Africanist Press Podcast Service

Sherbro Island is one of Sierra Leone’s most beautiful touristic landscape. In 2019, the Maada Bio regime signed an undisclosed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Sherbro Alliance Partners, a company incorporated in early June 2019 as a private limited company (#12040217) under the UK Companies Act 2006 by Idris Akuna Elba and Siaka Stevens, the grandson of Sierra Leone's first president. The non-disclosed agreement proposed to incorporate and establish Sherbro Island into an autonomous economic zone to be governed by a 7-person board of directors who will have sovereign powers to manage Sherbro Island as a distinct legal entity independent of Sierra Leone's financial and economic laws and regulations. The agreement also grants exclusive powers to the proposed authority to establish its own private security, air and sea transport arrangement, its gambling infrastructure, agriculture and health, and the ability to issue its own debt securities and financial markets. However, the details of this agreement have not been made public to Sierra Leoneans. In this episode, we examine the proposed privatization of Sherbro Island and its planned transformation into a “Casino Republic” in Sierra Leone. We highlight the legal and political implications of the proposed takeover of Sherbro Island by multinational corporations. This episode is part of the Voice of Exile series of the Africanist Press.

Few days ago, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) issued an indictment against executives of the Adani Group for orchestrating a massive bribery scheme to secure solar energy contracts worth billions of dollars in India. The indictment specifically states that, between July 2021 and February 2022, the Adanis and their associates promised bribes to Indian government officials to secure agreements with state-run electricity distribution companies, which in turn entered into power supply agreements with the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). The contracts were expected to generate profits of approximately US$2 billion over the next two decades, according to the petition. However, a year ago in November 2023, Adani (like Milele Energy in Sierra Leone) received US$553 million debt financing from the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to fund the Colombo Port Terminal in Sri Lanka, a project in which the Adani Group held 51% ownership. In Sierra Leone, Milele Energy similarly received over US$400 million in DFC debt financing for a corruptly awarded energy project in Freetown. The contract relating to the Western Area Power Generation Project was never advertised or put on a public tender, and was secretly awarded to Milele Energy executives by Julius Maada Bio following deal arrangements and negotiations brokered in Lebanon, Nairobi, Dubai, and Freetown between 2021 and 2023. In this episode, we ask what are the implications of the Adani Group indictment for Milele Energy's corrupt acquisition of Sierra Leone's Western Area Power Generation Project? Also, what is the relationship between the Adani Group corruption case and our ongoing efforts to scrutinize corrupt acquisition of critical infrastructure and service related contracts by US financed corporations in Sierra Leone, including Milele Energy and the Summa Group? Thus, we point out the need to investigate DFC's operation in Sierra Leone from 2021 to present. This episode is part of the Voice from Exile series of the Africanist Press.

This episode spotlights the life and contributions of South African revolutionary leader, Stephen Bantu Biko to the Black Consciousness Movement and the struggle against Apartheid.

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. 

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, but Milele 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.

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.

How is United Sates foreign policy affecting democracy in Sierra Leone? What is the difference between electoral democracy and tripartite democracy? Is the United States Embassy in Sierra Leone supporting democracy or helping to consolidate an illegal regime? In this episode, we discuss Sierra Leone's electoral coup of June 2023, and the ongoing international effort, led by the United States Embassy in Freetown, to validate an illegal regime in Sierra Leone despite a fraudulently organized election. This episode is part of the Voice from Exile series of the Africanist Press.

Are there any parallels between the just concluded November 2024 United States elections and the June 2023 Sierra Leone elections? What lessons do the US elections offer to real democratic and genuine progressive forces in Sierra Leone? In this episode, we provide an analysis of the just concluded United States elections, pointing out the lessons and implications for Sierra Leone's democracy , and why the outcome of any democratic election is never decided by tripartite agreements. This episode is part of our ongoing Voice From Exile series of Africanist Press.

December 2024 will mark 22 years since the launch of the Africanist Press. The Africanist Press was established by journalists and academics in December 2002 as an independent media organization to defend free speech, expose corruption, and promote democracy and development in Africa. In 22 years, Africanist Press has grown into a robust media organization known internationally for its groundbreaking investigative journalism exposing corruption, human rights violations, and multinational exploitation. In this episode, editor-in-chief Dr. Chernoh Alpha Bah discusses the enduring impact of the Africanist Press, and the planned expansion and official launch of a new Africanist Press multimedia initiative in December 2024 to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the organization.

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.

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.

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?” 

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.

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.

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.

In this episode, we examine the role of the United States Development 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.  

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 Sierra Leone, 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.

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.

The privatization program in postwar Sierra Leone was supposedly advanced by international financial institutions – the World Bank, IMF, African Development Bank – as a multi-sectoral development strategy aimed at reducing poverty and corruption, and improving economic growth and quality of governance and service delivery in the 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-term development 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 and maternal 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 development nightmare 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 financed companies 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.

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.