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Ghanaians voted in an election seen as a close fight between President Nana Akufo-Addo and his longtime rival John Mahama, in a country long viewed a beacon of stability in a troubled region.
\t On Friday, internet and international calls were cut off across the West African nation in anticipation of the election results, according to locals and international observers in the capital, Conakry.
\t This was the third time that Conde matched-up against Diallo. Before the election, observers raised concerns that an electoral dispute could reignite ethnic tensions between Guinea's largest ethnic groups.
Total confirmed cases = 6,269 (new cases = 173)
Total recoveries = 1,898 (new = 125)
Total deaths = 31
Active cases = 4,340
\tFigures valid as of May 21, 2020
May 20: Cases pass 6,000 mark, govt eyes COVID-Organics
\tGhana’s case count passed 6,000 mark reaching 6,096 on Tuesday according to tallies released by the Ghana Health Service.
Total confirmed cases = 6,069
Total recoveries = 1,773
Active cases = 4,292
\tFigures valid as of May 19, 2020
May 19: govt to explain boom recoveries and address hot spot case management
\tNo new figures were released on Monday but the government through the Information Ministry will release new tallies at a press conference scheduled for later today.
May 17: 5,735 cases, prez fact-checked on testing ‘record’
\tTotal confirmed cases = 5735 (new cases = 97)
Total recoveries = 1,754 (new = 294)
Total deaths = 29 (new = 5)
Active cases = 3,952
\tFigures valid as of close of day May 16, 2020
\tGhana maintained her spot as West Africa’s most impacted after the Health Ministry released latest figures yesterday.
AFP Fact-check – Ghana’s leader falsely claims his country fronts COVID-19 testing
May 16: 5,530 cases, jumbo recoveries
\tTotal confirmed cases = 5,638 (new cases = 108)
Total recoveries = 1,460 (new recoveries = 1086)
Total deaths = 24 (new deaths = 0)
Active cases = 4,150
\tGhana recorded a boost in recoveries with a record 1,086 discharges authorities reported early Saturday.
READ MORE – Uniting behind a people’s vaccine against COVID-19
April 14: 5,530 cases, 13 of 16 regions infected
\tTotal confirmed cases = 5,530 (new cases = 122)
Total recoveries = 674 (new recoveries = 160)
Active cases = 4,832
\tThirteen of the 16 regions in the country have recorded cases of the disease.
On Sunday, May 17, the Minister of Health, Dr. Wilhemina Jallah flunked by the Chief Medical Officer Dr. Francis Kateh, followed by the WHO Representative to Liberia Peter Clement, Dr. Desmond William head of US Center for Disease Control (CDC) in West Africa and Liberia and USAID Resident Coordinator trooped to the sample collection center at the Samuel Kayon Doe Sport Complex for voluntary COVID-19 test.
Where the Leadership first failed
In April, the head of the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL) Dr. Mosoka Fallah, who began the COVID-19 fight alongside Dr. Jallah, was called on by the public to voluntarily check his COVID-19 status.
Israel's health minister, who has had frequent contact with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, tested positive for COVID-19, Iran's health ministry informed in April.
Australia's home affairs minister Peter Dutton said he had tested positive on March 13 and was admitted to hospital in the northeastern state of Queensland
For many, the voluntary testing today by the health minister, the chief medical officer and key international players is long overdue.
The Health Minister's statement that \"If everybody sits complacently in their different neighborhood and think they're different or they're special - COVID-19 has no respect,\" raises the question as to why the President and his cabinet did not take the lead in this voluntary testing?
Ivory has been desired since antiquity because its relative softness made it easy to carve into intricate decorative items for the very wealthy. For the past one hundred years, the ivory trade in Africa has been closely regulated, yet the trade continues to thrive.
During the days of the Roman Empire, the ivory exported from Africa largely came from North African elephants.
These elephants were also used in the Roman coliseum fights and occasionally as transport in war and were hunted to extinction around the 4th century C.E. After that point, the ivory trade in Africa declined for several centuries.
By the 800s, the trade in African ivory had picked-up again. In these years, traders transported ivory from West Africa along the trans-Saharan trade routes to the North African coast or brought East African ivory up in boats along the coast line to the market-cities of north-east Africa and the Middle East. From these depots, ivory was taken across the Mediterranean to Europe or to Central and East Asia, though the latter regions could easily acquire ivory from southeast Asian elephants.
As Portuguese navigators began exploring the West African coast line in the 1400s, they soon entered into the lucrative ivory trade, and other European sailors were not far behind.
During these years, ivory was still acquired almost exclusively by African hunters, and as the demand continued, the elephant population near the coast lines declined. In response, African hunters traveled further and further inland in search of elephant herds.
As the trade in ivory moved inland, the hunters and traders needed a way to tranport the ivory to the coast.
In West Africa, trade focused on numerous rivers that emptied into the Atlantic, but in Central and East Africa, there were fewer rivers to use. Sleeping Sickness and other tropical diseases also made it almost impossible to use animals (like horses, oxen, or camels) to transport goods in West, Central, or central-East Africa, and this meant that people were the primary movers of
Henry Francis Downing was an author, playwright, consul and sailor. He was born in New York City in 1846, the son of Henry and Nancy Downing. His family maintained an oyster business that had been owned by his grandfather, Thomas Downing, a well known freeman. His uncle was famed New York businessman and civil rights leader, George Thomas Downing.
In 1864 Henry Downing enlisted in the Union Navy at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. He began his service on board the U.S.S. North Carolina and was transferred to the U.S.S. Pawtuxet in December of 1864. Navy records listed him as having deserted in 1865, though it was later revealed he left the ship to attend his stepfather’s funeral, and his mother had obtained his discharge so that he could assist her.
After the Civil War, Downing began a journey around the world. He reached Liberia where his cousin, Hilary Johnson, would later become president of Liberia from 1884 to 1892. Downing lived in Liberia for three years where he was a private secretary to the secretary of state.
Downing returned to the United States and in 1872, reenlisted in the Navy and served for three years. Most of his time was served on the U.S.S. Hartford which operated off the coast of East Africa. With considerable time spent in both West and East Africa, Downing was one of the African Americans most knowledgeable about the African continent and its politics.
Returning to New York in 1875, Downing became a messenger and clerk of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In 1876 at the age of 33, he married a woman named Isadora. The couple had two children.
By the 1880s, Downing became involved in New York politics and was a supporter of the Democrats and New York Governor Grover Cleveland. When Cleveland was elected President in 1884, Downing was rewarded for his support by an appointment as U.S. counsel to Luanda, Angola. He served in this post from 1886 to 1887, leaving because he was unsuccessful in getting significant American trade with this African nation.
After his resignation Downing returned to New
This West African nation on the Gulf of Guinea, between Togo on the west and Nigeria on the east, is about the size of Tennessee. It is bounded by Burkina Faso and Niger on the north. The land consists of a narrow coastal strip that rises to a swampy, forested plateau and then to highlands in the north. A hot and humid climate blankets the entire country.
Republic under a multiparty democratic rule.
The Abomey kingdom of the Dahomey, or Fon, peoples was established in 1625. A rich cultural life flourished, and Dahomeys wooden masks, bronze statues, tapestries, and pottery are world renowned. One of the smallest and most densely populated regions in Africa, Dahomey was annexed by the French in 1893 and incorporated into French West Africa in 1904. It became an autonomous republic within the French Community in 1958, and on Aug. 1, 1960, Dahomey was granted its independence within the Community.
Gen. Christophe Soglo deposed the first president, Hubert Maga, in an army coup in 1963. He dismissed the civilian government in 1965, proclaiming himself chief of state. A group of young army officers seized power in Dec. 1967, deposing Soglo. In Dec. 1969, Benin had its fifth coup of the decade, with the army again taking power. In May 1970, a three-man presidential commission with a six-year term was created to take over the government. In May 1972, yet another army coup ousted the triumvirate and installed Lt. Col. Mathieu Kérékou as president. Between 1974 and 1989 Dahomey embraced socialism, and changed its name to the Peoples Republic of Benin. The name Benin commemorates an African kingdom that flourished from the 15th to the 17th century in what is now southwest Nigeria. In 1990, Benin abandoned Marxist ideology, began moving toward multiparty democracy, and changed its name again, to the Republic of Benin.
By the end of the 1980s, Benins economy was near collapse. As its oil boom ended, Nigeria expelled 100,000 Beninese migrant workers and closed the border with Benin. Kérékous socialist collectivization of
John F. Hicks is a diplomat and global educator who served as a United States Ambassador to the United Nations (UN). A native of Goldsboro, North Carolina, Hicks was born in 1949. Hicks holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Morehouse College, a diploma and master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University in Bologna, Italy and Washington, D.C.
His career in international relations and diplomacy began in 1973 when he joined the United Internship Program with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This service propelled him through the ranks where he served in senior leadership positions in Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, Zambia, and the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. In 1989, Hicks was awarded the Agency’s Senior Foreign Service Presidential Meritorious Service Award.
Hicks received his first presidential appointment in 1993 as the Assistant Administrator for USAID’s Africa Bureau. In this capacity Hicks was responsible for distributing aid in addition to strategically managing United States humanitarian and economic development programs on behalf of Sub-Saharan Africa. Towards the end of his tenure with USAID, he became a member the Senior Foreign Service and was promoted to the rank of Career Minister.
In 1996 President Bill Clinton announced Hicks’s second appointment, as Ambassador to Eritrea. By 1997, Federal investigator Jacquelyn L. Williams-Bridgers had begun investigating Hicks on accusations of sexual misconduct. In September of 1997 Hicks resigned after a report by Williams-Bridgers concluded that he had engaged in sexual misconduct. Hicks was accused of sexual harassment against two secretaries in the U.S. Embassy in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. The women claimed he engaged in inappropriate physical contact and created a hostile work environment for them.
Originally, Hicks denied these accusations and prepared to defend himself in the upcoming hearings. He decided, however, to resign to spare his family embarrassment, and instead to pursue a career in the United
THE ruling Zanu PF has failed to deal with Zimbabwe’s multifaceted crisis as the socio-economic situation continues to deteriorate since 2018 elections, a survey has shown.
According to a report on citizens’ perceptions and expectations titled Dancing on the Same Spot by SIVIO Institute, an independent organisation focused on ensuring that citizens are at the centre of processes of economic-political-social and policy change, the socio-economic crisis has worsened with no prospects of a turnaround in the immediate future.
It noted that the opposition MDC Alliance has also failed to deliver on its promises in local authorities they run, but added that the opposition party has continuously shifted the blame on Zanu PF, accusing the governing party of interference.
We have been tracking how the promises made by Zanu PF during the elections have been converted into policy programmes,” the report read.
This government still has a lot of work to convince its own citizens and also the international community that they are actually about reforms and turning around the fortunes of the countries,” the report read.
June 10: Cases pass 10,000 mark as rapid test kit makers advance
\tGhana reached 10,000 mark in terms of confirmed cases on Tuesday (June 9); the case load reached 10,201 with deaths still at 48, 3,755 recoveries and 6,398 active cases.
“The app will basically work well with the rapid test kit because once classified as high risk you need to test the person,” he said, stressing the need for mass testing given that Ghana had entered community transmission stage of virus spread.
Total confirmed cases = 9,910
Total recoveries = 3,645
Total deaths = 48
Active cases = 6,217
June 8: 9,638 cases, govt evacuation plans
\tGovernment has confirmed that it was preparing to evacuate some Ghanaians stranded overseas due to the COVID-19 disruption.
Total confirmed cases = 9,638
Total recoveries = 3,636
Total deaths = 44
Active cases = 5,958
\tFigures valid as of close of day June 7, 2020
June 7: 9,462 cases, deaths hit 44
\tThe Managing Director of a major private health care facility in the capital Accra reported testing positive for the virus.
Total confirmed cases = 9,462
Total recoveries = 3,547
Active cases = 5,871
\tFigures valid as of close of day June 6, 2020
June 3: 8,297 cases; govt defends ban on football
\tSports Minister, Isaac Asiamah has defended government’s decision to maintain a ban on football despite the recent lifting of a raft of restrictions.
The country with the continent’s most developed economy also has its highest number of confirmed infections — more than 21,000, representing 20% of Africa’s total.
The lockdown that began March 27 in South Africa is increasing tensions in Soweto, said Dlamini, who closed her tourism business.
Five weeks into the lockdown, South Africa began a gradual easing on May 1, allowing selected mines, factories and businesses to reopen with up to 30% of employees.
South Africa is still a long way from full economic activity, and further easing will be determined by the spread of the disease and hospitalizations.
South Africa is rated as one of the world’s most unequal countries, and the president has said in his evening addresses to the nation that his response to the pandemic aims to build a more equitable country.
Even in the 18th century, much of the interior of Africa was unfamiliar to Europeans. Rather they limited themselves to trade along the coast, first in gold, ivory, spices, and later slaves. In 1788 Joseph Banks, the botanist whod sailed across the Pacific Ocean with Cook, went as far as to found the African Association to promote the exploration of the interior of the continent. What follows is a list of those explorers whose names went down in history.
Ibn Battuta (1304-1377) traveled over 100,000 kilometres from his home in Morocco. According to the book he dictated, he traveled as far as Beijing and the Volga River; scholars say its unlikely he traveled everywhere he claims to have.
James Bruce (1730-94) was a Scottish explorer who set off from Cairo in 1768 to find the source of the River Nile. He arrived at Lake Tana in 1770, confirming that this lake was the origin of the Blue Nile, one of the tributaries of the Nile.
Mungo Park (1771-1806) was hired by the African Association in 1795 to explore the River Niger. When the Scotsman returned to Britain having reached the Niger, he was disappointed by the lack of public recognition of his achievement and that he was not acknowledged as a great explorer. In 1805 he set out to follow the Niger to its source. His canoe was ambushed by tribesmen at the Bussa Falls and he drowned.
René-Auguste Caillié (1799-1838), a Frenchman, was the first European to visit Timbuktu and survive to tell the tale.
Hed disguised himself as an Arab to make the trip. Imagine his disappointment when he discovered that the city wasnt made of gold, as legend said, but of mud. His journey started in West Africa in March 1827, headed towards Timbuktu where he stayed for two weeks. He then crossed the Sahara (the first European to do so) in a caravan of 1,200 animals, then the Atlas Mountains to reach Tangier in 1828, from where he sailed home to France.
Heinrich Barth (1821-1865) was a German working for the British government. His first expedition (1844-1845)was from Rabat (Morocco)
HIV-positive children in developing countries will have access to more appropriate and, above all, four times cheaper treatment.
The much-needed HIV treatment especially among children will now be available in low and middle-income countries, thanks to a landmark agreement between Unitaid and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI).
\"Children in low and middle-income countries often wait years to have access to the same medicines as adults, which affects their quality of life and sometimes leads to unnecessary deaths,\" Philippe Duneton, Unitaid Executive Director exclusively spoke to Africanews.
\"This agreement will help children access medication at a record pace, with a guaranteed quality. By ensuring early access to this treatment will transform the lives of children living with HIV, helping them stay on treatment and saving thousands of lives,\" he added
The new product will be first available in Benin, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda and Zimbabwe during the first half of 2021, \"with a goal of rapidly expanding distributions to other countries..
“Today, with triple therapy, if pregnant women who are HIV-positive are screened and maintain their treatment correctly, they cannot transmit the HIV virus to their child. This explains why in Europe or in the United States, we hardly see children contacting the virus. Unfortunately, in countries like Nigeria and others in states in Africa, there is low access by these programs yet we are having a lot of HIV positive children still being born with the virus and still need this treatment. We have therefore chosen countries with which we already have partnership in place and which have real need for treatment among children infected with HIV ,\" Louis Pizzaro, head of Unitaid program in charge of HIV projects said.
For Mûtahi Kagwe, Kenya's health cabinet secrertary, said, “this announcement marks a radical change in the quality of treatment for children with HIV. Kenya intends to be the first country to adopt the new DTG 10mg pediatric formulation, which will improve treatment, reduce unpleasant side effects and help children stay on treatment and lead healthy lives. We are delighted that for the first time in Kenya and other countries can provide children with the same quality of treatment as adults, which has been made possible by the development of this new formulation.\"
\"Today, after years of work, with this new drug, we are at the forefront of recommendations and Africa has access to the best treatment in the world against HIV among children\" - Louis Pizzaro, head of a Unitaid program in HIV projects said.
Access to Treatment and Regional Disparities
\"In recent years we have seen, thanks to the efforts of the international community, a considerable increase in access to treatment for adults. In southern African countries, for example, we now have antiretroviral coverage - people who need treatment are actually receiving it - but there are still disparities in Africa by regions.
West Africa or Central Africa, which have smaller epidemics than tho
Gunmen have attacked a security post in northern Ivory Coast near the border with Burkina Faso, killing at least 10 soldiers and injuring six others, Ivory Coast’s army chief said Thursday.
Thursday’s early morning assault targeted an army and gendarmerie post in Kafolo in Sikolo prefecture, according to a statement by Armed Forces Chief Lassina Doumbia.
In May, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso launched joint operations along the border region.
Fighters affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have staged a growing number of attacks and gained more territory in the past year in Burkina Faso, displacing more than 750,000 people in that country’s north.
There have been growing concerns over the possible presence of Islamic militants in Ivory Coast.
In the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak in West Africa, the drastic drop in advertising revenues on which legacy media organisations traditionally depend on to stay afloat has further worsened the already existing challenges in media financial sustainability.
According to Abdoul Fall Salam, General Manager of Seneweb, his online media portal has seen a sharp rise in visitors and is now getting revenue from the public sector.
Other major online media organisations across West Africa including Banouto Media in Benin, MediaForce-Afrique in Senegal, and International Centre for Investigative Reporting in Nigeria have all recorded a massive surge in numbers of visitors.
Although this is yet to translate into increased revenue streams for some outlets, Ade Simplice Robert, General Manager of MediaForce-Afrique, thinks that it presents an opportunity for online media organisations to gain more recognition.
The coronavirus pandemic is posing a serious challenge to the revenue streams of a number of media organisations.
West Africa, also called Western Africa and the West of Africa, is the westernmost subregion of Africa. West Africa has been defined as including 18 countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, the island nation of Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, the island of Saint Helena, Senegal, Sierra Leone, São Tomé and Príncipe and Togo.[7] The population of West Africa is estimated at about 362 million[2] people as of 2016. Islam is the predominant religion of 70% of the population, with smaller amounts practicing Christianity and Traditional African religions.
Main article: History of West Africa
The history of West Africa can be divided into five major periods: first, its prehistory, in which the first human settlers arrived, developed agriculture, and made contact with peoples to the north; the second, the Iron Age empires that consolidated both intra-Africa, and extra-Africa trade, and developed centralized states; third, major polities flourished, which would undergo an extensive history of contact with non-Africans; fourth, the colonial period, in which Great Britain and France controlled nearly the entire region; and fifth, the post-independence era, in which the current nations were formed.
Prehistory [ edit ]
Early human settlers from northern Holocene societies arrived in West Africa around 12,000 B.C.[dubious – discuss] Sedentary farming began in, or around the fifth millennium B.C, as well as the domestication of cattle. By 1500 B.C, ironworking technology allowed an expansion of agricultural productivity, and the first city-states later formed. Northern tribes developed walled settlements and non-walled settlements that numbered at 400. In the forest region, Iron Age cultures began to flourish, and an inter-region trade began to appear. The desertification of the Sahara and the climatic change of the coast cause trade with upper Mediterranean peoples to be seen.
The domestication of the camel allowed the development of a trans-Saharan trade
The letter by Dominic Gaskin follows:
I refer to a letter by Mr. Tacuma Ogunseye, published in your letter columns today (June, 21st 2020), entitled `Can Mr Gaskin explain what constitutes a seriously rigged election’?
Having shared a few platforms with Mr. Ogunseye during the recent elections campaign, I wish to respond as respectfully as possible to several of the points made in his letter.
If I could dwell on this for a moment, I’d like to make it clear that nowhere in any of my three Facebook posts have I suggested that Mr. Mingo’s fraudulent declarations were done on behalf of the Coalition.
However, the context in which Mr. Ogunseye was seeking my interpretation of what constitutes a “seriously rigged election” has to do with the following extract from my most recent Facebook post which he quoted: The claims of fraud were grossly exaggerated and, unfortunately, designed to fool party supporters, who had placed their faith in the Coalition, into believing that there was actual evidence of serious election rigging by the PPP-C.
This statement pertains to the recount period, and I stand by its two main assertions: 1) that the claims of fraud were grossly exaggerated; and 2) that these claims were designed to fool supporters into believing that there was actual evidence of serious election rigging by the PPP-C.
Nok Culture spanned the end of the Neolithic (Stone Age) and start of the Iron Age in sub-Saharan Africa, and may be the oldest organized society in sub-Saharan Africa; current research suggests it predated the founding of Rome by some 500 years. Nok was a complex society with permanent settlements and centres for farming and manufacturing, but we are still left guessing who the Nok were, how their culture developed, or what happened to it.
In 1943, clay shards and a terracotta head were discovered during tin mining operations on the southern and western slopes of the Jos Plateau in Nigeria. The pieces were taken to archaeologist Bernard Fagg, who immediately suspected their importance. He began collecting pieces and excavating, and when he dated the pieces using new techniques, discovered what colonial ideologies said wasnt possible: an ancient West African society dating back to at least 500 B.C.E. Fagg named this culture Nok, the name of the village near to which the first discovery was made.
Fagg continued his studies, and subsequent research at two important sites, Taruga and Samun Dukiya, provided more accurate information on Nok culture. More of Noks terracotta sculptures, domestic pottery, stone axes and other tools, and iron implements were discovered, but due to the colonial dismissal of ancient African societies, and, later, the problems facing the newly independent Nigeria, the region remained understudied.
Looting carried out on behalf of Western collectors, compounded the difficulties entailed in learning about Nok culture.
It was not until the 21st century that sustained, systematic research was carried out on Nok culture, and the results have been stunning. The most recent finds, dated by thermo-luminescence testing and radio-carbon dating, indicate that Nok culture lasted from around 1200 B.C.E.
to 400 C.E., yet we still do not know how it arose or what happened to it.
The sheer volume as well as artistic and technical skills seen in the terracotta sculptures suggests that Nok culture
As governments struggle to contain COVID19, public service announcements and communication must focus on making citizens accept that the illness is a reality, giving them the knowledge to prevent and treat the infection and debunking myths and fake stories which impact the effectiveness of the response.
This could save many lives
There is fertile ground for fake stories about Corona to thrive
If there is a thin line between love and hate, there is an even thinner line between fake news and reality, especially on social media.
While lockdown-induced mischief cannot be ruled out, there are other reasons fake news and misinformation thrives: low trust, information asymmetry, a culture of weaponizing information, life experiences, cultural beliefs, myths and fragile social cohesion.
Fake news of conspiracies against Africans and Muslims is too close to the reality of botched vaccine trials in northern Nigeria and two European scientists proposing that coronavirus vaccine trials start in Africa.
As a few West African countries such as Ghana and Nigeria begin to relax lockdown rules, governments, the media and civil society must intensify communications aimed at sharing factual information on coronavirus prevention and cure; building and keeping trust; and defusing existing and new prejudices.
The African rainforest stretches across much of the central African continent, encompassing the following countries in its woods: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote dIvoire (Ivory Coast), Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Except for the Congo Basin, the tropical rainforests of Africa have been largely depleted by commercial exploitation by logging and conversion for agriculture, and in West Africa, nearly 90 percent of the original rainforest is gone and the remainder is heavily fragmented and in poor use.
Especially problematic in Africa is desertification and conversion of rainforests to erodible agriculture and grazing lands, though there are a number of global initiatives in place through the World Wildlife Fund and the United Nations which are hoping to mitigate these concerns.
By far, the largest number of countries with rainforests are located in one geographical section of the World — the Afrotropical region. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) indicates these 38 countries exist mainly in West and Central Africa. These countries, for the most part, are very poor and live at the subsistence level.
Most of the tropical rainforests of Africa exist in the Congo (Zaire) River Basin, though remnants also exist throughout Western Africa in a sorry state due to the plight of poverty which encourages subsistence agriculture and firewood harvesting. This realm is dry and seasonal when compared to the other realms, and the outlying portions of this rainforest are steadily becoming a desert.
Over 90% of West Africas original forest has been lost over the last century and only a small part of what remains qualifies as closed forest. Africa lost the highest percentage of rainforests during the
In the following article Dr. Clarence Spigner, Professor of Public Health at the University of Washington, Seattle, describes the life of the first patient to die of Ebola on U.S. soil and the larger crisis of Ebola in West Africa. He views it as a consequence of a long history of disease, poverty, and underfunded health care systems in the West African nations of Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia which are at the center of the 2014 epidemic.
On September 20, 2014, a forty-two year-old Liberian native, Thomas Eric Duncan, arrived in Dallas, Texas from a plane flight that originated in Monrovia, Liberia. Duncan came to the United States ostensibly to reunite with his estranged teenaged son and the boy’s mother, Louise Troh, who had at one time been his girlfriend in Liberia. Troh and her son lived in Dallas.
Unknown before that point, Duncan entered the international public consciousness because he had flown from the hot zone of the Ebola virus outbreak then occurring in West Africa. On March 30, 2014, Liberia reported two cases of people with the Ebola disease. Six months later on September 30, over 3,000 people had died from Ebola in West Africa including more than 1,000 in Liberia alone. Duncan, who would be the first reported case of Ebola in the United States and as of this writing, the only fatality, was symptom-free and not contagious when he left Liberia by way of Brussels, Belgium and Washington, D.C.
The deadly Ebola disease has symptoms similar to the mosquito-borne infectious malaria. Both malaria and Ebola are endemic to Africa, though malaria is now far more widespread and dangerous. So is West Nile Disease which like malaria is mosquito-borne and was first identified in 1937 in the East African nation of Uganda.
Unlike those diseases, Ebola is spread by physical contact with an infected person or animal. The virus is not airborne. The rapid spread of Ebola and the even more rapid spread of fear of a worldwide distribution of the Ebola virus comes from the knowledge that diseases like
In the 21st century, there’s never been more focus on Africa than now. Thanks to the revolutions sweeping through North Africa and the Middle East, Africa has the world’s attention. But just because all eyes happen to be on Africa at the moment doesn’t mean myths about this part of the world have been dispelled. Despite the intense interest in Africa today, racial stereotypes about it persist. Do you have any misperceptions about Africa?
This list of common myths about Africa aims to clear them up.
What’s the No. 1 stereotype about Africa? Arguably, that Africa’s not a continent, but a country. Ever hear someone refer to African food or African art or even the African language? Such individuals have no idea that Africa’s the second largest continent in the world. Instead, they view it as a tiny country with no distinct traditions, cultures or ethnic groups. They fail to realize that referring to, say, African food sounds just as odd as referring to North American food or the North American language or the North American people.
Africa’s home to 53 countries, including island nations along the continent’s coast. These countries contain diverse groups of people who speak a variety of languages and practice a wide range of customs. Take Nigeria--Africa’s most populous country. Among the nation’s population of 152 million, more than 250 distinct ethnic groups live.
While English is the former British colonys official language, the dialects of ethnic groups indigenous to the West African nation, such as Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo, are commonly spoken as well. To boot, Nigerians practice Christianity, Islam and indigenous religions. So much for the myth that all Africans are alike.
The most populated nation on the continent certainly proves otherwise.
If you turn to popular culture for images of people on the African continent, you’re likely to notice a pattern. Time and time again, Africans are depicted as if they’re one and the same. You’ll see Africans portrayed wearing face paint and animal print and all with
Chartered in 1672, the Royal African Company was a royally chartered company which had a legally based monopoly on English trade to West Africa until 1698. The monopoly specifically extended through five thousand miles of the western coast from Cape Sallee (in contemporary Morocco) to the Cape of Good Hope (in what is now South Africa).
The Royal African Company traded mainly for gold and slaves (the majority of whom were sent to English colonies in the Americas). Headquarters were located at the Cape Coast Castle (located in modern-day Ghana). The Royal African Company also maintained many forts and factories in other locations such as Sierra Leone, the Slave Coast, the River Gambia, and additional areas on the Gold Coast.
The Royal African Company lost its monopoly in 1698, although it continued to engage in the slave trade until 1731. It was replaced by the Company of Merchants Trading to Africa in 1752.
Royally chartered companies like the Royal African Company were important tools in the opening of the African continent to slave trade and later imperial colonizing ambitions. The Royal African Company was the second such attempt by Parliament, as they had chartered the Royal Adventurers into Africa in 1660. This first attempt failed due to factors relating to a war with Holland.
Sources:
Alexander M. Zukas, “Chartered Companies,” in Encyclopedia of WesternColonialism since 1450 ed. Thomas Benjamin (Detroit: MacmillanReference USA, 2007); K.G. Davis, Royal African Company (London:Longmans, Green and Co., 1957); Robert Law, ed., The English in WestAfrica 1691-1699: The Local Correspondence of the Royal African Companyof England 1681-1699 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).
Contributor(s):
Bilow, Ali
University of Washington, Seattle
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