Continued……Douglass echoes the sentiments of many of our predecessors that we, as Africans, both at home and abroad, will only win our freedom when our collective demand for liberation becomes too powerful to be ignored by those who wield power.

Douglass died of a heart attack at age 77 on 20 February 1895.

Sources:

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1857-frederick-douglass-if-there-no-struggle-there-no-progress/

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frederick-Douglass

KEMI BADENOCH: PALESTINIAN FAMILY DOESN’T DESERVE TO LIVE IN U.K.

The UK Conservative Party’s first Black leader, Kemi Badenoch, has faced widespread criticism for her xenophobic and anti-African rhetoric, with many accusing her of catering to the outwardly racist far right. For instance, late last year, she distanced herself from Nigeria, stating that she identifies more with her ethnic Yoruba heritage and that she shared little in common with northern Nigerians. 

In this video clip, lawyer, author and activist Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu called Badenoch the ‘mouthpiece of white supremacy’ for urging the British government to revoke a Palestinian family’s refugee status obtained through a scheme meant for Ukrainian refugees. No surprise there, as just five months ago, she spoke against a wave of migrants who allegedly oppose Israel, saying, ‘not all cultures are equally valid.’

Continued……Mos-Shogbamimu (@sholamos1 on IG, TT and X) reminded us that Britain has supported Israel’s military onslaught in Gaza, which the Gaza media office recently reported led to 61,000 civilian deaths. However, the Lancet medical journal suggested in July 2024 that the death toll could be as high as 186,000.

Video credit: @sholamos1 

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/feb/12/judge-granted-palestinian-family-asylum-made-wrong-decision-keir-starmer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVPN8q_Hb0M

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/clynj94llp5t?page=2

https://www.informationng.com/2024/12/kemi-badenoch-denounces-nigerian-heritage-says-she-only-identifies-as-yoruba.html

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/i-will-die-protecting-this-country-kemi-badenoch-on-where-she-plans-to-take-the-tories

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/29/kemi-badenoch-not-all-cultures-equally-valid-immigration

https://www.kemibadenoch.org.uk/news/kemis-column-statement-ukraine

BURKINA FASO NATIONALISES ALL LAND

Major land reform has come to Burkina Faso, bringing the country’s trajectory back to a ‘Sankarist’ direction.

On 5 February, Burkina Faso Minister of the Economy and Finances Dr. Aboubakar Nacanabo announced all land belongs to the state and foreigners are no longer allowed to hold rural land titles. This is similar to the land reform measures adopted by assassinated socialist Pan-Africanist President Thomas Sankara (1949-87), who nationalised land in Burkina Faso in 1984. Under the counter-revolutionary government of Blaise Compaoré, found guilty in Sankara’s assassination, the government privatised land in 1991. 

The new law is the second and most expansive land reform policy enacted under President Ibrahim Traoré. In June 2023, the government enacted a law to exclude private real estate developers from urban planning operations and limit the number of hectares a private entity could possess for urban real estate to five hectares.

Continued……In addition, real estate developers and urban landowners who plan to build on their land must submit their intentions to the government and begin construction within a specified delay time. This law aims to prevent land grabbing and speculation and to increase mass access to Burkina Faso’s land.

As Sankara told his people, ‘Improve your land and farm it in peace. The time is over when people, sitting in their parlours, can buy and re-sell land on speculation.’

With all these changes, Burkina Faso seems to be following Sankara’s path. Do you agree?

SOURCES

Burkina Faso announcement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpzC6XymutM

Blaise Compaore found guilty
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-61008332

1984 law
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B2-J7okDA3FO6WRuN8DEwkkkYJQ6XX0u/view?usp=sharing
(Page 39)

1991 law
https://www.iied.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/migrate/7308IIED.pdf

New law
https://www.afrique-sur7.fr/reforme-fonciere-au-burkina-faso-letat-affirme-sa-souverainete-sur-les-terres

New law
https://www.agridigitale.net/article/burkina-faso-le-titre-de-propriete-sur-les-terres-rurales-refuse-aux-etrangers

Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) President Félix Tshisekedi has chosen to attend the 61st Munich Security Conference in Germany as his country faces a Western-backed conflict over natural resources that has internally displaced 700,000 people since January. A tweet from the official presidential account on 13 February confirmed his arrival in Munich, where global leaders plan to tackle global security challenges over three days.

Tshisekedi’s presence in Germany means he’ll be absent for the 38th African Union (AU) Summit scheduled for 15-16 February in Addis Ababa, which includes a meeting of the AU’s Peace and Security Council focused on the ongoing crisis in eastern DRC. His communications team informed news agency Agence France-Presse that Prime Minister Judith Suminwa would represent him.

Continued….. This isn’t the first time Tshisekedi has skipped significant regional meetings. He missed the East African Community (EAC) virtual summit on 29 January. On 8 February, he again was a no-show at a crucial meeting in Tanzania involving the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the EAC.

His repeated absence from these key African gatherings raises concerns about his commitment to direct dialogue, with some seeing it as a setback for a Pan-African effort to address the escalating crisis in the Great Lakes region. 

Congo’s 30-year resource war had k*lled around 6 million people by 2010, with many more casualties since then. Many have blamed Western corporations that exploit the country’s mineral resources, estimated at $24 trillion, for exacerbating the war. In March 2024, a US court ruled against former child miners in a case against five major US tech companies: Alphabet (the parent company of Google), Dell, Apple, Tesla, and Microsoft.

Sources:

https://x.com/Presidence_RDC/status/1890097466462093689

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/congo-s-president-to-skip-east-african-community-summit-on-goma-crisis/3465756

https://www.barrons.com/news/congolese-president-to-miss-au-meeting-on-eastern-drc-violence-b1db788c

https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/main-staging/business/africa/article/2001510651/drc-crisis-tshisekedi-snubs-meeting-as-eac-heads-of-state-call-for-ceasefire

https://chimpreports.com/drcs-tshisekedi-misses-sadc-eac-summit-sends-prime-minister

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/01/1159541

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/05/tech/big-tech-child-labor-congo-lawsuit/index.html

https://www.caritas.org/2010/02/six-million-dead-in-congos-war

CEASEFIRE AS A WAR TACTIC BY M23 REBELS

The Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group has become skilled at using ceasefire agreements to regroup - warns Claude Gatebuke, a survivor of the Rwandan Genocide and a human-rights advocate.

He notes that this strategy was honed by Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) during their collaboration with Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni in the bush war of the 1980s.

On 4 February, M23 announced a unilateral ceasefire, claiming it was for “humanitarian reasons.” Yet, they have since taken control of Nyabibwe city and are moving south towards Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province. The UN reports that over 700,000 people have been displaced since January 2025, with thousands killed.

Regional organisations such as the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the East African Community (EAC) have convened summits to try to negotiate an end to the conflict.

Continued……Gatebuke warns that, based on their history, M23 is likely to use any ceasefire as an opportunity to rearm and expand their territory.

He highlights a pattern that’s easy to recognise, and the situation on the ground supports his claims. It’s evident that Congo is suffering greatly, while those in power sit in comfortable conference rooms, supposedly working to alleviate the crisis.

As the long-suffering Congolese people are all too aware, any agreed pause is merely a brief break in the ongoing turmoil.

Sources:

https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/congo-conflict-m23-declares-ceasefire-4912974

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/m23-rebel-advances-in-eastern-dr-congo-overshadows-ceasefire-in-goma/3481177#

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/01/1159541

LET’S TALK ABOUT KEMI BADENOCH

In a speech at Michigan State University on 24 January 1963, revolutionary and civil-rights activist Malcom X (1925-65) drew a distinction between field and house N*groes. He called the latter the “twentieth-century Uncle Tom.”

Over six decades later, the distinction is still worth drawing. Every generation produces a new version of the house N*gro. They are the ones willing to betray the fight against imperialism to do their masters’ bidding for financial reward and privileges.

Continued……The new leader of the UK’s opposition Conservative Party - Kemi ‘Adegoke’ Badenoch - fits the bill perfectly. Our sister Sannario explains why.

Sources:

https://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/mmt/mxp/speeches/mxt17.html

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/i-will-die-protecting-this-country-kemi-badenoch-on-where-she-plans-to-take-the-tories/

https://www.kemibadenoch.org.uk/news/kemis-column-statement-ukraine

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2024/09/28/kemi-badenoch-migrants-britain-tradition/

https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/systemic-racism-permeates-all-levels-our-society

https://africanarguments.org/2016/09/the-scale-of-the-uks-involvement-in-africas-resources-is-staggering-so-too-is-its-disregard-for-the-rights-of-those-affected/

https://republic.com.ng/october-november-2023/the-making-of-nigeria/

https://guardian.ng/news/im-yoruba-ive-nothing-in-common-with-northern-nigeria-badenoch/

CONSTRUCTION VEHICLES POUR INTO BURKINA FASO?

People on social media are cheering for Burkina Faso as internet users post videos of new road-construction vehicles pouring into the country via Ghana.

Featuring the world’s youngest president, 36-year-old Ibrahim Traoré, Burkina Faso has gained a positive reputation across the region and the continent for charting a development plan independent of former coloniser France and the West.

In recent years, the country opened two tomato-paste factories and began constructing a gold refinery and a mining-residue treatment facility. Recently, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), to which Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger belong, revealed a plan to develop roads and railways to connect the countries’ major cities as part of its goal of free movement within the AES. The ultimate goal is to create a federated country.

Video credits: inous TV au Faso 🇧🇫 (YouTube) / @the_kandas (TikTok)