Episodes
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This episode examines how World Bank's debts, and high interest rates, cripple African and Asian economies, deepening poverty and underdevelopment in the world's most impoverish countries.
This episode is based on John Pilger's 1992 award-wining documentary, War by Other Means.
This episode honors the life and work of John Pilger, who passed away in December 2023.
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This episode examines how the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank's structural adjustment policies affected Jamaica’s economic and political development from the early 1970s to the present.
The IMF's loan conditions required Jamaica to implement a range of economic reforms that included trade liberalization, privatization, and deregulation of its market. This internationally regulated program resulted in Jamaica accumulating over US$4.6 billion in foreign debts.
In a 2001 documentary, Stephanie Black examined the devastating impacts of the IMF’s structural adjustment program in Jamaica, featuring a wide range of voices that included former Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley, and several workers in Jamaica's Free Economic Zones established by US multinational corporations to exploit cheap labor in the Caribbean.
Material for this episode was adapted from Stephanie Black's documentary, Life and Debt.
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In this exclusive interview with KPFA, Dr. Chernoh Alpha Bah, editor of the Africanist Press, talks about the deteriorating democratic situation in Sierra Leone and West Africa, illicit economic flows in the Mano River region, and the threats and attacks orchestrated against the Africanist Press by government officials in Sierra Leone and allied groups.
This exclusive interview was conducted by Walter Turner of KPFA's Africa Today program.
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This episode examines three key events to illustrate how political corruption undermined Jamaica's development and fueled the country's debt crisis.
First, we look at how a US$9.5 million World Bank loan issued in 1966 to supposedly finance the construction of 50 junior secondary schools, expand four teacher training colleges, and develop Jamaica's School of Agriculture, and the College of Arts, Science, and Technology was misappropriated by Jamaican politicians and international contractors.
Next, we examine how Jamaica's 1994 "Operation Pride Program," a housing and land distribution initiative aimed to address access to housing and land for poor communities, was corruptly used to reward political party members and organizers, depriving the actual beneficiaries for whom the program was allegedly designed.
We conclude by looking at how finance companies used a Ponzi scheme investment operation to capture Jamaica's political elites and media. We use the Olint Scandal of the mid-2000s, and the extradition of Christopher "Dudus" Coke to illustrate the extent of state and media capture in Jamaica.
This episode is based on material produced by Jamaica's National Integrity Action (NIA), a non-profit organization established in December 2011 to address corruption in Jamaica from a non-partisan perspective.
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Samora Machel was the first President of Mozambique, serving from the country's independence in 1975 until his untimely death in 1986.
A leading figure in the struggle for Mozambique’s independence from Portuguese colonial rule, Machel played a significant role in FRELIMO’s struggle for power in Mozambique.
As president, he embarked on socialist reforms and efforts to modernize Mozambique. However, his tenure was marked by economic difficulty, owing mostly to external interventions from the neighboring apartheid regime in South Africa, and a devastating civil war fueled by a western-backed insurgency led by RENAMO.
In 1986, Machel died in a mysterious plane crash in South Africa while returning to Mozambique from Zambia. Many accused South Africa’s apartheid government for the plane crash, although apartheid leaders continuously denied any involvement or knowledge of the fatal incident.
This episode features an exclusive report and testimony of a former South African Special Forces operative who allegedly participated in planning the assassination of Samora Machel.
Material for this episode was adapted from the 2011 Journeyman Pictures documentary, “Was Samora Machel Assassinated by a Conspiracy?”
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About a month ago, the United States International Development Finance Corporation’s (DFC) Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Nisha Biswal, attended a ceremony in Freetown to launch the “construction of an electricity infrastructure” in Freetown’s Kissy Dockyard, 4km east of the city center.
US Ambassador to Sierra Leone, Bryan David Hunt and DFC executives described the launching ceremony as “a seminal development for Sierra Leone and an unprecedented one for the US government.” They stated that the proposed energy power plant is going to be the “largest increase in energy capacity in a single country of any prior DFC project.”
DFC is a US-government run “development finance institution,” established in 2019 as part of the Better Utilization of Investments Leading to Development Act (BUILD) 2018, which combined the Development Credit Authority Agency with the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, both formerly part of the US State Department Agency for International Development (USAID). DFC reports directly to the US Congress.
Several months ahead of Freetown launching ceremony, DFC executives and US Embassy staff in Sierra Leone have been repeating that up to $412 million in loans and risk insurance have been approved by the US government to provide finance and risk insurance for the project. Two foreign companies, Milele Energy and TCQ Power Limited are listed as co-sponsors and joint recipients of the $412 million loan (including $120m in risk insurance) for the construction of the said electricity infrastructure project.
TCQ Power’s controversial presence and involvement in Sierra Leone’s energy sector dates to the early 2010s, butMilele Energy is a newcomer, arriving in Sierra Leone after the election of Julius Maada Bio in 2018.
In public communication documents, the DFC and the US Embassy in Sierra Leone present Milele Energy as an independent Kenyan-based power generation company, failing to reveal complete details of the company’s profile and real ownership; details that are required to enable public scrutiny of Milele Energy’s track record and whether it has a proven capacity to deliver on its contractual responsibilities.
Corporate records reviewed by Africanist Press shows that Milele Energy's corporate shareholders include Gemcorp Fund (GP) Limited, a company registered in George Town, Cayman Islands, holding the majority 80% shares in Milele Energy; Verkanda LLC registered in Delaware, US, also holding 10% shares in Milele Energy; JWI III LLC also registered in Delaware, US, holding 5% shares in Milele Energy; and Empower Africa Consulting Limited registered in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, holding 5% shares in Milele Energy.
There is no record of any competitive bidding and public tender process that Milele Energy and DFC went through to take over the Western Area Power Generation Project. Worse, Sierra Leoneans are also unaware of the loan conditions, including the interest rates attached to DFC’s development finance loans. DFC is yet to disclose the process used to issue the $412 million debt to the US owned company Milele Energy for the alleged purpose of building an electricity infrastructure in Sierra Leone.
In this episode, we examine Milele Energy’s corporate ownership and the DFC’s takeover of the Western Area Power Generation Project. We ask whether the DFC's operations in Sierra Leone complies with the provisions of the US BUILD Act of 2018? We also highlighted the need for oversight agencies of the US government (Congress and Senate Foreign Affairs Committee) to institute an independent investigation to help determine how Milele Energy and DFC took over the Western Area Power Generation Project, and the role played by the United States Embassy in Freetown in these corporate developments in Sierra Leone.
This episode is part of the VOICE FROM EXILE commentary series of the Africanist Press.
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Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, described as the forgotten leader of the South African independence struggle, was an anti-apartheid revolutionary and founding president of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) of Azania (or South Africa).
Sobukwe and the PAC considered themselves “Africanists,” believing that South Africa should be led by Black South Africans, who constitute the majority population.
This episode looks at the life and work of Sobuke and the PAC. Material for this episode is adapted from the 2011 Journeyman Pictures documentary, Remember Sobukwe: South Africa's Forgotten Anti-Apartheid Hero.
Africanist Press African History Series aims to feature voices, institutions, and individuals engaged in the story of Africa’s past and present development.
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In this episode, we discuss the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC)'s acquisition of the Western Area Power Generation Project and the role of the US-financed company, Milele Energy in Sierra Leone's corrupt energy sector.
We ask, in particular, how Milele Energy Limited, and the United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC) took over the Western Area Power Generation Project and what are the legal and financial basis for the US$412 million debt financing they are imposing on Sierra Leone in the name of an electricity project whose viability remains highly questionable?
In addition to the above, we also ask whether the DFC's takeover of the Western Area Power Generation Project in compliance with the provisions of the US Build Act of 2018? What do the registration details, corporate records, and shareholders arrangements of TCQ Power Limited, Milele Energy Limited, and Milele Topco Limited tell us about the company's profile and transnational operations in Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas? What roles have the United States Embassy and British High Commission in Freetown played in these corporate developments in Sierra Leone in the last 15 years?
Most importantly, what is the relationship between Milele Energy's corporate network and Julius Maada Bio and other Sierra Leone Peoples Party politicians? And did Sierra Leone's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) play a role in these dubious corporate arrangements, and what benefits did the ACC derive from the DFC and Milele’s corporate operations in Sierra Leone?
This episode is part of the VOICE FROM EXILE commentary series of the Africanist Press.
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Launched in early December 2023, the Africanist Press Podcast aims to give voice to African communities through the production of weekly audio broadcasts that analyzes ongoing events in Africa as part of an effort to contribute to better understanding of key developments in the region.
In the first six months since its launch, the Africanist Press Podcast produced over 30 episodes covering various issues ranging from electoral and political corruption in Sierra Leone, the impact of economic sanctions in Zimbabwe, to the black experience in Britain, and the history of African liberation in the United States and Africa.
With support from Northwestern University's Program of African Studies (PAS), Africanist Press Podcast has reached listeners in over 70 countries across the world.
In this episode, we provide an overview of the various issues covered by the Africanist Press Podcast in the last six months. We also offer our appreciation to our growing global community of supporters and listeners for their dedicated commitment to our work.
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In this episode, we continue to examine the privatization of Sierra Leone's National Power Authority (NPA) in 2011 and the history of the Western Area Power Generation Project.
We discuss details of transactions between various agencies of the Sierra Leone government and multinational corporations like Blue Flare Power Ltd (BVI), TCQ Power Ltd, Copperbelt Energy Corporation Africa (CECA Sierra Leone) Ltd, and Milele Energy. We point out the involvement of the World Bank Group, and other development agencies in these transaction, and we begin to highlight the role of Lebanon as an operational conduit for these corporate transactions.
This episode is part of the VOICE FROM EXILE commentary series of the Africanist Press.
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In this episode, we examine the role of the United StatesDevelopment Finance Corporation (DFC) in Sierra Leone’s electricity corruption, showing how the DFC inherited a corrupt electricity contract from British financed corporations, and how US international investment is now financing corruption and deepening underdevelopment in Sierra Leone.
This episode is part of the VOICE FROM EXILE commentary series of the Africanist Press.
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In 2011, Sierra Leone politicians enacted a new electricity legislation that created two parallel institutions, the Electricity Generation and Transmission Company (EGTC) and the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA) to replace the state-owned National Power Authority (NPA).
Since 1982, NPA oversaw electricity supply in SierraLeone, including the fixing of consumer tariffs. In 2016, international financial institutions ranked Sierra Leone 178 out of 189 countries with lowest electricity access. Development agencies stated that weak oversight of the electricity sector was responsible for the poor ranking, and they suggested that dismantling NPA and privatizing electricity supply would enhance electricity transmission and distribution capacity in the country.
However, the dismantling of NPA and the privatization of electricity supply in Sierra Leone has not resolved the country's perennial electricity crisis but has further worsened access to electricity and fueled corruption.
In this episode, we reveal how local politicians, international financial institutions, and British and United States financed multinational corporations created a transnational project that exploited the dismantling of NPA and the privatization of electricity supply in Sierra Leone to corruptly enrich elites and corporations, whilst imposing fictitious foreign debts on the country.
This episode is part of the VOICE FROM EXILE commentary series of the Africanist Press.
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Sierra Leone's Energy Minister, Kanja Sesay announced on Friday that he is resigning from the Maada Bio regime because of the alleged failure to pay outstanding debts owed to the Turkish Karpowership contracted to sell electricity to Freetown residents.
Kanja Sesay's resignation was later followed by Maada Bio's announcement that the energy ministry has now been placed under his direct supervision as president.
These dramatic developments came after the Africanist Press Podcast revealed how political leaders of the All Peoples Congress (APC) and Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) use shell companies registered and operating out of British Virgin Islands, Mauritius, Zambia, Lebanon, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, and Kenya to impose fictitious debts on Sierra Leone using the promise of providing reliable electricity that is still unavailable to citizens.
In this episode, we examine the reported "resignation" of Kanja Sesay, pointing out its relationship to the organized corporate corruption associated with the Western Area Power Generation Project, and how Ernest Bai Koroma and Julius Maada Bio, acting on behalf of British companies and American corporations, are responsible for over US$500 million in manufactured electricity debts arising from the Western Area Power Generation Project between 2013 and 2023.
Thus, we highlight that Kanja Sesay's "resignation" is part of an organized effort of SLPP and APC politicians to cover-up one of the biggest corruption scandals in Sierra Leone's energy sector involving leading politicians and international financial institutions.
This episode is part of the VOICE FROM EXILE commentary series of the Africanist Press.
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The privatization program in postwar Sierra Leone was supposedly advanced by international financial institutions – the World Bank, IMF, African Development Bank – as amulti-sectoral development strategy aimed at reducing poverty and corruption, and improving economic growth and quality of governance and service delivery inthe small West African country.
Since 2005, this World Bank and IMF supported privatization agenda has been called different names by successive regimes in Sierra Leone. Inaugurated by Tejan Kabbah as a "poverty reduction strategy", it was renamed “agenda for change and prosperity” by Ernest Koroma, and now rebranded as a “new direction and medium-termdevelopment plan” by Julius Maada Bio. However, its unfulfilled promise remained the same and included the supply of reliable electricity, the creation of value-added agricultural productivity, developing a national transportation network, and sustainable human development through efficient social service delivery.
Twenty years later, this IMF/World Bank privatization agenda in Sierra Leone has produced, and still produces, the reverse of its pronounced objectives. Today in Sierra Leone, more than 90% of the population live in absolute poverty, with expenditures below US$1 a day, according to the IMF. With rising youth unemployment, high infant andmaternal mortality rates, poor growth performance, lack of income and access to basic social services, and excessive debt overhangs, the country’s development prospects still remain grim.
Consequently, instead of advancing economic growth and reducing poverty, Sierra Leone’s privatization program has heightened political corruption and led to intensified multinational exploitation. At the heart of this developmentnightmare is the hidden competition between British financed corporations and United States-backed companies for control of non-transparent service-related contracts and corruptly awarded critical infrastructure projects.
In this episode, we discuss how the British Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) and the United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC) used shell companies registered and operating out of British Virgin Islands, Mauritius, Zambia, Lebanon, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Kenya, and elsewhere to impose manufactured debts on Sierra Leone between 2013 and 2023 with the promise of providing reliable electricity that is still unavailable to Sierra Leonean citizens. We highlight how Ernest Bai Koroma and Julius Maada Bio enabled these corrupt energy agreements in the last 15 years, and how various energy and finance ministers of both the All Peoples Congress (APC) and Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) served as agents for British financedcompanies and United States-backed corporations in the corrupt use of the privatization program to facilitate state corruption and multinational exploitation.
Thus, we use the ruthless competition between the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) and United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC) over the multimillion dollars non-transparent Western Area Power Generation Project loan agreements involving Blue Flare (BVI), TCQ Power Ltd, CEC Africa Investments Ltd (CECA), Milele Energy, the World Bank, African Development Bank, and other financial institutions to further illustrate how the privatization of social service delivery in Sierra Leone is corruptly enriching multinational companies and the local political elites, while increasing the sovereign debt crisis and worsening living standards for regular citizens.
Hence, the current political and economic crisis in Sierra Leone, including the rigged June 2023 elections, skyrocketing taxes, and ongoing human rights violations, are directly linked to the unscrupulous competition between British companies and American financed corporations to exploit Sierra Leone’s privatization of social service delivery.
This episode is part of the VOICE FROM EXILE commentary series of the Africanist Press.
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In previous episodes, we mentioned how the United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC) issued more than US$500 million in debts between 2019 and 2023 to the Maada Bio regime through unscrutinized and non-transparent infrastructure and service related contracts awarded to shell companies registered and operating out of Lebanon, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Kenya, and elsewhere.
These non-transparent loan agreements include US$150 million to the Summa Group for the expansion of the Freetown airport, US$217 million to Milele Energy and TCQ Power for the supply of electricity to Freetown residents, and a US$100 million to Africell for mobile telecommunication services. These US-funded debts, in addition to about US$172.1 million extended credit facility from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also issued in the last five years, have worsened Sierra Leone's sovereign debt crisis.
In this episode, we assess how these non-transparent foreign debts and corruptly awarded international contracts lead to higher taxes and youth unemployment, and how the national debt burden undermines economic prosperity and contributes to drug abuse and worsening standards of living for regular citizens in Sierra Leone.
We also continue to highlight the role of Ernest Bai Koroma and Julius Maada Bio in these corrupt corporate agreements, and how the All Peoples Congress (APC) and Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) serve as proxies for British financed companies and United States-backed corporations exploiting Sierra Leone.
This episode is part of the VOICE FROM EXILE commentary series of the Africanist Press.
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Walter Rodney was a historian, political activist, and academic. Born in 1942 in Georgetown Guyana, Rodney’s research focused on slavery and colonial imperialism in Africa and the Caribbean. His notable works include How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, first published in 1972. Rodney was assassinated in Georgetown, his home city, in 1980 at the age of 38.
In this episode, we produced Walter Rodney’s lecture on “Crisis in the Periphery: Africa and the Caribbean.”
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In this episode, we discuss how hidden competition between British financed corporations and United States-backed companies for control of non-transparent service-related contracts and corruptly awarded critical infrastructure projects in Sierra Leone have worsened the country's foreign debt crisis. We examine the risks such developments pose to democracy and real economic propserity in the small west African nation.
We highlight how Ernest Bai Koroma and Julius Maada Bio enabled these corrupt corporate agreements in the last 15 years, and how the All Peoples Congress (APC) and Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) function as political proxies of British financed companies and United States-backed corporations exploiting the country. One such example includes the unscrupulous struggle between the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) and United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC) over the multi-million dollars non-transparent Western Area Power Generation Project loan agreements involving Blue Flare (BVI), TCQ Power Ltd, CEC Africa Investments Ltd (CECA), Milele Energy, the Bank World Group, and other financial institutions. The same example applies to the Lungi airport loan arrangement with Summa Group, and the DFC's investment loan pumped into Africell.
We point out that the current political and economic crisis in Sierra Leone, including the rigged June 2023 elections and skyrocketing taxes, are directly linked to the unscrupulous competition between British companies and American financed corporations operating in the country.
Thus, the United States and Britain, as leading partners of the SLPP and APC political leaders, must ensure that their current political and economic engagements in Sierra Leone include the protection of the lives and freedoms of all Sierra Leoneans.
This episode is part of the VOICE FROM EXILE commentary series of the Africanist Press.
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Carlos Cardoso was assassinated in the Mozambican capital of Maputo in late November 2000 while investigating the theft of US$14 million from the Commercial Bank of Mozambique (BCM).
Born in 1951 to a family of Portuguese exiles, Carlos Cardoso supported Mozambique’s armed struggle for independence from Portugal, but as the years went by he became increasingly critical of FRELIMO government policies that mostly benefited wealthy businessmen and leading politicians.
Eventually, Cardoso questioned the sudden wealth of FRELIMO government officials, charging that the size of Mozambique's legal economy (around US$4 billion at the time in a country of 19 million people) could not account for Maputo’s banking and real estate boom. His investigative reports covered money laundering, drug trafficking, and other illegal financial activities of Maputo's political and business elites.
This episode looks at the life and work of Carlos Cardoso, arguably considered by many as "Africa's most creative and fearless investigative journalist."
The episode is part of the Africanist Press African History Series that aims to feature voices, institutions, and individuals engaged in the story of Africa’s past and present development.
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Between July 2021 and June 2023, United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC) approved over US$360 million in debts to supposedly finance critical infrastructure projects in Sierra Leone. The debts include US$150 million to the Summa Group for expansion of the Lungi international airport, and US$217 Million loan to Milele Energy and TCQ Power Limited; also to allegedly finance an electricity project in Freetown.
These critical infrastructure projects were awarded to the Summa Group, and Milele Energy and TCQ Power, without public knowledge, and without full compliance with Sierra Leone’s transparency laws and procurement regulations. Worse, majority of Sierra Leoneans are still unaware of the terms and conditions of these debt financing arrangements, including the interest rates attached to the loans. For one, the agreements granted exclusive proprietary rights over Sierra Leone’s strategic assets (the international airport, and the Kissy Terminal/Oil Refinery) to US and European financed corporations for 20-years.
Additionally, in September 2022, Sierra Leone’s Parliament unanimously revised the country’s 1960 Arbitration Law and passed a new Arbitration Act that mostly protects the proprietary rights of foreign companies and multinational corporations who secured recent mining concessions, and non-scrutinized and non-transparent debt-financing projects.
In this episode, we examine the impacts of non-transparent debt-financing arrangements on Sierra Leone’s democracy and electoral politics. We ask: why the United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC) approved nearly US$400 million in loans to supposedly fund critical infrastructure projects in Sierra Leone after the country’s auditor general had been unconstitutionally sacked? In general, how was Summa Group awarded the airport expansion contract? What is the history of Milele Energy and TCQ Power Limited in Sierra Leone? Why has Sierra Leone continuously experienced lack of electricity despite these huge multinational debts imposed on the country in the name of energy and electricity supply? What are the individual roles of Sierra Leone’s two recent presidents, Ernest Bai Koroma and Maada Bio, in these secretive multinational debt deals? Most importantly, how did secretive multinational debts affect the democratic conduct of elections in June 2023? Above all, is it possible to have free, fair, and transparent elections in any African country overloaded with enormous non-transparent debts?
This episode is part of the VOICE FROM EXILE commentary series of the Africanist Press.
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Robert Franklin Williams was a black American civil rights leader who served as president of the Monroe, North Carolina chapter of the NAACP in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Williams advocated armed self-defense against racism decades before the black power and black nationalist movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s made it a central message of their activism.
Rob Williams lived in exile in Cuba for five years, during which he wrote Negroes with Guns in 1962; the book that formed the basis of a documentary on Williams and the Black Power movement. This episode reproduces the very documentary released in 2005 by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Independent Lens.
The episode is part of the Africanist Press African History Series that aims to feature voices, institutions, and individuals engaged in the story of Africa’s past and present development.
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