their children from schools in protest of the so-called Bantu Education Act. Enacted in 1953, the law introduced an inferior curriculum for Black students, further segregating the education system and condemning youths to menial jobs.

The Bantu Education Act imposed a patently lower quality of education on Black South African children. By design it would produce an unskilled or semi-skilled labor force meant only to serve White-settlers.

While schools were restricted to teach Black children Afrikaans and English, lessons were to be delivered in Indigenous African languages, not to empower African cultures but as a means of isolation, to maintain inequality and reinforce an inferiority complex. The end goal? To ensure Black youths could not compete with White-settler youths, preserving white dominance.

Continued….. The mastermind behind the law and diabolical curriculum was future Prime Minister Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd. At the time he served as Minister of ‘Native Affairs’. Addressing the South African parliament on the need for the act, Verwoerd infamously said there was no place for Indigenous Black South Africans in the European community. Referring to the need to transfer control of mission schools (most of which closed after the passing of the act) to the apartheid regime, he added: “It is of no avail for [the native] to receive training which has its aim in the absorption of the European Community, where he cannot be absorbed. Until now he has been subjected to a school system which drew him away from his community and misled him by showing him the greener pastures of European Society where he is not allowed to graze”

The Bantu Education Act was finally repealed in 1979. However, its negative impact on Black South Africans could not. To this day, schools for Black children and youths remain pitifully underfunded and wealth remains in the banks of thieving White-settlers who ensured such inequality through educational curriculums and other policies that perpetuated racial inequalities.

Sources

https://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/sidebar.php?kid=163-581-2

https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/download/f6bb666ae24a99af27caf82f697d4328b132299cec03800214325a88e393c081/2003673/Wills_2011_The_history_of_Bantu_education.pdf

https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/anc-protest-bantu-education-act

https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/black-south-africans-boycott-bantu-education-system-1954-1955

WANGARI MAATHAI ON AFRICA’S MICRO-NATIONS

On this day, we celebrate what would have been the 85th birthday of Kenya’s Wangari Maathai, the pioneering environmentalist and political activist.

Maathai formed the Green Belt Movement, which promoted tree planting, nature conservation and rights for women. She drew attention to the fact that nature was involved in the struggle for social justice.

In 1989, Daniel Moi’s government proposed building a British-designed, 60-storey glass skyscraper in Uhuru Park, one of Nairobi’s few green spaces. Maathai’s resistance forced the government to abandon the project - though not before she was ridiculed as a ‘crazy woman’ who should ‘stay quiet.’

Her ecological consciousness had been shaped by her Kikuyu heritage, which valued trees as sacred.

Continued……She understood that deforestation leads to landslides, droughts and the destruction of life. Her fight for Kenya’s forests was a fight for the future.

She was the first Kenyan woman to be awarded a PhD and went on to work in parliament and as a cabinet minister. She was also the first African woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, in 2004.

In this clip, Maathai reminds us that, prior to colonialism, African societies governed themselves, with social and economic issues in the hands of the people. She rejected the colonial tactic of ‘divide and conquer’ and employed the term ‘micro-nation’ rather than ‘tribe’ to honour Africa’s ethnic groups.

She joined the ancestors on 25 September 2011. Rest in power, Wangari Maathai.

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

BREAKING! NIGERIA TO JOIN ALLIANCE OF SAHEL STATES

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has announced plans for Nigeria to join its peers Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger in the Alliance of Sahel States.

April Fools!

Alas, we can only wish that our most populous African country finally had some real leadership!

It is, of course, extremely unlikely that this Western puppet would ever go against the interests of its masters in Paris and Washington.

Continued….. In fact, it was under Nigeria’s chairmanship of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) that the body threatened an invasion of Niger - to reinstall the West’s preferred marionette, Mohammed Bazoum, who was overthrown in a popular coup. Solidarity from Mali and Burkina Faso played a role in preventing the invasion. Bazoum, like others before him, had overseen the continued plunder of Niger by France, which was put a stop to by the military government of General Abdourahamane Tchiani, who kicked out the French and took control of Nigerien resources, such as uranium.

One can hope, however, that - one day - Nigeria stops playing the fool and really does join the project of building an Africa for Africans. Do you think we’ll see that day?

Sources

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-66478983

NIGER FIRST AFRICAN COUNTRY TO END RIVER BLINDNESS

Niger is the first African country in history to eliminate river blindness!

Officially known as onchocerciasis, infected black flies by rivers pass on the parasitic disease that has long caused blindness and incessant itching in humans across the African continent. The World Health Organization announced Niger’s achievement in January.

However, Niger is creating a new model for African healthcare systems. A year after ousting a Western-aligned leader in 2023, Niger lowered the cost of public health services, allowing more people to receive consultations, surgeries and treatments for diseases.

What lessons can other African countries take from Niger’s success in the face of this disease?

Video credit: @omsniger, @telesahel (IG) / @ortntele (X)

Continued…. Sources

https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/a-historic-milestone!-who-verifies-niger-free-of-onchocerciasis-as-the-first-country-on-the-african-continent

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0kxk1wj?at_link_type=web_link&at_ptr_name=twitter&at_bbc_team=editorial&at_campaign_type=owned&at_medium=social&at_link_origin=BBCAfrica&at_campaign=Social_Flow&at_link_id=6E0841F4-002A-11F0-A610-EC6CAE9E2946&at_format=image

https://www.aa.com.tr/fr/afrique/niger-sant%C3%A9-r%C3%A9duction-de-50-du-co%C3%BBt-des-soins-dans-les-structures-publiques/3311292#

https://end.org/nigers-defeat-of-river-blindness-helps-other-countries-see-the-way-forward

KENYANS EXPRESS SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINE DURING QUDS DAY

Kenyans joined millions across the world on 28th March in commemorating International Quds Day, standing shoulder to shoulder with the Palestinian people, not just in solidarity but in shared struggle. International Quds Day is held on the last Friday of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Based in the capital of Nairobi, the Kenya-Palestine Solidarity Movement (KPSM) invited the public to attend speeches and exhibits showing the history of the Zionist occupation of Palestine, as well as draw parallels between western imperialism in Africa and the ongoing occupation of Palestinian land.