NATO’s summit ended with custom-engraved .357 Magnum — a Turkish-made Gümüşay and live ammunition souvenir to its leaders amid an increased synergy between the summit and the military industrial complex in the West. Elkorghli examines the synergy and highlights the contradictions in the alliance’s principle of “attack on one, attack on all,” the manufacturing of fear in service of militarism and finance, and doubts about the invincibility of western defence projected during the Summit in the light of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and Israel/US aggression on Iran.

Farooque argues that Africa has many challenges but parts of its leadership and people are awakening to unity for its transformation. It is the people of Africa who can get rid of the exploitation of life and nature, neo-colonialism, civil and inter-state war, imperialist interference and aggression unleashed by external forces and internal collaborators. Political education among the masses of people and political organizing with mature leadership anchoring in Nkrumah’s calls and teachings are urgent initiatives on the continent.

Moro argues the UK's 2026 abstention on a UN resolution condemning the transatlantic slave trade, and its support for the war in Ukraine, reflects a system that continues to prioritize elite wealth over public accountability. Reflecting on Britain's 1833 slavery-abolition loan — which compensated slave owners rather than enslaved people, and wasn't paid off until 2015 — as a historical case, the critique extends to modern examples like David Cameron's Jamaica prison-funding deal.

Agostinho discusses Jamaican Creole histories in the context of (post)-colonialism, examining the impacts of the indigenous people, trans-Atlantic slavery, emancipation and independence in shaping the evolution of Jamaican (Patwa).

Madzivhandila argues that xenophobia can only be addressed through a radical political economy, not solely moral appeals to Ubuntu, and that the Left needs new political strategies to succeed.

A critical reflection contrasting Russia’s attempts to recruit Kenyans for war in Ukraine with the United Kingdom’s British Army Training Unit in Kenya and related accusations of recruiting foreign mercenaries to carry out subversive activities in Africa. Mandarini warns that Africa is a vast, interesting, and autonomous world that should not be turned into a battlefield for world powers. 

Oloo examines how Russia's fraudulent recruitment of Kenyan youth into its Ukraine war exposes neo-colonialism's newest means to weaponize poverty as Black ammunition.

An incisive analysis that reveals how anti-immigration policies and the inhumane treatment of migrants are rooted in enduring colonial and imperial forms of violence that uproot people from their homes and deny them dignity, belonging, and recognition in societies that portray themselves as havens of freedom and opportunity.

Contrasting observations of the ongoing world cup with the Book of Shame, the article tells two different stories made possible through a similar process of coerced movement. The contradiction of European states that benefit from Global African migration yet seek to criminalize those very bodies en masse is even more disturbing when we consider how despite facing exploitation, the experiences of athletes represent a minority of those that migrate. 

The 2026 World Cup runs from June 11 to July 19, 2026. The articles in this issue examine power, imperialism, inequality, sexuality and resistance through the lens of the World Cup moment. 

Pambazuka’s interview with Navid Farnia reveals that the repression, exclusion, and humiliation of athletes, support staff, and fans from other countries, including FIFA and team officials from Somalia, Iran and Iraq, is deeply connected to racialized logic, the repression and violence against migrant workers and immigrants in general.

An insightful commentary on the music, drama, and expectations of the 2026 FIFA World Cup through the reconstruction of historical World Cups. 

An investigation of the political economy of religion in Nigeria that breaks down the various ways imperialism operates from Western think tanks to local politicians, at the expense of social cohesion. The intent is to raise political consciousness and expose the imperialist strategy of divide-and-conquer through subversion of religious beliefs that are of spiritual importance to Africans.

The manipulation of the world’s biggest sport to avert political accountability and justice is a disservice to football’s unifying spirit. In a broader analysis of how sportswashing is used as a distraction from political grievances, Rubara hones in on the October 2025 election violence in Tanzania alongside the state’s recent efforts to publicize official invitations to Didier Drogba and Rio Ferdinand. 

Reflecting on the book The Big Conservation Lie, conservation as an enterprise is not only critiqued but understood beyond its institutional basis, in its epistemic and psychological impacts. In a letter to the authors, James Mulei uses Franz Fanon and Gayatri Spivak to expand and challenge our understanding of conservation practices and those considered authorities.

On May 11 and 12, 2026, France and Kenya co-hosted the “Africa Forward: Partnerships Between Africa and France for Innovation and Growth" summit in Nairobi. France's colonial reflexes betray its partnership rhetoric.

The struggle is one, the fronts are many. Across two volumes, this special issue brings together critical perspectives on the enduring challenges and emerging possibilities of liberation and reparative justice.

When considering African liberation in the 21st century, we now understand that cultural, spiritual, and sexuality related struggles for liberation are no less than struggles for economic and political liberation. In a necessary reflection that weaves both religious prescriptions and constitutional law, we distinguish clearly the need for Africa to reject Western imposition of culture wars uncharacteristic of cultural and moral heritage and experiences.  

An April 2026 conference at the University of Oxford interrogated the varied geographies of fascism and authoritarianism in Global Africa and explored alternative methods, practices, and geographies for their defeat.

Speech delivered on May 23, 2026, by Dr. Jemima Pierre, for the Global Pan African Movement’s Africa Liberation Day celebration in Syracuse, New York, themed, “Haiti & Cuba: Defending Pan-African Unity Against Imperialism.”