Landmark report highlights untapped potential of Africa’s film industry
Africa’s film and audiovisual industries could create over 20 million jobs and contribute $20 billion to the continent’s combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the UN cultural agency, UNESCO, said on Oct. 5 in a new report highlighting this untapped potential. The African Film Industry: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities for Growth is the first-ever mapping of the sector, which currently employs...
Libyan leader calls for international inquiry in Arafat’s death
TRIPOLI, Libya (PANA) - Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gadhafi has called on the Arab League to make arrangements with the parties concerned to set up an international commission of enquiry into the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, an official source said here Sunday. "After the results of analyses have demonstrated that President Arafat was poisoned, I am calling...
Okonjo-Iweala is 1st woman, African to lead world trade body
FRANKFURT, Germany—Nigerian economist Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was appointed to head the World Trade Organization, becoming the first woman and first African to take on the role amid rising protectionism and disagreement over how the body decides cases involving billions in sales and thousands of jobs. Ms. Okonjo-Iweala, 66, was named director-general by representatives of the 164 countries that make up the...
America’s sordid history of embracing European colonialism and neocolonialism
America’s history of endorsing European colonialism and neocolonialism in face of the current scramble for Africa needs to be revisited. But to say U.S. endorsement without showing the material benefits the country derived as a “colonial accomplice,” is to give an incomplete narrative. Case in point, according to the book, “The United States and the Liquidation of European Colonial Rule...
Africa Union chairman visits U.S., shares frustrations over preconditions for peace in Libya
Why the West Want the Fall of Muammar Gaddafi (Analysis by Jean-Paul Pougala, 04, 2011)Wikileaks Cablegate reveals unflattering U.S. view of African 'client states,' leaders (FCN, 12-09-2010) (FinalCall.com) - Dr. Jean Ping, chairperson of the African Union Commission, and his high level delegation recently paid an official visit to the United States. The AUC chairman's visit was part of the...
South Africa’s ruling party backs motion in parliament to close Israeli embassy
According to media reports, South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), “given the unfolding atrocities in occupied Palestine …” is backing the country’s opposition party’s motion to shut down its embassy. The ANC said in a statement it would support the motion “to close the Israel Embassy in South Africa and suspend all diplomatic relations with Israel...
Overcoming barriers through technology and providing services to hard-to-reach rural areas
Helping to improve direct and immediate access to even hard-to-reach communities with real-time measurable data through mobile phone technology is how Viamo explains its service. According to its Sudan Country Manager, Rudiana M.E. Mustafa, Viamo’s digital campaigns include starting a dialogue between organizations, governments, programs and the people they work with to utilize important public service messaging. Viamo works cross...
Is South Africa prepared to embrace a coalition government?
As South Africans approach their upcoming national elections, scheduled for May 29—some with reservations—a plethora of critical issues loom large over the country’s political landscape. One that is getting a lot of attention is whether Africa’s most influential nation-state is possibly prepared to embrace coalition governance on a national scale. According to the South African news site Isolezwe, more...
Nearly a century after atrocities, Belgium’s king visits, offers words but no reparations to the Congo
It’s heart wrenching to read Adam Hochschild’s 1998 book, “King Leopold’s Ghost,” which recounts the long history of brutality perpetrated on the Congolese people by Belgium and King Leopold II, who established the Congo Free State as his personal property. My blood began to boil at the welcome Belgium’s king recently received in the Democratic Republic of Congo, also once...
Mandela’s legacy is much more than the ‘non-racial’ society attributed to him
What are South Africa’s first Black president and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela’s achievements? December 5 marked 10 years since the freedom fighter died at age 95. A decade after his death, what is the legacy left by the icon who ushered in an era of hope and inspiration to an apartheid-divided country? In this current geopolitical world of growing global...