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.

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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.

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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’.

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'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?

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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.

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF CONCENTRATION CAMPS

The besieged Gaza Strip has been transformed over several years into what many say is a concentration camp. Since the 7 October escalation of the 75-year conflict between Israel and Palestine, about one million Palestinians have been subjected to genocide after being forced to flee Israeli airstrikes and a ground invasion. Another one million people remain trapped inside the enclave, with no or limited access to electricity, water, food, fuel and medicine. Due to our colonial past, Africans know too well about colonial oppression and concentration camps that had claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, from Kenya to South Africa. Here’s a brief look into the history of concentration camps to remind you of what history has not forgotten.

Let us know what you think.

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COLONIALISM BY OTHER MEANS

China is bad, China is bad, China is bad. I am sure you have heard this a million times before about Africa. But what about how money is siphoned away from Africa by the West? Decades after gaining independence, most African countries have little to no control over their vital natural resources. About 100 Western companies on the London Stock Exchange control the lion’s share of Africa’s resources, bleeding the continent billions of dollars annually.

Let us know your thoughts.

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'KING CHARLES HAS NOTHING TO APOLOGISE FOR', WE DISAGREE!

Controversial Australian TV host Andrew Bolt says King Charles demeaned the Crown by addressing Britain's ugly colonial past during his recent visit to Kenya. He thinks Kenyans should at least be grateful for the gifts of colonialism - the English language, democracy and many others. We react to this attempt to whitewash the untold tragedy of colonialism in Kenya and the implications of the King's 'non-apology' apology.
Join the conversation and share your thoughts.

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ISRAEL'S ANTI-AFRICAN RACISM

Israel is a racist state, and not just to Palestinians. Africans fleeing their homes for reasons such as war or hunger have found themselves on the receiving end of racially motivated abuses. In this snippet of a documentary from 2012, Max Blumenthal chronicles the anti-Black character prevalent in Israeli society, including at high levels of government.

In the context of Palestine, several Africans have asked, what does this have to do with Africa? First, support for the oppressed should carry no such conditions, and second, this video shows exactly why the two struggles are interconnected. Zionism as an ideology promotes the idea of one group of people as superior to others. It is thus inevitable that the state created exclusively for Jews would discriminate against Africans.

It goes further. Even African Jews have not been spared. Israel sterilized Ethiopian women to ensure that the white majority Jewish state doesn’t get ‘diluted’.

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HOW U.S. COPS USE ISRAELI TACTICS AGAINST AFRICANS

Among the many thousands who came to the Capitol in Washington DC this weekend to call for a ceasefire in Gaza were many Africans in America and groups representing their interest.

As well as wanting an end to the carnage, some also see similarities in they way Israel controls Palestinians and America’s aggressive policing of Blacks.

There is in fact close cooperation between US and Israeli police, and tactics perfected against Palestinians are being imported into cities like Atlanta, Georgia, half of whose population consists of Africans in America.

We spoke to an activist from Atlanta’s Black Alliance for Peace who’d travelled all the way up to the huge pro-Palestinian rally in DC to discuss this and more.

Let us know your reactions to her insights in the comments.

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DON’T TELL US HOW TO SPEAK!

Just as any two living creatures have a common ancestor in the tree of life, so any two languages have a common tongue from which they ultimately derived. Scientists currently believe that the world’s 6,000 modern languages, from English to Mandarin, can all be traced back to a ‘mother tongue’ - an ancestral language spoken in Africa 50,000 to 70,000 years ago. Differently put: all languages are descended from primordial African!

This makes it all the more galling that Africans who visit, work or live outside of the continent are often taunted and laughed at because sometimes they don’t pronounce English words ‘properly’ - even though these words are ‘deviations’ (however far removed) from African-language words.

Continued….The continent’s turbulent history of colonisation is the reason for the use of European languages in African schools, commerce and governments today. However, something that is overlooked is that most Africans are accustomed to speaking multiple languages, perhaps three or more throughout the course of a single day.

That’s one reason Africans mispronounce words - they can speak other languages fluently enough for those languages to interfere with their English.

In this clip, Anna Mwalagho (@mamaafricaanna) - an African storyteller living in the United States - gives a passionate defence of the uniqueness of African accents, arguing that this diversity is something to celebrate and be proud of.

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DESPERATE FRANCE WARNS OF MORE NIGER SANCTIONS

You can tell France is getting increasingly desperate about Niger. Its foreign minister Catherine Colonna has just warned that Paris may whack more sanctions on Niamey if its preferred leader - deposed President Bazoum - isn’t given his job back.

Paris, like the EU, has already suspended development aid, as it reels from the popular coup that swept an anti-imperialist military leadership to power in its former colony. The pro-French West African bloc ECOWAS has also imposed tough anti-revolutionary measures, cutting vital electricity supplies and freezing assets.

Colonna - speaking in Abuja last week - expressed support for the pressure being piled on Niger by regional nations to reverse the coup. This has included the threat of a military intervention by the ECOWAS standby force, which has been activated to combat readiness.

Continued…..There are many stages of grief in any break up. France is still stuck at the anger and denial stages. How long till we reach acceptance, do you reckon? Let us know in the comments!

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MALCOLM X: ON ZIONIST LOGIC

In 1964, Malcolm X visited Gaza to witness first-hand the horrors of Israeli occupation. He was, in many ways, transformed by his experience, which gave him a new perspective on the Zionist project. He would go on from that point to be a vocal critic of Zionism, denouncing it in the newspaper, The Egyptian Gazette, as well as on US university campuses.

During his time in Gaza, he was accompanied by Palestinian poet Harun Hashim Rashid, who described Malcolm X, saying that he, “came to Gaza with a strong desire to learn about the Palestinian cause. He was a true Muslim who shed tears many times as he was hearing about the tragedies of Palestinians. He was a humanist and Muslim in his essence.”

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MALEMA OWNS BBC PRESENTER

Does the BBC ever get the better of South Africa’s biggest pan-African party? Leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, Julius Malema, was interviewed earlier this year by the show HARDtalk. But the host was soon back-peddling after bringing up 15-year-old, unproven claims of tax irregularities. He was also given a lesson in what the EFF stands for after suggesting it admires authoritarianism.

For those of you who don’t know, the EFF was founded a decade ago and is now South Africa’s third-largest party. Malema was formerly the President of the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League from 2008 until 2012. While in charge, he campaigned for the nationalisation of South Africa's mining industry and the expropriation of land without compensation. Policy positions the EFF has adopted.

Continued….Former South African President Jacob Zuma said Malema is a ‘future leader’ for the country. Interviews like this one show the qualities his supporters admire—a straight talker and principled.

Are you a fan?

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SANCTIONS HURT NIGER

On 26 October, Nigerien Prime Minister Ali Mahamane Lamine Zeine recorded this BBC interview on the hardships that economic sanctions have caused for Niger. Just three days prior, the European Union convened to work out a plan to impose new sanctions on the West African state. This comes after neighbouring African member states in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) slapped sanctions shortly after the late July coup that ousted a Western-friendly Nigerien president, Mohamed Bazoum. Additional EU sanctions are likely to drastically increase poverty and hunger. However, Nigeriens are proud of their post-coup government, which is choosing to defend African sovereignty and expel imperialist occupying military forces, such as France and the United States.

How, as Africans, should we respond to Niger under imperialist attack? Let us know in the comments.

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