EP 3 African News Review I Adesoji Speaks Knowledge 🌍

In this conversation, Adesoji Iginla and Milton Allimadi discuss various topics related to Africa and its relationship with the Western world. 

They paid homage to Professor Wole Soyinka on his 90th birthday, and went into the portrayal of Africa in Western media, and the concept of sovereignty for African countries. 

They also analyzed the role of Western forces in the Sahel region and the need for African unity and self-determination. 

Adesoji Iginla and Milton Allimadi delved into other topics, including the relevance of ECOWAS, the recent abductions in Kenya, and the US blocking a British court hearing on Diego Garcia. 

They highlighted the need for African unity and the importance of analyzing and critiquing information critically. 

They also emphasized the impact of mental colonization and the need for Africans to reclaim their sovereignty and determine their own affairs.

The conversation concluded with a discussion on the withdrawal of Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the potential impact on the region. 

00:00 Introduction and Celebration of Wole Soyinka's Birthday
06:22  The Concept of Sovereignty for African Countries
12:03   Questioning the Role of Western Forces in the Sahel Region
23:05 The Withdrawal from ECOWAS and the Call for African Unity
30:32  Relevance of ECOWAS and the Alliance Between Nigeria, Ghana, and Senegal
35:07 Authoritarian Rule and Abductions in Kenya
46:28 US Blocks British Court Hearing on Diego Garcia: Questions of Imperialism and African Sovereignty
57:14 Decolonizing the Mind: Analyzing and Critiquing Information Critically
59:03  Unite, Control Resources, and Achieve Self-Reliance: Dispelling the Sense of Inferiority Complex

Transcript

Adesoji Iginla (00:01.294)
Good evening, good day wherever you are and welcome again to African News Review, weekly conversation in which we take a look at the coverage of Africa in the Western media and deconstruct the stories for you. I am your host, Adesoji Iginla and with me as always is journalist, publisher, Blackstar News, broadcaster, WBAI .org, 99 .5 FM.

New York radio that is. He teaches African history at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He holds degrees in journalism and economics from Columbia University and Syracuse University respectively. His book, Manufacturing Hate, How Africa was Demonized in the Western Media, inspired African News Review. And should I also mention that in his spare time he's also an explorer?

and given one of Europe's remarkable rivers, London's main river that is the name River Gulu. I speak of none other than comrade Milton Alimadi. Welcome and how have you been? Yes, so this week we have a series of stories lined up for you but before we do that

Milton Allimadi (01:12.515)
Yes, my pleasure. Thank you. Thank you, brother.

Adesoji Iginla (01:29.162)
which should give honor to an African, a Pan -Africanist, a writer, essayist, a playwright, and a general international icon. I speak no other than of Professor Wole Soyinka who today turned ninety And you were going to say?

Milton Allimadi (01:50.425)
Wow, bless, bless ya.

Milton Allimadi (01:55.875)
I said, bless the brother.

Adesoji Iginla (01:57.62)
Yes, bless the brother, yes. May his days be long. I mean, he has done enough to keep us reading for the next century. A few of his books, I particularly love essays, so I've got Art, Dialogue and Outrage, which is that, and I encourage people to actually get that. Speaking of his plays,

Wole Shoinka, Collected Plays, The Lion and the Jewel, Kongi Harvest, The Trial of Brother Jero, Jero Metaphormesis, Mad Men and Specialists. And his most recent work is Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth. It's a novel. And it speaks to the sort of things we're able to.

embrace as Africans, you know, not knowing who we are and the kind of things we put up with. But there is one particular book I will actually ask people to go out and try and get. Unguguwa Atiungu did something similar in Decolonizing the Mind. He wrote Myth, Literature and the African World by Wole Shoinka, a series of essays where he breaks

how Western academia has been used to supplant the story of Africa and what we can do to regain our agency. And so once again, it's happy 90th birthday and may his days be long as they would say.

Milton Allimadi (03:46.382)
I say, I say.

Adesoji Iginla (03:48.194)
Yeah. So speaking of Africa, we go to the West Africa and paper, the first people we're starting with is the economist. With the economist, economics has decided, you know what, we are going to toss off the gloves and punch right back at Africans.

And by that it said, meet the victors in Africa Qubelt. They are militaristic, nationalistic, and keen to cut a deal. Talk about undermining one. The West relations with countries in the Sahel seem to have hit rock bottom in May when Niger ordered America to withdraw its forces by September, having already booted out a French counterterrorism mission.

and welcomed Russian advices. Then even this bottom fell out. Last month Niger, which supplies about a quarter of Europe's uranium, revoked the mining license of France's state -owned nuclear fuel company. Many fear the country will now hand over those rights of one of the biggest uranium mines to a state -owned Russian firm. You can see where this story is going.

Niger turns against the West comes amidst what many in French speaking West Africa are calling a second independence. It is being spurred by a new generation of nationalists who have taken over in former French colonies from Niger to Chad and the three core countries of the Sahel, Okinawa, Faso, Mali and Niger have done so amidst strident appeals to sovereignty and autonomy in language reminiscent of Ahmed Sekit Ture.

independent Guinea's first president, Hutto Charles de Gaulle, in 1958. Guinea prefers poverty and liberty to riches and slavery. Several have strengthening ties with Russia. All want a new relationship with the West. Sovereignty is the big word in these regions these days, says Ibrahim Yaya of Crisis Group, a Brussels -based think tank. It has become almost

Adesoji Iginla (06:14.646)
like a religious dogma. What are your first assessments?

Milton Allimadi (06:21.945)
Well, I mean, obviously, the most interesting part so far is the reference to sovereignty as if there's any surprise there, as if they're saying something which is absurd, right? It's become like dogma. It should, right? Because which African country really enjoys sovereignty?

Adesoji Iginla (06:48.44)
Hmm, true.

Milton Allimadi (06:49.391)
That's the question that our listeners should ask themselves. Which African country enjoys sovereignty? Which African country determines its own destiny? If your budget is pretty much set by the World Bank, how can you say you're sovereign, independent country? That's the bottom line. That's where to start. The World Bank gives you money.

Adesoji Iginla (07:10.958)
Good question. Good question.

Milton Allimadi (07:16.963)
And they say this is how much you spend on A, on B, on which sector. This is how much you spend on education. This is how much you spend on healthcare. This is how much you spend on subsidizing transport, know, fuel. So much you spend on subsidizing food in the urban areas where people cannot grow their own food. And yet you call yourself an independent African country. And you have

Adesoji Iginla (07:45.89)
the absurdity of the statement.

Milton Allimadi (07:46.679)
You have exactly you have a fictitious president or prime minister. You have fictitious ministers who zoom around with Mercedes Benz and all these armed escorts, you know, as if they're really important, right? They're important in their minds only. But they are obviously they exude this importance, self -importance to the suffering masses. That is why Sankara

Adesoji Iginla (08:04.195)
Mm.

Milton Allimadi (08:16.597)
asked, he said, what justification do I have to have a high salary when my people are impoverished? And the first thing he did was he cut salary, including his as head of state and then of all the ministers. Why are we driving all these expensive cars when our people are either walking or riding a bicycle? Let's take these economy size cars and let's share the vehicles, right?

Adesoji Iginla (08:21.88)
Hmm. Hmm.

Milton Allimadi (08:45.241)
But most important, he mobilized the population of this country. He got them involved in national affairs. And that's the beginning of sovereignty. He got them to grow their own food. They're not dependent on food imports. Self -sufficiency, that is independent. So none of these countries really are sovereign states. I'm glad they're talking like that. Obviously, we need every African country to be talking like

They don't just want sovereignty for the sake of some esoteric or philosophical reason. They want to control their resources. That is why the article is also discussing the uranium factor. If we exercise control over every piece of resource, every piece, every inch of land,

on our African beloved continent, that is beginning of sovereignty. China is a sovereign country. know, China does not have any foreign troops based in China, right? China determines its own budget. And that is why China is on its way to supersede most of the Western countries, including the United States.

Adesoji Iginla (09:50.744)
Very much so. Very much so.

Adesoji Iginla (09:57.474)
Hmm, yep.

Milton Allimadi (10:11.715)
because by determining its own budget, it is investing in education and research and technology, you see, and transforming the country. So now you have an African country and a Western institution is going to tell you how much you can invest in education when the value of every society is the level of preparedness of each and every one of its citizens, right?

Adesoji Iginla (10:17.272)
Fest and Formos.

Adesoji Iginla (10:40.054)
in this sentence, correct?

Milton Allimadi (10:42.245)
Why was Cuba transformed over a short period of time? Education. And not just education, the correct form of education and orientation, right? Why was China transformed? Education. Before the revolution, education was maybe 13, 14%. Literacy. Now literacy is one of the highest in the world. 90 plus percent. You know, the same thing in Cuba. And yet they don't want us to do these things.

Adesoji Iginla (10:50.591)
education.

Adesoji Iginla (11:14.04)
Hmm. So I would, there is another part in there that I think we should also focus on. And it's here where Western forces have been helping the previous government battle jihadists linked to Islamic State and Al -Qaeda. The wider group including Basri Di Amai Faye, Senegal's newly elected president and

Lieutenant Colonel Mamadi Douboe. Since the era of the old Africa is over. But can we focus on this part where he says where the western forces have been helping the previous governments. Batu Jihadi's link to

Milton Allimadi (11:58.713)
Right. That's a complete lie.

You know, that's a complete lie. Either they're complicit in the destabilizing insurgency or they're totally militarily incompetent. The insurgencies started not by accident in 2010, 2011, after NATO destroyed Muammar Gaddafi's government in Libya and all those arms

Adesoji Iginla (12:04.803)
Gone.

Adesoji Iginla (12:28.46)
A leap? Yeah.

Milton Allimadi (12:33.125)
are proliferated throughout the region. So you are telling me that with their so -called sophisticated armed forces and weapons, they are not able to control this in 10 years?

We're talking 12, 13 years now. So who are they helping?

What kind of help is that? Now, what kind of help is that? That is 13 years and you're going nowhere, right? So I don't buy that at all. That's just propaganda. That's propaganda to say somehow the regimes that was replaced with the new governments and that these new governments are less capable of dealing.

Adesoji Iginla (12:56.012)
Clearly not the people.

Adesoji Iginla (13:04.934)
Correct?

Milton Allimadi (13:25.125)
with the insurgencies. Well, what did you do in 13 years? The insurgency should not be there if you're really there to help. I've always believed in analysts who say that they really didn't want the insurgencies to be defeated because that would then, what rationale would they still have to keep Western troops in that part of the world? Think about

Adesoji Iginla (13:26.978)
facts.

Adesoji Iginla (13:50.274)
That's a brilliant assessment.

Milton Allimadi (13:53.657)
you know, because then those governments would not be dependent. And in fact, if people do research, they'll see that most of these governments have been complaining. You know, in Mali, they went to the extent of saying there was complicity between French military and some of these insurgencies, you know, allowing them to operate in some areas to keep the government on its heel and...

the government keep it dependent and not being able to dare to ask these troops to leave the country. So it's really sad. It's a tragedy. But at the end of the day, they bear not only moral responsibility, of course, they actually bear liability by destroying the government in Libya. And this is a consequence that anybody could have predicted would result.

Adesoji Iginla (14:30.754)
to leave the country.

Milton Allimadi (14:54.125)
and it's only allowed to happen in an African setting. Let's go destroy our government, unleash all these weapons, and then walk away and then blame these countries that are trying to resist the insurgency. Look, they're kicking us out, so they must not be serious in fighting this insurgency. So we have to connect all these things pieces together.

Adesoji Iginla (15:15.096)
You

Okay.

Milton Allimadi (15:24.015)
You know, as I say, they write truths, but they write half -truths. They start stories at a particular instance in the narrative. And if you don't draw what is missing, then you'll become confused, you know?

Adesoji Iginla (15:30.094)
Shrewds,

Adesoji Iginla (15:42.83)
I'll take one last part here. The new nationalists portray themselves as the modern embodiment of the anti -colonial struggle. Colonel Dumbaye has set about rehabilitating the divisive memory of Sekiture, hold that thought. For instance, by renaming Conakry's airport after him. Burkina Faso's 36 -year -old Captain Ibrahim Traori, who grabbed the presidency in a porch.

in 2022 styles himself as the reincarnation of Thomas Sankara, a socialist leader who was assassinated in

Adesoji Iginla (16:27.246)
What do you say to that?

Milton Allimadi (16:29.455)
Well, obviously, I noticed that they didn't really say that Sankara was divisive. Touré was divisive because unlike Joffre Bouigny, he did not say, yes, we want to continue being a French colony. You know, he said no, said yes to independence, no to continued colonialism. So.

that qualifies him as divisive automatically. But Sankara becomes divisive by linking him in the same sentence with Seko Ture who has already been referred to as divisive. So you see the tactics here. They think that they're too clever for their own good.

Adesoji Iginla (17:12.286)
Yes, guilty by suspicion.

Milton Allimadi (17:19.237)
And then if you go to their countries, they have all these monuments and statues celebrating slavers and slavers, imperialists, colonialists, people that engage in ethnic cleansing in Africa and other parts of the world. But yet you are not allowed to celebrate any of your ancestors. That's nonsense, of

Adesoji Iginla (17:19.788)
And.

Mm -hmm.

Milton Allimadi (17:49.135)
We need to write our own history. We need to determine who are our own idols and who are our own heroes. But we must read their narratives and their literature in order for us to be able to defend ourselves properly. You must know what they're saying. So that's why I'm a big fan of reading the media, you know, their newspapers and their books.

Adesoji Iginla (17:51.352)
Yes?

Adesoji Iginla (18:06.446)
True. True.

Adesoji Iginla (18:16.29)
Hmm. The reason I highlighted that particular bit was the fact that, just like you said, the divisive memory of Sarkituri. When Sarkituri said we prefer poverty in independence as opposed to riches in slavery, what he was effectively saying is, just like you said, Hufu Buayi was the gentleman in Senegal.

Milton Allimadi (18:47.225)
Leopold Sanger.

Adesoji Iginla (18:47.266)
Leopold Senghor, we are not going to be like them. We are going to craft our own path. What did France do to Guinea? Basically, destroy their infrastructure so that, you know, to send a message to anybody else that was, might be thinking of towing the same path. And in this last final paragraph, they said,

Milton Allimadi (19:09.22)
All

Adesoji Iginla (19:14.958)
Thomas Ankara, a socialist leader who was assassinated in 1987, where in the month of July 15 of 1987, he delivered that speech on the floor of the OAU. And by October 15 of the same year, he was dead. And what was he talking about? Thank you very much.

Milton Allimadi (19:40.537)
foreign debt of

But then in passing, as if France had nothing to do with assassination, who was assassinated in 1980. And then that's it. We're in no context, you know? So the implication is that he was assassinated because he was a socialist, you see?

Adesoji Iginla (19:51.906)
That is it. A passive sentence.

Adesoji Iginla (20:03.776)
Yeah, No, I mean, when you read this newspapers or magazines or listen to the radio, the reason why programs like this is very important is you need to be able to read in between the lines. Yes.

Milton Allimadi (20:07.383)
You know? It's amazing.

Milton Allimadi (20:26.699)
Absolutely, you have to decode. In other words, we need a dictionary. And that's what we serve. We serve our role. We are a dictionary for understanding Western media. You know, without a dictionary, you cannot understand what you're reading, really. It's like you're reading a, you know, listening to a foreign language or reading a foreign language, which is what it is, actually. You think you know it, but then you realize that you actually don't know

Adesoji Iginla (20:39.266)
which is.

Adesoji Iginla (20:48.627)
Hahaha

Adesoji Iginla (20:55.086)
And to go into our next story, still in line with the Sahel, our friends have decided the military leaders in Burkina Faso have decided they are not returning to ECOWAS. For those of us just joining, ECOWAS is the Economic Community of West African States.

It's a regional block that covers 16 countries in West Africa. So we go in and this story comes from the Associated Press and we read. Niami, AP. Military junta leaders of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso on Saturday ruled out returning their nations to the West African regional block whose division could further jeopardize efforts to undo

and curb violence spreading across the region. Okay. The leaders of the three countries announced that position during their first summit in Niami, the capital of Niger, after their withdrawal from West African bloc known as ECOWAS in January. They accused the bloc of failing to, of failing its mandate and pledged to consolidate their own union, the Alliance of Sahel States created last year, I fractured relationship with neighbors.

The nearly 50 year old ECOWAS had become a threat to our states, said Niger's military leader, General Abdurrahman Tichani. We are going to create an AES of the people instead of an ECOWAS whose directives and instructions are dictated to it by powers that are foreign to Africa. The meeting of the three countries that border one another came a day before an ECOWAS summit being held.

in Nigeria by other regions, other heads of state in the region. So what would you say to this? Is this a healthy development or we should just wait and

Milton Allimadi (23:05.305)
No, it's healthy regardless of what the ultimate outcome is. It's healthy in the sense that it suggests the direction that African countries need to take. At the end of the day, in order to exercise sovereignty and control over your resources, we need to be powerful. Individually separated, divided, Nkrumah, they used to prefer the word, vulcanized, we are weak as individual countries. But as a collective,

Adesoji Iginla (23:30.318)
Mm. Mm.

Milton Allimadi (23:34.501)
We are powerful, a continent of more than 1 .3 billion people. And yet we don't exercise any significant impact on global affairs. Just think about it. How can tiny Israel have more impact than a continent of 1 .3 billion people? You see, even when South Africa intervened on the global stage without lawsuit, it was good for two reasons. Number one, it was good

Adesoji Iginla (23:44.6)
control.

Milton Allimadi (24:04.663)
It showed that an African state pursuing the correct policy at the right time can have significant worldwide impact. Number one. Number two, it shows also the vulnerability because you saw the attack against South Africa in the U .S. Congress. They were introducing a bill to punish South Africa. Can you believe that for exercising its sovereignty?

Adesoji Iginla (24:23.288)
Of course.

Adesoji Iginla (24:29.698)
that. Yeah.

Milton Allimadi (24:35.021)
And of course, when South Africa started, I was unleashed.

significant progress in terms of the pressure against Israel's militaristic and genocidal war against Gaza. know, many more countries became much more adamant in their condemnation of this conflict. In fact, ultimately, as you know, the statement by the chief prosecutor at the International

criminal court, the ICC, I don't believe that would have materialized had it not been for the mood change that was generated by the lawsuit by South Africa at the International Court of Justice, ICJ, which of course is a separate court, both of them, and the Hague. But this shows you what impact the correct policy can

can materialize and effectuate. But at the same time, it shows you that in order for us to resist any retaliation when we take those kind of decisions, we need to be stronger. And we can only gain that by uniting. Even when it comes to economic impact, as the late Anta Job once said, we cannot put the

Adesoji Iginla (25:55.362)
Collective.

Adesoji Iginla (26:07.992)
before. see

Milton Allimadi (26:08.165)
ahead of their horse. You we need these political units to come together to form larger executive bodies that make the same coordinated executive position. And that's how we can really become powerful economically as well. So in fact, by them, even before they formed the formal alliance of the Sahel states,

they had already had impact on ECOWAS by making a statement. Remember, they made a statement that any attack on any one of those three countries, they would consider an attack on any one of them, right? Collectively. And that statement, and then coordinating politically and militarily, ECOWAS and France, which of course was dictating these things in the background, realized

Adesoji Iginla (26:46.571)
on one.

Adesoji Iginla (26:52.694)
Yeah, true.

Milton Allimadi (27:07.183)
There was no way they could invade Niger. Remember, they had given, I think it was a two -week deadline.

Adesoji Iginla (27:10.83)
Niger, yeah. Yeah, two weeks deadline, then it was extended to a month. Yep.

Milton Allimadi (27:16.559)
to reverse the political change, right? They backed off. That imposed all those sanctions. They backed off on those sanctions. So they're already having impact. And now by refusing to return to the fold, it will have additional impact, including number one, it would continue to put more pressure on ECOWAS to make even more concessions.

to their position, number one. Number two, of course, it would make these other countries see that new alliance as a potential alternative to ECOWAS. And whether the current governments in some of these other countries are drawn toward wanting to even join this new alliance or whether...

Adesoji Iginla (28:02.688)
Of course.

Milton Allimadi (28:14.935)
a future leadership which is still in waiting in these countries, which will be much more representative of the desires of the youth population in these countries. They might also want to consider even joining this new union. So at the end of the day, it's going to change ECOWAS as we know it. ECOWAS will have to change if it wants to survive. ECOWAS will have

embrace some of the sentiments that are driving these three countries and perhaps sometime in the future these concepts can be integrated into a new ECOWAS or ECOWAS risk becoming irrelevant and this new alliance could continue to

Adesoji Iginla (29:04.526)
And it's funny that those three should actually come up and say this is their position on things. Because when ECOWAS itself was formed according to the Lagos Accord, it was at the insistence of two military generals, Yasigbe Eyadema of Togo and Yakubu Gowon of Nigeria, May 25, 1975. Now the problem is

in their initial accord was the line non -interference in the affairs of member states. But fast forward to the early 2000s with the insistence of staying in power of, what's his name, Yauya Jame of Gambia. That was when the issue of, quote -unquote,

Milton Allimadi (29:58.789)
All right.

Adesoji Iginla (30:04.682)
interference in the member states came up for discussion, he was given an ultimatum, eventually was pushed out. Now that then went back to the back burner but with the rise of the independent -minded West Africans seeking to expel France, France is now using its influence in the region.

to use the might of Nigeria, which is rather unfortunate, to lean on the countries wherein before it was a question of Nigeria should not interfere in the affairs of countries like Côte d 'Ivoire, especially all those Francophone speaking countries. it's a question of, you know, maybe the organization is no longer fit for purpose. Maybe like you

the coming together of these three countries with the AES might just be the kick that ECOWAS needs in order to chain tag and, you know, become more relevant in the 21st

Milton Allimadi (31:17.189)
Right. What they're doing is what Tomas Encada was trying to do. Unfortunately, he was alone. People loved what he was doing, but nobody was willing to step up on the podium with him. And he captured that brilliantly in that same speech that you referred to in July 1987 at the Organization of African Union meeting in Addis Ababa.

Adesoji Iginla (31:18.787)
Mm -hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (31:43.062)
African unity.

Milton Allimadi (31:46.095)
That's before it was superseded by the African Union. And he said, in terms of the debt burden, we all need to have the debt council so we can use our resources to build our countries. But if I declare alone that Burkina Faso is going to renounce the debt, I will not be alive to attend next year's conference. And as you said, three months later, he was dead in October.

Adesoji Iginla (32:00.738)
facts.

Milton Allimadi (32:15.461)
So now, and they they remember the words he said. So Ankara said, they cannot assassinate 54 African president. He said it, anybody can go and listen to that speech. It's on YouTube. It's on French, it's in French, but it has English subtitles. So these three actually saying they cannot assassinate three heads of state.

Adesoji Iginla (32:32.952)
the two.

Adesoji Iginla (32:41.752)
Let's update,

Milton Allimadi (32:43.821)
And it's not so much that they cannot, but the cost is very high. You know, if you do that, then it's quite obvious that it can't be a coincidence, you know? Although, I'm telling you, imperialism is capable of doing the most amazing thing. Think about it. To go to Libya, which had the highest per capita income in African countries,

Adesoji Iginla (32:51.786)
Yeah.

Milton Allimadi (33:12.569)
had the most impressive educational and social and healthcare services for its citizens. They went there, they destroyed the entire infrastructure and they killed the head of state. So I'm not saying it's impossible to them. So that's why it's important that these three heads of state, obviously when they travel, they can never be traveling together because that would make them an easy target, as you know.

What do they say? know, one bird or three birds in this case with one stone. So they obviously still have to be very careful in terms of being together at the same time. All right. Imperialism is not incapable of doing the most amazing things. But obviously it's much more problematic to get rid of three heads of state.

than it is to get rid of one head of state, which was in the case of Tomas Ankara. And they're hoping that by, at least this is how I see it, that if they take the kind of position they're taking now, there would be more heads of state who would be willing to join this alliance and make it even much more difficult for them to be eliminated and make it much more possible that they can succeed in the agenda that they want to implement in their

Adesoji Iginla (34:11.912)
One,

Adesoji Iginla (34:30.798)
that.

Adesoji Iginla (34:39.214)
Speaking of problematic, we go to East Africa and we go to Kenya. Kenya has again been in the news and this time the news comes from the New York Times and it says after deadly protests Kenyan tell of brutal abductions. One activist was taken while organizing a blood drive for wounded protesters. Another said

he was snatched as he walked home after midnight, his wife and three children sleeping nearby. A third said he was beaten and blindfolded before being tossed into the trunk of a car. All of them said they were set up by government security forces in Kenya over the past two weeks after they had spoken out against a contentious bill to raise taxes in the cash -strapped East African

nation. They told of how armed men in balaclavas and on marked cars yanked them from the streets or their homes in the middle of the night, blindfolded them and beat them and interrogated them about their involvement in the protest. A few of those seized are still missing, lawyers said. The disappearance has rattled Kenya.

a long -standing anchor of stability in the Horn of Africa. Activists said the disappearance have left an indelible stain on the government of President William Ruto, a key Western ally who was feted by President Biden in May as Kenya was designated a major African security partner. During a live discussion with Kenya on social media's site X on

Mr. Ruto was confronted by a political activist who said officers had beaten him, stolen from his house and then whisked him to an on -low location. The president replying, if that is the kind of treatment you have gone through, I apologize, Mr. Ruto said. It is not right. The president also said he promised to investigate a new problem called abduction and ensure that people follow legal procedures.

Adesoji Iginla (36:59.362)
Police follow legal procedures when making arrests.

Adesoji Iginla (37:05.272)
I don't even know what to say.

Milton Allimadi (37:05.721)
Okay. Well, actually, I have quite a few things to say about this article. And it's very disingenuous on many levels. I like the fact that obviously the article was done, but the article is missing many key elements. But before I get into those elements, I want to say that Kenya is actually

Adesoji Iginla (37:10.166)
Okay, go

Milton Allimadi (37:34.721)
at a relatively decent spot now. And that comes with the kind of scrutiny that President William Ruto is now under and the Kenyan government. And of course, part of that is related to, as the author says, being fettered at the White House. Because now you've been welcomed into the House.

So you're expected to abide by certain behavior of people that have been welcome into the house. You're not welcome as an individual, se. You're welcome as Kenya, right? So Kenya gets a little bit of a different treatment now, now that you've been a guest. And pun, totally intended, a guest.

Adesoji Iginla (38:20.408)
Okay?

Milton Allimadi (38:34.445)
in the White House, right? So you can't go back to Samuel Kenyon. So Ruto is going to be very sensitive to the media expose of these type of atrocities because he knows that Kenya is now going to be looked at much more closely. It's considered now to

to be a country that's associated with certain norms and certain behaviors. And to put it crudely, it's not expected to be the so -called, quote unquote, typical African country. Let's put it, know, that's how they observe it. So I'm just speaking in plain language. So that's why Ruto is expressing his remorse and all that. Okay, so that's the one level I wanted to comment on. And here's the second

Abdi Latif Dahir, who is the New York Times correspondent, has written the same story before.

about these abductions, people being abducted in unmarked vehicles, people being taken away and beaten or tortured. So you can take everything he wrote here verbatim and replace Kenya with Uganda. He has written about this type of abduction many times. So that's why I say

Adesoji Iginla (40:07.778)
Milton Allimadi (40:15.257)
there's an element of disingenuousness here. Because unless it was edited out and he had it in his original story. And I respect him because he has done much better journalism in the past. So my own view is that what I'm about to say was probably edited out. Or perhaps he now knows the way the foreign desk is editing. So

he decided to edit it out himself. But something, it was edited out by somebody. It was edited out after it was written, or was edited out by not being written about at all. He has, and I want people to Google.

Abdi Latif Dahir. His first name is Abdi, A -B -D -I, middle name Latif, L -A -T -I -F, last name D -A -H -A -R. Who is the author of this story in the New York Times? He's a New York Times correspondent in East Central Africa, based in Nairobi. So put his name in Google and then put Abductions and then put Uganda.

And you'll see many articles very similar to this. So how is it that an experienced journalist can write something like this and not even mention that this bears identical resemblance to what is going on in Uganda, and that in Uganda people refer to it as drones? When government agents come in civilian outfit,

Adesoji Iginla (41:45.442)
Resemblance.

Milton Allimadi (41:58.051)
with unmarked vehicles and they kidnap people sometimes when they're having lunch or just kidnap them in the middle of the street or come to their homes at night and snatch them as is being discussed in this article. How can you not mention the obvious correlation? Because a lot of the conversation on social media is that because Ruto is very close to Ugandan dictator Yuri Musewere, a lot of the conversation on social media is

uh, Moussévenis intelligence folks were coordinating some of these activity with, uh, with, uh, with Kenyan security. It bears all the, the, the, fingerprints of Uganda and, uh, what's been going on in Uganda since before the 2021 election. So that's why I say it's completely disingenuous not to bring that reference up in this article. But I'm glad at least that,

Adesoji Iginla (42:38.155)
home

Milton Allimadi (42:57.393)
he's focusing our attention on what's going on in Kenya. And of course, if you just read it without knowing the context, it would not even occur to cross your mind that wait a minute, this is happening right next door in Uganda. I only know it because obviously I'm from Uganda and I follow very closely. So that's

Adesoji Iginla (43:01.738)
Interesting, interesting, interesting.

Adesoji Iginla (43:13.46)
that you have seen this before.

Adesoji Iginla (43:20.099)
Ha ha ha ha ha!

Milton Allimadi (43:26.601)
despicable for journalism and I hope he does not repeat it in the future.

Adesoji Iginla (43:32.59)
Oh, I'm sure he's been warned. Okay, I'll end with this part of it. It says, for many Kenyans, the latest abductions recall the authoritarian rule of Daniel Arakmoye, whose 24 years in power from 1978 to 2002 were mired by corruption and the abduction of obtains, torture and extrajudicial killings. A dangerous precedent has been set, set, fed or humble.

the president of the Law Society of Kenya, an umbrella lawyer organization working to release protesters, the president wants to rule and he wants to rule with fear.

Milton Allimadi (44:12.473)
Right. So this is echoing exactly what I just said by bringing that reference to Moi. But you don't need to go back that far in history. Just look next door at your neighboring country. In fact, this is where I'm willing to speculate this. I'm willing to speculate that one of the many people interviewed said, are turning into Uganda or we are just like Uganda.

Adesoji Iginla (44:19.672)
Moi.

Adesoji Iginla (44:23.234)
Mm -hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (44:35.299)
Yep.

Milton Allimadi (44:41.241)
because it's so obvious that many Kenyans on social media who are saying that. So I find it difficult that of all the people interviewed for this article in the New York Times, not one of them said that. You know?

Adesoji Iginla (44:52.716)
Lem— Let's see. Let's scroll down. There are eight pages of it. Where in the fifth page, there is no rel— None. None.

There is none. There is no reference to Uganda at all.

Milton Allimadi (45:14.169)
Yeah, that's disingenuous. That's not fair. That's not good journalism. You know, they said it was either there or removed or it was preempted by the writer who knows that my editors don't want to see this. Either way, it should be corrected in future articles.

Adesoji Iginla (45:19.595)
Okay.

Adesoji Iginla (45:33.44)
Wow, interesting. That is truly interesting. Okay, from East Africa, we go out into the ocean and we go to Diego Garcia. And Diego Garcia is very interesting.

The comes from the BBC, the BBC World Service. The story leads with US blocks British court from British territory. And that is Diego Garcia. More on that later. The US government has blocked a British court hearing from taking place on a British territory.

citing security concerns according to official documents. The Supreme Court of the British Indian Ocean Territory was due to hold a hearing this week attended by the BBC on whether a group of migrants were being unlawfully detained on the island of Diego Garcia. The island hosts a secretive UK -US military base and access is heavily restricted. The US last week said it was withdrawing its consent from lawyers

representing the migrants and the members of the press, the BBC, to access the island, according to official communications we have seen. It said it would not allow participants of the hearing to board US military flights to Diego Garcia and would not provide housing, transportation and food for the visits. The US said it is willing to reconsider if the visit was conducted in a manner that addressed its security and operational concerns.

For those who are wondering where Diego Garcia is, is literally bang next to Mauritius, which is Africa. and the security concerns relate to the site state visit, which has been scheduled to take place on the island as part of the hearing, which was to include the migrant camp and several other areas of Diego Garcia.

Adesoji Iginla (47:55.03)
what is your initial take before I even this is just

Milton Allimadi (47:59.813)
My initial take is how is British territory in the Indian Ocean, 2000 miles away from the African coastline, how is that possibly British territory? know, so this is imperialism at its best on display. You know, this reminds me of the so -called

Boer War in South Africa at the turn of the 20th century, the end of the 19th century, when of course South Africa was occupied by Dutch and by British Europeans who seized the land and then eventually started seizing the mineral resources. So after there was a major discovery

Adesoji Iginla (48:36.376)
That's it.

Milton Allimadi (48:58.383)
gold and diamonds. So you had the British and the Dutch fighting and killing each other in South Africa. It was something that didn't belong to them. And in fact, this was when the British first put to a major test the system of concentration camps,

Adesoji Iginla (49:26.882)
Yep. Yep.

Milton Allimadi (49:28.485)
when they confined the Dutch in concentration camps and killed almost 30 ,000 of fellow Europeans. And this all to see who ends up controlling the golden diamond in South Africa. So now you

Adesoji Iginla (49:38.958)
on the continent of Africa.

Milton Allimadi (49:48.131)
the United States making policy or taking action over land that is allegedly British.

Milton Allimadi (50:03.041)
even though the closest territory are African territories. So that to me is my first initial impression before you go any further as you asked.

Adesoji Iginla (50:07.906)
Correct.

Adesoji Iginla (50:15.246)
Okay, now, Diego Garcia, for those who don't know, actually is a name that was given to it post 1972. The initial name of the island is called Chaguan Island. And what transpired there is a case of settler colonialism.

with a military face. What happened? The US wanted the territory. The territory at the time was next to Mauritius. Mauritius, by being a colony of the United Kingdom, they took everybody off the island and

gassed animals and what have you into a pit, conquered the place over, renamed the place Diego Garcia. The UK took control of the Chaguan Islands of which Diego Garcia is part from its then colony Mauritius in 1965. went on to evict its population of more than 1 ,000 to make way for the military base. Agreements, like you said, were signed

which allowed for an initial 50 year period of US use of the territory plus a further 20 years, making a total of 70 years. The agreement was then rolled over in 2016 and is now set to expire in 2036. Now, there has been a series of cases challenging the situation, the last being

recently in the United Kingdom, where a judge said, although we agree that the government should return the land, but the hands of the court are effectually tied. The UN did pass a resolution and the resolution says the land should be returned to which you all know what will happen next. He falls on deaf ears.

Adesoji Iginla (52:36.526)
This is a classic case of 1 ,000 people who have lost their heritage. Their land was concrete over. We're talking about land that have hosted them for thousands, for hundreds of years. Their loved ones were buried there. Their life is there. Some of them are now refugees in Mauritius and Seychelles. There are a couple of them in London. You

But still, it's just the nature of how people go in to other people's places, upstage the population. I mean, one would say this pales in comparison to what was done to... Go

Milton Allimadi (53:23.205)
If they had their way, they would have exterminated all of that.

Adesoji Iginla (53:27.092)
That's what I was going to next.

Milton Allimadi (53:29.549)
Right. They did not succeed. That's why we're discussing it today. And that's why we need more people to take interest and don't just say, this is a far away place with a very tiny population. No, everybody has the right to sovereignty and to determine their own affairs. You can't say because it's a tiny place. Look at tiny Grenada. Right. A population

Adesoji Iginla (53:35.79)
Mm -hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (53:47.18)
Yep. Yep.

Milton Allimadi (53:59.653)
At the time, Maurice Bishop was there, maybe around 80 ,000, right? If that even, maybe even less, because today I think it's around 125 ,000. Yet look at the impact it had in inspiring people around the world in terms of the social transformation and revolution that Maurice Bishop and his New Jewel movement was trying to put in place in Grenada, you know?

The United States felt threatened by that. And obviously when there was a power struggle in 1983 and Bishop was killed by a faction that was controlled by his deputy at that time, that gave the United States the excuse that it wanted to invade the country and claim that it was going there to protect U .S. citizens.

So the size, you know, look at what a Thomas Sankara was accomplishing in tiny Burkina Faso. It had global impact, right? So we don't know if there's another Maurice Bishop, there's a Thomas Sankara somewhere there in what they're referring to now as Diego Garcia. So they have their rights and they must get their rights

Adesoji Iginla (55:03.948)
You know, for sure.

Adesoji Iginla (55:24.686)
Hopefully, hopefully. on that very reflective note, we've come to the end of this week's episode of African News Review. And any final words,

Milton Allimadi (55:42.019)
Well, you know, I must say that.

One of the most empowering things is to feel that you're empowering others. And so I want people that listen to us, not just say, I'm going to come back next week. I want you to do two things. When you come back next week, come with somebody else.

Milton Allimadi (56:12.941)
And I hope at some point we'll have occasion to make it interactive that we'll be able to have live interaction with conversation with some of them and even take questions. But here's the most important thing. I want them to take this practice and start analyzing and critiquing with other people in their own settings. You know, you don't even have to join us.

Adesoji Iginla (56:24.78)
Yep.

Milton Allimadi (56:43.237)
But this is a skill that every African must have. And that will allow us to decolonize mentally. What's been holding us back a lot is the mental colonization. You know, that's one of the most successful things that imperialism and colonialism accomplished against African people, not only on the African continent, but globally.

globally. Globally, there's still too many Africans who don't

who think they are somehow second class to others, right? They think somehow non -Europeans are intellectually inferior to Europeans because that's how they've been taught historically. And the messaging is still the same thing, whether in advertising, whether

Adesoji Iginla (57:51.022)
of these.

Milton Allimadi (57:52.281)
movies, whether the symbols of development. So when we see automobiles, when we see airplanes, we see computers, we see smartphones, and then we see that all these things, we as African people import.

from outside Africa. So we are not able to produce these things. So we must be intellectually inferior, which is of course nonsense. Number one, no other people anywhere built the kind of culture that we see in Kemet, ancient Egypt. If the pyramids...

were built by non -Africans, they would have built it in the places from where they came from. Correct? Charity begins at home. So they would have built it there and then come to build it in Africa. So that never happened. So it was built by Africans. Right? So obviously, and it's not surprising, that we are the home of humanity. So of course, we cannot be intellectually inferior to anybody since we gave birth to everybody else.

Adesoji Iginla (58:42.304)
Vax, Vax.

Adesoji Iginla (58:51.416)
word.

Adesoji Iginla (59:03.672)
True.

Milton Allimadi (59:03.737)
Number one. Number two, and this is my quote basic, China has proven that this is nonsense, right? China was a dependent country before the revolution. China did not become a manufacturing powerhouse until the last few decades. Now China builds planes, ships, automobiles, computers, smartphones. In fact, now all these Western countries are shifting.

Adesoji Iginla (59:12.888)
Correct.

Milton Allimadi (59:32.793)
the construction to China, the manufacturing, right? And then importing. So China can do it, whereas it never did it before, it means we can do it too. But we need to do a couple of things. We need to unite, so we control our resources, and then we can demand fair value for our resources, and then we can build the factories we need, and then we'll build these things. And that will also dispel that sense of inferiority complex as

Adesoji Iginla (59:58.904)
inferiority complex. Yeah. Yes. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. And as always, we show our appreciation. Thank you for your insights. Again, just like Brother Milton said, pick up a newspaper, a book, anything. Look at it critically, analyze it with somebody else and share your thoughts. That's how you demystify things that are around you.

Milton Allimadi (01:00:02.169)
So those are my closing words.

Milton Allimadi (01:00:13.519)
Thank

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:28.842)
and then you're not clouded by whatever is put first before you under the auspices of advancement of thought or whatever. I mean, there's a reason why things are called myths. Sometimes they're not backed by anything other than the fact that a group of people want to tell you a story and they want you to hold true to said story. And we have our own fables. The old African proverb is for long the lions, the story of the hunt has glorified the hunters. Now the lions want to tell their own stories. And that is what we're trying to do here. One story at a time. One story at a time. So thank you all for joining us and until next week, is good night from me. Good

Milton Allimadi (01:01:15.749)
Exactly.

Milton Allimadi (01:01:22.191)
I'll do the content