By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 8 April 2024 (IDN) — A firebrand politician and a young tax inspector opposed to French colonialism have taken the government of Senegal by storm, say journalists inspired by the electoral victory of Bassirou Diomaye Faye, 44, and Ousmane Sonko, 49, on a platform of major […]
A Flame of Remembrance for Victims of the Rwandan Genocide
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 7 April 2024 (IDN) — Rwandans are marking the 30th anniversary of a genocide that took the lives of an estimated 800,000 mostly ethnic Tutsis over 100 days between April and June 1994. President Paul Kagame and First Lady Jeannette Kagame laid wreaths at the Kigali […]
Gambian Women Furious Over Vote to Restore Female Circumcision
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 1 April 2024 (IDN) — ‘Over my dead body!’ That was how one Gambian woman expressed her frustration with a vote by the country’s majority male legislators to end the prohibition of female genital mutilation (FGM). The practice has been on the rise in recent years […]
Drought Grips Southern Africa, Hunger Crisis Foreseen
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 1 April 2024 (IDN) — A severe dry spell in southern Africa linked to the El Nino weather pattern is crippling the nations of Malawi and Zambia. Zimbabwe has seen much of its crops decimated, underlining concerns by the UN World Food Program that numerous nations […]
West African Philosopher Who Challenged Colonialism Leaves Major Legacy
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 31 March 2024 (IDN)—Paulin Jidenu Hountondji of Benin, West Africa, considered one of the founding fathers of modern African philosophy, has recently passed away at the age of 82. His work “On African Philosophy” (1976) greatly clarified the debate over African philosophy—freeing it from the colonial […]
There Is More to Write About Africa’s Agriculture Than Famines
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 26 March 2024 (IDN) — Once again, the media is presenting us with images of the mother of all famines — stretching from Yemen to Somalia, to Sudan and South Sudan, to the Central African Republic, to northern Nigeria and, most recently, to Gaza. It’s a bad famine, but […]
Pineapple Farm in Kenya Linked to Killing of Workers
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 25 March 2024 (IDN) — Del Monte Kenya, a vast pineapple farm in Thika, Kenya, is facing serious claims of human rights abuses in the wake of killings and violence against workers allegedly by its security guards. The Guardian newspaper of London first broke the story […]
Limited Rescue Seen of Abducted Nigerian Schoolchildren
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 25 March 2024 (IDN) — The nightmare is over for some of the 287 Nigerian schoolchildren seized from their school and marched into the forests by an armed group. Nigeria’s military said in a statement that 76 girls and 61 boys had been freed in the […]
US Military ‘No Longer Justified’ In Niger, Junta Leaders Say
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 19 March 2024 (IDN) — The West African nation of Niger has suspended military cooperation with Washington after high-level talks to break recent tensions between the two parties collapsed. Speaking for Niger’s military junta, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane announced on state TV that the U.S. military […]
African Women Spur Fight for Gender Equality
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 18 March 2024 (IDN)—At the recent “Africa Disrupt“ conference, which included pan-African feminists, economic justice activists, and community leaders, one thing was certain: the time for gender equality for African working women had arrived. Halfway around the world, a new report by the World Bank fueled […]