Viewpoint by Henrik Maihack * NAIROBI (IDN-INPS) – In the next 25 years, Africa’s urban population is set to double. By 2040, the majority of Africans will be living in cities. There are numerous reasons for this: climate change, violent conflicts and the hope of finding work or education, although this list could easily be […]
Timing of Nobel Peace Prize for Ethiopian Leader Questioned
Viewpoint by Makeda Saba BRUSSELS (IDN) – On October 11, 2019, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace prize to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia Dr Abiy Ahmed. He is the fourth African leader to be bestowed that honour after President Anwar Sadat in 1978; President FW de Klerk in 1993); and President […]
Uganda Outlaws Opposition Leader’s Trademark – The Red Beret
By Lisa Vives NEW YORK (IDN) – The Uganda government is taking action against the popular red beret, calling it official military clothing that could earn the wearer imprisonment for life. According to the new rule, the sale or wearing of any attire which resembles the army uniform is also banned. Prohibited items include side […]
Tanzania’s Hadzabe Win Climate Change Award
By Kizito Makoye MANYARA, Tanzania (IDN) – At the heart of the Yaeda valley, which sprawls across a wide expanse of plains in Tanzania’s northern Manyara region, live the Hadzabe – a 40,000-year-old tribe who live in the bush. Their livelihoods still depend on hunting and gathering wild fruits, and for many years now, they […]
African Languages Among the Top Ten Spoken in U.S. Homes
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – If you think you’re hearing more Swahili, Yoruba, Amharic or Twi coming from your neighbour’s home, you’re right! Newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau finds African languages are among the top ten fastest growing languages spoken at home in the U.S. The Census […]
Ethiopian ‘Thanksgiving’ Returns as A Joyous Affair
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW York (IDN) – For the first time in 150 years, Ethiopia’s Oromo people celebrated “Thanksgiving” in “Finfinee” – generally known as Addis Ababa. The country’s largest ethnic group turned up in the hundreds of thousands to mark “Ireecha” – a public outdoors event. People gathered around water bodies, […]
What a Kenyan Senator Attending UN Meeting Experienced in US
By Isaac Mwaura The writer is a Nominated Senator and chairman of the Albinism Society of Kenya. @mwauraIsaac1 mwaura.isa@gmail.com.NEW This article was first published in Standard Digitial. NEW YORK (IDN) – It is Wednesday September 25, 2019, and I am rushing to take my seat at a Kenyan side event on peace, organised by our […]
World Bank’s Cash Handouts Lift Tanzanians from Poverty
By Kizito Makoye KILOSA, Tanzania (IDN) – Hidaya Juma looks gaunt and weary. Her sun-parched skin and tattered clothes tell it all. She is poor. Juma, a 43-year-old single mother of four, who lives in Kisanga village, Kilosa district, in Tanzania’s eastern Morogoro region, lives in a mud-walled house that is prone to flooding. Her […]
Advocates for Biafra and Journalists Against Corruption Face Gov’t Crackdown
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – The war may be over in a place called Biafra – a region of states in the southern part of Nigeria – but it remains a flashpoint for ethnic tensions that simmer just below the surface. This September, the leader of the Indigenous People of […]
Drought Catapults Zimbabwe into a National Disaster
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – In a new low water mark for Zimbabwe’s troubled economy, two million people in Zimbabwe’s capital have now been left without water after the government ran out of foreign currency to pay for imported water treatment chemicals. Zimbabwe’s capital city shut its main water works […]