In Haiti, Kenya Chooses Servitude Over Pan-African Solidarity

AUGUST 3, 2023—The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) condemns in the strongest possible terms Kenya’s proposal to lead what amounts to a foreign armed intervention in Haiti.  Kenya has offered to deploy a contingent of 1,000 police officers to help train and assist Haitian police, ostensibly to “restore order” in the Caribbean republic. Yet, their proposal is nothing more than military occupation by another name; an occupation of Haiti by an African country is not Pan-Africanism, but Western imperialism in Black face. By agreeing to send troops into Haiti, the Kenyan government is assisting in undermining the sovereignty and self-determination . . .

Dedan Kimathi holds a cigarette next to his brother in this black and white photo

A Tribute to Field Marshall Dedan Kimathi

The name Kimathi wa Waciuri has dominated the political scene in Kenya for years. In the early 1950s, he was active in the Kenya Land and Freedom army (Mau Mau) as an organizer in the Rift valley. Later, he led the guerrilla army fighting the British colonial occupation army and rose to its highest military rank, Field Marshal. With victories on the battlefield, came the need to consolidate the political authority of the Kenya Land and Freedom Army. This was done by the establishment of the Kenya Parliament which was the first legitimate African Government of Kenya. On 6th March . . .

Weekly calendar for the annual week to #ShutDownAFRICOM from Black Alliance for Peace

A Guide To #ShutDownAFRICOM

On October 1st, the criminal and genocidal US military command, AFRICOM, will have been in existence for 14 years. In those 14 years, a sizable amount of awareness on the program has been raised by committed individuals and organizations who want to see our homeland released from the clutches of the US empire. But as that thirteenth year begins, the necessity of ending this initiative, once and for all, grows more and more dire. We are dedicating this entire newsletter to laying out the best resources for learning about AFRICOM that we can find. Read and share with your networks who can use this information. You can not fight a beast that we do not understand.  . . .

Steve Biko on the Black Consciousness Movement

Black Consciousness and Steve Biko

In his illustrious life as a Pan-African Historian, Dr. John Henrik Clarke once remarked in the many lectures he delivered that some people are confused about where they belong among us. You can clarify this situation very easily. Your creator, the oppressor, has made no room in his house for you; you either belong among us or you don’t belong in any place.  In September 1977, 45 years ago, Africa lost one of its revolutionary sons, Steve Bantu Biko, who proudly upheld an unshakeable spirit of uncompromising struggle against the Apartheid regime in South Africa. Biko fronted the Black Consciousness . . .

Martha Karua, a former Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister and current vice presidential candidate in the 2022 Kenyan election

Elite Capture: Martha Karua and the Politics of Representation

Kenya’s former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and a front-runner in the upcoming August 9th presidential election announced that Martha Karua, a former Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister (and an erstwhile fierce opponent), would be his running mate. This historic nomination made her the first woman in Kenya to run on a dominant political party’s presidential ticket. The news was met with varying degrees of enthusiasm and concern. In her acceptance speech, Karua, who vied for the presidency in 2013 and came in sixth said “This is a moment for the women of Kenya. It is a moment that my grandmother . . .

Fred Hamption, chairman of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party and a revolutionary who attacked the myth of Black capitalism

There is No Such Thing as Black Capitalism

51 years ago on 4th Dec 1969, Fredrick Allen Hampton Sr then chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party (BPP), and deputy chairman of the national BPP was assassinated by the Chicago County police in an unlawful raid. Hampton was only 21 years old when he was killed alongside Marl Clark another BPP member who was 22 years old. The anniversary to remember the life of Fred Hampton was quiet in 2021 without much celebration and recognition, obviously the mainstream media for known reasons do not have a history of celebrating radical revolutionaries. Although, maybe mistakenly one . . .

Kenyan women protest against misogyny and for their liberation

Misogyny and Homophobia in Kenyan Leftist Spaces

The rallying cry you will hear at almost every leftist gathering in Kenya is “Liberation for the masses! End all forms of oppression!” Often, it is men who send out this noble clarion call for emancipation from the shackles of capitalism and all the ills it represents. But, whose liberation is it anyway? What oppression are we ending when many leftist movements in Kenya harbor persons who hold on to harmful patriarchal attitudes like misogyny and homophobia? . . .