The Europeans who are 'settled' in South AfriKKKa today are here as a result of a project of unprovoked European aggression against Afrikans. A violent project of conscious and sustained invasion that was characterised by mass murder, mass rape, land robbery and the destruction of cultural institutions carried out against the natives: Afrikans.

Unlike many of us Black people, uBab’uHadebe went straight to the heart of the matter, as he sees it. In that very moment, he spoke what was in the hearts of many Black people. He said what many of us Black people feel deep inside, but will not dare say openly.

“Africa and the world are yet to recover from Sankara’s assassination. Just as we have yet to recover from the loss of Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah, Eduardo Mondlane, Amílcar Cabral, Steve Biko, Samora Machel, and most recently John Garang, to name only a few. While malevolent forces have not used the same methods to eliminate each of these great Pan-Africanists, they have been guided by the same motive: to keep Africa in chains.” — Antonio de Figueiredo, February 2008.

There is something deeply disturbing about being Black in the world we live in - and that is the realisation of how fragile our very existence is.The realisation that, regardless of your social status, the very fact, nature or duration of your existence is not something that you have control over as a Black person.

So what are the interests of France in Mali? France has one of the world’s biggest gold reserves but no gold mines. Mali has over 50 gold mines and no gold reserves. And the Sahel is a rich source of uranium.