AfricanStream

Countless people have visited Palestine from countries around the world and come back with similar horror stories. In this video, one traveller named Sue (@economyvodka) recounted the traumatising experience of going through an Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank to get from one Palestinian city to another. While she spent seven months in Palestine and will likely remember this experience for the rest of her life, Sue also recognised that she felt just a fraction of what Palestinians who were born and raised under occupation live through. Palestinians have encouraged foreigners to visit the occupied territories to see first-hand what they have been fighting since at least 1948. Despite the hardships, many people travel to the West Bank to learn about the Palestinian people's liberation movement and culture.

If you had to guess which country’s military has splashed out $10-thousand on a toilet seat, what would you say? Well, it’s not a ‘corrupt’ African nation, it’s the United States. Its defence budget is set to top $1-trillion for the first time in 2027, or thereabouts. And its massively inflated deals with contractors helps explain why. African Stream's Kenneth Kaigua looks at the eye-watering prices being paid for low-end goods. And he also exposes the revolving door connecting politicians and weapons manufacturers. Washington's current $822-billion defence budget is more than the next 10 biggest spending countries combined. Maybe it's time to call the US military HQ the Penta-con!

Throughout history, African liberation movements have fought for justice and freedom from imperialism. Leaders like Captain Thomas Sankara and Patrice Lumumba paid with their lives but their revolutionary spirit lived on. This clip will help you understand why. Palestine author, journalist and activist Ghassan Kanafani describes the reasoning behind Palestinian resistance against Zionist colonisation, displacement, land theft, and massacres. He’s being interviewed by Australian reporter Richard Carleton in Beirut, in 1970. Three years before, Kanafani had joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and served as its spokesman. In 1972, he and his 17-year-old niece, Lamees, were killed by a car bomb in Beirut, with Israeli Foreign Intelligence Service (Mossad) claiming the attack. However, they could not stop his legacy inspiring future Palestinian liberation movements and literature. Born in Acre, Palestine, Kanafani’s family was displaced by the 1948 ‘Nakba’ and resettled in Damascus, Syria. There, Kanafani taught Palestinian refugee children and began crafting short stories to help them grasp their reality. He studied Arabic Literature at the University of Damascus but was expelled due to his involvement with the Movement of Arab Nationalists. He later moved to Kuwait and then Beirut. His 1963 novel, ‘Men in the Sun’, was highly praised along with ‘A World that is Not Ours’. This outlook changed to active resistance after the 1967 Six-Day War. From an African perspective, what Kanafani discusses in this short video, is very much relatable. Despite achieving independence across the continent in the 1950s and 60s many nations were simply client states to former colonial powers. They had independent flags but dependent economies, militaries, and politics. Leaders such as Thomas Sankara and Patrice Lumumba rose to fight for true independence. Like Ghassan Kanafani, they were assassinated but left a legacy that continued to inspire.

A coalition of activist groups in southern California disrupted a live 4 June recording of US Vice President Kamala Harris on late-night talk show ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!,’ calling her a ‘m*rderer.’ The activists (from @cgs4afreepalestine, pasadena4palestine, @jewishantizionistnetwork, @codepinkcoachellavalley and CodePink Southeast LA ) called out the Biden-Harris administration for continuing to fund Israel’s military onslaught that has k*lled more than 36,000 Palestinians since the 7 October escalation in the 76-year Israeli occupation of Palestine. Many have criticised Harris, the first Black woman to serve as US vice president, for talking about women’s rights while the US has funded and armed Israel, k*lling about 24,000 women and children so far. Further, the attacks have wounded at least 83,000 Palestinians, while an estimated 10,000 people are buried under rubble. The complete recording of the 4 June action showed security guards forcibly removing the activists and assaulting a few. Video credit: @codepinkalert (IG) @codepink (TW)

Sudan’s one-year-old civil war has slipped under the radar as the world focuses on Israel’s brutal offensive in Rafah, but it’s no less horrific. Here, Sudanese content creator Sara lists shocking war crimes allegedly committed in just one day by the Rapid Support Forces. On June 5th, they attacked a village in central Sudan, massacring up to 100 people, according to local reports. Three days before that, 85 Sudanese civilians were killed and over 110 injured after clashes between Sudan’s Army and the RSF, in El Fasher, the capital city of North Darfur State. There have been efforts to bring the atrocities to the world’s attention. In April, Sudan issued a complaint against the United Arab Emirates involvement at the UN Security Council. It’s alleged the UAE supports the RSF, which is accused of war crimes. However, details of the case were heard under ‘closed consultations’ at the request of UNSC permanent member Britain. It basically barred non-member states from participating, including Sudan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Al-Harith Idris. Several Western governments have urged the UAE to stop supporting the RSF. Abu Dhabi denies involvement, although UN experts say there’s evidence of weapons supply, logistics and funding. Since fighting broke out in April, 2023, over 150-thousand people have been killed, nine-million displaced and 18-million are suffering acute hunger. If the current situation continues, 2.5-million people could die from lack of food by the end of September. That’s according to recent estimates by the Clingendael Institute, a Dutch think tank. The situation is catastrophic. Help Sara’s message reach far and wide by sharing and commenting on this video. Sara’s Instagram handle is: @bsonblast

Subtle words and phrases used by the media can greatly influence your opinion of a story. And we want to draw your attention to a few that severely misrepresent what’s happening in Palestine. In this episode of Africa in 90, @ahmed.ghoneim.official decolonises reports that happily call g*nocide a war, or colonialism a conflict.

Another shocking video has surfaced appearing to show Israeli troops mocking traumatised Palestinians. According to Mintpress, the US news website, soldiers uploaded this video of themselves re-enacting people grieving loved ones in Gaza. They’ve covered their faces in dirt and mimic the pain and anguish being felt. Offensive posts like this aren’t new. At the start of the year, Israeli soldiers circulated videos of themselves gloating after they’d bombed Palestinian homes. The death toll in Gaza currently stands at 36,550. Most of the dead are women and children and a further 80,000 have been injured since October 7th, 2023.

Today marks the anniversary of the Six-Day War. On June 5th, 1967, Israel launched pre-emptive strikes against Egypt and its allies. Aided by the US, Israel went on to invade the Sinai Peninsular and colonise the West Bank, Golan heights and more. At the time, Egypt was led by one of its most popular presidents, Gamal Abdel Nasser. He’d beaten the British, French and Israelis in 1956 Suez War and changed the landscape of his nation and the Arab world. He also pushed for more African integration with other leaders. But his socialist movement and defiance of the West ultimately came to a head. Nasser remained resolute before and after defeat in the Six-Day War. Many believe if he hadn’t died in 1970, Egypt would still be fighting to free all the occupied lands. His successor, Anwar Sadat, did manage to liberate the Sinai Peninsula. However, his normalisation and peace deal with Israel after the Arab–Israeli War remains controversial topic among African and Arabs alike. Listen to Nasser’s TV interview in 1967 where he spells out, in no uncertain terms, his take on Israel and the US, just before the conflict broke out.

South Africans went to the polls on 29th May - and the results were damning for the ruling African National Congress party, which has led the country since the end of apartheid 30 years ago. For the first time since 1994, its first election, the ANC failed to secure at least 50% of the vote (the threshold needed to form a government). The drop in ANC support is seen as a verdict on its governance of the nation. Many Black South Africans accuse the government of not doing enough to dismantle apartheid-era socio-economic structures and injustices. Nothing exemplifies this better than the existence of Orania, a Whites-only town in the country's Northern Cape province. The town has been a source of tension since its establishment in the early ‘90s during the last days of apartheid. The founders and the residents of the town claim its purpose is to preserve the culture and identity of the Afrikaner people, White South Africans of mostly Dutch, French and German descent. However, many people think the town and its policy of not allowing non-White residents is nothing but a racist endeavour to maintain some vestiges of the apartheid system. The residents of the town insist that its existence is protected by Article 235 of the South African constitution, which guarantees self-determination. However, many have argued that the cited part of the constitution does not in fact permit people of a particular religious or cultural group to live in a secluded place away from other South Africans. In 2000, the Northern Cape High Court adjourned ‘sine die’ (without a further hearing date) after Orania’s proponents challenged attempts by the government to incorporate the town into the nearby municipal authority. In 2019, Zamani Saul, the elected leader of the Northern Cape province, vowed to set up an inquiry to review the legality of Orania - supporters saying that South Africa cannot move on from apartheid as long as places like Orania are allowed to exist. African Stream was shown around Orania by some of the locals, who shared their opinions about their community with us. We’d love to hear yours as well in the comments

To a US official's worry that the International Criminal Court (ICC) may prosecute US leaders, Naledi Pandor replied, 'Of course!' Speaking in Cape Town recently, South Africa's foreign minister affirmed her country's support for the ICC in its work to bring war criminals to justice. Pandor said Pretoria would throw its weight behind ICC arrest warrants for US officials, if it came to that. She was alluding to US House of Congress Speaker Mike Johnson's statement that Washington intends to punish the ICC for issuing arrest warrants against top Israeli officials as a way to shield US officials from prosecution. On 20 May, the ICC's prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced he filed applications to seek arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Gaza Strip since 8 October.

One protester noticed something unusual about a New York police officer’s badge: A US-Israeli double flag pin. This recording took place as the officer stood on a police line at a pro-Palestine demonstration on 31 May in New York’s borough of Brooklyn. While it could not be confirmed, social media users have said a law prohibits New York police officers from wearing anything that may be perceived as political while on duty. About 1,000 protesters had stormed the Brooklyn Museum that day to demand prominent institutions like the museum divest from Israel, which has k*lled more than 36,000 Palestinians with a military onslaught and escalated siege since 7 October. Some demonstrators had attempted to set up a tent encampment in the museum’s lobby while others unfurled a ‘Free Palestine: Divest from G*n*cide’ banner from the rooftop of the city’s second-largest museum. Recordings also showed police brutality against demonstrators, including Within Our Lifetime: United for Palestine organiser, Nerdeen Kiswani (@nerdeen_kiswani), whose hijab (Muslim head covering) came off while police tackled her to the ground.

Eight years ago today, Guinea-Bissau’s Carmen Maria Pereira passed on - after a fulfilling life committed to the struggle. She had been a tireless warrior during Guinea-Bissau’s fight for independence from the Portuguese. At an early age, she joined the resistance movement, becoming a member of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) - a party that produced some of Africa’s finest female freedom fighters, such as Titina Silá. Pereira would go on to serve very briefly as Guinea-Bissau’s president. She may not be with us now, but the people of Guinea-Bissau remember her as a radical spirit in the face of injustice. Continue to Rest in Power, Madam Pereira.

During the Confederation of African Football Champions League final, supporters of Tunisia’s Espérance Sportive club, numbering 34,000 strong at the Hammadi Agrebi Stadium in Radés, expressed solidarity with Palestine amidst Israel’s ongoing gen*cidal aggression in Gaza. In a display of unity, massive mosaics adorned the stands, conveying messages advocating for the Palestinian cause and condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza. Banners held by Espérance fans bore slogans such as “Made in Gaza,” “Our noble values: freedom in an occupied world,” and “Standing with Palestine,” showcasing unwavering support for the oppressed. These banners also paid homage to various entities championing the Palestinian cause, including South African lawyers at the International Court of Justice, the Celtic Ultras, Colombian President Gustavo Petro, and flags representing nations backing Palestine. This isn’t the first time North African football supporters have raised flags and banners for Palestine. The politically conscious ultra-culture runs deep. Many of these fans are the same youth who led revolutions a decade ago against their oppressive in regimes in Tunisia and Egypt.

Famine could take hold of large parts of war-torn Sudan. U.N. chiefs warn 18-million people already face acute food insecurity and 3.6-million children are malnourished. It’s feared the catastrophic situation could spiral further, if agencies can’t get aid into the country. The grim reality was spelled out by Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). There are also concerns over the sexual exploitation of women and children, and the use of child soldiers. While the question of who is winning the war in Sudan is up for debate, what’s obvious is that Sudanese people are paying the highest price. One year and two months ago, a power struggle between the leader of the Bashir-era paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces, Hemedti, and the Sudanese Army general, Burhan, sparked the war between the two. Since then, 8.9-million people have been forced to flee, according to ReliefWeb, making it the world’s biggest displacement crisis. According to the World Food Programme, humanitarian convoys can’t cross frontlines due to security threats. A U.N.-backed report in March said immediate action was needed to ‘prevent widespread death and total collapse of livelihoods’.

Muhammad Ali - born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. - died on this day 8 years ago. He was a renowned boxer and activist. Growing up in the era of racial segregation, he was vocal about the rights of African people globally, especially in America. At the age of 12 twelve, he was motivated to become a boxer after someone stole his bike and he wanted to ‘rough him up.’ He was encouraged by an officer to learn how to box first, and after watching the sport on TV, he trained as an amateur before becoming a pro. He is widely regarded as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time: he won the world heavyweight championship three times - a first - and successfully defended his title 19 times. A lot of people idolised him, including children and the younger generation. But in this clip, he advises them to focus on education and creating a trade for themselves - rather than try to follow in his footsteps as a fighter. That’s because only the very best stand a chance of making it, and even for them, that chance is minuscule and filled with uncertainty. It’s great advice, but do you think young Ali would have actually listened to it?

Brain drain has left Africa’s healthcare sick. The continent faces a shortfall of a million doctors, partly due to the number of qualified medics who’ve emigrated. Arikana Chihombori, the former AU envoy to the UN, claims there are more Ghanaian doctors in New York City than Ghana itself. And in this clip, she makes it clear it’s not just a problem facing healthcare. It’s a curse infecting every sector. Have a listen and give us your solution.

Malcolm X had a tremendous impact on Black and civil rights movements. He was an advocate for Black empowerment and challenged racism and imperialism through his politics. In this video, from the Black Journal series of 1969 , his wife echoes his words even after his death, that the fight for freedom and basic human rights is one that unites Black people from Africa to the US and beyond. It’s a powerful message that still resonates. Catch Malcolm X’s words during a visit to Cairo at the end!

‘Madaraka’ is Swahili for power - and on this day, Kenyans took theirs back from the colonial regime. Self-governance was a key milestone on the difficult road to independence. African Stream’s Wambura Mwai looks back at the drama that lead up to it. Happy Madakara Day!

Africa has some of the weakest passports around. While many restriction on our travel globally are rooted in racist fears and assumptions, Africans also don’t make life easy for themselves - even within our continent, we often require visas to get around! That’s something we could easily fix by lifting restrictions on intra-African travel along the model of the borderless EU. Is that something you’d like to see happen?

Amy Jacques Garvey was a formidable figure in the Black liberation movement - and her impact extended far beyond her role as the wife of Pan-African figurehead Marcus Garvey. She was an astute journalist, editor and activist, and played a pivotal role in shaping the intellectual and ideological framework of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Her incisive writings provided an important platform for anti-colonial and feminist discourse, advocating fiercely for the rights and empowerment of Black people globally. Amy Jacques Garvey will be remembered as a great architect of Pan-Africanism and a powerful voice for gender equality within the movement. African Stream’s Wambura Mwai relates her impressive story.

Here’s American Black writer James Baldwin explaining why he fled to France in the 1940s. Put simply, there was a ‘danger of death to negros’ in the U.S. and he had to get out. He’s on a 1968 episode of the Dick Cavett Show, and had just been asked by a White Yale professor: ‘Why must we always concentrate on colour, when there are other ways of connecting men?’ Baldwin quickly exposes the out-of-touch academic. And reels off the list of realities facing Blacks. From the segregated congregations of the Christian church, to the real estate lobby that kept him ‘in the ghetto.’ Baldwin arrived in Paris with just $40 in his pocket. But he didn’t care. France was able to release him from the ‘social terror’ he’d experienced in the United States. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, was published in 1953, and it made Time magazine’s top 100 list. Baldwin died in 1987, and is remembered for his civil rights activism as well as his writing. And, of course, passionate interviews like this.

The struggle against colonialism is intensifying worldwide. This video by Congolese journalist Maud-Salomé EKILA BOFUNDA (@ekilaaa) the spokeperson of the organisation @urgencespanafricanistes and @afriqueresurrection goes into the history of the indigenous Kanak people, who are confronting violent French settler colonialism and an effort to seize their lands. What the French call ‘New Caledonia,’ aka the islands of Kanaky, an archipelago not far from Australia, has been inhabited by Pacific Islanders since around 1000 BCE. The French seized the islands in 1853 and made it an ‘overseas territory’ in 1956. Today, the French and their settlers on the island are trying to consolidate and solidify their power at the expense of the Kanak people once again. The goal is to eliminate the the Noumea Agreement of 1998, which grants Kanak people some level of political control over their ancestral homelands. In doing so, settlers born in France who migrated to Kanaky would be allowed to participate in local elections. For decades, the strategy on the part of the French to crush the power of the Kanak people has been to encourage more and more mass French settlement on the islands. Many Kanak, including very well organised sectors of the population, understand that their only true pathway to liberation is through full independence from France and an end to all colonial ties and relations.

For more than seven months, massacre upon massacre in the Gaza Strip has been livestreamed to the world. Be it Palestinian parents begging for justice by holding up their children’s dead bodies or Israeli soldiers playing with women’s lingerie after they raid Palestinian homes, the world has seen the true face of Zioni*m. However, the West has remained Israel’s friend. As pro-Palestine activist Fiona Lali of the UK’s Revolutionary Communist Party points out, Israel is crucial to upholding Western imperialism. It is an unsinkable aircraft carrier, a Western outpost in West Asia used to destabilise the resource-rich region. Instead of clamping down on Israel’s military onslaught that has k*lled more than 36,000 Palestinians, the West has poured resources into Israel. That has included UN vetoes against ceasefires, refusing to recognise a Palestinian state, shipping weapons, and sending tens of billions of dollars since 7 October.

31st May marks three years since the gruesome murder of British-born Jamaican teenager Dea-John Reid in broad daylight in the city of Birmingham. Reid was murdered by a group of grown men and teenagers who chased him down a street and stabbed him multiple times while shouting racial slurs. The brutal incident was captured on security cameras. Reid's family are still demanding justice over his murder. A 15-year-old White boy was convicted of the lesser crime of manslaughter - but not of murder, as demanded by the family and prosecution. He received a six-and-a-half-year sentence for the crime, but he is likely to serve only half of his sentence behind bars because of the nature of the British judicial system. Two other teenagers and two adults who had been accused of taking part in the attack on the Jamaican teenager walked free after the court acquitted them of all charges. Many have described the verdict as a miscarriage of justice. They blame the composition of the jury for this. Out of the 12 jurors, 11 were White, while one was of Asian descent. The Ministry of Justice says jurors are randomly selected, but given the fact that people of colour make up over half of Birmingham, it is difficult to understand how a jury in such a case could be 91% White. This has led to calls for deliberate efforts to make juries more ethnically diverse, especially in cases where race is at the centre. Please follow the Justice 4 Dea-John Reid campaign at https://www.facebook.com/share/c7WE41c8M2kpsEZx/?mibextid=LQQJ4d and lend the family your support.

Mossad’s former director, Yossi Cohen, threatened Fatou Bensouda, former International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor, over a probe into war crimes, according to an investigation pursued by three publications: The Guardian, Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and Local Call, a Hebrew-language outlet. The intimidation campaign against Bensouda, a lawyer and Gambian High Commissioner (or official representative) to the United Kingdom since 2022, began when she announced in 2021 that the court would open investigations into possible Israeli war crimes in occupied Palestinian territories. The ICC initially delayed its investigation over deliberations about its jurisdiction regarding the Palestinian territories. Once it cleared that hurdle, the probe went ahead despite Israeli opposition. It culminated on 20 May when the ICC announced it had filed applications for arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over possible war crimes in the Gaza Strip since 8 October. Cohen, a close ally of Netanyahu, allegedly told Bensouda, ‘You don’t want to be getting into things that could compromise your security or that of your family.’ On a separate occasion, Cohen allegedly told the prosecutor that proceeding with the investigation would severely damage her career.