By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | CAPE TOWN (IDN) – African leaders had a new message for foreign companies seeking the diamonds, gold, rubies and emeralds so plentiful in desperate dirt-poor countries and so pricey when polished and sold in New York, Paris and Switzerland. We’re no longer a cheap date. That […]
Nalanda Grapples With Making Pali Relevant 2500 Years Later
By Kalinga Seneviratne This article is the 27th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate. Click here for previous series. NALANDA, India (IDN) – It is believed that more than 2500 years ago Gauthama Buddha chose to preach in Pali rather than Sanskrit because […]
Morocco’s Indigenous People Cry For Sustainable Development
By Peter J. Jacques The writer is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, USA. He recounts what Indigenous Amazigh people told him during field work in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco. ORLANDO (IDN) – Life and death for whole communities hang in the balance of achieving the […]
Emeralds, Rubies Could Make Zambia Rich
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Foreign mining companies extract more than a quarter of the world’s production of rare emeralds in Zambia yet, in some quarters, are alleged to declare losses to make themselves tax exempt. So far, charges of tax evasion filed against Kagem mine, a subsidiary of the […]
U.S. Hits Ghana With Visa Sanctions In Spat Over Deportees
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and State Department say they will no longer issue visas for certain Ghanaians owing to a “lack of cooperation” by the West African nation – namely its refusal to accept 7,000 Ghanaian nationals that the U.S. wants to […]
Remembering Dumisani Kumalo, Anti-Apartheid Campaigner And South Africa’s Leading Diplomat
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – In an interview for the book No Easy Victories: African Liberation and American Activists Over a Half Century, Dumisani Kumalo recalled the struggle to cut off the U.S. funds that were sustaining the apartheid government of South Africa. “I spoke to more than 1,000 campuses […]
Ghana Rolls Out The Red Carpet To Encourage Resettlement In The Motherland
By Benjamin Tetteh, Africa Renewal ACCRA (IDN-INPS) – In the heart of Accra, Ghana’s capital, just a few meters from the United States embassy, lie the tombs of W. E. B. Du Bois, a great African-American civil rights leader, and his wife, Shirley. The founder of the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored […]
Perils Of A Journey From Eritrea Through Libya To Europe
Migrants’ Search For Greener Pastures Carry Deadly Consequences By Franck Kuwonu and Louise Donavan This article first appeared on Africa Renewal, December 2018-March 2019 issue. NEW YORK | NIAMEY (IDN-INPS) – Alone in Niger, the young man sits, filled with regrets. “I didn’t necessarily want to come this far,” he says with anguish. “Khartoum may have […]
Suspension Of Top Judge Casts A Dark Shadow Over Forthcoming Elections In Nigeria
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | LAGOS (IDN) – Efforts to clean up government – difficult in the best of times – were hamstrung by none other than Nigeria’s top judge accused of failing to declare hundreds of thousands of dollars that ‘suspiciously’ appear in his accounts but were never declared as […]
The African Music Community Mourns Tuku’s Death
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | HARARE (IDN) – After 67 albums and a score of awards and honorary degrees, Zimbabwe’s musical legend Oliver Mtudkudzi – affectionately known as ‘Tuku’ – lost his long battle with diabetes at the Avenues Clinic in Harare. He was 66. He was buried January 27, with […]