By Global Information Network NEW YORK | MONROVIA (IDN) – George Weah, Liberia’s president-elect, declared the country open to investment and pledged to tackle entrenched corruption, in his first speech to the nation since decisively winning an election on December 30, 2017. Speaking at a press conference at his party headquarters, Weah thanked his predecessor, […]
Controversial Kenyan Advocate of GM Seeds Dies in Boston
By Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) –The Kenyan director of the Science, Technology and Globalization Project at Harvard University, Professor Calestous Juma, passed away in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 15, at the age of 64. Juma served as Professor of the Practice of International Development, and was affiliated with the Belfer Center for Science […]
Writers Protest the Arrest of New York Professor in Cameroon
By Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – The African Literature Association and other professional associations of writers and scholars are demanding the release of a Cameroonian-American writer and university professor, detained on December 6 without explanation at the airport in Douala, Cameroon. Patrice Nganang, who teaches at Stony Brook University’s cultural studies and comparative […]
African Fact Checkers Expose ‘Fake News’ And Win Prizes
By Global Information Network NEW YORK | JOHANNESBURG (IDN) – Striking a blow against fake news, reporters from Kenya, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Cameroon scooped the top prizes this year in a competition organized by Africa Check, the leading fact-check organization on the continent. Founded by the French news service AFP in partnership with […]
Mugabe Faults Late Mandela for Leaving South Africa to the Whites
By Global Information Network
NEW YORK | HARARE (IDN) – Thanks to the former South African leader, “Everything (today) is in the whites’ hands.” That was the harsh judgment of the legacy of President Nelson Mandela heard early September 2017 at a rally in Zimbabwe. It provoked a media whirlwind that rocked southern Africa.
“The most important thing for (Mandela) was his release from prison and nothing else,” Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe was widely reported to say. “He cherished that freedom more than anything else and forgot why he was put in jail.” Mugabe made his remarks in Shona at a ruling party rally in the central town of Gweru. NewZimbabwe.com translated these remarks.
Skeletal Remains of Hereros Give a New Twist to Genocide Case
By Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – The New York-based American Museum of Natural History is believed to be holding skeletal remains collected by a German racialist scientist who studied the Herero and Namaqua peoples of Namibia.
The find was announced earlier in September 2017 and will be included in a federal class action suit filed on behalf of the Hereros and Nama people by the New York attorney Kenneth McCallion.
The remains were originally gathered for use in experiments. According to representatives of the Namibian groups, skulls and skeletons dating to the German occupation of southwest Africa in the decades before World War 1 still remain in a museum archive. The museum has declined to comment.
U.S. State Secretary Lauds Kazakh Decision to Renounce Nukes
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – “The Republic of Kazakhstan is a particularly illustrative example of the wisdom of relinquishing nuclear weapons,” according to Rex W. Tillerson, the U.S. Secretary of State. He was addressing the United Nations Security Council Session on Nuclear Non-Proliferation on September 21, 2017.
“In partnership with the United States, and aided by the Cooperative Threat Reduction Act spearheaded by U.S. Senators Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar, Kazakhstan opted to remove from its territory former Soviet weapons and related nuclear technologies, and joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-weapons state,” Tillerson added.
The 25 Biggest Companies in Africa and Their Industries
By J W Jackie
RENO, Nevada, United States (IDN) – Business is booming across Africa and a number of companies have risen above the fray with 24 of them being worth over $1 billion. However, many of these companies are not famous outside of the continent, so what are the 25 biggest companies in Africa? They are:
Corruption Returns with a Vengeance in Ghana
By Global Information Network
NEW YORK | ACCRA (IDN) – Waving a gold sword – a symbol of Ghana’s presidency – the new president came out swinging against years of debilitating corruption.
“We must restore integrity in public life,” President Nana Akufo-Addo thundered at his swearing in ceremony last January. “State coffers are not spoils for the party that wins an election, but resources for the country’s social and economic development.”
Nine months later, the unpleasant stench of corruption is swirling around the presidency after it was revealed that highly-overpriced garbage contracts to the tune of $74 million were okayed by government officials.
Thousands March for Change in Togo and End to Dynasty Rule
By Global Information Network
NEW YORK | LOME (IDN) – In another strike against presidents who refuse to hand over power, the people of Togo filled the streets this month to protest 50 years of repressive rule by one family.
In an estimated crowd of 100,000 protesters, banners reading “Free Togo” and “Faure resign” could be seen. Police dispersed the protestors with tear gas and violence. In earlier protests in August, two people were killed and 13 injured when police fired on demonstrators. Taking the punishment a step further, the regime shut down the internet, making it almost impossible for opponents to use social media to organize.