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Politics

The African Cake

Last week a bunch of smartly dressed activists, myself included, made a visit to the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) offices in London pretending to be representatives of large food corporations and offering them a cake in the shape of Africa. This, we said, was to celebrate the help that the UK government is giving to big business’s efforts to mount a new scramble for Africa. Watch what happened:

#WhiteHistoryMonth: Thank God, you were born white

On one of the last days of AIAC’s first #WhiteHistoryMonth, I found myself getting increasingly annoyed in the queue to board the last flight from Murtala Mohmammed International Airport, Lagos to Johannesburg. Behind me stood two South Africans, who were giggling and entertaining each other in a way that had they been ten, or in their teens, an accompanying adult would have asked them to take it down a notch.

#WhiteHistoryMonth: How Unexpected

From this week’s Washington Post Travel Section–“How unexpected: There was more modernity than I expected, such as extremey modern infrastructure (roads, etc.) in many places, although there is still poverty there. “

The FBI’s Hustle

The contradictions of U.S.'s domestic and international policies manifested by its wars on drugs, terror, and the country's Black communities.

The trouble with #WhiteHistoryMonth is that it is not history yet

Today, the theft of Aboriginal children – including babies taken from the birth table – is now more widespread than at any time during the last century. As of June last year, almost 14,000 Aboriginal children had been “removed”. This is five times the number when Bringing Them Home was written. More than a third of all removed children are Aboriginal – from 3% of the population. At the present rate, this mass removal of Aboriginal children will result in a stolen generation of more than 3,300 children in the Northern Territory alone.

#WhiteHistoryMonth: When Marlon Brando brought up Native American rights at the Oscars

In March 1973, Marlon Brando won the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in “The Godfather.” Before the live broadcast of the ceremony Brando indicated he would not turn up at the ceremony and refuse the prize if he won. He won. Brando had asked Shasheen Littlefeather, a Native American media activist, to go on stage and give a speech about the portrayal of Native people in Hollywood films. In this video you can see what happened at the ceremony. Basically Ms Littlefeather was not able to give the full speech (no surprises, some attendees in the audience booed her), but afterwards handed it out to journalists. Some media ran it in full the next day.