Cash-strapped African countries face pain from foreign interest obligations
(GIN)—Foreign investors who plied African countries with huge loans despite obvious difficulties for repayment got some bad news recently. The government of Zambia announced it missed a Nov. 13 deadline to repay $42.5 million in interest to Eurobond holders after the investors rejected a six-month delay sought by Zambia to pay up. This could set a precedent, lenders fear. Zambia has...
An African Giant Passes Remembering Ghana’s President Jerry John Rawlings
Another African tree has fallen with the death of former President Jerry John Rawlings, 73, who led Ghana’s successful transition to a stable democracy from military rule. “It is with great sadness that I announce to the nation that the first president of the Fourth Republic, His Excellency Jerry John Rawlings, has joined his ancestors,” said Ghana President Nana Addo...
EndSARS movement born out of young Nigerians’ outrage against police brutality
“For people who are not familiar with the histories of (global) policing and even just youth struggles, political struggles in Nigeria, the #EndSARS uprising may have come by surprise. The narrative in the U.S. about policing and police brutality (at the root of which is) White supremacy and racism … to be the same really in the largest Black...
Blacks and Whites clash at South African school incident
JOHANNESBURG—South African president Cyril Ramaphosa has called for restraint Nov. 10 following clashes at an anti-racism protest outside a school in Cape Town. Members of the leftist opposition party Economic Freedom Fighters protested in front of the Brackenfell High School over allegations that a school graduation event was attended only by White pupils. The protest turned violent when the Black demonstrators...
UN refugee agency: Keep borders open for fleeing Ethiopians
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Nov. 11 that it is working with Sudanese authorities to help more than 7,000 refugees who have fled Ethiopia over the past two days, following major clashes in the Tigray region of the country. The Office of UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and local authorities are screening and registering people arriving in...
Poverty, corruption, conflict are factors in Nigeria’s SARS protest movement
What may be worse than law enforcement officers in U.S. cities receiving police training in Israel? Nigeria’s recently disbanded notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad or SARS receiving police training from the United Kingdom College of Policing. According to the African program director for the International Crisis Group, Dr. Comfort Ero, “We should acknowledge that SARS was part of the UK...
Libyan sides agree plan on implementing ceasefire deal
Military officers from Libya’s warring parties have agreed practical steps towards implementing a ceasefire agreement, following the signing of an historic accord in Geneva in October, the UN mission in the country, UNSMIL, has reported. The two-day meeting of the Joint Military Commission (JMC)—which comprises five members each from the Government of National Accord (GNA) and the Libyan National Army (LNA)—concluded...
10,000 women and the spark for Nigeria’s independence
In the recently released documentary “Journey of an African Colony,” executive producer and narrator Olasupo Shasore captivates his audience by physically visiting many of the locations discussed in this seven-part series on the colonial history of Nigeria. Facts in this documentary and the release Sept. 30, coincided with the 60th anniversary of Nigeria’s independence from Great Britain. The information comes...
Kenyan author accepts writing prize in his Gikuyu language
(GIN)—Ngaahika Ndeenda, a theatrical piece about a wealthy farmer, a peasant and his marriageable young daughter, was a commercial success when it appeared in 1977 in Kenya. But because it appeared in Gikuyu, the author’s mother tongue, it angered the government which slapped the authors—Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and Ngũgĩ wa Mirii— in jail. Set in post-independence Kenya, the play looks...
Sanctions do more harm than good
AFRICA WATCH The sanctions concept has been around a long time. According to Foreign Policy global news publication, sanctions have a long history of use by nation states blockading their enemies, or by those that have come under the sway of Western imperialist powers. A case can be made, that for Africans and Africans of the Diaspora this form of...