African Lens

We are a pro-African media outlet magnifying stories that matter to Africans at home and in the diaspora.

[Unathi Afrika @UnathiAfrika]

I still emphasize that in the maze of anti-African sentiment, high unemployment, crime and all kinds of societal ills, facts must still lead the conversation. Stoking divisions based on fake news and misinformation is a dangerous trajectory.

[African Lens @African_Lens_]

@thabotebele @daddyhope Some of you don’t miss an opportunity to turn every conversation into a xenophobic contest.

[African Lens @African_Lens_]

Our Biggest Failure: Not Pan-Africanising Our Institutions

Offering African solutions to African problems requires the right kind of institutions - namely, pan-African ones. So argues Zimbabwean activist and human-rights lawyer Brian Kagoro. He notes that our leaders might make the right kinds of noises, but often fail to translate grand ideas into effective action. Their gut instinct will still be to go cap in hand to Europe for help, citing the weakness of homegrown institutions - rather than focus on rebuilding those institutions with the right ethos and values at their core. This failure to ‘institutionalise’ pan-Africanism has fanned economic, security and migration crises.

African Lens. A pro-african view.

Vide credit: @African Renaissance Podcast (YT)

@NomadicVoyagerX @ApatriotsNews @thegloriaeyo @Budget01

[African Lens @African_Lens_]

Coloniser Not Sorry Just Uncomfortable

Slavery and colonialism didn’t end because Europeans suddenly felt bad. They ended because wage labour was more profitable than enslaved labour, and overseas empires became too costly to run after the economic strains of World War Two. That might be why getting apologies and reparations out of former colonial powers is a bit like getting blood from a stone - there is no (and never was any) remorse. In fact, post-slavery and post-independence, Europe has continued to exploit Africans and Africa’s natural resources - reaping all the benefits that slavery and colonialism offered by different methods, such as political meddling, debt traps, conditional development aid and unfair trade relationships. As Kenyan influencer @swiri_nyar_kano (TT) says, they’re not sorry - they just want us to shut up.

African Lens. A pro-African view.

Video credit: @swiri_nyar_kano (TT)

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[African Lens @African_Lens_]

Black Barber Cuts White Pastor With Sharp Truths

This powerful clip is from A Time for Burning - a 1966 documentary about a pastor in Omaha, Nebraska who tries to persuade his all-White congregation to reach out to the local Black community. In this scene, he’s seen with a Black barber who calmly but devastatingly explains to him why his integration efforts are doomed to fail. What he says could just as well be said today - with Black communities still negotiating their right to safety, dignity and economic fairness.

African Lens. A pro-African view.

Video credit: https://t.co/lg0IjemLxe (A Time for Burning, Barbara Connell, Bill Jersey, 1967)

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[Al Jazeera English @AJEnglish]

Young engineers in the Gaza Strip are converting organic waste into cooking gas and liquid fertilisers, helping farmers cope with shortages amid Israel’s war.

[African Lens @African_Lens_]

How Brazil Tried To ‘Breed Away’ Blackness

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Argentina, Brazil and Cuba embraced a racial project known as ‘blanqueamiento’ - or Whitening via marriage to lighter-skinned people to produce kids with less dark skin. It laid bare Latin America’s uneasy relationship with Blackness. Governments actively encouraged European immigration, offering land, jobs and social mobility, while positioning African and Indigenous peoples as populations to be diluted, absorbed or erased through racial mixing. As online storyteller @adivunsolicited (TT) here explains, it was scientific racism targeted to breed out Blackness.

Blanqueamiento rested on the belief that proximity to Whiteness meant advancement. These policies helped concentrate land, wealth and power in White hands, while helping to erase history and deny Black presence altogether.

African Lens. A pro-African view.

Video credit: @adivunsolicited (TT)

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[African Lens @African_Lens_]

African countries have, in the main, steered clear of denouncing the unprovoked US-Israeli attacks on Iran. But that hasn’t stopped their citizens from showing solidarity with the Iranian people. In Nairobi, the owner of a ‘matatu’ (a small public service bus - a kind famous for having colourful graffiti paint jobs) was unapologetic in his support for Tehran. Sad that Kenyan president William Ruto isn’t more in touch with his people, no?

African lens. A pro-African view.

Photo credit: Embassy of Iran in Kenya (X)

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[African Lens @African_Lens_]

@Heal_within96 Thank you for sharing our work. For more such engaging African content, please follow us on our social media pages https://t.co/ZsrXDUpFnu

[African Lens @African_Lens_]

Imperialists' Public Pride in Their Atrocities

Digital historian @jorgethevanguarg9 (TT) addresses the uncomfortable truth about how European colonialism and imperialism are still commemorated and celebrated to this day. While some nations make fine speeches regretting the sins of the past, they refuse to pay reparations to Africans and people of African descent in the diaspora. Nor do they return stolen African artefacts, an estimated 80% of which remain housed in European museums.

Meanwhile, statues of brutal invaders continue to stand as monuments across Europe, celebrating figures whose histories are steeped in violence, oppression and exploitation. These monuments serve as symbols of enduring neocolonial power, reinforcing colonial narratives and legitimising past and ongoing inequalities. Public institutions maintain and curate collections of looted cultural heritage that function as subtle instruments of White supremacy, normalising the colonial legacy rather than confronting it openly.

Neocolonialism manifests not only through these symbolic legacies but also economically and politically, with former imperial powers sustaining unequal relationships that extract wealth and resources from African countries and communities globally. This systemic exploitation is compounded by the silent endorsement expressed via the continued celebration of colonial figures - with festivals and honours that obscure the brutal realities of conquest and displacement.

African Lens. A pro-African view.

Video Credit: @jorgethevanguarg9 (TT)

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[African Lens @African_Lens_]

'Who Gave You The Money?' - Malema Grills Ex-Ramaphosa Campaigner

A shady businessman who’s accused of being a middleman for organised crime and South Africa’s ex-police minister Senzo Mchunu (who was suspended over corruption allegations) was an ardent supporter for Cyril Ramaphosa during the latter’s ANC leadership campaign in 2017. The scandal is embarrassing for a president who styles himself as an anti-corruption reformer. The businessman in question - Brown Mogotsi - was recently grilled in parliament by pan-African firebrand Julius Malema. Who do you think cares most about transparency at the top?

African Lens. A pro-African view.

Video credit: Parliament of South Africa (X)

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[African Lens @African_Lens_]

White Schooling For Black Kids Isn’t Equality

Amos Wilson (1941-1995) was a pan-African thinker and psychologist. Through his writings and lectures, he challenged prevailing notions of equality and decolonisation for Africans globally. While many campaigned for integration into existing systems, he warned that sameness and equality are profoundly different concepts. For example, Black children receiving the same education as White children, or Black people living in predominantly White neighbourhoods, does not amount to true equality. Instead, it perpetuates the illusion of equality without dismantling the underlying structures of oppression.

Wilson criticised the European educational model, which historically rests on the ideology of White superiority and serves to reinforce this myth. One example is how European textbooks portray Christopher Columbus as a great explorer, glossing over the brutal massacres and exploitation that accompanied his voyages. This sanitised version of history entrenches colonial narratives and marginalises the experiences and cultures of oppressed peoples.

Even prestigious institutions such as Oxford University embody this legacy. It continues to offer the Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes - a symbol of British imperialism and colonial exploitation in Africa. The persistence of such honours signifies how deeply entrenched colonial and racial hierarchies remain in global educational and cultural institutions.

Wilson called for a radical rethinking of education and empowerment that centres on the unique histories, realities and learning needs of African and African-descended peoples worldwide. This approach is vital to moving beyond the mere appearance of equality towards genuine liberation and self-determination.

African Lens. A pro-African view.

Video credit: @africanthinkingchannel (YT)

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[African Lens @African_Lens_]

European Savages In Africa

We know why the colonisers wanted to brand us as savages - to dress up their r*pe and plunder of our people and continent as a civilising mission. But how on earth has history let them get away with not being branded savages themselves, given the atrocities they themselves committed in Africa? As distinguished economist and author Richard Wolff puts it to podcaster Robinson Erhardt - that’s an ‘interesting move.’

During the imposition of the Kongo Free State (1885 to 1908), millions perished or were mutilated by Belgian King Leopold’s brutal regime. It used forced labour and violent coercion - including hand amputation as a punishment - to ensure rubber quotas were met. In Namibia, between 1904 and 1907, the Germans exterminated between 50,000 and 65,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama. So who were the real savages?

African Lens. A pro-African view.

Video credit: @Robinson Erhardt (YT)

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[African Lens @African_Lens_]

Malian Boy's Serenade Will Make You Smile!

Whether you speak Bambara or not, this young Malian boy's song is a thing of pure joy. The sister he's singing to can't repress a smile, and nor can we. It made our day, did it make yours?

Video credit: @kady0640 (TT)

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[African Lens @African_Lens_]

Classic: Brit With Assault Record Says Can’t Get Job Cuz…migrants! 🤣

A vox pop classic - during a street interview on immigration, a Brit complains he can’t get a job because of foreigners… only to let slip he has a criminal record for assault.

African Lens. A pro-African view.

Video credit: Sky News

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[African Lens @African_Lens_]

Africa Is Not Underdeveloped But Over-Exploited

Africa is not underdeveloped, it’s over-exploited. The myth of African underdevelopment is a colonial lie, perpetuated to justify looting, occupation and foreign interference. Our continent boasts immense mineral riches, yet Africans are disproportionally poor. As Ghanaian journalist Kwesi Pratt explains, our struggle is not due to a lack of resources, it is due to the exploitation of those resources by external forces. This continues today, thanks to institutions such as the IMF and World Bank, and multinational corporations that extract value from Africa under the guise of ‘aid’ and ‘development.’

African Lens. A pro-African Lens.

Video credit: Li Jingjing 李菁菁 (YT)

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[African Lens @African_Lens_]

Malema: We Must Unite To Check U.S. Power

The utter disregard for international law shown by the US lately - from kidnapping Venezuela's leader, to starting an unprovoked war in the Middle East - highlights the urgent need for African unity. Julius Malema, the leader of South Africa's Economic Freedom Fighters, says it's the only way to stand up to Washington. Indeed, the fact that the US didn't get the swift victory it was expecting shows that its hubris could be its undoing - and that it's perhaps not as mighty as it seems. Certainly not as mighty as a united African continent would be. There'd be no US bullying then.

African Lens. A Pro-African view.

Video credit: EFF (TY)

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[African Lens @African_Lens_]

Why Do Africans Give Their Kids Non-African Names?

You don't see many Brits naming their daughters Olufunmilayo, or Frenchmen calling their sons Yacouba. Yet Africans often resort to European names for their children. Why is that?

A pro-African view.

Video credit: @mungunsiobednfand (TT)

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[African Lens @African_Lens_]

Winnie Confronts Apartheid Goon In Soweto

Eight years ago, Winnie Mandela (1936-2018) joined the ancestors. She was a fearless revolutionary and a symbol of resistance in the fight against apartheid in South Africa. Here you can see her in action, confronting a regime cop who'd illegally detained Black people in Soweto, Johannesburg. In just 16 seconds, her courage and moral authority are on full display - as she stands up for her community and demands accountability.

African Lens. A pro-African view.

Video credit: Winnie, Pascale Lamche 2017

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[African Lens @African_Lens_]

Celebrations As DRCongo Qualifies For
World Cup! ⚽

Congolese football fans proudly partied late into the night on Tuesday as their national team beat Jamaica 1-0 in dramatic fashion - to bag a place in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. It was a tightly contested match that ran into extra time. The winning goal came in the 100th minute from former Manchester United defender Axel Tuanzebe (@axeltuanzebe_38 - IG). That late goal not only secured qualification but marked a moment of redemption: it's been 52 years since the Leopards' last appearance in the tournament (in 1974). In total, ten African teams will now be playing at the World Cup - with Congo starting in Group K alongside Colombia, Portugal and Uzbekistan. Which team will you be rooting for?

African Lens. A pro-African view.

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