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Dec 1

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From 1915 to 1934, the United States occupied Haiti under the guise of ensuring stability and protecting it from European interference. However, according to the New York Times, evidence from decades of diplomatic correspondence, financial records and historical analysis reveals a more menacing driver behind the occupation: Wall Street! Specifically, National City Bank, now Citigroup, played a central role in pushing for US intervention in Haiti, driven by the desire to secure financial dominance over the Caribbean state to expand its business beyond US borders.

In 1914, a year before the invasion, National City Bank orchestrated the seizure of $500,000 in gold from Haiti’s treasury. This aggressive financial intervention destabilised Haiti's economy and laid the groundwork for US control. US Marines invaded Haiti seven months later, in 1915, but the occupation primarily served to protect and expand Wall Street's investments. National City Bank assumed control of Haiti’s central bank and redesigned Haiti’s financial system to benefit US economic interests.

The occupation reshaped Haiti’s economy, transforming it into a tool for Wall Street profiteering. Infrastructure projects during the occupation primarily served US business interests. The occupiers redirected export industries like sugar to benefit US corporations. Meanwhile, much of Haiti’s revenue was funnelled toward debt repayment to US banks, leaving little for national development.

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African Stream

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Nov 10

The portrayal of Scots as abolitionists and liberal champions hides a long history of Scottish profiting from the enslavement of Africans. The wealth accumulated from the exploitation of millions of men, women and children was a huge boon to Scotland’s cities, institutions and economy. This week’s Facts of the Week explores the shameful Scottish slaver past.

COLONIAL AMBITIONS
Though ultimately unsuccessful, Scotland’s 1698 attempt to colonise Panama (through the so-called Darien Scheme)foreshadowed its later involvement in the exploitation of African labour

BUNCE ISLAND OPERATION
Scots turned Bunce Island in Sierra Leone into a significant slave-trading post, shipping (between 1728-1807) hundreds of thousands of Africans to the Americas (an estimated 50% of them died on the journey), where they would work on plantations that enriched Scottish merchants

TOBACCO AND COTTON LORDS
Over half of Britain’s tobacco imports came through Glasgow, a hub for the cotton and tobacco trade, which relied on enslaved labour in the Americas, largely controlled by Scottish merchants like Andrew Buchanan and John Glassford, who have streets in the city named after them

PLANTATION OWNERSHIP IN JAMAICA
In the 18th century, Scots owned nearly one-third of plantations on the Caribbean island, their estates contributing heavily to the British economy

SCOTTISH WEST INDIA SUGAR COMPANY
This company, fuelled by slave labour, contributed heavily to finance the Industrial Revolution in Scotland as Caribbean sugar became a luxury good in high demand in Europe

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African Stream

@african_stream

Nov 1

Botswana's political landscape has been reshaped as the ruling party, the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), suffered a historic defeat after nearly 60 years in power. In a media conference held on the morning of 30 October, the incumbent president and BDP leader, Mokgweetsi Masisi, conceded defeat even before the final results were announced. As of 7 am local time, the BDP had only won one out of all the 36 parliamentary seats whose results had been announced. The main opposition party, the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), led by lawyer and longtime opposition leader Duma Boko, had amassed 25 seats and was on track to hit the 31 seats threshold needed to form a government.

Masisi said he had called Boko to inform him that he was conceding defeat and ready to start the transition formalities at Boko's convenience.
While many had anticipated a close race, the BDP's defeat was a shock. The party's lengthy reign over the diamond mining nation, coupled with Botswana's relative economic stability, had led to expectations of a different outcome. Many can only speculate on the reasons that could have led to Masisi's humiliating defeat. One of the most apparent reasons is the downturn in the economy due to falling global demand for diamonds. Between January and September 2024, there was a 52 per cent decline in the sales of Botswana, partially attributed to the rising popularity of lab-grown artificial diamonds.

This has reduced government revenue, forcing it to cut social spending and struggle to create employment for its growing population.
Masisi's fallout with his former mentor and predecessor, Ian Khama, in 2019 led to the ruling party split that saw several BDP heavyweights move to Khama's new party, the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF). This has taken away a significant number of votes from the BDP. Disagreement over the sharing of diamond revenue led to a protracted feud between the Masisi administration and the London-headquartered diamond miner and trader, DeBeers which has presided over Botswana's diamond industry since its inception in the late 60s through Debswana-a 50-50 joint venture between the two sides.

Masisi's list of foes went beyond Botswana's borders; earlier this year, he threatened to send 20,000 elephants to Germany in protest against that country's opposition to his decision to lift a ban on elephant trophy hunting. In 2019, Masisi lifted the ban that the Khama administration had put in place five years earlier. The decision set him on a collision course with conservation groups and Western governments, claiming the move would result in more poaching; Masisi countered that the country's elephant population had exploded to unsustainable numbers, increasing human-wildlife conflicts. His embrace of Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party, a longtime nemesis of Western countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, also earned Masisi more enemies in the West.

At this stage, it is hard to tell which of these factors was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi, on 1 November, conceded defeat in the 30 October elections.

Early results indicate that the three main opposition parties have won at least 35 of the 61 parliamentary seats.

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African Stream

@african_stream

Oct 27

U.S. FUNDED PROPAGANDA WAR AGAINST GOVERNMENT OF ZIMBABWE

Over a month ago, the US accused African Stream - without evidence - of being a Russian propaganda outfit. Since then, we’ve been banned by social media giants such as Google, Meta and TikTok. Yet the irony is that it’s actually Washington funding propaganda abroad - including in Africa.

Zimbabwe in particular has been in its sights. In the last two decades, Washington has pumped money into two radio stations that Harare accuses of being mediums of 'Western imperialist propaganda.'

The first is the now-defunct Short Wave (SW) Radio Africa, which broadcast from its London-based studios into Zimbabwe and other neighbouring countries from 2001 till 2013. The station's news and programmes were widely seen as biased towards the Western-aligned opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change. The government of Zimbabwe accused the station of having a 'regime-change agenda' at the behest of Western nations that had imposed economic sanctions on the Southern African country in the early 2000s in the wake of its land redistribution programme. A 2005 diplomatic cable from the US embassy made public by Wikileaks revealed that the station had received funding from the US government to enable it to carry out its broadcasts. The allegations of Western funding and a regime-change agenda were given further credence in 2014 when the station announced it was shutting down. In an interview with the BBC station, founder and manager, Gerry Jackson attributed the closure to the decision by 'donors' to turn off the money tap due to 'massive disarray' in the opposition camp.

The second station is the Washington-based Voice of America Studio 7, which has been beaming its signal into Zimbabwe for over 20 years using a transmitter in neighbouring Botswana, an act that the government of Zimbabwe has in the past described as piracy and an attack on its sovereignty. Like SW Radio Africa, Studio 7's broadcasts have been highly critical of the Zimbabwean government. The US government wholly funds Studio 7 through the State Department's US Agency for Global Media, which, on its website, explicitly states that its mission is to ensure that 'the long-range interests of the United States are served by communicating directly with the peoples of the world by radio.'

The hypocrisy is clear: while funding media entities to spread its propaganda to African audiences, the US is using unfounded allegations to gag independent outlets such as ours from reaching our fellow Africans with a radical anti-imperalist and pan-african message.

SOURCES:

allafrica.com/stories/200310…
theguardian.com/media/2002/jan…
newsweek.com/gerry-jackson-…
insiderzim.com/us-funded-sw-r…
voazimbabwe.com/a/zimbabwe-ger…
herald.co.zw/govt-to-quash-…

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African Stream

@african_stream

Oct 27

Oliver Reginald Tambo, a man sometimes referred to as the 'other half' of South Africa's African National Congress (ANC) party, was born on this day in 1917 in today's Eastern Cape province in South Africa.

As a child, Tambo excelled academically and received a scholarship to study sciences and teaching at the University of Fort Hare - the only tertiary institution that admitted Black students. There he met and befriended a certain Nelson Mandela. The two set up South Africa's first Black-owned law firm and also helped set up the ANC's Youth League.

The 1950s saw Tambo rise through the ranks of the ANC. In 1957, he became its vice president.

In the aftermath of the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, which saw 69 protesters gunned down by the police as they peacefully protested against the draconian Pass Laws, the ANC asked Tambo to go into exile and set up operations there. The main reason was that, shortly after the massacre, the apartheid regime banned the ANC, thereby making it illegal for it to operate openly. Tambo ended up spending three decades abroad.

Tambo is credited with holding the liberation movement together during a difficult time when it was facing an onslaught from the apartheid regime. In the late '80s, the regime reluctantly came to the negotiating table after losses on the battlefield in Angola and under the pressure of international sanctions. Tambo led the talks, which ultimately resulted in the unbanning of the ANC and the release of political prisoners - including Mandela, in 1990. That year, Tambo returned to his homeland.

Unfortunately, Tambo did not live to see the 'promised land.'

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African Stream

@african_stream

Oct 20

LIBYA: NATO'S FAILED STATE

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was assassinated by NATO-backed rebels on this day in 2011. Here’s a look at how his removal changed the country from an African model of prosperity to a hellscape of terrorism, human trafficking and conflict - benefitting only the West.

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