Niger has long been a key staging point for migrants and asylum seekers from sub-Saharan West Africa, but the traffic reached a peak in 2015/16 when the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimated that 330,000 people followed the desert routes north - through often inhospitable country - to reach Libya or Algeria, and then the Mediterranean coast and sea crossings to Europe.

The exponential growth mostly came about because the chaotic descent of Libya into civil conflict in the years after the Arab Spring opened up new routes and border crossings and made it easier for people traffickers to operate in the security vacuum, but it also flourished because it generated significant income and employment for northern Niger and its largest city, Agadez. Much of this was from the perfectly legitimate businesses - in transport and accommodation - that sprang up to service and feed off and then further develop the migrant trade. The increased wealth was welcomed because it helped bring back a measure of stability to an area that had seen its own insurgency during the Tuareg Rebellion of 2007-2009 and which had been struggling economically in the aftermath.

But even as the traffic was burgeoning, the Nigerien government was coming under pressure from the European Union, which was keen to find a response to the alarming flows of people coming across the Mediterranean. Close to its own maritime borders the EU began working with the Libyan coastguard and others to refashion methods of deterring that sea borne traffic, but it also looked for innovative ways of stemming the movement of people on land much further south.

So, to the grateful relief of the EU, Niger passed new anti-smuggling laws. In early 2016, its interior minister Mohamed Bazoum ordered their implementation across the country, sending police out to arrest smugglers (most of whom, of course, had previously been operating within locals laws) and confiscating hordes of the ubiquitous pick-up trucks that drivers had become used to piling high with lucrative migrant passengers.

The new laws quickly began making a big dent in the migrant flow, bringing down the number of travelers passing through Agadez from around 24,000 a month in 2016 to around 5500 a month in 2017.

But there have been other consequences and many of them difficult for Niger. The economic fallout for the north of the country has been considerable - with revenues in Agadez alone being reduced by around $117 million a year, according to the IOM. Indeed the losses across the area have been so significant that the EU has had to offer $635 million to compensate those who had once made a living out of migration through a reconversion plan involving business grants and loans and other support, although so far the difficulties of qualifying for any such support seem to be keeping the take-up of these opportunities to a minimum.

Moreover, where previously migrants were able to move openly, they now have to use clandestine back routes through remote desert country to avoid villages and police patrols. This is dangerous. The UN roughly estimates that for every migrant death in the Mediterranean sea, now two die in the Sahara desert.

Meanwhile, community leaders fear that youth unemployment and the lack of long-term investment (notwithstanding the EU's struggling compensation scheme) to develop alternative economic models could lead to increasing criminality and insecurity. With the migrant traffic suppressed, police warn that drug trafficking is becoming an ever more attractive option and elders fear that idle young men who would once have worked in the migration trade could now easily fall prey to the competing radical attractions of Boko Haram or Daesh, which pose a growing threat across this part of West Africa.

So how to best assess the EU's apparent attempt to push Europe's borders this far south? Niger is rated as one of the world's least-developed nations by the UN, but is it now paying too high a price for Europe's anti-immigration policies? We sent correspondent Juliana Ruhfus and filmmakers Marco Salustro and Victoria Baux to find out.

⁣Intra-Africa trade | DAY BREAK | Kenya CitizenTV 12 May 2021
#DayBreak
#AfCFTA

"CBS News announced it would examine the myths and facts of Malcolm X in a news special, "Malcolm X: The Real Story," to be broadcast Thursday, Dec. 3 (9:00-10:00 p.m.)

The program features scores of interviews as well as rare footage. Other material will be seen for the first time in more than 30 years.

"Malcolm X: The Real Story," reported by Dan Rather, traces the civil rights leader's life as he evolved from militant into moderate. Mr. Rather talks with the family and friends of Malcolm X.

According to producer Brett Alexander, CBS News has conducted network television's most extensive research on Malcolm X, including the examination of much of 50,000 pages of FBI material. "We have also pulled together the most comprehensive footage available from our own CBS News archives as well as from WCBS-TV," Mr. Alexander says. "And, we have assembled virtually all of the important people who knew Malcolm X."

The program includes interviews with Malcolm's widow, Betty Shabazz, as well as such important black cultural and political figures as Maya Angelou, Quincy Jones, Andrew Young, and Dick Gregory - who each reveal some insight into the provocative personality and dynamic principles of Malcolm X. In addition, a new generation of well-known African-Americans talk about the legacy of Malcolm X and the influence he had on their lives." - original press release

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Reelblack's mission is to educate, elevate, entertain enlighten, and empower through Black film. If there is content shared on this platform that you feel infringes on your intellectual property, please email me at Reelblack@mail.com and info@reelblack.com with details and it will be promptly removed.

Ted Vincent examines the Garvey Movement, the largest mass nationalistic movement in African-American history.

Credit To: Pacifica Radio Archives

Macford Mwape lives on less than two dollars a day in Zambia's Copperbelt region. He's spent the last five years painstakingly making ten thousand mud bricks, to build the house of his dreams. Now he wants to train his neighbours to build better houses for themselves.Duration:02:20

I recently took part in a conversation on @Afrikan Esquire TV - Do Abrahamic Religions Compromise Afrikan Liberation? Watch Here: https://youtu.be/eo39qaRJmp0

This is my reflection on the conversation itself as well as the ongoing debates coming out of it.

AMILCAR CABRAL, “NATIONAL LIBERATION AND CULTURE”:
https://www.blackpast.org/glob....al-african-history/1

•••••

THE PAN-AFRIKAN QUESTION provides concise answers to popularly asked questions about Pan-Afrikanism. If you have a question that you think needs to be answered, drop in the it comments section & we'll do our best to drop some knowledge.

#PanAfrikanism #BlackNationalism #AfrikanLiberation #TPAQ

If you Would Like: https://www.paypal.me/abengapparel

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Nubia, home of the oldest African civilization, the oldest civilizations in history is a region along the Nile, in northern Sudan and southern Egypt.

The Brother is a gem, If you didn't know now you know.
Unfortunately the brother has passed on, never got the chance to meet him in person but maybe one day i will, i've heard they are rebuilding him.

HAPI Talks with Dr. Runoko Rashidi about the African presence in Early Europe.

Please visit www.hapifilm.com to get a copy of the Groundbreaking documentary film HAPI and all the latest HAPI gear.

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Can money and power ever make us happy? How much is enough? Our constant desire for more is part of our human nature.

But is greed getting the better of us? Find out in GREED - A FATAL DESIRE.

From Buddhists and bankers to Eskimos and psychologists, we explore the phenomenon of greed with people from all walks of life. How can it be defined? What makes us greedy? And what are the repercussions?

People like to have a lot of stuff because it gives them the feeling of living forever," says American social psychologist Sheldon Solomon. He thinks we have to come to terms with our own mortality before we can break the cycle.

Are there other ways to feel happy and content? Can we simply stop being greedy by changing the way we think?

Watch Part 2 here: https://youtu.be/qLSt4VtmT5M
Watch the extended cut here: https://youtu.be/CVuVlk2E_e4

Check out our web special:
http://www.dw.com/en/tv/greed/s-32898
_______

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