Nigeria, July 10 -- On 3 December, 2024, my good friend and comrade, Moussa Tchangari, was arrested at his home in Niamey by plain-clothed officers. He was later charged with "criminal association in connection with a terrorist enterprise," "undermining national defence," as well as "intelligence with enemy powers." It has been very painful for me ever since, because he was just returning from my 70th Anniversary Birthday Symposium in Abuja, where comrades had assembled to debate the contributions of activists and progressive intellectuals to improving the lives and livelihoods of Africans, and he was one of several comrades who attended from outside Nigeria.

Tchangari's English was not very good, so he addressed the symposium in Hausa, ...