#Africa Now

[naartjie-hijabi]

Just a small reminder

Do not stop talking about Palestine

Do not stop boycotting, do not stop protesting, do not stop speaking out. Be the voice for those who had their autonomy stripped away. Be the voice for the people, the parents, the grandparents, the children, the infants. Be the voice for the animals, the trees, the buildings, the very soil that has been desecrated. Stand up for what is right in whatever little way is possible, but do not stop talking about Palestine.

DO NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT PALESTINE

DO NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT PALESTINE

DO NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT PALESTINE

[totallynotcensorship]

[kittyprincessofcats]

ICJ Ruling

Okay, let's get into this.

First of all, I get the frustration at the court not ordering a ceasefire. I was disappointed and frustrated at first too, since a ceasefire was the biggest and most important preliminary measure South Africa was requesting - and of course we just all want this horror to finally end for the people in Gaza. So I get the frustration and disappointment, I really do.

However, I do think this ruling is still a major win for South Africa, Palestine, and international law as a whole and here's why:

The court acknowledged that it has jurisdiction over this case and completely dismissed Israel's request to throw out the case as a whole. It will now determine at the merits stage (that will probably take years) whether Israel is actually commiting genocide.

The court acknowledged that Palestinians are a "distinct national or ethnic group and therefore deserving of protection under the genocide convention". Pull this out next time someone tells you "there's no such thing as Palestinians, they're all just Arabs".

The court acknowledged very unambiguously that "at least some" of Israel's actions being genocidal in nature is "plausible". South Africa has a case, officially. Israel is accused of genocide, in a way the ICJ deems "plausible", officially. This is huge. (And seriously, how freaking satisfying was it to hear all of those genocidal statements by Israeli politicians read out loud and used as justification for this rulling?)

The court might not have ordered a "ceasefire" in those words, but they did order Israel to "immediately end all genocidal acts" (which includes killing and injuring Palestinians) and submit proof that they actually did. How are they going to comply with this ruling without at least severly reducing or changing what they're doing in Gaza?

In fact, this wording might actually be more appropriate for a genocide (vs a war), as author and journalist Ali Abunimah notes on Twitter:

He's completely right. Israel lost today, by overwhelming majority (I mean, 15 to 2? I heard people predict the rulings would be very close, like 9 judges vs 8, but instead we got 15 to 2 (and even 16 to 1 on the humanitarian aid). Holy shit.) The court disimissed almost everything Israel's side of lawyers said, while acknowledging that South Africa's accusations are "plausible".

And this is important especially because of Mr Abunimah's second tweet there^. Because the question is, where do we go from here?

This ruling means that Israel is officially /possibly/ commiting genocide and that should have huge international consequences. The rest of the world now HAS to take these accusations seriously and stop arming and supporting Israel - and if they won't do it on their own, we, the people, have to make them. This is THE moment to rise up all around the world, especially in the countries most supportive of Israel (the US, the UK, Germany): Protest, call your representatives and demand a ceasefire and an end of arms deliveries to Israel.

We now have a legal case to back our demands: If Israel is, according to the ICJ, "plausibly" commiting genocide, then all of our governments are, according to the ICJ, "plausibly" guiltly of aiding in genocide. And we need to hold that over their heads and demand better. We need to do that right now and in huge numbers. Most politicians only care about themselves and saving their skin. We have to make them realize that they could be accused of aiding in genocide.

(As a German, I'm thinking of Germany here in particular: After South Africa's hearing, our government dismissed their case as having "no basis" - how are they going to keep saying that now that the ICJ officially thinks otherwise? Over the last months, people here have been arrested at protests for calling what's happening in Gaza a genocide. How are the police supposed to legally keep doing that now that the ICJ has officially deemed this accusation "plausible"? I used to be scared to use the word "genocide" at protests or write it on my protest signs - not anymore, have fun trying to arrest me for that when the ICJ literally has my back on this one 🖕🏻.)

So yeah - don't be defeatist about this, don't let Israel's narrative that they "won" (they didn't) take over. This might not be everything we wanted, but it's still a good result. Don't let what the court didn't say ("ceasefire"), distract you from the very important things that they did say. Let this be your motivation to get loud and active, especially if you live in any country that supports Israel. Put pressure on your governments to not be complicit in genocide, you now officially have the highest international court on your side.

[odinsblog]

BREAKING NEWS: The International Court of Justice finds that there is sufficient basis for South Africa’s case against Israel and will not dismiss the case as Israel requested.

This is truly an historic moment.

Very well done, South Africa 👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿

[politijohn]

Source

Free Palestine

[sprinklesharkie]

etho: ohp someone put a ren stamp in

martyn: that was me

[sutille]

I'm not making excuses for reblogging and sharing what's happening in gaza. people are being murdered and i won't stand silent. yes, i know social media is the place to escape reality for a lot of people (including myself), but these are human lives we're talking about. yes, it makes you sad. IT SHOULD. this whole thing shouldn't even be happening in the first place, but it is. it's happening and it's horrible and YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE, OKAY? you can donate. you can use your power, which is a social media account, to make visible the struggle of Palestine, Yemen, Lebanon and all those trying to stop this war.

look, no one's a bad person for trying to protect themselves from the hurt it causes to see such atrocities. just, try to make the minimal effort to make things better. please.

[reasonsforhope]

African poverty is partly a consequence of energy poverty. In every other continent the vast majority of people have access to electricity. In Africa 600m people, 43% of the total, cannot readily light their homes or charge their phones. And those who nominally have grid electricity find it as reliable as a Scottish summer. More than three-quarters of African firms experience outages; two-fifths say electricity is the main constraint on their business.

If other sub-Saharan African countries had enjoyed power as reliable as South Africa’s from 1995 to 2007, then the continent’s rate of real GDP growth per person would have been two percentage points higher, more than doubling the actual rate, according to one academic paper. Since then South Africa has also had erratic electricity. So-called “load-shedding” is probably the main reason why the economy has shrunk in four of the past eight quarters.

Solar power is increasingly seen as the solution. Last year Africa installed a record amount of photovoltaic (PV) capacity (though this still made up just 1% of the total added worldwide), notes the African Solar Industry Association (AFSIA), a trade group. Globally most solar PV is built by utilities, but in Africa 65% of new capacity over the past two years has come from large firms contracting directly with developers. These deals are part of a decentralised revolution that could be of huge benefit to African economies.

Ground zero for the revolution is South Africa. Last year saw a record number of blackouts imposed by Eskom, the state-run utility, whose dysfunctional coal-fired power stations regularly break down or operate at far below capacity. Fortunately, as load-shedding was peaking, the costs of solar systems were plummeting.

Between 2019 and 2023 the cost of panels fell by 15%, having already declined by almost 90% in the 2010s. Meanwhile battery storage systems now cost about half as much as five years ago. Industrial users pay 20-40% less per unit when buying electricity from private project developers than on the cheapest Eskom tariff.

In the past two calendar years the amount of solar capacity in South Africa rose from 2.8GW to 7.8GW, notes AFSIA, excluding that installed on the roofs of suburban homes. All together South Africa’s solar capacity could now be almost a fifth of that of Eskom’s coal-fired power stations (albeit those still have a higher “capacity factor”, or ability to produce electricity around the clock). The growth of solar is a key reason why there has been less load-shedding in 2024...

Over the past decade the number of startups providing “distributed renewable energy” (DRE) has grown at a clip. Industry estimates suggest that more than 400m Africans get electricity from solar home systems and that more than ten times as many “mini-grids”, most of which use solar, were built in 2016-20 than in the preceding five years. In Kenya DRE firms employ more than six times as many people as the largest utility. In Nigeria they have created almost as many jobs as the oil and gas industry.

“The future is an extremely distributed system to an extent that people haven’t fully grasped,” argues Matthew Tilleard of CrossBoundary Group, a firm whose customers range from large businesses to hitherto unconnected consumers. “It’s going to happen here in Africa first and most consequentially.”

Ignite, which operates in nine African countries, has products that include a basic panel that powers three light bulbs and a phone charger, as well as solar-powered irrigation pumps, stoves and internet routers, and industrial systems. Customers use mobile money to “unlock” a pay-as-you-go meter.

Yariv Cohen, Ignite’s CEO, reckons that the typical $3 per month spent by consumers is less than what they previously paid for kerosene and at phone-charging kiosks. He describes how farmers are more productive because they do not have to get home before dark and children are getting better test scores because they study under bulbs. One family in Rwanda used to keep their two cows in their house because they feared rustlers might come in the dark; now the cattle snooze al fresco under an outside lamp and the family gets more sleep.

...That is one eye-catching aspect of Africa’s solar revolution. But most of the continent is undergoing a more subtle—and significant—experiment in decentralised, commercially driven solar power. It is a trend that could both transform African economies and offer lessons to the rest of the world."

-via The Economist, June 18, 2024. Paragraph breaks added.

[willow-al-najjar]

Look who's using civilians as a human sheild

The IDF and israel army media used to do all horrible things and claim that the Palestinian do it.

But now everything is documented with reports, photos and videos

So share it as much as u can, be the voice for the Palestinian people.

[astroskeptic]

Fuck Israel

[tomi4i]

This is the difference

[totallynotcensorship]

tags update:

palestine, free palestine, south africa, yemen, icj hearing, international court of justice, israel, social justice, gaza strip, free gaza are all trending

DON'T STOP TALKING ABOUT PALESTINE, ISRAEL IS STILL BOMBING THEM DURING THE TRIAL

[thevvitchbitch]

[odinsblog]

Game of Thrones stars and other actors read South Africa's case file charging Israel with genocide at the International Court of Justice.

Transcript:

It was already known that repeated exposure to conflict and violence, including witnessing and experiencing housing demolition, combined with Israel'siege of Gaza since 2007, is associated with high levels of psychological distress amongst Palestinians.

Indeed, the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2712 expressed its deep concern that the disruption of access to education has a dramatic impact on children and that conflict has a lifelong effect on their physical and mental health.

This disruption and its dramatic impact on children must be considered in particular and in the context of the number of Palestinian students and educators who have been killed, 4,037 and 209 respectively, and wounded, estimated at 7,259 and the number of Palestinian schools having been damaged or destroyed 352 or 74% of the schools in the whole of Gaza.

Medical professionals assess that the health effects on all Palestinian children, women, men, older people, people with disabilities and people marginalized identities are immense.

An emergency coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières interviewed on her return from five weeks in Gaza, describes: It's even worse in reality than it looks. The amount of suffering is just something incomparable. It's really unbearable. I'm speechless when I try and think of the future of these children. Generations of children who will be handicapped, who will be traumatized.

The very children in our mental health program are telling us that they would rather die than continue living in Gaza now.

The extreme levels of bombardment and lack of any safe areas are also causing severe mental trauma in the Palestinian population in Gaza.

Even before the latest onslaught, Palestinians in Gaza suffered severe trauma from prior attacks. 80% of Palestinian children experienced higher levels of emotional distress, demonstrating bed wetting, 79% and reactive mutism, 59% and engaging in self harm, 59% and suicidal thoughts, 55%.

Eleven weeks of relentless bombardment, displacement and loss will necessarily have led to a further increase in those figures, particularly for the estimated tens of thousands of Palestinian children who have lost at least one parent and those who are the sole surviving members of their families.

For the families who remain intact or partially intact, quote, “It's about doing everything you can so your child doesn't realize that you've lost control.”

There are reports of Israeli forces using white phosphorus in densely populated areas in Gaza.

As the World Health Organization describes, even small amounts of white phosphorus can cause deep and severe burns, penetrating even through bone and capable of reigniting after initial treatment.

There are no functioning hospitals in the north of Gaza in particular, such that injured persons are reduced to waiting to die, unable to seek surgery or medical treatment beyond first aid, dying slow, agonizing deaths from their injuries or from resultant infections.

Large numbers of Palestinian civilians, including children, have reportedly been arrested, blindfolded, forced to undress and remain outside in cold weather before being forced onto trucks and taken to unknown locations.

Medics and first responders in particular have been repeatedly detained by Israeli forces, with many being detained in communicado at unknown locations.

Videos published by Israeli media on Christmas Day appeared to show hundreds of Palestinians rounded up inside al-Yarmouk football stadium in Gaza City, including children, older people and persons with disabilities, being forced to strip to their underwear in degrading conditions. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs, or UN OCHA, reports video footage showing bruises and burns on the bodies of detainees.

Images of mutilated and burned corpses, alongside videos of armed attacks by Israeli soldiers are reportedly circulated in Israel via a Telegram channel called, 72 Virgins Uncensored, billed as exclusive content from the Gaza Strip.

[honestlyangrypeace]

Kingdom of Benin, Edo, Now Benin City: The Benin Kingdom was a flourishing ancient city situated in modern day Nigeria. During pre colonial era, Benin was one of the many highly developed cultures in Africa. The historical kingdom of Benin was established in the forested region of West Africa in the 1200s C.E. According to history, the Edo people of southern Nigeria founded Benin... The Kingdom of Benin, also known as Great Benin or Benin Kingdom is a kingdom within what is now considered southern Nigeria. Wikipedia

[blackstarlineage]

The Hypocrisy of Fake Love for Black Revolutionaries: A Garveyite Perspective on the Betrayal of Our Icons, Leaders, and Ancestors

From a Garveyite perspective, one of the most dangerous betrayals in the Black community is the false admiration for Black revolutionaries, icons, and ancestors. Many Black people praise these figures publicly but refuse to embody their teachings, sacrifice for the movement, or apply their wisdom in daily life.

Marcus Garvey himself experienced this hypocrisy: he was celebrated by millions but was ultimately betrayed by his own people, leading to his persecution, imprisonment, and the destruction of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).

This false love for Black revolutionaries is a form of empty hero worship—where Black people:

Wear the names of Black leaders on their clothes but refuse to carry their ideologies in their hearts.

Quote Malcolm X, Assata Shakur, and Garvey but live according to white capitalist values.

Praise the ancestors but continue the same behaviours that kept Black people in chains.

This analysis will explore:

How Black revolutionaries are romanticized but ignored in practice.

The betrayal of Black leaders in their own lifetimes.

How the system benefits from keeping Black leaders as symbols rather than applying their teachings.

The failures of modern Black movements to truly follow Garveyite principles.

How we must break the cycle and truly honour our icons with action, not just words.

1. The Romanticization of Black Leaders While Ignoring Their Teachings

Many Black revolutionaries are treated like celebrities rather than serious leaders.

A. Turning Black Leaders into Symbols Instead of Following Their Actions

People wear Malcolm X shirts but still believe in integration and white validation.

They post Garvey quotes online but refuse to build Black-owned businesses or invest in Pan-African economic power.

They celebrate Dr. King but ignore his late-stage radicalism against capitalism and imperialism.

Example: Malcolm X rejected integration and white liberals, yet today, many of the people who claim to admire him fight for assimilation into white institutions instead of Black independence.

B. The Empty Worship of Black Ancestors Without Change in Behavior

Many Black people claim to honor the ancestors, but still:

Use their resources to enrich non-Black communities.

Reject African traditions and spirituality in favour of white religions.

Teach their children Eurocentric values instead of Pan-African principles.

Example: The same Black people who praise Queen Nzinga and Shaka Zulu will still vote for anti-Black politicians, neglect Black-owned businesses, and refuse to defend their own communities.

Key Takeaway: Garveyism teaches that honouring our icons means CONTINUING their work—not just admiring them from a distance.

2. The Betrayal of Black Revolutionaries in Their Own Lifetimes

Throughout history, many of the same Black leaders we celebrate today were rejected, attacked, or betrayed by their own people when they were alive.

A. How Marcus Garvey Was Betrayed

Garvey built the largest Black movement in history, but many of his own people helped destroy him.

W.E.B. Du Bois and the NAACP opposed him and worked with the U.S. government to undermine the UNIA.

Many Black elites and integrationists mocked his call for African self-rule and repatriation.

Example: When Garvey was arrested on fraudulent charges, some Black leaders celebrated his downfall, showing their loyalty to white power structures over Black independence.

B. Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam Betrayal

Malcolm X risked his life for Black people, but when he started exposing the weaknesses of the Nation of Islam, he was abandoned and ultimately assassinated.

Many of his former supporters refused to stand with him when he needed protection the most.

Example: After Malcolm X was killed, Black people mourned him—but where were those same people when he was alive and fighting alone?

Key Takeaway: Too many Black people only recognize greatness AFTER a leader has died—but real support means standing with them while they are alive and fighting.

3. The System Benefits from Keeping Black Leaders as Symbols, Not Teachers

The white power structure wants Black leaders to be icons, not active ideologies. They understand that:

A dead revolutionary is harmless; a living one is dangerous.

A Garvey shirt is acceptable; a Garveyite movement is not.

Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is promoted; his speeches about fighting capitalism and imperialism are ignored.

Example: The U.S. watered down Dr. King’s radicalism and now uses him as a symbol of “peace” rather than a fighter against white supremacy and economic exploitation.

Key Takeaway: The system promotes a version of Black history that is safe and non-threatening—true Garveyites must reject this watered-down history and embrace the full revolutionary teachings of our leaders.

4. The Failure of Modern Black Movements to Apply Garveyite Principles

Many modern Black movements:

Focus more on representation in white spaces rather than building independent Black power.

Seek validation from white liberals rather than unifying with Africa and the global Black world.

Celebrate Black icons without practicing self-reliance, cooperative economics, or Pan-Africanism.

Example: Some modern Black activists claim to admire Garvey but spend more time appealing to white-owned corporations for funding than building their own economic power structures.

Key Takeaway: Black liberation can not come through white money, white validation, or white institutions. Garveyism teaches that true power comes from self-reliance and unity among Black people worldwide.

5. How We Must Break the Cycle: Honouring Black Icons Through Action

To TRULY honor our ancestors and revolutionaries, we must:

Practice Pan-Africanism – Work with Black people globally, not just within colonial borders.

Build and support Black-owned businesses – Keep wealth circulating within Black communities.

Teach Black children about REAL Black history – Not the whitewashed version.

Protect Black revolutionaries while they are alive – Not just mourn them after they die.

Reject the trap of white validation – Stop seeking approval from the same system that destroyed our leaders.

Final Takeaway: Garvey warned us: Black people must stop being spectators in their own liberation. If you love our leaders, SHOW IT by continuing their work—not just praising their names.

Conclusion: Time to Put Respect in Action, Not Just Words

If Black people TRULY loved Garvey, Malcolm X, Assata Shakur, and our ancestors:

We wouldn’t be begging for acceptance from white society.

We wouldn’t be spending trillions on white businesses while Black communities remain poor.

We wouldn’t be waiting for white governments to save us instead of uniting with Africa.

True love for Black revolutionaries means:

Practising their teachings.

Building the systems they fought for.

Sacrificing for the future of Black liberation.

As Garvey said:

"We must canonize our own saints, create our own heroes, and elevate our own history."

Words are not enough. The time for REAL action is NOW.