Africa

Photo: The demolitions at the slum are set to pave way for construction of the Nairobi Expressway. Credit: The Standard.

A Superhighway Paves Over a Nairobi Slum

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — An ambitious road construction project in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, has demolished some 13,000 homes in the informal housing of Mukuru Kwa Njenga, technically a slum, ignoring human rights and leaving some 40,000 people homeless, says Diana Gichengo of Amnesty International Kenya.

Schools, businesses and homes across nearly 100 acres have been demolished since October as the government constructs the so-called “road for the rich” while others, forced by poverty, will be left to walk.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 31 January 2022

Photo: Burkina Faso’s new military leader Lt.-Col. Paul-Henri Damiba. Source: This Nigeria

Burkina Faso Coup Leader Promises Return to Constitutional Order

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — In his first speech to the nation since the overthrow of President Roch Kabore, the new military leader of Burkina Faso promised a return to the normal constitutional order "when the conditions are right".

Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba, who led the ouster of President Kaboré, blamed the president for failing to contain violent extremists. An attack last November that left almost 50 military police officers dead is considered a key event that led to the coup.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 31 January 2022

Coronavirus Cases Are Shooting Up Across Africa

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE (INPS) — There are over 228 000 coronavirus cases in Zimbabwe, with more than 5000 deaths while north of this country stands Zambia laden with over 300 000 coronavirus cases and more than 3000 COVID-related deaths and not to be left out, is Mozambique east of Zimbabwe, contending with more than 200 000 coronavirus cases, this with over 2000 deaths related to the feared pandemic.

As this happens, health experts like Malawi’s Joseph Banda have said for Africa as a whole, there is no respite as coronavirus cases continue to rise, getting out of hand in the process.

: Jeffrey Moyo; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 27 January 2022

Photo: Two indigenous persons. Source: Survival International

Concern Over 'Fortress Conservation' and Evictions of Kenyans from Ancestral Homelands

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Nature conservancies, with the stated goal of protecting wilderness and endangered wildlife, have enabled the removal of tribal peoples from their ancestral homelands in Africa to allow superior “western” models of conservation to prevail, according to the activist group Survival International.

Under the western model, half of all land must be kept in a natural state to protect Earth, as the National Geographic Society recently declared on its magazine pages, if a stable climate and high quality of life are to be preserved in the near future.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 24 January 2022

Image: Covers of 'Born in Blackness'. Sources: Amazon and Hugenduble

"Africa Has Been the Linchpin of The Machine of Modernity"

By Jan Servaes*

BRUSSELS (IDN) — This remarkable quote appears on page 6 of Howard French's latest book, published in October 2021, "Born in Blackness. Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World. 1471 to the Second World War". In doing so, he casts a lot of doubt on traditionally held opinions about Africa over the centuries.

Howard French, professor of journalism at Columbia University in New York and former bureau chief of the New York Times in the Caribbean and Central America, West and Central Africa, Tokyo, and Shanghai, tries to make it clear that the way we think about history is often wrong.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 23 January 2022

Photo: Ikoyi Bridge, Nigeria | Rejoice Emmanuel, UNDP Nigeria

The Global Corporate Tax Deal--An African Perspective

Viewpoint by Orria Goni and Luckystar Miyandazi

Orria Goni is SDG Financing and South-South Cooperation Advisor, UNDP, and Luckystar Miyandazi is Regional Tax Specialist, UNDP. This article was posted on UNDP Blog.

NEW YORK (IDN) — On October 30, 2021, the leaders of the world's 20 largest economies, the G20, endorsed a two-pillar blueprint to address the tax challenges arising from the digitalization of the economy. The agreement includes partial reallocation of taxing rights to market jurisdictions and a 15 per cent global minimum tax for multinational enterprises (MNEs).

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 23 January 2022

The Anti-Colonial Roots of Relations Between Cuba and Africa

By Kester Kenn Klomegah*

MOSCOW (IDN) — Many Africans remember Fidel Castro and Ernesto Guevara, internationalist symbols in the struggles for the independence of the peoples in Latin America and the Caribbean. Africa and Cuba have maintained cordial relations for decades, before and after the Cold War.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Africa; 21 January 2022

Photo: After the release of Convention Peoples’ Party (CPP) leaders from prison in 1951. From left to Right: Kojo Botsio, Kwame Nkrumah, Komla Agbeli Gbedemah and Kofi Baako. NB: The PG symbol written on their cap stands for Prison Graduates. It was a popular title for these freedom fighters. Credit: Ghanaian Museum, Sep 8, 2021

Nkrumah’s Prison Cap Left an Indelible Memory With 'MLK'

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in anguish over the extreme violence displayed at the aftermath of the legendary Montgomery bus boycott, found solace in Ghana which he visited with his wife Coretta Scott King at the invitation of the newly installed Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah.

Alongside African American leaders including A. Philip Randolph, Adam Clayton Powell and Ralph Bunch, MLK was there to observe Ghana’s independence ceremony. It was March of 1957.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 18 January 2022

Photo: Some family members had to be carried out of the service after being overcome with grief. Credit: Dean Moses.

Growing Calls for Investigation into Bronx Fire That Took Over a Dozen African Lives

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — A smoky building fire that raced through a 19-story building on an early Sunday this month took 17 lives—adults and children, many from the African nation of The Gambia—is raising questions about the building’s reported insufficient heat and automatic doors that should have been shut but weren’t working.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 18 January 2022

Photo: Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu. Source: The Guardian Nigeria.

Nigeria’s Police Force Appears to Be Adding Self-Destruction to Its List of Woes

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene

The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria.

ABUJA (IDN) — The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, would like to close the case of the suspicious death of Sylvester Omoroni Jr., and simply move on to something else. He’s surprised there's pushback and can’t understand why.