Africans All Free

123 years ago today, African leaders came together in Bloemfontein to form the South African Native National Congress, now known as the ANC, or the African National Congress.

It marked a shift toward a national struggle for liberation, given fragmented resistance had failed.

In its early years, the ANC battled a white minority state, particularly after the 1913 Land Act, which stripped Africans of most land and forced them into cheap labour. As industrialisation advanced, African resistance shifted to union building and strikes. Then, the 1949 Programme of Action emphasised boycotts, strikes, and civil disobedience against apartheid.

State repression included the 1960 state massacre of youths in Sharpeville and the regime banning the ANC. This pushed the party to launch an armed wing, uMkhonto weSizwe, in 1961, positioning itself as the leading force for national liberation by operating underground in South Africa and through an international network led by ANC freedom fighter Oliver Tambo (1917-93). The ANC became the face of the country's liberation struggle.

After the fall of apartheid in 1994, a new buffer class emerged: The Black elites. This maintained social inequity for decades. Thus, in the 2024 elections, the ANC lost its majority for the first time since 1994. Failing to win enough votes to hold onto power on its own forced the party to form a Government of National Unity. However, the ANC further disappointed the masses by joining forces with the pro-capitalist, white-majority Democratic Alliance.

Now, the question remains: Will the ANC change course?

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1 week ago | [YT] | 2

Africans All Free

Any European fighting against apartheid in South Africa would have been hard to miss.

But only Joe Slovo (1926-95), a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania, truly earned the title ‘The Most Hated White Man in Apartheid South Africa.’ Slovo, who passed away on this date in 1995, was a pivotal figure and theorist in the South African Communist Party (SACP), a leading member of the African National Congress (ANC), and the Chief of Staff of the ANC’s military branch, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK). He was instrumental in drafting the Freedom Charter and spent 27 years in exile, directing armed resistance operations against the apartheid regime.

His wife, Ruth First (1925-1982), was a fierce anti-apartheid journalist and scholar who also made significant contributions. She was a co-defendant in the 1956 Treason Trial, endured 117 days in solitary confinement in 1963, and was a leading intellectual in exile. Tragically, South African operatives k*lled her in 1982 by sending a parcel bomb to her location in Maputo, Mozambique.

Slovo returned to South Africa in 1990 and played a vital role as a negotiator for the transition to Black majority rule. He held the position of Minister of Housing in Nelson Mandela’s government until he succumbed to cancer on 6 January 1995.

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#Europe #Apartheid #SouthAfrica #JoeSlovo

1 week ago | [YT] | 1

Africans All Free

Today, Malawi does something revolutionary.

As of January 1, 2026, all primary and secondary school fees are eliminated, removing a financial barrier that has kept milions of Malawian children out of schools for generations.

The annoucement had been made by President Arthur Peter Mutharika on 20 October 2025, fulfilling a campaign promise and reversing decades of World Bank and IMF pressure that forced African governments to slash education budgets and charge for basic schooling in the name of 'reform.' Poor families paid the price. Now, Malawi is choosing its people over foreign-backed economic prescriptions

Should more countries follow? Let us know in the comments.

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Africans All Free

The year opens with the anniversaries of two iconic African independence days: Haiti on 1 January 1804, and Sudan on 1 January 1956.

The price of independence has been steep, with shockwaves still felt today. Haiti made history by defeating Napoleon’s army and becoming the world’s first Black republic.

Instead of receiving reparations for slavery, Haiti was forced to pay France for its own freedom, a ransom worth over $21 billion in today’s terms. That payout gutted the country's economy. Add, a brutal US occupation, multiple UN ‘peace’ missions, Western-backed dictatorships and the overthrow of democratically elected leaders, and you have a situation that has impoverished the revolutionary state.

More than a century later, thousands of kilometres away, Sudan declared independence from Britain in 1956, becoming the first country south of the Sahara Desert to do it. However, the poison nurtured by colonialism continues to define Sudanese politics. The British divide-and-conquer policy benefited mainly Arabic-speaking northern Sudanese elites while excluding non-Arabic-speaking peoples in western and southern peripheries culminating in the secession of South Sudan in 2011.

Today, Sudan is a playground for imperialist wannabes, such as the United Arab Emirates, while the UK and the US look the other way. Sudan now hosts the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

So, yes, we have flags, we have presidents who look like us, but real independence? That's still in progress. Do you think we're truly free? Let us know in the comments.

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2 weeks ago | [YT] | 1

Africans All Free

On Cameroon’s Independence Day, we bring you the words of Cameroonian anti-colonialist fighter Ruben Um Nyobè (1913-58), who some call ‘Black Hô Chi Minh.’

Um Nyobè was a central figure in Cameroon’s anti‑colonial movement. Born under German rule, he later lived through the territory’s division between British and French administrations. In 1948, he became general secretary of the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC), a party that demanded immediate independence and the reunification of the British- and French-controlled areas.

A few times, Um Nyobè took Cameroon’s case before the United Nations on colonial abuses and called for self‑rule. The French colonial regime responded with repression: In 1955, it arrested, k*lled and drove UPC members into exile.

On 13 September 1958, French forces k*lled Um Nyobè in the forest near his native town, a blow to the most radical wing of the independence movement. Shortly after the 1960 independence, an agent of the French secret service poisoned Félix‑Roland Moumié (1925-60), who had succeeded Um Nyobè as UPC leader.

Both of their k*llings shook the independence movement. As Cameroon commemorates Independence Day today, their sacrifices remind us that the struggles for true sovereignty extend beyond flag independence.

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Africans All Free

On 26th December in 1945, France signed away Africa’s economic freedom.

That’s when French general and future president Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970) introduced the Franc of the French Colonies in Africa, which later became known as the CFA Franc, a colonial currency still used by 14 African nations today.

With one signature, de Gaulle ensured France would control the economies of its former colonies long after political independence. Under the CFA system, African countries are still forced to deposit half their foreign reserves in France, giving Paris power to veto their monetary and economic decisions.

But things are shifting. The CFA franc has become a prime target in the ongoing decolonisation efforts of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), who understand that real self-determination can only be achieved when we have control over our own currencies.

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#France #Africa #CFAFranc #Currency #AES

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 1

Africans All Free

Imperialism reaches so far that we can’t avoid the impact in seemingly innocent joys. Be it Cadbury using child labour for its chocolate, Congolese child miners cutting years off their lives to dig for minerals to power electronic luxuries or today’s example, the r*cist origins of popular Christmas carol ‘Jingle Bells.’ Swipe through to find out where the song began.

#Imperialism #Cadbury #ChildLabour #Chocolate #DRC

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2 weeks ago | [YT] | 0

Africans All Free

Let’s talk about one of Africa’s rare military victories over colonial powers.

In the early 1880s, the Basuto people stood up to the British Cape Colony in what became known as the Gun War. After the Zulu people defeated the British in Isandlwana in 1879, the Cape authorities tried to disarm the Basuto, fearing another upset. While Basuto leaders accepted higher hut taxes, they rejected disarmament as a betrayal of earlier promises and a threat to their autonomy.

Fighting quickly spread across northern Basutoland, with Basuto forces repeatedly defeating colonial troops and pro-British allies, turning the war in their favour. An 1882 peace agreement ended the war, with the Basuto retaining their arms and the Cape Colony walking away with heavy losses in men and money.

Two years later, in 1884, the British handed Basutoland over to the Crown as a separate territory. That decision would echo decades later when South Africa was formed in 1910, as the Basuto weren’t folded in. Instead, they remained distinct and, in 1966, they became the independent state of Lesotho.

#Africa #Military #Colonialism #Zulu #SouthAfrica

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 1

Africans All Free

A 'peace deal' that feels a lot like a mugging.

Only days after the presidents of Rwanda and Congo met with US President Donald Trump in Washington to sign a so-called peace treaty, the violence in eastern Congo is escalating and the trucks hauling out strategic minerals haven't stopped, either.

The DRC has accused Rwanda of violating the newly-signed Washington Accord, as M23 fighters reportedly advance towards Uvira in South Kivu province. More than 200,000 people have been forced to flee amid renewed fighting over the past week, according to the UN.

The US is posed as a neutral referee. But, for over a century, Washington has backed coups, armed proxies, propped up dictators, and looked away while its allies carved up Congo. That’s been as long as the minerals kept flowing to Western factories and tech companies.

#PeaceDeal #Rwanda #DRC #Minerals #Tech

1 month ago | [YT] | 2

Africans All Free

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is in hot soup, facing a potential lawsuit from US President Donald Trump for broadcasting portions of his speech that he says made him look like he incited the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot.

Whether or not his case wins in court, Africans know this feeling very well. For decades, the BBC has packaged Africa through sloppy, surface-level, racially loaded storytelling that misinforms the global public about the continent.

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