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The Bantu Education Act was finally repealed in 1979.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.

Continued….. Like many other African countries, Kenya has a history of fighting against colonialism. In the 1950s, the Kenya Land and Freedom Army also known as Mau Mau waged a war of resistance against the British colonial authorities. This anti-imperialist legacy is still embedded in ordinary citizens, even though the present government, led by president William Ruto, has issued statements in support of Israel.

Christian Zionism has a strong hold on many Africans. However, support for the Palestinian cause is gaining ground, as more and more Africans are rejecting the narrative peddled by the Global North - that Israel is the victim and Palestinians the aggressors. Israeli military onslaught in Gaza has k*lled over 186,000, according to a July 2024 Lancet (British medical journal) report.

In this report, Kenneth Kaigua shares with us this year’s commemorations, where voices rose not just in protest, but in anti-imperialist defiance.

Sources

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/5/what-is-al-quds-day. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2024/7/8/gaza-toll-could-exceed-186000-lancet-study-says

https://irfront.org/post/international-al-quds-day-the-last-friday-of-every-ramadan-14408

https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/us-tells-kenya-to-support-israel-or-forget-free-trade-deal

Follow the money, they say - and you’ll see who’s really calling the shots. This applies especially to politics, where it’s often not politicians or the people who elected them that are guiding decisions, but the lobby groups making big party and campaign donations in whose interests the laws are written. That’s a fact captured by today’s words of wisdom, which have been attributed to various civil-rights leaders. Morality and the law do not always coincide. More often than not, legal codes enshrine not what is right but what is profitable. And the evils of slavery, apartheid and even colonialism were all legal and very profitable.

What laws in your country can you cite that align with greed over good?

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

WINNIE VS NELSON

Today marks the seventh anniversary of the passing of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, a prominent figure in South Africa’s liberation movement, who died at the age of 81 in 2018.

Often referred to simply as ‘Nelson Mandela’s wife,’ her legacy extends far beyond that noscript. She was a powerful freedom fighter and organiser, known for her uncompromising stance, which at times surpassed that of her husband.

Winnie was also a political prisoner during the anti-apartheid movement, enduring imprisonment even while pregnant. She firmly believed that African people must liberate themselves by any means necessary, advocating for the right to use revolutionary violence in response to violent colonial oppression. This conviction created a rift between her and the African National Congress (ANC) in the 1990s.

Continued……Additionally, she argued for the redistribution of land in Azania - referring to regions in southern Africa, including South Africa and Zimbabwe - to the African populace. Her views on land reform clashed with Nelson Mandela’s more conciliatory approach, which many believe has contributed to ongoing inequality and the persistence of settler colonialism.

Winnie once stated, “I have a good relationship with Mandela. But I am not Mandela’s product. I am the product of the masses of my country and the product of my enemy.”

In a lecture delivered on 29 November 1993 at Kean College in New Jersey, pan-Africanist and former Nation of Islam leader Khalid Muhammad criticised Nelson Mandela while expressing his support for Winnie.

What are your thoughts on Muhammad’s comments?

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