Login to BlackFacts.com using your favorite Social Media Login. Click the appropriate button below and you will be redirected to your Social Media Website for confirmation and then back to Blackfacts.com once successful.
Enter the email address and password you used to join BlackFacts.com. If you cannot remember your login information, click the “Forgot Password” link to reset your password.
Ghanaians voted in an election seen as a close fight between President Nana Akufo-Addo and his longtime rival John Mahama, in a country long viewed a beacon of stability in a troubled region.
Announcement of the death of former President Rawlings pic.twitter.com/7ext0fp4sd
— Nana Akufo-Addo (@NAkufoAddo) November 12, 2020
Watch our report:
Subsequently, government reserved 425 hospital beds and five ventilators for COVID-19 at one of the tertiary care hospitals in the capital, Harare, and is upgrading and refurbishing infectious diseases hospitals around the country.
Apart from increasing hospital capacity for COVID-19 cases, the response in Zimbabwe has included public awareness campaigns, promotion of social distancing including banning public gatherings, closing schools and colleges, and culminated in a 21-day general lockdown, which was later extended by 14 days.
The nascent SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa has not followed the usual script of infectious diseases, of being predominantly found in impoverished areas.
Older age has been consistently associated with heightened mortality from differences in the population age structure can lead to dramatic differences in mortality for COVID-19 disease[18] Thus, it is reasonable to anticipate a much lower mortality from COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa, compared to Europe and North America, where there is a much larger proportion of older people.
A potential source of higher than anticipated mortality from COVID-19 disease in sub-Saharan Africa is the high burden of HIV infection [5].
Before Insecure star Jay Ellis would secure a leading role opposite Issa Rae in the hit HBO dramedy, he featured in a Ghanaian film about a traditional Ewe custom known as trokosi.
Trokosi has been the way of the Ewe people for centuries but in the face of modernization, or rather honestly, westernization, director Leila Djansi, urges abandonment of something African.
Other times, a young girl may be committed as a trokosi to a shrine as a symbol of the family’s gratitude to the deity of the shrine.
For as long as the priest of the deity would allow, women serving under trokosi would be housed at the shrine.
Governments in the three West African countries where trokosi is still practised have tried different means of rescuing the young women, from negotiations with local religious leaders to the threat of force carried by the state.
May 17: 5,735 cases, prez fact-checked on testing ‘record’
\tTotal confirmed cases = 5735 (new cases = 97)
Total recoveries = 1,754 (new = 294)
Total deaths = 29 (new = 5)
Active cases = 3,952
\tFigures valid as of close of day May 16, 2020
\tGhana maintained her spot as West Africa’s most impacted after the Health Ministry released latest figures yesterday.
AFP Fact-check – Ghana’s leader falsely claims his country fronts COVID-19 testing
May 16: 5,530 cases, jumbo recoveries
\tTotal confirmed cases = 5,638 (new cases = 108)
Total recoveries = 1,460 (new recoveries = 1086)
Total deaths = 24 (new deaths = 0)
Active cases = 4,150
\tGhana recorded a boost in recoveries with a record 1,086 discharges authorities reported early Saturday.
READ MORE – Uniting behind a people’s vaccine against COVID-19
\t
May 14: 5,530 cases, 13 of 16 regions infected
\tTotal confirmed cases = 5,530 (new cases = 122)
Total recoveries = 674 (new recoveries = 160)
Active cases = 4,832
\tThirteen of the 16 regions in the country have recorded cases of the disease.
Statistics as at close of day May 13, 2020
\tTotal confirmed cases = 5,408 (new cases = 281)
Total recoveries = 514
Total deaths = 24
Active cases = 4,872
May 12: Cases hit 5,127; gold-rich Obuasi new hotspot
\tGhana’s case statistics passed the 5,000 mark after 427 new cases were recorded according to head of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Aboagye.
May 10: 4,263 cases, Accra prison ‘infected’
\tGhana’s case statistics as of close of day May 9 stood at 3,263 according tallies released by the health service.
Total confirmed cases = 7,768
Total recoveries = 2,540
Total deaths = 35
Active cases = 5,193
May 28: 7,303 cases, voter register brouhaha continues
\tCompilation of a new voters register will proceed according to the Electoral Commission, EC; despite a fightback from the main opposition National Democratic Congress, NDC.
Total confirmed cases = 7,303 (new cases = 186)
Total recoveries = 2,414
Total deaths = 34
Active cases = 4,857
\tFigures valid as of close of day May 27, 2020
May 27: Accra case count pass 5,000; MP infection controversy
\tThe case count passed 7,000 when an additional 309 cases were reported.
Total confirmed cases = 7,117 (new cases = 309)
Total recoveries = 2,317
Active cases = 4,766
\tFigures valid as of close of day May 26, 2020
May 26: 6,808 cases, further easing of restrictions expected
\tA major religious group is advocating a phased lifting of remaining restrictions in the country.
Total confirmed cases = 6,617 (new cases = 131)
Total recoveries = 1,978 (new = 27)
Total deaths = 31
\tFigures valid as of May 21, 2020
May 22: 6,486 cases, NDC jabs EC
\tMain opposition NDC continued their collision with the elections body over the compilation of a new voters register ahead of December 2020 polls.
Total confirmed cases = 6,269 (new cases = 173)
Total recoveries = 1,898 (new = 125)
Active cases = 4,340
May 20: Cases pass 6,000 mark, govt eyes COVID-Organics
\tGhana’s case count passed 6,000 mark reaching 6,096 on Tuesday according to tallies released by the Ghana Health Service.
Elliott Percival Skinner, a leading late 20th Century anthropologist, also served as the United States ambassador to the Republic of Upper Volta (the West African country renamed itself Burkina Faso in 1984). Skinner was born on June 20, 1924 in Port of Spain, Trinidad. During World War II, he immigrated to the United States and in 1944, he enlisted in the United States Army. His combat service in France earned him American citizenship.
Upon his honorable discharge from the military, Skinner enrolled in New York University in 1947, graduating four years later with a degree in anthropology. In 1952 he earned a master’s degree in the same academic area from Columbia University in New York, New York. In 1955, Skinner earned a doctorate degree in anthropology from Columbia with a dissertation titled: “Ethnic Interaction in a British Guiana Rural Community: A Study in Secondary Acculturation and Group Dynamics.”
After obtaining his Ph.D. Skinner’s research interest shifted from Latin America to West Africa. From 1955 to 1957 Skinner lived and worked in what is now Burkina Faso. While there, he learned the More language, the most popular language of the Mossi people in the Upper Volta region. In 1959 Skinner accepted a teaching position in the anthropology department at New York University where he researched and taught African ethnology. He earned tenure at that institution in 1963. In 1966, he joined the anthropology department at Columbia University and served there until his retirement in 1994.
Skinner’s career path in academe took a significant detour when in 1966 President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated the 42 year-old scholar as U.S. Ambassador to Upper Volta. At the time he was only the eleventh African American named a U.S. ambassador and the only one who actually conducted academic research in a country before his appointment. Skinner’s first major book, The Mossi of Upper Volta, was published just two years before his appointment.
Ambassador Skinner returned to the United States in 1969 and resumed
Most of Mali, in West Africa, lies in the Sahara. A landlocked country four-fifths the size of Alaska, it is bordered by Guinea, Senegal, Mauritania, Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, and the Côte dIvoire. The only fertile area is in the south, where the Niger and Senegal rivers provide water for irrigation.
Republic.
Caravan routes have passed through Mali since A.D. 300. The Malinke empire ruled regions of Mali from the 12th to the 16th century, and the Songhai empire reigned over the Timbuktu-Gao region in the 15th century. Morocco conquered Timbuktu in 1591 and ruled over it for two centuries. Subjugated by France by the end of the 19th century, the land became a colony in 1904 (named French Sudan in 1920) and in 1946 became part of the French Union. On June 20, 1960, it became independent and, under the name of Sudanese Republic, was joined with the Republic of Senegal in the Mali federation. However, Senegal seceded from the federation on Aug. 20, 1960, and the Sudanese Republic then changed its name to the Republic of Mali on Sept. 22.
In the 1960s, Mali concentrated on economic development, continuing to accept aid from both Soviet bloc and Western nations, as well as international agencies. In the late 1960s, it began retreating from close ties with China. But a purge of conservative opponents brought greater power to President Modibo Keita, and in 1968, the influence of the Chinese and their Malian sympathizers increased. The army overthrew the government on Nov. 19, 1968 and brought Mali under military rule for the next 20 years. Mali and Burkina Faso fought a brief border war from Dec. 25 to 29, 1985. In 1991, dictator Moussa Traoré was overthrown, and Mali made a peaceful transition to democracy. In 1992, Alpha Konaré became Malis first democratically elected president.
In the early 1990s, the government fought the Tuaregs, nomads of Berber and Arab descent who inhabit the northern desert regions of Mali and have little in common with Malis black African majority. The Tuaregs accused the government
Total confirmed cases = 6,069
Total recoveries = 1,773
Active cases = 4,292
\tFigures valid as of May 19, 2020
May 19: govt to explain boom recoveries and address hot spot case management
\tNo new figures were released on Monday but the government through the Information Ministry will release new tallies at a press conference scheduled for later today.
April 14: 5,530 cases, 13 of 16 regions infected
The Federal Republic of Nigeria /n aɪ ˈ dʒ ɪər i ə/ ( listen), commonly referred to as Nigeria, is a federal republic in West Africa, bordering Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in the north. Its coast in the south lies on the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. It comprises 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, where the capital, Abuja is located. Nigeria is officially a democratic secular country.[6]
Modern-day Nigeria has been the site of numerous kingdoms and tribal states over the millennia. The modern state originated from British colonial rule beginning in the 19th century and the merging of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1914. The British set up administrative and legal structures whilst practising indirect rule through traditional chiefdoms. Nigeria became a formally independent federation in 1960. It experienced a civil war from 1967 to 1970. It then alternated between democratically elected civilian governments and military dictatorships until it achieved a stable democracy in 1999, with the 2011 presidential elections considered the first to be reasonably free and fair.[7]
Nigeria is often referred to as the Giant of Africa, owing to its large population and economy.[8] With approximately 186 million inhabitants, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the seventh most populous country in the world. Nigeria has one of the largest populations of youth in the world.[9] [10] The country is viewed as a multinational state as it is inhabited by over 500 ethnic groups, of which the three largest are the Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba; these ethnic groups speak over 500 different languages and are identified with wide variety of cultures.[11] [12]
Sister Marie Stella's association has joined with others to call for help from donors abroad through a new organization \"Enfants de l'Espoir\" (Children of Hope).
Last September, Noura joined the Fraternité Hospitalière des Serviteurs de la Miséricorde (Hospital Fraternity of the Servants of Mercy) created in 2015, where Sister Marie Stella, the only nun engaged in the association, lives with five other women who work for Vivre dans l'Espérance.
After meeting several young women who were sisters or were hoping to become nuns but were rejected by religious congregations when they told them they were HIV-positive, Sister Marie Stella felt she had to welcome them to a place where they could live their commitment to religious life.
Every morning, with other people working for Vivre dans l'Espérance and sometimes young volunteers from Europe spending a few weeks or a few months to help the association, members of the fraternité attend Mass and pray together.
At Sister Marie Stella's organization, Muslim children study the Quran when Christians go to catechism class.
African health practitioners should own the narrative of the coronavirus pandemic and take advantage of Africa's experience of other outbreaks of disease in order to mount a tailored response, says the writer in a guest column for AllAfrica.
To survive this marathon, doctors, researchers and others responding to the pandemic across Africa must take ownership of the narrative of the fight against COVID-19 and provide hard evidence to remove emotions and promote a rational response to the pandemic.
Reanchoring the debate in local communities
On March 18, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, called on Africa to \"wake up\" and face the pandemic.
But in a continent consisting of 54 states, each at a very different level of preparedness, the COVID-19 response in Africa cannot be judged as if it is a single territory.
MSF is an international, independent, medical humanitarian organisation that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, pandemics, natural disasters and exclusion from healthcare.
Davidson Nicol , in full Davidson Sylvester Hector Willoughby Nicol, also called Abioseh Nicol (born Sept. 14, 1924, Freetown, Sierra Leone—died Sept. 20, 1994, Cambridge, Eng.), Sierra Leonean diplomat, physician, medical researcher, and writer whose short stories and poems are among the best to have come out of West Africa.
Nicol was educated in medicine and natural sciences in Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and England, and he subsequently served in various medical posts in those countries. He became known for his research into the structure of insulin, and he lectured and wrote widely on medical topics. He was principal of Fourah Bay College, Freetown (1960–68), vice chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone (1966–68), and his country’s ambassador to the United Nations (1969–71). Nicol was president of the UN Security Council in 1970, and from 1972 to 1982 he served as executive director of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). He was president of the World Federation of UN Associations from 1983 to 1987.
Nicol’s short stories were published in Two African Tales (1965) and The Truly Married Woman, and Other Stories (1965), under the name Abioseh Nicol. They centre upon life in the government service and upon the interaction of Africans with colonial administrators in preindependent Sierra Leone. His short stories and poems appeared in anthologies and journals. He also wrote Africa, A Subjective View (1964) and edited several other nonfiction works.
Nicol from 1957 was a fellow of his college at the University of Cambridge, the first African to be so named at either Cambridge or Oxford.
The G5 Sahel countries have declared the coronavirus pandemic now the public enemy number 1.
Situation of Covid 19 in the G5 Sahel, 21 May 2020 at 11H UT
Countries Declared cases Cured Deceased
Burkina Faso 809 661 52
Mali 931 543 53
Mauritanie 141 06 04
Niger 920 738 58
Tchad 565 177 57
G5 Sahel 3 366 2 125 224
Table drawn up from data supplied by Internet, section: Statistics for the coronavirus (COVID-19), updated in real time, minute by minute.
The opportunity also to launch « an urgent appeal to all partners for an even greater solidarity and a strong mobilization in favor of the G5 Sahel countries, to bring them emergency aid in equipment, materials and medicines which they greatly lack » As a response to this request, the European Union has decided to organize humanitarian flights to two of the G5 member states: Burkina Faso and Niger.
The G5 countries continue to face terrorist attacks in the three-border area, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, as well as in the Lake Chad Basin (Niger, Nigeria and Chad).
His bitterness seems to have been understood by the other protagonists, since the G 5 Sahel ministers « welcomed the action of the Chadian Armed Forces under the direct command of their supreme leader, His Excellency, Mr. Idriss Deby Itno, and committed the countries neighbors to coordinate their actions in order to eradicate the hydra of Boko-Haram”.
On Sunday, May 17, the Minister of Health, Dr. Wilhemina Jallah flunked by the Chief Medical Officer Dr. Francis Kateh, followed by the WHO Representative to Liberia Peter Clement, Dr. Desmond William head of US Center for Disease Control (CDC) in West Africa and Liberia and USAID Resident Coordinator trooped to the sample collection center at the Samuel Kayon Doe Sport Complex for voluntary COVID-19 test.
Where the Leadership first failed
In April, the head of the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL) Dr. Mosoka Fallah, who began the COVID-19 fight alongside Dr. Jallah, was called on by the public to voluntarily check his COVID-19 status.
Israel's health minister, who has had frequent contact with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, tested positive for COVID-19, Iran's health ministry informed in April.
Australia's home affairs minister Peter Dutton said he had tested positive on March 13 and was admitted to hospital in the northeastern state of Queensland
For many, the voluntary testing today by the health minister, the chief medical officer and key international players is long overdue.
The Health Minister's statement that \"If everybody sits complacently in their different neighborhood and think they're different or they're special - COVID-19 has no respect,\" raises the question as to why the President and his cabinet did not take the lead in this voluntary testing?
In 2007, Ambassador John L. Withers II, a second generation diplomat, was appointed by President George H.W. Bush to serve as ambassador to Albania. Withers was born in 1948 in Guilford, North Carolina, to John L. Withers, Sr. and Daisy P. Withers. His father had briefly worked as a political science professor but is best known for his service as a diplomat for the United States Agency for International Development. His mother was a homemaker, raising John II and his brother Gregory. Withers, whose grandfather, Robert Baxter Withers, and father fought in World War I and World War II, respectively, spent his childhood where his father was stationed, in Laos, Thailand, Burma, Korea, Ethiopia, and Kenya, witnessing, first-hand, the struggle for Southeast Asian and East African independence.
Withers graduated from Harvard University in 1971 with a Bachelor’s Degree in History. In 1975, he earned his Master’s Degree in East Asian Studies from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. A year after graduating from Yale University (1983), with a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Modern Chinese History, Withers began pursuing his Foreign Service career.
From 1984 to 1993, Withers’s path to the ambassadorship was unusual. He served in typical junior officer posts that ranged from Political Officer (PO) to Desk Officer (DO) but he was also posted in key countries to U.S. diplomacy in Northern/Eastern Europe, West Africa, and Southeast Asia, a rare combination of geographic areas for any diplomat. In this period he served at U.S. Embassies at The Hague, Netherlands (PO, 1985-1986), Lagos, Nigeria (PO, 1987-1990), and Moscow, Russia (PO, 1991-1993). At the State Department he was Desk Offer in the Office of Chinese Affairs (1986-1988), and in the Office of Northern European Affairs specifically assigned to Ireland and Iceland (1993).
As senior diplomat, Withers assisted mission chiefs in the Office of the Deputy Secretary, as Special Assistant (1993-1996), and in the U.S. Embassy in Riga, Latvia, as Deputy Chief of Mission
\tGhana maintained her spot as West Africa’s most impacte
This West African nation on the Gulf of Guinea, between Togo on the west and Nigeria on the east, is about the size of Tennessee. It is bounded by Burkina Faso and Niger on the north. The land consists of a narrow coastal strip that rises to a swampy, forested plateau and then to highlands in the north. A hot and humid climate blankets the entire country.
Republic under a multiparty democratic rule.
The Abomey kingdom of the Dahomey, or Fon, peoples was established in 1625. A rich cultural life flourished, and Dahomeys wooden masks, bronze statues, tapestries, and pottery are world renowned. One of the smallest and most densely populated regions in Africa, Dahomey was annexed by the French in 1893 and incorporated into French West Africa in 1904. It became an autonomous republic within the French Community in 1958, and on Aug. 1, 1960, Dahomey was granted its independence within the Community.
Gen. Christophe Soglo deposed the first president, Hubert Maga, in an army coup in 1963. He dismissed the civilian government in 1965, proclaiming himself chief of state. A group of young army officers seized power in Dec. 1967, deposing Soglo. In Dec. 1969, Benin had its fifth coup of the decade, with the army again taking power. In May 1970, a three-man presidential commission with a six-year term was created to take over the government. In May 1972, yet another army coup ousted the triumvirate and installed Lt. Col. Mathieu Kérékou as president. Between 1974 and 1989 Dahomey embraced socialism, and changed its name to the Peoples Republic of Benin. The name Benin commemorates an African kingdom that flourished from the 15th to the 17th century in what is now southwest Nigeria. In 1990, Benin abandoned Marxist ideology, began moving toward multiparty democracy, and changed its name again, to the Republic of Benin.
By the end of the 1980s, Benins economy was near collapse. As its oil boom ended, Nigeria expelled 100,000 Beninese migrant workers and closed the border with Benin. Kérékous socialist collectivization of
Obinwanne Okeke popularly referred to as ‘Invictus Obi’ made the plea in a Norfolk Magistrate Court Room 2 in the US district court for Eastern District of Virginia.
Okeke has thus formally pleaded guilty for charges relating to $11 million (N4.2 billion) computer-based fraud transacted between 2015 and 2019.
His company, Invictus Group, operates in three African countries, which include Nigeria, South Africa, and Zambia, according to local news portal Legit
\tIn May 2017, The African Brand Congress awarded the Invictus Group of Companies Ltd the Africa’s Most Innovative Investment Company of the Year 2017 Award.
He was nominated for Africa’s most prestigious award for businessmen, The AABLA Awards, in the category of Young African Business Leader (West Africa).
Okeke is a regular contributor to the Forbes Africa Magazine where he shares his thoughts on entrepreneurship and investment in Africa; The Guardian further reported
VIDEO
The Faith Congregational Church in Hartford, Connecticut began in 1819 as a place for African Americans to worship on their own since they were previously only able to worship in the backs of churches and in church galleries in that city. A group of African Americans began worshipping in the conference room of the First Church of Christ in Hartford, Connecticut, which is now known as Center Church. This congregation moved to a building on State Street in 1820 and formed the first black Congregational Church in Connecticut and the third oldest in the nation. The church initially called itself the African American Religious Society of Hartford and vowed to create a place of worship where there would be no assigned seating and where anyone was welcome to worship. The congregation purchased property in 1826 where it built a stone-and-brick church on the corner of Talcott and Market Streets.
By the 1830s with the rise of the New England abolitionist movement, the church building became an anti-slavery meetinghouse. Popular lecturers spoke at the church in support of abolition, including Rev. Henry Highland Garnet and Arnold Buffman, former president of the New England Anti-Slavery Society. James Pennington, an early church minister and abolitionist, was himself a fugitive slave from Maryland. Rev. Pennington and his congregation became supporters of the Amistad slave case in neighboring New Haven in 1839-1840 and fought for the release of the captured men, women, and children and their return to West Africa. The church also raised funds for the captives’ legal defense.
The church established a school in 1840, which served as the only place in Hartford where black children could obtain an education at that time. That same year, the congregation changed its name to First Hartford Colored Congregational Church. In 1860, another name change took place; the church became the Talcott Street Congregational Church and had several pastors until Rev. Robert F. Wheeler aided in the church’s stability and growing membership
In the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak in West Africa, the drastic drop in advertising revenues on which legacy media organisations traditionally depend on to stay afloat has further worsened the already existing challenges in media financial sustainability.
According to Abdoul Fall Salam, General Manager of Seneweb, his online media portal has seen a sharp rise in visitors and is now getting revenue from the public sector.
Other major online media organisations across West Africa including Banouto Media in Benin, MediaForce-Afrique in Senegal, and International Centre for Investigative Reporting in Nigeria have all recorded a massive surge in numbers of visitors.
Although this is yet to translate into increased revenue streams for some outlets, Ade Simplice Robert, General Manager of MediaForce-Afrique, thinks that it presents an opportunity for online media organisations to gain more recognition.
The coronavirus pandemic is posing a serious challenge to the revenue streams of a number of media organisations.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday warned that the potential impact of COVID -19 on food security in Africa is likely to exacerbate the already existing burden of malnutrition.
The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, in a press statement said the impact of the disease is expected to be greater among those grappling with food scarcity and malnutrition.
\"COVID-19 is unfolding in Africa against a backdrop of worrying levels of hunger and undernourishment, which could worsen as the virus threatens livelihoods and household economies,\" the statement said.
The WHO said COVID-19 is exacerbating food shortages, as food imports, transportation and agricultural production have all been hampered by a combination of lockdowns, travel restrictions and physical distancing measures.
\"Some countries have already announced measures to mitigate some of the risks of lockdowns on food supply, from in-kind distributions to this week's announcement by Heads of State of the East African Community of their intention to develop a mechanism for tracking and certification of cross-border truck drivers to ensure the safe delivery of essential goods,\" the statement highlighted.
The establishment of an Oversight Board to make rulings about content moderation on Facebook and Instagram indicates the company's determination to promote the rights of users and freedom of expression, Afia Asantewaa Asare-Kyei, a human rights lawyer and Programme Manager at the Open Society Initiative for West Africa has said.
The Ghanaian who has been appointed by Facebook to serve as a Board Member of the newly constituted body said the board was expected to provide an avenue for people to challenge Facebook's decisions on content moderation adding that its decisions would be transparent and binding.
The board is one of Facebook's high-profile efforts to respond to criticism over how it handles problematic content and transparency around its decision-making.
The 20 member board Ms Asare-Kyei said would review certain content decisions by Facebook and Instagram and make binding decisions based on respect for freedom of expression and human rights.
Ms Asare-Kyei joins two other Africans - Julie Owono, a digital rights advocate and Executive Director of Internet Sans Frontières from Cameroon and Maina Kiai, a human rights activist and Director of Human Rights Watch's Global Alliances and Partnerships programme from Kenya on the board.
Askia Muhammad Touré (1493-1528), established the Askia dynasty of Songhay.
Muhammad Touré continued Sonni Alis imperial expansion by seizing the important
Saharan oases and conquering Mali itself. From there he conquered Hausaland. The
vastness of Askia Mohammeds kingdom covered most of West Africa, larger than all of the
European states combined. With literally several thousand cultures under its control,
Songhay ranked as one of the largest empires of the time.
In order to maintain his large empire Muhammad Touré further centralized the government
by creating a large and elaborate bureaucracy. He was also the first to standardize weights,
measures, and currency, so culture throughout the Songhay began to homogenize.
Muhammad Touré was also a fervent Muslim; he replaced traditional Songhay
administrators with Muslims in order to Islamicize Songhay society. He also appointed
Muslim judges, called qadis , to run the legal system under Islamic legal principles. These
programs of conquest, centralization, and standardization were the most ambitious and
far-reaching in Africa at the time. It is of note that while the urban centers were dominated
by Islam and Islamic culture, the non-urban areas were not Islamic. The vast majority of the
Songhay people, around 97%, followed traditional African religions. Under the leadership of Askia Mohammed, Timbuctu once again became a prosperous
commercial city, reaching a population of 100,000 people. Merchants and traders traveled
from Asia, the Middle East and Europe to exchange their exotic wares for the gold of
Songhay. Timbuctu gained fame as an intellectual center rivaling many others in the Muslim
world. Students from various parts of the world came to Timbuctus famous University of
Sankore to study Law and Medicine. Medieval Europe sent emissaries to the University of
Sankore to witness its excellent libraries with manuscripts and to cosult with the learned
mathematicians, astronomers, physicians, and jurists whose intellectual endeavors
Ghana’s former president Jerry Rawlings, who staged two coups and later led the West African country’s transition to a stable... View Article
The post Ghana’s former president Jerry Rawlings dies at 73 appeared first on TheGrio.
Malcolm X’s life changed dramatically in the first six months of 1964. On March 8, he left the Nation of Islam. In May he toured West Africa and made a pilgrimage to Mecca, returning as El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. While in Ghana in May, he decided to form the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU). Malcolm returned to New York the following month to create the OAAU and on June 28 gave his first public address on behalf of the new organization at the Audubon Ballroom in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. That address appears below.
Salaam Alaikum, Mr. Moderator, our distinguished guests, brothers and sisters, our friends and our enemies, everybody whos here.
As many of you know, last March when it was announced that I was no longer in the Black Muslim movement, it was pointed out that it was my intention to work among the 22 million non-Muslim Afro-Americans and to try and form some type of organization, or create a situation where the young people – our young people, the students and others – could study the problems of our people for a period of time and then come up with a new analysis and give us some new ideas and some new suggestions as to how to approach a problem that too many other people have been playing around with for too long. And that we would have some kind of meeting and determine at a later date whether to form a black nationalist party or a black nationalist army.
There have been many of our people across the country from all walks of life who have taken it upon themselves to try and pool their ideas and to come up with some kind of solution to the problem that confronts all of our people. And tonight we are here to try and get an understanding of what it is theyve come up with.
Also, recently when I was blessed to make a religious pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca where I met many people from all over the world, plus spent many weeks in Africa trying to broaden my own scope and get more of an open mind to look at the problem as it actually is, one of the things that I
John Morrow was a teacher, scholar, and diplomat who became America’s first leader at two key postings, the West African country of Guinea, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
He was born John Howard Morrow on February 5, 1910 in Hackensack, New Jersey to John and Mary Hayes Morrow. After receiving his Bachelor’s degree (A.B., 1931) from Rutgers University, Morrow also earned his Master’s degree (M.A., 1942) and his Doctoral degree (Ph.D., 1952) both from the University of Pennsylvania. He also studied in France, receiving an advanced certificate from Sorbonne, University of Paris (1947).
Morrow began his career as a secondary school teacher in Trenton, New Jersey (1931-1945) and Bordentown, New Jersey (1935-1945). He then moved to Alabama where he became a Professor of Modern Languages and Head of the Department at Talladega College (1945-1954). Atlanta, Georgia was Morrow’s next home as he taught at Clark College in Atlanta (1945-1956). He then headed to the North Carolina College at Durham, now called North Carolina Central University (1955-1959). Throughout these academic postings, Morrow developed “a scholar’s command of Latin, French, and Spanish, and a reading knowledge of German and Portuguese.” Morrow also engaged in research on French colonial administration, including in West Africa, for many years.
This expertise and language abilities led to what many saw as a questionable appointment by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1959. In that year, Eisenhower appointed Morrow, as the first U.S. Ambassador ever, to the newly independent African country of Guinea. Having never previously held a government job, Morrow was nonetheless unanimously confirmed by the U.S. senate as the nation’s Ambassador to this country which had been called “the new battleground in the East-West Cold War.” Morrow’s nomination was also problematic for many because he was a black man being appointed to such a key post at that time. A Washington Post editorial called the appointment of
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was created by the Treaty of Lagos in Lagos, Nigeria, on 28 May 1975. It was created to promote economic trade, national cooperation, and monetary union, for growth and development throughout West Africa.
A revised treaty intended to accelerate the integration of economic policy and improve political cooperation was signed on 24 July 1993. It sets out the goals of a common economic market, a single currency, the creation of a West African parliament, economic and social councils, and a court of justice, which primarily interprets and mediates disputes over ECOWAS policies and relations, but has the power to investigate alleged human rights abuses in member countries.
There are currently 15 member countries in the Economic Community of West African States. The founding members of ECOWAS were: Benin, Côte dIvoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania (left 2002), Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, and Burkina Faso (which joined as Upper Volta). Cape Verde joined in 1977.
The structure of the Economic Community has changed several times over the years. As of 2015, ECOWAS listed seven active institutions: the Authority of Heads of State and Government (which is the leading body), the Council of Ministers, the Executive Commission (which is sub-divided into 16 departments), the Community Parliament, the Community Court of Justice, a body of Specialized Technical Committees, and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID, also known as the Fund). The treaties also provide for an advisory Economic and Social Council, but ECOWAS does not list this as part of its current structure.
In addition to these seven institutions, the Economic Community includes three specialized institutions (the West African Health Organisation, West African Monetary Agency, and the Inter-governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing in West Africa) and three specialized agencies (ECOWAS Gender and Development
Monrovia is the capital of Liberia as well as its largest city. It is located on Bushrod Island and Cape Mesurado along the Mesurado River. A 2008 census showed its population as 970,824.
Monrovia was founded on April 25, 1822 by members of the American Colonization Society (ACS), an organization created to return U.S.-born former slaves to Africa. ACS representatives first arrived on the Mesurado River in 1821. The original name of Monrovia was Christopolis. In 1824 it was renamed “Monrovia” after James Monroe, who was the American President at the time as well as a supporter of the American Colonization Society. The indigenous populations of the areas surrounding Monrovia felt that the city was built on stolen land and began attacking it as early as 1822. Those attacks continued sporadically until the mid-nineteenth century.
Monrovia’s first settlers were former Southern slaves. Not surprisingly the early architecture of the city was largely influenced by the style of the Southern antebellum buildings.
Monrovia grew slowly during the rest of the 19th Century. After the Civil War the American Colonization Society was taken over by emigrationists such as Edward Wilmot Blyden and Bishop Alexander Crummell. They urged post-Civil War African Americans to settle there and many of them did until World War I. These Americo-Liberians, both those in the initial wave of settlement in the 1822-1848 period (Liberia became independent that year), and those who came after the U.S. Civil War, politically and culturally dominated the city.
After World War II growing numbers of indigenous people from the interior of Liberia began migrating to the capital to exploit new job opportunities. Always present in the city back to its founding, by 1950 for the first time, they were the majority of the city’s residents.
In 1980 Sergeant Samuel Doe of the Liberian Army led a coup which toppled the existing government. For the first time in its history Liberia was controlled by indigenous people rather than Americo-Liberians. Doe
