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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.
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
Before Insecure star Jay Ellis would secure a leading role opposite Issa Rae in the hit HBO dramedy, he featured in a Ghanaian film about a traditional Ewe custom known as trokosi.
Trokosi has been the way of the Ewe people for centuries but in the face of modernization, or rather honestly, westernization, director Leila Djansi, urges abandonment of something African.
Other times, a young girl may be committed as a trokosi to a shrine as a symbol of the family’s gratitude to the deity of the shrine.
For as long as the priest of the deity would allow, women serving under trokosi would be housed at the shrine.
Governments in the three West African countries where trokosi is still practised have tried different means of rescuing the young women, from negotiations with local religious leaders to the threat of force carried by the state.
Kenya has announced ground and aerial control operations against hopper bands that were sighted in northwest Turkana and Marsabit.
Ministry of Agriculture Principal Secretary Prof Hamadi Boga, in the State Department for Crop Development and Agriculture Research announced the spraying of the hoppers that were seen in Turkana last Sunday, and which are likely to spread into Eastern Uganda.
\"The new swarm of locusts that was seen in Turkana this week is in the hopper state.
The PS's remarks come a few days after Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned that the first generation of desert locusts in Kenya has matured and was ready to breed.
FAO's May 26 update said the situation in East Africa remains alarming as more swarms form and mature in Ethiopia and northern and central Kenya.
At the onset of the Industrial Revolution (circa 1750-1850), European countries began scouring the globe looking for resources to power their economies. Africa, because of its geographic location and its abundance of resources, was seen as a key source of wealth for many of these nations. This drive for control of resources led to the Scramble for Africa and eventually the Berlin Conference of 1884.
At this meeting, the world powers at the time divided up the regions of the continent that had not already been claimed.
Originally, North Africa was settled by the indigenous peoples of the region, the Amazigh or Berbers as they have come to be known. Because of its strategic location on both the Mediterranean and Atlantic, this area has been sought after as a center of trade and commerce for centuries by many conquering civilizations. The first to arrive were the Phoenicians, followed by the Greeks, then the Romans, numerous Muslim dynasties of both Berber and Arab origin, and finally Spain and Portugal in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Morocco was viewed as a strategic trade location because of its position at the Strait of Gibraltar. Although it was not included in the original plans to divide up Africa at the Berlin Conference, France and Spain continued to vie for influence in the region.
Algeria, Moroccos neighbor to the east, had been a part of France since 1830.
In 1906, the Algeciras Conference recognized France and Spains claims for power in the region. Spain was granted lands in the southwest region of the country as well as along the Mediterranean Coast in the North. France was granted the rest and in 1912, the Treaty of Fez officially made Morocco a protectorate of France.
In the aftermath of World War II, many African countries began seeking independence from the rule of Colonial powers. Morocco was among the first nations to be granted independence when France relinquished control in the spring of 1956. This independence also included the lands claimed by Spain in the southwest and in the north
Slightly larger than Colorado, Burkina Faso, formerly known as Upper Volta, is a landlocked country in West Africa. Its neighbors are Côte dIvoire, Mali, Niger, Benin, Togo, and Ghana. The country consists of extensive plains, low hills, high savannas, and a desert area in the north.
Parliamentary.
Burkina Faso was originally inhabited by the Bobo, Lobi, and Gurunsi peoples, with the Mossi and Gurma peoples immigrating to the region in the 14th century. The lands of the Mossi empire became a French protectorate in 1897, and by 1903 France had subjugated the other ethnic groups. Called Upper Volta by the French, it became a separate colony in 1919, was partitioned among Niger, the Sudan, and Côte dIvoire in 1932, and was reconstituted in 1947. An autonomous republic within the French Community, Upper Volta became independent on Aug. 5, 1960.
President Maurice Yameogo was deposed on Jan. 3, 1966, by a military coup led by Col. Sangoulé Lamizana, who dissolved the national assembly and suspended the constitution. Constitutional rule returned in 1978 with the election of an assembly and a presidential vote in June in which Gen. Lamizana won by a narrow margin over three other candidates.
On Nov. 25, 1980, Col. Sayé Zerbo led a bloodless coup that toppled Lamizana. In turn, Maj. Jean-Baptist Ouedraogo ousted Zerbo on Nov. 7, 1982. But the real revolutionary change occurred the following year when a 33-year-old flight commander, Thomas Sankara, took control. A Marxist-Leninist, he challenged the traditional Mossi chiefs, advocated womens liberation, and allied the country with North Korea, Libya, and Cuba. To sever ties to the colonial past, Sankara changed the name of the country in 1984 to Burkina Faso, which combines two of the nations languages and means “the land of upright men.”
While Sankaras investments in schools, food production, and clinics brought some improvement in living standards, foreign investment declined, many businesses left the country, and unhappy labor unions began strikes. On Oct. 15,
“The family of George Floyd will like to acknowledge the message of solidarity resolution and virtual tribute from His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo, the President of Ghana.
For them, the victory in the praise was the fact that through his gestures and tribute in the wake of Floyd’s death, Akufo-Addo had won some goodwill for Ghana.
However, in spite of Akufo-Addo’s attempt to add to his feats, this time, the portrait was tainted by how police in Ghana on Saturday evening dispersed Black Lives Matter protesters in the center of Accra with brute force.
But since Saturday night, some of the protesters have said they believe the aggressive response of the police was motivated by other issues they highlighted in their protest, including the unsolved case of recent kidnapping and murder of three girls in Western Ghana.
As the issue of Ghana’s own police brutality against mostly the country’s poor was debated on social media, Accra-based social justice activist and artist, Nii Kotei, took the opportunity to remind his followers on Twitter about episodes of brutality he has been noting since 2019.
Our research shows that combining sustainably managed hydropower plants with new solar and wind power projects is a promising option for the West African region.
Benefits for health, costs and ecology
In our paper, we use a new model to examine the synergies of sustainable hydropower generation with solar and wind power in West Africa.
We show that the region can use hydropower, rather than natural gas plants, to ensure grid reliability while increasing solar and wind power.
It can be used for other regions that depend heavily on hydropower and also seek to increase solar and wind power generation.
West African countries are not yet locked in to large, integrated power grid infrastructure designed for plants powered by fossil fuels, as is the case in Europe and North America.
Electoral authorities in Guinea on Saturday declared President Alpha Conde winner of Sunday's election with 59.49% of the vote, defeating his main rival Cellou Diallo.
\t Some people went to the streets to protest immediately after the announcement. Such demonstrations have occurred for months after the government changed the constitution through a national referendum, allowing Conde to extend his decade in power.
\t Opposition candidate Cellou Diallo received 33.50% of the vote, the electoral commission said. Voter turnout was almost 80%.
\t Political tensions in the West African nation turned violent in recent days after Diallo claimed victory ahead of the official results. Celebrations by his supporters were suppressed when security forces fired tear gas to disperse them.
They accuse the electoral authorities of rigging the vote for incumbent president Alpha Conde.
\t At least nine people have been killed since the election, according to the government. The violence sparked international condemnation by the U.S. and others.
\t ``Today is a sad day for African democracy,'' said Sally Bilaly Sow, a Guinean blogger and activist living abroad. The government should take into account the will of the people who have a desire for change, he said.
ICC warning
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor warned on Friday that warring factions in Guinea could be prosecuted after fighting erupted.
“I wish to repeat this important reminder: anyone who commits, orders, incites, encourages and contributes in any other way to crimes … is liable to prosecution either by the Guinean courts or the ICC,” she said.
#ICC Prosecutor #FatouBensouda: "I wish to repeat this important reminder: anyone who commits, orders, incites, encourages or contributes, in any other way, to the commission of #RomeStatute crimes, is liable to prosecution either by #Guinean courts or by the #ICC."
— Int'l Criminal Court (@IntlCrimCourt) October 23, 2020
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
Most of Mali, in West Africa, lies in the Sahara. A landlocked country four-fifths the size of Alaska, it is bordered by Guinea, Senegal, Mauritania, Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, and the Côte dIvoire. The only fertile area is in the south, where the Niger and Senegal rivers provide water for irrigation.
Republic.
Caravan routes have passed through Mali since A.D. 300. The Malinke empire ruled regions of Mali from the 12th to the 16th century, and the Songhai empire reigned over the Timbuktu-Gao region in the 15th century. Morocco conquered Timbuktu in 1591 and ruled over it for two centuries. Subjugated by France by the end of the 19th century, the land became a colony in 1904 (named French Sudan in 1920) and in 1946 became part of the French Union. On June 20, 1960, it became independent and, under the name of Sudanese Republic, was joined with the Republic of Senegal in the Mali federation. However, Senegal seceded from the federation on Aug. 20, 1960, and the Sudanese Republic then changed its name to the Republic of Mali on Sept. 22.
In the 1960s, Mali concentrated on economic development, continuing to accept aid from both Soviet bloc and Western nations, as well as international agencies. In the late 1960s, it began retreating from close ties with China. But a purge of conservative opponents brought greater power to President Modibo Keita, and in 1968, the influence of the Chinese and their Malian sympathizers increased. The army overthrew the government on Nov. 19, 1968 and brought Mali under military rule for the next 20 years. Mali and Burkina Faso fought a brief border war from Dec. 25 to 29, 1985. In 1991, dictator Moussa Traoré was overthrown, and Mali made a peaceful transition to democracy. In 1992, Alpha Konaré became Malis first democratically elected president.
In the early 1990s, the government fought the Tuaregs, nomads of Berber and Arab descent who inhabit the northern desert regions of Mali and have little in common with Malis black African majority. The Tuaregs accused the government
Senegal, one of West Africa’s largest economies, has torn up its tax treaty with Mauritius as debate rages over the island tax haven’s impact on developing economies.
Senegal unilaterally ended its double non-taxation treaty, or DTA, with Mauritius without fanfare earlier this year – and it is only now coming to the attention of tax officials in the region.
In the 2018 West Africa Leaks investigation, ICIJ revealed that a Canadian engineering giant avoided paying up to $8.9 million in taxes to Senegal with the help of a shell company in Mauritius.
ICIJ spoke to officials from Zambia, Lesotho, Uganda and the Republic of Congo who are seeking to modify treaties with Mauritius because the current deals are costing poorer countries millions of dollars in lost tax revenue each year.
One Senegalese official who wished to remain anonymous told ICIJ that it was important to cancel the treaty with Mauritius as soon as possible because recent oil and gas discoveries will bring an influx of investment to the West African nation.
Concerned about the spread of the coronavirus, many smugglers, armed groups and communities are imposing their own restrictions on movement.
New evidence gathered by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime suggests growing hostility towards human smuggling in regions where the activity is deeply entrenched in the political economy.
Meanwhile in southern Libya, Tebu militants have become markedly more hostile to human smuggling and intercepted smugglers coming through Niger.
This change created a considerable disjunct between Niger's legal position on human smuggling - making it punishable by imprisonment of 5-30 years - and the popular perception that smugglers merely provide a transport service for migrants looking for a better life.
In fact, many smugglers have decided to continue their operations despite the pandemic, including in southern Libya, northern Niger and Chad.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Tuesday launched a GH¢1 billion COVID-19 Alleviation Business Support Programme to support Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
According to President Akufo-Addo, the business support programme, which is expected to reach 180 beneficiaries across the country will help minimise job losses in the wake of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aside the GH¢1billion facility for MSMEs, the President indicated that the government will make available a GH¢3 billion credit and stimulus package to help boost businesses.
This is why it is imperative that we support all efforts to ensure the success of the COVID-19 Alleviation Programme (CAP) Business Support Scheme to protect jobs and bring back the country's economy to life when the dust settles.
We urge all businesses to take advantage of the government's support programme and use the funds for the intended purposes to resuscitate their businesses and further enhance Ghana's economic growth.
Carnegie Mellon University historian Edda L. Fields Blacks 2008 book, Deep Roots: Rice Farmers in West Africa and the African Diaspora, opened a vast new area of diasporic study by linking the cultivation of rice in Africa to the rise of this crucially important food crop in Colonial South Carolina. What follows is a description of her work and the personal journey that led to that scholarly project.
I grew up in Miami, Florida immersed in Caribbean and Latin American culture with two Gullah-speaking paternal grandparents. My father’s nuclear family had moved to Miami from Green Pond, South Carolina when he was in elementary school. As a child, I remember being aware of the difference between my grandparents’ accents and the West Indian accents that were so familiar to me in southern Florida. Their speech was akin to West Indian immigrants, of which my mother’s family in particular and Miami in general had many.
When I was in grade school, our family began taking my grandmother to Green Pond every summer to visit our relations who still lived in Green Pond, Whitehall, and Over Swamp. My mother’s historical and genealogical research about my father’s family in preparation for and during our family summer vacations was my first inkling of Gullah as both a rich language and culture with its own peculiar history. It also ignited a thirst in me which could not be quenched in a summer vacation. More than anything, I wanted to speak Gullah, a language which my father understood but did not speak (at least not to my knowledge), and therefore could not pass down to me. As the first generation to be born and raised outside of the Low country, I did not want to be the link which broke the chain of transmission.
In hindsight, I chose to study rice farmers and to travel to West Africa’s Rice Coast region, so that I could live and work as my paternal great-grandparents had lived on plantations in Beaufort and Colleton counties, South Carolina. By the time that I began traveling to Sierra Leone and Guinea,
Sierra Leone more than doubled its coronavirus cases in the last 10 days (April 20 – 30 from 64 cases to 124).
April 21: President Bio enters in quarantine
\tSierra Leone president Julius Maada Bio is to undergo 14-day self-isolation after one of his bodyguards tested positive for COVID-19, reports from the West African country indicated as of Monday evening.
March 31: Sierra Leone confirms index case
\tSierra Leone president Julius Maada Bio has confirmed that the country has its first case of COVID-19, multiple media outlets in the West African country have confirmed.
March 27: Sierra Leone closes borders for 30 days
\tVirus-free Sierra Leone on Friday announced closure of its borders for a 30-day period barely days after President Julius Maada Bio announced a state of public health emergency.
VIDEO
March 24: President Maada Bio declares 12-month state of Public Health emergency
\tDespite being among 11 African countries that have not recorded any cases of the coronavirus, Sierra Leone president Julius Maada Bio has imposed a twelve-month state of public health emergency effe
The first term of Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina as the president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) came to an end in May 2020, he is also due for re-election for a second term.
While the cost to income ratio of the bank is 41 per cent, the comparable figure for the World Bank is 113 per cent, meaning the African Development Bank(AfDB) is three times more efficient on its administrative costs compared to the World Bank.
The African Development Bank(AfDB), launched the Africa Investment Forum in 2018, in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The bank's High 5 strategic priorities: Light up and Power Africa; Feed Africa; Industrialise Africa; Integrate Africa; and Improve the quality of life of the people of Africa, have been acclaimed globally as the key for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa and the Agenda 2063 of the African Union.
Following the approval of GCI-7, bank expects to help African countries to achieve the following development results in the next 8 years:105 million people would get access to electricity, 204 million people would benefit from improved access to agricultural technologies to achieve food security,23 million people would benefit from investee private sector companies,252 million people would gain access to improved transportservices, and
128 million people would benefit from improved water and sanitation.
In October 2014, President Compaoré, who served as president for 27 years, attempted to push a bill through parliament to allow him to serve another term. Violent protests broke out in the capital, and demonstrators set the parliament building on fire. Compaoré stepped down on October 31 and fled to nearby Ivory Coast. Gen. Honoré Nabéré Traoré claimed to be head of state and deployed troops into the streets. However, Lt. Col. Isaac Zida, the No. 2 figure in the presidential guard, resisted Traoré, and won the support of other commanders and became head of state. The African Union told the military leaders that if they did not cede power to civilians then sanctions would be imposed on the country.
In November, a panel of religious, military, political, and traditional leaders named Michel Kafando, a longtime diplomat, interim president. An agreement called for Kafando to oversee preparations for elections in late 2015. He will remain in office until elections are held. Kafando appointed Zida as prime minister—a move that prompted some to speculate that the military would control the transition to democracy. The U.S. has fostered ties with Burkina Faso in recent years in its fight against Islamic insurgents in West Africa and maintains a base there from which it launches reconnaissance flights into the region. In fact, Zida has been trained by U.S. troops.
On Nov. 29, 2015, opposition party leader Roch Marc Christian Kaboré won the presidential election in the first round of voting. Kaboré received 53.5% of the vote. Second place candidate Zephirin Diabré received 29.7%. Kaboré previously served as Burkina Fasos prime minister from 1994 through 1996, and as president of the National Assembly from 2002 until 2012. In Jan. 2014, he left the ruling Congress for Democracy and Progress party to found a new opposition party, the Peoples Movement for Progress. Kaboré took office in December. The following month, Paul Kaba Thieba was named prime minister. Thieba announced his government on Jan. 13, 2016.
See also
Dundo — The eastern Lunda Norte government is intensifying precautionary measures in the border areas with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to halt the import and spread of Ebola in Angolan territory.
The DRC government announced on Monday the emergence of a new Ebola outbreak in Wangata County, Mbandaka, in the province of Ecuador (north).
Although the outbreak has not yet spread to the provinces of Kassai Central, Kassai, Kwango in DRC, which share border with Angola's municipalities of Cuango, Cambulo, Cuilo, Lóvua and Caungula, the government is anticipating prevention measures so as not to be caught by surprise.
According to Lunda Norte governor, Ernesto Muangala, the local government has enough biosecurity material and drugs to prevent contagion and possible positive cases of the epidemic.
He also said intervention health teams and epidemiological surveillance are being strengthened which, in addition to raising awareness about Ebola, will advise citizens living along the borders to continue to observe the COVID-19 pandemic prevention measures.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday warned that the potential impact of COVID -19 on food security in Africa is likely to exacerbate the already existing burden of malnutrition.
The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, in a press statement said the impact of the disease is expected to be greater among those grappling with food scarcity and malnutrition.
\"COVID-19 is unfolding in Africa against a backdrop of worrying levels of hunger and undernourishment, which could worsen as the virus threatens livelihoods and household economies,\" the statement said.
The WHO said COVID-19 is exacerbating food shortages, as food imports, transportation and agricultural production have all been hampered by a combination of lockdowns, travel restrictions and physical distancing measures.
\"Some countries have already announced measures to mitigate some of the risks of lockdowns on food supply, from in-kind distributions to this week's announcement by Heads of State of the East African Community of their intention to develop a mechanism for tracking and certification of cross-border truck drivers to ensure the safe delivery of essential goods,\" the statement highlighted.
Bamako — As cotton price tumbles during pandemic, farmers worry the state support they rely on to grow food in a warming climate will dry up
For years, Mali's government has helped Yacouba Kone pay for the fertiliser he uses on his cotton crop - as long as he also devotes some of his land in the south to growing cereals.
In Mali, cotton and food are closely linked: To hold the country's spot as one of Africa's top cotton producers and keep its people fed, cotton farmers get state subsidies on the condition that they also cultivate crops like corn and millet.
But now Mali's food production is under threat as the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has sent the price of cotton plummeting, farmers warn, leaving them unable to afford key climate-smart inputs, even with government help.
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the price of cotton - traditionally a high earner for farmers - has dropped from 275 West African francs (about $0.50) per kilo to 200 francs.
Ibrahima Coulibaly, president of the National Coordination of Peasant Organisations (CNOP), a non-profit advocacy group, warned that without government support, the pandemic could undo much of the progress Mali's farmers have made in adapting to climate change.
Africa breached the 200,000 mark on June 10 according to the AU’s Africa Centers for Disease Control, which at the time reported that there were 203,899 cases along with 5,530 deaths and 91,398 recoveries.
May 22: Cases pass 100,000 mark
\tConfirmed cases of coronavirus across Africa passed the 100,000 mark barely 24-hours after the deaths hit 3,000.
The five most impacted nations were as follows:
\t
\t\tSouth Africa: 19,137 confirmed cases
\t\tEgypt: 15,003
\t\tAlgeria: 7,728
\t\tMorocco: 7,300
\t\tNigeria: 7,016
\tSouth Africa is the most impact across the continent and in the southern African region.
April 18: Cases across Africa pass 20,000 mark
\tConfirmed cases of coronavirus passed the 20,000 mark barely 24-hours after the deaths topped 1,000.
Additional files on UNECA report from AP
April 17: Africa’s coronavirus deaths pass 1,000 mark as cases approach 20,000
\tAfrica’s coronavirus deaths have surpassed the 1,000 mark according to tallies by the john Hopkins University.
Ghanian Minister Invites African Americans To Re-Settle In The Country Amid via of the Return was a successful tourism initiative designed by Ghana to encourage African Americans and others within the African diaspora to visit the country marking the 400th anniversary of the first documented arrival of slaves from West Africa to America as a hub of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Amid the recent protests over the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless others in the news, a Ghanian politician recently extended a hand of welcome to those who want to leave U.S. behind.
Barbara Oteng Gyasi, a local politician and member of Parliament, spoke out after the racism in the United States to offer solidarity with African Americans abroad, offering them refuge in Ghana.
Since the success of the tourism initiative, the government had planned to continue to build on it with a new program “Beyond the Return” which aims to encourage investment in Ghana, specifically targeting African Americans.
“We feel that given the wealth that African Americans and black Americans have, given that spending power, travel budgets of blacks in America,” Akwasi Agyeman, CEO of Ghana Tourism Authority.
From making Shea Butter in a mobile home with his two daughters to owning one of the most successful fair trade beauty companies, Olowo-n’djo T’chala is truly the story of successful entrepreneurship. T’chala grew up in Northern Togo in a farming community where he learned the importance of sustainability as a young age. He was […]
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
The police chief called on Nigerians to join in efforts to tackle rape and other sexual violence by ensuring prompt report of cases and working with the police to apprehend the suspects.
\"I will call on every Nigerian that comes across any victim of sexual offences, rape or gender-based violence to quickly report to law enforcement agents because keeping quiet without reporting it will give room for the perpetrators to continue to commit the offences,\" he said.
\"It has come to the public knowledge now that because of the COVID-19 restrictions, we have a surge in cases of rape and gender-based violence.
These are cases that are now coming up but we want to let members of the public know that, rape and gender-based violence has been there.
\"The police and other security agencies and other Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have been collaborating, to see to it that these cases of rape and gender-based violence are dealt with.
In 1934, with the assistance of Speranzeva, Dunham established the Chicago Negro School of Ballet and a company, a Negro Dance Group, which advanced into the Katherine Dunham Dance Company.
She did her anthropological field work in the Caribbean as a graduate student in 1935, receiving a Rosenwald Fellowship to study traditional dances in Jamaica, Martinique, Trinidad and Haiti, where she became close to Haitians and took up the Vaudun religion.
Dunham took her Negro Dance Group to New York in 1937 but did not attract wide attention there until 1939, when she choreographed “Pins and Needles,” a satirical revue produced by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.
Beyond her theatrical career, Dunham did pioneering work in the field of dance anthropology and founded a school that embodied multi-cultural principles decades before the term was used in the field of education.
Her books include “Journey to Accompong” (1946), “A Touch of Innocence: Memoirs of Childhood” (1959), “Island Possessed” (1969) and “Dances of Haiti” (1984)
Dunham received some of the most prestigious awards in the arts, including the Presidential Medal of the Arts, the Albert Schweitzer Prize (presented at Carnegie Hall), Kennedy Center Honors and decorations from the French and Haitian governments.
Elections generally have become a key fixture on the African news calendar and the year 2020 was no different.
West Africa has undertaken a number of key presidential votes that seen incumbents being retained – some under very tense circumstances. Two other polls are awaited in the region – Ghana and Niger; December 7 and 27 respectively.
As part of our 2020 review, we look back at some of the major elections that took place in the region. The review metrics shall be the significance of the vote, the main candidates, major issues, the final outcome and the poll aftermath.
The piece is the concluding part of our election review and focuses on polls in Guinea, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Togo.
Togo re-elects Faure
Togo held Africa’s first presidential vote in February, just in time before the disruption of COVID-19 which forced other countries to postpone or consider postponing their elections.
The February 22 poll was the first since constitutional reforms capped the presidential term limits. The new legislation means that incumbent Faure Gnassingbe could run for two more terms (2020 – 2030).
Two days after the vote, he was declared winner of the vote at a time opposition said it was contesting the process and outcome. The elections body announced that the president had won 72 percent of the vote in the first round.
The body added that main contender and former Prime Minister, Agbeyome Kodjo, came in second with just 18 percent of votes. The president was subsequently sworn into office at a social distanced event in the capital Lome.
Guinea’s busy, bustling election year
Guinea conducted three different votes this year. A referendum on extending presidential term limits, a partial legislative poll and a presidential poll. The referendum was passed amid tension and widespread opposition protest. That set the tone for the equally bloody presidential poll as opposition protesters clashed with security forces.
At the end of the vote, President Alpha Conde was declared winner with 59.49% of the vote, defeating his main rival Cellou Diallo. Diallo received 33.50% of the vote, the electoral commission said. Voter turnout was almost 80%.
Political tensions in the West African nation turned violent after Diallo claimed victory ahead of the official results. Celebrations by his supporters were suppressed when security forces fired tear gas to disperse them.
Ouattara pushes ahead with third term
Ivorian president Alassane Ouattara was on his way out of the presidency until his Prime Minister and candidate of the ruling party Amadou Gon Coulibaly died.
Then the president reversed his quit promise. The consequence of which was an opposition mobilization against his candidature. Clashes with security forces did little to deter Ouattara who had been cleared with three others to run in the October 31 poll.
Days to the vote, main opposition candidates ex-president Henri Konan Bedie and ex-prime minister Pascal Affi N’guessan announced a boycott of the vote. Ouattara press
Ivory Coast's government on Tuesday accused the opposition of \"plotting\" against the state after it vowed to set up a rival government following bruising presidential elections won in a landslide by the incumbent, Alassane Ouattara.
The standoff pitched the West African nation deeper into a three-month-old crisis that has claimed several dozen lives, triggering EU appeals for calm and dialogue.
Hours after 78-year-old Ouattara was declared victor with more than 94 percent of the vote, Justice Minister Sansan Kambile accused the opposition of \"acts of assault and plotting against the authority of the state.\"
The Abidjan public prosecutor has been asked to investigate, Kambile said, warning that \"all options are on the table.\"
Opposition leader Pascal Affi N'Guessan had told reporters late Monday that opposition parties and groups were forming a \"council of national transition.\"
\"This council's mission will be to... create a transitional government within the next few hours,\" N'Guessan said.
The goal, he said, was to \"prepare the framework for a fair, transparent and inclusive presidential election.\"
Ouattara's landslide in Saturday's vote had been widely expected -- two opposition leaders had called for a boycott of the ballot and a civil disobedience campaign.
But the protests and bloody clashes have also stirred traumatic memories of a crisis a decade ago that tore the country apart and dealt it lasting economic damage.
Around 3,000 people died after then-president Laurent Gbagbo refused to accept defeat by Ouattara.
N'Guessan late Monday said the \"transitional council\" would be led by opposition veteran Henri Konan Bedie, 86, a former president and long-term adversary of Ouattara.
\"Keeping Mr Ouattara as head of state could lead to civil war,\" he warned.
- Confrontation -
In Abidjan, the economic capital, security forces blocked off roads close to Bedie's villa.
They fired teargas to disperse small groups of supporters and journalists outside, preventing the staging of a press conference called to follow up Monday night's announcement.
In Daoukro, an opposition stronghold 235 kilometres (146 miles) north of Abidjan, anti-Ouattara protesters were manning barricades.
\"These results are a farce, \" said one, who gave his name as Firmin. \"We are going to carry on with civil disobedience until Ouattara steps down.\"
In contrast, Ouattara supporters sang his praises, saying he had strived to end instability in the world's top cocoa producer and revive its battered economy.
\"He has worked hard for the country. He has to carry on, not just for us, but for our children,\" said Hamed Dioma, a scrap-metal worker in a rundown district of Abidjan.
\"We are going to party.\"
Anger sparked by Ouattara's quest for a third term has revived memories of past feuds left mostly unreconciled after a 2002 civil war split the country in two.
Thirty people died in clashes before Saturday's vote, often between local ethnic groups allied to the opposition and Dioula communities seen as close to Oua
Malcolm X’s life changed dramatically in the first six months of 1964. On March 8, he left the Nation of Islam. In May he toured West Africa and made a pilgrimage to Mecca, returning as El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. While in Ghana in May, he decided to form the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU). Malcolm returned to New York the following month to create the OAAU and on June 28 gave his first public address on behalf of the new organization at the Audubon Ballroom in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. That address appears below.
Salaam Alaikum, Mr. Moderator, our distinguished guests, brothers and sisters, our friends and our enemies, everybody whos here.
As many of you know, last March when it was announced that I was no longer in the Black Muslim movement, it was pointed out that it was my intention to work among the 22 million non-Muslim Afro-Americans and to try and form some type of organization, or create a situation where the young people – our young people, the students and others – could study the problems of our people for a period of time and then come up with a new analysis and give us some new ideas and some new suggestions as to how to approach a problem that too many other people have been playing around with for too long. And that we would have some kind of meeting and determine at a later date whether to form a black nationalist party or a black nationalist army.
There have been many of our people across the country from all walks of life who have taken it upon themselves to try and pool their ideas and to come up with some kind of solution to the problem that confronts all of our people. And tonight we are here to try and get an understanding of what it is theyve come up with.
Also, recently when I was blessed to make a religious pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca where I met many people from all over the world, plus spent many weeks in Africa trying to broaden my own scope and get more of an open mind to look at the problem as it actually is, one of the things that I