Global Information Network (GIN)

2010-10-05T13:27:00.001-04:00

Washing the Gravel for the gold the local way @ Yahoo! Video

Free Lapiro de Mbanga! Sign a petition!

2010-06-24T17:40:00.001-04:00

Manute Bol's dream of 41 schools

2010-06-24T17:31:00.001-04:00

Sotigui Kouyaté - Memorial

2010-05-18T13:23:00.002-04:00

THEATRE WORLD MOURNS THE PASSING OF ACCLAIMED ACTOR

(GIN) – African master of the spoken word, renowned actor and musician Sotigui Kouyaté, passed away Apr. 17 in Paris, France, reportedly of pulmonary disease.

Born in 1936 in Mali, he was an oral historian or “griot”, whose knowledge was authoritative among the Mandinka people.

He explained his heritage in an interview: “…I’m a storyteller, a griot. Rightly or wrongly, they call us masters of the spoken word. Our duty is to encourage the West to appreciate Africa more. It’s also true that many Africans don’t really know their own continent. And if you forget your culture, you lose sight of yourself. It is said that “the day you no longer know where you’re going, just remember where you came from.” Our strength lies in our culture. Everything I do as a storyteller, a griot, stems from this …”

A longtime collaborator of British film and theatre director Peter Brook, Kouyate wrote and staged a number of plays himself. For his role in the movie “London River”, he won Best Actor title at the Berlin Film Festival and the French government's highest cultural honor at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, when he was made an officer of arts and letters.

In an unrelated development, legendary Nigerian bandleader, King Sunny Adé, was forced to call off his North American tour, scheduled to start in Canada and come to the Highline Ballroom in Manhattan in May after two percussionists in his 17 piece band died in a car accident.

Attempts to get American visas for replacement members of the band proved unsuccessful.

Securing the Peace in Liberia (NYTimes)

2010-05-11T11:22:00.001-04:00

LinkTV shows Sudan and a get out the vote video

2010-04-23T23:18:00.002-04:00

Africa News Briefs

2010-04-02T15:25:00.002-04:00

ANGOLAN PASTORS SHOCKED AT SIGHT OF MASS EVICTIONS

Mar. 30 (GIN) – Pastors of the Evangelical Alliance of Angola making a Palm Sunday stop in the southern city of Lubango, reported being shocked at the sight of some 3,000 families dispossessed as part of a government clearance program to make way for public infrastructure projects.

“What I heard and saw with my own eyes, I'm sorry, it displeases me greatly, and doesn't correspond with the reality of a country that's been independent for more than 33 years and in Peace for eight years,” wrote Luis Samacumbi of the Congregational Church.

“We visited people in the few existing tents and with families who were able to save their zinc roof sheeting which they had put together to protect the children from the rain, the strong winds and the cold.” He criticized “deliberately man-made emergencies like this that put innocent children in the traumatic situation which we saw.”

During the Angolan Civil War (1975-2002), Lubango was a major base of Cuban, SWAPO and government troops.

FIERCE DEBATE OVER U.S. BILL TO SUPPORT UGANDA MILITARY

Mar. 30 (GIN) – Proposed US legislation authorizing military action against the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda has come under fierce debate. Critics say the bill will serve to prop up Uganda’s government which is under fire for criminalizing homosexuality.

“While the bill funds some humanitarian aid and post-conflict justice, the primary focus is on a military strategy to ‘apprehend or otherwise remove’ LRA leaders,” noted Samar Al-Bulushi, a consultant to the International Center for Transitional Justice. Human Rights Focus, a local NGO based in northern Uganda, also opposes a military option.

In Acholiland, northern Uganda, where the ethnic Acholi people have faced both the LRA and the government’s army, the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative urged a peaceful resolution to the conflict. “As religious leaders whose primary concern is the preservation of human life, (we) advocate for dialogue and other non-violent strategies to be employed so that long term sustainable peace may be realised.”

On Nov. 17, 2009, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed the Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act, bi-partisan legislation authored by Sen. Russ Feingold and co-sponsored by some 25 other senators. It requires President Obama to develop a new strategy to confront the LRA and sets aside $10 million for humanitarian assistance in areas outside Uganda where the LRA is operating.

A recent BBC investigation reportedly uncovered evidence of a massacre in the Democratic Republic of Congo by the LRA with over 300 victims. Both the LRA and the Ugandan government dispute the findings.

SOUTH AFRICANS WOWED BY BILLIONAIRE’S WEDDING

Mar. 30 (GIN) - Entrepreneur and billionaire Robert Matana Gumede bid farewell to his bachelor years with one of the most lavish marriage ceremonies seen in South Africa. His bride, medical doctor Portia Mkhize, drove up in a black Rolls-Royce to the sound of Ave Maria, delivered by the 100-strong KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, which had been flown in for the occasion.

The guests – over 2,500 - included A-listers from all over the world and across social and economic strata. “We have presidents of countries, politicians, musicians and all the who’s whos from all walks of life under one roof,” said ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa when he addressed the guests.

The wedding proceeded to Gumede’s home township, KaBokweni, on Sunday, where 25 head of cattle were slaughtered.

According to the official biography, Gumede studied Law at the University of Zululand. Opportunity knocked in the IT industry and Gumede started Gijima Technologies – now one of South Africa’s largest black-owned IT companies with government deals worth more than 1.5 billion rand.

The new Mrs. Gumede worked at a state-subsidized AIDS hospice in Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal, until last year. The golden couple honeymooned in Beijing.

CHINA TRADE WITH SO. AFRICA HITS HISTORIC HIGHS

Mar. 30 (GIN) – In a visit this week to Pretoria, top Chinese political advisor Jia Qinglin and South African President Jacob Zuma laid the groundwork for stronger bilateral relations, while coordinating the two countries' stances on climate change.

China has become South Africa's biggest trade partner and exporter as bilateral trade volume hit a historic high of more than 16 billion U.S. dollars in 2009 despite the international financial crisis.

African economic growth is expected to accelerate to 4.3% this year from 1.6% last year, according to the U.N. Economic Commission on Africa in its annual report this month with East Africa likely to be the fastest-growing region, expanding to 5.3%. But poverty could still rise as there may not be an similar increase in employment, a U.N. report said on Tuesday.

South Africa was the last leg of Jia's ten-day African tour which already took him to Cameroon and Namibia.

Headquarters

2010-02-25T15:58:00.000-05:00

Global Information Network, now in its 20th year, hosts a regular series of public events on African issues; edits, writes and distributes news, and offers internships. Volunteers are especially welcome here at its W. 29th St. headquarters!

Please join our panel, Mar. 21 3 p.m. in NYC

2010-02-15T14:07:00.002-05:00

WEB SITE DEVELOPED IN KENYA IS HELPING HAITI

2010-02-09T13:51:00.003-05:00

Feb. 2 (GIN) – A website first developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election violence in 2007 is being used to help focus where help is urgently needed in post-earthquake Haiti.

Ushahidi, the website whose name means "testimony" in Swahili, has been used in the Democratic Republic of Congo to monitor unrest and al-Jazeera used it to track violence in Gaza. It was also used to monitor the 2009 Indian elections and to help gather reports during the swine flu outbreak.

“Born from post-election violence in Kenya in 2008, Ushahidi provided invaluable assistance to those providing relief,” said Ory Okolloh, Ushahidi’s co-founder and executive director at the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

The open source Ushahidi platform has already received and mapped 13,000 calls of help from people in Port-au Prince. The website can be found at www.ushahidi.com

GADDAFI PLEADS WITH OBAMA TO LAY DOWN THE GUNS

2010-02-09T13:51:00.002-05:00

Feb. 2 (GIN) - Libyan leader, Moummar Gaddafi, speaking at the recently concluded African Union summit in Ethiopia, called on President Barack Obama to end all U.S.-sponsored wars around the world.

The Libyan leader singled out Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine as battles which were unjust.

"The war against Iraq and Afghanistan is not profitable for America and as a matter of fact, (these wars) were lost as soon as they began. America is today involved in the Iraqi quagmire and is also lost in the Afghan mountains and has achieved none of its objectives and this represents very complicated situations inherited by Obama ," Gaddhafi observed.

The Libyan leader, whose term as head of the AU was expiring, handed over the AU mantle to president of Malawi, Bingu wa Mutharika.

Also at the summit, the African Union unveiled its new flag – a dark green background symbolising hope, and stars to represent Member States.

‘NO EXCUSE TO REMAIN POOR’, SAYS NEW AU PRESIDENT

2010-02-09T13:50:00.001-05:00

Feb. 2 (GIN) - Incoming African Union chairperson and President of Malawi, Bingu wa Mutharika, told the assembled African nations at his swearing in ceremony that Africa has no excuse to remain poor.

While Africa has multiple problems, the continent was not poor, he said, but was endowed with great mineral wealth and other resources, which the developed world was exploiting.

Since 2010 is viewed as a year for Africa, he said the chance had come for Africa to be recognised.

“We should remain committed as African Union to the principles of development, peace and security in Africa … five years from now, no African child should die of malnutrition or go to bed hungry,” he declared.

Dr. Wa Mutharika, 76, is a former Economics Minister and World Bank official who studied at the University of Delhi. Born and raised in the tea-growing district of Thyolo, he entered politics at a young age and narrowly won the presidency in a hotly contested election in 2004. He was re-elected on a pledge to fight corruption in 2009.

In 2005, he helped Malawi weather one of its worst food shortages – producing 45% less than the national requirement – by giving out seed and fertilizer at a reduced cost.

DE KLERK LAUDED FOR FREEING MANDELA 20 YEARS AGO

2010-02-09T13:49:00.002-05:00

Feb. 2 (GIN) – Twenty years ago today, former president FW de Klerk called an end to the racist system of apartheid. Not long after, he ordered the release from prison of anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela.

De Klerk was “one of the braver apartheid rulers,” observed former ANC secretary general Cyril Ramaphosa in an interview with SABC radio.

“Of all the apartheid rulers he was the braver one, who took the steps," Ramaphosa said, but added, “He had to do it….His hand had been forced by pressure inside and outside the country for reforms.”

Mandela was released from Victor Verster prison near Cape Town nine days later to scenes of wild rejoicing and led the ANC in three years of multi-party negotiations on the transition to democracy.

“By 3:30, I began to get restless,” recalled Mandela in his book Long Walk to Freedom, “as we were already behind schedule. I told the members of the Reception Committee that my people had been waiting for me for twenty-seven years and I did not want to keep them waiting any longer...

“When I was among the crowd I raised my right fist, and there was a roar. I had not been able to do that for twenty-seven years and it gave me a surge of strength and joy. As I finally walked through those gates to enter a car on the other side, I felt - even at the age of seventy-one - that my life was beginning anew.

“My ten thousand days of imprisonment were at last over." Many years later, when the book Long Walk to Freedom appeared, Mandela was asked about a movie version and he suggested that he be played by actor Morgan Freeman. That movie, Invictus, is now showing at cinemas worldwide.

LIBERIA'S PRESIDENT SIRLEAF TO SEEK A SECOND TERM IN 2011

2010-02-09T13:45:00.002-05:00

Jan. 26 (GIN) - Africa's first democratically elected woman president, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, has announced she will run for a second term.

"I know where we are today, I know where we ought to be tomorrow and I know how we will get there," she told a joint assembly of MPs gathered this week for her annual message.

The news caused loud grumbling among opposition politicians. Charles Brumskine, who came third in the 2005 presidential poll, said he was concerned about Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf's age. “I think she's reached the limit of her capacity," he told the BBC's Network Africa program.

Brumskine called the 73 year old President Sirleaf’s government “new wine in old bottles”.

Meanwhile, in Miami, Florida, closing arguments are set for Jan. 29 in a suit against the son of former Liberian president Charles Taylor. Charles “Chuckie” Taylor, Jr. has been sued by five torture victims who were set on fire, held in chest-high pits of filthy water and repeatedly sexually assaulted during the years of civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone.

The 32-year-old Taylor, a U.S. citizen born in Boston while his father was a student there, is already serving a 97-year prison sentence for violating U.S. anti-torture laws while he commanded an elite paramilitary unit in his father's war-torn government.

Finally, 24 Liberians will be deported this month from Columbus, Ohio, including a grandmother who had resided in Columbus for 20 years. Married to a Liberia-born U.S.-citizen, Bernice Bryant leaves behind a 14 year old son, three adult children from an earlier marriage, and a 1-year-old granddaughter.

"I'm not bitterly angry at the U.S., but I'm disappointed," said Sunny Bryant, who will accompany his wife to Liberia and remain there until the end of January.

"This is not like every immigrant's story," said Bryant's attorney, Ken Robinson, "but it should serve as a signal that our immigration system is fundamentally flawed.”

Sadly, an article on the deportation in the online Columbus Dispatch received over 400 responses from readers, mostly unsympathetic. “The law is the law,” “bye bye granny” “enough already” and “the law is the Law,” were typical of the reader postings.

KENYAN SCHOOLS TO LOSE U.S. FUNDING

2010-02-09T13:42:00.006-05:00

Jan. 26 (GIN) - Some $7 million in U.S. aid to primary schools in Kenya has been suspended, pending an investigation into fraud claims, according to the U.S. ambassador.

The US move comes a month after the UK government pulled out of the project when $1 million in donated funds to the Education Ministry were reported missing.

Kenya is ranked as East Africa's most corrupt country by the group Transparency International.

"Those culpable for the fraud should not merely be sacked; they should be prosecuted and put behind bars," said U.S. Ambassador Michael Ranneberger, speaking to the American Chamber of Commerce in Kenya.

Kenya introduced free primary education in 2003 - and schools were quickly swamped as more than one million children enrolled who had never been to school before.

Unicef says the primary school population jumped from 5.9 million in 2002 to 7.6 million in 2005. Most of the funding for primary education comes from government coffers.

RULING EXPECTED ON NIGERIA’S ABSENT PRESIDENT

2010-02-09T13:41:00.001-05:00

Jan 26 (GIN) – Nigeria’s cabinet has been ordered to decide within 14 days if the hospitalized President Umaru Yar'Adua is fit to lead the country.

President Yar’Adua has been in Saudi Arabia for two months, receiving treatment for a heart condition, but has not officially transferred power to any another official.

The order by the Federal High Court came in response to a law suit brought by opposition activist Farouk Adamu Aliyu who asked the judges to remove the president over his failing health and for failing to abide by the provisions of the constitution.

His lawyer Bamidele Aturu told the BBC that the judgement was a "victory for democracy". Yar’Adua’s predessor, Olusegun Obasanjo, also urged the national leader to step down.

"If you take up a job, elected... and then your health starts to fail you and you will not able to deliver, to satisfy yourself and satisfy the people you are supposed to serve, then there is a path of honour and path of morality," he said in his first comments on Mr Yar'Adua's health.

Mr Obasanjo handpicked Mr Yar'Adua to succeed him but the pair have since fallen out. He denied that he had been irresponsible when choosing his successor, AFP news agency reports.

On Thursday, more than 1,000 people gathered in Lagos to protest against Mr Yar'Adua's prolonged absence. Some carried signs saying: "Enough of the offshore president, and A people's constitution now."

RWANDA A MODEL FOR HAITI, SAYS U.N. ENVOY PAUL FARMER

2010-02-09T13:31:00.003-05:00

Jan. 26 (GIN) – With a distinguished record of service bringing medical care around the world, Paul Farmer, U.N. deputy special envoy to Haiti, assessed the current delivery of aid to earthquake victims during a brief radio interview broadcast this week.

“Coordination is very difficult, as I'm sure you have seen already. There are so many balkanized, fissured groups trying to do good, that it is very difficult for the government or the U.N. or any organization to coordinate them. And then I said delivery because it seems to me, having worked here a long time, that delivery is always the stumbling point.

“In the first couple of days, we tried to focus our efforts on trauma, orthopedics, the acute -- the needs of people who were injured in the event, in the earthquake. But now we're going to have to have rehab medicine, a lot better post-op nursing.

“But the real challenge is going to be rebuilding here in Port-au-Prince and further south. And you are going to have to have a massive rebuilding of public health infrastructure now, hospitals, clinics, health posts. And that's going to require significant investment of capital, human capital, but it's going to create lots of jobs, rebuilding safe hospitals and safe schools… we have to also regard that as a chance to create jobs. That’s what's needed most - jobs.”

“Now is a time to rethink public infrastructure, rethink the city. I mean, as you have seen, -- you can't have two, three million people living, you know, in such densely packed area.”

When asked about a successful example of the kind of rebuilding he's prescribed for Haiti, Dr. Farmer had a ready answer: Rwanda, torn by genocide and civil war, now stable and even sending aid to Haiti. Farmer, co-founder of Partners in Health (Haiti), and Inshuti Mu Buzima (Rwanda) is recommending a 10-year rebuilding program for Haiti.

African News Briefs

2010-01-13T12:19:00.006-05:00

U.S. COMPANIES VIE TO HALT LANDMARK APARTHEID LAWSUIT

Jan. 12 (GIN) – A U.S. appeals court is hearing arguments from a group of multinational corporations seeking to block a lawsuit brought by South African victims of apartheid.

The suit seeks up to $400 billion in compensation for the Black victims.

The corporations are accused of complicity in human-rights abuses during the years they did business in apartheid South Africa.

After years of legal delays, a US court last year gave the green light for the companies to be sued on US soil under the Alien Tort Claims Act.

The companies - Daimler AG, General Motors, Ford Motor Company and IBM – were cited in the suite because they had refused to testify during the truth and reconciliation process about their actions during the apartheid years.

Recalling the presence of Ford and GM in Port Elizabeth, the late poet Dennis Brutus, in a previous interview with the news show Democracy Now, recalled “…both Ford and GM were using black labor, but it was very cheap black labor, because blacks were not allowed to join trade unions, and they were not allowed to strike, so that they were forced to accept whatever wages they were given.

“They lived in ghettos near where I lived, actually in the boxes in which the parts had been shipped from the US to be assembled in South Africa. So you had a whole township called Kwaford, meaning the place of Ford, and it was all Ford boxes with the name “Ford” on them, because they were addressed to Ford in Port Elizabeth.”

Michael Hausfeld, representing the black South Africans, said: “If companies can affect lives in ways that make those lives worse, so that people are suppressed or terrorized, as we contend the apartheid regime was towards its black South Africans, then anyone who provided the tools to enforce that suppression and terrorism should be responsible.”

German automaker Daimler called the charges "inadmissible and unfounded."

South Africa ended its opposition to the case in September, shortly after President Jacob Zuma took office. The previous president, Thabo Mbeki, opposed the case on the grounds that it might put off foreign investors.

GHANA OIL DEAL FACES GOV’T AND U.S. SCRUTINY w/pix of J. Kufuor

Jan. 12 (GIN) – A British newspaper reports that a deal between a Texas oil company and its local partner in Ghana to sell a major new oil field may be tainted by corruption. US and Ghanaian authorities are said to be investigating the allegations.

The case could spoil efforts by Texas company Kosmos to sell its stake in the Jubilee oil field to ExxonMobil in a deal valued at $4 billion. Kosmos, owned by US private equity groups Blackstone and Warburg Pincus, and its partner, the EO group, have denied wrongdoing.

The EO group was set up by two political allies of former president John Kufuor. For bringing Kosmos into Ghana, their stake could be worth more than $200 million.

Duke Amaniampong, a California-based lawyer working for the Ghanaian investigation told the Financial Times that there was "enough evidence of criminal culpability … to bring charges against the EO group and its directors".

The charges are said to include "causing a financial loss to the state, money laundering and making false declarations to public agencies.”

Ghanaians in the blogosphere reacted to the scandal. Adjei M. of Vancouver wrote in ModernGhana.com: “They will steal anything, room furnishings etc.” John of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia replied: “Yeah -this is Ashanti sense at work but Uncle Atta (current Pres. John Atta Mills) will surely teach them the lesson very soon. Good work Uncle Atta.

An online editorial in “The Statemen,” said: “It is very pathetic that that our political judgments have been clouded with avowed penchant for prosecution and political bigotry rather than generosity with praise for those through whom the image of Ghana is redeemed.”

TRAGEDY MARS OPENING ON AFRICA SOCCER GAMES

Jan. 12 (GIN) – Togo’s elite soccer squad, victims of an ambush by an Angolan separatist movement, headed back to Togo, cancelling their much-awaited shot at the championship at Africa’s Cup of Nation games.

Separatist guerrillas, who reportedly had Angolan security forces in their crosshairs, opened fire instead on Togo's convoy Friday as it crossed into Cabinda from neighboring Congo-Brazzaville, leaving players cowering under their seats during a 20-minute gunbattle with security escorts.

Angolan state media reported on Monday morning that two unidentified suspects had been arrested over the attack in which an assistant coach, press officer and bus driver were killed while several other players were injured.

Almost a third of Angola’s oil is found in Cabinda, which has been described as a Niger Delta in the making. The area teams with both government troops and private, well-armed security firms who guard the foreign-owned onshore oil facilities and gold mining ventures.

Human Rights Watch in a recent report cited "disturbing pattern of human rights violations by the Angolan armed forces and state intelligence officials.”

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos condemned the attack but privately some complained that security was not tight as promised. Further, the incident raised doubts about security at the FIFA World Cup games to be held in South Africa this June.

NIGERIANS CALL ON MISSING PRESIDENT TO STEP DOWN

Jan. 12 (GIN) – With no sightings as yet of the ailing president, and conflicting reports as to his condition since entering a Saudi hospital in November, several thousand Nigerian opposition leaders and others marched to the capital, Abuja, on Tuesday, demanding a transfer of power to the president’s deputy.

Protesters drummed and chanted anti-government slogans during the five-kilometer walk to the National Assembly. Some carried placards and banners demanding, "Umaru, where are you?" and "We want electoral reforms now."

In his first public remarks in 50 days, the 58 year old President Umaru Yar’Adua, in a faltering voice, told the BBC he was recovering and hoped to be able to return to Nigeria to resume his duties.

The President is reportedly suffering from acute pericarditis, an inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart. He is also known to have kidney problems.

“It is one thing to be alive and it is another to be well enough to function as a president,” wrote RA Prince of Lagos on the internet. The fact that he did not designate that his vice-president should take over in his absence has led to fears of a power vacuum and a potential constitutional crisis, a little more than 10 years after the country returned from military to civilian rule.

Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka addressed the rally, saying the president's continued absence - and the lack of an appointed replacement - was allowing corruption to flourish unchecked and important government business to languish.

In an unrelated development, Nigeria House in New York City is facing a federal tax lawsuit for between
$16 and $41 million in unpaid taxes for commercial offices and other non-tax exempt spaces in the 22-story building it owns at 828 Second Avenue in Manhattan.

African News Briefs

2010-01-06T15:20:00.010-05:00

NIGERIANS REJECT LINK TO TERROR NATIONS BY U.S. w/pix of Akunyili

Jan. 5 (GIN) – Action against Nigeria by the U.S. over the so-called “underwear bomber” of Nigerian birth who carried explosives into a U.S.-bound plane has sparked an uproar among Nigerians, who are protesting a discriminatory policy against Nigerian nationals.

“Nigeria as a country doesn’t have terrorist tendencies. It’s not in our culture. It’s not in our ways. It is not part of us. It is alien to us. We cannot be stigmatized or labeled as likely terrorist because of the…behavior of one person,” said Information Minister Dora Akunyili. “This young man spent almost all his life outside Nigeria …“He was recruited outside this country and trained outside this country. Nigeria never supported him. … So we feel very sad that over 150 million people can be stigmatized because of one person. It is very unfair.”

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s botched attempt to blow up a plane headed for Detroit has “seriously” undermined government’s efforts to improve their country’s image, she said, adding that U.S. airport rules, which took effect Monday, discriminate against 150 million Nigerians.

Abdulmutallab has been charged with "willfully" attempting to destroy Northwest Airlines flight 253 as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam on Christmas day with almost 300 people on board.

Meanwhile, there has been no statement from Nigerian Pres. Umaru Yar’Adua who left his country for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia on Nov. 23 and hasn’t been seen or heard from since.

“The mystery over (President) Yar’Adua is so bizarre as to be comical—if the consequences weren’t so severe,” wrote Todd Moss, vice president and senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington DC. “This 43-days-and-counting power vacuum is being swiftly filled by an insular cabal bent on exploiting the situation for their own gain.”

“A decade of constitutional democracy is threatened by the specter of mass violence and a possible military coup.”

UGANDANS SUE OVER SECRET OIL DEALS

Jan. 5 (GIN) - Ugandan environmental watchdogs are taking the government to court to force the release of oil production agreements signed with four exploration companies.

The Kampala-based Greenwatch filed suit at the High Court last month, demanding the release of agreements signed with Britain's Heritage Oil and Tullow Oil, Dominion Oil and Neptune Petroleum.

"According to our constitution, every citizen is entitled to information within the possession of the state,” Kenneth Kakuru, Greenwatch's lawyer, told Reuters. "So the state is acting illegally in refusing to release the agreements."

Platform, a London-based environmental advocacy group, published a report in November noted that exploration companies would be making hefty profits from the oil proceeds, leaving Uganda worse off in real cash terms.

President Museveni is closely involved in the plans for oil, raising fears that he will tap the new revenue to consolidate his grip on power. He is expected to seek a fourth term in 2011.

Meanwhile, the Bunyoro-Kitara kingdom citing a pre-independence agreement with the British Protectorage government, is looking forward to a “substantial share” of the new oil monies from discoveries on their lands.

U.S. PENSION FUNDS GROUP UNLOADS SUDAN-LINKED OIL SHARES

Jan. 5 (GIN) - TIAA-Cref, asset manager for some of the largest employee pension funds in the U.S., has become the first to divest itself of stakes in four Asian oil groups over concerns about human rights abuses in Sudan.

The move is a victory for rights organizations who have been demanding a sell-off of shares in companies doing business with Khartoum.The move will increase pressure on other investors to sever ties with those companies.

"Today's announcement demonstrates that TIAA-CREF has honored its commitment to genocide-free investing," said Eric Cohen of the Boston-based Investors Against Genocide. "TIAA-CREF has taken a public stand supporting the overwhelming majority of Americans who do not want their savings and pension funds connected to genocide.”

Hye-Won Choi, TIAA-Cref’s head of corporate governance, said her organisation had decided to take action after unsuccessful talks with the four companies to pressure Sudan on human rights issues. “Divestment is not something we take lightly and it was a measure of last resort,” she said. “[But] we could not see eye-to-eye with the companies.”

Three of the four Asian oil companies hit by the divestment are Chinese. The fourth is Indian.

RADICAL CLERIC, DEPORTED FROM KENYA, HEADED FOR JAMAICA w/pix of El Faisal

Jan. 5 (GIN) — A Jamaican-born Muslim cleric who served time in a British jail for stirring racial hatred, is being deported from Kenya for a visa violation.

Kenyan authorities said that Sheik Abdullah el-Faisal is being expelled for preaching in mosques, a violation of his tourist visa.

Immigration Minister Otieno Kajwang said el-Faisal entered Kenya from Tanzania on Dec. 24, but officials did not know at the time that he was on an international watch list because of computer malfunctions.

El-Faisal drew international attention over his sermons at London's Brixton mosque in the 1990s. In 2003, the cleric was sentenced to nine years in a British prison after being convicted of incitement to murder and stirring racial hatred by urging followers to kill Americans, Hindus and Jews. He was paroled in 2007.

Before coming to Kenya, El-Faisal traveled from Nigeria and overland through Angola, Malawi, Swaziland, Mozambique, and Tanzania. Immigration offices in Lunga-Lunga, a Kenya border point with Tanzania, were reportedly unable to do a background check because their computers were not connected to a database which was shut down to install new software.

His arrest took place on New Year's Eve by anti-terror police as he was leaving a mosque in the coastal town of Mombasa. Kenya has a minority Muslim population, mostly on the country's Indian Ocean coast.

The deportation to Jamaica is awaiting transit visas from South Africa, Tanzania and the U.K. which have so far declined to approve them.

African News Briefs

2009-12-30T15:44:00.008-05:00

NOTORIOUS PRISON TO BECOME A NATIONAL MUSEUM

Dec. 29 (GIN) – As Pres. Barack Obama struggles to fulfill a campaign promise and close the Guantanamo jail, Pres. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia began a personal journey on the new roads linking remote 12 villages and the country’s oldest prison soon to be a museum.

Camp Belle Yella, once an infamous detention center, is being transformed from a “dungeon of horror to a museum and a center of hope.”

According to Alva Mulbah Wolokollie, Belle Yella once held political prisoners, student leaders, perceived and imagined enemies of the ruling regimes, as well as notorious criminals during the era of tyranny and despotism spanning more than two decades.

The camp will be used as a tourism site, and the names of some of those tortured there and even killed by past tyrannical regimes displayed in memoriam.

After a walk through the bush of almost 3 hours, the President told local residents: “I promised you one year ago that I would come and spend the Christmas with you. Today, I am here. I also promised to officially close down the notorious Belle Yella prison center and transform it into a museum."

The theme for the initial opening of Belle Yella road was: “Respect Human Rights and Dignity.”

HOSPITALIZED PRESIDENT LEAVES NIGERIA WITHOUT A RUDDER

Dec 29 (GIN) – Questions about a possible successor to the hospitalized leader of Nigeria are gaining new importance amidst the unfolding developments in the U.S. where a 23 year old Nigerian youth is in custody following his aborted efforts to ignite explosives mid-air that nearly downed a fully-loaded U.S. airline.

Investigations are underway to determine if Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was following the orders of a division of al Qaeda based in Yemen and whether more such terror flights are on their way. Umar Farouk, a student of mechanical engineering, had received clearance to fly to the U.S. despite being on a terror watch list.

Nigerian Pres. Umaru Yar’Adua, 58, who already suffered from a kidney ailment, was flown to a clinic in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Nov. 23 with chest pains and has been diagnosed with acute pericarditis, an inflammation of the membrane around the heart that restricts its action.

Meanwhile, peace continues to elude the troubled nation as 38 members of a Muslim sect “Kala Kato” were shot dead in a scuffle with security forces in a campaign called Operation Flush. Militants in the oil-rich Niger Delta are also threatening to end the truce with government in that region over the non-payment of allowences.

MEMORIAL IN MASSACHUSETTS FOR ANTI-APARTHEID HERO

Dec. 29 (GIN) - Dennis Brutus, world-renowned political organizer, a former poet-in-residence at Worcester State College and one of Africa's most celebrated writers, died early on Dec. 26 in Cape Town in his sleep, aged 85.

Even in his last days, Brutus was busy in the environmental movement and promoting reparations to black South Africans from corporations that benefited from apartheid.

Born in Harare in 1924, Brutus moved with his South African parents to Port Elizabeth and graduated from Fort Hare University with a distinction in English and a second major in Psychology. Further studies in law were cut short by imprisonment for anti-apartheid activism.

Leading the new South African Sports Association as an alternative to white sports bodies, he was banned in 1961 under the Suppression of Communism Act. In 1963, Brutus was shot in the back while attempting to escape police custody.

Memorably, it was in front of Anglo American Corporation headquarters that he nearly died while awaiting an ambulance reserved for blacks.

Mr. Brutus was jailed at Robben Island with Nelson Mandela in the mid-1960s. He helped persuade Olympic officials to ban South Africa from competition from 1964 until apartheid ended nearly 30 years later.

“Dennis Brutus was a beacon of hope for human rights around the world,” said Worcester State President Janelle Ms. Ashley at this week's memorial. “The entire campus community and lovers of freedom everywhere will miss his great spirit. Worcester State College is so very fortunate to be the permanent home of his books, papers and journals.”

He is survived by his wife May, his sisters Helen and Dolly, eight children, nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren in Hong Kong, England, the US and Cape Town.

IN ETHIOPIAN COURT, BUCKNELL U PROFESSOR SENTENCED TO DEATH

Dec 29 (GIN) – An Ethiopian professor teaching at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania was sentenced to death in absentia for his alleged membership in a terrorist group and conspiring against government officials.

Behanu Nega, an exiled opposition leader of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, elected mayor of Addis Ababa in 2005, dismissed the legitimacy of the court and its sentence.

"By delivering this sentence they are trying to terrorize the population more than anything else," Nega said. "It is their way of telling everybody if you fight for democracy we will kill you, that is the message they are sending."

An economics teacher, Nega was one of five people to receive death sentences for being members of the Ginbot 7 — May 15 in the Ethiopian calendar — which refers to Ethiopia's election day in 2005 when post-election violence killed close to 200 people.

Nega immigrated to the United States in 1980. He graduated from the State University of New York at New Paltz and received his PhD in economics at the New School for Social Research in New York.

Since his release, he has urged the United States and other Western countries to back democratic movements in Ethiopia and withdraw support for dictatorships.

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Best wishes to you for a peaceful new year from the staff at Africa News Briefs!

African News Briefs

2009-12-23T12:06:00.003-05:00

BARACK OBAMA IS YEAR'S TOP NEWSMAKER IN NAMIBIA
Dec. 22 (GIN) – In a snap survey conducted by The Namibian newspaper, Barack Obama was cited as the top world newsmaker by most respondents.

Human rights lawyer Norman Tjombe commended the U.S. President “for his leadership on matters such global warming, ending nuclear proliferation, bringing to an end poorly regulated financial markets, and making more friends than enemies for the USA. For showing what presidents must do (and not do)."

Swapo youth leader Elijah Ngurare cited the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th U.S. President, making him the first African American president of that country, as the top world news event.

Community activist Abisai Shejavali described the world news event of the year as the swearing in of President Obama … "His inaugural speech was very great, and the way in which he has inspired ... especially young people is noteworthy. I just hope that he will be able to bring positive change to Iraq and Afghanistan."

NEW REPORT RECOUNTS GUINEA'S ‘BLOODBATH’ AND SEXUAL ABUSE
Dec. 22 (GIN) - A United Nations commission of experts has released its findings on the Sept. 28 stadium shootings in Guinea by troops in what human rights groups have described as a pre-planned massacre of citizens at a well-attended public rally for free elections.

According to their report, based on interviews with more than 600 people, over 100 girls and women in the stadium were subjected to rape, sexual mutilation or kidnap for repeated rape. Over 150 people are believed dead although all the bodies have not been located.

The commission characterized events at the stadium as "a series of systematic killings, rape and acts of torture orhcestrated against a section of the population." There was a "strong suspicion" that the crimes against humanity had been committed, the commission found.

Junta spokesman Idrissa Cherif accused the UN of rushing out the report and said there had been a "procedural fault" in the way it had been communicated.

Junta leader, Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara, has blamed unruly elements in the army, for the killings. He has been receiving medical treatment in Morocco since an aide-de-camp made an attempt on his life earlier this month.

LIBERIA CALLS ON WHISTLEBLOWERS TO HELP FIGHT CORRUPTION
Dec. 22 (GIN) – Strapped by an understaffed Anti-Corruption Commission, Liberia’s president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf took her campaign to the airwaves with a pledge to repay whistleblowers for solid leads.

On a recent morning talk show, she pledged to pay for information leading to money being recovered and to assist with transfers for those fearing to lose their job.

International Anti-Corruption Day (Dec. 9) was marked here with a parade and a new slogan "Your ‘No’ Counts," calling on every person to take a stand against the vice.

Corruption was a major cause of the 1989-2003 civil war, from which Liberia is trying to recover.

President Sirleaf also responded to claims that she is bringing in Liberians from the United States and giving them lucrative government jobs to the disadvantage of Liberians at home.

“It is absolutely false,” she declared. “Besides, they (people from the Diaspora) are Liberians. We need them.” Many young people are currently seeking government scholarships to study abroad, and after their studies will want to return home and work, she pointed out. “Should we deny them if they are qualified?”

KANSAS NATIONAL GUARD BEING DISPATCHED TO HORN OF AFRICA
Dec. 22 (GIN) – In another sign of the deteriorating climate in Somalia and the internationalization of that conflict, the U.S. National Guard has announced it will send more than 560 Army Guards from Kansas to security duty in the Horn of Africa next year.

Guard spokeswoman Sharon Watson said the soldiers would deploy after April. After training, they will spend nine months providing security in the small nation of Djibouti, returning in April 2011.

Djibouti is located near Somalia and Ethiopia, across the Gulf of Aden from the nation of Yemen. Because of the growing military pressure in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq, hundreds of foreign fighters are believed to be relocating to Somalia to fight the isolated UN and US-backed administration there.

The announcement comes as twelve French special forces commandos arrived at Arta, a barren patch of Djibouti's jagged coastline some 80 kms from the capital city, in a demonstration of all military sectors – sea, land and air.

As desert tanks zoomed onto the shore Mirage jets criss-crossed the open sky. Meanwhile, land troops were dispatched from the mouths of armoured personnel carriers and helicopters airlifted artillery guns onto the ground.

"It's a show of force. It shows what France is able to do militarily," said one army officer. The troops are a contingent of a 2,500-strong force based in Djibouti.

PARIS MUSEUM EXHIBITS HISTORIC AFRICAN JOURNAL
Dec. 22 (GIN) - Présence Africaine - the literary and cultural journal founded in 1947 by the Senegalese intellectual Alioune Diop - a man often referred to as the “black Socrates – will be on display at the Quai Branly museum in Paris through Jan. 31.

As a journal, it was highly influential in the Panafricanist movement, the decolonisation struggle of former French colonies, and the birth of the Négritude movement.

Along with Diop, a Senegalese born professor of philosophy, its founders were intellectuals, writers, and social scientists, including Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Richard Wright, Albert Camus, André Gide, and Jean-Paul Sartre.

It was also the first imprint to publish French translations of Anglophone writers such as Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, and panafricanist leaders Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere.

Diop defined its goals: “All articles will be published on the condition that they are in good taste, that they concern Africa, that they neither betray our antiracist and anticolonialist will, nor our solidarity with colonized peoples.”

African News Briefs

2009-12-16T12:13:00.003-05:00

JOURNALIST WHO INCITED RWANDANS TO KILL IS JAILED FOR LIFE
Dec. 15 (GIN) - Former Rwandan journalist Valerie Bemeriki, whose gruesome broadcasts helped whip up a killing spree by Hutus of minority Tutsis during the 1994 genocide, has been jailed for life, it was announced this week.

Bemeriki, 48, even suggested the names and hiding places of members of the minority Tutsi and their Hutu sympathizers who had yet to be murdered. In one broadcast attributed to her she told her listeners: "Do not kill those cockroaches with a bullet - cut them to pieces with a machete."

Once an elegant Kigali socialite, Bemeriki broadcast her calls to kill over Radio Mille Collines - (called "Hate Radio" during the country’s civil war) - a station launched in 1993 and backed by relatives of Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana - whose death in a plane crash is said to have triggered the genocide.

Transcripts of the radio broadcasts are now in the possession of Rwandan authorities as well as the United Nations tribunal trying the ringleaders of the genocide.

As a Category One offender -- those accused of spearheading the genocide – Bemeriki faced the death penalty but a grassroots “gacaca” court gave her a sentence of life behind bars.

For 100 days in 1994, extremists among Rwanda's majority Hutu group rampaged through the central African nation, slaughtering close to a million Rwandans.

A powerful slide show by Pulitzer prize-winning Nigerian journalist Dele Olojede on the genocide can be viewed at http://telehadesign.com/Newsday/rwanda.swf

SOUTH AFRICAN WORKERS PROTEST RACISM AT MAJOR FOOD MARKET
Dec. 15 (GIN) – Some 20,000 workers are threatening a full-blown strike against the country’s second largest grocery, Pick ‘n Pay, if actions favoring white workers are not reviewed.

The South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers, representing the workers, said the company must address the wage gap between black and white workers and abolish the fast-track promotions for white "casual" staff over experienced black employees.

"We are here to uproot the legacy of apartheid. A black person cannot at all times be disciplined, while at all times white counterparts are promoted every day," a strike leader said to loud cheers. Pick ´n Pay has denied the charge of racism, but has not as yet responded to the memorandum from its protesting employees.

Last week some 3,000 workers, wearing red t-shirts and carrying signs saying “Pick ‘n Pay are Masters of Slave Trade” and “Wage Gap is Racism” rallied at the company’s head office in Johannesburg to deliver their demands. The company has two weeks to respond.

EUROPE’S TOP BLACK SOCCER STARS TO ‘GO MISSING’ NEXT MONTH
Dec. 15 (GIN) – Top African athletes who star in Europe’s beloved soccer teams will disappear next month to fulfill their contracts with home teams in Africa and compete in the 2010 African Nations Cup.

The African championships kick off Jan. 10 in Angola although reports from the region say that roads, airports and stadiums are still unfinished and not one ticket has gone on sale.

A Voice of America reporter Jose Manuel and Benoit Faucon, a reporter from Dow Jones newswires in London, were detained for five hours by local police in Cabinda while trying to photograph the yet-to-be ready stadiums.

The government has reportedly spent more than one billion dollars building four new stadiums in Luanda, Benguela, Lubango and Cabinda, and on repairing infrastructure largely destroyed by 27 years of civil war which ended in 2002.

According to public works minister Higinio Carneiro, however, there is nothing to worry about. "The stadiums will be ready," he told AFP. "They're practically ready now.”

The tournament has spurred development and new hotels have been built, although finding an affordable room, particularly in Luanda, the most expensive city in the world, could be hard for many visiting supporters.

A new four-star hotel, the Skyna in central Luanda, is charging $600 a night for a single room during January, compared to its regular $390 tariff. : "It's not really expensive," said owner Alexandre Portugal, "and I would say for (the capital city) Luanda, we are in the mid-range."

NIGERIA FACING CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS OVER SICK PRESIDENT

Dec. 15 (GIN) – With Nigeria’s president sick in a Saudi hospital, senior lawyers foresee a power vacuum in government that could lead to a constitutional crisis.

President Umaru Yar'Adua is being treated for heart problems, which come on top of a long-standing kidney complaint.

Absent from the country, Pres. Yar’adua is unable to swear in the country’s next chief justice on Jan. 1. “If that does not happen, we have a constitutional crisis. The judiciary arm of government will be without its head,'' said Charles Musa, a Lagos barrister.

Meanwhile, in Copenhagen, the G77 group, led by African countries including Algeria, South Africa and Nigeria, accused the EU countries and the US of trying to get rid of the 1997 emissions cuts targets in favour of a new set of goals.

The developing countries, who are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change,
fear rich nations will ensure a Copenhagen treaty will not place legally binding commitments.

"It is 'climate code red' right now, we are in code red right now, we stand at the crossroads of either hope for Africa or hope dashed in 'Hopenhagen'," Nigeria’s delegate,Victor Ayodeji Fodeke, said in an interview with Agence France-Presse.

African News Briefs

2009-12-09T14:01:00.004-05:00

AFRICA IS IN THE POT! SAYS NIGERIAN ACTIVIST w/pix of N.Bassey
Dec. 8 (GIN) – Author Nnimmo Bassey, one of many African environmental activists at the Copenhagen Climate Conference this week, challenged industrialized countries to pay the debt they owe to Africa – “not a gift, not a loan, not a grant, but a real debt,” he said, “to help Africa develop systems that would make it more resilient to the impacts of global warming, as well as helping Africa to adopt technologies that are more green, that are low carbon intensive.”

Bassey’s forthcoming book is “To Cook a Continent: Destructive Extraction and the Climate Crisis in Africa.” He explained the title in an interview with reporter Amy Goodman of the radio news show Democracy Now.

“Africa has been in the pot for centuries now,” Bassey said. “It’s where everybody goes to extract resources... Our land is being grabbed, torn into plantations, torn into agrofuel farms… It's the backyard where resources are extracted at the least cost and at a maximum profit. Africa is in the pot, and the fire is being stoked by climate change, more than you could imagine."

Bassey continued: “Africa is directly at the front line being hit by global warming. And we all know that Africa is the least contributor to the store of carbon in the atmosphere.”

Bassey, founder of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria also commented on the recent suit by four Nigerian villagers against the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell for polluting their land with oil that gushed from a broken pipeline. "It's a landmark suit and a welcome development in efforts at getting the oil company to be accountable for irresponsible actions carried out abroad,” he said.

Chima Williams of Friends of the Earth Nigeria, now in the Netherlands on behalf of the victims, stated: "These people have tried in many ways to get Shell to clean up the mess, but they have got nowhere. Now, as a last resort, they are trying to obtain justice at The Hague Civil Court, Netherlands."

Shell has denied all responsibility, saying that the Dutch court has no jurisdiction over its Nigerian subsidiary. A demonstration in solidarity with the four Nigerian farmers who filed the suit is being planned.

UGANDA’S ANTI-GAY BILL HAD U.S. CHRISTIAN CHURCH SUPPORT
Dec. 8 (GIN) – A bill before the Ugandan parliament that would punish practicing homosexuals with life in prison—or, in some cases, death— was crafted with help from overseas conservative Christian leaders, according to local reports.

U.S. conservative Christian leaders reportedly helped lay the groundwork for the bill at a conference last March. Since then, some have backed away from its severe penalties.

Florida-based Exodus International, the largest ministry seeking to convert gays to heterosexual lifestyles, wrote in a letter to Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni: "While we do not believe that homosexual behavior is what God intended for individuals, we believe that deprivation of life and liberty is not an appropriate or helpful response to this issue."

"Furthermore, the Christian church must be a safe, compassionate place for gay-identified people as well as those who are confused about and conflicted by their sexuality."

The liberal Washington, DC-based Faith in Public Life, in a letter signed by dozens of American Christian leaders, wrote: "Given (our) extensive history of involvement in Uganda, "these (undersigned) Catholic, Evangelical, and Mainline Protestant leaders . . . feel especially compelled to speak out against the 'Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2009' as an affront to Christian values and call on all American Christian leaders to join them."

The Uganda Feminist Forum joined Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and 14 other NGOs in demanding that the bill be withdrawn.

David Kato of Sexual Minorities Uganda said: “This Bill is a blow to the progress of democracy in Uganda. It goes against the inclusive spirit necessary for our economic as well as political development. Its spirit is profoundly undemocratic and un-African.”

Homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda, but the proposed act would mandate a seven-year prison term for anyone who has gay sex or "attempts to commit the offense" of homosexuality, and anyone who fails to report homosexuals within 24 hours of discovering their behavior can be punished by up to three years in prison. Those who commit what is called "aggravated homosexuality" -- defined as having gay sex with disabled people or anyone under 18, or when the accused is HIV-positive -- could be executed.

AFTER NEAR ASSASSINATION, GUINEA CALLED TO ADOPT CIVILIAN RULE
Dec. 7 (GIN) – West African leaders are calling on Guinea to return to civilian rule, as their president recovers from an attempted assassination by his No. 2 aide-de-camp.

A statement by ECOWAS on Sunday called on the junta to put in place a transitional authority and to organize elections, in which no members of the junta will be allowed to run.

Gen. Sekouba Konate, the vice president of the military junta, has been leading the country since Thursday’s shooting of Capt. Moussa “Dadis” Camara.

“Dadis" Camara was airlifted Friday to Morocco where he received surgery for trauma to the cranium, Morocco's chief military doctor Brig. Gen. Ali Abrouq said Sunday. In a press interview, Abrouq said "the follow-up (to the surgery) is favorable" and Camara is doing fine.

But a diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the bullet had caused a splinter of bone to pierce Camara's brain and that doctors still did not know if he would make a full recovery.

After seizing power in a coup last December, the coup leaders promised to organize elections and hand over power to civilians within one year. But Camara quickly reversed course. In September, his presidential guard opened fire on unarmed demonstrators who were demanding that Camara step aside.

At least 157 people were killed and the red beret-wearing soldiers then dragged dozens of women onto the stadium grass, gang-raping them in broad daylight, according to numerous witnesses and human rights groups.

Lt. Abubakar "Toumba" Diakite, who is believed to have led the murders of protestors, allegedly fired the gun that nearly killed the president. He is still at large.

SOMALI RAPPER'S 'WAVIN' FLAG' PICKED FOR 2010 WORLD CUP GAMES
Dec. 7 (GIN) – Muslim rapper K’Naan's song, "Wavin' Flag", has been picked as the soundtrack for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa - soccer's greatest spectacle - to take place next summer during June and July.

The buzz around K’naan was already building in early 2009 when Kanye West posted the video of K’naan’s song “America” on his massively followed blog.

Born Keinan Abdi Warsame in 1978, K'Naan is a Somali-Canadian poet, rapper and musician whose name means "traveler" in the Somali language.

A child refugee turned hip-hopper, K'naan courted controversy when in a recent radio interview he came to the defense of Somali pirates that, he said, were a backlash against western companies illegally fishing and dumping toxic waste in the Indian Ocean.

"Massive Western companies would come to Somalia and dump nuclear toxic waste containers on the shore because there was no government controlling the shorelines. So these pirates initially went into the ocean to make them pay for that sort of thing. So they just take everything for ransom. That actually helped us clear our environment," he said.

Meanwhile, the World Cup final draw in Cape Town has unleashed a stampede for tickets for the tournament, with close to a quarter-of-a-million requests for tickets received in just two days.

"See the champions take the field now/ Unify us, make us feel proud", is a K’Naan track that will be played in 150 countries, feature in TV and web ads and be conspicuous at every match during the showpiece event.

African News Briefs

2009-12-02T13:22:00.009-05:00

‘VULTURE FUNDS’ POISED TO GRAB LIBERIAN MILLIONS w/pix of A.Ngufuan
Dec. 1 (GIN) – So-called “vulture funds” that took over a Chemical Bank loan to Liberia now stand to recoup $20 million from the struggling West African nation. The original loan, which dates back to 1978, was for $15 million.

The two funds, registered in the Caribbean, had asked London's High Court to grant summary judgement in the case - making Liberia liable for the debt without a full hearing. The court ruled in their favor and ordered payment to Hamsah Investments and Wall Capital Ltd. of the amount of the loan plus accumulated interest.

Twenty million dollars is equal to 105% of the country's education budget and 155% of its health budget in 2008. Liberia accused the firms of profiting from poverty.

“We are unable to repay this loan as it will amount to a violation of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, which Liberia is going through for a debt waiver,” Finance Minister Augustine Ngafuan told reporters in the capital city. "Our lawyers are going to work tooth and nail to battle this."

Vulture funds buy bonds that have been defaulted on at low prices when a country is in economic difficulty and then litigate until they recoup the debt’s full value. Most recently vulture funds won a monetary settlement from the Republic of Congo.

Meanwhile, a campaign to stop “vulture funds” from preying on struggling countries has been launched by the U.S.-based AfricaAction, TransAfrica Forum and Jubilee USA, and a Stop VULTURE Funds Act (HR 2932), is in the House of Representatives.

REGIONAL ELECTIONS RETURN INCUMBANTS TO POWER
Dec. 1 (GIN) – Voters in regional elections gave incumbant candidates winning margins but with smaller vote totals than expected. In the case of Equatorial Guinea, opposition candidates denounced the polls outright as “not free and fair.”

Opposition leader Placido Mico Abogo claimed he saw government agents loyal to Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodor Obiang Nguema voting in place of the public and in some cases, polling stations closed early.

Voting ended with reports of a low turn out. President Obiang Nguema, who has held power for 30 years, said the day had gone well.

Equatorial Guinea earns billions from its vast oil and gas reserves but most of its citizens live in poverty.

Meanwhile, in southern Africa, Namibians turned out to re-elect President Hifikepunye Pohamba of the South West African People's Party Organization (SWAPO) but the number may not be enough for the ruling party to re-write the constitution as planned.

The opposition Rally for Democracy and Progress party is running against Swapo, which has dominated Namibia's politics since the country gained independence in 1990 after a long struggle against rule by South Africa.

SO. AFRICA MARKS WORLD AIDS DAY, ROLLING OUT NEW POLICIES
Dec. 1 (GIN) - In a World AIDS Day speech, South African President Jacob Zuma pledged that his country would treat all HIV-positive babies and expand testing in the coming years, while Malawi has promised to begin manufacturing anti-retroviral drugs locally.

"I have taken HIV tests before and I know my status," the South African leader said. "I will do another test soon as part of this new campaign. I urge you to start planning for your own tests."

"At another moment in our history, in another context, the liberation movement observed that the time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only two choices: submit or fight.

"That time has now come in our struggle to overcome AIDS. Let us declare now, as we declared then, that we shall not submit,” Zuma declared.

In East Africa, Kenya received high marks from the World Health Organization for having cut the number of AIDS related deaths by as much as 25% in the last eight years.

"The statistics are a testament to the effectiveness of treatment and a concerted response to tackle the epidemic," said the Rev. Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation. "This should motivate us further to continue to expand treatment and achieve access to comprehensive HIV prevention, treatment, care and support for all women, men and children."

RHODE ISLAND TO HOST MAJOR CONFERENCE ON NIGERIAN ELECTIONS
Dec. 1 (GIN) – Timed to precede upcoming polls in the southern state of Anambra, the Achebe Colloquium on Nigeria’s 2010 elections will be held at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, on Dec. 11.

Chinua Achebe, the most celebrated and widely read of African writers, is a professor of Africana studies at the famed New England ivy league school.

Anambra's polls in 2007 sparked the most violent and protracted scenes of ballot rigging and resistance, and the conduct of elections there in 2010 will represent a test case for national elections that will follow in the rest of the country.

Conference themes will include problems, prospects and pathologies of 50 years of Nigerian independence; strategic interests of Nigeria and the United States; challenges of the Anambra Elections in 2010; lessons learned and problems ahead in monitoring Nigerian elections; strategies for free and fair polls in the 2010 elections and beyond.

Invited guests include officials from the Nigerian government, the United Nations, the European Union, members of Nigerian civil society, international human rights organizations, election-monitoring groups, and research and policy institutions.

Meanwhile, it has been learned that Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua is suffering from Churg Strauss Syndrome, an inflammation of the lining around the heart. He is receiving treatment at the Jeddah hospital in Saudi Arabia after since being evacuated from Abuja last Monday night.

His condition is being watched closely by the bureaucrats of Nigeria’s major power blocs in the north and south. Vice President Goodluck Jonathan is a southerner and a Christian, it is feared that a sudden handover of power could upset Yar’Adua’s power base among the powerful Muslim hierarchy of the north.

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Don't miss the African Diaspora Film Festival, with 103 rarely-seen films from 46 countries, continues in New York through Dec. 15. Check their website for schedule information: www.NYADFF.org

Take a loved one to FELA! The story of Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti is at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, 230 W. 49th St. - For halfprice tickets ($67) use CODE FEWTG93 when ordering online: www.broadwayoffers.com, by phone at 212.947.8844 or in person at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Box Office.

Africa News Briefs

2009-11-24T12:00:00.002-05:00

LIBYAN LEADER DENOUNCES NEW AFRICAN LAND GRAB
Nov. 17 (GIN) - Libya’s Col. Muammar Gaddafi has called for an end to the buying and selling of African farmland by food-importing nations. Speaking at a UN hunger summit, he described it as “new feudalism” which could spread to Latin America as well.

“Rich countries are now buying the land in Africa. They are cheating African people out of their rights. This is also going to happen in Latin America ... ,” he told the meeting at the headquarters of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, Italy.

Gaddafi’s call was disputed by U.N. officials. "It is wrong to call them land grabs," said Kanayo Nwanze, who heads the U.N. International Fund for Agricultural Development. "These are investments in farmland like investments in oil exploration We can have win-win situations." But French Farm Minister Bruno Le Maire was quoted by the Reuters news agency agreeing with the Libyan colonel - that "predatory" farmland acquisitions in poor countries should be halted.

In the past two years, various non-African countries — China, India, South Korea, Britain and the Arab Gulf states leading the pack — have picked up huge tracts of farmland in Africa by lease or purchase, to produce food or biofuels for their own use.

In Sudan, South Korea has acquired 1.7 million acres of land to grow wheat. The United Arab Emirates, which already has 74,000 acres hectares in Sudan, is investing in another 959,000 acres to grow corn, alfalfa, wheat, potatoes and beans. In Tanzania, Saudi Arabia is seeking 1.2 million acres.

Most of the land claimed by foreign acquisition was already in use by local people.

“We should fight against this new feudalism, we should put an end to this land grab in African countries,” Libyan President Gaddafi declared.

SILENCE PERSISTS OVER AFRICAN ROLE IN WORLD WARS W/PIX
Nov. 17 (GIN) – Special services held last week across Europe and the U.S. marked the end of a world war and gave honor to veterans.

But as in previous gatherings, Africans remained unmentioned, writes Chege Mtibiru of the Kenyan paper Daily Nation.

Yet Britain, France and Germany used Africans in World War I in ways resembling slavery. All but Germany, then wallowing in Aryan race superiority, used Africans in World War II.

In both wars, three categories of Africans existed: Blacks, Arabs, and white South Africans. Historians estimate close to a million geographical Africans fought in World War I.

A book on the topic “Fighting for Britain: African Soldiers in the Second Word War” will be released next year and a documentary video called “Africa’s Forgotten Soldiers” - first hand accounts from African troops who fought in World War II - can be viewed on the website of the BBC.

*Photo of Jagama Kello of Ethiopia - left home at 15 to fight Italian invaders /from BBC website

TROOPS ENFORCE CALM IN WORLD’S LARGEST COCOA GROWER
Nov. 17 (GIN) – The government of the Ivory Coast has deployed troops onto the streets of the capital city, Abidjan, in a move to secure the world's top cocoa grower after new election delays were announced.

Troops are mounted at strategic points of the port city, including main road junctions and outside the building of the state broadcaster, according to a witness for the Reuters news agency.

Rising tensions are linked to the much-delayed national elections – reminiscent of events in neighboring Guinea. The target date had been Nov. 29 but preparations fell behind schedule and an indefinite postponement was announced this week.

Challenges to the eligibility of some one million voters are expected – fallout from the civil war that divided the country in 2002, sparked by the divisive issue of “pure nationality” or “Ivorite” raised by President Laurent Gbagbo. His appeal to “pure Ivoirians” stirred resentment and ultimately violence against longtime residents of the Ivory Coast from neighboring states.

Observers and analysts see early 2010 as a possible new date for the election. Rivals of incumbent President Gbagbo accuse him of manipulating the timing of the poll to maximise his chances of winning, an accusation he rejects.

KENYAN YOUTH GET TRAINING FOR WAR IN SOMALIA /W PIX
Nov. 17 (GIN) – Kenyan officials have have confirmed that Kenyan youth of Somali origin are secretly being recruited and trained to fight on behalf of the Transitional Federation Government of Somalia, in another sign of the regionalization of troubles in the African Horn.

One senior government official said he learned that 42 youths from his district had been recruited but were intercepted before reaching boot camp for training.

Sharmarke Abdi, one recruited Kenyan youth, in a press interview, said he escaped after two weeks of training alongside hundreds of youths from both Kenya and Somalia.

"We were told that the United Nations was supporting the recruitment. We were transported in government vehicles. We began training immediately. Some of the trainers were from Somalia," he said.

Habiba Kosar, one of numerous parents in northeastern Kenya raising the alarm, said her 18-year-old son, Mohammed, was recruited and is being trained as a soldier at a Kenyan government security facility.

"My son was picked in the middle of the night. He is being trained for Somalia. We have never seen Somalia and have no connection with the country. I just want my son back," she said.

Government officials acknowledge training Somali citizens to return home and fight on the side of the U.S.-backed central government which is being overwhelmed by fundamentalist armies such as Al-Shabaab. Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang’ula is later expected to appear before the committee to explain the source of funding for the training.

According to Internal Security secretary Francis Kimemia, more than 2,000 youths had been trained by Kenya on behalf of Somalia, but stressed that it would be against the agreement to train Kenyans. “We cannot train Kenyan youth to go fight in Somalia. That would be against the agreement we have with their government. Ideally, we should have taken them to court,” he said.

*Habiba Kosar said her son was taken in the middle of the night

FILM FESTIVAL IN NEW YORK: THIS WEEKEND

2009-11-11T12:11:00.018-05:00

the Margaret Mead Film Festival
at American Museum of Natural History

A weekend of international documentary videos, films and
filmmakers including:

Friday, 7 p.m., Nov. 13
Fig Trees
the history of AIDS activism in South Africa over the past two
decades. >website

Saturday, 1:30 p.m., Nov. 14
Good Fortune
the story of slum dwellers in Nairobi, Kenya >website

Saturday, 2 p.m., Nov. 14
The Hotel Sahara
a cinematic look at migrant workers surviving under the constant threat of deportation in Nouadhibour, Mauritania >website

For more information, visit the website.
http://www.amnh.org/programs/mead/

Africa News Briefs on Nov. 10

2009-11-11T11:59:00.003-05:00

SOUTH AFRICAN BLACK EXECS SEE RACIAL BIAS AT STATE JOBS
Nov. 10 (GIN) – The recent announcement of resignation by a prominent black chief executive at South Africa’s national power company, Eskom, has stirred outrage among a group of black professionals over a racially-divided climate at state jobs.

Eskom’s top officer, Jacob Maroga, reportedly handed in his resignation last week and it was widely believed he was forced out by the white chair of the board, Bobby Godsell. This prompted the the Black Management Forum to lash out, saying state-owned enterprises were becoming "slaughterhouses" for black professionals recruited to head these enterprises.

“The majority population of this country are saying, enough is enough,” the management group wrote on their website.” We have stopped watching from the sidelines when our economy is being manipulated to exclude the majority of its citizens.

“We will no longer watch when our people and our hopes for the management and control of our economy, the majority of the black middle class and specifically our executives are being made footballs, bastardised and manipulated by cynical forces.”

Maroga has since been talked back into the job and Godsell stepped down this week after a private meeting with President Zuma, in a surprise move.

SAHARAN MUSICIANS TOP BOB DYLAN FOR MUSIC AWARD
Nov. 10 (GIN) – A band of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara region edged out American folk singer Bob Dylan to win the Uncut Music Award for best album.

The group, Tinariwen, from northern Mali, was the only non-US act on the shortlist of eight. The prize for the album “Imidiwan” was judged the "most inspiring and rewarding" over the past 12 months.

The group rose to prominence in the 1980s, raising awareness of political issues faced in the region through their mix of electric blues with Middle Eastern and African sounds.

Tinariwen's Ibrahim Ag Alhabib said: "It gives us the strength to carry on working and spreading the message about the peace of our desert home and I'm glad that our music can cross the frontiers and talk to people around the world."

ACCOLADES PILE UP FOR SOUTH AFRICAN PREZ
Nov. 10 (GIN) – Awards were heaped this week upon South African President Jacob Zuma. He received a Leadership Prize from African Consciousness Media and the Kenneth Kaunda Foundation and a stamp in his honor from the South African Post Office.

"As we accept these awards, it is proper that we pay special tribute to our African elders who fought for freedom and independence," Zuma said at the Leadership Awards ceremony this week in Johannesburg.

Two million copies of the Zuma stamp will be printed with a photograph of the President.

Zuma was returning from a stopover in Equatorial Guinea to strengthen diplomatic and economic ties with the oil-rich president Teodoro Obiang Nguema. Four jailed South African mercenaries were released during the visit, and a fifth, a former British army officer, Simon Mann, was pardoned. Mann reportedly fingered former South African president Thabo Mbeki and the government of Spain as sponsors of the coup, which enabled the pardon.

The West Africa nation is Africa’s 3rd largest oil producer and the president’s personal wealth is estimated at $600,000 billion.

CHINA, BEARING GIFTS, WINS NEW AFRICAN ALLIES
Nov. 10 (GIN) – At a 2-day China-Africa summit held in Sharm El-Shaik, Egypt, China's premier pledged a generous $10 billion in new much-needed low interest loans to African nations over three years.

Wen Jiabao's promise at the start of a two-day China-Africa summit over the past weekend was warmly received by African leaders and officials.

An editorial in the Ugandan Daily Monitor noted: “In a time of a global credit crunch and nervous investors, China’s $10 billion credit facility – which is about as much as the World Bank advanced to the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa last year – is a welcome financing opportunity for the continent.”

The Chinese initiative should be applauded, the editorial noted, “but with a proviso.”

“China’s see-no-evil, hear-no-evil policy means that it can finance projects in African countries without asking questions about human rights or governance as many western donors do.

“Furthermore, Chinese contractors in many African countries, to wit Angola, tend to bring along many of their unskilled and semi-skilled workers to do menial work on the projects they fund, denying locals the opportunity to acquire skills.

“None of these challenges are incurable. We should welcome the Chinese investment but we must clearly define our interests and work towards aligning them with those of the Chinese – and other donors.”

Another cautionary note was sounded by the Afrol website: "Chinese imports from Africa last year were worth $56 billion, but they were totally dominated by oil - $39 billion - and other raw materials. In return, Africa was flooded with cheap Chinese consumer goods also worth $56 billion, which helped Africans raise their consumption but which also choked many fragile attempts to create an indigenous African industry production."

In an apparently related matter, the US African Development Foundation in conjunction with the U.S. Embassy awarded nearly $850,000 in development assistance to grassroots groups in Mauritania. "The United States recognises the value of the dynamic ideas of Africans," said US Ambassador Mark M. Boulware, "and (with this grant) we are helping to create new businesses, new jobs, and new opportunities in Mauritania.”

Africa News Briefs on Nov. 3

2009-11-04T12:15:00.002-05:00

VILLAGE HOMES TO BE RAZED FOR THEATER COMPLEX
Nov. 3 (GIN) – Hundreds of houses along the Njemanza Road in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, are in the way of “Silvermine Showtime,” a planned entertainment complex, and will be bulldozed tomorrow, according to reports from the region.

Amnesty International, Social Action Nigeria and other community groups have warned that hundreds of people – including many women and children – would be left homeless if plans to demolish their homes go ahead.

Clearing the land began this summer but was stopped repeatedly by court order. The UN-HABITAT states that some 45,000 people live at Njemanze and Abonnema Wharf waterfronts, currently targeted for demolition.

Tenants of the houses were only given seven days notice to vacate their homes and businesses. Panic has now set, with residents desperately trying to salvage what they can.

The waterfront is one of the most densely populated areas of Port Harcourt. The state governor has repeatedly stated that demolitions along the waterfront are “to sanitize and check criminal activities.”

The Silverbird Showtime project includes an 8-screen cinema, an international conference center, a shopping mall, high-rise hotel and a helipad. A leisure park and children’s theme park are also in the plans.

For information on Amnesty’s Demand Dignity campaign, visit
http://demanddignity.amnesty.org/campaigns-en/

MARATHON WINNER’S ETHNICITY CAUSES FLAP
Nov. 3 (GIN) – Shortly after the spectacular NYC marathon victory of Eritrean-born American citizen Meb Keflezighi, some grumbling could be heard about how American he really was.

Sports talk radio personality Darren Rovell in an article posted on cnbc.com wrote: “Nothing against Keflezighi, but he’s like a ringer you hire to work a couple hours at your office so you can win the executive softball league.” Rovell has since apologized.

And a headline in The New York Times read: “To Some, Winner Is Not American Enough.”

“As an American,” wrote Matt Fitzgerald on competitor.com, “I was very glad to see Meb Keflezighi win the New York City Marathon, but I would have been even happier to see Ryan Hall win, frankly, because Keflezighi was born in Eritrea and Hall was born in the United States.

“What complicates this preference is, of course, race,” he continued. “Almost all of the top American-born distance runners are white, while almost all of the top naturalized American runners are black.”

“Rovell, and those who share his feelings with respect to this controversy, feel no patriotic association whatsoever with an athlete who is a U.S. citizen and has lived in America longer than he has been a runner," observed Fitzgerald. "They felt no pride—none—when Keflezighi won the NYC Marathon mainly because Keflezighi is black.”

“I fear that it is an ugly instinct that makes them view Keflezighi as so thoroughly “other”—as less “one of us” than he really is.”

LIBERIAN CORRUPTION FIGHTER FOUND DEAD
Nov. 3 (GIN) – A Liberian official charged with tackling corruption in public contracts, and a key ally of Pres. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was murdered gruesomely on Sunday night outside his house, local sources report.

Keith Jubah, the head of Liberia's Public Procurement and Concession Commission, was shot as he returned to his home in Kakata, about 12 miles from Monrovia, said one of his sisters, Hawa Kwiyateh.

"They shot him, cut his body all over with cutlass and tried to set the body ablaze," Kwiyateh said in tears. "His watch, his wallet, money, every belonging was left intact in the car," she said.

Jubah was a confidant of the president and an influential member of the ruling Unity Party.

President Johnson Sirleaf said she was "deeply shocked and distressed" over the crime, thought to have been carried out by "disgruntled" former employees. Two men have been arrested.

"The late Keith Jubah was one of Liberia's most decent public servants,” she said. “He believed in the reform agenda of this country. Liberia has lost a great asset; his death will not go unpunished. Those found guilty of this gruesome cowardly act will be brought to justice."

FIRESTONE COMPANY ON THE HOOK FOR POLLUTING WATER
Nov. 3 (GIN) – A Liberian government investigation has concluded that the American-owned Firestone Rubber Plantation Company has polluted local water sources.

Water samples were taken in September and air lifted for international testing. The three-month investigation found that high levels of orthophosphate had accumulated in creeks which are a water source for thousands of villagers.

At very high levels, orthophosphate can cause bone decalcification and increased parathyroid gland activity, according to a fact sheet of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In low doses, it is used as a corrosion inhibitor in drinking water pipes.

Firestone said it believed it fully complied with environmental law and its waste water was not harmful to health.

Firestone Liberia owns some 8 million rubber trees planted on 200 square miles at its Harbel location. The finding of pollution could subject the company to a $50,000 fine or 20 years in prison but it is doubtful the multinational will pay the total cost of damages.

"The Africa Show" 10 p.m. -12 a.m. THURSDAYS

2009-10-29T11:13:00.006-04:00

"The Africa Show" is on the air at 10 p.m. EVERY THURSDAY - 89.9 FM WKCR. Old-style and latest sounds from the continent hosted by Dr. Lawrence Nii Nartey with news from Global Info at 11 p.m. Check it out online at www.WKCR.org

Africa News Briefs on Oct. 27

2009-10-28T14:00:00.001-04:00

AFRICAN ANGLICANS REJECT UNION WITH ROME
Oct. 27 (GIN) – Saying it was a question of faith, Kenya’s Archibishop Eliud Wabukala rebuffed the olive branch extended by Pope Benedict to all Anglicans to join the Catholic Church.

The Archbishop, in an interview with the BBC, said it would not be easy for African Anglicans to enter into full communion with Catholics.

"The Protestant family understands faith in different ways, for example, the idea of the Eucharist, the Lord's Supper, the interpretation of ministry."

Splits among Anglicans worldwide over homosexuality and the ordination of women may have inspired the Vatican to take the opportunity and pull the discontented into their fold.

Ugandan Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi, echoing the Kenyan leader, said that African Anglicans still fit comfortably into the mainstream of their local Anglican churches, and may see no compelling reason for a change.

MONETARY FUND GETS CAUGHT WITH A “GIFT” FROM SENEGAL’S PM
Oct. 27 (GIN) – A “goodby gift” of almost $200,000 to an official with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has created an uproar in Senegal with the country’s Prime Minister Souleymane Ndene Ndiaye now facing corruption charges.

IMF official Alex Segura was handed the “gift” at a dinner to mark the end of his three-year posting – he took the money with him out of the country, but returned it later.

After previously denying the account, Senegalese Pres. Abdoulaye Wade now admits that he ordered his aide-de-camp to “give (Segara) something.” "According to our traditions,” he explained, “when someone leaves who has stayed with you a long time, you give him a gift so he can buy souvenirs for his family." Anti-corruption campaigner Mamadou Mbodj called for an investigatin by the country’s High Court of Justice.

"It is unacceptable in a poor country like ours to use the taxpayers' money to reward international civil servants who are already highly paid for their jobs", he told the BBC.

Last December, Senegal was scolded for lapses in its economic reform plan. At the same time, the IMF pledged $75.6 million in aid to help the country face the effects of the economic crisis.

SON OF EX-FRENCH PRESIDENT WAS A GUN RUNNER, COURT FINDS
Oct. 27 (GIN) – A Paris court has convicted Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, son of the late French President Francois Mitterrand, and 42 other politicians, businessmen and members of the Paris elite for defying a UN embargo to arm the Angolan government during a civil war in the 1990s.

From 1993 to 1998, Angola's leftist government of José Eduardo dos Santos was fighting a bloody civil war against the right-wing UNITA, which was supported by the U.S., the apartheid regime of South Africa and Israel.

The French government, obeying a U.N. weapons embargo to Angola, had banned all transfers of military material to the southern African country, but closed one eye to the sales negotiated by the young Mitterrand, Africa advisor to his father, of tanks, helicopters, heavy weapons and land mines.

Prosecutor Romain Victor accused French authorities of allowing the "illicit trafficking" to flourish despite being alerted by press reports and members of its own intelligence services.

"The real reasons for this laissez-faire attitude are to be found in the economic and strategic interests that lie in the background," Victor declared, referring to France's interest in accessing oil and the enormous amounts of money involved in the deals.

Mitterrand was handed a two-year suspended sentence and fined $550,000.

The scandal was dubbed "Angola-gate" by the French press as details of murky deals involving politicians, businessmen, public figures and weapons were revealed.

KEY ALLY OF TWO PRESIDENTS SLAPPED WITH FINE AND JAIL
Oct. 27 (GIN) - In a ruling that startled Nigeria’s entrenched bureaucracy, one of the country’s most powerful politicians received a sentence of two and a half years in jail for corruption and abuse of his office.

The corruption amounted to $700 million in funds diverted when Olabode George was head of the Nigerian Port Authority. Five other former officials also received similar sentences.

George was seen as one of the untouchables among the Nigerian elite. He and five colleagues accused with him reportedly entered court before their conviction laughing and joking.

But the smiles faded and the court erupted into disorder as they were sentenced.

Musa Rafsanjani, who heads the anti-corruption group Zero Corruption, praised the conviction as a landmark case in the fight against graft in Nigeria, one of the world's most tainted countries.

Five others who worked with him in the Nigerian Ports Authority were also found guilty on numerous charges.

“It's one good step for the country,” wrote Hope Nigeria on the website SaharaReporters.com. “We hope the Court of Appeal will not lower this great standard set by Justice Oyewole. This should be the beggining of national rebirth. Should be extended to all election riggers. Nigeria - there is hope!!”

SEVEN-YEAR-LONG WAR CRIMES TRIAL WINDS DOWN
Oct. 27 (GIN) - A UN-backed court in Freetown, Sierra Leone, has come out with its final verdict after a 7-year-long effort to identify those most guilty of war crimes during the country’s decade-long civil war.

Thousands were killed, mutilated and raped in the war, which ended in 2002. The court spent millions of dollars prosecuting suspects from all sides - money that some critics say should have been spent on development projects.

In the Freetown court's final hearing, judges upheld the convictions of three rebel leaders. The only remaining case is that of Liberia's ex-President Charles Taylor, who is currently on trial in The Hague.

Taylor is accused of backing rebels from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in an attempt to overthrow Sierra Leone's government.

Lengthy jail sentences between 25 and 52 years were handed down to RUF leaders Issa Sesay, Maurice Kallon and Augustine Gbao for a catalogue of crimes against humanity.

The trial set several precedents according to the special court prosecutor, David Crane. Recruiting of child soldiers has become an international crime, as is forced marriage in time of armed conflict. This crime focuses on the "bush wives," whose numbers grew during the civil war.

Crane is currently a professor at Syracuse University College of Law in New York.

Africa News Briefs

2009-10-23T15:14:00.009-04:00

SPARKLE COMES OFF THE DIAMOND IN BOTSWANA
Oct. 20 (GIN) – A slump in demand for diamonds caused by the world’s global recession is presenting a major challenge for newly-re-elected President Ian Khama.

"We have always appreciated that our dependence on diamonds as a major revenue earner does leave us vulnerable and therefore the need to diversify is very important," President Ian Khama told the news agency AFP in a recent interview.

Botswana produces 22 percent of the world's diamonds, which bring in 50 percent of the government’s revenue. Experts predict that diamond reserves will run out by 2030.

Once a poor, cattle-ranching society, Botswana was catapulted into wealth by the discovery of diamonds but the fabulous earnings failed to reach all sectors of society.

"There is no doubt that Botswana is a rich country, but that does not translate to everyone in Botswana being rich," said Imogen Mogotsi, head of the Economics Department at the University of Botswana.

Some 20 percent of Batswana people are jobless in this landlocked nation on the border with South Africa. It also has the world’s second-highest prevalence rate of HIV.

AFRICAN LEADERSHIP PRIZE CAN’T FIND A WINNER
Oct. 20 (GIN) – After considering some “credible candidates,” including former presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, John Kufuor of Kenya, and Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, the selection committee for the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership decided not to choose a winner.

The prize is awarded only to democratically elected heads of state who have left office voluntarily in the past three years. Created by Sudan-born billionaire Mo Ibrahim, the prize awards $5 million over 10 years and $200,000 annually for life thereafter to encourage leadership that improves the prospects of people in the continent.

“It is like the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Obama," said Siphamandla Zondi, head of the Africa program at the Institute for Global Dialogue in South Africa. "It is not necessarily about accomplishments but to encourage positive tendencies."

Reed Brody, a Brussels-based legal counselor for Human Rights Watch recalled this year’s series of coups from Madagascar to Mauritania and Guinea. "It hasn't been a great year for democracy in Africa. Maybe that's what they were trying to say."

US LAUNCHES ‘NATURAL FIRE 10’ TO TRAIN EAST AFRICAN ARMIES
Oct. 20 (GIN) – The armies of five East African nations are taking part in a major military exercise lead by the U.S. military, dubbed “Natural Fire 10.”

More than 1,200 military personnel from the United States, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda are involved in the 10-day exercise that began Friday.

But the decision to hold most of the exercise in Kitgum, Uganda, has raised questions as to whether Natural Fire 10 is preparing for a renewed military effort against the Ugandan rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army.

Last December, the U.S. backed a failed military assault on the LRA by the armies of Uganda, Congo Kinshasa, and South Sudan. It lead to a killing spree by the LRA leader, Joseph Kony, and more than 1,000 people dead in eastern Congo.

Since the Africa Command (AFRICOM) was established last year, critics maintain that its purpose is to militarize American foreign policy on the continent. Africa Command officials insist they are merely trying to boost security through greater cooperation and capacity-building activities.

In a separate development, the US is preparing to give Mali's army millions of dollars worth of military hardware to help them fight al-Qaeda's North African branch.

Trucks, powerful communication devices and clothing are among the equipment being handed over. Nomadic Tuareg people have been recuited to pursue any armed militants including al Qaeda which are active in its northern desert.

NIGERIAN NOVELIST ACHEBE ISSUES CALLS TO YOUTH ACTIVISM
Oct. 20 (GIN) – Renowned writer, Chinua Achebe, in a recent interview called on Nigerians to rise up in unison and challenge the bad leadership and looting of the country.

Speaking at his home in Bard College in New York, Achebe said Nigeria was doomed if its people do not act to halt corruption and ineptitude among its ruling elites.

“We should feel we have come around and that we missed the bus the first time and that the correction of the situation in our country is in our hands. We can’t call the British back even though some people have suggested that. But we can’t allow this to go on any longer. Already our people are getting used to living in that ugly style,” the professor of literature said.

He called on younger citizens to come together and straighten up the country and put Nigeria on the road to salvation. “The getting together of people like you across the country must be seen as the role of this generation. You must destroy the ethnic divisions that we have been taught to believe in and work together to save our country,” the writer said.

In October, the author of the classic Things Fall Apart will release his first book in more than 20 years. "The Education of a British-Protected Child," is a collection of old and recent essays that piece together the arc of his literary life.

Africa Roundtable welcomes 3 Social Justice Activists

2009-10-14T12:42:00.005-04:00

From Uganda, Kenya and Somalia, three outstanding advocates for social justice join Global Information Network and The Black Star News for an informal discussion of their important work.

When: October 21, Wednesday,6:30p.m.
Where: Global Information Network
146 West 29th Street, 7th floor

*RSVP
212-244-3123 or ipsgin@igc.org

This year, Northern Uganda will be the site of the biggest military exercise in Africa with more than 1,000 American and East African troops to be deployed in a region war-torn by the presence of the insurgent Lord’s Resistance Army. Guest speaker Evalyne Achan, team leader of the Agency for Cooperation in Research and Development, works in an area once filled with over a million internal refugees fleeing the rebel LRA.

Her organization builds environmental awareness among the refugees and works with marginalized groups of women for women’s empowerment and post-conflict community rehabilitation.

In Kenya, homosexual behavior and attempted homosexual behavior between men is criminalized under Kenyan law with a penalty of 5 to 14 years' imprisonment. From Nairobi, Akinyi Ocholla is the Communications/Finance Officer for Minority Women in Action, a Kenya group that defends lesbian, bisexual, intersex and transgender rights. She is a member of the International Lesbian and Gay Commission and the Coalition of African Lesbians.

Finally, Somalia continues to be a flashpoint in the Horn of Africa where Islamist groups have been carrying out an insurgent war against the U.N.-backed administration of President Sheikh Shariff Ahmed. Elsadig Elsheikh has worked with various grassroots & advocacy organizations in the fields of Internal Displaced Persons, indigenous populations, human rights, immigration, anti-racism, and social mobilizations in Sudan, Greece, Colombia and the United States. On staff at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University, he recently published “Darfur: Domesticating Coloniality, The Failure of the Nation-State Model in Post-colonial Sudan (2008).”

Please join us for a penetrating look at the underlying issues in these critical struggles and for a rare and open-ended discussion with these activists from the field.

Milton Allimadi, publisher of The Black Star News, will moderate.

[Event] Community Healing in Sierra Leone

2009-10-12T11:43:00.002-04:00

A first-person account by John Caulker, Sierra Leonean
and executive director of Forum on Conscience and Fambul Tok.

Date: Oct 14, Wednesday
Time: 7 p.m.
Place: “The Tank”
354 W. 45 St., between 8 & 9 Aves.

*RSVP
212-244-3123 or ipsgin@igc.org

Moderator: Kewulay Kamara,
lecturer, poet and founder of Badenya, an Africa arts organization

A face-to-face community owned program, Fambul Tok brings together perpetrators and victims of the violence through ceremonies rooted in the local traditions of the villages that were affected. It provides Sierra Leonean citizens with an opportunity to come to terms with what happened during the war, to dialogue, to experience healing, and to chart a new path forward -- together.

On Wednesday, Oct. 14, John Caulker, founder of Forum of Conscience, a Sierra Leonean human rights group that developed Fambul Tok in collaboration with Catalyst for Peace, a U.S.-based foundation, will discuss the need for rural community participation in the national decision making process, and acknowledgement of wrongdoing to victims through the reparations program.

A rough cut of a powerful, emotionally moving, and soon-to-be
completed documentary “Fambul Tok” will be shown preceding Mr.Caulker's presentation. Additional panelists to be announced. Don’t miss this unique evening that examines a path to reconciliation that may have something to teach our conflicted world.

Sweet Crude - a documentary

2009-08-28T15:16:00.001-04:00

Sweet Crude is a documentary film about the Niger Delta of Nigeria -- the humanitarian and environmental devastation there in the wake of 50 years of unregulated oil extraction, the history of non-violent protest by Niger Deltans demanding control of their own resources and the emergence of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). Follow this space for future screenings.

Headquarters!

2009-04-22T15:48:00.006-04:00

Coming of Age by Judy Kibinge - a new film

2009-04-03T10:56:00.001-04:00

This coming of age story depicts the three ages and stages of democracy as seen through the eyes of a girl growing up. Director and writer Judy Kibinge was born in Nairobi and is a member of Concerned Kenyan Writers, a coalition whose purpose is to use our writing skills to help save Kenya in this polarized time.

Kenya, Coming of Age by Judy Kibinge ::

Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love

2009-01-09T13:46:00.001-05:00

This remarkable film follows Youssou Ndour as he releases the deeply personal album Egypt as an expression of his Islamic faith – a bold move when many in the West equate Islam with extremism rather than tolerance and compassion. Director Chai Vasarhelyi marshals a talented crew – filming in Africa, Europe, the United States and the Middle East – to tell the story of how Ndour wins over audiences both at home and abroad.

For devoted fans and first-time listeners alike, Ndour's performances are captivating, from the wild atmosphere at his nightclub in Dakar, Senegal, to the spiritual mood at a festival in Fez, Morocco.

Throw Down Your Heart - a new movie

2008-11-17T12:53:00.001-05:00

Check out this amazing movie clip from "Throw Down Your Heart" - a new film of a road trip from East to West Africa discovering African musicians who play a variety of instruments that engendered the banjo, and singers including Oumou Sangare. Shown this month at the Margaret Mead Film Festival at the American Museum of Natural History, NYC, the film was made by Sascha Paladino, and follows American musician Bela Fleck (Sascha's brother) traveling from Uganda to Tanzania to Gambia to Mali. DVDs of the movie will be available this summer and music CDs in February.

Obama Praise Song by Fula Flute

2008-11-04T16:55:00.000-05:00

Victory Party: Obamas Relatives congregate at Nyangoma

2008-11-04T16:48:00.000-05:00

Fungai Maboreke reads his poem

2008-09-09T15:01:00.000-04:00

Blacks Without Borders film screening

2008-09-03T15:49:00.000-04:00

Come join us for our first fall event! In a new yet-unreleased film BLACKS WITHOUT BORDERS, filmmaker Stafford U. Bailey takes a candid look at a group of African Americans who went to South Africa to find the American Dream.

from a review by Mshale.com reporter Anna Otieno:
Exactly what is “The American Dream”? For some it’s the ability to achieve one’s goals in America through the simple combination of freedom, opportunity and hard work. For others it’s a notion that ironically is best fulfilled abroad. More and more African Americans are leaving the United States to chase the American dream … in South Africa. And Blacks Without Borders, a documentary produced by Stafford U. Bailey and Judy Thayer–Bailey of 20 Four Productions, has chronicled this movement by following the journey twelve African Americans who are living fulfilling lives in South Africa.

Blacks Without Borders is a documentary, but it also aims to be a window of opportunity for African Americans of all ages. Bailey and Thayer-Bailey hope to show their documentary to teenagers as well as adults - just one glimpse may be enough to stretch the international potential of “The American Dream.”

Black Star News publisher Milton Allimadi will kick off a discussion with guest speakers Fungai Maboreke and Vincent Booys following the film: What is the African point of view? Will this help or hinder Africa? Is there really an "American Dream?" Come share your views!

Venue: Global Information Network
146 W. 29th St Suite 7E
Between 6th & 7th Avenues

Time: 7 p.m.
Date: Sept. 5, 2008 Friday

Please RSVP! Seats are limited.
Call 212-244-7480 or 212-244-3123

Bring munchies, snacks, home cooked things, etc.

Lisa Vives
Executive Director
Global Information Network
146 West 29th Street Suite 7E
New York, NY 10001
www.globalinfo.org
212-244-3123 (voice)
212-244-3522 (fax)

GLOBAL INFORMATION NETWORK distributes news and feature articles on Africa and the developing world to mainstream, alternative, ethnic and minority-owned outlets in the U.S. and Canada. Our goal is to increase the perspectives available to readers in North America and to bring into their view information about global issues that are overlooked or under-reported by mainstream media.

The Dictator Hunter, screening in NYC

2008-06-11T13:37:00.000-04:00

The Human Rights Watch International Film Festival will present the U.S. premiere of “The Dictator Hunter,” by Dutch director Klaartje Quirijns on June 15-17. The film explores the efforts of Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch, and Souleymane Guengueng, a Chadian refugee now exiled in New York, to bring former president Hissène Habré of Chad to trial for killing thousands of his own countrymen in the 1980s.

The film will be screening at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center
165 West 65th Street, upper level

Klaartje Quirijns, Reed Brody and Souleymane Guengueng will be present

· Sunday June 15: 3:30;
· Monday June 16: 6:30;
· Tuesday June 17: 1:30

More information on “The Dictator Hunter” can be found at:

www.thedictatorhunter.com

Larry Bowoto, on Chevron in Nigeria

2008-06-02T20:10:00.000-04:00

Chenjerai Hove, Zimbabwean poet & essayist

2008-04-21T16:11:00.000-04:00

African Writing for a New African Century

Apr. 30, 2008 - 7 p.m.

Chenjerai Hove: Renowned Zimbabwean poet, novelist and essayist

Omoyele Sowore: Publisher of Saharareporters.com, a premier investigative news site

Tuzyline Jita Allan: Professor, literary critic, editor

Vinie Burrows: Actress, writer and storyteller

Milton Allimadi, Publisher of Black Star News

"One has to grasp one's place in history," "You cannot wait for others to hand it to you." - Kassahun Checole, founder of the Africa World Press.

How is African literature articulating the complexities of the post-colonial experience? Are politics and literature inseparable? What is the impact of globalization? What, if any, are the barriers facing new writers on the continent?

.... Join us in the important discussion!

Venue: Global Information Network, 146 W. 29th St, NYC - 212-244-3123

A Walk to Beautiful - Now showing at Quad Cinema

2008-02-11T18:15:00.001-05:00

A Walk to Beautiful is now showing at Quad Cinema, 34 W. 13 St. www.quadcinema.com

"Even death would be better than this. This is not life," says 25 year old Ayehu. She lives in a ragged lean-to behind her mother’s house, thrown out by her husband after a weeklong labor left her with a stillborn child and an opening between the bladder and birth canal that makes her incontinent. Shunned by neighbors, unable to work or even live indoors because of her condition, Ayehu is one of thousands of women in rural Ethiopia who suffer from obstetric fistula. It’s a tragically common consequence of obstructed childbirth in developing countries, where doctors are scarce and obstetric care is practically nonexistent. Girls are undernourished and overworked, married off before puberty. Pregnant as young as 12 or 13, their bodies are unable to handle the trauma of childbirth. The title of this compassionate documentary refers to the journey Ayehu and many young women make on foot and by bus from their remote villages to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital to have corrective surgery. Australian husband and wife doctors Reginald and Catherine Hamlin opened the hospital in 1974 to treat fistula patients free of charge. Now widowed and elderly, the remarkable Dr. Catherine Hamlin continues to oversee the work of the hospital’s dedicated staff. The film follows five women from the despair of their conditions to hope and confidence as they undergo treatment and take control of their lives. It is a moving and inspiring tale.

—Margarita Landazuri

World Premiere. In Amharic with English subtitles. This film is competing for a Golden Gate Award. Presented in association with the United Nations Association Film Festival.

2007-12-10T15:37:00.000-05:00

Here is an amazing film and the best film directed by a woman of color in this year's African Diaspora Film Festival competition.
http://www.whydemocracy.net/film/8

Health care for Africa

2007-11-08T16:42:00.000-05:00

NEW BILL TO FUND AFRICAN HEALTH CARE WORKERS SEEKS SPONSORS

Much-needed funds to train new doctors and nurses in Africa and give them incentives to stay in their home countries would be authorized under a new piece of legislation now before the House of Representatives.

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced the African Health Capacity Investment Act of 2007 in October. The bill, backed by the nonprofit Physicians for Human Rights, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the NY-based Health GAP, would authorize spending of $600 million over three years.

A shortage of skilled doctors and nurses has crippled health care in many African countries. In Uganda, hospitals have shut down for lack of a single health worker to care for patients, and in some areas a single doctor or nurse may be on call 24 hours a day and seven days per week to care for hundreds of extremely ill patients every week.

In Ethiopia, there are only 2,000 doctors for 75 million people.

The bill would provide $150 million in FY 2008, $200 million in FY 2009, and $250 million in FY 2010 to pay for safer working conditions, training and recruitment of health workers (especially in underserved rural areas) and better health systems management.

More information about the bill can be found at: http://actnow-phr.org

Physicians for Human Rights - Uganda

2007-11-08T16:31:00.001-05:00

Africa Roundtable: Examining youth activism on the continent

2007-10-19T16:02:00.000-04:00

Government accountability, environmental protection and energy are some of the key issues underlying civil society movements today. How do young people - often assumed to be indifferent or disaffected - organize the youth and civil society overall to address these issues? What are the unique challenges to organizing in a developing country?

As leaders of respected community organizations in Congo-Brazzaville, Sierra Leone and Cameroon, our three guests will explain how they set goals and achieve results, risking reprisals every day from those who would repress their legitimate demands or silence their voice.

OCT. 25 – THURSDAY, 6:30 PM at 146 WEST 29TH ST., SUITE 7E
RSVP @ 212-244-3123 or ipsgin@igc.org