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The coup in Chad as Derby is assassinated, his son takes over: The African Union is quiet

April 22, 2021April 22, 2021 admin2Africa, Chad, Coup, Idris Derby0 comment

N’DJAMENA, Chad — Chad’s president of three decades died of wounds suffered during a visit to front-line troops battling a shadowy rebel group, the military announced Tuesday, as the insurgents vowed to take the capital in what could become a violent battle for control of the oil-rich Central African nation. The military quickly named President Idriss Deby Itno’s son as the country’s interim leader, capping a series of stunning announcements that came just hours after the 68-year-old Deby had been declared winner of an election that would have given him…

africa population growth the guardian nigeria

Editor's Desk

Africa’s population growth: grasping the scale of the challenge!

April 21, 2021April 22, 2021 admin2Africa, Policy, Population Growth0 comment

The last 100 years have seen an incredible increase in the planet’s population. Some parts of the world are now seeing smaller increments of growth, and some, such as Japan, Germany, and Spain, are actually experiencing population decreases. The continent of Africa, however, is not following this pattern. Now home to 1.2 billion (up from just 477 million in 1980), Africa is projected by the United Nations Population Division to see a slight acceleration of annual population growth in the immediate future. In the past year, the population of the African…

Society Arts & Leisure

LIBERIA: TOWARDS CRYSTALLIZING A LITERARY SPIRIT

April 15, 2021April 15, 2021 admin2Africa, Liberia, Literature0 comment

By K. Moses Nagbe REFLECTING ON WHAT IN these past four months I’ve participated in on the Focus on Liberia platform, I’ve recognized the significance of conversation in meaningful ways that I hadn’t done in a long time. Purposeful conversations do carry seeds of development and progress. Why? Because such conversations are likely to generate ideas that drive dreams to be conquered, dreams to be attained. In the area of literacy and literature, that culture of purposeful conversations must rise to a high peak of intensity that is…

News

Liberia: War Crimes Trial Hears “Angel Gabriel” Ordered Children Burned Alive

April 13, 2021April 13, 2021 admin2Africa, Liberia, New Narratives, War Crimes0 comment

Mae Azango, New Narratives Justice Correspondent MONROVIA, Liberia – Three witnesses appearing in the ongoing war crimes trial former Revolutionary United Front commander, Gibril Massaquoi told the court harrowing stories on Tuesday. The first witness, a 45-year old man, from the Lofa County village of Karmatahun, said “Angel Gabriel” as Massaquoi was known during the war, order his men to burn about 25 small children alive in a cook shop and burn others in a nearby house. “I was standing right there and saw it with my two eyes, when…

Tributes

Tribute: OyaBisi Ideraabdullah, a lifelong work to restore hope to Africans at home and abroad

April 8, 2021April 8, 2021 admin2Africa, Humanitarian, OyaBisi Ideraabdullah0 comment

OyaBisi Ideraabdullah is a Brooklyn, NY-born, educator, activist, humanitarian, and a wife and mother of five children. She graduated from City College and attended Columbia University, Brooklyn College, the University of Ghana, and the University of Zambia. As the first Black recipient of the Brooklyn College Alumnae Study Abroad Scholarship, she chose to study for a year in Africa. When her year was up, she vowed that one day she would return to Africa. Mrs. Ideraabdullah is the founder of Imani House Liberia and New York – www.imanihouse.org, and the Women…

News

‘Greed, Wickedness Undermining Liberia’s Image’ -Pearl Brown Bull

March 31, 2021March 31, 2021 admin2Africa, corruption, Liberia0 comment

By Mae Azango MONROVIA — A Liberian clergywoman and lawyer, Rev. Cllr. Dr. Pearl Browne Bull, says the image and prosperity of Liberia are under threat as a result of greed for money and wickedness. Delivering her sermon at Liberia’s oldest church, the Providence Baptist Church in celebration of its 200 years of existence, Rev. Cllr. Bull acknowledged that a country with a great Christian history such as Liberia stands on the verge of collapse if wickedness and greed for selfish wealth accumulation remain the order of the day. According…

Artists & Reviews

Professor Wole Soyinka Writes a New Novel!

March 29, 2021March 29, 2021 admin2Africa, Books, Wole Soyinka0 comment

Wole Soyinka at 86 will publish a new novel titled ”Chronicles of the Happiest People on Earth” in November this year. The news of the novel has been circulating secretively since Soyinka submitted the typescript to his publishers–BookCraft in Ibadan and Random House in New York– in June this year. Those who are close to the 1986 Nobel Laureate in Literature were expecting a new collection of poems which was in its final stage of editing, only for Soyinka to spring a big surprise with a novel of 524…

Remembering Thomas Sankara on the 30th anniversary of his assassination

Public Policy

Thomas Sankara Is Not Dead

March 23, 2021March 23, 2021 admin2Africa, Leader, Thomas Sankara0 comment

BY BENJAMIN TALTON Anti-colonial revolutionary Thomas Sankara fought to transform Burkina Faso into a truly independent, self-governing nation before his assassination in 1987. But as a recent film shows, Sankara’s legacy continues to inspire struggles against oppression despite ruling elites’ efforts to erase him from public memory. Burkina Faso’s single railway line originates in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, on the Atlantic coast and runs northward six hundred kilometers to the capital and largest city, Ouagadougou. The railway was established by the French colonial administration, and its route remained unchanged until Thomas…

Given this position of the LNBA, our presence here today is not an approval of the reason for which we were cited, for the Constitution does not require such. We are here because the failure of a lawyer to appear and perform any service required by the Court is contemptuous. Personally, I should be in a joyous mood and celebrating for the elevation of Justice Kaba, as my former student during his undergraduate studies at the University of Liberia in the 1980s. But, I cannot because another former student of mine, Justice Ja’neh was removed unconstitutionally. Officially, as president of the LNBA, I cannot celebrate because to do so will be contrary to the official position of the LNBA.

Public Policy

Cde. Tiawon Gongloe lectures Chief Justice Korkpor about the progressive struggle in Liberia!

March 22, 2021March 22, 2021 admin2Africa, Progressive, Tiawon Saye Gongloe0 comment

The utterance by Chief Justice Francis Korkpor that there were no political prisoners when he was employed with the Ministry of Justice, decades prior to becoming the head of the Judicial Branch of the Government, did not go down well with Counselor Tiawan Gongloe, who himself was a victim. Addressing the opening of the March 2021 Term of the Supreme Court, Justice Korkpor, for the first time, recalled allegations that while working with the MoJ in the late 1970s as Research Coordinator at the Bureau of Correction, during the…

Public Policy

Infectious Disease Scientist, Dr. Nyan wants More COVID-19 Vaccines for Poorer Countries Debt Cancellation

March 19, 2021March 19, 2021 admin2Africa, Covid19, Debt0 comment

Staff Report BALTIMORE, MARCH 18, 2021 – A prominent scientist speaking recently at the Academy Health program of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health has called for more COVID-19 vaccines for low-to-middle income countries and proposed to the International Monetary Funds and other international financial institutions to cancel debt owed by developing countries during the COVID 19 pandemic. These proposals were contained in a slew of recommendations made by Dr. Dougbeh Chris Nyan, an infectious disease expert who spoke on global access to COVID-19 vaccines…