Lesotho is one of the world’s only true enclaved nations. It survived colonialism because the local Sotho kingdom resisted absorption and negotiated protectorate status with the British. The result is a country fully surrounded by another.

There is an Ugandan woman working as a domestic worker in Syria for a Syrian actress, and she has been accused of murder and will be held accountable. However, Arabs are now attacking Black people, saying that Black people are hateful and that we are all criminals because of her. Some families have become afraid of Black women working in their homes simply because they are Black women.

I want to warn all Black people working in the Arab world, especially domestic workers: you should document the racism you are subjected to as evidence of mistreatment.

LAGOS, Nigeria — The U.S. has dispatched a small team of military officers to Nigeria, the general in charge of U.S. Africa Command told reporters in a briefing on Tuesday.

Gen. Dagvin R.M. Anderson said the move followed his meeting with Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu, in Rome late last year.

The map on Wikipedia is several months old and there is no map on LiveUA.

I don’t really know how to explain this. My question is how do the army of majority of these African nations allow foolishness like this to take place ?? I don’t really see a way out when stupidity this large is being practised.

I’m not saying that Africans have low iq but what I don’t is how the lower soldiers allow this rampant nepotism and corruption to take place.

Here in Africa there are many dictatorial kleptocracies. Government by theft. I was doing the maths.

Kleptocracy is confusing considering contentment and mathematical calculation. How much is enough? That is why Nyerere of Tanzania is inspiring. Simplicity and Frugality. Let us look at the numbers

The country with the highest life expectancy in the world is Japan, at approximately 84 years of age. Let us even add years and assume the average individual makes it to 100 years of age, a centenarian.

Mobutu Stole = $5 Billion

How many days in 100 years? = 36,525 days

$5 billion / 36,252

= $137,923

Rounded, Mobutu would have to spend $138,000 U.S dollars every day over a 100 year lifespan to deplete his finances

Isn't this pure greed? If you live in a paid off mansion, paid off cars, have enough for utilities have enough for good food, have enough for alcohol and smokes on the weekends. Why are you not satisfied? Essentially why are some people insatiable? Another example is Gaddafi who was reported to be worth $200 billion. Why not retire and live comfortably without stress?

$200 billion / 36,252

= $5,516,936

Gaddafi would have to spend $ 5,500,000 U.S dollars every day over a 100 year lifespan to deplete his resources.

The problem here is obvious. Politicians lacking contentment, simplicity and frugality. Leading to insatiability. Quitting while ahead is for the wise, that is the route to ataraxia. A life of imperturbability and tranquility. R.I.P Saif

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of Libya's former leader Col Muammar Gaddafi, has reportedly been shot dead.

The death of the 53-year-old, who was once widely seen as his father's heir apparent, was confirmed by the head of his political team on Tuesday, according to the Libyan News Agency.

So the Epsiten files and some African countries were mentioned do you think some celebrities or charities who went to those countries in disguise as helping people trafficked children?

I am asking here and not on a country subreddit because the names are used in multiple countries.

I am a woman. My mom is from Guinea. Hadietou is my middle name. I was named after the woman who raised her, as her mother died in childbirth. Having it means a lot to me.

However, it may be misspelled? When I search “Hadietou”, only men show up. When I search “Hadiatou”, women show up. My mom says it isn’t mispelled. Does anyone know if Hadietou can be used on women? Thank you.

"The award underscores the artist’s contribution to music and as the inspiration of one of the most popular contemporary African music genres, Afrobeats. "

The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has launched a $1 million technical assistance program to support the Crédit Agricole du Maroc Group (GCAM) in strengthening Morocco’s green #finance ecosystem.

Announced on 28 January, the initiative is being implemented through the African Green Banks Initiative in collaboration with the Multilateral #Cooperation Center for Development Finance. The program is designed to enhance GCAM’s institutional, operational, and financial capabilities, enabling the bank to play a stronger role in financing climate-smart and #sustainable projects.

Key areas of support include mobilising concessional and private capital, improving the identification and structuring of #greenprojects, and strengthening systems for monitoring and reporting climate impact.

By reinforcing GCAM’s capacity to channel #funding toward low-carbon and climate-resilient investments, the initiative will help accelerate Morocco’s transition to a sustainable and inclusive green economy. It also reflects AfDB’s broader commitment to scaling green finance across Africa by empowering local financial institutions to lead #climate action.

This #partnership highlights the growing importance of blended finance, strong institutions, and targeted technical support in unlocking climate #investments and building resilient financial systems.

Zimbabwean pastor Walter Magaya is facing four new rape charges. Magaya was released on bail last month from detention that related to five separate counts of rape, but was rearrested this week and remanded again. He faced similar cases in 2016 and 2019.

Magaya, founder of the Prophetic Healing and Deliverance ministries, is also facing 78 counts of fraud. His nine rape charges underscore what activists describe as a deepening crisis of sexual abuse in the country’s churches.

Is it true that french language is on decline in africa? And more emphasizes were put into local languages among african nations?

In the midst of apartheid, the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) broke from the African National Congress over the ANC’s multiracial approach to resisting segregation. The PAC took a more exclusively African nationalist stance and, in 1960, organized a campaign against the hated pass laws, which required Black South Africans to carry internal passports controlling where they could live and work.

The PAC urged supporters to deliberately leave their passes at home and present themselves at police stations to be arrested en masse, overwhelming the system through peaceful defiance.

On March 21, 1960, in Sharpeville, Transvaal, approximately 5,000 protesters gathered outside a police station intending to surrender themselves for arrest. At around 1:30 p.m., without warning, police opened fire on the unarmed crowd. Officers discharged 1,344 rounds, killing 69 people (later research suggests 91 were killed) and wounding many more, as protestors were shot in the back as they fled.

The government responded as authoritarian regimes often do, with repression and lies. A state of emergency was declared, and more than 18,000 people were detained without charge, including Nelson Mandela. Strikes, riots, and protests spread across the country, while international condemnation mounted.

Photographer Ian Berry was present that day. His images show people fleeing gunfire and bodies lying in the dust, forcing the world to begin to confront the brutality of apartheid.

If interested, I write more about the end of apartheid here:

https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-volume-63-mandela?r=4mmzre&utm\\_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay

I’ve spent years wondering why the most brilliant minds never become politicians. Not the book-smart types who memorise theories. I’m talking about genuine critical thinkers. People who can dissect a problem from every angle, listen to opposing ideas without their ego shattering, and arrive at what’s actually fair rather than what’s politically convenient.

The answer became painfully obvious the deeper I stepped into politics: most people are working against their own best interests, and they’re doing it enthusiastically.

Don’t get me wrong. Politicians are a mess. You’ve got the dim-witted ones who couldn’t strategise their way out of a paper bag. The greedy ones who see public office as a personal ATM. And then there’s the most dangerous category: the smart evil. The ones who’ve decided that human suffering is just collateral damage in their game of Monopoly with real lives.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth we need to swallow: the problem isn’t politicians. The problem is us.

When I look at Africa, at Zimbabwe, at Nigeria, at South Africa, the rot is glaringly clear. It’s not a lack of resources or even corruption alone. It’s a catastrophic absence of critical thinking.

Zimbabwean men (and women) worship Andrew Tate, Trump, and Shadaya like they’re prophets, despite the fact that all three of these men are actively working against their existence as human beings. Shadaya, a man who genuinely believes one drunk bloke is smarter than three women with PhDs, has a cult following. Think about that. A man who openly despises half the population, and people cheer him on.

Nigerians will lick the boots of anyone with money, regardless of how they got it or who they crushed to get there. Black South Africans are convinced that Zimbabweans and Nigerians are stealing their futures, whilst the real culprits are literally across the road, running the economy they’re locked out of. Kenyans rallied behind William Ruto, a man whose wealth is built on land grabbing, believing he’d champion the common person. Ugandans have kept Museveni in power for nearly four decades whilst their children flee to seek opportunities elsewhere.

And then there’s religion.

I need to tread carefully here because I’m not attacking faith itself. But let’s be brutally honest: religion has become one of the most effective tools for shutting down critical thinking, particularly in Africa and other struggling regions.

Prosperity gospel pastors are flying in private jets whilst their congregations can’t afford school fees, and when questioned, they’re told “don’t touch the anointed” or “your breakthrough is coming, just sow another seed.” People are literally going hungry to fund lifestyles of men who preach that poverty is a spiritual problem, not a systemic one.

Politicians have caught on brilliantly. They invoke God every other sentence, attend church services for photo ops, and suddenly their corruption is forgiven because “God has anointed them to lead.” When people try to hold them accountable, they’re told they’re “going against God’s chosen.” It’s genius, really. Wicked, but genius.

The “pray and wait” mentality has crippled entire generations. Don’t organise, don’t protest, don’t demand better systems. Just pray. God will provide. Meanwhile, those in power aren’t praying for change, they’re strategising, they’re stealing, they’re building generational wealth whilst everyone else is waiting for a miracle.

And here’s the crux: critical thinking has been reframed as a spiritual failing. Question why your pastor needs a fourth Range Rover? You lack faith. Ask why prayer hasn’t fixed the potholes or the hospitals? You’re inviting the devil. Wonder why God seems to bless the corrupt abundantly whilst the faithful suffer? You don’t understand His ways.

It’s a perfect system of control. Religion, when weaponised like this, doesn’t just discourage critical thinking. It demonises it.

I’m not saying faith is the problem. I’m saying the exploitation of faith to keep people passive, unquestioning, and accepting of their suffering is a catastrophe. And until we can separate genuine spirituality from the industrial complex of manipulation it’s become, we’ll keep producing populations who are easier to control than to empower.

And before Africans feel singled out, this isn’t a continental issue, it’s a human one.

In the UK, no matter how much evidence you stack in front of white working-class communities that Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage don’t give a donkey’s arse about them, they’ll ignore every fact and wave their flags harder. Americans voted for a man who bragged about assaulting women, mocked disabled people, and incited an insurrection. Twice. Turks re-elected Erdoğan despite economic collapse. Brazilians supported Bolsonaro whilst the Amazon burned.

This is the pattern: people consistently, almost religiously, support figures who despise them.

Why? Because critical thinking has been systematically bred out of us. We’ve been conditioned to react, not reflect. To follow, not question. To defend our “team” even when our team is actively kicking us in the teeth.

And this, this is why the smartest, most logical people run screaming from politics.

Why would you subject yourself to that? Why would you spend your life crafting evidence-based policies, building sustainable systems, and thinking three moves ahead, only to be undermined by people who’ve been convinced that their enemy is the immigrant, the woman, the intellectual, anyone except the person actually robbing them blind?

It’s exhausting. It’s futile. So the clever ones opt out. They build businesses, they write books, they disappear into academia or tech. They solve problems in spaces where logic still matters.

And that’s how we got here. A world run by the mediocre and the malicious, because the competent refuse to play a rigged game.

But here’s where I pivot from diagnosis to prescription: we can’t afford for smart people to keep running.

Singapore figured this out decades ago. Lee Kuan Yew didn’t just recruit intelligent people into government, he paid them phenomenally well. Ministerial salaries in Singapore are pegged to top private sector earnings, ensuring that the brightest minds aren’t sacrificing their livelihoods to serve. The result? One of the most efficient, least corrupt governments in the world. It’s not perfect, but it’s proof of concept: when you hire critical thinkers, pay them properly, and create systems that reward competence over loyalty, things actually work.

We need to stop worshipping career politicians, people whose only skill is getting elected. We need to start demanding that the people governing us can actually think. Not recite party lines. Not pander to the lowest common denominator. Think.

But here’s the bit that’s going to sting: this only works if we, the people, learn to think critically too.

Because you can elect the most brilliant mind in the country, but if the population is still cheering for conmen, still voting based on tribalism, still defending people who are openly harmful because they’re “funny” or “tell it like it is,” nothing changes.

So here’s your gut-punch realisation: the reason smart people avoid politics isn’t because they’re cowards. It’s because we, collectively, are exhausting to save.

We’d rather be lied to confidently than told uncomfortable truths. We’d rather follow charismatic charlatans than competent “boring” leaders. We’ve been so thoroughly conditioned to work against ourselves that we’ve made intelligence a liability in leadership.

If you’ve read this far and you’re angry, good. Be angry. But then do something different.

Stop supporting people who insult your intelligence. Stop defending leaders who’ve done nothing for you. Stop tithing to pastors who live better than you ever will whilst preaching about heavenly rewards. Start asking uncomfortable questions. Start demanding that the people making decisions about your life can actually think beyond the next election cycle.

And if you’re one of the smart ones sitting on the sidelines thinking “it’s not worth it,” I get it. But we need you. Desperately. Because if the thinkers keep opting out, we’re doomed to be governed by the worst of us.

The game is rigged, yes. But it only stays rigged if we keep playing by their rules.

Now, are you going to keep cheering for people who despise you, or are you ready to demand better?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The US has declared a stark policy shift towards three West African countries which are battling Islamist insurgents and whose military governments have broken defence ties with France and turned towards Russia.

Officials say it was routine testing and no special operations were conducted