Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary andanalysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-hostGlen Ford. Coming up: The Black Alliance for Peace steps up its campaign to get theU.S. military out of Africa; a scholar takes a look at Kwaito music and young people’spolitics in South Africa; and, a new article celebrates the life and work of James Cone,the father of Black Liberation Theology.But first – the U.S. political establishment is still reeling from the nationwide wave ofdemonstrations that followed the police killing of George Floyd. We spoke with MonifaBandele, a veteran activist from Brooklyn, New York, who sits on the policy table of theMovement for Black Lives. Bandele says the ongoing protests are the result of years oforganizing.
The United States military has a larger presence on the African continent than Britainand France at the height of their colonial empires. The Black Alliance for Peace isescalating its campaign against AFRICOM, the U.S. Military Command in Africa, whichis active in almost every nation on the continent. Alliance activist Tunde Osazua pointsout that AFRICOM’s first big mission was the regime change attack on Libya, in 2011.
Dr. James Cone, the world-renowned theologian, died two years ago, but his workcontinues to influence Black political thinking. Matt Harris is a PhD candidate at the
University of California, at Santa Barbara. Harris co-authored an article titled, "In theHope That They Can Make Their Own Future: James H. Cone and the Third World."Harris says Cone is considered the father of Black liberation theology.
In South Africa, “kwaito” music is wildly popular with young people – just as is hip hopamong Black American youth. Xavier Livermon is a professor of African DiasporaStudies at the University of Texas at Austin. He’s spent years studying the kwaito musicphenomenon, and written a book, titled ““Kwaito Bodies: Remastering Space andSubjectivity in Post-Apartheid South Africa.” Professor Livermon says Kwaito music hashad a profound effect on South Afrian youth, whose 21 st century politics is quite differentthan the young people who rose up against white minority rule in Soweto in 1976.