OF MSM: BBC and a queen

A Journal of People report

The BBC has disabled comments under a tweet celebrating Queen Elizabeth II’s “longstanding relationship” with Africa after the post drew public outrage, with people calling the tribute a “rebranding of colonialism.”
The post in question was published on Twitter by the BBC’s African arm on Thursday in the wake of the long-serving monarch’s death, and featured a four-and-a-half-minute video celebrating Queen Elizabeth’s relations with Africa and its leaders throughout her 70-year reign.
However, a number of people took issue with the post, stating that the BBC was trying to “rebrand colonialism” by sugarcoating Britain’s rule over Africa, which continued into the late 20th century. In 1980, Zimbabwe became the last African nation to gain independence from the UK.

Horn of Africa Moving Rapidly Towards Famine, Millions Face Starvation

Bharat Dogra

Countercurrents | September 10, 2022

The greater part of the Horn of Africa region is seeing a steady worsening of hunger and starvation, as four years of rain failure have tasted the limits of the coping mechanisms of people.

In Somalia, a country of around 16 million people, nearly 260,000 people are reported to have died in the famine of 2010-11. The international community was alerted to the serious threat at a very late stage then. This year there have been more warnings from the United Nations and other sources but nevertheless aid commitments are much lesser than actual needs.

Reflections on Kenya: Whose capital, whose state?

by Yash Tandon

Pambazuka News | September 14, 2017

X254

Following the bungled presidential election, Kenya is heading to a repeat poll on 17 October. Regardless of the outcome, the election will not resolve the country’s deep neo-colonial contradictions. Progressive forces must consider building a socialist Revolution to bring about democratic control of the means of production and a fair system of the distribution of the fruits of labour for the benefit of all.

In The Trial of Dedan Kimathi, Ngugi wa Thiong’o challenges the colonial presentation of Kimathi as a depraved, mad, terrorist. Ngugi presents an alternative nationalist narrative of Kimathi as a revolutionary, admired by peasants and workers of Kenya. In the courtroom – interspersed with Gikuyu songs and dances that interpret episodes from Kenya’s history – Kimathi emerges as a hero.

Kenya elections from a theoretical and global perspective

by Yash Tandon

Pambazuka News | August 04, 2017

ANDREW KASUKU

Kenyans, like other citizens elsewhere in Africa, demand and hope for “free and fair” elections. But the key issue is that Kenya is still a neo-colony. In these circumstances elections, whatever the outcome, will not fundamentally change the material conditions of life the people. The struggle against neocolonialism must continue.

Introduction

I limit my contribution to making some general observations of a theoretical nature. That, hopefully, would provide a broader historical and global perspective to the forthcoming elections in Kenya on issues of electoral politics and state policies.