Host Adesoji Iginla is joined by Aya Fubara Eneli and Milton Allimadi to look at the 2026 US midterm elections and why their effects reach Africa.

The panel also covers the US decision to remove South Africa and Rwanda from AGOA trade preferences, and Kemi Badenoch's claim that African nations should apologise for slavery.

Takeaways

*Aya Fubara Eneli says Black voter turnout in her community was lower than hoped, despite a blue wave nationally and in Texas. She discusses local races, representation, and the work that follows elections.
*Milton Allimadi discusses the Michigan Senate race, AIPAC, Gaza, Islamophobia and racism, and the electoral rejection of attacks on the candidate.
*Money in politics: Milton says wealth did not always prevail. Aya discusses Citizens United and deep divisions in the US electorate.
*Immigration: Aya says it is too early to know whether Texas results reflect rejection of immigration enforcement or mainly concerns about affordability and corruption.
*Every vote counts: Aya cites a Pennsylvania race decided by 40 votes and ballot validation challenges in Mississippi.
*AGOA: The panel discusses the removal of South Africa and Rwanda, including the political context, eastern Congo, and Congress's possible role.
*Trade strategy: Aya argues for less dependence on any single outside market, more intra-African trade, African payment systems, and more local processing of raw materials.
*Slavery and responsibility: The panel discusses the European-created slave-trading system, African collaboration and resistance, chattel slavery, King Jaja of Opobo, and reparations.
*Youth and politics: Aya urges young people who find politics unappealing to get involved and informed, because politics affects daily life.

Chapters

00:00 - Introducing the panel and the midterms' reach to Africa
01:51 - Black voter turnout, local races, and post-election work
07:12 - Michigan Senate race, AIPAC, Gaza, and Islamophobia
10:01 - Grassroots organising and voter suppression history
13:35 - Financial Times takeaways and money's influence
15:29 - Why wealth did not always win: young voters and grassroots campaigns
19:08 - What Texas results say about immigration
21:24 - Every vote counts: Pennsylvania and Mississippi examples
22:43 - US divisions, money in politics, and Citizens United
26:51 - Republican party identity questions
28:15 - US removal of South Africa and Rwanda from AGOA
29:13 - Political context, eastern Congo, and Congress's role
32:41 - Reducing dependence on outside markets and building intra-African trade
36:20 - Africa's share of world trade and raw material exports
37:19 - Kemi Badenoch's slavery apology claim
39:56 - The slave-trading system, collaboration, resistance, and reparations
45:45 - King Jaja of Opobo, European laws, and efforts to stop the trade
54:19 - Eric Williams's Capitalism and Slavery and reparations
57:03 - Continuing African liberation and stolen resources
1:00:39 - Senegal's Youth Olympics opening ceremony
1:02:10 - What young people can do about politics
1:06:28 - Program announcements and closing call to organise

Recommended reading
Milton recommends Eric Williams's Capitalism and Slavery.

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Africa is not a story of victims. It is a story of resistance, resilience and reclamation. That is the story we tell here — every single week.

African News Review Subscribe. Share. Stay informed. Stay sovereign.

This week’s episode of African News Review covers the week's African and diaspora news.

Topics include a Ghanaian student's killing in the Bronx, South Africa's anti-foreigner protests, Algeria's troop deployment to Niger, and a US-backed miner's bid to survey DR Congo.

Host, Adesoji Iginla, was joined by Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq., an author and host of Rethinking Freedom and Women in Resistance, and later by Comrade Milton Allimadi.

Takeaways

*US election eve: heavy political advertising, early voting turnout, and a Reuters report that administration officials are planning ways around Congress
*Caribbean news: King Charles's reported slavery apology and Jamaica's abstention on a UN vote against the Cuba blockade
*A WSJ report that Trump officials discussed Hungary's Viktor Orban as a UN Secretary General candidate, which the administration denies authorising
*The killing of a Ghanaian student in New York, and how anti-African attitudes among diaspora groups feed such violence
*South Africa's temporary ban on March and March protests, the 500 soldiers sent to KwaZulu-Natal, and the panel's criticism of Financial Times framing
*The history of Buthelezi and Inkatha in the 1990s, and the panel's view that it parallels today's violence
*Algeria's first foreign deployment since 1973, to protect energy sites in Niger, plus the competing pipeline routes and Algeria's expulsions of migrants into Niger
*Cobalt Metals, backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, seeking US help over UN clearance for aerial surveys in DR Congo
*Chartered companies from the Royal African Company to today's mineral deals

Chapters

0:00:00 - Algeria's anti-intervention past, Congo's minerals, migrants turned scapegoats
0:01:54 - Panel welcome
0:02:38 - US election week: ads, early voting, fears of workarounds to Congress
0:07:30 - King Charles's Caribbean apology and reparations questions
0:08:21 - UN Cuba blockade vote and Jamaica's abstention
0:09:31 - Orban floated for UN Secretary General
0:12:27 - Comrade Milton joins; the Ghanaian student killed in the Bronx
0:16:27 - Why anti-African sentiment goes unchecked, and teaching African history
0:22:00 - South Africa bans anti-foreigner marches before local elections
0:24:46 - Critique of the Financial Times framing on jobs and crime
0:28:07 - Buthelezi, Inkatha, and 1990s violence in KwaZulu-Natal
0:36:32 - Algeria sends troops to Niger
0:43:36 - Trans-Saharan pipeline, rival Nigeria-Morocco route, Western Sahara
0:46:28 - Algeria's expulsions of migrants into Niger
0:48:34 - Cobalt Metals and China's UN Security Council leverage
0:53:03 - Aerial survey sovereignty and Congo's bargaining position
0:57:30 - The US-Congo agreement: security for minerals.
1:03:59 - Chartered companies, the Royal African Company, King James
1:08:00 - First right of refusal, from Berlin to French colonies
1:11:11 - Closing remarks and sourcing the Virginia charter
1:14:14 - Announcements and election-day reminder

Notable quote

"The tale of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter." - Chinua Achebe proverb, cited at the close

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Africa is not a story of victims. It is a story of resistance, resilience and reclamation. That is the story we tell here — every single week.

African News Review Subscribe. Share. Stay informed. Stay sovereign.

This episode is a wide-ranging news review anchored in African agency, decolonial history, and current events. Adesoji Iginla hosts Aya Fubara Eneli and Milton Allimadi for a sharply political conversation that moves from U.S. elections to East African cult abuse, Zimbabwe’s land question, and vaccine research ethics in Guinea-Bissau.

The discussion explores how colonial legacies, elite power, and economic desperation shape everything from religious exploitation to land ownership and medical research.

The guests return to a central message: Africans must read history critically, protect their communities, and resist narratives that erase their agency.

Takeaways

*Aya Fubara Eneli argues that U.S. elections are flooded with money, misinformation, and disinformation, and are driven by donor pressure, while ordinary people struggle with high food and fuel costs.
*Milton Allimadi links political obsession with bodies and image to deeper forms of racism, nationalism, and power maintenance, using Trump and MAGA culture as examples.
*The panel discusses protests in France and how the same events can be labelled “demonstrations,” “protests,” “uprisings,” or “riots,” depending on who is describing them and why.
*The conversation turns to the destruction of Hitler’s Bavarian retreat, framed as a symbolic blow against Nazi nostalgia and fascist memory.
*A major segment focuses on the Kenyan starvation cult led by Paul Mackenzie, who was found guilty in the deaths of 190 children and one adult; more than 400 bodies were recovered in total.
*Milton argues that the cult cannot be understood apart from colonial Christianity, African spiritual alienation, and the broader collapse of state legitimacy and traditional support systems.
*Aya connects Mackenzie’s behaviour to colonial methods of control, missionaries renaming identities, and the neglect of Kenya’s coast under both colonial and postcolonial rule.
*The Zimbabwe section examines an Economist article about white farmers returning to the land and unpacks land theft, Mugabe’s fast-track land reform, and the refusal to narrate colonial history honestly.
*Milton and Aya reject the framing that Africans “do not know how to farm,” pointing instead to the history of forced labour, land theft, and African agricultural productivity.
*The episode closes its major news discussion in Guinea-Bissau, where police raided offices tied to controversial vaccine research on African newborns, raising urgent questions about ethics, consent, and biomedical exploitation.

Chapters
00:00 - African farming and colonial narratives
01:34 - U.S. elections, campaign money, and disinformation
04:39 - Transphobic fear campaigns and body politics in Texas
06:22 - Trump, candidates’ bodies, and authoritarian politics
11:03 - France, protests, and who gets to define an uprising
12:01 - Hitler’s Bavarian retreat and Nazi nostalgia
13:29 - Kenya’s starvation cult and the Paul Mackenzie verdict
15:14 - Spiritual exploitation, tithing, and institutional religion
16:55 - Traditional African spirituality and colonial suppression
22:24 - Missionaries, colonialism, and poverty on Kenya’s coast
28:57 - Religious regulation and the protection of megachurches
34:29 - White Zimbabweans return to farming
37:18 - Nehanda, liberation history, and the Economist’s framing
41:47 - African farming knowledge and the colonial “lie”
45:05 - Land restitution, compensation, and stolen property
48:14 - “Willing buyer, willing seller” and unfinished land reform
50:21 - Credit, seeds, sanctions, and the limits of land reform
53:56 - Food systems, processing, irrigation, and national security
60:34 - Police raid tied to vaccine research in Guinea-Bissau
62:23 - Vaccines, research ethics, and equity
66:04 - Hepatitis B trials and African newborns
70:36 - Bandim Health research and the trial approval process
75:40 - Côte d’Ivoire’s forest restoration and agroforestry
79:05 - Keeping hope alive through small acts of resistance
81:04 - Teaching, knowledge, and helping students think critically
83:37 - What the Guardian left out about Guinea-Bissau’s ethics approval.

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Africa is not a story of victims. It is a story of resistance, resilience and reclamation. That is the story we tell here — every single week.

African News Review Subscribe. Share. Stay informed. Stay sovereign.

This episode brings together Adesoji Iginla, Aya Fubara Eneli, and Milton Allimadi for a wide-ranging discussion of African politics, anti-imperial struggle, education, and media bias.

The conversation centers on Thomas Sankara’s warning about debt and dependency, while also exploring U.S. elections, French student protests, Marco Rubio’s rhetoric about civilisation, and a debate over AI and African authorship.

The panel connects historical analysis to present-day politics, arguing that Africa and the diaspora must reject colonial narratives, build self-reliance, and stop waiting for outside validation.

Takeaways

*Aya Fubara Eneli urges listeners to vote early, check their registration, and mobilise others to vote.
*Milton Allimadi argues for strategic political engagement, even when neither major party represents the desired outcome.
*The panel critiques political appointments they view as prioritising loyalty over competence.
*The conversation examines French student protests over school funding and connects them to global youth activism and access to education.
*Adesoji Iginla reads from Thomas Sankara’s 1987 Addis Ababa speech on debt, highlighting Sankara’s description of debt as neocolonialism and his call for African unity.
*Milton expands on Sankara’s economic vision, emphasising local production, domestic value addition, and collective action.
*Aya connects Sankara’s warning to structural adjustment, austerity, privatisation, and currency devaluation.
*The panel challenges Marco Rubio’s rhetoric about conquest and “Western civilisation,” and calls for a fuller account of African history.
*A debate about a Zimbabwean writer accused of using AI opens a broader discussion about publishing gatekeeping, double standards, and African authorship.
*The episode closes with reflections on African-led publishing, language, memory, and decolonising the mind.

Timestamps

00:00 Remembering Thomas Sankara and opening the African News Review panel
01:17 Aya explains Texas voting outreach and early-voting mobilisation
03:42 Why voting is a strategic responsibility, not a purity test
04:32 Milton on political strategy and the risks of sitting out
06:28 The panel critiques political appointments and questions of competence
10:42 Project 2025 and ideological loyalty in government roles
11:44 French student protests and anti-austerity activism
13:31 Linking domestic struggles to opposition to imperialism abroad
14:32 Youth movements and access to education around the world
16:12 Supporting African students and school fees
19:30 Introducing Sankara’s Addis Ababa speech on debt
21:26 Debt as neocolonialism and the idea of “technical assassins”
22:53 Sankara’s call for an Addis Ababa united front against debt
25:32 “Let’s produce what we need”: Sankara’s vision for economic self-reliance
26:30 Incentives, collective bargaining, and strategic economic thinking
28:51 Structural adjustment, austerity, and long-term dependency
32:10 Milton contrasts African austerity with Western stimulus spending
35:21 Marco Rubio in Greece and the rhetoric of conquest
38:14 Ancient African civilisations and selective historical narratives
41:19 Civilisational rise and decline—and Africa’s possible future
42:12 Senegal’s 2026 Youth Olympic Games
43:09 The panel’s response to the idea of conquering “lesser people”
46:23 Aya on shared humanity and the costs of a conquest-driven worldview
50:44 The AI controversy and African literary gatekeeping
53:28 Milton on scrutiny of non-European writers
57:05 Aya asks who trains AI, who benefits, and who sets the rules
60:15 Milton shares his publishing experience and the case for African-led platforms
62:20 Creating African prizes and supporting African literary infrastructure
63:28 The Day Biafra Died and the case for Africans telling African stories
65:49 Upcoming Women in Resistance session and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o book talk
66:19 Language, memory, and decolonising the mind
67:47 Closing reflections on struggle, language, and collective liberation

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Africa is not a story of victims. It is a story of resistance, resilience and reclamation. That is the story we tell here — every single week.

African News Review Subscribe. Share. Stay informed. Stay sovereign.

Adesoji Iginla is joined by Aya Fubara Eneli and Milton Allimadi for a discussion of African agency, Western power, and the forces shaping today’s headlines.

The panel examines Zimbabwe’s health-data dispute with the United States, Ethiopia’s push for Red Sea access, the launch of an African credit rating agency, and a Kenyan documentary about land stolen during British colonial rule.

Across these stories, the conversation asks: who benefits, whose voices are left out, and what does meaningful sovereignty require?

Takeaways

*Zimbabwe and health-data sovereignty: The panel discusses the end of US health funding after Zimbabwe rejected a proposed data-sharing agreement, and considers the history and commercial stakes of collecting health data and biological samples.

*Ethiopia and Red Sea access: The discussion explores Ethiopia’s demand for access to the sea, the history of Ethiopia and Eritrea, tensions over the Nile, and the influence of foreign powers in the region.

*Africa’s credit rating agency: The hosts consider whether AFCRA can challenge Moody’s, S&P Global, and Fitch—and whether a new rating agency can make a difference without broader financial sovereignty.

*Kenya’s stolen land: The panel traces colonial land seizure, forced labour, post-independence land ownership, and the voices often missing from accounts of restitution.

*Political participation: The episode closes with a call to vote and engage, emphasising how political power shapes laws, courts, and enforcement.

Chapters

00:00 — Opening: Africa, sovereignty, and who controls the narrative
01:34 — Milton on the New York Times archives and the historical record
03:38 — Aya on the US midterm elections and political messaging
05:20 — Fort Hood and the debate over televising an execution
11:27 — Russian diesel imports, fuel prices, and political pressure
14:59 — Zimbabwe health funding and the data-sharing dispute
17:15 — Colonial medicine, health data, and power
23:59 — Viral sovereignty and the politics of sharing samples
27:27 — Henrietta Lacks and the exploitation of human biological samples
31:01 — Ethiopia’s push for Red Sea access
33:31 — The history behind Ethiopia and Eritrea’s relationship
38:10 — Colonial borders and competing perspectives on Eritrean independence
42:20 — Missing voices, Djibouti, and foreign military influence
45:01 — Who benefits from regional tensions?
50:27 — African governments launch a credit rating agency
52:03 — Why a new rating agency may not change borrowing costs on its own
53:14 — Gold-backed currency and monetary sovereignty
56:15 — African rating agencies and foreign ownership
58:08 — Aid, tax agreements, and financial extraction
61:32 — A Kenyan documentary on stolen land and restitution
63:56 — Colonial land seizure, forced labour, and elite land ownership
66:50 — Mau Mau, survivors, and whose history gets told
71:22 — Crown land, hut tax, and systems of forced labour
73:19 — Detention camps, repression, and the silencing of resistance
75:30 — Post-independence land ownership and accountability
78:25 — The problem with “willing seller, willing buyer”
79:35 — Voting and the power to shape laws and policy
82:57 — Closing remarks and upcoming programming

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Africa is not a story of victims. It is a story of resistance, resilience and reclamation. That is the story we tell here — every single week.

African News Review Subscribe. Share. Stay informed. Stay sovereign.

Adesoji Iginla is joined by Aya Fubara Eneli and Milton Allimadi to discuss how African-led projects are shaping debates about sovereignty, resources, media, and education.

The conversation moves from Kenyan grassroots innovations and Burkina Faso’s new gold refinery to land rights around a proposed oil refinery in Lamu.

The panel also examines Tafuk TV, the challenge of building independent African media, and how colonial legacies and foreign funding influence higher education.

Takeaways

*Aya Fubara Eneli highlights Kenyan innovators turning plastic waste into paving blocks and invasive water hyacinth into biodegradable material.
*Milton Allimadi discusses institutional accountability and the handling of allegations of abuse at universities.
*The panel considers Burkina Faso’s gold refinery, local ownership, and the goal of keeping more of the mineral value chain within the country.
*Aya connects Burkina Faso’s industrial and education policies to broader Pan-African and anti-colonial projects.
*Milton argues that industrialised countries used protective policies to develop—and questions why African countries are discouraged from doing the same.
*The group weighs the promise of jobs from Aliko Dangote’s proposed Lamu refinery against questions of land compensation, environmental impact, and community consent.
*Aya shares the history of community resistance in Lamu, including successful legal challenges to development projects.
*The panel debates whether Tafuk TV can counter hostile coverage without becoming a vehicle for government control or avoiding criticism.
*The conversation examines colonial education systems, brain drain, foreign-funded priorities, and the place of indigenous knowledge in African education.
*The guests reflect on African scientific work, the recognition gap, and the role of leadership and investment in development.

Chapters

00:06 - Opening: resources, sovereignty, and who controls them
01:27 - Texas voting deadline and Kenyan grassroots innovation
04:30 - Cornell, Michigan, and institutional accountability
07:36 - Black History Month in the UK
09:39 - Burkina Faso opens its first gold refinery
11:17 - Traoré, Sankara, and the politics of legitimacy
13:40 - Gold certification and the legacy of empire
15:47 - Local ownership and keeping the value chain at home
19:35 - Dangote’s proposed Kenya refinery and land protests
21:33 - Jobs, environmental impact, and the refinery debate
25:26 - Compensation, land rights, and environmental review
27:24 - Dangote’s business history and industrial policy
31:26 - Community concerns around the Lekki refinery
33:18 - Lamu’s history of community resistance
36:05 - Protectionism and how industrial economies developed
41:47 - Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger launch Tafuk TV
44:26 - State media, propaganda, and editorial independence
52:00 - Sankara’s approach to government media
55:11 - Pan-African news history and information sovereignty
56:42 - Higher education, colonial legacies, and African development
60:33 - Human development beyond buildings and infrastructure
65:59 - Boarding schools, cultural disconnection, and indigenous knowledge
69:31 - Singapore, South Korea, and the importance of context
71:34 - African science, Ebola, and recognition
73:01 - Cuba, solidarity, and investment in human capacity

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Africa is not a story of victims. It is a story of resistance, resilience and reclamation. That is the story we tell here — every single week.

African News Review Subscribe. Share. Stay informed. Stay sovereign.

Adesoji Iginla is joined by Aya Fubara Eneli for a wide-ranging conversation about reparations, colonial wealth, African resource extraction, and political repression.

Together, they connect current headlines to the deeper systems shaping politics and economies across Africa, the Caribbean, the UK, and the United States.

Takeaways

• The UN General Assembly, political propaganda, and the challenge of autocratic leadership.
• Jamaica’s reparations petition to King Charles and the country’s constitutional ties to the Crown.
• New research on the Bank of England’s historic links to the transatlantic slave trade—and why African and Caribbean scholars have long made these arguments.
• The lasting effects of slavery across US institutions, including finance, universities, churches, and law.
• Kenya’s dispute with Tata Chemicals Magadi, and the history of Maasai displacement and colonial land concessions.
• Why soda ash matters to glass, detergents, batteries, and solar panels—and what regional trade patterns reveal about African economic cooperation.
• The Chagos Islands deal, the military base, and the forced displacement of the Chagossian people.
• Uganda’s suspended military ties with Turkey amid efforts to extradite blogger and government critic Fred Lumbuye.
• The role of storytelling, memory, and women’s history in sustaining community and political understanding.

Chapters

00:00 — Welcome and guest introduction

01:05 — Uganda’s election season, propaganda, and voter apathy

04:20 — Trump, China, and political hypocrisy

06:08 — Tech leaders, public interest, and global power

08:10 — The UN General Assembly and the week’s international context

09:25 — Jamaica’s reparations petition to King Charles

16:27 — The Bank of England and wealth from the slave trade

21:17 — Earlier scholarship on slavery, capitalism, and colonialism

23:05 — Enslaved people’s identities and the legacy of erasure

25:05 — Slavery’s legal and financial afterlives in the United States

28:07 — Universities, churches, banks, and other institutions

30:28 — Bristol, Lloyd’s of London, and the profits of the slave trade

31:48 — The African Union reparations agenda and the diaspora

33:36 — Kenya’s dispute with Tata Chemicals Magadi

35:28 — What soda ash is and why it matters

37:33 — Maasai displacement and colonial land arrangements

41:18 — How colonial concessions continue into the present

45:28 — Regional trade and opportunities for African cooperation

48:37 — Lake Natron, flamingos, and the environmental stakes

51:48 — The Chagos Islands deal and military strategy

55:09 — The displacement and suffering of the Chagossian people

59:39 — “Man Friday” and colonial erasure

62:37 — Uganda, Turkey, and Fred Lumbuye

68:52 — Turkey’s growing presence in Africa

71:59 — Tales by Moonlight and the importance of storytelling

75:45 — Women’s history and the upcoming Rosa Maria Castellanos discussion

77:57 — Voter registration, mobilising others, and making a plan to vote

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Africa is not a story of victims. It is a story of resistance, resilience and reclamation. That is the story we tell here — every single week.

African News Review Subscribe. Share. Stay informed. Stay sovereign.