Social media has been abuzz of late with responses to comments that rapper Kanye West made during a radio interview in which he opined that slavery was a “choice” for slaves. The vast majority of social media users, who weighed in on this topic, including a host of celebrities, came out strongly against West and either sought to dismiss these comments by attributing them to his allegedly unbalanced mental state or to educate him on how horrible the system of slavery was. Ergo, it was not a choice.

Most regular folks of Western nations are ignorant of the true state of Africa, and the role their respective countries play in the du jour underdevelopment of Africa, which forces African migrants to risk their lives to make it to the West, only to generate increasing acrimony among their hosts.

General Roméo Dallaire has gone from shaking hands with the devil to promoting Africa’s most blood-stained ruler.

On this May Day 2018, mass demonstrations across the United States of America and the world focus on the current economic crisis and workers’ struggle to defeat austerity. 

Blacks are being incarcerated at disturbingly high rates for seemingly minor infractions in the United States. The cost of posting bail is often relatively exorbitant for indigent blacks, who end up remaining in jail, as their rights are further infringed on. Despite the disproportionately high incidence of black arrests, African Americans do not necessarily violate the law more than other ethnic groups, but may in fact, be victims of over-policing and prejudice exhibited by rogue members of law enforcement. Having more black lawyers may save black men from jail.

“Robeson may have joined the ancestors but his example, his intelligence, his political acumen remains as a lodestar we would all do well to study—and exemplify”, Gerald Horne.

The response to the anniversary of martyrdom of Martin Luther King, Jr. continues to conceal the historical truths.  

Organisers of the upcoming Women’s March on the Pentagon are calling on the Democratic Party-sponsored Women’s March and March for Our Lives to expand their message to include the eight billion lives on the planet, all of which are imperilled by US weapons and wars. I spoke to Riva Enteen, a former National Lawyers Guild Programme Director and a member of the steering committee for the October Women’s March on the Pentagon.

Martin Luther King Jr. had many enemies during his time, but he never stopped having a positive spirit. As we remember the 50th anniversary of his assassination, we also remember one of his appeals of “doing something good for others”. 

While hip-hop is now mainstream with a commercial global appeal, its history instantiates the classic elements of the dialectics of cultural and musical artistry. And many of its principal actors, who were once villains decades ago, are still on the stage, and now handsomely paid.

 This article is an edited transcription of an address that Abayomi Azikiwe delivered at the Annual Detroit African American History Month Forum held on 24 February 2018. The gathering was chaired by Kelley Carmichael of Workers World Party Detroit branch.

Samuel Abonyo's poem narrates disappointments from supporters of President Donald Trump who trusted and hoped that he would bring changes to their lives.  

Blacks have a moment to celebrate their achievements around the globe and to leverage the moment, to confront intolerance in all its ramifications, to make black dignity a permanent reality. We should be outraged by intolerance and racism towards children and should remember that in our struggle to achieve equality, we have allies among non-Blacks, too.

This article is transcription from a lecture, which Abayomi Azikiwe delivered at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Detroit, Michigan on Sunday 18 February 2018. Abayomi Azikiwe presented the message for the day on the history and contemporary significance of mass incarceration and the enslavement and continued national oppression of the African American people.

Hollywood expects everyone to cheer whenever African characters are starred as superheroes even if the roles assigned to them include the mass murder of fellow Africans while subtly promoting the interests of colonisers. 

Important developments that took place in 1968 with the working class protesting against their deplorable working conditions are still relevant to what is happening five decades later in 2018. 

African Americans and their children need to tell their own stories, instead of enabling misguided bigots to seize the narrative – a false narrative that misrepresents them, as a people and threatens their uniqueness, as individuals.

President Trump’s insult is fed by deep ignorance about Africa among Americans. To most Americans, Africa is as an exotic place where animals roam around freely. There is really need to educate them. 

The US informal empire, through the US African Command (AFRICOM, is expanding the US economic-frontier by discursively securitising Africa using exceptional speech acts.

Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his life for the elimination of national oppression, the war policy of the Pentagon and the necessity for the lifting of the masses of people out of poverty. His assassination was a by-product of a system built on forced removals of the indigenous people, the enslavement of Africans and the super-exploitation of workers in general.