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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SOUTH AFRICA FM DESTROYS FAKE NEWS

Let's be honest in reporting on the Palestine-Israel conflict, urged South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor.

She was responding to Cornelius Mulder, a member of the South African National Assembly. He had asked during Pandor's 7 November address to the elected body if the South African government denies widespread claims of Palestinian resistance group Hamas beheading babies. That went viral after Nicole Zedeck, a reporter with Tel Aviv-based news channel, i24, said during a live broadcast on 10 October that she had spoken to Israeli soldiers who claimed to have seen bodies of babies that Hamas had decapitated. US President Joe Biden later walked back his claim that he had seen images of decapitated babies. Israeli authorities also confirmed the claims are unverified.

Continued….Pandor amplified the facts that some quarters are trying to downplay: The Palestinian people had been denied their human rights for long before the 7 October escalation in Gaza.

This exchange came after Pandor announced that South Africa had recalled its ambassador in Israel on 6 November, in condemnation of Israel's attacks on Palestine. More than 10,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and 155 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed since the conflict between Palestine and Israel escalated 7 October. Meanwhile, about 1,400 Israelis have been killed, with approximately 200 held hostage.

Tell us what you think of the South African official's remarks.

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BRICS BENEFITS FOR EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA

Two more African countries are set to join the BRICS economic bloc of nations come January 1st. Here’s a look at what benefits Egypt and Ethiopia could reap - everything from access to new markets and de-dollarisation, to de-escalatory mediation in their Nile-damn dispute.

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GAZA ‘GENOCIDE’ SOUTH AFRICA RECALLS DIPLOMATS

South Africa’s recalled its diplomats from Israel and described Tel Aviv’s assault on Gaza ‘genocide’.
It’s also mulling the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador.

Ten thousand Palestinians have been killed so far by the bombardment, more than 4000 of them children. And South African authorities didn’t hold back explaining their decision.

So far, nine countries have slashed relations with Tel Aviv since the escalation in hostilities, with South Africa again showing it's a major African ally to Palestine.

Alongside Algeria, it poured cold water on Israel’s bid to join the African Union two years ago. It also holds firm the creation of a sovereign state of Palestine is the only long-term hope for peace.

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BRITS MUST RETURN KENYAN LAND

GB news host Patrick Christys uses the Norman invasion of the UK to argue that Britain doesn’t owe Kenya reparations for colonisation. But it doesn’t hold water! Can he point to vast landholding companies in the UK owned by the Normans and Vikings today?

Land is the most treasured resource in Kenya, yet many Kenyans are landless. A significant reason is the outright theft of prime land by British colonialists and international corporations, such as Finlays, which owns enormous tea estates in the country.

Dispossessed Kenyans wouldn’t lose sleep over an apology if their land is restituted.

What do you think about Christys’ comments and our response?

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MALEMA: TAKE NETANYAHU TO THE HAGUE

Pan-African leader Julius Malema has called on the International Criminal Court to issue a warrant of arrest for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for atrocities his government has committed against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

During a 5 November address to members of his party in Johannesburg, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) president said Israel has crossed the line by engaging in acts, such as bombing refugee camps and hospitals.

Israel has ramped up its bombardment of Gaza since October 7, when the 75-year-old conflict between Palestine and the Zionist state escalated.

For example, on 17 October, about 500 people were killed when Gaza’s Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital was hit by what many believe to be an Israeli air strike. Tel Aviv denied being behind the carnage, claiming instead that a missile that originated from within Gaza hit the medical facility.

Continued……However, military analysts say only Israel has the kind of weapons that could have hit and destroyed the hospital in the manner in which it did.

Israeli also frequently targets ambulances ferrying wounded Palestinians to hospitals.

Targeting medical facilities and their workers is a violation of various international laws, including several articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949), as well as resolution 2675, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1970.

Since 7 October, more than 10,000 Palestinians and 1,400 Israelis have been killed .

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

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AFRICANS IN AMERICA: GAZA MATTERS

Africans around the world have been criticised (often by others in the community) for coming out vocally in support of Palestinians - with people asking why they aren’t out demonstrating just as hard against the genocide underway in Darfur instead.

While more global attention should definitely be brought to the plight of civilians in Sudan’s civil war - including by diaspora Africans - that doesn’t mean the Palestinian cause isn’t one that deeply matters to us.

In this clip, one of the participants of the massive pro-Palestinian rally in DC at the weekend explains why he took part - and brought his kids along.

While ending the bloodshed is the priority, there’s more to it than that: many of the injustices Palestinians have faced at the hands of Israelis remind us strongly of the injustices diaspora Africans in the US (for example) have felt at the hands of the authorities there.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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ETHNIC CLEANSING IN DARFUR

A new genocide in Darfur is going largely unnoticed by the global community. Six months into Sudan’s ‘forgotten’ civil war, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Arab militias - amid recent gains in the country’s West - have embarked on a campaign of ethnically-motivated killings, with the region’s Masalit community among those being singled out.

El Geneina, Darfur’s capital, has fallen to the RSF, and civilians are paying a high price. The RSF is accused of shelling internally displaced people’s camps alongside military targets.

Darfur was already scarred by the 2003 genocide, when Khartoum used the Janjaweed militia (the RSF’s predecessor) to quell protests in the region triggered by political and economic marginalisation.

The violence spiralled into a genocide that killed 300,000 and displaced two million. The new war and latest bout of ethnic cleaning has seen another half-million Darfurians flee to neighbouring Chad.

The RSF and the Sudanese Army are currently in Saudi Arabia for talks on humanitarian access, but a ceasefire seems out of reach.

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MALEMA SAYS KENYANS DESERVE MORE FROM UK

Pan-African leader Julius Malema landed early this morning in Kenya for the opening of a Pan-African institute. In one of his first interviews off the plane, the president of South Africa's third largest political party, Economic Freedom Fighters, gave his thoughts on the recent controversial visit of the British monarch, King Charles.

Let us know what you think of Malema's remarks.

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MAKEBA: WE JUST HAVE TO KEEP FIGHTING!

South African music icon Miriam Makeba died on this day in 2008 during a performance at a concert in Italy. For decades, her music ruled the African airwaves. Her melodious voice propelled her to the top of the music charts across continent, but it was her political activism against South Africa's apartheid regime that made Miriam Makeba a global icon.

Fondly known as Mama Africa, Makeba used her music and fame to put a spotlight on the regime's atrocities against Black people in South Africa. She also worked hard to unite Africans - including in the diaspora - in their struggle against systemic racial oppression.

Continued…..In this clip, Makeba explains why Africans around the world are engaged in the same struggle. She reminds us that diaspora Africans were taken out of Africa, and that - whether we are in Mozambique or Brazil, in Namibia or the US - actually, we are brothers and sisters. The fight for total liberation goes on, and it’s by uniting in our struggle that we’ll achieve our aim.

Hit the like button if you share Makeba’s vision!

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