Continued….This clip from the British satiric puppet programme, ‘Spitting Image,’ which aired in approximately 1990, used a puppet of then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir to present statistics that demonstrated Israel is, indeed, an apartheid state.

What is it that they say about birds of the same feather? Let us know in the comments.

Hear Us Roar: https://t.me/AfricanStream

KONGO ROOTS OF LATIN DANCES

Latin-American dances and music styles are famous the world over - but less so, their African origins. One clue to these is in the names for these styles and dances. Etymologically, words like ‘samba,’ ‘tango’ and ‘rumba’ can be traced back to Kikongo, spoken by the Kongo people of Central Africa, who were brought over to the Americas as slaves. With them, they brought their language and rich cultural practices. African Stream’s Inem Richardson digs deeper into the African roots - linguistic and cultural - of Latin-American rhythms and vibes.

Hear Us Roar: https://t.me/AfricanStream

CHRISTIAN ZIONISM IN AFRICA WHY SO STRONG?

Africa has a long history of racism and colonialism, so it’s quite surprising to find many Africans who support Zionism—despite its racist roots. We dug into the root cause of this phenomenon by talking to an Anglican minister who is no stranger to the subject: Stephen Sizer. He is the author of “Christian Zionism: Road-map to Armageddon.” He explains how foreign funding forces African churches to align their doctrines with Christian Zionist benefactors in the United States. Sizer also calls for a return to the authentic faith initiated by Jesus—that of peacemakers, not widowmakers. A faith that embraces all regardless of race, tribe, social status, or other criteria.

Let us know what you think in the comments.

Hear Us Roar: https://t.me/AfricanStream

MANDELA: YOUR ENEMIES ARE NOT OUR ENEMIES!

Mandela’s timeless advice to the West: Your enemies are not our enemies! Watch a U.S. TV audience roar as the anti-apartheid hero and former President of South Africa effortlessly demolishes a critic who tried to get him to disown leaders despised by Western nations.

Hear Us Roar: https://t.me/AfricanStream

EGYPT’S PREZ: ISRAELI WAR = ‘COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT’

Egypt’s president recently condemned what he calls Tel Aviv’s “collective punishment” of Palestinians, saying that the lethal Israeli bombing campaign (and now ground campaign) goes “beyond self-defence.”

Abdel Fattah El-Sisi was speaking to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who flew to Cairo mid-last month to discuss Israel’s war on Gaza and the resultant humanitarian catastrophe.

A limited number of people with dual citizenship have been allowed to leave Gaza via the Rafah crossing into Egypt. Aid supplies are still only trickling in.

Do you agree with El-Sisi‘s remarks?

Hear Us Roar: https://t.me/AfricanStream

GAS IN GAZA?

Israel has continued to kill hundreds of Palestinians every day since it launched its bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip following a Hamas attack on 7 October in Israel. Despite widespread condemnation, Tel Aviv has been relentless in its efforts to annihilate the besieged territory. At face value, one might think that the only motivation for its acts is to further its expansionist ambitions. However, journalist Richard Medhurst recently said a more sinister economic scheme is brewing in the background. According to Medhurst, the ongoing attack on Gaza is part of a plot by Israel and the US to take control of the enclave’s gas reserves and create a highway from Asia to Europe to rival China’s new Silk Road project.

Continued…..Triggering conflicts to control a nation’s resources is not a new trick in the West’s imperial manual. Dozens of conflicts have been instigated across the African continent so Western governments and companies could access minerals. It does not matter how many dead bodies they have to walk over. For the West, profit always justifies the means.

Let us know what you think of Medhurst’s theory.


Hear Us Roar: https://t.me/AfricanStream

SUPPORTING PALESTINE IS NOT RACISM

Calling someone racist or anti-Semitic whenever they condemn Israel’s atrocities against the people of Palestine has been normalised in recent years. After the 7 October escalation in the Palestine-Israel conflict, people lost their jobs or job opportunities for posting support for Palestine on social media. But is condemning the acts of the Zionist state of Israel equal to hating Jewish people?

In this clip, former British member of parliament and current broadcaster George Galloway addressed the issue during a 14 October 2013 debate at the Oxford Union.

Continued….There, an Israeli student accused him of being racist for refusing months earlier to debate with a supporter of Israeli apartheid. Galloway responded by unpacking the phenomenon of conflating support for Palestine with anti-Semitism. He went on to highlight the positive roles many Jews, such as scholar Ruth First, lawyer Albie Sachs, communist politician Joe Slovo and social campaigner Denis Goldberg, played in the fight against the apartheid South African government. He drove home the point that one can be a Jew or a friend of Jews and not support the policies of an apartheid state, such as Israel.

Let us know what you think of Galloway’s rebuttal.

Hear Us Roar: https://t.me/AfricanStream

HOW OPPRESSORS DEHUMANIZE THEIR VICTIMS

Since time immemorial, oppressors have dehumanized their victims. The downtrodden are made to appear like sub-humans that are not deserving of any sympathy nor that they have the right to be treated with dignity. Slave owners in the West justified their cruel system by portraying Africans as beasts of burden who could endure the degrading and inhuman treatment to which they were subjected. The same mentality was used during colonial times in Africa. Colonisers claimed Africans were incapable of governing themselves, hence, the need to place them under colonial control.

Continued….In this September 2002 clip, a year after the September 11 attacks that were used to justify the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, Indian author and political activist Arundhati Roy spoke in Santa Fe, USA, about how Western and several Israeli leaders have repeatedly dehumanized non-white people, such as Palestinians, the indigenous peoples of the Americas and Australia’s aboriginal peoples.

Let us know what you think of Roy’s remarks.

Hear Us Roar: https://t.me/AfricanStream

SENEGAL FOR PALESTINE!

Over 200 people demonstrated outside the Grand Mosque in Dakar, Senegal - in support of Palestine. They, like thousands if not millions around the world, are urging greater action in response to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza - and demand an immediate ceasefire. Gaza’s health authority says around 10,000 people have now been killed - among them, more than 3,000 children - since Israel initiated its bombing campaign in response to the October 7th Hamas attack.

Hear Us Roar: https://t.me/AfricanStream

KENYANS SEE RED OVER ROYAL CARPET

Kenya’s Tourism Ministry has spectacularly failed to read the room. It’s facing a barrage of criticism after absurdly rolling out the red carpet, literally, on the soil of Nairobi National Park for King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla.

People were already irritated by the failure of the Royal couple to show any contrition for the British Empire’s appalling colonial abuses of Kenyans. To see Kenyans today bending over backwards to show obeisance to the two representatives of Kenya’s former whip-master - and make sure they don’t get their precious shoes dirty - added insult to injury.

Or was the Ministry secretly trolling the pair? Look at it as a red river of all the Kenyan blood spilled in the British monarchy’s name - a symbol of how steeped in it even these two really are!

Share your thoughts in the comments.

Hear Us Roar: https://t.me/AfricanStream

SOUTH AFRICA MARCHES FOR PALESTINE

Actions in solidarity with the Palestinian people have continued in Africa and around the world.

On Saturday, 4 November, marches took place in support of Palestine, including outside the US consulate in Johannesburg, South Africa. Then about 300,000 people marched in Washington, making it the largest demonstration for Palestine in US history, according to organisers. The day prior, on the western coast of the United States, protesters said they were blocking a ship at the port of Oakland to prevent it from transporting weapons to Israel.

Such actions called for a ceasefire and a just solution to the Palestine question. Since 7 October, Israel has indiscriminately bombed the Gaza Strip, a 25-mile-long enclave of 2 million people. Half its population are children.

Continued….Israel claims it has only targeted Palestinian resistance group Hamas. However, civilian murders have been recorded in the West Bank, where Hamas has no presence. Israeli air strikes have been recorded on sites, such as refugee camps and hospitals, which would qualify as war crimes, per the Geneva Conventions. These attacks have killed close to 10,000 civilians, with more than 4,000 being children.

International outcry is mounting, especially against the United States, which is seen as bankrolling the genocide of Palestinians. The United States has been the largest funder of Israel since its establishment in 1948. Plus, in 2016, US President Barack Obama signed a $38 billion military-aid package to be distributed over a 10-year period to Israel. Then, on Friday, the US House of Representatives passed a $14 billion package to the Zionist state. All of this comes as more than a half-million people are homeless in the United States, the country’s infrastructure has been crumbling and student loan forgiveness for about 45 million debtors is not on the radar.

Let us know if you have attended recent marches.

Hear Us Roar: https://t.me/AfricanStream

A JAMAICAN PERSPECTIVE ON PALESTINE

A Jamaican named Marlon J Campbell took to his Instagram account on 23 October to explain why Jamaicans must support Palestine. He provided essential context about how the country was the first to support the anti-apartheid struggle during the 1950s and how, despite the grave financial consequences, the Caribbean island state stood by its principles.

Human-rights observers around the world, from the United Nations as well as from NGOs, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have characterized Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and its control of movement into and out of the Gaza Strip as an apartheid system.

Marlon also highlighted his disappointment about Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ support for Israel. This diplomatic stance is not new, with Jamaica often rejecting UN resolutions condemning Israel’s occupation.

Continued….The Jamaican man went on to explain how Palestinian resistance groups are just like the people who fought against slavery and apartheid, but have been branded terrorists.

UK rapper Lowkey recently reminded the world during a recent interview with British journalist Piers Morgan that Nelson Mandela was considered a ‘terrorist’ and jailed for 27 years during the struggle against the South African apartheid.

Marlon answers the question, ‘Why should I care?’ using quotes from the Rev Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, and Assata Shakur, the freedom fighter who escaped a US prison to live in exile in Cuba.

Despite the killing of about 10,000 civilians in the Gaza Strip—as of press time—and 75 years of occupation suffered at the hands of the Zionist settler-colonial entity, the international community is still unable and unwilling to force Israel’s hand to bring about a ceasefire.

Let us know what you think of Marlon’s remarks.

Hear Us Roar: https://t.me/AfricanStream

LONDON PROTESTS: ‘GAZA IS HOSTAGE’

A Black Londoner reminds us what is at stake in the Israel-Gaza war - our humanity. And says solidarity with Palestine is not about religion but following our conscience as human beings.

He argues if Gaza is an ‘open-air prison’- as former British PM David Cameron described it in 2010 - then its 2.3 million blockaded inhabitants are HOSTAGES at the mercy of Israeli forces.

Do you agree with this guy’s sentiment? He was one of tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators who marched through the British capital last week.

This video was shot by digital media channel ‘Uncivilized’.

Hear Us Roar: https://t.me/AfricanStream

'SPRINGBOKS CANNOT BE WHITEWASHED'

While South Africa’s rugby players have enjoyed a heroes’ welcome on their return home, is it right to celebrate their record fourth World Cup triumph unconditionally? Not everyone thinks so. And the reason is summed up in this speech from 2019.

The Springboks had just won their third World Cup and politician Mbuyiseni Ndlozi fumed it was done with only a handful of Black players. Hardly reflective of the country’s demographics, where 80 per cent are Blacks.

Forward to today and the stats are better - but just over half the Springboks are still White. For a lot of people, progress hasn't come fast enough.

Continued….After all, it’s nearly thirty years since the end of apartheid when Blacks were banned from playing rugby and the national side refused to compete against teams that fielded non-Whites.

As Ndlozi mentions, there are more Black rugby players in Eastern Cape than Whites in South Africa.
Put like that, it’s difficult to argue the sport’s race problem has been properly fixed.

In the post-apartheid-era, laws may not prevent players of colour from donning the green and gold jersey, but social-economic barriers can. The Springboks’ victory in France gave South Africans something to celebrate amid incessant power outages, soaring unemployment and crime levels. But for many, calling it a victory for a new 'representative ' South Africa is a sidestep too far.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Is he being to harsh or right on the money?

Hear Us Roar: https://t.me/AfricanStream

MALAWI PRESIDENT ON WESTERN HYPOCRISY

Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, president of the Republic of Malawi, called out the hypocrisy of the West during his 21 September address at 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly. He said peace is an impossibility in a world where actions taken promote war and conflict. His words, indeed, bear a reflection of what we are witnessing, as in the case of this summer’s coup in Niger that exposed French colonial influence and the 7 October escalation of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Both of these conflicts demonstrate Western hypocrisy in preaching peace, but funding war and subversions.

Let us know what you think about Chakwera’s remarks.

Hear Us Roar: https://t.me/AfricanStream