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Sunday, February 12th 1961.
Footage of African students angered by reports of the death of former Congolese Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba.
Reuters Text:
"The Belgian Embassy in Cairo, United Arab Republic, was littered with bricks and broken glass February 12 after a mob of some 300 African students, shouting "Murderers of Lumumba", attacked the building.
Police prevented the students - enraged after hearing of the death of deposed Premier Patrice Lumumba - from climbing over the railing and arrested four of them.
Belgian Ambassador, M. Maurice d'Eeckhoutte, had been sitting in his first-floor study with his wife when bricks were hurled through the window.
M. d'Eeckhoutte said "They started throwing things and my wife and I left the room. ..as soon as I heard the word Lumumba I knew who they were. I shall be protesting to the United Arab Republic Foreign Ministry about this.
Katanga Minister of the Interior, Mr. Munongo, said Feb 13 that Mr. Lumumba and two companions were "massacred" by villagers after escaping from custody in Katanga."
Source: Reuters News Archive.
Note:
Lumumba was not "massacred" by villagers after escaping from custody in Katanga. He was executed by a firing squad commanded by a Belgian officer and his body later dissolved in sulphuric acid by two Belgian police officials.
During his 1990 visit to Atlanta, Nelson Mandela spoke at Morehouse College's Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel.
THIS IS A DEMONSTRATION. THIS IS HOW THEY DID IT TWO CENTURIES AGO. NOW THEY BUY THEIR IRON IMPORTED FROM CHINA, JUST AS WE DO. Smelting iron from ore by a smith family in West Africa. The only complete, high quality video of iron smelting in Africa. Making charcoal, digging ore and flux, building the kiln, firing the kiln, sacrifices, smelting the iron, forging the iron into tools. With Chinese subtitles. A CULTURAL RECREATION !! THIS WAS DONE FOR ME TO FILM. THEY DO NOT SMELT IRON LIKE THIS ANYMORE.
The fruit of the baobab tree has been eaten for centuries in Africa, but has only recently gained the coveted status of superfood due to its high content of vitamins and nutrients. In Kenya, it has become an economic force to be reckoned with.
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Last month South African President Jacob Zuma was forced from office by his own party, the African National Congress, when almost a decade's worth of corruption, bribery and racketeering allegations finally became too great to ignore. It is possible that within weeks he could appear in court to face charges relating to at least one of the many financial intrigues from his years in power.
As anyone following this story will know, his most infamous former associates, the billionaire Gupta brothers, are now fugitives from justice amid claims that during the Zuma years they systemically looted state assets on a truly astonishing scale - principally by using their friendship with the then-president to influence political appointments and win lucrative government contracts. They are believed to have fled the country and taken refuge in Dubai, where they own property.
But the former president and his state-capturing confrères aren't the only ones under scrutiny in South Africa these days. We've been to examine the role allegedly played by major international companies in scandals so toxic and far reaching, they look set to haunt the country for years to come.
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A film by Callum Macrae & Elizabeth Jones
It's one of Africa's most bitter, if often forgotten, conflicts.
In 2011, South Sudan gained independence from Sudan following a 2005 peace deal that ended Africa's longest-running civil war.
After a referendum, in which an overwhelming majority of South Sudanese voted to secede, Africa's newest country came into being, the first since Eritrea split from Ethiopia in 1993.
But two Sudanese provinces, South Kordofan and Blue Nile, the people of which predominantly wanted to become citizens of the new nation, were excluded from the deal.
The SPLM-N, the northern affiliate of Sudan's People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in South Sudan, consequently took up arms against the Sudanese government of President Omar al-Bashir, and fighting has continued on and off ever since.
Five years ago, as the war got under way, People and Power sent reporter Callum Macrae to investigate allegations of war crimes committed by the Bashir regime in the region. Last month he went back.
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Film by Nidhi Dutt and Daniel Boaden
People & Power investigates the environmental consequences of palm oil plantations in equatorial Africa.
There are few products so ubiquitous as palm oil. You can find its derivatives in chocolate, shampoo, toothpaste, detergent, ice cream, floor polish and a host of other products filling supermarket shelves.
Extracted from the fruit of the tropically-grown oil palm tree (Elaeis guineensis), it has become so versatile and sought after that the growing economies of Indonesia and Malaysia, the world's two largest producers, make some $40bn a year from its production and export.
Given that by 2020 global demand for palm oil is expected to double and then triple by 2050, it is no wonder that other developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan West Africa where the tree originates, have been looking enviously at Southeast Asia and hoping to emulate that success.
But palm oil cultivation does not come cost-free. If not done sustainably, say conservationists, it can have disastrous consequences for people and the environment. In Indonesia, for example, it has played a major role in deforestation which has seen the loss of more than 6 million hectares of primary forest over the last 15 years.
As rainforests are home to least half of this planet's species of plants, animals and insects, the negative impact on global biodiversity can only be imagined. In addition, indigenous communities are also destroyed as people who have lived happily off the forest's resources for generations, often do not own the land (at least not in a form recognised by governments, corporations and their lawyers) and are frequently displaced to make way for new plantations.
Boosting Cameroon's economy
It is against this background that the Central and West African state of Cameroon has been trying to get a palm oil industry off - or rather into - the ground. Its President Paul Biya, who has held office since 1982, has been looking for ways to give Cameroon's economy a boost.
His country is not as poverty-stricken as some on the continent. It has some modest oil resources and favourable conditions for agriculture and is comparatively stable politically, but it is not immune from many of the problems associated with developing nations, from chronically high unemployment and an inequitable distribution of income to corruption and inadequate public infrastructure.
Cameroon is also over-reliant on imports, which makes it susceptible to rising prices and food insecurity. According to the UN, more than 40 percent of the population are living under the poverty line, while over one-third of its children are suffering from chronic malnutrition.
Palm oil then, would seem to offer good prospects for additional growth. The tree is native to the region and the climate is perfect for its cultivation. And of course, there are plenty of international agribusiness conglomerates looking for suitable places in West Africa in which to replicate the stellar profits enjoyed by the industry in Asia.
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While George Washington Carver's rise from slavery to scientific accomplishment has inspired millions, time has reduced him to the man who did something with peanuts. This documentary uncovers Carver's complexities and reveals the full impact of his life and work.
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Uganda and Tanzania have entered a partnership to build a 1,443km (896 mile) heated oil pipeline to pump oil from the Albertine basin in Uganda to Tanzania’s Indian Ocean port of Tanga.
What does the deal mean for both countries? Why were environmentalists against the project? And why was Kenya left out?
BBC Africa's Peter Mwangangi explains.
Produced and edited by Leone Ouedraogo.
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