AfricanStream

Italy’s Georgia Meloni was in Tunisia on Wednesday for talks on curbing cross-Mediterranean migration. It was her fourth visit in less than a year. Among the agreements signed was a promise for 50-million euros in aid. It comes on top of last July’s splurge - 150-million euros for curbing migration and another 150-million euros for budgetary support for the debt-ridden country. Europe’s externalisation of its borders - which has also included deals with Libya and Morocco - has benefitted corrupt government officials and traffickers, while exposing migrants to exploitation. There have been allegations of endemic police abuse, including extortion, violence and sexual assault. Arrested migrants have been fined and deported for illegal entry - without regard to whether returning them to their countries would put them at risk of torture or imprisonment, which is a violation of the UN’s Refugee Convention. Tunisia last year forcibly drove more than 1,000 Africans into the desert, with reports numerous abandoned migrants died from heat and thirst. Ultimately, the root causes of cross-Med migration remain unaddressed. Most make the dangerous journey to Europe in search of opportunities unavailable back home. The reason for poverty back home is European imperialism - from slavery and colonisation, to today’s neo-colonialism. As Walter Rodney opined, the development of Europe was built on the underdevelopment of Africa. What Africa needs is reparations, not financial carrots to incentivise corrupt governments to do Europe’s policing for them. Many Tunisians are unhappy about Rabat’s deals with the EU - and came out to protest Meloni’s latest visit. In this clip, one of them speaks his mind. Do you agree with his sentiment?

Colonial Germany’s genocide in Namibia is slowly attracting the attention long denied it. But the imperialist power also did despicable things in its East African ‘possessions’ that are even less widely known about. One of its most revered scientists - Robert Koch, who won a Nobel Prize for his work on tuberculosis - used Africans, kept in concentration-like conditions, as guinea pigs for trials of a dangerous experimental drug for sleeping sickness. While some might put it all down to the ‘bad old past,’ as African Stream’s Clinton Nzala here explains, some things haven’t really changed. Would you agree?

In the face of an anti-imperialist revolution unfolding across France's former colonies of the Sahel region, French army general François Gérard Marie Lecointre speaks in this @lefigaro clip about the need for greater European unity to re-engage in military action across Africa. He makes clear that European action in Africa would be a matter of protecting European interests. Lecointre suggested hardship and population growth in Africa would spill into Europe and that only Europe could solve Africa's problems. His emphasis on European unity also sheds light on Europe's shared supranational foreign policy. Meanwhile, after successful military coups in recent years in the Sahel, the unity and shared foreign policy of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger—together known as the Alliance of Sahel States (AES)—have been able to combat terrorist paramilitary groups without French intervention. It seems as though European military leaders are clear on the need for a Pan-European policy and actions. Are Africans ready to adopt Pan-Africanism? "Watch the whole @LeFigaro interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBe6GelWkxE

Here we are again. Another US presidential election is coming up in November, and we are back to the same old, same old: Democrats vs Republicans, Joe Biden vs Donald Trump, deadly foreign policy vs deadly foreign policy. But is the 'lesser of two evils' a real choice? In this clip from comedian Aamer Rahman's comedy standup tour in February in London, he relays to the audience the reality in which our people live. We are stuck in a system that only demands that we choose in the voting booth who will oppress us and kill people like us around the world. We cannot ignore the Biden administration's role in aiding Israel in killing more than 33,000 Palestinians while it continues to play a covert role in aiding the displacement, hunger and murder of our people in the Sudan and the Congo. Our people's unwillingness to back Biden is not an endorsement of Trump. With the system as it is, we find ourselves in a lose-lose situation. But we need not despair. All around the world, people are waking up to reality and coming together to struggle for a better world. Through collective organised efforts, change is possible. Do you support Joe Biden or Donald Trump, or do you think it's time for something new?

Despite promises to reduce immigration, the United Kingdom actively recruits foreign teachers due to a severe shortage. In 2023, the UK hired 486 Jamaican teachers, double the previous year. This has left Jamaica's education system in crisis, with unfilled vacancies and fewer subjects for Jamaican children to study. While low wages and economic challenges contribute to teachers leaving, what do you think Jamaica should do to retain its homegrown talent?

The U.S. political establishment is pressing to ban TikTok, and it’s being framed as a bid to counter Chinese influence. But is this a red herring? African Stream’s Ahmed Ghoneim argues it’s Israel that’s behind the drive to axe the platform which is spreading pro-Palestinian sentiment. And a leaked recording of the head of the Anti-Defamation League, seems to back the case. However, even if TikTok does get the chop before the US presidential election, would it really make any difference to public opinion? Give us your thoughts.

Today marks 44 years since Zimbabwe became an independent state - breaking free of the yoke of British settler-colonialism. Independence came after a bitter and protracted armed struggle, waged against the racist regime of Ian Smith by two liberation movements: the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU). In December 1979, the warring parties signed the Lancaster House Agreement, which paved the way for the country's first democratic elections. ZANU’s Robert Mugabe won those, and officially became the country's first post-independence leader on 18th April, 1980. To commemorate that momentous occasion, here’s a flashback to when Mugabe put a condescending British journalist in his place. At an African Union summit during the late noughties, the ITN correspondent tried to get a reaction out the Zimbabwean president. Mugabe did not hold back. Which of today’s African leaders do you think are equally ‘no nonsense’?

Did you know that African people invented the banjo? The banjo is an instrument that nowadays is largely associated with rural White country artists, but it would not exist without African innovation. Africans were kidnapped and brought to the Americas, bringing with them their culture and their music styles. Stringed instruments are common across Africa, and many of them bear a striking similarity to the banjo found in the southern United States. African instruments such as the kora, the akonting, the ubaw-akwala, the xalam and the ngoni are all precursors to the American banjo. The earliest historical documentation of the American instrument all attribute its origin to enslaved Africans. The latter used materials that were readily available to them in the Americas to recreate the instruments they were familiar with in Africa. They originally used gourds and animal skins, which is how these instruments are usually made in Africa. Banjos and other, similar stringed instruments were also created by African people across the Caribbean. The Banjo was such an important centrepiece of African life across the Americas and the world at large that Jamaican-born writer Claude Mckay titled his novel about Pan-African exchanges 'Banjo.' It was only through generations of racism in the US music industry that the instrument was decoupled from its African roots and attributed to Southern White populations. This clip by @protectourhistory gives a good account of the story - as well as some fine examples of the instrument being played! Do you play?

In this @thepeoplesbubbiefilm clip, @jvpny member Esther Farmer reads from a piece she wrote published in a 2021 book she co-edited, ‘A Land With a People: Palestinians and Jews Confront Zi*nism.’ She describes her father’s opposition to Zi*nism, as it collaborated with fascism and Nazism. However, African Stream would like to point out that the state of Israel also collaborated with former N*zis to support apartheid in South Africa. The apartheid system bore striking similarities to European Nazism in that the populations were strictly categorised based on race, and various laws forbade intermarriage and intermixing. Laws also kept white people in power. The first leader to officially impose apartheid laws, D.F. Malan, once said, ‘I have been reproached that I am now discriminating against the Jews as Jews. Now, let me say frankly that I admit that it is so.’ However, authorities recognised South Africa’s wh*te population had a disadvantage in being small, so they bestowed the wh*te status onto Jewish people, too. John Vorster led South Africa from 1966 to 1979, serving as prime minister and later as president. He spent much of his early adulthood supporting the N*zi expansion across Europe as an active member of the organisation, Ossewabrandwag, which sought to bring N*zism to South Africa. Despite this history, Israel lent generous material support to the apartheid regime beginning in the late 1970s, even inviting Prime Minister John Vorster, who expressed public admiration for H*tler, as a guest to Israel. From that point on, Israel would supply South Africa with all sorts of weapons to combat freedom-fighting Africans. Israel even gave South Africa the information it needed to build nuclear bombs. Did you know about the collaboration between Zi*nist Israel and South African apartheid leaders? Let us know in the comments.

The West often claims it is more developed because its people work harder and are more ingenious. However, we know European colonisation stole wealth from our continent. Europeans used our resources to build 'civilised' countries in Europe and the Americas, elevating the standard of living for a portion of the global population. And this clip featuring our ancestor, South African freedom fighter Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, shows the truth. However, the term, 'Third World,' that Mama Winnie uses was created to distinguish between countries of the global majority that refused to align with either the United States or the Soviet Union during the 20th century's 'Cold War.' So, while some in the Global North will use the term to describe poverty conditions, we recognise its dignity. What do you think of Mama Winnie's remarks?

European colonisers have stripped much from African people, including our identities, so we take back our power by defining ourselves. In this 1963 clip, Malcolm X corrected a white reporter who posed multiple questions about the legality of the name ‘Malcolm X.’ Through Malcolm’s insistence on his right to self-define, he laid out the brutal history of chattel slavery that denied Africans in the Americas the right to know their identities and family histories. In some traditional African societies, griots, or oral historians, were responsible for remembering and sharing family bloodlines. They would often refer to individuals as ‘the son of … who was the son of …’ and on it went. While Malcolm X’s family may have understood that the US system denied them the knowledge of their lineage, Malcolm could place himself in the lineage of a new tradition, Black radicalism.

Every African country has a capital city - but some have two, like Eswatini… or even three, like South Africa! Africa’s capital cities typically hold the seat of power, but they’re not always a nation’s best known metropolis - as is the case with Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania. While the UN recognises 54 countries in Africa, the African Union recognises 55. In our latest series, we’re going to take you on an alphabetical tour of each of them - including also Western Sahara’s Laayoune and Tifariti cities (the latter being where the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is planning to move its capital, as the former is in disputed, Morocco-occupied territory). So fasten your seatbelts as we start with the A’s… Which one is your favourite?

The United States has long violated its own laws that forbid US financial, military or humanitarian aid to countries that violate international law. Josh Paul famously resigned in October after 11 years overseeing arms transfers, security assistance and ‘defence diplomacy’ at the US State Department. His move protested US policy on Israel’s bombardment and siege of the Gaza Strip. The former official with a history in security consulting recently told @democracynow’s @juangon68 that, until the 7 October escalation, he had never seen a US administration avoid seeking a legal opinion and intelligence assessments for arms transfers. Take a look and let us know what you think.

With the war in Sudan crossing the one-year mark with no end in sight, there's been a wonderful show of solidarity among African brothers. The Sudanese community in Somalia held a football tournament with help from their embassy in Mogadishu. Hosted over Ramadan, it was a way for Sudanese refugees to come together despite being away from their homeland. Sudan-Somalia solidarity goes back decades. Both countries established relations upon independence and have enjoyed strong bilateral ties ever since. When civil war gripped Somalia three decades ago, Sudan graciously hosted many Somali refugees, including young students. This latest tournament is perhaps another glimpse of what an Africa without European borders could look like. Her people free to help each other move around the continent. This heartwarming report is from Chinese network CGTN.

During Iran’s retaliatory strikes against Israel on 13 April, Palestinians tore down parts of a 708-kilometre-long, 9-metre-high barrier near the Beit El Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Israel built the barrier during the second Intifada (Palestinian uprising) between 2000 and 2005. In 2004, the International Court of Justice branded the steel and concrete ‘apartheid wall’ a political measure and a de facto land grab, as about 80 per cent of Israeli settlers lived within the walls at the time, preventing Palestinians’ free movement. The judges called the wall—which Israel dubbed an ‘anti-terror fence’—a violation of human rights and international law, ordering Israel to tear it down and make reparations. The court also called on the UN to consider measures against Israel, but nothing has happened for two decades. In the meantime, the Palestinian side of the West Bank wall has become a canvas for graffiti art, showcasing opposition to segregation, Palestinians’ right to return, as well as support for human rights in general. The West Bank wall’s rupture could be a milestone in the Palestinian liberation struggle and a dent in the Western-backed, Israeli settler-colonial project. Could this event foreshadow the end of the Israeli apartheid state? Let us know what you think.

Iran’s not allowed to retaliate for Israel bombing its consulate in Syria on 1 April, that killed seven including two top commanders, according to British Foreign Secretary David Cameron. A prominent advocate of the so-called ‘rules-based order,’ he refused to provide a clear answer when Sky News host Kay Burley asked whether Iran had a right to respond to the destruction of its sovereign property. However, when asked how Britain would react to a country flattening one of its embassies overseas, Cameron replied that his government would respond ‘very strongly.’ This telling exchange has for many online exposed Western double standards with regards to international law. On 13 April, Iran sent a barrage of missiles and drones into Israel to retaliate for Israel killing 16 people at its Damascus consulate on 1 April. Cameron avoided answering the journalist’s question about Iran’s right to retaliate—per international law—and implied Tel Aviv doesn’t have to honour the Geneva Conventions, which protect diplomatic and consular installations and their personnel.Is international law respected across the board or is it dependent on who violates it? Is international law respected across the board or is it dependent on who violates it? Let us know in the comments

Pan-Africanist Malcolm X once said, 'And, when I speak, I don't speak as a Democrat or a Republican nor an American. I speak as a victim of America's so-called democracy. You and I have never seen democracy. All we've seen is hypocrisy.' US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby perhaps epitomises the hypocrisy of the United States' so-called democracy. These two clips, just days apart from each other after the 7 October escalation in the 75-year Israeli occupation of Palestine, make that clear. On 9 October, Kirby appeared upset and unable to speak fluidly in discussing the deaths of US and Israeli citizens. But on 24 October, Kirby excused Israel's military killing Palestinians using US weaponry. We have seen these double standards as US officials change their tone when discussing the loss of life among the global majority, as if our deaths were merely collateral damage or business as usual. Yet, tears flow when it comes to the lives of allies or whiter individuals.

'Stop Israel before it sets the whole region on fire.' That was Iran's message to the world during a heated UN Security Council emergency session that Israel called to discuss Iran's retaliatory strikes on Tel Aviv. Tehran's envoy to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani, called on the body to take action against Tel Aviv's 'destabilising and irresponsible actions.' He said Israel's recent acts, such as the 1 April attack on the Persian nation's consulate in Syria, can potentially engulf the entire region in a bloody war. Iravani warned that the UN's failure to hold Israel accountable in the past has only emboldened Tel Aviv to continue on its path of aggression. On 13 April, Iran launched a barrage of drones and missiles on Israel to retaliate against Tel Aviv for attacking its diplomatic station in Damascus, killing 16 people, including two senior Iranian generals. Embassies and consulates are considered the sovereign territory of respective countries. Proportional retaliation is a right per international law. The incident has brought Iran and Israel to the brink of war. That would negatively affect Africa because it would take place on the doorstep of Egypt, which shares a border with Israel. Other African countries such as Sudan, Djibouti and Eritrea would also be affected as they sit on the Red Sea, which would inevitably turn into a theatre of war.

The creation of Israel in Palestine owes much to a 1917 letter from then-British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour addressed to Walter Rothschild, the 2nd Baron Rothschild, of the wealthy banking family. To commemorate the letter's 100th anniversary, Daniel Taub, former Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, sat down in 2017 with the family's 4th baron to delve into what is today known as the 'Balfour Declaration.' Listen as Jacob Rothschild (1936-2024) reveals how Eastern European Zionists influenced the British government by using his family's connections to support a settler colony in Palestine. Jacob's uncle, Walter (1868-1937), a Zionist, was chosen thanks to his wealth and political connections. Note the reference in the letter to 'civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.' The Balfour Declaration altered the course of West Asian and African history by helping impose a settler occupying force on land already inhabited by Semitic-speaking peoples. From its creation in 1948, Israel has violated the rights of Palestinians, displacing 750,000 people at the time and—with Western support— subjugating a nation of people for the next almost 76 years. Does a foreign minister's letter to a wealthy family warrant the dispossession of a whole nation? Let us know your thoughts.

It’s been a year since the brutal war in Sudan started in April, 2023. The conflict between the Sudan Army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group has brought the country to its knees. The UN says at least 13,000-15000 people have been killed to and around 8.5 million people have fled their homes, with the true figures likely to much higher than that. That’s seen neighbouring countries like Chad receive the largest influx of refugees in its history. The humanitarian situation within Sudan is getting worse with widespread shortages of food and medicine. It’s been dubbed the forgotten war, with international media and politicians giving it little attention. In this short clip, we get the views of three Sudanese. All of them frustrated and confused about why they, the sudanese citizens, have been the ones made to suffer.

Today marks one year since the start of the bloody conflict between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces over who can control Africa’s third largest country- Sudan. Very few English-speaking media outlets are shining a spotlight on Sudan’s catastrophic humanitarian situation - which has killed at least 13,000–15,000 people and injured over 33,000 others. However, those numbers are believed to be seriously underestimated. African Stream’s editor-in-chief, Ahmed Kaballo - himself Sudanese - was recently interviewed by TRT World as part of their coverage of the conflict. He laid out the true extent of the crisis and explained how severe difficulties in getting aid aggravate it. Global news outlets have largely lost interest in Sudan - especially in the wake of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and amidst ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Eastern DRC. The UN says Sudan is in the grip of the world’s largest displacement crisis, with nearly 9 million internal refugees - half of them children - and 2 million people having fled abroad. Intense violence and restrictions on movement have blocked the delivery of humanitarian assistance, leading to mounting cases of severe malnutrition and hunger. A Ramadan truce proposed by the UN Security Council in March fell apart after the army demanded the RSF’s exit from public and civilian sites. Let’s keep Sudan in the news. Your thoughts and insights matter to us - please share them in the comments.

Reparations to Africans have long been a contentious issue. In this clip from a 1965 debate between author James Baldwin and US conservative writer William F Buckley at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, Baldwin paints a picture of how, through forced labour, Africans played a crucial role in building US wealth. The economic prosperity of the United States during its early years was inextricably tied to the institution of slavery, as the labour of enslaved people contributed to building industries such as agriculture, finance, textiles, and mining. The wealth generated through centuries of free labour laid the groundwork for the economic development and industrialisation that characterise the United States today. The legacy of slavery—compounded by subsequent discriminatory practices, such as Jim Crow laws and 'redlining' neighbourhoods to mark areas meant for Africans—has prevented equal access to education, employment, and housing opportunities. That is why many say reparations are a means to acknowledge and address the systemic injustices that have hindered Africans' economic and social progress in the United States. The consequences of these policies manifest today in higher incarceration rates for Africans, as well as a household wealth ratio of 20 to 1 between white people and Africans.

The oft-quoted Jomo Kenyatta saying goes something like, ‘When the white man came, he had the Bible. We had the land. He told us to shut our eyes and pray. When we opened them, he had the land. We had the Bible.’ Pan-African scholar PLO Lumumba used the first Kenyan president’s line as a response to a question in this clip about whether religion is holding back Africa. While we cannot dismiss the ancient grassroots history of Christianity in Africa, the European version of the cross came before the flag, with missionaries paving the way for European settlers to permeate the continent. Initiatives like missionary education for the natives supported the colonial project and created a class of African elites to govern us after ‘flag independence’ in the mid-20th century. What do you make of Lumumba's remarks?

'Nonracial capitalism' isn't a thing, says historian Robin D.G. Kelley, in this clip from several years ago at the University of Washington in Seattle, USA. The academic said capitalism is inherently race-based. What do you say? Let us know below.

So, if we do a quick google search on who the world’s best scientists are, this is what comes up: Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Galileo. This list is highly Eurocentric and doesn't actually reflect scientific discovery or significance across the history of mankind. African Stream's Ahmed Ghoneim provides an alternative decolonised list!