British colonialism and the low self-esteem of the colonised 🧵
1/9 British colonialism was based on racism and paternalism. They established a racial hierarchy, with the White British elite at the top. This extended beyond social layers and became embedded in their culture to justify colonisation and exploitation as civilisation.
2/9

Singapore is the most “economically free” country in the world. Many assume this to mean it’s the most capitalist country. But is Singapore really capitalist? (The answer is no). Yes, Singapore has a market economy. However, “has” is the operative word here, instead of “is”, and depending on how you measure it, the Singaporean state owns more capital than any other developed nation, except for maybe Norway.

Most Africans are unclear what’s happening in the Sahel, particularly in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. The most common feeling is that an anti-imperialist revolution is brewing in the region. Is this true though?

🧵Thread🧵 For a quick background, in 2021, Mali had a military coup d'état. The same happened in Burkina Faso in 2022, then in Niger in 2023. All three coups resulted from similar conditions, for which we must go back two decades to get to where the story begins.

Black, educated South African women are choosing careers over marriage. This is according to a 2020 UKZN research paper.

🧵Thread🧵 Only 37% of South African women aged 15–49 years are currently married, far below the 66.2% world average. The number of never-married women increased sharply between 2011 and 2016, especially among African women, more than any other racial group.

When did South Africa’s Boer community (and White South Africans in general) start hating Russia, and why?

So, before and immediately after the creation of South Africa, the Boer community in South Africa actually got along very well with the Russian Empire and even went to war together against Britain. After the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, they became staunch communist friends.

It's common knowledge that South Africa is the most unequal country in the world, but we don't talk enough about WHY that is. Many blame corruption, the government, Apartheid or some combination of these. Let's quickly talk about the main reasons for this country's broken economy First, South Africa's economy is reliant on mining. This is not good because, unlike other industries like manufacturing, mining for raw minerals and ores requires costly equipment and cheap labour and depends on international ore prices to sell.

Did China abandon socialism and adopt capitalism?

(Also, why there’s no such thing as “state capitalism”) In 1978, Deng Xiaoping became China’s leader and the Communist Party of China (CPC) modified its economic policies in what’s known as “the reforms”, causing some people to claim the country had ditched socialism and become capitalist. This is incorrect.

Nestlé intentionally exposes African children to foods containing high sugar levels to get them addicted and create customers for life.

Meanwhile, the same products in Europe are sold with no added sugar.

Wits Professor, Karen Hofman, calls this “a form of colonisation”🧵🧵 In Switzerland, Nestlé’s biscuit-flavoured baby cereal contains no added sugar. In South Africa and Senegal, same-flavour Cerelac products contain more than one cube of sugar per serving.

In the early 1990s, a window of opportunity presented itself for South Africa to choose a path for a better future. Nelson Mandela elected to follow the markets, and the choices he made then are the reason the country is in the bottomless pit it’s in today 🧵🧵 In the late 1980s and early 1990s, while freedom fighters were trying to secure the vote for Black people, the World Bank and the IMF were leading discussions of future South Africa’s macroeconomic policies.

What causes the oppressed to defend their oppressors?
It's because of democracy, at least according to French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville in his book Democracy in America.

[Thread] Using the Roman empire as an example, Tocqueville shows how emperors had an enormous and unrestrained authority, enabling them to indulge their fantasies and use state power to take away the rights, property and even the lives of their subjects.

Albert Einstein wrote an essay proposing an alternative economic system. Here's a summary: First, Einstein argues that not everything is about economics. For instance, throughout history, most states were created through conquest (as opposed to trade and economics), with the conquerors establishing themselves as the privileged class in the countries they created.

This is a short story of how Cyril Ramaphosa and Roelf Meyer met🧵 In August 1991, Roelf Meyer and his two sons hopped on a helicopter from the Waterkloof military air base near Pretoria and flew to the Havelock Trout Farm, a luxurious holiday lodge shared by billionaire Sidney Frankel, a stockbroker and his group of wealthy friends.

An excerpt of Nelson Mandela's opening address at the ANC's 50th National Conference in December 1997.
Read carefully to understand how South Africa arrived where it is today: “Our democratic system is now 3 1/2 years old. Nothing has happened since our last Conference which threatened its survival...there has been no open and serious counter-revolutionary offensive which sought to reverse this historic victory of our national liberation struggle.

In January 1983, the Nigerian government announced it was expelling the two million undocumented migrants. They had two weeks to get out. But why were there so many migrants in Nigeria? So in 1958, two years before independence from British rule, Nigeria found crude oil. Naturally, Shell and Mobil set up shop in the country. The oil money was good and there was hope that Nigeria could prosper despite deep political instability throughout the 1960s.

The World Bank and the IMF were created towards the end of World War II to rebuild Europe through cheap infrastructure loans. When the WB was no longer needed to finance projects in Europe, it expanded its operations to infrastructure lending for the rest of the world🧵🧵 In the 1970s, the WB expanded its focus beyond infrastructure and declared the intention to eradicate poverty worldwide and to get involved in agriculture, health, and education. In the ’80s, it started dictating the domestic policies of its borrowers.

The West has three strongholds in Africa: Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya where the opposition has been completely broken, is rotting in jail or has ceased to exist in any meaningful way. Those in power and those who want to be, bow to the power of Western imperialism.
[Thread] As investigative journalist Andre Vltchek puts it, "There is no ideology [in East Africa]. Elections are fights between gladiators (Kenya) or of one gladiator against unarmed infants (Rwanda)".

What is Dialectical Materialism, and what does it have to do with Thomas Sankara? Dialectical materialism is a method of analysis used to observe the world. It is a scientific method similar to those physicists, chemists, biologists, etc. use to observe the natural world, but in this case, its used to observe human society and history.

In the mid-1980s, South Africa had a larger manufacturing base than Malaysia: 12% of the labour force was employed in manufacturing, compared to less than 8% in Malaysia. By 1993, Malaysia had risen to 16% while South Africa shrunk to below 7%🧵 Also in the 1980s, South Africa's and Malaysia's output per head and total factor productivity were virtually identical—at about 40% of the US level. Human capital levels were also quite close. And both economies had a similar dependence on mining.

South Africa has been the same since its formation 114 years ago, and there's no reason to believe it's about to change.
[Thread] From its creation, South Africa was one of the most divided nations. The Blacks were completely segregated from the Europeans, the Indians never mixed with the Africans or the Europeans, while the Coloureds were rejected by the Europeans, but still looked down on the Africans.

In 1959, a year after Ghana became the first African nation to gain independence, the CIA created a dedicated Africa Division. This division aimed to, by any means necessary, secure and enforce American domination across the entire continent🧵🧵 The CIA had been present on the continent since its creation in 1947. However, as African nations prepared to gain freedom from European colonial powers, the United States became concerned with controlling African nuclear material, public opinion, and governments.

White South Africans colloquially refer to themselves as “taxpayers”. However, what they don’t mention is that they practically did not have to pay much tax for 150 years until 1994. Let’s take a trip down memory lane🧵🧵 When the British annexed KwaZulu to create the Natal colony, the colony was desperate for funds to finance the colonial project. Britain was disinterested in offering financial support, and the only sources of tax revenue were old indirect taxes like customs, levies and duties.