Tanzania’s Muslim female president seeks partnerships during ‘royal tour’
On the heels of a White House visit, Samia Suluhu Hassan, Tanzania’s first female president, made a special stop in New York City: The world premiere of Emmy award-winning journalist and travel editor Peter Greenberg’s global television special, “Tanzania: The Royal Tour.” “This is a very special, up close and personal journey to and through a country, seen through the...
Extreme weather brings deadly flooding to KwaZulu-Natal
(GIN)—Record-breaking levels of rainfall threaten a new round of flooding and landslides in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal. Already, the calamity has taken over 400 lives, left some 40,000 homeless, with an economic cost yet to be tallied. Weather forecasters and climate scientists, speaking to the Daily Maverick news outlet, are predicting a repeat of such events—potentially sooner than expected. “The events of...
Democratic Republic of Congo’s mineral wealth continues to be exploited
In 2009 African Business magazine estimated the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) total mineral wealth at $24 trillion was the equivalent to the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of Europe and the U.S. combined. In Susan Williams’ recent book, “White Malice: The CIA and The Covert Recolonization of Africa,” she paints a picture of a U.S. scramble for global dominance,...
Tired of ‘living while Black’: Many finding a place in Africa
Serious interest in going back to and engaging with Africa keeps growing among Blacks in the West separated from the continent for nearly 500 years. After experiencing slavery, marginalization, racism, and seemingly unending discrimination, many are opting to create life elsewhere rather than continue “living while Black” in America and Europe. They are enhancing their well being—spiritually, mentally, emotionally and economically. For...
‘Water grab’ by profit-seeking corporations starve African lands of vital resources, report says
(GIN)—In anticipation of Earth Day on April 22, a blistering new study has emerged on the escalating climate crisis in Africa and the threat to water for millions of Africans. Large-scale agricultural plantations have been drying up African lands, according to the California-based Oakland Institute in its newly published report released on the eve of the Forum Alternatif Mondial de...
Deported Black asylum seekers at risk in Cameroon
(GIN)—As the U.S. prepares to welcome tens of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing war, scores of African and Caribbean refugees are being sent back to unstable and violent homelands where they face rape, torture, arbitrary arrest and other abuses. Racial bias? An African refugee thinks so. “They do not care about a Black man,” said Wilfred Tebah, a leading member of the...
The spread of Islam across the African continent
In early April, Muslims around the globe began Islam’s Holy Month of Ramadan, including East Africa’s Kenya where 10 percent of the population are adherents to the faith. Many worshipers gathered, in large numbers, right before Ramadan at the Jamia Mosque. Though Islam represents only 10 percent of Kenya’s population of 56.2 million, according to Ustadh Hassan Ali Amin, chairman...
‘We will continue all forms of resistance’ Military crackdown in Sudan continues, protestors remain undeterred
The strangeness of writing a column about Africa and being married to an African in the middle of a political, economic and social crisis is personal and is substance for the current column. Don’t worry, my wife Zakia during the month of Ramadan is spending time with her mom, far removed from the epicenter of the conflict in Khartoum. In...
Why U.S.-led NATO & its complicit press framing Africa as being in bed with Russia
Western media outlets in many cases have wrongly accused Africa of siding with Russia in its war against Ukraine. No mention is ever made of NATO’s involvement in provoking Russia’s recent invasion. “The war could have been avoided if NATO had heeded the warnings from amongst its own leaders and officials over the years that its eastward expansion would lead...
Happy independence anniversary? French nuclear testing health hazards, dirty war deaths, torture, abuses and Algeria’s yet unresolved post-war issues
(GIN)—Tucked away in the treaty that signaled Algerian independence from France was a “gerboise bleue”—a “blue desert rat” and a code name for the first French nuclear test on Algerian soil. In the independence pact, known as the Evian Accords, France reserved the right to test atmospheric and underground nuclear bombs in Algeria, helping to make France the fourth largest...