ADWA4Africa

25/07/2022

Inequality in Africa
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While the richest Africans get ever richer, extreme poverty in the continent is rising. Africa is the second most unequal continent in the world, and home to seven of the most unequal countries. The richest 0.0001% own 40% of the wealth of the entire continent. Africa’s three richest billionaire men have more wealth than the bottom 50% of the population of Africa, approximately 650 million people.

Meanwhile, Africa is rapidly becoming the epicentre of global extreme poverty. While massive reductions in the numbers living on less than $1.90 a day have been achieved in Asia, these numbers are rising in Africa. The World Bank estimates that 87% of the world’s extreme poor will be in Africa by 2030, if current trends continue.
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Source: A Tale of Two Continents - Fighting Inequality in Africa (Oxfam, September 2019)



https://oi-files-d8-prod.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/file_attachments/bp-tale-of-two-continents-fighting-inequality-africa-030919-en.pdf

04/04/2022

Who has bewitched Africans???
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It used to be said ‘you should think out of the box.’ I am submitting to us that the time has come we must think without the box. We must throw away the box and begin thinking because we do not know who has brought this box when we are told to think outside the box.
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PLO Lumumba

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Source: https://youtu.be/g0jBzx3-QQY

27/02/2022

17/02/2022

The billionaires of the “Failed State”
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The DRC is one of the poorest countries in the world in terms of GDP per capital. It doesn’t have to be that way with its abundance of mineral resources, the DRC could be one of the richest countries in Africa. Mining is the country’s most important industry. Many have made a fortune selling raw materials to a resource hungry world.

There are about 600 billionaires in the DRC which is the largest country in central Africa with a population of nearly 100 million people. It’s history is marred by conflicts and exploitation and the ongoing violence has resulted in the death of six million people in the past couple of decades.

In 1965, as Mobutu Sese Seko came to power, he embezzled the country of the equivalent of more than four billion euros during his 32 years in power.

Then Joseph Kabila seized power in 2001, and in just 18 years in power he amassed an estimated more than 13 billion fortune in euros.

Because of its instability, the DRC today is regarded as a failed state.
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Source: The life of the Super-rich in Central Africa/ DW Documentary (April 3, 2021)

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https://youtu.be/KaPLylJk89w

Many millionaires live in the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the world's poorest countries. This film depicts some of those who have made fortunes amid...

29/01/2022

Why Mobutu is the U.S. favorite?

(Retrospect)
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But in the context of the Cold War, Mobutu's peculation and abuse of human rights counted for less in Washington than his anticommunist credentials. Mobutu first became an "asset" of the CIA in 1959 during a meeting in Brussels. He made his first visit to the White House in 1963, when he was still chief of staff of his nation's army, as a guest of President John F. Kennedy. President Ronald Reagan twice welcomed him to Washington and called him "a voice of good sense and goodwill." President George Bush entertained him at his summer retreat in Maine.
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Source:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/congo/stories/mobutu090897.htm

Mobutu Sese Seko, 66, whose despotic and corrupt regime ruled Congo -- the country he called Zaire -- for 32 years before he was toppled in a civil war last May, died last night in Rabat, Morocco, where he had lived in exile since his ouster.

29/01/2022

Why the D.R.C?

(Retrospect)
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At stake was a country that covers half the area of the United States, shares borders with nine other African nations and holds vast potential wealth. Its mineral resources include 65 percent of the world's known reserves of cobalt and large deposits of copper, tin, uranium, gold, oil and diamonds.

29/01/2022

Mobutu: the U.S. favorite African leader

(Retrospect)
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Politics aside, the defining characteristic of Mobutu's rule was corruption, and he was the chief beneficiary, gaining a fortune estimated at anywhere from $5 billion to $10 billion. Stealing was so widespread that the word "kleptocracy" was coined to describe the regime.

In a speech in 1977, Mobutu described his country in terms that might have been taken from a World Bank report. "Everything is for sale, anything can be bought in our country," he said. "And in this flow, he who holds the slightest cover of public authority uses it illegally to acquire money, goods, prestige, or to avoid obligations."
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Found on Google from face2faceafrica.com

29/01/2022

Who is the U.S favorite?

(Retrospect)
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Mobutu Sese Seko, who ruled over Congo for 32 years through despotic and corrupt means that had made him a billionaire and left the country and its 48 million people in poverty and chaos until he was expelled by rebel forces led by Laurent Kabila on May 16, 1997.

Credited with a measure of peace and stability that he seemingly maintained during his regime through political guile, sharing of graft with colleagues and potential enemies, outright oppression including torture and murder, and hailed in the West as a bulwark against communism, Mobutu received crucial aid from foreign allies mainly from his chief patron, the United States, that provided about $2 billion in foreign assistance. Mobutu in return provided the U.S. a secure base to its operations in the neighboring Angola supporting the UNITA rebel forces armed engagement in a long civil war against the Marxist government backed by Cuban troops and Soviet arms. France and Belgium were also his allies providing military backup to quell any local uprising against his corrupt and oppressive regime.
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https://images.app.goo.gl/CrejHQR8PL3551jw9

Found on Google from face2faceafrica.com

26/01/2022

Unpleasant Memories ….

The most damning evidence of the U.S involvement in the assassination of Lumumba was the role of the Director of Central Intelligence (CIA), Allen Dulles who authorized the assassination plot and endorsed expressions of hostility towards Lumumba from the President and his national security assistance considering assassination as “a permissible means of complying with pressure from the President to remove Lumumba from the political scene.” The Senate Committee report indicated, “the day after Mobutu’s coup, the [CIA] Station Officer reported that he was serving as an advisor to a Congolese effort to ‘eliminate’ Lumumba....” indicating the U.S. active involvement in the assassination plot by providing personnel to advise the would-be assassins.
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Unpleasant Memories: CIA’s involvement in Lumumba’s Assassination
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David Gibbs’ article entitled “Let us Forget Unpleasant Memories: The US State Department’s Analysis of the Congo Crisis” also confirmed the involvement of the U.S. in the assassination of Lumumba beyond a reasonable doubt indicating, “many of Lumumba’s ‘Congolese enemies’ were in fact working for the CIA”. Gibbs further stated,
“there seems little doubt that the Congo was targeted by one of the largest covert operations in the history of the CIA” and “Americans in both the CIA station and the embassy directly intervened in Congolese affairs.”

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Source: United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. Church Committee Reports.“Interim Report: Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders.” AARC PublicLibrary. November 20, 1975. 52.

26/01/2022

Unpleasant Memories: CIA’s involvement in Lumumba’s Assassination
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David Gibbs’ article entitled “Let us Forget Unpleasant Memories: The US State Department’s Analysis of the Congo Crisis” also confirmed the involvement of the U.S. in the assassination of Lumumba beyond a reasonable doubt indicating, “many of Lumumba’s ‘Congolese enemies’ were in fact working for the CIA”. Gibbs further stated,
“there seems little doubt that the Congo was targeted by one of the largest covert operations in the history of the CIA” and “Americans in both the CIA station and the embassy directly intervened in Congolese affairs.”

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Source: United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. Church Committee Reports.“Interim Report: Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders.” AARC PublicLibrary. November 20, 1975. 52.

26/01/2022

Patrice Lumumba versus Abiy Ahmed
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Lumumba was particularly notable for his stance in favour of a unitary Congo and against the division of the country along ethnic or regional lines. He was also a strong supporter of pan-Africanism who also advocated a return to African values and rejection of any imported ideology be it from the Western or the Eastern blocks.

Lumumba’s strong character and determination to pursue his policies and the fact that the Congo was located at a strategic position with its wealth of mineral riches among other factors and his call for support coming from the Soviet Union all put together made him fall out of favour with the Western world and eventual become a prey to both his internal and external enemies.
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These traits marked his semblance of the current PM of Ethiopia Dr. Abiy Ahmed who is fighting against divisive elements along ethnic lines across the country that have been sown by the now insurgent groups, the apparent favorite of the U.S and its Western allies despite their apparently tarnished records of corruption, oppression and atrocities during close to three decades of their iron grips over the country.

Abiy also advocates for the strong Pan-African position that may not serve as a tool to advance the interests of the external powers that have ensured the continent’s poverty and exploitation with the help of corrupt dictators who remained the foster children of their Western benefactors.
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26/01/2022

The Assassination of Patrice Lumumba

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Lumumba’s move to gain support from the Soviet Union instead and his appeal to the independent African states to back up his cause was particularly alarming to the Western powers and the supporters of President Kasavubu who later dismissed Lumumba from his position and eventually brought to power Congolese army leader Col. Joseph Mobutu (later president of Zaire as Mobutu Sese Seko) who ruled the country for close to three decades under his corrupt and oppressive regime supported by the successive U.S. administrations and who also received the initial endorsement by the UN General Assembly. The UN as a pseudo international organization with a seemingly independent stance has always remained under the mercy of the world super powers like the U.S. and proved itself time and again to be an instrument of Western influence lending legitimacy for the imposition of their interest against the will of any nation that dare to stand in their way.

Lumumba was arrested by Mobutu’s forces and later transferred to Katanga and left to the mercy of the secessionist regime in the region and its Belgian benefactors. Lumumba along with his two associates, Joseph Okito and Maurice Mpolo, had received beatings when they were finally executed by a firing squad under Belgian command. Their bodies were later on taken out of the shallow graves and hacked into pieces, and dissolved in acid or burned by fire.
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26/01/2022

Retrospect ….

Patric Lumumba of the DRC
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Patrice Lumumba who was the first democratically elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in June – September 1960 did not please the Belgian colonial authority that ruled over the region for more than half a century. As a result Lumumba was arrested accused of inciting violence that claimed the lives of 30 people.
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Subsequent developments led to the secession of the mineral-rich province of Katanga from Congo following the rebellion of some units of the army led by Moise Tshombe. In the pretext of protecting the safety of Belgian nationals, the Belgian troops deployed in Katanga supporting the Tshombe’s secessionist regime.

Lumumba’s appeal for support from the United Nations and the U.S to expel the Belgian forces from Congo fell on deaf ears as the Belgian troops remained on Congolese soil to oversee the secession of the Katanga region.
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https://images.app.goo.gl/SnDXRVxJrAZkG1SW6

Found on Google from theafricanhistory.com

26/01/2022

Is Ethiopia the new Congo?

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A look back into history attests that the U.S has never been in good terms with any nationalist leader coming out of Africa who showed stern position to defend the national interests of the nation and the people he represented. A case in point is Patric Lumumba of the DRC among several others including Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso.

26/01/2022

The Shadow of Apartheid in Ethiopia
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The reality is that Ethiopians do not come in only one homogenous flavor — there are millions of citizens of mixed-heritage who don’t readily identify as just Tegaru, just Amhara or Oromo or Guarage or any single one of the dozens of other ethnicities in the country. So part of what has been going on with Tigray and with these episodes of ethnic cleansing is a nation coming to grips with a system that amounts to a kind of apartheid, forcing its citizens to walk around with ID cards that must have an ethnicity selected for them. And many seem to be sick of this.

Evelyn Waugh would have a field day with what’s happening in Ethiopia right now. The talented author of Brideshead Revisited and Scoop was…

26/01/2022

Why the Media are not interested in these stories?
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We can be reminded of this fact even in tragedy. According to the EHRC preliminary report on Maikadra, victims told its investigators that “other residents, who were Tigrayan themselves, helped several of them survive by shielding them in their homes, in churches and in farms.” Let’s assume for a moment that at least part of the report’s findings are true, that these accounts can and will be verified. Think about what it means. The report mentions a woman hiding 13 people in her house and then leading them to safety at a nearby farm. “She went as far as staying with them the whole night in case the group came back in search of them.” The report talks about another Tigrayan woman “who was hit on the arm with a machete while trying to wrestle a man away from attackers who set him on fire.”
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https://jeffpearce.medium.com/how-western-media-and-others-are-still-failing-ethiopia-b79ceddc9e18

Evelyn Waugh would have a field day with what’s happening in Ethiopia right now. The talented author of Brideshead Revisited and Scoop was…

09/01/2022

Is there any hope for Africa?
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“Just as the Afro-pessimism is misleading, so is Afro-euphoria misleading.”

Prof. Thandika Mkandawire
Chair of African Development, LSE
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Africa is emerging from a regime which the social policy was marginalized. Most of the institutions that were responsible for social policy are very weak. And unfortunately also ideologically most of these new generation of leaders who see the economy in isolation. They look at the five percent growth rate and six percent growth rate and they are praised by the press, international press for that. We really have to find a story that accompanies, a social policy story that accompanies this new growth. If not, it will just break down politically. We have had high growth rates in the past like Ivory Coast for eleven years … was a miracle economy but somethings were not managed properly specially issues of inclusion and fairness. So any slight crisis that came up can just blow up. So I am worried about absence of a story that is trying to have a regime that is developmentalist in terms of its orientation but at the same time socially inclusive and in Africa democratic.
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https://youtu.be/s35h7AQNgP4

Professor Thandika Mkandawire, former Director of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development and the first person to take on the new positi...

05/01/2022

Ethiopia under Western Media Radar: The Demise of Professional Reporting in Western Media Outlets

ADWA4Africa, Podcast #01, Part B

December 2021

Produced by ADWA Media Production Co.
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https://youtu.be/Rc-rgk8xN9E

#01; Part B; December 2021Produced by ADWA Media Production Co. ……Sources used: ….Walta TV: ከውጊያ በላይ ድል (‘Victory Above the...

05/01/2022

Ethiopia under Western Media Radar: The Demise of Professional Reporting in Western Media Outlets

: Podcast 01, Part A

December 2021

Produced by ADWA Media Production Co.

https://youtu.be/jMa37jRQLrI

December 2021 : Podcast 01, Part AProduced by ADWA Media Production Co. ……Sources used: ….Walta TV: ከውጊያ በላይ ድል (‘Victory Above the ...