Africa

Report Censures Facebook for Promoting Human Trafficking

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

New York (IDN) — False or misleading posts on Facebook and Instagram are being blamed for enabling human traffickers who recruit African women to be ferried to Saudi Arabia and other countries with promises of visas and jobs.

Instead, the women are held captive, denied access to food and forced to perform sex acts in massage parlours, according to internal investigations published recently in the Wall Street Journal.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Decent Work & Economic Growth; 20 September 2021

Photo: President George Manneh Weah, his wife and entourage.

Liberia To Mark Year-Long Bicentennial Celebration Beginning January 2022

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

New York (IDN) — On February 5, 1820, the first organized group of emigrating freed slaves departed from New York to Freetown, Sierra Leone, in West Africa.

Next year, Liberia will mark the date with a bicentennial celebration beginning January 2022 and running through December 2022, according to a recent announcement by President George Manneh Weah.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 20 September 2021

Photo: Herero prisoners of war, around 1900. CC BY-SA 3.0 de

Germany’s Forgotten Genocide in Namibia

Viewpoint by Adekeye Adebajo

Professor Adekeye Adebajo is Director of the University of Johannesburg’s Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation in South Africa.

JOHANNESBURG (IDN) — As some world leaders gather in New York for their annual United Nations General Assembly rituals, the September 22 debate on “Reparations, Racial Justice, and Equality for People of African Descent” to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 2001 Durban Racism Conference, will be particularly significant. While at the Durban conference itself, the issue of reparations was not allowed to be debated by former Western slaver and imperial powers, this issue is now firmly on the agenda.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 17 September 2021

Photo: A market in Igwuruta, Nigeria's Rivers State, which has started a war with the Federal Government over the collection of Value Added Taxes (VAT). CC BY-SA 4.0

A VAT War Between Nigeria's Federal Govt. and Rivers State

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene

The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria.

ABUJA (IDN) — The guns of Nigeria’s three-year civil war were silenced 51 years ago, but in the battle for a truly federal state, the echoes of warfare have never been more resonant.

On August 10, Rivers State, which at an average monthly federal receipt of N12b, is the third richest by dole amongst Nigeria’s poor 36 states, started a war with the Federal Government over the collection of Value Added Taxes (VAT).

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 16 September 2021

Photo: Two women are shown better farming techniques at one of a hundred gardens in Cape Town made possible through the Albalami Bezehkaya voluntary association, supported with funding from Australia. The gardens help improve food security through improving production and generating income for the farmers involved. Kate Holt/AusAID

USAID’s Agricultural Transformation for Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems

By Henry Prillaman

The writer is a student at the University of Virginia and an Intern at the High Atlas Foundation.

NAIROBI, Kenya (IDN) — I attended the 2021 pre-summit for the world’s premier forum for African agriculture, the Agricultural Transformation for Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems (AGRF). The forum consisted of many great speakers and commentators discussing different parts of African agriculture, from the fiscal and political side to the implementation and community side.

: Africa & ME Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 15 September 2021

Photo: King Mohammed VI appointed Akhannouch Prime Minister Friday, two days after the RNI party swept the 2021 general election. Photo Credit: Atalayar.

Billionaire To Lead Morocco After Defeat of Islamists

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — A billionaire appointed by Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, will lead a new government after long-ruling Islamists were defeated in parliamentary elections.

Businessman Aziz Akhannouch of the National Rally of Moroccan Independents (RNI), one of the country’s richest men with a fortune estimated at $2 billion, called his victory a win for democracy.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 14 September 2021

Photo: Alpha Conde, surrounded by soldiers of the Special Forces who carried out his "arrest", Sunday, September 5, 2021. Credit: The African Report.

Guinean Soldiers at The Helm After Autocratic President Is Detained

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Young military officers who ousted Guinea’s President Alpha Condé on September 5 are wasting no time taking on the duties of heads of state.

Meetings have been scheduled with leaders of political parties and religious groups to be followed by civil society organizations and representatives of diplomatic missions.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 14 September 2021

Photo: Young fruit trees growing in the Atlas Mountains are monitored by HAF. Credit: HAF

Former Pastoral Nomads Considering In-Place Farming

By Jacqueline Skalski-Fouts

The writer is an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia.

VIRGINIA, USA (IDN) — North African pastoralism, an agricultural method used for centuries by nomadic people in the steppe highlands, is on the decline. Facing limited grazing land due to overuse and drought, pastoral nomads are favouring more sedentary farming methods like growing fruit or nut trees and crops.

: Africa & ME Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 10 September 2021

Photo: Scene of popular support in Conakry after the coup. CC BY-SA 4.0

Condé Took Guinea for A Ride, But the Coup Makes No Sense

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene

The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria.

ABUJA (IDN) — Zambia’s peaceful and orderly election in August offered a glimmer of hope that Africa’s story might be changing. For the third time in three decades, an opposition leader defeated the sitting president sending a message to the world that the continent may not be the incumbent’s lair after all.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 09 September 2021

Image: Panorama of Dar es Salaam city a few minutes before dusk. Taken from Benjamin William Mkapa Pension Tower, facing south. Muhammad Mahdi Karim | Wikimedia Commons.

New President in Tanzania Cracks Down on Reformers

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan appears to be taking a page from her predecessor, the late John Magufuli, by cracking down on members of the opposition who have been calling for constitutional reform for decades.

Freeman Mbowe, leader of the opposition Chadema party, has been detained on “terrorism” charges that his party has branded a bid by President Hassan’s government to muzzle the opposition.