EP 8 African News Review I Adesoji Speaks Knowledge 🌍

In this week's episode of  African News Review hosted by Adesoji Iginla with guest Milton Allimadi
 The conversation covered a range of topics including the recent elections in South Africa, US military exercises in Africa, and the demand for reform of the global financing system. 
The speakers critique the Western media's portrayal of African events and highlight the need for a more balanced and accurate representation of African issues. 
The discussion delved into the exploitation of African resources, the need for industrialisation, the impact of colonialism, and the significance of national anthems. 
It also highlighted the challenges faced by African countries and the need for decolonization of the mind.

00:00 Critiquing Western Media's Portrayal of African Events
21:57 US Military Exercises in Africa: Implications for African Independence
30:20 Demand for Reform of the Global Financing System and Its Impact on African Economies
32:37 The Exploitation of African Resources
36:11 The Need for Industrialization
40:14 The Impact of Colonialism
52:04 The Significance of National Anthems
59:01 Decolonizing the Mind

Transcript

Adesoji Iginla (00:01.255)
Good day, everyone, wherever you join us from. And welcome again to African News Review. As usual, I have comrade Milton Alimadi on with me. He teaches African history at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He holds a degree in journalism from Columbia University, economics from Syracuse University. He is an explorer in his free times.

and has renamed a couple of rivers across the continent and Europe. And also he is the author of Manufacturing Hate, How Africa was Demonized in Western Media. Again, I welcome Brother Milton Alimadi to the show.

Milton Allimadi (00:46.958)
Thank you, Comrade Asante Sana

Adesoji Iginla (00:50.215)
Yes, it's been a long week, as they would say, and we've had a series of events that has been talked about in the Western media, not the least the South African elections, the recent military games in the Sahel, the conference in Kenya talking about financial

Milton Allimadi (01:06.477)
Yes.

Adesoji Iginla (01:19.655)
aid to the continent. And last but not the least, the most interesting part, Nigerian deciding to sing a new old tune, as they would say. And Brother Milton will help pass his own unique take on the events of the week. And we'll begin with the first one, obviously, the most important. The

Milton Allimadi (01:41.611)
Thank you.

Adesoji Iginla (01:48.135)
recent elections in Kenya and very important South Africa, sorry, South Africa. The recent elections in South Africa and the first one in 30 years and after the fall of apartheid, obviously, and we go to The Economist for its unique take on what transpired. And let's do this.

Milton Allimadi (01:51.915)
South Africa.

Adesoji Iginla (02:18.023)
It says, the African National Congress, the ANC, continent's liberation, oldest liberation movement, the spearhead of resistance to apartheid since 95, is no longer a hegemonic force in South African politics. The results have now been declared, and we know that to be a fact. But the reason this article stood out to me was,

its take on things. And I would have highlighted some parts, and I would read them out and get Brother Milton to respond. It goes, as a consequence, the next fortnight, which is last week, we'll see the most important political negotiation in South Africa since the talks in the early 1990s that ended white rule. That is immediately a red flag.

Though the precise results, including those in concurrent provisional elections, will dictate all the possible routes, the paths ahead are essentially two possible outcomes. Pragmatism or populism. What the president and other politicians decide in the days ahead will determine the direction of the country for years to come. The entry of Inkung Tu Si Gwe, MK led by Jacob Zuma, whom

Mr. Rambafosa, replaced in 2018, gave many of the disaffected a new vehicle. The party named after the ANC old arm wing is projected to come third in the first election it has ever contested. A stunning feat. Now, here is day one. Okay. But at the time of writing, the ANC seemed to have fallen so low it would require a deal with larger parties to stay in power. This could mean a pact with one or two.

of its extremist offshoot, MK and the economic freedom fighters, which on current projection looks as if it will be the fourth largest party. Many moderates in the ANC, including Mr. Ramaphosa, will instinctively dislike the prospect. Now this is a bit that will get rather Milton hot under the collar. Another option will be for the ANC to turn to the D .A. Democratic Alliance,

Adesoji Iginla (04:42.279)
the country's main opposition party, which is projected to win around 22 % of the vote. This will in effect mean a sequel of the post 1994 national unity. Now, here is the bit. It will increase the chances of South Africa having a sensible government with centrist policies. John Steenhausen, the DA leader told The Economist in 2021,

He would want to try to cut a deal with Madras in the ANC rather than see the ruling party join with the AAFF and take South Africa in the direction of Venezuela or Zimbabwe. There is no reason to believe he has changed his mind in the years to come. Your take, Brother Milton.

Milton Allimadi (05:33.)
Well, the economist, of course, is the Bible of imperialism and global capitalism. And the headline alone just shows their resentment that apartheid was ever defeated in South Africa. The headline of the article said the failing ANC is rejected by over half of South Africa.

Adesoji Iginla (05:51.463)
Mm.

Milton Allimadi (06:02.756)
All right, so over half of South Africa, according to economists, rejected the ANC. And by implication, given the recommendation that the ANC should form an alliance with the white -led party, the DA, Democratic Alliance, they should form the coalition. It just...

is there are many false suggestions and elements in the story. The primary false suggestion is that the ANC was rejected because South Africans want a government that includes the European -led party. That is the implication. So the implication is that the European -led party

Adesoji Iginla (06:38.631)
OK.

Milton Allimadi (07:02.146)
must have done very well to deserve those honors and deserve to be embraced by Africans in South Africa. The Democratic Alliance got 22%. In the 2019 election, the Democratic Alliance got 21%. So those who yearn for the era of apartheid,

Adesoji Iginla (07:08.359)
Okay.

Milton Allimadi (07:31.489)
even though they control the finances of the country, they control the major levers of the economy, they control the major private media conglomerate, with all those resources, they were able to expand, broaden their appeal by one percentage point. So it's false to suggest that neoliberalism made any gains in this election.

Adesoji Iginla (07:52.967)
Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (08:01.511)
Okay.

Milton Allimadi (08:01.665)
It's completely false. In fact, the headline should be, Democracy is Working in South Africa. You have an African country where the democratic structure, they adapted after the collapse of the racist system of apartheid, the most fascist anti -democratic system that we had witnessed in the 20th century.

was replaced by a democratic structure. Even with all the evils and crimes of the apartheid regime over the decades, Africans have not been vengeful. Even though the structures of apartheid still exist, Europeans make up 7 .3 % of the population but control 72 % of the agricultural land.

level of unemployment is 36 percent. Yet European unemployment is only 7 .2 percent. Africans are not vengeful. They're not saying let's tear down this democratic system and let's have a revolution so that we can equalize the economic dispensation.

Adesoji Iginla (09:11.239)
percent.

Milton Allimadi (09:28.191)
in this country. That should be the first thing that the economists should be discussing. The victory of democracy, the fact that Africans are law abiding, very much law abiding, given what had happened.

Adesoji Iginla (09:52.807)
You went low there a bit.

Milton Allimadi (09:56.524)
The second main story is that the ANC actually held its ground. If you count the offshoots of the ANC that the

Milton Allimadi (10:25.675)
when we use the word extremists in this environment today, you are linking them subliminally to terror and terrorism. And that you cannot tell me that the Economist magazine. Absolutely, Economist magazine, such a sophisticated magazine is not aware of that linkage. Right, absolutely. So if you count that the ANC got 40 %...

Adesoji Iginla (10:35.143)
TURROR. Correct. Yeah. Anti -West values.

Adesoji Iginla (10:47.099)
The dog whistle.

Milton Allimadi (10:55.563)
The new party of Jacob Zuma, the former president, got 15%. And Malema's party, Economic Freedom Fata of Julius Malema dipped a little bit from 10 % to 9 .5. If you add all those together, then you see that the ANC has, actually the vote that it used to have in the past, it has 40, it has 50, it has 65%. Right?

Adesoji Iginla (11:25.191)
Okay.

Milton Allimadi (11:25.226)
different forms of the ANC, different versions of the ANC. I would have been much more remorseful and disappointed had the Democratic Alliance had the gains that now go to the EFF, the 10 % and the 15 % to OMKONTO.

that is 25 percent. So if you add that 25 percent to the 22 percent, the Democratic Alliance would be at 47 percent. It would actually have a following, a mandate bigger than the ANC. Then it would justify the headline, the failing ANC is rejected by over half of South Africa. You see? So you have to know how to read these things to expose the deception.

Adesoji Iginla (12:00.903)
putting the, yeah, making them the majority party.

Adesoji Iginla (12:17.927)
Hmm.

Milton Allimadi (12:20.745)
of the Economist magazine. So now here's the big question. The big question going forward in the next five years before the next election. What will happen? What will old school ANC do? What will Contor do? Obviously,

Jacob Zuma is a senior citizen. I don't expect that he's really looking forward to be president in the future. And what will the party that is right now the main part of the youth, the economic freedom fighters, do between these three parties? It seems that not one of them alone is able to transform South Africa the way it needs to be done.

Adesoji Iginla (12:48.295)
is going to return.

Milton Allimadi (13:13.192)
And of course you're working against entrenched elements who want to hold on to their privileges internally with their supporters overseas, who of course are investors in the mining industry and the stock market in South Africa. So they have the domestic privilege class and the external privilege class. So I don't think the ANC alone will be able to deal with them.

the official version of the ANC or UMKONTO or the EFF. So they need to decide how they're going to come together and work it out. Obviously, if you have a partnership only of EFF and UMKONTO,

Adesoji Iginla (13:49.287)
OK.

Milton Allimadi (14:13.753)
ANC official are going to abandon ANC official and just en masse move to UMKONTO or EFF or even alliance between UMKONTO and EFF. So it seems to me that these three elements have to really have a national conference and say what is it that we want to do with power? Do we want economic justice? Many African countries have discovered that formal independence alone

Adesoji Iginla (14:23.975)
Mm -hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (14:28.839)
We'll have to work together. Yeah.

Milton Allimadi (14:43.193)
is not really worth anything beyond being on paper. To transform the economy, to elevate the lives of the masters of Africans, you need to control economic production and your national resources. These three parties coming together and appealing to the electorate have a better chance of doing it individually. Of course, the Democratic Alliance...

Adesoji Iginla (14:43.367)
I was in cottage. Yeah.

Milton Allimadi (15:10.616)
is a party of the privileged European class. And any Africans, any black members that they have are people that they just use as tokens. And the evidence is clear because they're not in the leadership position in that party. So that's my assessment of the election results. And that's also my critique and analysis of the economy. The economy is yearning for the good old days of apartheid.

Of course, it can't say that, so it's talking about a government of national unity that prevailed when Mandela became the first democratically elected president of South Africa, because there were others who were pretenders. You cannot exclude the majority of the population and call yourself president of South Africa. Those were just pretenders. You surpass the first president of South Africa really.

Adesoji Iginla (15:51.047)
in prison.

Adesoji Iginla (16:04.999)
Hmm. Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (16:11.847)
Mandela. So one final question there. So what would you read into, we would not want to turn South Africa into Venezuela or Zimbabwe?

Milton Allimadi (16:36.48)
When you say, obviously, they use that as a quote, right? So they can say, this is coming from the economist, right? But they know what the quote was referring to. So they could have elaborated. The fact that they did not was a conscious choice. Because Zimbabwe has been demonized, Venezuela has been demonized. So.

Adesoji Iginla (16:42.023)
Yes.

Adesoji Iginla (16:47.047)
Yeah, correct.

Adesoji Iginla (16:55.271)
Hmm.

Milton Allimadi (17:02.048)
You know, they let that rest the way it is so people can say, that would be awful if they became like a Zimbabwe without going into the detail.

Adesoji Iginla (17:10.407)
Can you quickly just explain the reason why Zimbabwe is used as a battery room beyond the demo? I mean, just give us like a three minutes history lesson as to why Zimbabwe is constantly being referred to and Venezuela as well.

Milton Allimadi (17:30.687)
We don't even need three whole minutes. I mean, the Europeans came in the 1890s. They committed massacres against the Mashona and Matabele and took their land and took their cattle and killed their people and made them landless and turned them into enslaved -type laborers on farms that belonged to Africans that overnight became European -owned. And of course,

Adesoji Iginla (17:33.831)
Yum.

Okay.

Milton Allimadi (17:59.774)
This was in fact the resistance, and they call it the Chimurenga, the first Chimurenga in the 1890s when these Africans fought to regain their land or to defend their land.

Of course, they had some victories, but they had more losses than victories. They did not have the sophisticated weapons that the Europeans had. And ultimately, it became Rhodesia after imperialist Cecil Roart, the mass murderer. And the second Chimurenga was when the nationalist led by Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo led the national liberation struggle and they defeated Rhodesia's version of apartheid.

in 1980. And at the time of that victory, the British and the Americans agreed that they would provide financing so that the new African government can buy back the land from the descendants of the Europeans who stole the land in the 1890s. The money never came.

Adesoji Iginla (18:56.519)
at the end.

Milton Allimadi (19:00.734)
And ultimately, the Zimbabweans under Robert Mugabe went to Plan B. They expropriated the land. They said they would compensate for the structures built on the land and any development built on the land, but that they would not pay for the land, which was originally stolen. And of course, there was a backlash by imperialism led primarily by Britain, led to the economic sanctions. The United States joined their kith and kin.

sanctions as well and

Adesoji Iginla (19:35.623)
me yeah okay

Milton Allimadi (19:45.811)
industries and very, very well educated. The economy, of course, is doing terribly. The inflation was phenomenal because they were cut off from access to foreign credit, normally import exports. So, of course, they don't give you the complete story. They just give the impression that here is what happened when you have Africans running the show without Europeans.

Adesoji Iginla (20:09.831)
Money in the go ahead. Exactly. Thank you very much. That's why I think.

Milton Allimadi (20:14.099)
So we need to have Europeans.

Adesoji Iginla (20:25.511)
Yeah, exactly. So that is why this... Correct. That is why this channel is important.

Milton Allimadi (20:27.686)
the cannabis is telling us. You know, the same version for Venezuela. Venezuela, of course, here you have a pariah nation. And of course, the truth is that Venezuelans don't want to be a neo -colonial state. They were supporting Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution. And for that, and of course, Chavez himself, who was anti -imperialist, anti -capitalist. Chavez.

won democratic elections, the US tried to undermine him, a coup d 'etat. The people went to the streets and brought Chávez back in power, sent the military back to the barracks. How many times has that happened in history?

Adesoji Iginla (21:18.727)
will not be televised.

Adesoji Iginla (21:24.551)
Yes. Thank you.

Milton Allimadi (21:25.065)
So that puts in context that reference to Zimbabwe and Venezuela.

Adesoji Iginla (21:31.079)
Thank you very much. Thank you very much. And thinking of the military, now we go to our next story, which is essentially the military playing games. It's the US military recently, the US military completes major exercise in Africa and walks to deepen partnership.

High ranking military officials from the US and top African allies watched intently as dust and flames shot up from pieces off the Sahara desert hit by tank and artillery fire. They looked up as pilots flew F -16s into formation and they listened intently as Moroccan and American personnel explained how they will set up beach heads to defend the Atlantic coastline in the event of a potential invasion.

In the part of the war games this year as military confronts new challenges in increasingly volatile regions. The finale of the two -week event celebrated Africa's lion 20 -year anniversary and how partnership between the US and African militaries have expanded since it began. The exercise has grown over the years since 2004 and not only have the number of multinational service members that

train but also the scope of the training as well which have expanded to much more than just security. The last and the final part is here. The United States is holding steadfast to its strategy of coupling weapons assistance and intelligence sharing with initiatives designed to boost civilian populations and strengthen institutions. But it faces new competitions despite after decades of colonialism.

Africa has once again been absorbed in the fight between great powers with Western influence waning and countries accepting more economic and military support from China firms and Russian contractors. What do you make of that?

Milton Allimadi (23:43.206)
All right, so it reminds me of the book by Oginga Odinga, Kenya's first vice president under Jomo Kenyatta and the father of Raila Odinga, who's a major political player in Kenya and a former prime minister and opposition leader.

Adesoji Iginla (23:51.047)
Mmm.

Adesoji Iginla (24:03.751)
Mm -hmm.

Milton Allimadi (24:06.822)
and the book's title was Not Yet Uhuru, and I also strongly recommend that book to all comrades. You can order it via Amazon. And he analyzed what had transpired in Kenya shortly after independence, and he came to that conclusion of, of course, uhuru is the Israeli word for independence or freedom. And explained.

Adesoji Iginla (24:11.047)
Hmm.

Milton Allimadi (24:30.117)
why Kenya was not yet independent. And to me, this type of so -called military exercise is the clearest manifestation that Africa is not yet Uhuru. How many times do you have African militaries coming to the United States to train the American military? What is so special about the American military that they have the right to go and so -called train African

soldiers, right? Where do they get that special privilege or permission from? They have some special knowledge. They're blessed, ordained by the Creator with special military skills to have the arrogance and privilege to be going around the world training, so -called training African soldiers, you know?

That's just a familiarity in complex that we accept and take for granted, which to me is very dangerous and very reactionary. So why do you want independence then for your countries if you're having that kind of exercise? Partnerships, okay. So it's like a partnership or alliance. It's like having...

Adesoji Iginla (25:38.887)
I thought we were having partnerships. I thought it was military partnerships.

Milton Allimadi (25:47.46)
a cripple with no legs in a partnership with Usain Bolt, the 100 meter or 200 meter former global champion. What kind of partnership is that? They're saying we're going to run a rally. So I'm going, you run the first 100 meters, you cripple man, and then hand the baton to me, Usain, and I will finish it. That's the type of partnership they have. It's preposterous, really. And then they talk about the beach head,

Adesoji Iginla (25:53.191)
Milton Allimadi (26:17.366)
set up a beachhead against a potential invasion. Invasion from whom? The mere fact that you have the United States military there, so -called training, is that not an invasion already? I don't get it. You know, it's preposterous. And of course, the writer is just...

Adesoji Iginla (26:18.855)
Mmm.

Milton Allimadi (26:35.332)
you know, a typical neocolonial type writer, parroting, talking about these scenes in the desert or things blowing up, all that nonsense. There's no analysis at all. These are the type of useless articles that we get on a constant basis from corporate media with no analysis at all. And then...

fostering that sense of Africans as global beggars just sitting there with their hands open saying, no, we don't just give them weapons. We actually do things that help build the economy of social services. We build clinics. So you go, you build a little clinic there, and you leave a few, what, Advil or aspirins, and then you leave and that's it. And then you call that economic development.

It's just amazing.

Adesoji Iginla (27:30.279)
So one more question in that. Go on.

Milton Allimadi (27:33.923)
And here's the key thing actually, I'm sorry, that I left out. And they talk about that part of the African continent being troubled, right? And yet...

Adesoji Iginla (27:43.399)
Volta.

Milton Allimadi (27:45.763)
The writer does not mention a single word, the reason why it's very troubled. It was not always like that. It became like that after the United States and its NATO partners went to Libya and destroyed Libya in 2811, killed Kano Katafi, destroyed the government, and dispersed all those arsenal of weapons all over the region. That's not even mentioned in the article.

Adesoji Iginla (28:02.787)
Yeah.

Milton Allimadi (28:12.035)
It's just mind -boggling and amazing. But if we don't have people who critique these types of articles on a show such as the platform that you have, we are victimized on a daily basis by, I call them the weapons of mass deception, which is what the corporate media really are.

Adesoji Iginla (28:36.871)
So you've heard it here. Do like, hit the like button, subscribe and share. And so we can get this message out there because media being one of the sources of control. What's the saying? Mind is a terrible thing to waste. If you're well informed, then you can't be hoodwinked. Mark O'Mac said.

Milton Allimadi (29:01.827)
Absolutely. And as to paraphrase also our comrade Steve Biko, the most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the control of the minds of the oppressed.

Adesoji Iginla (29:06.535)
Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (29:13.319)
Yes, yes, yes. So speaking of the mind oppressed, we'll go to Kenya, the land of Mr. Udinga again. And there was a re -

Milton Allimadi (29:31.81)
Mr. Odenga. Now the show is Mr. Ruto, who is also and now a US special ally, you know, non -NATO ally. I don't even know what that means, you know, and the same analogy I just provided applies. Usain Bolt and the cripple.

Adesoji Iginla (29:47.751)
Yes?

Okay, so here we go. African campaigners demand reform of unjust global system. Very interesting. Africans are being crippled by costly loans and unfair interest rates. Campaigners in Nairobi warned at a key summit this week as they demanded a rebalance of global financing.

Africa is at the crucial moment of its development and disarray as a whole of the one campaign, a global NGO dedicated to fighting poverty and inequality. High food and energy prices are contributing factors as political instability and climate shocks. Despite this, Africa's bank, which turned 60 this year, expects growth to start picking up from 2024.

Lending bodies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were created 80 years ago with the post -World War II Bretton Woods Agreement at a time when most countries did not even exist, he told Radio France International. The AFDB, African Development Bank, created in 1963 and its African Development Fund, operational since 1974,

are seen as more understanding of the needs of African economies. The One Campaign is calling for that fund to be replenished to the tune of $25 billion. Governments across the continent needs vast resources, says Kenya's president William Ruto at the summit. What say you?

Milton Allimadi (31:41.278)
Alright, so that is again the same fallacy that corporate media and imperialism keeps propagating and feeding Africans and non -Africans by the way, globally. First of all, growth is not the same thing as development, okay? So you can have economic growth and underdevelopment at the same time.

Adesoji Iginla (31:48.391)
Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (32:01.511)
Hmm.

Milton Allimadi (32:09.854)
African countries can only develop by increasing the margin of profit that they retain from what they produce. And what do they produce right now? Primarily, agricultural so -called raw materials. They also produce natural resources such as forest products.

Adesoji Iginla (32:29.575)
your roofs.

Milton Allimadi (32:37.246)
They also produce mineral resources such as metals, gas, petroleum, and so forth. Currently, all of those products are sold at a fraction of their value to the industrialized countries. They then use those resources to...

using factories to manufacture products that are not manufactured in African countries, such as automobiles. Somebody might say wait, but South Africa and Nigeria, a few of these countries produce automobiles. No, they're assembled. They don't manufacture from scratch.

Adesoji Iginla (33:19.815)
the assembly.

Milton Allimadi (33:22.877)
Ford does not import the elements that go into their vehicles from foreign countries. If they do, it's just because of cheap labor and it will be minor parts. The major components are built by the well -paid unionized workers at all these automobile plants.

in Detroit. And then they sell these products from all these industrialized countries, whether from North America, whether from Europe, whether from Japan, and now of course from China, sell it back to Africa at prices that are grossly exponentially multiplied relative to the raw materials that in most cases come from Africa. So that's one thing they need to do, retain the higher proportion of the profit. Number two.

They need to actually manufacture the products that they now import from industrialized countries within Africa. And of course, the continent has a population of 1 .3 billion people. The continent, if they traded amongst themselves, they would have been able to produce a lot of products.

Milton Allimadi (34:41.898)
people to buy the vehicles, right? But then if you see the size of the African market, of course the market is there.

Adesoji Iginla (34:44.135)
correct.

Milton Allimadi (34:47.945)
for

plants you need capital. That's where the financing part comes into it. But that's not what they're talking about. They're not talking about, lower the interest rates. They're complaining about Africans borrowing money at a disproportionately higher interest rate. They talk about the cost of borrowing sometimes eight to ten times higher for Africans than for other countries. That is absolutely true. But look at what they're talking about. They're saying lower the interest rates and the cost of credit.

so that we can borrow more money to continue exporting raw materials to the industrialized countries. So that is like somebody going to their bank and saying, please cancel some of my credit card debt, lower the interest rate, and then the bank accepting, and then you continue consuming, and then you build up the debt all over again.

Adesoji Iginla (36:11.527)
Hmm.

Milton Allimadi (36:12.681)
So you're in a cycle, you're not developing. Okay, so let me explain the part when I said growth does not equal development. Development implies and involves structural changes. It involves producing cocoa. I don't know what they do in terms of cleaning the cocoa, the processing, and then taking the beans to...

Adesoji Iginla (36:37.415)
The dry end, yeah.

Milton Allimadi (36:38.953)
drying and whatever else you do with it and then ultimately feeding it in a factory in Ghana.

or Ivory Coast, Uganda also produces some cocos in Uganda, and then when it comes out, it comes out in the form of chocolate. It's well packaged, and then you sell that either domestically, I don't know, myself, I'm not a big fan, since sugar is not such a good thing, but since it's a multi -billion dollar industry, you sell it either domestically in Africa, or you export it to Europe, you export it to Asia, you export it to North Africa.

Adesoji Iginla (37:05.255)
See you there, sweet tooth.

Milton Allimadi (37:16.25)
America and now you're getting real money. If you go to Whole Foods and you see you go to a specialty chocolate store you see these tiny boxes you know well packaged it's $50 for a tiny box a larger box it's $100 you know you should be getting a good proportion of that amount not just selling it in big big sacks.

at literally pennies at ridiculously low prices and shipping it as raw material. So that is what you get. But here's the misleading thing when they talk about growth, when they say, growth is about to resume in 2024. It's meaningless. What has...

Adesoji Iginla (37:46.183)
at ridiculous prices.

Milton Allimadi (38:04.904)
historically happened is that sometimes the demand for cocoa, the demand for tea, the demand for coffee, the demand for these raw materials appreciates. So when it appreciates, it means the price goes up.

Adesoji Iginla (38:13.927)
spikes.

spikes.

Milton Allimadi (38:22.215)
It means now each one of these dependent African countries are getting more revenue for the same quantities that they're producing. So then when they add up these stats at the end of the year, they say, there was economic growth. It's nonsense. It's not growth. Because within a year or two, the prices are going to collapse again. So you are constantly dependent on the ups and downs of the market. In order to have growth,

Adesoji Iginla (38:28.999)
as a result of that demand.

Milton Allimadi (38:50.118)
real growth and development, you need to industrialize. That is the only solution for African country. That's not the discussion they're having in Nairobi. They're having a begging discussion. Please, please, please lower the cost of credit for us so we can continue running our dependent structural economies and exporting raw materials to the rest of the world. It's a useless conversation.

Adesoji Iginla (39:15.719)
And I also like to add, there was the talk of Bretton Woods there. For those who are not familiar, the Bretton Woods agreement was essentially the meeting between Winston Churchill and Mr. Roosevelt, then US president. And what was the talk about? It was about how to move away from the constant need to revert to war.

So in order to do so, certain organizations came into being. The League of Nations at the time morphed into the United Nations. That was in 1945. The World Bank came into being in 1946. The IMF, 1947. The General Agreements on Trade and Tariffs, which we eventually become. The World Trade Organization came into being in 1948.

In order to lock all of this into play, you had a governing body, which was the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. So when Brother Milton said earlier that they sat there while they were bombing the deserts and what have you, that is effectively saying, this is who we have to control the entire system. If you get out of our line, this is who will spank you back into position. So again,

Milton Allimadi (40:43.845)
Right, and that's an important part because this is not said and not taught enough in schools even in the West, in industrialized countries, and of course not in our African countries. It is a global system.

Adesoji Iginla (40:48.39)
Hmm.

Milton Allimadi (40:56.708)
which exists, which existed for at least five centuries, a global system. It is altered here and there, but it's the same global system that started with enslaving Africans. That is the best way to extract the total value.

Adesoji Iginla (40:58.023)
So, correct.

Milton Allimadi (41:16.74)
all the profits that each African would have generated for himself or herself producing on their own farm or what have you in an African country is removed and transferred to the European who now quote -unquote owns this individual. When that system ended because it was slowing down the growth of capitalism, because now you need people to work in factories and you can't have them in factories if you have them on plantation at the same time. So they ended the old

Adesoji Iginla (41:39.655)
factories. Yeah.

Milton Allimadi (41:46.646)
old -type slavery and introduce new form of slavery, which was of course of colonialism. They work on your European plantation, the land you took away from the ancestors, but then they go back to their small so -called huts and come back in the morning to continue working for you. You're exploiting them. You left, you gave them so -called independence. You continue exploiting them and now you have the organization that you just mentioned, the World Bank, the IMF.

Adesoji Iginla (42:08.551)
Mm.

Milton Allimadi (42:15.812)
WTO. They regulate the cost of capital and one of the conditions they give you to borrow money is that you thou shall not industrialize.

Adesoji Iginla (42:17.703)
WCO.

Adesoji Iginla (42:29.039)
Hmm. Imagine.

Milton Allimadi (42:33.218)
Yep. Because how can they allow you to compete with them? You see how they go head to head with China, right? Because China has emerged as a global power, exporting manufactured products all over the world, cutting into markets that used to be the exclusive domain of Europeans. So you think they're going to help create another China in Africa? You must be out of your mind.

Adesoji Iginla (42:39.239)
Yep.

Adesoji Iginla (42:49.031)
of the imperial FF. Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (42:57.511)
which was the argument of Brother Walter Rodney in his book, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.

Milton Allimadi (43:04.898)
No, really. I think we're out of our minds to think that imperialism is going to aid you into becoming another China so that you can cut into the profit margin. It's preposterous. The logic alone will tell you. First of all, if imperialism, within their own country, they compete viciously.

Adesoji Iginla (43:24.199)
Yeah.

Milton Allimadi (43:30.274)
Companies compete viciously here within the United States. They steal sometimes from each other. They form monopolies to keep competitors out of business. And then suddenly they're going to go to Africa to help Africans. Come and compete with them. Come on, man. Why are we joking?

Adesoji Iginla (43:48.935)
No way. I mean, you must be out of your rockets as they will say.

Milton Allimadi (43:54.341)
OK. You know?

Adesoji Iginla (43:56.743)
And on that aspect, so would you say, I mean, some will argue that, okay, we cannot compete with the European powers. Not that we cannot, but they choose not to. But then the European powers will say,

But we aid you, we provide you with aid every now and then and you guys are mismanaging aid. So what would you say to that line of argument?

Milton Allimadi (44:37.088)
I would say that's a big lie. They don't give us aid. We give them aid. If I come to your house and I say, Adesuji, I like the glasses you're wearing, you know, I'm going to buy it from you for one pound. Or I like the headset you have. I don't care what you think the value is. I'm going to buy that for one pound as well.

that mic you have over there. I want to give you one pound for that as well. you see, you have a collection of impressive books in your case, you know? Okay, you have a couple of hundred books. I'll give you two pounds for that. And then I say, Adesuji, you're really doing very hard. I'm going to give you a hundred pounds in foreign aid. So you're reporting that, wow, a hundred pounds in foreign aid.

Adesoji Iginla (45:05.159)
Not the books.

Milton Allimadi (45:25.438)
or 100 euros to a deserter from Milton. The same Milton that just robbed him something that might be valued at a thousand pounds. And that happens on an annual basis when we sell our minerals.

Adesoji Iginla (45:36.391)
Hmm.

Milton Allimadi (45:43.07)
and agricultural products and our natural resources for that cheap and then get a few trinkets in the form of a few millions in so -called foreign aid. That's public relations.

Adesoji Iginla (45:57.127)
Hmm. I mean, to support your point, there was an article written in 2017 by War on Once. So War On Wants .org. It was penned by a British gentleman, Mark Curtis And his argument in the article was the fact that the...

about 17 companies in Europe come into Africa, take out.

raw materials to the excess of 197 billion US dollars. At that time, the combined debt of the African countries, the top three African countries, was 67 billion.

Milton Allimadi (46:52.773)
And forget the debt. It's the interest on the debt is where they make money. Because they know they can never pay off that principle. But every year they'll be servicing that debt. That's income. That's money in the bank for the European lenders. Perpetually. And they talk about giving us foreign aid. It's preposterous. It's the other way around. We subsidize.

Adesoji Iginla (47:02.919)
Exactly, exactly.

Hmm Hmm Hmm Hmm

Adesoji Iginla (47:17.063)
Yeah.

Milton Allimadi (47:20.797)
the high standard of living for Europeans and that is what is the West Africans are trying to change now. So when they talk about the coup belt and they deride those coups, they're not analyzing why those coups are happening in Niger, in Mali, in Burkina Faso. France knows why it's happening. The United States knows why it's happening.

they're demanding.

Adesoji Iginla (47:50.599)
But the general population should not be made aware of the reason for it. Yeah. Yeah.

Milton Allimadi (47:53.949)
Of course not. The general profession, there you go, Africa instability. Another coup here, another coup there. They're all the same. Well, these coups actually are significantly different from many previous coups in the past. And of course, one sign to see how different they are is to look at whether they're condemned or tolerated.

Adesoji Iginla (48:03.047)
the volatile region.

Milton Allimadi (48:20.38)
by the West. So for example, when there was a coup in Chad, not only did they not condemn it, Emmanuel Macron flew to N'Djamena for the swearing in of the new military leader, the son of the previous military leader, Idris Adébi, his son, Mohamed Adébi, after his father was killed, launched that coup and seized power. So they endorsed that.

Adesoji Iginla (48:39.015)
It just...

Adesoji Iginla (48:45.447)
Thank you.

Milton Allimadi (48:50.172)
On the other hand, they were not happy by the one in Niger. Because in the one in Niger, the population embraced it and they said, we want to be paid for our uranium. Then of course, France was trying to get ECOWAS to invade. But ECOWAS found that it could not do so because Niger stood together with Mali and Burkina Faso. They said, any invasion of one of us, we see it as a collective invasion. We will resist collectively. You see?

Adesoji Iginla (49:04.551)
to invade.

Adesoji Iginla (49:14.535)
It's an invisible wall. Yeah.

Milton Allimadi (49:19.163)
So whether they meant it or not, it had impact. No invasion occurred. These are the kind of transformations that are going on in Africa. Africa's demanding equitable returns on their resources. And that's the path we need to take. And we can do it. Of course, we can develop. They need us more than we need them.

but it's the mindset that's been colonized. We need to decolonize our mind. Sankara was doing a very brilliant job in that.

Burkina Faso, he released the intellect and creativity of his citizens, he released neo -colonialism from their mind, he said you can actually create and produce for yourself, you can be independent, and he proved it, they used to import food within three years, they had food self -sufficiency. These are the kind of approaches that every African country need if we do it within 10, 15 years. They will be running,

to get official aid. Right now they get aid by undercutting the value of our resources. But if we do it the correct way in 15 years, they'll actually be flying to Nairobi, European leaders, to ask for official loan that they signed for, you know.

Adesoji Iginla (50:39.655)
You're about to, you're about to frighten the natives. So yes, I'm talking about singing new tunes. Nigeria recently did the impossible. We went the other route using we, I don't know why. Okay. I suppose I should use we. Okay. So.

Milton Allimadi (50:42.553)
Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (51:09.607)
Nigeria's new anthem, written by Britain, sparks criticism. Nigeria adopted a new national anthem Wednesday after lawmakers passed a law that replaced the current one with a version dropped nearly half a century ago, sparking widespread criticism about how the law was hastily passed without much public impute. President Bola Tinobu assents to the law came a day after

It was approved by both chambers of the Nigerian National Assembly, which is dominated by the governing party. The federal lawmakers introduced and passed the bill in less than a week, an unusual fast process for important bills that usually take weeks or months to be considered. The arise of compatriots and tens has been in use since 1978, when it was introduced by the military government.

The anthem was composed at a time when the country was reeling from a deadly civil war and called on Nigerians to serve our fatherland with love, strength, and not let the labor of our heroes pass to be in vain. The new version takes immediate effect as it was introduced in 1960 when Nigeria gained independence from Britain before it was dropped by the military. Titled, Nigeria We Hail Thee, it was written by Lillian Jean Williams, a British expatriate who was living in Nigeria at the time.

God. In the 21st century in Nigeria, the country's political class found a colonial national anthem that has pejorative words like native land and tribes to be admirable enough to foist on our citizens without their consent. Ezekiel Sili, posted on ex, formerly known as Twitter, supported on the new anthem, however, argue,

It was wrong for the country to have adopted an anthem introduced by the military. Anthems are, listen to this projection, anthems are ideological recitations that help people to be more focused. It has a very sad development for the military to have changed the anthem, public affairs analyst Frank Tiete said. Your take.

Milton Allimadi (53:27.862)
Alright, well actually it's very sad that it's happened, something like that, and I think it captures the, really the condition of disarray, lack of direction in terms of what's happening in other parts of Africa, including a major country such as Nigeria. I wonder what a public...

Adesoji Iginla (53:48.903)
Hmm.

Milton Allimadi (53:53.717)
a white survey, a poll would have yielded. I would like to have seen the results of polling to see what the ordinary Nigerians thought of something like that. Obviously, yes, these are elected, whether they're senators or...

Adesoji Iginla (54:12.839)
representatives.

Milton Allimadi (54:14.709)
representatives in the Nigerian parliament. They don't really represent the thoughts of individual Nigerians. I wish a poll had been.

had been commissioned, or even a referendum. National anthems, okay, one could say it's symbolic and symbolism, but these are some of the important things. State symbols, when we talk about the national flag, of course, people will go to war if you burn their national flags, right? So of course, anthems also has that kind of same weight and connotation.

Adesoji Iginla (54:55.559)
Yep. Very motive as well.

Milton Allimadi (54:58.195)
Right? So now you have an anthem written by a Lillian Jean Williams, a British woman who had lived in Nigeria. I don't care how long she had lived in Nigeria. Why should she have the one be the person to capture?

the essence of Nigeria because that's what an anthem is supposed to do, to summarize your past and summarize your present and summarize your potential futures.

Adesoji Iginla (55:22.087)
Could you repeat that part, please?

Milton Allimadi (55:31.764)
That's what an anthem implies. And I don't believe that a European, a descendant of the colonizers, can capture that essence. I want the descendants of the victims of that colonization to tell me that story in the form of an anthem. Okay, so when you talk about, okay, this one came after military rule, well, frankly, military rule has been a large feature of Nigeria's history.

The Civil War was a large feature of Nigeria's history. To ignore that would be preposterous. So to me that was not a disqualifier at all. And by the way, I went... I'm sorry?

Adesoji Iginla (56:01.927)
Correct?

Adesoji Iginla (56:11.655)
and also the fact that the military was representative of the country.

Milton Allimadi (56:20.178)
Absolutely. So I went and I heard both anthems and I must tell you that Nigeria We Hail Thee, which is the 1961 written by the European, sounds like a popular pop song or something like that. You know, it's jovial, melodic, and you know, but it really does not contain much and it has references.

Adesoji Iginla (56:29.095)
vision.

Milton Allimadi (56:47.057)
through though tribes and tongues may differ, we should come together as one Nigeria. Okay, so first of all, the term tribes, that's a European.

important term to describe Africans that in many cases were actually nations and even empires. Now you reduce them to tribes and these are people that have languages. You reduce them to tongues, you know, which you know, they like saying, you know, vernaculars or something like that. So to me that is actually sort of a neo -colonial anthem compared to Arise O compatriots, which was trying to cut

Adesoji Iginla (57:07.463)
correct.

Adesoji Iginla (57:19.047)
Mm. Mm.

Milton Allimadi (57:30.803)
after the reality of the history that had transpired in Nigeria since formal independence from Britain. So I hope it is reversed and perhaps a future parliament will indeed reverse it in Nigeria.

Adesoji Iginla (57:44.263)
Yeah. And also, I mean, to put a final note on that, I remember being in university in Nigeria and when we sang the old anthem, it was usual to denote the fact that the country was acting like a neo -colonial state as a revolt. So now imagine you now revert back to the same anthem.

that we used to critique the country. What you're now confirming…

Milton Allimadi (58:20.305)
You're not confirming that that parliament is not made up of Thomas Sankaras, is what I can tell you.

Adesoji Iginla (58:24.455)
Exactly! Exactly! And it was when I initially I thought maybe it was a joke but to understand I mean which

Milton Allimadi (58:34.817)
No, when you brought it up as a topic for discussion, I really thought you were joking. I had to go and research and go and hear both versions of the anthem myself, which I did. But you know what? As Rodney once said, the things that happen in Africa don't shock me anymore. So I...

Adesoji Iginla (58:49.223)
I mean, so for me, yeah.

Milton Allimadi (59:01.488)
I can't say, I mean of course I'm disappointed, but I'm not shocked. I'm not shocked.

Adesoji Iginla (59:05.959)
But this is the country that is supposed to be one of the movers and shakers on the continent. You would, I mean, with the greatest of respect to everybody else, you would least expect this.

Milton Allimadi (59:16.784)
No, no, no, listen. Listen, those are my sentiments. I think Nigeria, you know, is generally letting us down. It is Nigeria that should be providing us with the examples of a Thomas Sangara, not tiny Burkina Faso. Because coming from a large country like Nigeria, the impact could be such more encompassing for the entire African continent.

Adesoji Iginla (59:32.551)
Hmm.

Milton Allimadi (59:42.872)
But I'm glad we need to critique things like this because it begins with things such as this and the mindset. But I'm very hopeful as African people, we have to remain hopeful and at the end of the day the resources, no matter how much of the resources that they exploit, they cannot excavate all those riches we have on the ground. They cannot carry the abandoned land that we have and transport it to Europe.

Adesoji Iginla (59:48.295)
Yes. Yes.

Milton Allimadi (01:00:11.503)
They may colonize some African reactionary minds to work as their agents, but those days are becoming much more difficult as we are seeing in West Africa. And that's what we should continue doing. We should make it difficult and expensive for fellow Africans to sell us out and have Africans who want to use our resources and our intellectual capabilities and creativity to develop Africa.

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:38.759)
Yes, on that very informative note, thank you very much for Brother Milton and for coming through again and for our guests and also those who will view the video now and later. Do like, share, subscribe. And as usual, we bring you this information, not because it's

just part of the course, but we feel the days of having information about Africa or just passing through to the continent unfiltered, those days are long gone. And as long as we have the time, the breadth, the resources, we'll continue to bring this show. So please support the channel, like, share, subscribe, and, you know, put your comments in there. Feedback is welcome.

constructive criticisms of course, and we thank you. Brother Milton, last words?

Milton Allimadi (01:01:46.958)
Alutha Continua. See you next week.

Adesoji Iginla (01:01:48.135)
and see you next week, vitria setha. Thank you very much for watching and good night.