Captain Ibrahim Traoré and the West's Hate of Black Excellence

which is a lot of like my history. This is very La stuff for the rest of y'all, essentially our hip hop scene and are like weeklies and monthlies where you would hear good DJs and stuff like that, Like I'm naming names from that, but anyway, he's part of the Zeit Gang. Anyway, I say all that to say I've been around the greatest DJs I can say in the world, beat Nuts, beat Junkies, Scratch Pickles, the greatest DJs.

And truthfully, I would not wish any of those times on my worst enemy. Just the heightened sense of danger at all times, like you never relaxed, You're just freaking amygdala, your lizard brain just always in fight or flight.

still have to this day. Like a lot of the leaders like Will I Am and Black Eyed Peas, they were just a part of our scene, you know, And just being in these moments, it's just I feel like the famous Juice is supernatural battle, the battle that Eminem got discovered on when he battled Otherwise at Elements at the l RA Theater. We just got to witness such dope culture.

all political prisoners. It's just oftentimes when it comes to the Black community, and I think in brown also, but I'm speaking right now about the Black community, our whole diaspora, we're not allowed to have Our heroes. Can't be complicated. Our heroes can't have flaws and just be complicated humans who may have had good intentions or bad intentions or anything in between. So Diddy is not one of them.

So y'all need to be up under the jail. And I'm saying this as an abolitionist, but I am saying when we start talking about our heroes, especially people who have fought for the liberation of black people everywhere, somehow or another, the West figures out of the way how to make this man a villain, and that villainry is supposed to undermine all of our views for them, y'all would call Black Panthers a terrorist organization. Y'all would, uh you know doctor King was a womanizer, which he was.

Malcolm X was racist and hated like we just like we can't have no Fred Hampton, you know, the Black Messiah.

signal no less. Rather than getting booted out immediately, they send him to be the UN ambassador. Boy, I tell you, rich white men just can't fail. Like it is impossible for y'all to fail. Y'all got no flaws. And of course the president himself, well you know he's rough around the edges were a criminal.

stuff it's about. But if you didn't hear that episode, I'm gonna rewind you anyway because it's just it's just just follow me here on tour in South Africa in twenty seventeen. Shout out to Homie Greg Casselm and DJ Easy out there, one of my brothers from Zimbabwe and on. While we were on this road trip to Botswana to go perform out there at a church whose pastor is from Long Beach No Less, we were talking politics. You knew I was into that. We were talking about what

he thought about Obama. I was asking him about like just the younger the younger generation activists in South Africa. There views on Matiba or Nelson Mandela and they a lot of times they feel like he didn't go far enough. They you know, kind of played nice. And then he asked me if I had a political hero, and for me, as an American as complicated, like I can't think of anybody like that. He was like, minus Momar Kadaffi, and I was like, record scratched. What Kadafi from Libya?

know that scans. I consider myself very well informed, but every once in a while you have moments when you realize, oh, you are in a cultural bubble, you are in an informational sphere that informs the way you see the world. And nothing shakes me more than when I go to Africa and somebody says a sentence like that Cuba like or really like Cuba like, Yeah, you ever wonder why they smoke cigars so well and they don't be dying

a lung cancer like we do. I was like, what my whole boyfriend, we had a Greg and Chantelle Denise. He told me they did their honeymoon in Cuba. I was like, you went to Cuba for your honeymoon? He goes, yeah, that's an American thing that y'all don't go there. The rest of us go there all the time. It's great.

was removing Libya from the World Bank. That was one thing he's working. Oh, he was working on a ghostand I remember hearing Lewis Farrakahn talk about it. And Lewis Farrakhan is a complicated figure here too, but he is an example of somebody that's out of our information bubble.

The problem a lot of times, even with that understanding is in America is the fact that like some of the other information bubbles beat conspiracy theories where it's sound, where the earth all of a sudden flat, you know.

Kadafi was pure evil. And again the nick Cleansing's the things for which the murders that might have happened under his I'm not talking about I'm talking about a person look me in the face, a god fearing man from the continent essentially told me that you might have a story wrong, which is what I have to tell people all the time about.

of what I'm about to talk about too. Jamaican's how they threw off their slave owners. Like those were successful slave rebellions. We didn't do it in America. So in a lot of it, So sometimes Caribbean of black people kind of look down on us a little bit because we couldn't we couldn't do it, you know. In some ways, Africans oftentimes they get here because they've bought the American dream. But they get here and they start succeeding a lot

of Nigerians especially down in Houston. Some of them end up poor, but some of them actually come from wealth. Like I know a lot of friends who are like it's like they say this to not be funny, but it's like, yeah, our family is royalty. Back home, it's just there's just not a lot of opportunities. So we came out here, but like, yeah, back home, my grandparents have servants. Like it's because of the wealth disparage, and they're like, oh, yeah, we're sending money back to the

compound back at home. So when they come here and they get it popping, you know, they they're thinking, how come black people don't know how to work? Like, why aren't you taking advantage of all of these opportunities you have?

have come here and they understand. A lot of times, I like, bro I met African people that get to America and they're like, this is the first time I even thought about the fact that I was black, because I live in a black world. Is no such thing as black, Like we just don't think about it. You realize I was black. I've always been my tribe. But you get here you understand like, oh, this is a different world.

have essentially taken apart our country. What does any of this have to do with America, Well, let me tell you what happened.

he's stealing money from his own people. Now, where have we heard that before? And why would you say that about him? About this tiny again country that none of y'all ever heard of. I could say that for a fact, unless you're from here, you from there, I'm pretty sure none of y'all are. I mean, unless you Afro studies majors and as in like African West African studies made you probably never heard of this thing. Maybe you're from Nigeria or Benin so you kind of knew this, but

or maybe you tapped into the diaspora. But I'm pretty sure this man has not crime across your feed until this moment. According to the AP, I'm gonna read this earlier this month, General Michael Lanley, the head of US military in Africa accused Tararar during a US debate semit it Us during a US Senate committee hearing of using Bikino Fossil's gold reserves to benefit the junta at the

expense of the population. Right, and then crowds and crowds and crowds, massive crowds of protests started happening in Bikino FOSSi, but in a lot of ways across the African diaspora in support of Captain Ibraham. Why if he's so corrupt is what has bewitched all these people for them to not know something that the American military knows, and why

does the American military even care? Crowds of protesters gathered in the Place of Revolution in Bikina Fosso's capital on Wednesday, chanting long Live Captain Charrar, with some holding banners showing a photo of General Langley with the word slave written over his head in red marker, essentially they calling him a house nigga, and others wave Burkina Fosso and Russian flags, which we'll talk about in a minute, a close ally to the African country, which is probably a hint as

to why we started hating on this man, oh Cebe Johnson, he's a musician who came to the protests, said he's not surprised that the accusations launched by Lang because watch this. Colin Powell lied, Iraq was destroyed, Barack Obama lied, Gaddafi was killed. But this time the lies won't affect us. That's why we tell them we're not against them, but

we are against the preditation and economic slavery. Now I want you to key on that word economic slavery and preditation, and you tell me why America after this man.

are way more simplified than they need to be. It's complicated. Or when you hear terms like ethnic insurgencies like on if you lean more progressive in the left, you think of these as like noble freedom fighting savages. But they're both racists and incomplete tropes.

before these random borders were drawn by white people. We've been feuding with these people anyway, and this is how we can retain retain power because there's only so many finite amount of resource and fools get brutal, fools get real brutal out there. There's discussions around should Africans accept now now that obviously so many years later, should we accept these identities, these these national borders that were given to them by Europe, Like what do you mean Ghanaian,

the old Ghana, Ma, Ghana, Mali, and Songhai. Like the Ghana Empire is not literally where the nation state of Ghana is, this is named after it. There's a question as to like why don't we go back to our ethnic identities. I mean, it'd be the same question of like why do any of us identify as being from California, you know, or the state that you're from. Those borders are made up. So there's a discussion where it's like, look, dude,

it is what it is. We are accepting our africanness, and it's been so many generations and identities are malleable. You feel me like you might be a part of this tribe, but if you grew up in the city, you really don't have much connection. Like there's an ancestry, right, just like I found my ancestry is Ethiopian. But for me to run around here talk about what's habashah like I would be a poser. That's not really who I am. It's my lineage. I wish it's just not true. I

wish I was at again. I am of African descent. I am of the diaspora. So these ethnic insurgencies and these jahadas anyway, the violence that these groups like perpetrate on what is seeming their own people. It's an unbridled violence that, like I just there's not enough words in the English language for me to get your brain around the reasoning for their violence. Can be as complicated or as simple as you might guess, but it's there. He was a part of the regular degulars. People say that

he's always been charismatic, but he's but he quiet. He's just a good soldier. He went out there and he fought against jahadas and when you fight against people that are trying to take away your freedoms, you become a hero. It just is what it is. So he served a part called the three border area. It's mally N and Rikino Fasso like. And there's there's a point if you again, if you're looking at the map of Africa, there's a point where all three of these countries touch.

that that's being clear. These people are violent Ryan virus, these particular groups that he's like pushing against, and he fought under he was made a captain in twenty twenty when he fought under or under the leadership of the guy Paul Henry Domiba, who ended up running the last coup, so as he saw his country actually really being overtaken by UH Jihadis, like town by town, he was out

there liberating, freeing these towns. Now, let's pause here and talk about, like how anybody gets recruited in any of these things anyway. Well, in our network, you got shows like Weird Little Guys, right, and even a lot of stuff that they would talk about in various you know, bastards episodes of how people get on boarder to this. A lot of this has to do a lack of resources and a lack of representation and a lack of opportunity.

A lot of times when you hear people talk about how they join white supremacist movements, it's not so much that they had any real issue with any other people. They just kind of felt like they were victims, that there is in fact a white genocide, that we are being a race from the earth, that no one accepts the pain that we're going through. And then you spend this story and it becomes easy enough to get recruited

into because you start believing this story. The same thing happens a lot of times with like Muslim extremists or jihadis.

sound familiar? Now, these groups that they join, they don't be as just like your white supremacist group. They don't be as revolutionary as they sell themselves. They just be mafia's right. They they're kidnapping, they're doing extortion. They just be they and they at the end of the day, they just be gangs extorting. They're making money. They're stealing resources from the government. You know when government aid comes

into these foreign cities, they just stealing them. Right, you try to build a business, you gotta run your you gotta run twenty percent of your business. They're kidnapping and making people pay like it's to mafia. They just call themselves Jahadis. You know what I'm saying. They say they're doing this holy war, and some of them might be true believers, but how they move it and the government

can't do shit. By the year, by twenty twenty two, two million people were displaced and fifty percent of their country fifty half face starvation. Can you I don't know if you can get your brain around that half of America might start That's the situation they in. And if you imagine that, imagine how frustrated we are with our presidents. Now imagine that, But fifty percent of us was starving. Don't you think some don't you think a coop would happen.

And while this is happening, gangs are just roving our street, kidnapping and abstorting your teachers, explorting your teachers. This I mean, somebody go come in here, takeout like nigga. You don't know what you're doing. Get this to me. So by January twenty twenty two, a military coup led by Paul

Henry Demba overthrew the civilian government. But the problem was they still couldn't stop these jihattis like it just for seven months they was trying to get this thing cracking, trying to get this thing.

air conditioner. So the attacks keep coming and it keeps getting worse, and the people out there doing the fighting, Ibraham, and they're not getting they're not getting paid, they're not getting any money. And Ibraham, who felt like he had a good rapport with Paul Henry, was trying to get these meetings with him and being like, Yo, the hummies is feeling we're starting to feel a way about how

this is working. We outside dying, We in this African heat, You up here in this air conditioner, We out here fighting. He's fight without no resources, and we're not getting paid. We can't keep doing this. And then the straw that

broke the camel's back was two things happened. There was an attack on this one hundred and fifty truck convoy that was on its way to these captured starving villages on the outskirts that the military was leading with all the aid, food resources, all the stuff that the citizens of Bikino Fossil needed. It got attacked by jihadis. Ten

civilians were killed and twenty seven soldiers were killed. Meanwhile, this fool was up in the UN, This fool Paul was up at the ill at the UN telling everybody out there that we are really making moves, were really making process right folks back home was like, Nah, fam, what are you talking about? It's gotten worse. Bruh, that's

it because I'm taking his mug over. He tried to meet with him before he got to that point too, and the boy just and and boy boy kept giving him the ulkie dock, like, why are you not like what our situation is dire out here?

and he take care of his family. He take care of his folk. His boys love him, his boys trust him. And he'll put a hole through your chest if he needs to. But he doesn't need to be aggressive. He's smart.

got armies out here. He hiding over there with them. The people was like, oh, that's it, because you're gonna run over there with the white boys. They burnt down that French consulate. They was like, we tired, we tied of this French rule. You listen. More of the story is no one likes colonizers. I just I don't know why no one likes colonizers. Right, So he brought the heat.

He brought the heat to France, right, but he was like listen in twenty twenty three, in early twenty twenty three, he told France like, look, I'm gonna give y'all a month to get yall to get your army out of here, okay, And.

bring them under here. So that we can make our own money, right, And I'm gonna not approve any of y'all licenses to export goal anywhere else. If you are from somewhere else and you want to open a gold refinery here, I'm gonna shut it down. I'm not gonna give you no license to open a goal refinery here else. We need to start taking care of ourselves. He looked at the IMF and he said, I know y'all give out loans for countries to start, they start, they to

get themselves off their feet. I don't want your money. He looked at the World Bank and he said, I don't want y'all money. We literally make gold here. I don't need your money. And that my friend was his Ai Tupac. This is what got him in the scopes of our country. This man told the World Bank, do you know what money's in the World Bank?

to another country. Other people is like, well, listen, maybe we can learn the lessons from there, and now that we understand that what we bring to the table, maybe we have a little better leverage now because I think we are a long way from being able to actually stand on our own two feet. So maybe we should accept a little help, a little assistance. But either way, United States, Europe, it's none of your business.

and we say thank you for this. However, this is also a message to our African heads of state at the next forum. We must not come here without having any insured self sufficiency of the food supply for our people. We must learn from the experience of those who succeeded at achieving this. I thank you very much for your grain. We appreciate it. Now, if you say free, you better mean free, because if not, you could keep it because I don't know if you notice, we're in Africa.

You can help me, that's great, but I'm done dancing for y'all. You can't talk like that in front of these white people. Bruh's brought change. Listen, do you know what he's doing. This man got plans for a nuclear power plant. Do you know that they're making electric cars. I'm gonna say this again, this African country. You never heard of is making electric cars. Y'all are in the wrong informational pipeine for you to understand what's actually happening in Africa.

There is accusations of human ghosts, gross crimes against humanity, of course there are. But don't it seem so convenient that the person that said you could keep your money and I'm a tap in with who I want to tap in with, and it's not your business anyway. The person that said you can't just keep taking our goal like this, that maybe we don't need your money, that maybe we can build our own nuclear plans, Maybe I don't need American cars maybe we can make our own and ours won't need gas.

twenty percent off get yourself some coffee. This was mixed, edited and mastered by your boy Matt Alsowski killing the beat softly. Check out his website Matdowsowski dot com. I'm a speller for you because I know M A T T O S O W s ki dot com.