Stories about Sub-Saharan Africa from July, 2006
Zimbabwe: End in sight?
Are we there yet? asks Eddie Cross, guest-blogging for Zimpundit, and wondering if Zimbabwe really is about to see the end of the Mugabe regime.
African women: Call for poetry
African Women Blogs posts a call for poetry from Agenda magazine, 21 years after the Nairobi (Women's) Conference. “Contributions should reflect the contradictions, complexities, challenges and successes for African women two decades after the Nairobi conference,” the announcement says.
Sierra Leone: Economist's tale
R.E. Ekosso reviews, and even approves of, The Economist's Tale, written by World Bank consultant Peter Griffiths after a recent research trip to Sierra Leone. “This book”, says Griffiths in his introduction, “shows that it is individuals who cause poverty, underdevelopment and famine, by their actions, by their failure to...
DRC: Demonstrations Leading Up to Election
Opposition party blog UDPS Liege announces an intensification of peaceful protests in the capital Kinshasa leading up to the July 30 election. Protests are planned for July 25, 27, 28 and 30.
Gripes with Footballer Lilian Thuram
Of Lilian Thuram, a French football player of Guadeloupean origin, France-based Senegalese blogger says (Fr): “Wanting desperately to become a Martin Luther King-style defender of the Black cause, Thuram seems to have no friends around him to tell him to calm down and to stay away from politics, an artform...
Zimbabwe: Big Brother plan
The Bearded Man commens on an article in the Washington Post about plans being mooted by the Zimbabwean government to monitor e-mail and other electronic communication. He writes: “It would take a sizeable army to sift through emails, SMS and telephone calls – yes, I know that much of it...
Nigeria: Diane Evans tour
Ore's Notes remarks on a visit to Nigeria by author Diane Evans, who she notes is part-Nigerian.
South Africa: Eastern Cape Paper
Farrel Lifson of politics.za comments on a forthcoming position paper from the Eastern Cape provincial division of the African National Congress (ANC), which will say that the South African government is being taken over by right-wing forces resistant to transformation.
African countries need technocrats
Africa Unchained points to a passage in George Ayittey's book by the same name, which runs: “We need TECHNOCRATS to fix our broken, dysfunctional institutions. REPAIRMEN or plumbers who will unclog the gutters or the system. CUTLASSES to chop down all the dead wood.”
Kenya: Job loss
“It's odd to quit a job,” writes Kenyan Musings, who just quit hers. “People think you are nuts…but it gets to the point where if you allow yourself to be depleted to the point where your professional tank is empty and you are running on fumes of habit, everybody loses....
Kenya: Meeting with Bill Gates
4Sheezy wonders what might have happened if she had managed to get a meeting with Bill Gates while he was in Kenya, to talk about his HIV/AIDS work.
African women’s voices this week
Concoction on Humanities for African Leaders the modern way of doing politics especially in Africa is so far away from doing “dialogue publicly” that we have had an ‘interesting’ version of democracy…….Politics, which the ancient Greeks defined as public dialogue, is unfortunatelly measured by some sort of wierd election that...
Ethiopia, Somalia: Potential bloodshed
On the appearance of Ethiopian troops in Somalia, Yebo Gogo writes: “I hope all parties will find a way to walk away before more blood is shed, but this has the potential to be a long, deadly conflict.”
African Migrants in Australia
African Migrants takes note of a report that says African migrants who held a job before leaving their homeland in search of work are more likely to find employment on arrival in Australia.
African Thatched Roofing
African Architecture showcases the possibilities inherent in traditional African thatched roofing in contemporary buildings.
Israel/Lebanon commentary
“Destroying the infrastructure of Lebanon isn't going to achieve much. It would surely not make Israel any safer,” writes Netherlands-based Nigerian blogger Chippla in a
African Women: Call for Nominations
African Women posts a call for nominations for the African Women of Distinction book and video exhibition scheduled for December 2006. The aim, the announcement says, is to profile the stories and work of 20 women in Africa who embody the essence of leadership, determination, and innovation in addressing social,...
Islam: Caged Virgin Reviewed
Palava Soup posts a review of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's book about Muslim women, The Caged Virgin, by British Muslim Fareena Alam, who is impressed neither by its central thesis nor its author's level of scholarship.
Reunion: Moslem Community Rallying Cry
Zarabes writes (Fr): “We members of the moslem community of la Reunion, are watching powerless the current events in Palestine and Lebanon. Tired of the ambiant silence, we ask the various heads of the island's masjids to hold a common discourse next Friday (July 28, 2006) for the salat of...
Ethiopia: Funeral blues
Lela Tensae gives a witty and detailed portrait of funeral rites among Ethiopians in the United States. “The worst type of funeral for me is when the deceased is in the age bracket of 65 to 80. The deceased probably was hiding during the Italian invasion or was titled by...
Reunion: Volcano Eruption
From Reunion, Jean-Paul at Dijoux.re writes (Fr):”It is the first eruption of the year. Of the two lava flows registered at the beginning of the eruption, one stopped and the other has diminished. The awful weather (i.e. the cold, the rain and the fog) is not making for a scenic...