Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Small help from this small, small area. Small it's so funky. Hello,
small Doses Familia. Today's episode is really cool. Not that
(00:23):
every episode isn't really cool, but I just think it's
really cool because we really get to talk to somebody
who has felt the brunt of the US government and
who is not from the United States and who has
felt the brunt from the Democrats. And I think it's
a really important context because he's also from Africa. So
(00:45):
when we talk about the United States as an imperial
empire and we try to buifur kate Democrats out of
the complicity of that, we are doing ourselves an injustice and.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
We're doing our folks in the Motherland and injustice at that.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
African Stream was is a page that started to really
come to light for me in the last two years
as a great resource for understanding things that are happening
on the continent that was outside of mainstream media. And
that has been a real just general movement for me
in terms of getting my news about everything right, just
(01:22):
going to independent media sources. So discovering African Stream as
an independent media source for the Motherland was like, oh wow,
this is super dope. Today we're talking to its creator,
its founder, Ahmed Cabalo, who's going to walk us through
how they were effectively deplatformed by the Biden administration, the
lies that were created to do so, and the reasons.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Why those lies were created.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
What was African Stream doing that was so threatening to
the Biden administration that they would go to such great
lengths to discredit them. Well, thankfully we have I'm at
Cabalo here today to tell us about that, tell us
about why he even started doing African Stream, creating the
page where they went, what they're doing now, and why
(02:10):
it is so imperative that we have spaces like this
outside of mainstream media when we know that we're on
a globe where mainstream media is now so deeply propagandized
and corporatized no matter where you live, that you.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Just can't trust it.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
I want to take this moment also to acknowledge that
this is also why it is so imperative that we
also continue to lift up the journalists in Palestine and
Rissa who lost their lives that's actually too passive, who
had their lives targeted and taken by Empire for reporting
(02:50):
the truth of their own experiences within RUSSA we have
seen Israel target these journalists so much so that more
journalists in GUSA have been I have chills because I'm
so angry, have been killed than in the last four
(03:11):
wars combined, World wars combined. These are people who were
not simply just reporting on a genocide.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
They were living it. They were living it.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
And then when you see these channels like CNN, etc.
And BBC complaining about well not even complaining, but just
saying like, oh, we can't do anything because you know,
the they won't let us in.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Israel won't let us in.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
No Algacida had their Jerusalem and their West Bank offices
closed and attacked.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Of course their offices if ASA.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Were bombed, and they still were able to hire vetted
journalists on the ground.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
All of these other mainstream media outlets.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Could have done the same, and they did it because
they are complicit. Everyone should be as angry as I
am because what we're seeing is so deeply disturbing in
how the truth is being attacked. I'm experiencing it as
someone who is a truth teller being attacked. This episode
of surrounded what I'm getting death threats, I'm getting all
(04:17):
types of nigga.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
This nigga that male.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
You think I'm not being looked at by these fashions.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Of course, any of us who even.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Attempt to say hey, nah, we become a target. And
those who are consuming and learning from what we're doing.
I hope that you guys lift us up and pray
for us and.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Keep us covered.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
I hope that we are in your your soul work
and your spirit work, because what we're doing is soul
work and spirit work, and we have to change how
we regard those that do that work because.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
For so it's like there's like this sense of entitlement
to it. You know.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Ahmed on this episode just really gets to tell us
his journey and how it's going to continue, and it's
going to require continued support. And if truth and justice
is really what matters to you, not just to know
what's happening, but to live differently, then understand it is
(05:26):
also your responsibility to protect it, even if you are
not the one delivering it. I'm so happy that we
get to have Amed on this show and to continue
to platform or truth heller. Let's get into it. Welcome, Welcome,
(05:49):
Ahmed Cavallo, am I pronouncing your name, Ray, You are
welcome to small those this podcast, and We've got a
lot to talk about because I'm still mad every day
that African Stream has had to re route. That's gonna
be my nice way of saying, because I don't think
(06:10):
it's a rap I hope not. But they've definitely like
they always do, and we'll talk about who the they
is love to silence voices that are going to expose
them for what they are. And so I guess first,
I would love for you to just tell the folks
listening how African Stream came to be and why.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Sure. So I'm an African, I'm of Sudanese descent. My
family moved to the UK. My dad went there to
do his PhD, and then we became refugees because there
was a coup in Sudan where Basha came into power
and my dad had cussed out Bashir and these cronies,
so they canceled these PhD funding and demanded it go
(06:51):
straight back to Sudan, and then human rights organizations were like,
if you go back, you're either going to get killed
or imprisoned. So we were stuck in the UK has
always been for many people in the DICE were close
to the heart, and so when I became a journalist,
I was always trying to push African stories.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
What made you become a journalist?
Speaker 3 (07:11):
You know? You know when you're around elders and I
say you ask too many questions? Do you ever get that? Yeah,
this guy asked you many questions? Right? Do you ask
so many questions? And so when I'm thinking about, like
what do I want to do, I just kept thinking, Yeah,
I do ask a lot of questions.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
How can I live a life of asking questions?
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Exactly? Exactly? So there was that And I've always obviously
been interested in the world. I like to retell stories,
so it wasn't my first I started off as a
youth and community worker. But in the UK there was
seventy percent cuts to the industry when the Conservative Party
came in twenty ten, so that profession was kind of dead.
(07:53):
And yeah, I got invited on one show to talk
about South Sudan and the crisis in South Sudan, and
they gave me the title African Political Analysis. And then
I got invited onto another show and people telling me
I was quite good, and then I just thought that
this is something that maybe I should do.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
I love that they gave you the title and you
were like, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
An African political analysts.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
The funny thing about that is the Sudanese ambassador was
meant to speak on the show and he dropped out
last minute, and so I was chewing replacement, and so then.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
They gave you something efficial. How did they even find you?
Speaker 3 (08:39):
I was doing an internship at the time with the
host of the show. But who was a politician at
the time, George Galloway. Yes, and he was like, oh,
you're you're Sudanse, aren't you. He was like, the Sudey's
ambassador has just dropped out, k and you could jump in.
And I was like, I called my dad. I was like,
should I do this? Shouldn't I get someone more qualified?
Is like, most of these old fools don't know what
(09:01):
they're talking about. Go for it.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I like, you, these fools don't know what they're talking about.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Go for it.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
That's encouragement.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
And Okay, So now wait before we even go forward,
Now I have to ask you how you ended up
as George Galloway's intern.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Okay, So my girlfriend at the time, who was now
my wife, I was doing my master's part time and
she was doing her master's full time. So in the
first year of my masters where I kind of broke
for you know, the summer break, she was writing her dissertation,
so I would be in the library with her while
(09:38):
she's like writing, just like scrolling on Facebook. And then
he just put an ad out on Facebook looking for
interns people that are interested in politics. So I just
wrote and then he just wrote back to me and said,
can you come for an interview with the Houses of Parliament?
And I came, Well, my suit. The rest was history here.
So that's how it started. And then because I'm quite big,
(10:02):
you can't tell because I'm sitting down, I'm.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Like, okay, so that I'm yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Yeah, yeah, you're a presence exactly. And he'd been attacked
because of his politics. He'd been physically assaulted a few times.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Oh so you also could be like the strongest.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Yeah exactly. So then he made me like he made
me his unofficial security at one point, a bit like
Frank Lucas in the American gangs. Then, but it was
good because I'm with him all the time, so I'm
just watching, yeah, learning and in all the rooms just
listen to the conversations.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
So you your life sounds like somebody who you're intentional, Like,
I feel like you come across things, but you don't
like just fall into them. You're just like, Okay, yeah,
we're gonna do this now, and then this now.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Like you take the ball by the horns. I guess
that is what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Yeah, definitely, definitely. I mean I'm in the belly of
the beast. I'm living in the UK. The opportunities that
you have compared to some of my more into elegent
cousins who were born and raised in Sudan, it'd be
kind of an insult to them not to like go
for things.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
It really bothers me actually to a point where I
remember being in Sudan as a kid and like my
cousins are like studying late at night and I'm like,
let's play PlayStation. What are we doing? I've got this examples,
like these guys really study, and then when we get older,
I get afforded all these opportunities and they have to
like pick up equivalent of an uber job. I was
always aware, if I'm going to be in this cold
(11:30):
island where we face racism, yes, and no one sees
you as belonging, then I better do something while I'm there.
I better do something while I'm there. Ovis it's just
a waste.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, and it sounds like, I mean, that's what you're doing.
So now how do we get to African strength?
Speaker 3 (11:47):
So I was working at Press TV. As I was saying,
I was really pushing African stories, but it's not their demographic.
Kind of a Middle Eastern channel, yeah, focused on Palestine.
I had a Palestine and show. They let me travel
to Latin America then as well lear Nicidagua. I'm very grateful,
but it was a real push to really get African
(12:09):
stories out there. And then when I did do African stories,
it just wouldn't get detraction, and so then it would
reinforce their position that you shouldn't do African stories. So
then I had a colleague, he was my supervisor Press TV.
He was passionate about Muslim stories. So he went off
and set up this Muslim publication called Five Pillars and
(12:31):
it really took off. And he was like, you're really
passionate about the content. Why didn't you do what I've
done with Five Pillars? And I was like, ah, you know,
I don't know, would it work. Would it not work?
And then yeah, I was being intentional, putting myself in
spaces London School of Economics, Africa Summit, meeting people, and
I was just telling my idea like we need everyone
(12:53):
benefits from Africa being represented propully and everyone loses from
the misrepresentation of the continent. So if you've got money,
just give us a couple of years, give us funding
for a couple of years. I will turn this into
self sufficient. I'll monetize it and we can start reducing
(13:13):
funding as we scale down year free. You can reduce
the funding by twenty percent, et cetera, et cetera. And
that's what we was on the plan to do. But
the problem is we talked probably too much about imperialism.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Is it you talk I mean, isn't that No, I
don't even mean that sarcastically.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
I just mean like, isn't that the point?
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Yeah? It is the point When I said the problem,
you feel.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Like you needed to play the game a little more m.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
This is something that me and the team discuss all
the time actually, because amongst us we feel like it
was the US elections which was the problem. From our perspective.
We take the Malcolm x position. It's the fox and
the wolf, Republican or Democrat. Either way you're going to
get bitten. Yes, Trump represents fascism, and yes he he
(14:01):
encourages fascism around the world, but in terms of imperialism,
in terms of bombs dropping on Somalia, it really doesn't
make a difference whether it's a Republican or a Democrat.
Whether it's funding and supporting a genocide in Gaza, it
really doesn't make a difference whether it's Republican or Democrat.
Whether it's supporting the illegal annexation of Western Sahara by Morocco.
(14:23):
It doesn't make a difference whether it's Republican or Democrat.
So that's been our position. You know, while there was
a genocide happening in Gaza, we criticize the American government
at the time for supporting that genocide, which happened to
be you know, a democratic president and it was fine,
but in the six months leading up to the election,
where this seemed to be a problem for the Democratic base,
(14:45):
you know, the issue of Palestine, because the thing is
about Republicans, Maga, they don't give a shit about this.
They don't care about Palestine, do it And Also when
someone disrupts, no one's going to disrupt Donald Trump's speech
and say why are you sending money to as well?
Because no one cares in that right. But if someone
just swaps Kamala Harris or Joe Biden, people that support
(15:09):
the Democrats above it by them.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
So do you mean to say, I've met Caballo that
it was the Democrats that were the problem. Shocker, No,
Because I just feel like this is one of the
biggest things I've been trying to get people to understand,
because in the United States there's this really twisted thinking
(15:37):
that it's like Republicans are white supremacists and Democrats are
like somehow these like leftist black people that are for
the people and they're not like in many instances, and
here you are showing us a whole other instance of
how they are not only not for the people, but
(16:00):
diasporically they are a part of the imperialist goal because
they came from me.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
If I gave you the timeline of things that happened,
the ANTII blinking thing was the final thing. It wasn't
the first. So the first thing was NBC, which is
that liberal pro Democrat publication. They wrote to US and said,
you've been named in a report for spreading disinformation towards
forty million African Americans? Do you want to respond?
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Who named you?
Speaker 3 (16:30):
It was? Who?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
They claim it.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Was a report? I forget the name. I could get
the name of. But the funny thing about the report,
the report was never even published. The only thing that
was published was a summary of the report. And in
the summary of the report, we're not even mentioned. So
we were mentioned with Breakfast Club, resid Islam, Shade Room.
It's like the most crazy mashup. Yeah, so Shade Room,
(16:56):
they gave an example of what they said that was
disinformation with us. They just said you'd been named in
a report? Do you want to respond? And the thing
that annoyed me is the email came on a Sunday.
They said do you want to respond by Tuesday two
pm Eastern time, and then they sent me a follow
up email saying, scrap back, It's Monday two pm Eastern time.
(17:18):
So we wrote a response, a very scathing response, because firstly,
how do you say, do you want to respond to
a claim of disinformation without any examples of what that
what you said correct exactly. It's like saying Amanda you're
a liar. Do you want to respond to the claims
that you're a liar?
Speaker 2 (17:36):
It was like what I lied about?
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yeah, So we did a response.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
That's happened to me, by the way.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Yeah, and the journalist, the journalist, I'm not surprised, the journalist,
Marquis Francis. We responded and we showed the email and
we showed our response and that audience. We didn't do
it for this reason, but obviously they all went to
his Instagram page and his Twitter page. So he made
his Instagram pageah private, He made his Twitter page private,
(18:03):
and we grew significantly from that. People were like, we
like this platform. So that failed.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
So he let them use him, yes.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Too, exactly a black man, of course, Yes, a black
man of course. So the second time was a Voice
of America. They did a video and an article and
they were responding to a report that we did which
stated from George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and
Joe Biden, every US president has rained drones down on Somalia,
(18:34):
and we named how many drones have dropped. So we said,
whoever wins in November, drones are going to rain down
on Somalia. And a factual report. I'm not really sure
what they could argue with.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Yeah, I mean it's literally is happening right now?
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Yeah, exactly. So Donald Trump, I think it was what
he's inaugurated January the twentieth. I think he dropped bombs
on January twenty fifth. So literally what we said was factual.
So they said African stream distorts the truth on Somalia.
But what was interesting about this is the journalists they
want to use their real name because of what happened
(19:08):
to Marquise. They wrote it under an a list, but
initially we took a screenshot before they changed the name
on the article. So that failed. We did a response
and then they got ratioed. So the YouTube video that
they did. If you go on YouTube, what does that mean?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Ratio? I've heard this before.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
It's when you try to attack someone, You at somebody
and then in the comments all about it.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Oh, the ratio of people supporting you is way outdone
by people supporting the people that you have attacked.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Oh, you got ratio. Okay, I like this. I like this.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
I'm a ratio.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
You like, I'm gonna use that now.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Okay, So if you go on Voice of America. The
YouTube video that they did about US, literally there's every
single comment is you guys got destroyed by African Stream.
Why are you lying about African Stream? So then that
failed and so then it feels like a piece of
paper was passed and we're like, okay, We've tried to
go via an NBC tried to go buy voices of America.
(20:08):
These guys are going to be a problem for US
because when you check out our analytics, most of our
supports come from the.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
US, which is really in the US.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, so it goes the United States,
number one, Nigeria, South Africa, Canada. It was Canada before
they did this weird thing where they can't show news
to Canadians on Instagram. What it's a bit complicated. There's
a beef between the Canadian government and Meta, so you
can't if you're in Canada, you can't go on Instagram
(20:39):
and see BBC news, not just US, but any news.
Oh yeah, they have to use a VPN. It's nothing
to do with us. It's a whole beef they've got
about advertising and all this type of stuff. So, because
we had such a huge audience in the US and
we were critical of both parties. We were seen to
be a threat to be the Democrat a base, which
(21:01):
is you know, they rely on the black support.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yeah, and so.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
That's what I think it was. I think if it
wasn't an election year, we weren't taking the positions that
we were taking on gas etc. I don't think we
would have been deplatformed or strongly don't believe that.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Well, both of us are in the same boat because
they tried to the same factions came for me, the
Democrats and said that I was the exact same reason.
They said that I was spreading disinformation about Kamala Harris well,
and what I was saying was Kamala Harris needs to
go for the left. If she's going to attempt to win,
(21:36):
she needs to coalition build with folks to the left
of the Democratic Party because centering the center, which is
at this point the right, is not going to help.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Anyone, let alone her.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
And I met Kamala Harris in February and we had
an interesting conversation where I was very respectfully friends with her,
and then she was like, well, I want to hear
more of your thoughts. I want to hear more of
your thoughts and then like maybe I think like a
week or two weeks later, she went to Puerto Rico,
and when she landed in Puerto Rico, they were like
(22:12):
singing and clapping, and she walked off the plane and
was like and clapping along with them, and then the
translator said it like went in her ear and was like,
they're singing a protest song about you being a colonizer,
and so she like stopped immediately. And I looked at
this video and I said to myself, like, normally I
(22:33):
would make a video about this, right, But I had
a pause because I was like, well, if I make
this video, will that get in the way of a
possible connection that I have to be helpful to them?
And I had to ask myself the same conversations that
you're having with your team, like how much of this
game are you really trying to play into?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
What ends?
Speaker 1 (22:54):
And so I made the video because like because at
the end of the day, they would have just used me,
you know, like my insight should not be available to
anyone seeking the seat of the presidency unless they are
actively not only seeking the seat of the presidency but
also seeking to uproot a number of aspects of the
(23:16):
government of the United States that are not only perpetuating
what's going on here, but also perpetuating the colonialism that
happens all over the globe, which they are huge, and
I would arguably say are the leaders of now like
they've outdone the UK in that respect. They took over
after World War Two? What was the tipping point of
(23:42):
how you became to platforms? Because I don't know how
that process happens, Like do you get a letter? Do
you just wake up one day and it's just not there?
Like how does that even work?
Speaker 3 (23:50):
So obviously there was the press conference by Antiie Blinkin,
which was no.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
There's no obviously, so tell the story, let people know
the details.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Yes, sure, Soriday the thirteenth, September Friday the thirteenth.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
That's as I.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Woke up that morning, I thought, my wife, I hate
Friday at the thirteenth, and she says, you're Muslim, that's
a Christian thing, don't worry about it. And I was like, nah,
I still don't like this day. And then I'm going
to a rich train and wedding in the UK. I'm
ironing my trousers. And then I've got a friend who
worked for one of these mainstream media outlets in the UK.
So he was watching the press conference live because obviously
(24:27):
it's in the middle of the genocide, and usually the
press conference is done by the press secretary. When Antoni Blinking,
when ANTII Blinking steps it's usually quite a big announcement.
So they heard that Blinking was going to do the
press conference. So all the journalists are watch him, waiting
for this big announcement, and then he just says the
video was sent to me and I just thought it
(24:49):
was AI. He said that African Stream is secretly run
by RT, and then he quoted the HIA. Yeah, and
he quoted the website and said they claim to be
giving a voice to Africans both home and abroad, when
in reality, the only voice they're giving is the Kremlin propagandist. Yeah,
so you said that I saw the video. I called
(25:12):
my friend and I was like, bro, if this is AI,
it's not funny at all, Like, why the hell at all?
That's my serious conversation with him. I was like, bro,
this is AI. It's not funny at all, and he goes, bro,
I wouldn't play with you like that, And I just
put down the phone and I just felt like, what
is it in get out where you just sink yes,
(25:32):
I had like for the next few days or just
had a problem.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Did you know that you were that visible, that African
stream was that important?
Speaker 3 (25:39):
No at all. So imagine there's this person that you
see on TV. He's the Secretary of State, one of
the most important politicians, not only in the US but
in the world. That is. Then he's quoting the website
that you wrote in your little two bedroom apartment in London.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
And claiming that it's Russia.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Yes exactly, and that we're Kremlin propagandist.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
You're like, I don't even know that.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
Yeah, And then I'm just in.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
My mind you're in Leeds. Where do you live?
Speaker 1 (26:05):
In my mind, I'm like picturing you in like Brixton.
I'm just naming places in London now it's.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
In northwest London. Cricklewood next to Wembley.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Were next to Wembley as an America, as a US N.
When I hear certain things when they are said from England,
just say i'd fake like just Crickerwood.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Next to Embley. We're going to have a cup of tea,
a copa. Then we're going to see some gnomes.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
So actually I wasn't actually there, sorry, because I'd moved
to Nairobia by this point. So, yeah, I live. We're
in Nairobi, Kenya.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Now oh yeah, okay, so you're in Kenya now.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Yeah, I'm in Kenya. So I was in Nairobi, Kenya.
But we go to the UK once a year for
my oldest son's birthday so that you can see the grandparents. Okay, yeah,
we're staying at the inlaws house, which is in Finchley,
which is a super pro Israel Zionist area. But anyway,
that's so I'm there, I'm ironing my trousers and I
(27:05):
shold my wife.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
But see, this is why it's even because I like
people to feel the.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Experience with you.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
You're not only hearing this on Friday the thirteenth, you're on holiday,
like you're not even in work mode.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yeah exactly. That's a great point. Because my phone starts
pinging everyone back in Nairobi. But what the hell's going on?
And I'm like and then my wife is like, the
uber's outside. I was like, what, Like, I meant to
go to this wedding and she's like, oh, you know,
they're expecting us so I'm at this wedding. I'm at
(27:37):
this wedding. I haven't seen people in over a year
because obviously I'm inve in Nairobi, Kenya, and everyone's come
up to me, and most people haven't seen the video
because it's just breaking.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
You're in your own private hell exactly.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
They're talking to me.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
You're not there.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
I'm not there at all. I'm just like, what the
hell is this? Like a weird one of those inception
dreams where it's a dream, we've in a dream, We've
in like I'm in the dream, but I'm in the
nother layer of the dream. It was. I wouldn't wish
that on my worst enemy, on my worst enemy.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Why was it so trippy for you?
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Because it came from nowhere? He said something that's completely
not true, and you start thinking of that Will Smith
film Enemy of the State, Like what does this mean?
Am I going to get arrested?
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (28:20):
He said something that's just not true.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
And like the person who said it matters, yes, yeah,
because like I've been mentioned in the Senate by like
an idiot. But Blinken we know is very connected. It's
super zionist, you know.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Like yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Did you tell anyone like did you tell your wife? Yeah,
showed my wife the video and what did she say?
Speaker 3 (28:43):
I think she was just an autopilot, like oh my god,
what the hell? And then she goes but I already
ordered the uber it's outside to go to this wedding.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Your mife is like, stay focused, you iron your pants,
We're going to the wedding.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
Yeah. So then yeah, it was just it was just crazy.
Then obviously I'm trying to speak to a lawyer.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Who do you even call? Like who do you? What
type of lawyer do you call? For that?
Speaker 3 (29:05):
My wife's mom went to university with one of the
top UK lawyers who like represents. There's like international cases
the Venezuelan government versus. So I went in at him
and I was like, can I sue them? Like surely
I can sue them for like libel. Yeah, you can't
just say some shit on the public. It's like it's
the US government.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
It's not even public, Like that's like it's beyond public.
It's like martians heard that.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Yeah exactly. And what they can do is they can
say whatever they want, and then when someone says we'll
prove it or pay me, they can go we're relying
on intelligence reports. So there's literally no point, is what
his argument.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Was, I see what you're saying.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
So then the trippy part was I'm just trying to
like understand and deconstruct what's happened. And then forty eight hours,
YouTube sends a message your YouTube channel has violated community guidelines.
We have five hundred thousand followers on YouTube, four hundred
and eighty thousand, something like that. Gone.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
I know, he didn't just freeze when he said gone.
You literally froze when you said the word gone. And
I was like, so, at this point, is your YouTube
also like actually moving in the direction that you wanted
to monetarily.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
It was going that way. We were getting some bs
offers like Evy and water wanted us to like drink
some water in one of them. I was like, I'm
not doing that shit, but it was going that.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Way, okay, because YouTube is hard to crack.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Yeah, definitely, definitely. And then Instagram within seventy two hours,
you violated community guidelines. Gone, thread's gone. Twitter get a
message on Twitter.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
X No, Twitter's right forever.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Yeah, we get a message on x saying strip has
removed your monetization. So we were getting not much but
maybe five hundred, six hundred pounds per month of X
and then they said, oh, you're demonetized, you can't get paid.
And then the weird was TikTok, because TikTok's meant to
be Chinese owned. TikTok took us down within a week.
(31:05):
And then the crazy one. Our Gmail account was taken down.
What our Gmail account, all of our workspace.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Your Google works yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Yeah, and our g drive was taken down. All the
video stuff that we filmed. We stored it all on
the drive that was taken down, and you're just thinking,
what the hell is going on?
Speaker 1 (31:27):
I literally just downloaded everything from my g drive, my
Gmail smart I mean, the document is really all I
really actually care about, as much as there's other stuff
on there, but that's like the most stuff. And some
of the other day was like stop using Google Docs,
and so I just was like, all right, I'm done.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
So you lost all of the footage.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
We backed up about thirty percent of it. We loved
about seventy percent of a lot of other stuff.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
But the good thing is is that we posted so
much on X, which was stiller, so we could redownload
it off X and repost it. But obviously the quality
wasn't insane. How we feel, yeah, that's how we shut it.
But there's loads of stuff that we just lost, loads
of stuff that we just lost. And yeah, that was
it basically, and.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
It just oh wait, wait wait, how how are you?
Speaker 3 (32:23):
I'm better? Now?
Speaker 2 (32:25):
How time did you go to the seaside?
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Like?
Speaker 2 (32:28):
How are you better?
Speaker 3 (32:29):
So I went to one place that woke me up
because I was feeling sorry for myself. I can't lie. First,
for the first like a couple of months, I was
really feeling sorry for myself. I was like, what the hell?
Speaker 2 (32:39):
When did this happen?
Speaker 3 (32:40):
September September last year? Yeah, September twenty twenty four. And
then I went to meet one of our funders in Johannesburg.
And when I was there, I went to Soweto. You know,
he takes you to see some fucked up shit to
wake you up.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
I've had to say, okay, so he just took you
to the bottom.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Yeah, I just went to see and I thought, why
am I feeling sorry for myself? Like people there were
kids protesting and they were massacred by apartheid forces while
they were running away. Nothing like that's happened to me,
you know what I'm saying, Like it just puts sometimes
you just need perspective. Things in perspective exactly. And then
in Soweto you have like a lot of these politicians
that have the big houses, but right next to it
(33:23):
is the ghetto and you go by the ghetto and
there's the sewage and just think, why am I feeling
sorry for myself? Like this is what imperialism is, yep,
this is how imperialism operates. Steve Bico was beaten to
death in his cell YEP. In the US, Fred Hampton
was assassinated and police officers go to his gravesite every
year and shoot it up. So it's like, wouldn't you
(33:44):
just understand what did I think this was? This is
how the system operates. And actually it's a huge, huge
badge of honor. And so when I came up from Soweto,
that's the kind of messaging that I was giving to
the team, like we've done something.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Them off so effectively that they see.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Us as a problem.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Yeah exactly, that's so.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Something to be proud of, exactly.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
And yeah, the team has been amazing, you know, everything
that we've done, the stories that they've done, they can
stand by that for life. We've got a digital archive
that's still up there because we managed to repost so
much of it on my pages and on Twitter and whatnot.
And yeah, when we announced that we were closing down,
you saw the response, people acting like it was a death,
(34:30):
you know, like a funeral or something like that. So
I'm very proud of what we did, very proud that
we made touch an impact. And yeah, what I'm trying
to do now is just work with social movements and
show them how to make content like African Stream.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Hmmm.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
I want to piss them off even more and be like, Okay,
we took down African Stream, but what the hell of
all these different things popping.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Up now everybody else?
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Yeah, so that's the plan. It was one hell of
an emotional roller coaster, and there's so much crazy stuff
attached to what happened. That. My son's two and a
half years old. He was kicked out of a football
group here in Kenya. In Kenya, Yeah, it was a Karen,
you know, the Expats White xpact. Karen, her husband works
for an NGO and she goes it's a safety issue
(35:17):
because of the accusations. I don't feel safe. My son's
called Kamal Kamal Motulu. I don't feel safe with Kamal
being here because of the accusations, and just like this.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Is just crazy, meaning like I'm I even going to
try and rationalize her irrational fears.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
So let me start.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
So at this point, is it even in your mind
in any shapewa or form to rebuild with.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
A new name or with a new trajectory, et cetera,
you know, or is it too soon?
Speaker 1 (35:44):
You know, like when people lose a pet and they're like,
I can't get ano dog yet.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
I mean, one of the good things about when we
announced it we were closing down, there were I'm not
saying a lot, but a few different entities that we
say have reached out to offer support. Now I'm just
trying to hear them out and see basically who's bullshiting
and who's not bullshiting because a lot of people talk. Yeah,
hopefully they don't see this and get pissed off people now.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
They should see it and be like, we're gonna show
you here's a million dollars aha.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
So if we can secure funding and rebrand on someone
like African Dream and we just speak to a lawyer
and just say, like, what can we do so it's
impossible for this bullshit to happen again? What can we do?
Do we need to like have a funding part of
the website and show every single penny that comes in
(36:33):
and who the donor is. Is that the way to
go forward? Like? How do you avoid this type of
bullshit happening again?
Speaker 1 (36:40):
I mean, I feel like the reality is that they're
just gonna make up whatever they want to make up,
you know. Like that was what I was really surprised
to see in my own different experience with like just
being misrepresented. I've had someone accuse me of admitting to lying,
Like like I'm like, well, not only did I never
admit to lying, I never said anything that was about me,
(37:02):
So how can I admit to doing something about something
I never even did in the first place? And because
it was a headline to this day, I still get
people in my comments like that's why you're a liar
and you accused so and so of et cetera, et cetera,
And I'm like, I just I don't even they don't
need proof, you know, And I think that's the The
(37:23):
dangerous part to me is not about like can a
government do this to you again? But I think what
you have on your side is that the people that
you're speaking to don't believe them. It's a different demographic
than what I was dealing with. I was dealing with
people who are really into like gossip and you know,
even with the Kamala Harris stuff, when when there was
(37:45):
a lot of making up things that they're like you
to this day, people would be like, you're one of
the reasons why Donald Trump is president because you told
people not to vote for Kamala Harris. I have never
in my life said do not vote for Kamala Harris.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Like, I never said that.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
But all it requires is someone to say, you know,
African stream is spreading disinformation and people you know will
either fold or not. But I do think it's really
dope that you have a team and it's not just
you trying to sort through the bull shit of it all.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
Yeah exactly. I mean, my team's amazing.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
How did you even compile your team? Where did they
come from?
Speaker 3 (38:24):
So what I tried to do first was try to
hire journalists and then turn them into radical revolutionary Pan
African and it just didn't work. It didn't work at all.
So then I went down the different route. Well was like,
let me go in the Kenya scene and speak to
activists and train them to be journalists because the ideology
(38:44):
it's more of an asset to me because some of
these journalists when not to speak to them, they have
no clue about the stuff that they're talking about. They
have no clue about, you know, imperialism, and they generally
have been indoctrinated into believing that Africa has a unique problem,
which is an African problem of corruption and mismanagement of resources,
(39:07):
and that's why we're behind everywhere else because we've got
some unique kind of characteristic it means that we just
can't be trusted. Yeah, And I was like, no, this
isn't If I was to hire these people at best,
we would be BBC Africa Light at best at best.
So that's not what I was trying to do. There's
not a shortage of African media. There's a shortage of
(39:29):
revolutionary pan African, anti imperialist African media. And the good
thing is about African stream is that's so many have
popped up since we came onto the scene. Because obviously
they saw that there's an audience for this, yep, and
they can be radical, they can talk about politics and
people want to hear it. People want to hear it.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Well, we're going to go to our special Patreon only segment,
and I want to hear from you how you became
a radical Wait, what was it you said?
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Radical leftist?
Speaker 1 (40:02):
I want to hear how you became a radical revolutionary
Pan Africanist. And I want to hear what methods you
were using to try to I won't say convert, but
to try to welcome these journalists into that space. I mean,
were you like forcing them to listen to Quamita Kruma speeches,
et cetera. So let's go over to Patreon with the
(40:24):
Seal Squad. I'm listening to you, and there's distinct similarities
between what you're saying about liberation and culture as there
are here in the United States, where blackness in the
United States has become about dances and hair and consumerism, right,
(40:53):
and just commodifying.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
And I'm trying to also.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Wake people up to the fact that, yes, that is
an important aspect, but that's not the sole thing that
binds us. You know, we are bound by so many
other aspects that are very unique to being just black
and in the United States, and those are the things
that we have to do our own due diligence at
planting flags in and really taking ownership of And to
(41:22):
hear you saying this about the entire continent of the
motherland of Africa, there's just so much work to be
done for your son, you know, like there's so much
work to be done, and you've already done.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
So much of that work.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
And just to hear you saying that you're now helping
others and you know, building bridges and arming others with
these capabilities, like that's to me what was lost by
prior generations, Like there was not this effort of how
do I keep this going when I'm gone? It's like, know,
how do I stay here as long as possible? It's like, well,
(41:57):
that's not really that helpful because you're not You're gonna die,
You're gonna.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Degenerate, Like it's not gonna last forever.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
So I just want you to know, and I said
this on the page, and I say this here that
wherever Africa stream ends up, whether it's Africa Dream or African,
i'mare you know, we will follow, we will support. I
shared so many of you guys's videos. I learned so
much from your content, and I feel like it wasn't
(42:24):
just about you all giving news in a different way,
but also affirming for many of us outside of the
continent that what we're thinking is correct, Like no, we
know it's not just corruption, no matter how many times
we're told this, we know it's not. It also got
to open perspective beyond the United States, particularly which doesn't
(42:46):
show any African news at all, Like if you live here,
you don't even realize that there's like people here think
Africa is a country, you know they do. They don't
realize that South Africa is a region and a country.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
And my last questquestion to you.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
Is because I feel like I would normally get this
on African stream, but since I have you here, I
can ask you directly, what are your thoughts on Abraham
trere Oh?
Speaker 3 (43:09):
I love that question. Can I just build on what
you just said because I love the example that you
gave on the US, and I'll come to Ibram Ture.
I think the US is a great example. You know,
the whole American dream that someone from the ghetto, if
they have a skill like sports basketball, NFL. They can act,
they can make it out of the ghetto and they
(43:31):
can be this great example of upward social mobility. And
I think this is why, you know, we call ourselves socialists,
because well, what about the ghetto? What about the people
that are left behind? You know this and this is
the thing. It's like, okay, so we can have individual
success stories like Botswana, but what about the rest of
(43:52):
the continent. You know, this is why we need a
unified approach. The European Union acts as voice. We have
the African Union, but it's like pitiful how they behave
They can't set out any of their conflicts. They don't
act in one voice. They can't even observe elections properly.
They have people like c see the dictating Egypt who
(44:14):
becomes chairman. It's bullshit, It's complete bullshit. So that's why,
you know, people in the continent, we love Africans in America,
we admire you, we admire your struggle, we know all
your history. But the revolutionaries in the US, the Black
Panther Party, call themselves socialists. Yeah, because they realized it
wasn't about encouraging our kids to like become basketball players,
(44:39):
or to become musicians or become or what's happening right
now where you become a rapper by basically sending death
to consumers. You say, I killed someone so and I'm
smoking them in a zoo and smoking them in It's
the most deranged stuff. But if you understand the macro
behind it, these music industries are not owned by US. No,
(45:03):
so we have another community. There's a clip on Breakfast
Club which I just think is just so enlightening. I
think it's called Elon Cohen Lear Cohen Leah Khan. Thank
you so much. I think you know the clip I'm
talking about.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
I know exactly what you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
Where he's saying that like you just signed someone, he
talks about drugs and death and whatnot. Don't you think
that's a bit hypocritical based on what you just said?
And he goes, well, I've got bills to pay. This
is a multi multi millionaire, also a Zionist, also a Zionist,
also a Zionist, commercializing and commodifying the death and destruction
(45:40):
within the African community.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Do you know they also take out insurance policies on
those rappers?
Speaker 3 (45:46):
Wow? No, I didn't know that I didn't know that.
So the insurance money goes to the family.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
No to the label.
Speaker 1 (45:52):
Wow, the label takes out an insurance policy on these
rappers who are on their records talking about I merked
this dude, I took this one out. The blicky blah
blah blah blah blah. And you know these young men
now are you know a lot of the rappers back
in the day, it's like they was doing it and
then they were just talking about it, but they weren't
doing it. These cats is serial killers. Yeah, and you
(46:16):
know that's why you end up seeing you know, like
there was a documentary about King Vaughn where it's like
the serial killer King Vaughn, and you're just like, they're
so blatant with it now that they're I mean, the
record labels, they're so blatant with just knowing that, Okay,
this what y'all want, Fine, we'll give it to you,
but we're also going to make sure that our assets
are protected.
Speaker 3 (46:35):
And this is what capitalism does. As long as it
makes profit, yes, and it's good business.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
And there's a lot of conversations being had these days
more and more where I feel like folks are much
more loud and waking up to the concept of just saying, well,
it's my job or you know, I got to get
the bag is not a sufficient enough reason for harming
your community, harming yourself, for being unreliable, for losing your integrity,
(47:03):
like you know, it's just it's not And that has
been the case for quite some time, Like yeah, I
mean I just gotta get I'm getting the bag me
and it's like fuck your bag man.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
Like I was doing a show in Detroit and the
Zionists had hired somebody to drive a truck around with
my face on the side of it that said Amanda
Seals is a Jew hater. And after my show, I
asked the driver to pull up on it and I
was like, pull up, holl up.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
So it's me and like four cats from the Nation
of Islam in this truck, like Scar Scar's cart and
we pull up.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
Who's driving the truck a brother smoking a blunt and
I'm out the window.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
Like damn, that's going outside.
Speaker 1 (47:41):
And I have all of this on camera, and so
I posted it. The amount of people that were in
the comments like I mean, he got to get a
check too. I would actually be curious to know if
I posted it now, considering my audience has very significantly changed,
and now I have like an audience of socialists. I
wonder if they respond as would be different. I feel
(48:01):
like it would be. Okay, before we go.
Speaker 2 (48:09):
Ibriam, what's your thoughts?
Speaker 1 (48:10):
Yes, because I have a friend from Senegal who recently
just told me like, yeah, I don't know, so I
want to hear yours.
Speaker 3 (48:16):
Okay, So anyone that's in the continent, traveled throughout the continent,
you realize these countries have flagged independence. Yeah, economies are
not controlled by us. In Kenya, we have four British
military bases.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (48:34):
The British soldiers go out into the community, rape the women,
have sex with prostitutes, impregnate the women and nothing happens.
There's a case right now where there was a Kenyan
woman murdered by a British soldier and the British Army
are not even investigating. So there's a whole campaign here
in Kenya. Yeah, okay, there can't be a Kenyan military
(48:54):
base in the UK where Kenyan soldiers are just walking
around flinging it here, flinging it there, doing whatever they want. Sorry,
too comfortable.
Speaker 2 (49:07):
Filling in it, yeah, flinging it there.
Speaker 3 (49:11):
And then the biggest things that they export is tea,
coffee and flowers, like actual flowers people give on Valentine's Day.
Those companies are British owned. The UK has one hundred
and one companies the own one trillion dollars worth of
minds in the continent. So these are you know, they
(49:31):
say colonism ended, these are neo colonies. Yeah. Yes, So
when they talk about and obviously I'm for democracy, I
don't want to say that I'm not. When they talk
about democracy, oh yeah, we need to have elections.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
But they're not talking about a real democracy.
Speaker 3 (49:46):
That's why you're like, exactly exactly, That's the point I'm
trying to. It's like, okay, so who's going to be
middle management for Glencoe, who's going to be middle management
for Tetley Tea? Who's going to be middle Beers? So bad? Yeah,
the Beers, Oppenheim, all of these types of companies. It's
so bad. Kenya makes some of the best coffee in
the world. They have Grade one and Grade two, Grade three.
(50:08):
Grade one is for exports only, so Kenyans don't even
taste their best coffee, just imagine that, Imagine that these
are neo colonies. I think when people get to.
Speaker 2 (50:19):
Gripsit, Carico gold is not the best coffee.
Speaker 3 (50:22):
I might a big coffee drinker, but is it tea.
Speaker 2 (50:25):
Carrico gold is tea.
Speaker 3 (50:26):
Carical gold is tea. But it gets exported. It gets exported.
The grade one coffee is not for the domestic market. Now,
as bad as it is in Colombia, Colombians taste the
best coffee that Columbia offers. You weren't having Colombia. The
best coffee is for exports only the same for local people,
right right, right? Yeah. So when it comes to Ibraham's Fruerrey,
(50:47):
he understands that he is taking over a neo colony.
There's a French military base here. French companies were wild.
They're allegedly fighting terrorism France. But the French army shows
up after the terrorists have left, and you're like, what
you guys have got the highest grade military equipment, the
(51:08):
fastest aircraft, and you're always showing up after the fight.
So he's trying to take sovereignty back that hasn't existed
in Bikina Faso. There was a brief attempt during the
Sankari years. But beyond that, it's the country with the
most military coups in any African country. I think Saddani's second,
and it's been army general after army general serve in Paris,
(51:31):
and so he comes and he was like, well, we're
renegotiating all these mining deals. We're all farmers and we've
got things like tomatoes here, but we import tomatoes. That
doesn't make no sense. From now on, we're setting up
a tomato factory and the tomatoes that people eating Bikina
Fasa are going to be producing Bikina Fassa. We're going
to really take on this terrorist fight, and we're going
(51:51):
to tell the French, who have not been helping us
to get out. As soon as he told the French
to get out, and he enlisted volunteers the terrorists on
the retreat for the first time in how many years.
So he's a young man, he's charismatic, and he articulates
two people who can see with their own eyes that
(52:12):
we do not have sovereignty of violent and he's making
big promises to change that. Now will he do that?
Let's hope. So, let's hope. So, because you never know,
because someone can start.
Speaker 2 (52:23):
Off, yeah, with the best of intentions.
Speaker 3 (52:25):
The best of intentions. So I always feel like, when
you're on the left, you have to keep these figures honest. Yes,
you have to make sure that they stick to what
they say and they stick to the program. But what
people don't realize is that this was a revolution from
the ground up. Because he's got a military uniform. People
think that there was a coup that happened. No, there
(52:48):
were mass protests against the previous military general. People were
frustrated with the fight against terrorism. People were frustrated with
the price of things, people were frustrated with the conditions.
There was one of these mining firms that left the
country and then destroyed the equipment, everything, destroyed the cars so.
Speaker 2 (53:08):
That it couldn't be used in their absence.
Speaker 3 (53:10):
Exactly, exactly and so petty. You know, people think that
African is docile, that we don't understand what's happening around
us now. People understand in Nizer, Nize was the second
poorish country in the world before the revolution that happened
in July twenty twenty four. Nizer would get six to
eight percent of the royalties from the uranium mind in
(53:31):
Nizia six to.
Speaker 2 (53:32):
Eight percent, six to eight percent.
Speaker 3 (53:34):
Yeah, in Kazakhstan they were receiving thirty five to forty
percent from the same company ran Here. They understand that
obviously the previous administration would obviously get kicked back, because
there's no way, as a leader of a country, you're
going to accept a six percent royalty from uranium. Mind,
as soon as the revolution happened in Nizia, the price
(53:56):
of uranium goes up. They renegotiate all their deals, they
renegotiate their mining contracts, so they're taking back sovereignty. In Mali,
Barrack Gold. Barreck Gold has been running a mock in
Maley for decades. The revolution happens in Mali, they kick
out Barrett Gold. They nationalize the mind. So you could
(54:16):
say what you want. You can say, oh, it's not
democratic to just nationalize the mind. We are a sovereign nation.
This gold is in our land, underneath our feet. Why
the hell should the Canadian company, a French company, American
company pay us pittance for things that they mine in
our own country. So I'm with what's going on in
the Sahal because they're trying to make sure that the
(54:39):
resources that lie beneath the feet are to the benefit
of the country. And when you go to Bikin offessor,
you know, we had a correspondent that was there full time,
which was very helpful. She went out there to set
up a Pan African library and then she contacted African
Stream for a job and then she was there full time.
So it was good because we could ask her directly
on you know, real questions like what's it.
Speaker 2 (54:59):
Like, is this it's just pr or is this pr.
Speaker 3 (55:03):
Is like what's really going on? And they're like no,
like you know, you just said, you know me, I
hate all governments. But he's really trying. They're really trying.
Like it's not perfect, but we see an attempt. That's
all we want. If you can just see an attempt
that you're trying to change or go in the right direction,
then we'll support you. You'll make mistakes, but will support you.
What does your friend in Senegal say.
Speaker 1 (55:25):
He's very skeptical, very cynical about it all. He said,
he feels like it's just a lot of hype, not
feels He said from what he has witnessed from his
friends who have gone to Berkina Fasso that it's a
lot of hype and that Ibrahim is not really seeking
you know, sovereignty, but more so just another coup leader.
(55:47):
And I think that that ends up just being a
matter of glass half empty or glass half full at
this juncture. Like, I don't know that from what I've
read and what I've gleaned, I don't know that he
has really indicated either direction, like definitively yet. But I
think that, you know, so much of the history has
shown the propensity for going in that direction that it's like, well,
(56:12):
you're not doing enough to show us that you're not
going in that direction. I think that's also a fair critique.
Speaker 3 (56:17):
You've got a cat, a kitten called Sankara, Is that right?
Speaker 2 (56:20):
I do, Yes, I do promise.
Speaker 3 (56:22):
My son, my second son, is called Sankara as well, Lovely.
The reason why we got excited is he's following in
the footsteps. Yes, when I say he's following the footsteps,
he didn't take. He doesn't take a presidential salary. Nope,
he's still on the same salary that he was on
when he was a general. Who was the first president
that we knew did that, Thomas Sankara nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 1 (56:42):
Like he doesn't drive the presidential car like, none of that,
right exactly.
Speaker 3 (56:46):
So here's the thing. They kind of want us to
lose hope. Of course, you know that no one is
kind of good enough. But the truth is, we've had
revolutionary leaders. This continent has had some of the finest leaders. Yes,
the more of Michelle Well, Kwami and Krumer, Thomas and
car Patricia La Mumba. The list goes on and on
and on, and so I'm on, they kill them, yeah, exactly,
(57:10):
they killed them, but before they killed them, they stigmatized them.
So even to this day, there'll be people that go,
Kwami and Krumer wasn't really all bad, you know. Thomas
and Kawi came in in the coup because they want
us to kind of just lose hope and just accept
this is just the way it is. A kuna matata,
kuna matata. This is just the way is you.
Speaker 2 (57:32):
Know, is a kuna matata Swahili.
Speaker 3 (57:35):
It is means no worries.
Speaker 1 (57:37):
Because when I went well, I know what it means,
no worries for the rest of a few days. It's
our problem for philosophytata. But when I went to Kenya,
I was so confused because I was like, Simba is
not in the Masaimara, and I thought Simba was in Kalahari.
Speaker 2 (57:52):
I thought he was in the Kalahari in my mind.
Speaker 1 (57:54):
In my mind, the Lion King takes place in the
African Vault in South Africa. So when I heard herku
Maatta when I was in Kenya, I was like, why
is this? This doesn't make any sense. But now I
feel like maybe they were on the Massamara and I
went to the Massamara and I saw the lions.
Speaker 3 (58:10):
So Simba is the Swahili word for lion, so lion king.
They just basically took all of the Swahili words, So
pomba actually just means yeah. And what's what's the The
bird is called zazo that means bird. That means that
type of bird.
Speaker 2 (58:30):
Yeah, the secretary bird.
Speaker 3 (58:32):
Yeah. The only one where they didn't take the actual
name for the animal was rafiki, but Rafiki just means
friend in Swahili. So they basically took the whole facular, yeah,
the whole thing. What's the mere cat called the moon? Yes,
that's the Swahili word for its yeah, yeah, yeah, I
(58:54):
found out when I was here as well. I was
on a safari and someone goes, there's a kid, and
he goes, my mamma, simba simba simbers and I was
like simbers and I was like, oh, yeah, that's the
Swahili word for lion.
Speaker 2 (59:04):
I was like, oh, what right, Like no, it's simmer
the last.
Speaker 1 (59:17):
I learned a lot in this interview. I learned stuff
I didn't even know I was gonna learn. Well, thank
you so much. I'm at Cabalo, and please let people
know where they can follow you so that they make
sure to do so so that when you are making
your next pivots that they can be right there.
Speaker 3 (59:32):
Sure. Mostly I guess Instagram. I don't really use x normal,
so it's just Athmet Cabelo on Instagram. I don't know
what the act is. I think the act is at
Athmet Cabelo. But thank you so much. I'm a huge,
huge fan of your work. Thank you, and yeah, it's
just you show that you don't have to choose if
I'm famous. I can't say this because it will cost
(59:55):
me this or it will cost me that.
Speaker 2 (59:56):
I mean it will, but yeah.
Speaker 3 (59:59):
But you still you still live a good life, You're
still happy, You're still it's not the end. Of the
world like there's no excuses, and you know, we really
appreciate you know, you're raising your voice. Thanks for Sudan,
for Sudan in particular, because not many people are almost
half a million people, half a million kids they say
might have died from malnutrition. We have dengay fever, colera,
(01:00:24):
my basketball coach, My basketball coach, the strongest guy that
I know, died of denay fever. And to see nobody
talking about it even so that these people don't talk
about it enough. So when I saw that you're posting
about it, we really on behalflested in this community. We
really really appreciate you're using your platform and we appreciate
everything that you do.
Speaker 2 (01:00:44):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (01:00:46):
Thank you
Small help from this small, small area. Small it's so funky. Hello,
small Doses Familia. Today's episode is really cool. Not that
(00:23):
every episode isn't really cool, but I just think it's
really cool because we really get to talk to somebody
who has felt the brunt of the US government and
who is not from the United States and who has
felt the brunt from the Democrats. And I think it's
a really important context because he's also from Africa. So
(00:45):
when we talk about the United States as an imperial
empire and we try to buifur kate Democrats out of
the complicity of that, we are doing ourselves an injustice and.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
We're doing our folks in the Motherland and injustice at that.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
African Stream was is a page that started to really
come to light for me in the last two years
as a great resource for understanding things that are happening
on the continent that was outside of mainstream media. And
that has been a real just general movement for me
in terms of getting my news about everything right, just
(01:22):
going to independent media sources. So discovering African Stream as
an independent media source for the Motherland was like, oh wow,
this is super dope. Today we're talking to its creator,
its founder, Ahmed Cabalo, who's going to walk us through
how they were effectively deplatformed by the Biden administration, the
lies that were created to do so, and the reasons.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Why those lies were created.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
What was African Stream doing that was so threatening to
the Biden administration that they would go to such great
lengths to discredit them. Well, thankfully we have I'm at
Cabalo here today to tell us about that, tell us
about why he even started doing African Stream, creating the
page where they went, what they're doing now, and why
(02:10):
it is so imperative that we have spaces like this
outside of mainstream media when we know that we're on
a globe where mainstream media is now so deeply propagandized
and corporatized no matter where you live, that you.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Just can't trust it.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
I want to take this moment also to acknowledge that
this is also why it is so imperative that we
also continue to lift up the journalists in Palestine and
Rissa who lost their lives that's actually too passive, who
had their lives targeted and taken by Empire for reporting
(02:50):
the truth of their own experiences within RUSSA we have
seen Israel target these journalists so much so that more
journalists in GUSA have been I have chills because I'm
so angry, have been killed than in the last four
(03:11):
wars combined, World wars combined. These are people who were
not simply just reporting on a genocide.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
They were living it. They were living it.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
And then when you see these channels like CNN, etc.
And BBC complaining about well not even complaining, but just
saying like, oh, we can't do anything because you know,
the they won't let us in.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Israel won't let us in.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
No Algacida had their Jerusalem and their West Bank offices
closed and attacked.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Of course their offices if ASA.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Were bombed, and they still were able to hire vetted
journalists on the ground.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
All of these other mainstream media outlets.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Could have done the same, and they did it because
they are complicit. Everyone should be as angry as I
am because what we're seeing is so deeply disturbing in
how the truth is being attacked. I'm experiencing it as
someone who is a truth teller being attacked. This episode
of surrounded what I'm getting death threats, I'm getting all
(04:17):
types of nigga.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
This nigga that male.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
You think I'm not being looked at by these fashions.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Of course, any of us who even.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Attempt to say hey, nah, we become a target. And
those who are consuming and learning from what we're doing.
I hope that you guys lift us up and pray
for us and.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Keep us covered.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
I hope that we are in your your soul work
and your spirit work, because what we're doing is soul
work and spirit work, and we have to change how
we regard those that do that work because.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
For so it's like there's like this sense of entitlement
to it. You know.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Ahmed on this episode just really gets to tell us
his journey and how it's going to continue, and it's
going to require continued support. And if truth and justice
is really what matters to you, not just to know
what's happening, but to live differently, then understand it is
(05:26):
also your responsibility to protect it, even if you are
not the one delivering it. I'm so happy that we
get to have Amed on this show and to continue
to platform or truth heller. Let's get into it. Welcome, Welcome,
(05:49):
Ahmed Cavallo, am I pronouncing your name, Ray, You are
welcome to small those this podcast, and We've got a
lot to talk about because I'm still mad every day
that African Stream has had to re route. That's gonna
be my nice way of saying, because I don't think
(06:10):
it's a rap I hope not. But they've definitely like
they always do, and we'll talk about who the they
is love to silence voices that are going to expose
them for what they are. And so I guess first,
I would love for you to just tell the folks
listening how African Stream came to be and why.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Sure. So I'm an African, I'm of Sudanese descent. My
family moved to the UK. My dad went there to
do his PhD, and then we became refugees because there
was a coup in Sudan where Basha came into power
and my dad had cussed out Bashir and these cronies,
so they canceled these PhD funding and demanded it go
(06:51):
straight back to Sudan, and then human rights organizations were like,
if you go back, you're either going to get killed
or imprisoned. So we were stuck in the UK has
always been for many people in the DICE were close
to the heart, and so when I became a journalist,
I was always trying to push African stories.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
What made you become a journalist?
Speaker 3 (07:11):
You know? You know when you're around elders and I
say you ask too many questions? Do you ever get that? Yeah,
this guy asked you many questions? Right? Do you ask
so many questions? And so when I'm thinking about, like
what do I want to do, I just kept thinking, Yeah,
I do ask a lot of questions.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
How can I live a life of asking questions?
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Exactly? Exactly? So there was that And I've always obviously
been interested in the world. I like to retell stories,
so it wasn't my first I started off as a
youth and community worker. But in the UK there was
seventy percent cuts to the industry when the Conservative Party
came in twenty ten, so that profession was kind of dead.
(07:53):
And yeah, I got invited on one show to talk
about South Sudan and the crisis in South Sudan, and
they gave me the title African Political Analysis. And then
I got invited onto another show and people telling me
I was quite good, and then I just thought that
this is something that maybe I should do.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
I love that they gave you the title and you
were like, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
An African political analysts.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
The funny thing about that is the Sudanese ambassador was
meant to speak on the show and he dropped out
last minute, and so I was chewing replacement, and so then.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
They gave you something efficial. How did they even find you?
Speaker 3 (08:39):
I was doing an internship at the time with the
host of the show. But who was a politician at
the time, George Galloway. Yes, and he was like, oh,
you're you're Sudanse, aren't you. He was like, the Sudey's
ambassador has just dropped out, k and you could jump in.
And I was like, I called my dad. I was like,
should I do this? Shouldn't I get someone more qualified?
Is like, most of these old fools don't know what
(09:01):
they're talking about. Go for it.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I like, you, these fools don't know what they're talking about.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Go for it.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
That's encouragement.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
And Okay, So now wait before we even go forward,
Now I have to ask you how you ended up
as George Galloway's intern.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Okay, So my girlfriend at the time, who was now
my wife, I was doing my master's part time and
she was doing her master's full time. So in the
first year of my masters where I kind of broke
for you know, the summer break, she was writing her dissertation,
so I would be in the library with her while
(09:38):
she's like writing, just like scrolling on Facebook. And then
he just put an ad out on Facebook looking for
interns people that are interested in politics. So I just
wrote and then he just wrote back to me and said,
can you come for an interview with the Houses of Parliament?
And I came, Well, my suit. The rest was history here.
So that's how it started. And then because I'm quite big,
(10:02):
you can't tell because I'm sitting down, I'm.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Like, okay, so that I'm yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Yeah, yeah, you're a presence exactly. And he'd been attacked
because of his politics. He'd been physically assaulted a few times.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Oh so you also could be like the strongest.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Yeah exactly. So then he made me like he made
me his unofficial security at one point, a bit like
Frank Lucas in the American gangs. Then, but it was
good because I'm with him all the time, so I'm
just watching, yeah, learning and in all the rooms just
listen to the conversations.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
So you your life sounds like somebody who you're intentional, Like,
I feel like you come across things, but you don't
like just fall into them. You're just like, Okay, yeah,
we're gonna do this now, and then this now.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Like you take the ball by the horns. I guess
that is what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Yeah, definitely, definitely. I mean I'm in the belly of
the beast. I'm living in the UK. The opportunities that
you have compared to some of my more into elegent
cousins who were born and raised in Sudan, it'd be
kind of an insult to them not to like go
for things.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
It really bothers me actually to a point where I
remember being in Sudan as a kid and like my
cousins are like studying late at night and I'm like,
let's play PlayStation. What are we doing? I've got this examples,
like these guys really study, and then when we get older,
I get afforded all these opportunities and they have to
like pick up equivalent of an uber job. I was
always aware, if I'm going to be in this cold
(11:30):
island where we face racism, yes, and no one sees
you as belonging, then I better do something while I'm there.
I better do something while I'm there. Ovis it's just
a waste.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, and it sounds like, I mean, that's what you're doing.
So now how do we get to African strength?
Speaker 3 (11:47):
So I was working at Press TV. As I was saying,
I was really pushing African stories, but it's not their demographic.
Kind of a Middle Eastern channel, yeah, focused on Palestine.
I had a Palestine and show. They let me travel
to Latin America then as well lear Nicidagua. I'm very grateful,
but it was a real push to really get African
(12:09):
stories out there. And then when I did do African stories,
it just wouldn't get detraction, and so then it would
reinforce their position that you shouldn't do African stories. So
then I had a colleague, he was my supervisor Press TV.
He was passionate about Muslim stories. So he went off
and set up this Muslim publication called Five Pillars and
(12:31):
it really took off. And he was like, you're really
passionate about the content. Why didn't you do what I've
done with Five Pillars? And I was like, ah, you know,
I don't know, would it work. Would it not work?
And then yeah, I was being intentional, putting myself in
spaces London School of Economics, Africa Summit, meeting people, and
I was just telling my idea like we need everyone
(12:53):
benefits from Africa being represented propully and everyone loses from
the misrepresentation of the continent. So if you've got money,
just give us a couple of years, give us funding
for a couple of years. I will turn this into
self sufficient. I'll monetize it and we can start reducing
(13:13):
funding as we scale down year free. You can reduce
the funding by twenty percent, et cetera, et cetera. And
that's what we was on the plan to do. But
the problem is we talked probably too much about imperialism.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Is it you talk I mean, isn't that No, I
don't even mean that sarcastically.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
I just mean like, isn't that the point?
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Yeah? It is the point When I said the problem,
you feel.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Like you needed to play the game a little more m.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
This is something that me and the team discuss all
the time actually, because amongst us we feel like it
was the US elections which was the problem. From our perspective.
We take the Malcolm x position. It's the fox and
the wolf, Republican or Democrat. Either way you're going to
get bitten. Yes, Trump represents fascism, and yes he he
(14:01):
encourages fascism around the world, but in terms of imperialism,
in terms of bombs dropping on Somalia, it really doesn't
make a difference whether it's a Republican or a Democrat.
Whether it's funding and supporting a genocide in Gaza, it
really doesn't make a difference whether it's Republican or Democrat.
Whether it's supporting the illegal annexation of Western Sahara by Morocco.
(14:23):
It doesn't make a difference whether it's Republican or Democrat.
So that's been our position. You know, while there was
a genocide happening in Gaza, we criticize the American government
at the time for supporting that genocide, which happened to
be you know, a democratic president and it was fine,
but in the six months leading up to the election,
where this seemed to be a problem for the Democratic base,
(14:45):
you know, the issue of Palestine, because the thing is
about Republicans, Maga, they don't give a shit about this.
They don't care about Palestine, do it And Also when
someone disrupts, no one's going to disrupt Donald Trump's speech
and say why are you sending money to as well?
Because no one cares in that right. But if someone
just swaps Kamala Harris or Joe Biden, people that support
(15:09):
the Democrats above it by them.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
So do you mean to say, I've met Caballo that
it was the Democrats that were the problem. Shocker, No,
Because I just feel like this is one of the
biggest things I've been trying to get people to understand,
because in the United States there's this really twisted thinking
(15:37):
that it's like Republicans are white supremacists and Democrats are
like somehow these like leftist black people that are for
the people and they're not like in many instances, and
here you are showing us a whole other instance of
how they are not only not for the people, but
(16:00):
diasporically they are a part of the imperialist goal because
they came from me.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
If I gave you the timeline of things that happened,
the ANTII blinking thing was the final thing. It wasn't
the first. So the first thing was NBC, which is
that liberal pro Democrat publication. They wrote to US and said,
you've been named in a report for spreading disinformation towards
forty million African Americans? Do you want to respond?
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Who named you?
Speaker 3 (16:30):
It was? Who?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
They claim it.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Was a report? I forget the name. I could get
the name of. But the funny thing about the report,
the report was never even published. The only thing that
was published was a summary of the report. And in
the summary of the report, we're not even mentioned. So
we were mentioned with Breakfast Club, resid Islam, Shade Room.
It's like the most crazy mashup. Yeah, so Shade Room,
(16:56):
they gave an example of what they said that was
disinformation with us. They just said you'd been named in
a report? Do you want to respond? And the thing
that annoyed me is the email came on a Sunday.
They said do you want to respond by Tuesday two
pm Eastern time, and then they sent me a follow
up email saying, scrap back, It's Monday two pm Eastern time.
(17:18):
So we wrote a response, a very scathing response, because firstly,
how do you say, do you want to respond to
a claim of disinformation without any examples of what that
what you said correct exactly. It's like saying Amanda you're
a liar. Do you want to respond to the claims
that you're a liar?
Speaker 2 (17:36):
It was like what I lied about?
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yeah, So we did a response.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
That's happened to me, by the way.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Yeah, and the journalist, the journalist, I'm not surprised, the journalist,
Marquis Francis. We responded and we showed the email and
we showed our response and that audience. We didn't do
it for this reason, but obviously they all went to
his Instagram page and his Twitter page. So he made
his Instagram pageah private, He made his Twitter page private,
(18:03):
and we grew significantly from that. People were like, we
like this platform. So that failed.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
So he let them use him, yes.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Too, exactly a black man, of course, Yes, a black
man of course. So the second time was a Voice
of America. They did a video and an article and
they were responding to a report that we did which
stated from George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and
Joe Biden, every US president has rained drones down on Somalia,
(18:34):
and we named how many drones have dropped. So we said,
whoever wins in November, drones are going to rain down
on Somalia. And a factual report. I'm not really sure
what they could argue with.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Yeah, I mean it's literally is happening right now?
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Yeah, exactly. So Donald Trump, I think it was what
he's inaugurated January the twentieth. I think he dropped bombs
on January twenty fifth. So literally what we said was factual.
So they said African stream distorts the truth on Somalia.
But what was interesting about this is the journalists they
want to use their real name because of what happened
(19:08):
to Marquise. They wrote it under an a list, but
initially we took a screenshot before they changed the name
on the article. So that failed. We did a response
and then they got ratioed. So the YouTube video that
they did. If you go on YouTube, what does that mean?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Ratio? I've heard this before.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
It's when you try to attack someone, You at somebody
and then in the comments all about it.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Oh, the ratio of people supporting you is way outdone
by people supporting the people that you have attacked.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Oh, you got ratio. Okay, I like this. I like this.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
I'm a ratio.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
You like, I'm gonna use that now.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Okay, So if you go on Voice of America. The
YouTube video that they did about US, literally there's every
single comment is you guys got destroyed by African Stream.
Why are you lying about African Stream? So then that
failed and so then it feels like a piece of
paper was passed and we're like, okay, We've tried to
go via an NBC tried to go buy voices of America.
(20:08):
These guys are going to be a problem for US
because when you check out our analytics, most of our
supports come from the.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
US, which is really in the US.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, so it goes the United States,
number one, Nigeria, South Africa, Canada. It was Canada before
they did this weird thing where they can't show news
to Canadians on Instagram. What it's a bit complicated. There's
a beef between the Canadian government and Meta, so you
can't if you're in Canada, you can't go on Instagram
(20:39):
and see BBC news, not just US, but any news.
Oh yeah, they have to use a VPN. It's nothing
to do with us. It's a whole beef they've got
about advertising and all this type of stuff. So, because
we had such a huge audience in the US and
we were critical of both parties. We were seen to
be a threat to be the Democrat a base, which
(21:01):
is you know, they rely on the black support.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yeah, and so.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
That's what I think it was. I think if it
wasn't an election year, we weren't taking the positions that
we were taking on gas etc. I don't think we
would have been deplatformed or strongly don't believe that.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Well, both of us are in the same boat because
they tried to the same factions came for me, the
Democrats and said that I was the exact same reason.
They said that I was spreading disinformation about Kamala Harris well,
and what I was saying was Kamala Harris needs to
go for the left. If she's going to attempt to win,
(21:36):
she needs to coalition build with folks to the left
of the Democratic Party because centering the center, which is
at this point the right, is not going to help.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Anyone, let alone her.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
And I met Kamala Harris in February and we had
an interesting conversation where I was very respectfully friends with her,
and then she was like, well, I want to hear
more of your thoughts. I want to hear more of
your thoughts and then like maybe I think like a
week or two weeks later, she went to Puerto Rico,
and when she landed in Puerto Rico, they were like
(22:12):
singing and clapping, and she walked off the plane and
was like and clapping along with them, and then the
translator said it like went in her ear and was like,
they're singing a protest song about you being a colonizer,
and so she like stopped immediately. And I looked at
this video and I said to myself, like, normally I
(22:33):
would make a video about this, right, But I had
a pause because I was like, well, if I make
this video, will that get in the way of a
possible connection that I have to be helpful to them?
And I had to ask myself the same conversations that
you're having with your team, like how much of this
game are you really trying to play into?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
What ends?
Speaker 1 (22:54):
And so I made the video because like because at
the end of the day, they would have just used me,
you know, like my insight should not be available to
anyone seeking the seat of the presidency unless they are
actively not only seeking the seat of the presidency but
also seeking to uproot a number of aspects of the
(23:16):
government of the United States that are not only perpetuating
what's going on here, but also perpetuating the colonialism that
happens all over the globe, which they are huge, and
I would arguably say are the leaders of now like
they've outdone the UK in that respect. They took over
after World War Two? What was the tipping point of
(23:42):
how you became to platforms? Because I don't know how
that process happens, Like do you get a letter? Do
you just wake up one day and it's just not there?
Like how does that even work?
Speaker 3 (23:50):
So obviously there was the press conference by Antiie Blinkin,
which was no.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
There's no obviously, so tell the story, let people know
the details.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Yes, sure, Soriday the thirteenth, September Friday the thirteenth.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
That's as I.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Woke up that morning, I thought, my wife, I hate
Friday at the thirteenth, and she says, you're Muslim, that's
a Christian thing, don't worry about it. And I was like, nah,
I still don't like this day. And then I'm going
to a rich train and wedding in the UK. I'm
ironing my trousers. And then I've got a friend who
worked for one of these mainstream media outlets in the UK.
So he was watching the press conference live because obviously
(24:27):
it's in the middle of the genocide, and usually the
press conference is done by the press secretary. When Antoni Blinking,
when ANTII Blinking steps it's usually quite a big announcement.
So they heard that Blinking was going to do the
press conference. So all the journalists are watch him, waiting
for this big announcement, and then he just says the
video was sent to me and I just thought it
(24:49):
was AI. He said that African Stream is secretly run
by RT, and then he quoted the HIA. Yeah, and
he quoted the website and said they claim to be
giving a voice to Africans both home and abroad, when
in reality, the only voice they're giving is the Kremlin propagandist. Yeah,
so you said that I saw the video. I called
(25:12):
my friend and I was like, bro, if this is AI,
it's not funny at all, Like, why the hell at all?
That's my serious conversation with him. I was like, bro,
this is AI. It's not funny at all, and he goes, bro,
I wouldn't play with you like that, And I just
put down the phone and I just felt like, what
is it in get out where you just sink yes,
(25:32):
I had like for the next few days or just
had a problem.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Did you know that you were that visible, that African
stream was that important?
Speaker 3 (25:39):
No at all. So imagine there's this person that you
see on TV. He's the Secretary of State, one of
the most important politicians, not only in the US but
in the world. That is. Then he's quoting the website
that you wrote in your little two bedroom apartment in London.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
And claiming that it's Russia.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Yes exactly, and that we're Kremlin propagandist.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
You're like, I don't even know that.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
Yeah, And then I'm just in.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
My mind you're in Leeds. Where do you live?
Speaker 1 (26:05):
In my mind, I'm like picturing you in like Brixton.
I'm just naming places in London now it's.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
In northwest London. Cricklewood next to Wembley.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Were next to Wembley as an America, as a US N.
When I hear certain things when they are said from England,
just say i'd fake like just Crickerwood.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Next to Embley. We're going to have a cup of tea,
a copa. Then we're going to see some gnomes.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
So actually I wasn't actually there, sorry, because I'd moved
to Nairobia by this point. So, yeah, I live. We're
in Nairobi, Kenya.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Now oh yeah, okay, so you're in Kenya now.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Yeah, I'm in Kenya. So I was in Nairobi, Kenya.
But we go to the UK once a year for
my oldest son's birthday so that you can see the grandparents. Okay, yeah,
we're staying at the inlaws house, which is in Finchley,
which is a super pro Israel Zionist area. But anyway,
that's so I'm there, I'm ironing my trousers and I
(27:05):
shold my wife.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
But see, this is why it's even because I like
people to feel the.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Experience with you.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
You're not only hearing this on Friday the thirteenth, you're on holiday,
like you're not even in work mode.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yeah exactly. That's a great point. Because my phone starts
pinging everyone back in Nairobi. But what the hell's going on?
And I'm like and then my wife is like, the
uber's outside. I was like, what, Like, I meant to
go to this wedding and she's like, oh, you know,
they're expecting us so I'm at this wedding. I'm at
(27:37):
this wedding. I haven't seen people in over a year
because obviously I'm inve in Nairobi, Kenya, and everyone's come
up to me, and most people haven't seen the video
because it's just breaking.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
You're in your own private hell exactly.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
They're talking to me.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
You're not there.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
I'm not there at all. I'm just like, what the
hell is this? Like a weird one of those inception
dreams where it's a dream, we've in a dream, We've
in like I'm in the dream, but I'm in the
nother layer of the dream. It was. I wouldn't wish
that on my worst enemy, on my worst enemy.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Why was it so trippy for you?
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Because it came from nowhere? He said something that's completely
not true, and you start thinking of that Will Smith
film Enemy of the State, Like what does this mean?
Am I going to get arrested?
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (28:20):
He said something that's just not true.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
And like the person who said it matters, yes, yeah,
because like I've been mentioned in the Senate by like
an idiot. But Blinken we know is very connected. It's
super zionist, you know.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Like yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Did you tell anyone like did you tell your wife? Yeah,
showed my wife the video and what did she say?
Speaker 3 (28:43):
I think she was just an autopilot, like oh my god,
what the hell? And then she goes but I already
ordered the uber it's outside to go to this wedding.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Your mife is like, stay focused, you iron your pants,
We're going to the wedding.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
Yeah. So then yeah, it was just it was just crazy.
Then obviously I'm trying to speak to a lawyer.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Who do you even call? Like who do you? What
type of lawyer do you call? For that?
Speaker 3 (29:05):
My wife's mom went to university with one of the
top UK lawyers who like represents. There's like international cases
the Venezuelan government versus. So I went in at him
and I was like, can I sue them? Like surely
I can sue them for like libel. Yeah, you can't
just say some shit on the public. It's like it's
the US government.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
It's not even public, Like that's like it's beyond public.
It's like martians heard that.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Yeah exactly. And what they can do is they can
say whatever they want, and then when someone says we'll
prove it or pay me, they can go we're relying
on intelligence reports. So there's literally no point, is what
his argument.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Was, I see what you're saying.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
So then the trippy part was I'm just trying to
like understand and deconstruct what's happened. And then forty eight hours,
YouTube sends a message your YouTube channel has violated community guidelines.
We have five hundred thousand followers on YouTube, four hundred
and eighty thousand, something like that. Gone.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
I know, he didn't just freeze when he said gone.
You literally froze when you said the word gone. And
I was like, so, at this point, is your YouTube
also like actually moving in the direction that you wanted
to monetarily.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
It was going that way. We were getting some bs
offers like Evy and water wanted us to like drink
some water in one of them. I was like, I'm
not doing that shit, but it was going that.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Way, okay, because YouTube is hard to crack.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Yeah, definitely, definitely. And then Instagram within seventy two hours,
you violated community guidelines. Gone, thread's gone. Twitter get a
message on Twitter.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
X No, Twitter's right forever.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Yeah, we get a message on x saying strip has
removed your monetization. So we were getting not much but
maybe five hundred, six hundred pounds per month of X
and then they said, oh, you're demonetized, you can't get paid.
And then the weird was TikTok, because TikTok's meant to
be Chinese owned. TikTok took us down within a week.
(31:05):
And then the crazy one. Our Gmail account was taken down.
What our Gmail account, all of our workspace.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Your Google works yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Yeah, and our g drive was taken down. All the
video stuff that we filmed. We stored it all on
the drive that was taken down, and you're just thinking,
what the hell is going on?
Speaker 1 (31:27):
I literally just downloaded everything from my g drive, my
Gmail smart I mean, the document is really all I
really actually care about, as much as there's other stuff
on there, but that's like the most stuff. And some
of the other day was like stop using Google Docs,
and so I just was like, all right, I'm done.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
So you lost all of the footage.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
We backed up about thirty percent of it. We loved
about seventy percent of a lot of other stuff.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
But the good thing is is that we posted so
much on X, which was stiller, so we could redownload
it off X and repost it. But obviously the quality
wasn't insane. How we feel, yeah, that's how we shut it.
But there's loads of stuff that we just lost, loads
of stuff that we just lost. And yeah, that was
it basically, and.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
It just oh wait, wait wait, how how are you?
Speaker 3 (32:23):
I'm better? Now?
Speaker 2 (32:25):
How time did you go to the seaside?
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Like?
Speaker 2 (32:28):
How are you better?
Speaker 3 (32:29):
So I went to one place that woke me up
because I was feeling sorry for myself. I can't lie. First,
for the first like a couple of months, I was
really feeling sorry for myself. I was like, what the hell?
Speaker 2 (32:39):
When did this happen?
Speaker 3 (32:40):
September September last year? Yeah, September twenty twenty four. And
then I went to meet one of our funders in Johannesburg.
And when I was there, I went to Soweto. You know,
he takes you to see some fucked up shit to
wake you up.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
I've had to say, okay, so he just took you
to the bottom.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Yeah, I just went to see and I thought, why
am I feeling sorry for myself? Like people there were
kids protesting and they were massacred by apartheid forces while
they were running away. Nothing like that's happened to me,
you know what I'm saying, Like it just puts sometimes
you just need perspective. Things in perspective exactly. And then
in Soweto you have like a lot of these politicians
that have the big houses, but right next to it
(33:23):
is the ghetto and you go by the ghetto and
there's the sewage and just think, why am I feeling
sorry for myself? Like this is what imperialism is, yep,
this is how imperialism operates. Steve Bico was beaten to
death in his cell YEP. In the US, Fred Hampton
was assassinated and police officers go to his gravesite every
year and shoot it up. So it's like, wouldn't you
(33:44):
just understand what did I think this was? This is
how the system operates. And actually it's a huge, huge
badge of honor. And so when I came up from Soweto,
that's the kind of messaging that I was giving to
the team, like we've done something.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Them off so effectively that they see.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Us as a problem.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Yeah exactly, that's so.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Something to be proud of, exactly.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
And yeah, the team has been amazing, you know, everything
that we've done, the stories that they've done, they can
stand by that for life. We've got a digital archive
that's still up there because we managed to repost so
much of it on my pages and on Twitter and whatnot.
And yeah, when we announced that we were closing down,
you saw the response, people acting like it was a death,
(34:30):
you know, like a funeral or something like that. So
I'm very proud of what we did, very proud that
we made touch an impact. And yeah, what I'm trying
to do now is just work with social movements and
show them how to make content like African Stream.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Hmmm.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
I want to piss them off even more and be like, Okay,
we took down African Stream, but what the hell of
all these different things popping.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Up now everybody else?
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Yeah, so that's the plan. It was one hell of
an emotional roller coaster, and there's so much crazy stuff
attached to what happened. That. My son's two and a
half years old. He was kicked out of a football
group here in Kenya. In Kenya, Yeah, it was a Karen,
you know, the Expats White xpact. Karen, her husband works
for an NGO and she goes it's a safety issue
(35:17):
because of the accusations. I don't feel safe. My son's
called Kamal Kamal Motulu. I don't feel safe with Kamal
being here because of the accusations, and just like this.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Is just crazy, meaning like I'm I even going to
try and rationalize her irrational fears.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
So let me start.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
So at this point, is it even in your mind
in any shapewa or form to rebuild with.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
A new name or with a new trajectory, et cetera,
you know, or is it too soon?
Speaker 1 (35:44):
You know, like when people lose a pet and they're like,
I can't get ano dog yet.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
I mean, one of the good things about when we
announced it we were closing down, there were I'm not
saying a lot, but a few different entities that we
say have reached out to offer support. Now I'm just
trying to hear them out and see basically who's bullshiting
and who's not bullshiting because a lot of people talk. Yeah,
hopefully they don't see this and get pissed off people now.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
They should see it and be like, we're gonna show
you here's a million dollars aha.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
So if we can secure funding and rebrand on someone
like African Dream and we just speak to a lawyer
and just say, like, what can we do so it's
impossible for this bullshit to happen again? What can we do?
Do we need to like have a funding part of
the website and show every single penny that comes in
(36:33):
and who the donor is. Is that the way to
go forward? Like? How do you avoid this type of
bullshit happening again?
Speaker 1 (36:40):
I mean, I feel like the reality is that they're
just gonna make up whatever they want to make up,
you know. Like that was what I was really surprised
to see in my own different experience with like just
being misrepresented. I've had someone accuse me of admitting to lying,
Like like I'm like, well, not only did I never
admit to lying, I never said anything that was about me,
(37:02):
So how can I admit to doing something about something
I never even did in the first place? And because
it was a headline to this day, I still get
people in my comments like that's why you're a liar
and you accused so and so of et cetera, et cetera,
And I'm like, I just I don't even they don't
need proof, you know, And I think that's the The
(37:23):
dangerous part to me is not about like can a
government do this to you again? But I think what
you have on your side is that the people that
you're speaking to don't believe them. It's a different demographic
than what I was dealing with. I was dealing with
people who are really into like gossip and you know,
even with the Kamala Harris stuff, when when there was
(37:45):
a lot of making up things that they're like you
to this day, people would be like, you're one of
the reasons why Donald Trump is president because you told
people not to vote for Kamala Harris. I have never
in my life said do not vote for Kamala Harris.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Like, I never said that.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
But all it requires is someone to say, you know,
African stream is spreading disinformation and people you know will
either fold or not. But I do think it's really
dope that you have a team and it's not just
you trying to sort through the bull shit of it all.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
Yeah exactly. I mean, my team's amazing.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
How did you even compile your team? Where did they
come from?
Speaker 3 (38:24):
So what I tried to do first was try to
hire journalists and then turn them into radical revolutionary Pan
African and it just didn't work. It didn't work at all.
So then I went down the different route. Well was like,
let me go in the Kenya scene and speak to
activists and train them to be journalists because the ideology
(38:44):
it's more of an asset to me because some of
these journalists when not to speak to them, they have
no clue about the stuff that they're talking about. They
have no clue about, you know, imperialism, and they generally
have been indoctrinated into believing that Africa has a unique problem,
which is an African problem of corruption and mismanagement of resources,
(39:07):
and that's why we're behind everywhere else because we've got
some unique kind of characteristic it means that we just
can't be trusted. Yeah, And I was like, no, this
isn't If I was to hire these people at best,
we would be BBC Africa Light at best at best.
So that's not what I was trying to do. There's
not a shortage of African media. There's a shortage of
(39:29):
revolutionary pan African, anti imperialist African media. And the good
thing is about African stream is that's so many have
popped up since we came onto the scene. Because obviously
they saw that there's an audience for this, yep, and
they can be radical, they can talk about politics and
people want to hear it. People want to hear it.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Well, we're going to go to our special Patreon only segment,
and I want to hear from you how you became
a radical Wait, what was it you said?
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Radical leftist?
Speaker 1 (40:02):
I want to hear how you became a radical revolutionary
Pan Africanist. And I want to hear what methods you
were using to try to I won't say convert, but
to try to welcome these journalists into that space. I mean,
were you like forcing them to listen to Quamita Kruma speeches,
et cetera. So let's go over to Patreon with the
(40:24):
Seal Squad. I'm listening to you, and there's distinct similarities
between what you're saying about liberation and culture as there
are here in the United States, where blackness in the
United States has become about dances and hair and consumerism, right,
(40:53):
and just commodifying.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
And I'm trying to also.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Wake people up to the fact that, yes, that is
an important aspect, but that's not the sole thing that
binds us. You know, we are bound by so many
other aspects that are very unique to being just black
and in the United States, and those are the things
that we have to do our own due diligence at
planting flags in and really taking ownership of And to
(41:22):
hear you saying this about the entire continent of the
motherland of Africa, there's just so much work to be
done for your son, you know, like there's so much
work to be done, and you've already done.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
So much of that work.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
And just to hear you saying that you're now helping
others and you know, building bridges and arming others with
these capabilities, like that's to me what was lost by
prior generations, Like there was not this effort of how
do I keep this going when I'm gone? It's like, know,
how do I stay here as long as possible? It's like, well,
(41:57):
that's not really that helpful because you're not You're gonna die,
You're gonna.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Degenerate, Like it's not gonna last forever.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
So I just want you to know, and I said
this on the page, and I say this here that
wherever Africa stream ends up, whether it's Africa Dream or African,
i'mare you know, we will follow, we will support. I
shared so many of you guys's videos. I learned so
much from your content, and I feel like it wasn't
(42:24):
just about you all giving news in a different way,
but also affirming for many of us outside of the
continent that what we're thinking is correct, Like no, we
know it's not just corruption, no matter how many times
we're told this, we know it's not. It also got
to open perspective beyond the United States, particularly which doesn't
(42:46):
show any African news at all, Like if you live here,
you don't even realize that there's like people here think
Africa is a country, you know they do. They don't
realize that South Africa is a region and a country.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
And my last questquestion to you.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
Is because I feel like I would normally get this
on African stream, but since I have you here, I
can ask you directly, what are your thoughts on Abraham
trere Oh?
Speaker 3 (43:09):
I love that question. Can I just build on what
you just said because I love the example that you
gave on the US, and I'll come to Ibram Ture.
I think the US is a great example. You know,
the whole American dream that someone from the ghetto, if
they have a skill like sports basketball, NFL. They can act,
they can make it out of the ghetto and they
(43:31):
can be this great example of upward social mobility. And
I think this is why, you know, we call ourselves socialists,
because well, what about the ghetto? What about the people
that are left behind? You know this and this is
the thing. It's like, okay, so we can have individual
success stories like Botswana, but what about the rest of
(43:52):
the continent. You know, this is why we need a
unified approach. The European Union acts as voice. We have
the African Union, but it's like pitiful how they behave
They can't set out any of their conflicts. They don't
act in one voice. They can't even observe elections properly.
They have people like c see the dictating Egypt who
(44:14):
becomes chairman. It's bullshit, It's complete bullshit. So that's why,
you know, people in the continent, we love Africans in America,
we admire you, we admire your struggle, we know all
your history. But the revolutionaries in the US, the Black
Panther Party, call themselves socialists. Yeah, because they realized it
wasn't about encouraging our kids to like become basketball players,
(44:39):
or to become musicians or become or what's happening right
now where you become a rapper by basically sending death
to consumers. You say, I killed someone so and I'm
smoking them in a zoo and smoking them in It's
the most deranged stuff. But if you understand the macro
behind it, these music industries are not owned by US. No,
(45:03):
so we have another community. There's a clip on Breakfast
Club which I just think is just so enlightening. I
think it's called Elon Cohen Lear Cohen Leah Khan. Thank
you so much. I think you know the clip I'm
talking about.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
I know exactly what you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
Where he's saying that like you just signed someone, he
talks about drugs and death and whatnot. Don't you think
that's a bit hypocritical based on what you just said?
And he goes, well, I've got bills to pay. This
is a multi multi millionaire, also a Zionist, also a Zionist,
also a Zionist, commercializing and commodifying the death and destruction
(45:40):
within the African community.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Do you know they also take out insurance policies on
those rappers?
Speaker 3 (45:46):
Wow? No, I didn't know that I didn't know that.
So the insurance money goes to the family.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
No to the label.
Speaker 1 (45:52):
Wow, the label takes out an insurance policy on these
rappers who are on their records talking about I merked
this dude, I took this one out. The blicky blah
blah blah blah blah. And you know these young men
now are you know a lot of the rappers back
in the day, it's like they was doing it and
then they were just talking about it, but they weren't
doing it. These cats is serial killers. Yeah, and you
(46:16):
know that's why you end up seeing you know, like
there was a documentary about King Vaughn where it's like
the serial killer King Vaughn, and you're just like, they're
so blatant with it now that they're I mean, the
record labels, they're so blatant with just knowing that, Okay,
this what y'all want, Fine, we'll give it to you,
but we're also going to make sure that our assets
are protected.
Speaker 3 (46:35):
And this is what capitalism does. As long as it
makes profit, yes, and it's good business.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
And there's a lot of conversations being had these days
more and more where I feel like folks are much
more loud and waking up to the concept of just saying, well,
it's my job or you know, I got to get
the bag is not a sufficient enough reason for harming
your community, harming yourself, for being unreliable, for losing your integrity,
(47:03):
like you know, it's just it's not And that has
been the case for quite some time, Like yeah, I
mean I just gotta get I'm getting the bag me
and it's like fuck your bag man.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
Like I was doing a show in Detroit and the
Zionists had hired somebody to drive a truck around with
my face on the side of it that said Amanda
Seals is a Jew hater. And after my show, I
asked the driver to pull up on it and I
was like, pull up, holl up.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
So it's me and like four cats from the Nation
of Islam in this truck, like Scar Scar's cart and
we pull up.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
Who's driving the truck a brother smoking a blunt and
I'm out the window.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
Like damn, that's going outside.
Speaker 1 (47:41):
And I have all of this on camera, and so
I posted it. The amount of people that were in
the comments like I mean, he got to get a
check too. I would actually be curious to know if
I posted it now, considering my audience has very significantly changed,
and now I have like an audience of socialists. I
wonder if they respond as would be different. I feel
(48:01):
like it would be. Okay, before we go.
Speaker 2 (48:09):
Ibriam, what's your thoughts?
Speaker 1 (48:10):
Yes, because I have a friend from Senegal who recently
just told me like, yeah, I don't know, so I
want to hear yours.
Speaker 3 (48:16):
Okay, So anyone that's in the continent, traveled throughout the continent,
you realize these countries have flagged independence. Yeah, economies are
not controlled by us. In Kenya, we have four British
military bases.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (48:34):
The British soldiers go out into the community, rape the women,
have sex with prostitutes, impregnate the women and nothing happens.
There's a case right now where there was a Kenyan
woman murdered by a British soldier and the British Army
are not even investigating. So there's a whole campaign here
in Kenya. Yeah, okay, there can't be a Kenyan military
(48:54):
base in the UK where Kenyan soldiers are just walking
around flinging it here, flinging it there, doing whatever they want. Sorry,
too comfortable.
Speaker 2 (49:07):
Filling in it, yeah, flinging it there.
Speaker 3 (49:11):
And then the biggest things that they export is tea,
coffee and flowers, like actual flowers people give on Valentine's Day.
Those companies are British owned. The UK has one hundred
and one companies the own one trillion dollars worth of
minds in the continent. So these are you know, they
(49:31):
say colonism ended, these are neo colonies. Yeah. Yes, So
when they talk about and obviously I'm for democracy, I
don't want to say that I'm not. When they talk
about democracy, oh yeah, we need to have elections.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
But they're not talking about a real democracy.
Speaker 3 (49:46):
That's why you're like, exactly exactly, That's the point I'm
trying to. It's like, okay, so who's going to be
middle management for Glencoe, who's going to be middle management
for Tetley Tea? Who's going to be middle Beers? So bad? Yeah,
the Beers, Oppenheim, all of these types of companies. It's
so bad. Kenya makes some of the best coffee in
the world. They have Grade one and Grade two, Grade three.
(50:08):
Grade one is for exports only, so Kenyans don't even
taste their best coffee, just imagine that, Imagine that these
are neo colonies. I think when people get to.
Speaker 2 (50:19):
Gripsit, Carico gold is not the best coffee.
Speaker 3 (50:22):
I might a big coffee drinker, but is it tea.
Speaker 2 (50:25):
Carrico gold is tea.
Speaker 3 (50:26):
Carical gold is tea. But it gets exported. It gets exported.
The grade one coffee is not for the domestic market. Now,
as bad as it is in Colombia, Colombians taste the
best coffee that Columbia offers. You weren't having Colombia. The
best coffee is for exports only the same for local people,
right right, right? Yeah. So when it comes to Ibraham's Fruerrey,
(50:47):
he understands that he is taking over a neo colony.
There's a French military base here. French companies were wild.
They're allegedly fighting terrorism France. But the French army shows
up after the terrorists have left, and you're like, what
you guys have got the highest grade military equipment, the
(51:08):
fastest aircraft, and you're always showing up after the fight.
So he's trying to take sovereignty back that hasn't existed
in Bikina Faso. There was a brief attempt during the
Sankari years. But beyond that, it's the country with the
most military coups in any African country. I think Saddani's second,
and it's been army general after army general serve in Paris,
(51:31):
and so he comes and he was like, well, we're
renegotiating all these mining deals. We're all farmers and we've
got things like tomatoes here, but we import tomatoes. That
doesn't make no sense. From now on, we're setting up
a tomato factory and the tomatoes that people eating Bikina
Fasa are going to be producing Bikina Fassa. We're going
to really take on this terrorist fight, and we're going
(51:51):
to tell the French, who have not been helping us
to get out. As soon as he told the French
to get out, and he enlisted volunteers the terrorists on
the retreat for the first time in how many years.
So he's a young man, he's charismatic, and he articulates
two people who can see with their own eyes that
(52:12):
we do not have sovereignty of violent and he's making
big promises to change that. Now will he do that?
Let's hope. So, let's hope. So, because you never know,
because someone can start.
Speaker 2 (52:23):
Off, yeah, with the best of intentions.
Speaker 3 (52:25):
The best of intentions. So I always feel like, when
you're on the left, you have to keep these figures honest. Yes,
you have to make sure that they stick to what
they say and they stick to the program. But what
people don't realize is that this was a revolution from
the ground up. Because he's got a military uniform. People
think that there was a coup that happened. No, there
(52:48):
were mass protests against the previous military general. People were
frustrated with the fight against terrorism. People were frustrated with
the price of things, people were frustrated with the conditions.
There was one of these mining firms that left the
country and then destroyed the equipment, everything, destroyed the cars so.
Speaker 2 (53:08):
That it couldn't be used in their absence.
Speaker 3 (53:10):
Exactly, exactly and so petty. You know, people think that
African is docile, that we don't understand what's happening around
us now. People understand in Nizer, Nize was the second
poorish country in the world before the revolution that happened
in July twenty twenty four. Nizer would get six to
eight percent of the royalties from the uranium mind in
(53:31):
Nizia six to.
Speaker 2 (53:32):
Eight percent, six to eight percent.
Speaker 3 (53:34):
Yeah, in Kazakhstan they were receiving thirty five to forty
percent from the same company ran Here. They understand that
obviously the previous administration would obviously get kicked back, because
there's no way, as a leader of a country, you're
going to accept a six percent royalty from uranium. Mind,
as soon as the revolution happened in Nizia, the price
(53:56):
of uranium goes up. They renegotiate all their deals, they
renegotiate their mining contracts, so they're taking back sovereignty. In Mali,
Barrack Gold. Barreck Gold has been running a mock in
Maley for decades. The revolution happens in Mali, they kick
out Barrett Gold. They nationalize the mind. So you could
(54:16):
say what you want. You can say, oh, it's not
democratic to just nationalize the mind. We are a sovereign nation.
This gold is in our land, underneath our feet. Why
the hell should the Canadian company, a French company, American
company pay us pittance for things that they mine in
our own country. So I'm with what's going on in
the Sahal because they're trying to make sure that the
(54:39):
resources that lie beneath the feet are to the benefit
of the country. And when you go to Bikin offessor,
you know, we had a correspondent that was there full time,
which was very helpful. She went out there to set
up a Pan African library and then she contacted African
Stream for a job and then she was there full time.
So it was good because we could ask her directly
on you know, real questions like what's it.
Speaker 2 (54:59):
Like, is this it's just pr or is this pr.
Speaker 3 (55:03):
Is like what's really going on? And they're like no,
like you know, you just said, you know me, I
hate all governments. But he's really trying. They're really trying.
Like it's not perfect, but we see an attempt. That's
all we want. If you can just see an attempt
that you're trying to change or go in the right direction,
then we'll support you. You'll make mistakes, but will support you.
What does your friend in Senegal say.
Speaker 1 (55:25):
He's very skeptical, very cynical about it all. He said,
he feels like it's just a lot of hype, not
feels He said from what he has witnessed from his
friends who have gone to Berkina Fasso that it's a
lot of hype and that Ibrahim is not really seeking
you know, sovereignty, but more so just another coup leader.
(55:47):
And I think that that ends up just being a
matter of glass half empty or glass half full at
this juncture. Like, I don't know that from what I've
read and what I've gleaned, I don't know that he
has really indicated either direction, like definitively yet. But I
think that, you know, so much of the history has
shown the propensity for going in that direction that it's like, well,
(56:12):
you're not doing enough to show us that you're not
going in that direction. I think that's also a fair critique.
Speaker 3 (56:17):
You've got a cat, a kitten called Sankara, Is that right?
Speaker 2 (56:20):
I do, Yes, I do promise.
Speaker 3 (56:22):
My son, my second son, is called Sankara as well, Lovely.
The reason why we got excited is he's following in
the footsteps. Yes, when I say he's following the footsteps,
he didn't take. He doesn't take a presidential salary. Nope,
he's still on the same salary that he was on
when he was a general. Who was the first president
that we knew did that, Thomas Sankara nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 1 (56:42):
Like he doesn't drive the presidential car like, none of that,
right exactly.
Speaker 3 (56:46):
So here's the thing. They kind of want us to
lose hope. Of course, you know that no one is
kind of good enough. But the truth is, we've had
revolutionary leaders. This continent has had some of the finest leaders. Yes,
the more of Michelle Well, Kwami and Krumer, Thomas and
car Patricia La Mumba. The list goes on and on
and on, and so I'm on, they kill them, yeah, exactly,
(57:10):
they killed them, but before they killed them, they stigmatized them.
So even to this day, there'll be people that go,
Kwami and Krumer wasn't really all bad, you know. Thomas
and Kawi came in in the coup because they want
us to kind of just lose hope and just accept
this is just the way it is. A kuna matata,
kuna matata. This is just the way is you.
Speaker 2 (57:32):
Know, is a kuna matata Swahili.
Speaker 3 (57:35):
It is means no worries.
Speaker 1 (57:37):
Because when I went well, I know what it means,
no worries for the rest of a few days. It's
our problem for philosophytata. But when I went to Kenya,
I was so confused because I was like, Simba is
not in the Masaimara, and I thought Simba was in Kalahari.
Speaker 2 (57:52):
I thought he was in the Kalahari in my mind.
Speaker 1 (57:54):
In my mind, the Lion King takes place in the
African Vault in South Africa. So when I heard herku
Maatta when I was in Kenya, I was like, why
is this? This doesn't make any sense. But now I
feel like maybe they were on the Massamara and I
went to the Massamara and I saw the lions.
Speaker 3 (58:10):
So Simba is the Swahili word for lion, so lion king.
They just basically took all of the Swahili words, So
pomba actually just means yeah. And what's what's the The
bird is called zazo that means bird. That means that
type of bird.
Speaker 2 (58:30):
Yeah, the secretary bird.
Speaker 3 (58:32):
Yeah. The only one where they didn't take the actual
name for the animal was rafiki, but Rafiki just means
friend in Swahili. So they basically took the whole facular, yeah,
the whole thing. What's the mere cat called the moon? Yes,
that's the Swahili word for its yeah, yeah, yeah, I
(58:54):
found out when I was here as well. I was
on a safari and someone goes, there's a kid, and
he goes, my mamma, simba simba simbers and I was
like simbers and I was like, oh, yeah, that's the
Swahili word for lion.
Speaker 2 (59:04):
I was like, oh, what right, Like no, it's simmer
the last.
Speaker 1 (59:17):
I learned a lot in this interview. I learned stuff
I didn't even know I was gonna learn. Well, thank
you so much. I'm at Cabalo, and please let people
know where they can follow you so that they make
sure to do so so that when you are making
your next pivots that they can be right there.
Speaker 3 (59:32):
Sure. Mostly I guess Instagram. I don't really use x normal,
so it's just Athmet Cabelo on Instagram. I don't know
what the act is. I think the act is at
Athmet Cabelo. But thank you so much. I'm a huge,
huge fan of your work. Thank you, and yeah, it's
just you show that you don't have to choose if
I'm famous. I can't say this because it will cost
(59:55):
me this or it will cost me that.
Speaker 2 (59:56):
I mean it will, but yeah.
Speaker 3 (59:59):
But you still you still live a good life, You're
still happy, You're still it's not the end. Of the
world like there's no excuses, and you know, we really
appreciate you know, you're raising your voice. Thanks for Sudan,
for Sudan in particular, because not many people are almost
half a million people, half a million kids they say
might have died from malnutrition. We have dengay fever, colera,
(01:00:24):
my basketball coach, My basketball coach, the strongest guy that
I know, died of denay fever. And to see nobody
talking about it even so that these people don't talk
about it enough. So when I saw that you're posting
about it, we really on behalflested in this community. We
really really appreciate you're using your platform and we appreciate
everything that you do.
Speaker 2 (01:00:44):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (01:00:46):
Thank you
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