By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 17 June 2024 (IDN) — Once unthinkable, two sharply antagonistic parties have come together in South Africa’s new government of national unity. The African National Congress has agreed to unite with their largest rival – the white-led, pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA) – after the ANC failed […]
Kenyan Bishops Slate Proposed Tax Hikes
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 16 June 2024 (IDN) — In a lengthy statement, members of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops are warning against passage of the 2024 finance bill, which if passed, they say, would hurt the vast majority of the country’s poor. The bishops criticized the proposed slew […]
Nigerian Leaders Warned of Impending Revolt as Prices Soar
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 16 June 2024 (IDN) — In the country’s worst economic crisis in decades, an imminent revolt could be inevitable in Nigeria should government officials continue to increase prices while holding down wages. The federal government insists on capping wages at $42 a month while organized labor […]
Mobile Library, First of Its Kind, Launched in Democratic Republic of Congo
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 11 June 2024 (IDN) — If you don’t go to libraries, they will come to you. This is the concept behind Kitabus, a mobile library designed to promote reading to a wide audience. The name “Kitabus” is derived from “Kitabu,” which means book in Swahili, and […]
Disputes on Sexuality Shaking the African Church
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 11 June 2024 (IDN) — Leaders of the United Methodist Church expressed regret over last week’s decision by the branch in Ivory Coast to leave the union following the decision of the church to repeal a long-standing ban on LGBTQ+ clergy. The developments were the latest […]
South Africa in Uncharted Waters After Pivotal Election
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 9 June 2024 (IDN) —Thirty years after the first democratic elections in 1994, South Africa finds itself at a political inflection point. The 2024 election saw a collapse in the vote for the ruling African National Congress which received only 40% of the vote, 17 percentage […]
Why Minimum Wage Is a Bad Idea
By Azu Ishiekwene The writer is Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP and author of the new book Writing for Media and Monetising It. ABUJA | 7 June 2024 (IDN) — I’m opposed to minimum wage. And I know I’m saying this at the risk of losing readers. The minimum wage hurts the poor and vulnerable in whose […]
First Korea-Africa Summit Paves Way for A New Era of Cooperation
By Taro Ichikawa TOKYO | SEOUL | 6 June 2024 (IDN) — Three decades after Japan organised the First International Conference on African Development (TICAD)—in collaboration with the United Nations, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the African Union Commission (AUC), and the World Bank—its immediate neighbour and former colony (South) Korea convened its first […]
Debate Brews Over New National Anthem Adopted by Nigerian President
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 3 June 2024 (IDN) — Nigerian President Bola Tinubu hardly anticipated a dust up when he signed a law restoring the country’s 1960 anthem “Nigeria We Hail Thee”—and deleting “Arise O Compatriots”—a tune written by a group of Nigerians in 1978 in the aftermath of a […]
South African Activists Win Prestigious Environmental Prize
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 2 June 2024 (IDN) — Indigenous activists Nonhle Mbuthuma and Sinegugu Zukulu of South Africa are among this year’s recipients of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize. The prize celebrates grassroots leaders who prove that ordinary people can have an extraordinary impact on the environment. The South […]