Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast The Chico Muya Podcast

When I moved to Finland from South Africa in 2019, I had no idea just how profoundly this country would change my perspective on race, culture, and society.

I discovered a country built on extraordinary levels of trust, safety, and social cohesion. But increasingly, I worry that Finland, like much of the Western world, is putting these achievements at risk.

In this speech, delivered at an event in Helsinki, I reflect on my experiences as an immigrant, the dangers of suicidal empathy, the challenges of immigration and integration, and the growing conflict between political Islam and Western values.

Above all, I argue that the societies we inherited are worth defending, and that doing so requires the courage to confront uncomfortable truths.

Read the full speech and subscribe to my independent publication: https://chicomuya.com

How did we reach a point where people living in some of the freest societies in human history have come to despise those societies, while defending ideologies and movements that would strip them of the very freedoms they enjoy?

Across the West, institutions that protect our liberties are increasingly portrayed as oppressive, while authoritarian movements find enthusiastic defenders among the very people they would persecute.

In this episode, I examine what I call The Great Inversion: the growing hostility towards Western civilisation, the extraordinary contradictions within the “Free Palestine” movement, the political cowardice of Western leaders, and the silence surrounding the Iranian people fighting to free themselves from the Islamic Republic.

From Western activists defending Hamas to Iranians risking their lives for freedoms that many in the West take for granted, I explore how our understanding of oppression, liberty, and moral responsibility has become so profoundly distorted.

The question is no longer simply how we arrived here. It is whether Western civilisation can recover the confidence to defend itself before it is too late.

Read my essays and subscribe to the publication at chicomuya.com.

Attempting to brand Israel's war against Hamas a “genocide,” while Israel fights an organisation that openly calls for its destruction, may go down as one of the most successful propaganda campaigns of our lifetime.

But how do supposedly serious people—politicians, journalists, human rights organisations, and international institutions—come to repeat accusations that deserve far greater scrutiny?

In this episode, I examine how propaganda acquires legitimacy through a self-reinforcing system of institutional citations. A UN Special Rapporteur makes an allegation. An NGO cites the Rapporteur. A newspaper cites the NGO. A politician cites the newspaper and the UN expert. Eventually, the original allegation appears to be supported by dozens of independent authorities, even when those authorities are relying on one another.

Using the UN's Special Rapporteurs, particularly Francesca Albanese, as a case study, I explore how flawed evidence, institutional bias, and circular citations can manufacture the appearance of international consensus.

Because when authority replaces evidence, repetition begins to masquerade as verification. And once a claim has been repeated often enough, propaganda starts to look like established truth.

Read my essays and subscribe to the publication at chicomuya.com.

For more than seven decades, a United Nations agency created as a temporary humanitarian organisation has become a permanent fixture of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But what if the institution established to help Palestinian refugees has also helped perpetuate the very problem it was supposed to resolve?

Unlike refugees elsewhere in the world, Palestinians are served by a separate UN agency: UNRWA. Its unique system has allowed refugee registration to pass from generation to generation, leaving millions of descendants of the original refugees registered under its mandate.

In this episode, I examine the history of UNRWA, the political consequences of its refugee system, the controversies surrounding its staff and educational institutions, and the allegations of links to Hamas that have raised serious questions about its operations.

I also explore how international aid, originally intended to alleviate suffering, can become entangled in a political system that preserves the conflict rather than bringing it closer to resolution.

The question is not whether Palestinians deserve humanitarian assistance. It is whether the international community has spent decades financing an institution whose structure may be helping to ensure that the conflict never ends.

Read my essays and subscribe to the publication at chicomuya.com.

When Ed Sheeran found himself facing backlash over his response to the war in Gaza, it revealed something deeply troubling about the movement demanding that celebrities "speak out for Palestine".

Apparently, expressing concern for innocent people is no longer enough. You must condemn the right people, repeat the right slogans, and demonstrate your allegiance to the cause—or risk becoming the mob's next target.

In this episode, I examine the outrage directed at Ed Sheeran and what it reveals about the broader “Free Palestine” movement. Why does a movement supposedly dedicated to Palestinian lives devote so much energy to policing celebrities, enforcing ideological conformity, and attacking those who refuse to participate?

I argue that this is no longer simply a humanitarian campaign. It has become a movement in which hostility toward Israel increasingly takes precedence over the welfare of Palestinians themselves.

And when a cause demands obedience rather than independent thought, we should begin asking whether we're witnessing activism—or something closer to a cult.

Read my essays and subscribe to the publication at chicomuya.com.

What happens when Islam begins to shape a society? We don't have to imagine the answer. We can look at societies where Islamic ideology has already become the foundation of political and social life.

Across much of the Islamic world, the consequences are visible in restrictions on freedom of speech, the persecution of religious dissenters, the treatment of women, and the criminalisation of homosexuality. These are not merely unfortunate political accidents. They raise fundamental questions about the relationship between Islamic doctrine and the freedoms that Western civilisation has fought to establish.

In this episode, I examine the growing influence of political Islam in Europe, the demands being placed on Western institutions, and the unwillingness of political leaders to confront the ideological conflict unfolding before them.

This is not simply a debate about immigration or religious diversity. It is a question about the future of Western civilisation, the values we intend to preserve, and the kind of society our children will inherit.

Read my essays and subscribe to the publication at chicomuya.com.

For years, the “Free Palestine” movement has presented itself as a global struggle for justice, human rights, and the oppressed. But when the Iranian people rose against the Islamic regime, something remarkable happened: much of the outrage that had filled Western streets and social media suddenly disappeared.

Where were the demonstrations? Where were the celebrities, activists, and politicians who had spent years demanding that the world speak up against oppression?

In this episode, I examine what the silence surrounding Iran reveals about the priorities of the pro-Palestine movement, the ideological alliances behind it, and the difference between genuine concern for human rights and selective outrage.

Because when a movement's principles disappear the moment the victims and perpetrators change, it raises a fundamental question: was this ever really about human rights?

Read my essays and subscribe to the publication at chicomuya.com.

Apparently, being a Black man who supports Israel means I must be a slave to the Jews.

That is the accusation levelled against me by people who cannot seem to comprehend that a Black African might think for himself, examine history, and arrive at conclusions they disagree with.

But the accusation reveals something far more interesting about those making it.

In this episode, I examine the racism disguised as political criticism, the uncomfortable history of the Arab and Muslim slave trades, and the historical ignorance that allows such accusations to flourish.

Ultimately, this is about something bigger than Israel. It is about the refusal to grant Black people the intellectual independence to hold opinions that others find unacceptable.

Read my essays and subscribe to the publication at chicomuya.com.

The “Free Palestine” movement presents itself as one of the great humanitarian causes of our time. But what if humanitarianism isn't what drives it?

Why does the suffering of Palestinians inspire worldwide demonstrations while humanitarian catastrophes elsewhere attract a fraction of the attention? Why do people who claim to care about Palestinian lives sometimes oppose measures that could help protect them? And what unites activists whose political and moral beliefs are otherwise fundamentally incompatible?

In this episode, I examine the contradictions at the heart of the “Free Palestine” movement and make the case that its defining motivation is not compassion for Palestinians, but hostility toward Israel.

Read my essays and subscribe to the publication at chicomuya.com.