· April, 2006

Stories about Sub-Saharan Africa from April, 2006

Sudan: Child soldiers return home

  27 April 2006

Sudan Watch reports on the return of child soldiers to their homes in the south of the country – the return has been organised by UNICEF

Chad: Sudan backs rebels

  27 April 2006

Passion of the Present points to a Reuters report that claims the Sudanese government are backing the rebels in Chad who wish to overthrow President Idriss Deby.

Uganda: War in the North

  27 April 2006

Uganda-CAN posts an interview with Geoffrey Oryema, the founder and director of the Acholi Youth Leadership Program (AYLP) in Gulu. The AYLP was set up to provide support to young people affected by 20 years of war.

Nigeria: Civil War

  27 April 2006

Naijablog comments that Nigeria has failed to reach its moment of “genius” mainly because it has so far refused to acknowledge the depths of its suffering – “the civil war, the 40 years of rule by an elitist cabal, the brutality and brutalism of everyday experience for the masses”.

Some Excerpts from West African Blogs

  27 April 2006

Gambia Dictatorial rule of Yahya Jammeh of Gambia–Home of the Mandinmories“Gambians are bleeding from excessive taxation. They are bleeding from the debt burden that is incurred in their name and siphoned off to overseas banks in some of the greatest corruption debacles that has occurred since independence…There's the literal blood,...

DRC: “A Poem From My Heart”

  26 April 2006

Lines from a poem posted (FR) by Prince du Fleuve du Congo: “Son of this Sacred Land, I cry for your misfortune/Yet for your salvation, I fight with fortitude.”

Image from DRC: Kobolo Humor

  26 April 2006

A Kobolo is a public transportation vehicle in the DRC. It is also the Congolese word for trunk. Photo courtesy Le Renouveau Congolais. In a humorous photo essay, Le Renouveau Congolais lists (FR) all the different positions that make Kinshasa public transportation bearable.

Kenya: Ministerial perks

  26 April 2006

You missed this writes on Kenyan ministers whose perks have been increased and asks “what the MPs are going to do with all the extra tax-payers money that they are eager to line their pockets with.”

Nigeria: technology and violence

  26 April 2006

Chippla writes on terrorism, technology and violence using Bin Laden, Nigerian militants and the Kenyan Mau Mau uprising and the ANC struggle against apartheid as examples of how “one mans terrorist is another man's freedome fighter”

Ethiopia: Blogging media

  26 April 2006

Ethiopian blogConcoction points to an op/ed in the Economist that claims that news media are “already feeling the heat” from the blogosphere as blogs are changing the media.

South Africa: TRC

  26 April 2006

Agathon Rwasa points to a report in which Archbishop Desmond Tutu admits that the Truth and Reconciliaiton Commission failed “to meet the needs of apartheid victims”…”Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu is dismayed at the “ungenerous reparations” to victims of apartheid who appeared before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and has...

Sudan: genocide

  26 April 2006

Weichegud!ET Politics comments on Darfur, Rwanda and the failure of the West and Africa to act – in the case of Darfur we have been warned over and over yet still nothing happens. We as Africans also need to take responsibility…”Excuse me. 400,000 people have died. When do we start...

Uganda: Two countries

  26 April 2006

Black Star Journal points to an IRIN report on Uganda entitled “One country, Different realities”..

South Africa: Writing in indigenous language

  26 April 2006

Singing SouthAfricaness discusses African writers writing in their indigenous languages…”The idea that African writers should write in native African languages, therefore, is linked to the idea of the tyrany of the trace, as discussed above. Ngugi suggests that African writers should be enriching their own languages through producing work in...

South Africa: Carmen in Xhosa

  26 April 2006

African Shirts comments on another film from South Africa…U-Carmen eKhayelitsha which is a ” Xhosa language film based on Bizet's opera Carmen, and it won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival last year.

African music #7

  25 April 2006

Nothing beats a music festival. You meet like the music lovers, people interested in the genre and enjoy the good party vibe. And though you know the lineup in advance you have no idea what antics will be displayed on stage. With these musings I look forward to the 4th...

Nigeria: Internet exchange points

  25 April 2006

Oro reports that Nigerian internet traffic will soon have it's own exchange points which should speed up the time it takes for your email to reach its destination and vice versa. “The Board of Nigerian Communications Commission has approved a proposal to fund the setting up of Internet eXchange Points...

Zimbabwe: Unpatriotic

  25 April 2006

Moral Fibre reports that Zimbabwean Vice President has complained that young Zimbabweans are not generally patriotic. Hardly surprising given the state of the country….”Circumstances in Zimbabwe are not conducive to a patriotic populace, I'm afraid. What with inflation at 913.6%, unemployment at 70% and the omnipresent threat of wide-scale famine,...

Africa: Chinese visit

  25 April 2006

akwaabaghana reports that the Chinese leader, President Hu Jintao begins a week long tour of Africa - no doubt to check on how his country's investments are going and to encourage African leaders to welcome even more Chinese money.

About our Sub-Saharan Africa coverage

Zita Zage
Zita Zage is the Anglophone Africa Editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.

Jean Sovon
Jean Sovon is the Francophone Africa. Editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.

Dércio Tsandzana
Dércio Tsandzana is the Lusophone (Portuguese) editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.