Category: THE WORLD

By Kingsley Ighobor*

NEW YORK (IDN | Africa Renewal) – A Liberian women’s peace movement led by 31-year-old Leymah Gbowee did something extraordinary in July 2003 to force Liberian warlords to sign a peace agreement that ended 10 years of a bloody civil war.

After months of fruitless negotiations, hundreds of women, members of Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace, gathered at the venue of the peace talks in Accra, Ghana, and sat at the entrance to the conference hall. They looped their hands and vowed to stop the warlords from leaving the venue until they had reached a peace agreement.

PRETORIA (IDN | GIN) – It was a long night for the African National Congress (ANC) party faithful as a popular revolt in the cities of Tshwane (Pretoria) and Port Elizabeth upended its long-held power base in those two key municipalities.

The ANC was beaten in working-class “black township” areas such as Mamelodi in Tshwane, and Motherwell in Port Elizabeth.

By Rodrigo Pérez

RIO DE JANEIRO (IDN-INPS) – Beneath the glitz and glamour, the Samba and Rio’s Carnival-like atmosphere, this year’s Olympic Games Opening Ceremony showcased the most impossible sounding dream of all – Africa’s Great Green Wall.

The initiative started a decade ago. Once completed it will be the largest man-made structure on Earth and a new Wonder of the World.

The progress made shows that land restoration efforts on a mass scale are both possible and offer hope. Senegal has already planted 12 million trees, Ethiopia has restored 15 million hectares of degraded land and Nigeria has created 20,000 jobs in rural areas.

Analysis by Amelia Tan

NEW YORK (IDN | Africa Renewal) – By 6:30 a.m. on June 24, less than 12 hours after a successful referendum on Brexit (Britain’s exit from the European Union), South Africa’s currency, the rand, took the first blow. It plunged by almost 8% from R14.33 to R15.45 against the U.S. dollar, its steepest single-day decline since the 2008 financial crisis.

Brexit sent shock waves through the global markets, including those in Africa.  

Investors in African markets panicked because many economies (such as Angola, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zambia) were already reeling from low commodity prices exacerbated by a sluggish global demand. In these countries, Brexit added salt to the wounds of injured economies.

NAIROBI (IDN | GIN) – A well-known soukous star from the Congo got a quick lesson in the evolving status of Kenyan women when he was detained and summarily deported, his performance scuttled, after he was caught striking a woman with his foot on a bystander’s cell phone camera.

In the grainy video image posted online, Koffi Olomide, age 60, his musicians and dancers are seen arriving at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Without warning, he pivots to one of his dancers and aims a vicious kick at her midsection.

Band members said he overreacted after being informed that the unidentified dancer had slapped his purported girlfriend.

LIBREVILLE (IDN | GIN) – For the past 50 years, the citizens of Gabon have lived under a dynasty with one name. Bongo.

Omar Bongo Ondimba, the father, served from December 1967 to June 2009 to be replaced by his son, Ali Bongo Ondimba who served from 2009 until today. On August 27, Gabonese will have a chance to elect someone other than a Bongo family member although the chances are slim.

In the capital, Libreville, peaceful protestors demanding fair elections are already facing a heavy police presence. Some 15 opposition leaders and hundreds of marchers formed a human chain. Police using teargas dispersed the crowd and several shots were fired.