A new year, a new Amandla
Over 7000 Ghanaians in U.S. Face Deportation Cash-Strapped Zimbabwe Unable to Print Passports Soldiers Battle Crime on South African Streets Page 5
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Contact us today for the 2019 Media Kit Volume 18 Issue 7 | Pan-African Community Newspaper | July 15, 2019 | amandlanews.com
Scars of Rwanda, 25 Years On U.S. Bound by Any Means Over the course of 100 days from April 1994 on, an estimated 800,000 Tutsi were hacked to death with machetes by their Hutu countrymen. Going house to house, the Hutu’s slaughtered at a rate three-times that of the Nazis. Twenty-five years later, it is still difficult to comprehend how something so shocking could have taken place. Twenty-five years later, many of us ask: Is the nation of Rwanda a better country now? What lessons have been learned? What can be done to prevent such a ghastly event from ever happening again?
In 2018, 1,283 people from the African continent arrived and left Ecuador, and this year that flow has grown — in just the first five months of 2019, 2,107 people passed through, according to figures from the country’s interior ministry. They will then travel by foot or hitch hike through six countries, with the single hope of reaching the United States. But what awaits them at the southern U.S. border is the very real possibbility that they will be turned back and their pleas for asylum will fall on deaf years. And yet, despite being aware of their slim chances, many more back home prepare to leave.
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Apples Do Not Fall Far from the Boateng Tree
REVIEW: Pirates of Africa
On June 15, 2019, Dr. Kofi and Marian Boateng organized a grand celebratory barbecue for their three children in their upstate New York home. Major Kwame Boateng was promoted to Lt. Col, Dr. Adjoa Boateng completed her Residency in Anesthesiology, and Adjoa O. Boateng was promoted to Senior Manager in a corporate America business.
Toby Foyeh is not new to Afrijam. With a fusion of traditional Yoruba, rock, pop and jazz using a blend of traditional and Western instruments, Foyeh has played with several renowned artists including the late Hugh Masekela. Now he and his Orchestra Africa has come out with yet another powerful CD philosophically themed “Pirates of Africa.”
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Editorial Rwanda in Perspective: 25 Years Ago... …the world woke up to find that almost one million people had been massacred in Rwanda within a period of 100 days. The genocide was sparked by the death of President Juvenal Habyarimana, a moderate Hutu (with Burundi’s president Cyprien Ntaryamira, and some French nationals), when his plane was shot down above Kigali airport on 6 April 1994, allegedly by the Tutsi minority. President Habyarimana, a Major General, came to power in 1973 through the military and stayed in power for about twenty years – with a new constitution ratified in 1978 and elections held in 1983 and 1988. Conflicts between the majority Hutu (approximately 85% of the population) and the Tutsi wasn’t anything new, but the Belgian colonizers, who arrived in 1916, stoked the ethnic fire and characteristically knocked heads between the two ethnic groups, who speak basically the same language and share common cultural traits. Ever since Belgium positioned the minority Tutsi as superior to the majority Hutu, resentments and conflicts escalated and the two ethnic groups were at each other’s throat at the least opportunity. Riots in 1959 saw about 20,000 Tutsi dead with more fleeing to neighboring countries, especially Uganda. And to add insult to injury, France actively supported the Hutu-led government of Juvénal Habyarimana for its parochial interest against the exiled Tutsi. In 1962 Rwanda
Publisher & Editor in Chief Kwabena Opong Deputy Publisher & Editor Kofi Ayim P. O. Box 7030 West Orange, NJ 07052 973-731-1339 / 201-704-5838 contact@amandlanews.com Amandla is a monthly publication of the Amandla Company. It is an associate member of the New Jersey Press Association. The publishers may not necessarily share the opinions and viewpoints expressed in the articles that appear in the publication.
A memorial shrine at a Catholic church in Natarama, Rwanda displays the skulls and bones of some of the victims of Rwanda’s genocide.
attained political independence from Belgium, and the majority Hutu gained power. Animosity and payback time were visited upon the Tutsi, whom the Belgians had given more educational opportunities than the Hutu. In the 1990s, Tutsi refugees led by Paul Kagame and moderate Hutu in exile in Uganda formed the Rwandan Patriotic Army, the armed wing of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and fought the government Rwandan till Kigali, the capital of Rwanda was captured on July 4, 1994. An estimated two million Hutu fled to the present-day Democratic Republic of Congo. The international community stood aloof while Rwanda was caught in hell fire and slaughtered itself. Today, 25 years later, the Rwandan people led by President Paul Kagame are living in relative peace. With aggressive economic development and attitudinal change by the people of Rwanda, the once warravaged country is poised to become a middle-income-status country in the near future. It has made progress on several fronts including health, education, and industrialization. Almost 64% of its parliamentarians are women, the highest in the world.
The attitudinal change of the people and adherence to rule of law have made Kigali one of the cleanest cities in Africa. The old soldier President Kagame had to make some bold decisions that several of his African compatriots would not have the courage to do. He has banned hundreds of mushroom and so-called charismatic churches that his government thought – and rightly so – were fleecing the vulnerable in the country. For a payback of French support of the Hutu extremists, he changed the official language of Rwanda from French to English and made his country a member of the British Commonwealth.
And most importantly, Paul Kagame is not afraid to speak his mind, especially to the Western world, journalists, etc.! Today, a reconciled Rwanda headed by a hitherto jungle fighter has been able to transform itself into a progressive and one of the fastest growing economies in Africa. President Kagame’s vision of making Rwanda, with its 12 million people, the Singapore of Africa is not far-fetched. With all his flaws, President Kagame has proven that without outside interference and intervention most African leaders can lift their people out of the doldrums of economic stagnation just like the Asian Tigers.
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Editorial Year of Return Ghana Can Do More Some 400 years ago, the first documented Africans kidnapped from the shores of West Africa by the Portuguese arrived in Europe. The kidnapping and enslavement of Africans – from present day Senegal to Angola and especially from the areas Europeans named the Grain Coast (Republic of Liberia), Ivory Coast, Gold Coast (Republic of Ghana) through to the Bight of Benin (southeastern Ghana, Togo, Benin, and southwestern Nigeria) intensified so much so that in the early 16th century, about 10% of the population of Lisbon was of African descent. However, it was the Spaniards who transported the first Africans across the Atlantic Ocean. While the British, French, Portuguese, and Spanish were pilfering and capturing Africans by any means possible to the so-called New World, Arab slave traders were raiding the eastern shores of Africa. It is estimated that far more Africans were carried across to the Middle East and Arab world than to the new world. Unlike European chattel slavery, African slaves in the Arab world had no chance of survival. After being used and abused, they were made to vanish into thin air. It is upon this premise that we commend the government of Ghana for singlehandedly spearheading the historic phenomenon of the “Year of Return, Ghana 2019” for descendants of the transatlantic
slave trade this year. Ghana’s President Nana Addo AkufoAddo launched the “Year of Return” at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, in September 2018 to mark the 400th anniversary of the involuntary “arrival of Africans” on the shores of then English colonies at Point Comfort, Virginia, in 1619. However, on the surface, this venture could and should have been a continentwide initiative or, at minimum, led by all the countries in West Africa where the estimated 20 million captives originated! But that was not to be for several reasons, such as political stability and security. Previously, in 2007, the Kuffour government during the 50th Independence anniversary of Ghana launched the “Joseph Project” to celebrate the 200 years of abolition of slavery and to encourage Africans in the diaspora to return home. The President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa AkufoAddo, has traveled to the Caribbean, the Americas, and Europe to promote and highlight the importance of the Year of Return. The government has put in place some measures to make the pilgrimage to Ghana as flawless and stress-free as possible. Amandla is aware of the constant and steady flow of celebrities and business savants from the U.S. and other countries, including Boris Kudjoe, Rosario Dawson, Michael Jai White, and Bozomo Saint John, to Ghana since the Year of Return was launched in the Fall of 2018, but we think more could and should be expressly implemented.
Hollywood stars in Ghana, December 2018. Photo: Boris Kodjoe
We are aware of some activities “here and there” by the Ghanaian Embassy in Washington D.C. and the Ghanaian Consulate in New York, and some few Ghanaians who have collaborated with others to organize people for the celebrations, but (we) are not satisfied, because we know that the average African American is not well informed of the program. For maximum exposure and optimization, we recommend key facilitators of known and popular African Americans regionally: the Northeast, New England, Deep South, and so on. Some of these facilitators could be pastors of megachurches such as the Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts III of the Abyssinia Baptist Church, Harlem, the Rev. Dr. David Jefferson, Sr., Esq of the Metropolitan Baptist Church, Newark, New Jersey, and Bishop Reginald Thomas Jackson, the presiding prelate of the Sixth Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.), whose jurisdiction encompasses over 500 entities in the state of Georgia and speaks directly to African American audiences. Other key facilitators are national and local organizations and associations such as the NAACP and Urban League, historically black colleges and universities, political organizations such as the Congressional Black Caucuses and state and local politicians that command substantial constituencies. On the “home front,” resourceful people like Dr. Zachary Yamba, originally from Ghana and at one time the longestserving black college president in the U.S. could be tapped into to inject more fuel into the system.
Such people and others have the wherewithal to direct and spearhead local forums and symposia to drive home the goodwill message. Further, their vast networks could facilitate radio interviews on predominantly black airwaves and even identify potential corporate sponsors. After all, several financial institutions such as Wells Fargo (formerly Wachovia) and J.P. Morgan Chase have opened up about their past ties to slavery, and corporate American companies that do business in Ghana can also play their part in sponsorships. A collaborative effort between government and an airline such as Ethiopian, South African, or Kenyan could be the official YEAR OF RETURN (embossed on the aircrafts) carrier that would return its citizens back to the shores of the homeland. The Year of Return is not just about increasing tourism on a superficial level. We should strive to honor all those who were taken from their homes and transported into an unimaginable situation. We are forever indebted to those we lost, and to those who survived – we have a responsibility to keep their memory alive and rebuild the connections that were lost along the way. In retrospect, in view of the importance of the event, Amandla recommends that the President of Ghana should declare “A Decade of Return” at the end of this year, so that people of black or African descent would have at least a stretch of ten years, which will hopefully accommodate all who want to embark on an Emancipation Pilgrimage to Africa.
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North America Three Young African Immigrants Changing the Game for Girls in Liberia KHANYA BRANN
When she was 6 years old, Summer Kollie’s mother won the green card lottery, allowing her and her family to leave a conflict-torn Liberia and move to the U.S. The lottery, also known as the diversity immigrant visa program, is an initiative under the U.S. Department of State that grants a limited number of visas each year to applicants from nations with low numbers of immigrants to the U.S. in hopes of diversifying the population. Fifteen years later, in summer 2018, Kollie returned to Liberia for the first time to begin fulfilling a dream she’d been trying to solidify for years: giving back to girls in her home country. Kollie and Princess Aghayere, both University of Pennsylvania health and society alumnae, spent a month and a half in Monrovia launching the pilot program for Rebound Liberia, an initiative they’ll lead with bioengineering graduate Oladunni Alomaja, aimed at empowering young women in Liberia through basketball, personal development and literacy education. “We envision it to be a pipeline program for young girls, where they can receive guidance and support as they navigate their journeys, learn about themselves and think about their futures,” Kollie said.
L to r: Oladunni Alomaja, Princess Aghayere and Summer Kollie are launching Rebound Liberia, a program that will empower young women in Africa through basketball, personal development and literacy education.
“The center will be a space where they can feel safe, relax, play basketball and have fun, as well as brush up on any literacy issues that they might be having.” Both Aghayere — who played on the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s basketball team — and Alomaja are Nigerian immigrants who had wanted to return to Africa at some point to do impactful work. The trio won one of the university’s coveted 2019 President’s Engagement Prize, an award created to empower Penn students to create social impact projects following graduation.
The Prize gave them $100,000 and a living stipend of $50,000 for each. In September, Kollie, Aghayere and Alomaja will head to Liberia for a year, during which they plan to use the Prize funds to build a basketball court and resource center and further develop the program’s literacy component. Rebound Liberia is envisioned as a summer program designed to serve girls across Monrovia between ages 8 to 18. The pilot program for Rebound, PEACE (Promoting Education and Cultivating Empowerment through Girls Basketball), was done in
In summer 2018, Princess Aghayere and Summer Kollie launched a pilot program in Liberia called PEACE (Promoting Education and Cultivating Empowerment through Girls Basketball), for which they renovated an outdoor basketball court.
partnership with SOS Children’s Village, an international humanitarian organization, and saw 35 participants come together for morning basketball clinics focused on specific skills, like ball-handling and shooting, and sessions on personal development, where they discussed everything from career planning to sexual health and education. For the pilot, Kollie and Aghayere renovated a local basketball court and the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s basketball team donated basketballs, shoes and jerseys for the participants. The trip was funded by grants Kollie and Aghayere won through Davis Projects for Peace, an organization that encourages youth to implement ideas around global peace, and the University’s Gelfman International Fund, which supports juniors pursuing international service projects. The literacy component of Rebound Liberia’s curriculum was added after Alomaja joined the team last year. “Across the continent, girls’ education isn’t always encouraged and valued as it should be, but specifically in Liberia, as a result of the Civil War and the weakened education system, there’s a disparity between men and women in terms of literacy,” Alojama said. “We’d been looking for a way to strengthen our curriculum, and this felt like an important issue to address.” They held had a campus-wide book drive during the spring semester finals season, and collected all sorts of books, ranging from traditional story
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North America books to textbooks in Mandarin. They’re hoping to partner with local organizations, specifically KEEP Liberia, a woman-led initiative working to provide educational support to underprivileged youth, to collaborate on building a reading room in the center. Rebound Liberia is an ambitious project, they said, with Aghayere adding that their main hurdle will be making sure it’s sustainable. “Usually, people go out and do these kinds of social impact projects after they’ve established their careers,” she said. “But we’re just coming out of college and all have different things that we want to pursue. We could do all these amazing things with the program, but in a year or two, if it’s run down or not operating how we want it to, how helpful were our efforts, really?” Kollie said there are opportunities for girls who age out of Rebound Liberia to take on leadership roles
The University of Pennsylvania’s women’s basketball team donated basketballs, shoes and jerseys for the participants in Kollie’s and Aghayere’s pilot program
within the program, which would help ensure that its mission is honored and prioritized. “We want to come back every year and see it launching and see leadership passed down through the hands of girls who have been through the program,”
she said. “We also want to connect with people on the ground who are committed to girls’ empowerment and development and would help the project succeed and be sustained,” she said. Alomaja said they’re aware that there are limits to how far the program
could take the girls. “We just want to be able to empower them in whatever way possible,” she said. We know that we might not be able to give them the best opportunities afterwards in terms of school or work, and for us that’s something that we battle with. But we have to be okay with the fact that even if we don’t do that, we’re able to help strengthen them from within and foster personal growth.” Kollie, Aghayere and Alojama are staring down the barrel at a year of ambitious construction, research, networking and curriculum building, but they’re keeping sight of their end goal. “If at the end of the program’s day, the girls are just more confident, more inquisitive and inspired to seek opportunities for themselves or to seek alternative ways in which they can grow as women in their community, then we succeeded,” Aghayere said. Generocity.org
Approximately 7000 Ghanaians in the U.S. Face Deportation as Mass Raids Begin 7000 Ghanaians marked for deportation are part of people the US immigration authorities will be dealing with as it begins raiding some cities to arrest and deport individuals illegally residing in the country. The US government has not hidden its feelings about the presence of illegal immigrants since Donald Trump took office as president. Already the US has imposed visa restriction on some categories of government officials for refusing to accept some 7000 individuals marked for deportation to Ghana. Ghana’s Ambassador to the US, Baffour Adjei Bawuah has argued that majority of those described as Ghanaians have failed to prove they indeed are Ghanaians. But the US government did not buy that argument leading to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announcing the implementation of visa sanctions on Ghana in February. In a release dated January 31, 2019, the DHS explained that the sanctions are as a result of Ghana’s failure to accept its nationals that have been removed from the U.S. “Ghana has failed to live up to its obligations under international law to accept the return of its nationals ordered removed from the United States,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen was quoted in the release.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from the Department of Homeland Security look into the window of an apartment while executing search warrants.
“The United States routinely cooperates with foreign governments in documenting and accepting U.S. citizens when asked, as appropriate, as do the majority of countries in the world, but Ghana has failed to do so in this case. We hope the Ghanaian government will work with us to reconcile these deficiencies quickly,” the Secretary of Homeland Security added. However, speaking to Joy News’ Joseph Opoku Gakpo, the Foreign Affairs Minister said Ghana has been very compliant.
“It is not a situation where, in the last few years, we have not issued any documents at all. We have. For a good number of them, I am told that...17 have already been processed. We are waiting for them to pick up what we have processed while we process the rest,” she said. Foreign Affairs Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, gave assurances that work is ongoing to prevent the current U.S. visa restrictions on Ghana from escalating after the initial 120-day deadline.
Although the U.S. Embassy has hinted that it could intensify the restrictions unless Ghana shows commitment to address its concerns, Madam Ayorkor Botchway said negotiations are ongoing to resolve the issue. “One of the key aspects of the negotiation is for them also to understand that we have a process to follow. That process is not an overnight process. Once they appreciate that, they will understand where we are coming from,” she said. Ghana Web
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North America African Migrants Hoping to Reach U.S. Traveling to Latin America in Record Numbers RUSCHELL BOONE
Marilyne Tatang, 23, crossed nine borders in two months to reach Mexico from the West African nation of Cameroon, fleeing political violence after police torched her house, she said. She plans to soon take a bus north for four days and then cross a tenth border, into the United States. She is not alone — a record number of fellow Africans are flying to South America and then traversing thousands of miles of highway and a treacherous tropical rainforest to reach the United States. Tatang, who is eight months pregnant, took a raft across a river into Mexico on June 8, a day after Mexico struck a deal with US President Donald Trump to do more to control the biggest flows of migrants heading north to the US border in more than a decade. The migrants vying for entry at the US southern border are mainly Central Americans. But growing numbers from a handful of African countries are joining them, prompting calls from Trump and Mexico for other countries in Latin America to do their part to slow the overall flood of migrants. As more Africans learn from relatives and friends who have made the
A migrant from Cameroon holds his baby while trying to enter the Siglo XXI immigrant detention center.
trip that crossing Latin America to the United States is tough but not impossible, more are making the journey, and in turn are helping others follow in their footsteps, migration experts say. Trump’s threats to clamp down
on migrants have ricocheted around the globe, paradoxically spurring some to exploit what they see as a narrowing window of opportunity, said Michelle Mittelstadt, communications director for the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank.
“This message is being heard not just in Central America, but in other parts of the world,” she said. Data from Mexico’s interior ministry suggests that migration from Africa this year will break records. The number of Africans registered by Mexican authorities tripled in the first four months of 2019 compared with the same period a year ago, reaching about 1,900 people, mostly from Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which remains deeply unstable years after the end of a bloody regional conflict with its neighbors that led to the deaths of millions of people.
‘They would have killed me’
Migrants from Cameroon rest while waiting with other migrants from Africa and Haiti to enter the Siglo XXI immigrant detention center.
Tatang, a grade school teacher, said she left northwest Cameroon due to worsening violence in the English-speaking region, where separatists are battling the mostly French-speaking government for autonomy. “It was so bad that they burned the house where I was living … they would have killed me,” she said, referring to government forces who tried to capture her. At first, Tatang planned only to cross the border into Nigeria. Then she heard that some people had made it to
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North America said Mittelstadt of the Migration Policy Institute. US data shows a huge spike in the number of families from countries other than Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras at the US southern border. Between last October and May 16,000 members of families were registered, up from 1,000 for the whole of 2018, according to an analysis by the MPI.
Regional approach
Migrants from Cameroon rest while waiting with other migrants from Africa and Haiti to enter the Siglo XXI immigrant detention center.
the United States. “Someone would say, ‘You can do this,’” she said. ‘So I asked if it was possible for someone like me too, because I’m pregnant. They said, ‘Do this, do that.’” Tatang begged her family for money for the journey, which she said so far has cost $5,000. She said her route began with a flight to Ecuador, where Cameroonians don’t need visas. Tatang went by bus and on foot through Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala until reaching Mexico. She was still deciding what to do once she got to Mexico’s northern border city of Tijuana, she said, cradling her belly while seated on a concrete bench outside migration offices in the southern Mexican city of Tapachula. “I will just ask,” she said. “I can’t say, ‘When I get there, I will do this.’ I don’t know. I’ve never been there.” Reuters spoke recently with five migrants in Tapachula who were from Cameroon, DRC and Angola. Several said they traveled to Brazil as a jumping-off point. They were a small sampling of the hundreds of people — including Haitians, Cubans, Indians and Bangladeshis — clustered outside migration offices. Political volatility in Cameroon and the DRC in recent years has displaced hundreds of thousands of people. People from the DRC made up
the third largest group of new refugees globally last year with about 123,000 people, according to the UN Refugee Agency, while Cameroon’s internally displaced population grew by 447,000 people. The number of undocumented African migrants found by authorities in Mexico quadrupled compared to five years ago, reaching nearly 3,000 people in 2018. Most obtain a visa that allows them free passage through Mexico for 20 days, after which they cross into the United States and ask for asylum. Few choose to seek asylum in Mexico, in part because they don’t speak Spanish. Tatang said
the language barrier was especially frustrating because she speaks only English, making communication difficult both with Mexican migration officials and even other Africans, such as migrants from DRC who speak primarily French. Those who reach the United States often send advice back home, helping make the journey easier for others, said Florence Kim, spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration in West and Central Africa. Like their Central American migrant counterparts, some Africans are also showing up with families hoping for easier entries than as individuals,
A migrant from Ghana watches television in his room in a hotel in Tapachula, Mexico.
The grueling Latin America trek forces migrants to spend at least a week trudging across swampland and hiking through mountainous rainforests in the lawless Darien Gap that is the only link between Panama and Colombia. Still, the route has a key advantage: Countries in the region typically do not deport migrants from other continents due in part to the steep costs and lack of repatriation agreements with their home countries. That relaxed attitude could change, however. Under a deal struck with the United States last month, Mexico may start a process later this month to become a safe third country, making asylum seekers apply for refuge in Mexico and not the United States. To lessen the load on Mexico, Mexico and the United States plan to put pressure on Central American nations to do more to prevent asylum seekers, including African migrants, from moving north. For the moment, however, more Africans can be expected to attempt the journey, said IOM’s Kim. “They want to do something with their life. They feel they lack a future in their country,” she said. Reuters
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North America U.S. President Promotes Army Maj. Kwame Boateng to Lt. Colonel On July 6, 2019, the President of the United States of America promoted Major Kwame Owusu Boateng to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army at a colorful ceremony at Fort Belvoir, in Virginia, USA. Lt. Col. Boateng currently serves as Deputy Army Engineer Branch Chief at Fort Knox, KY. In 2003, he graduated from the U.S. Military Academy (West Point) with a Bachelor’s degree in Systems Engineering. Subsequently he earned a Master of Science degree in Engineering Management and a Master of Arts degree in Strategic Studies. In 2006-2007, Lt. Col. Boateng deployed with the 37th Engineer Battalion (combat) to support Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, where he led a battalion of 500 soldiers to engage in route clearances of land mines and ordinances. Later in 2011-2012, he commanded the 571st Sapper Company in airborne exercises in support of the war in Afghanistan. He had earlier served in Iraq. In 2015 he served with the 65th Engineer Battalion Executive Office and 2nd
Infantry Brigade (4,000 soldiers), supporting Pacific Operations in Korea, Thailand, and Iran. Lt. Col. Boateng is a graduate of the Sapper Leader Course, US Army Ranger School, Advanced Airborne School, and Cyber Awareness Training. His awards and decorations include the Senior Parachutist Badge, Irish Parachute Wings, Bronze Star Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Achievement Medal, the Meritorious Unit Awards, the National Defense Service Medal, the Iraq Campaign Medal, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the NATO Medal, and the Army Service Ribbon. Lt. Col. Estee Pinchasin and Colonel (rtd) Jeffrey Freeland officiated the promotion ceremony. Col (rtd) Freeland said, “I am more than excited to come from retirement to officiate the promotion of Major Kwame Boateng. He is a dedicated leader, soldier, and scholar. He wears his family name very well and makes us all proud.” Lt Col. Boateng was born in Newark, NJ to Dr. Kofi A. Boateng, aka Kofi ROPAA, and Niyonu Boateng, Major Kwame Boateng of the U.S. Army was promoted to the rank of Major on July 6, 2019. both graduates of Yale University. He has six siblings who are high achievers in their own rights. He is married to Danielle. They have two daughters, Payton Amma (10), and Paige Yaa Asantewaa (6)
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West Africa
Ghana Ghana Aims to Count Population Digitally SOFIA CHRISTENSEN
In Old Fadama, the largest slum in Accra, Ghana, a government official walks over to a group of men playing a card game. The official carries a hand-held computer. He asks if anyone has time to answer a few questions for an electronic census. Ghana is preparing for its first electronic population and housing survey. Government workers will be using tablet computers and satellite images to make sure everyone is counted in the survey next March. Ghana joins Swaziland, Malawi and Kenya as the first countries in Africa to collect such information electronically. The country has enjoyed more than 20 years of political stability and economic growth. The World Bank reports that, between 1991 and 2012, the country cut its poverty rate in half, from over 52 percent to 21 percent. Yet when researchers studied the data more closely, they found that some areas had poverty rates as high as 70 percent. That is why the next census is so important. The 2010 census questionnaires were on paper. It took months to gather the data, and the count missed about three percent of the population. Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia says the 2020 census will help fight inequality. He added that the country “must count everyone and make everyone accountable to pay their fair share in taxes.” The money would be used to help offer social services to the neediest people, he said at an event in May. The census is expected to cost $84 million, around 50 percent more than the last one. Ghana’s government will employ about 60,000 enumerators, or census takers, to collect the data. The government is still working with the United Nations on how best to get the 65,000 tablet computers needed to complete the survey. Officials say Kenya may be able to loan the tablets to Ghana after it completes its first electronic census later this year. Araba Forson is chief statistician for the Ghana Statistical Service. She says technology would prevent sending too few enumerators to heavily populated areas.
A government official tests an electronic questionnaire in Old Fadama, Accra’s largest slum, ahead of Ghana’s first digital population and housing census in 2020, May 24, 2019.
That is a problem the country had in 2010 because the maps they used were out of date. “Satellite imagery will tell us that there are people living in this part of the country that the enumerator may not have visited.” The population of Ghana’s cities has more than doubled during the past 20 years. The World Bank reports the number rose from 7 million in 1997 to almost 16 million in 2017. Many people have moved from poorer rural areas in search of work. They joined the millions of street vendors and waste pickers who make up most of Ghana’s informal economy. Together with homeless people, they are the “floating population” whom government statisticians want to capture better in their database. And the risks are higher this time. The census data is to be used in the launch of national identity cards, a project launched by the president in 2017. The new card requires digital address codes, many of which will be created by enumerators during the census. Naa Ardo-Acquah lives in the Agbogbloshie neighborhood, known as a dumping ground of electronic waste from wealthier nations. She warns that some people living in the slums are suspicious of the ID registration. She hopes the new address system will stop the government from removing slum occupants from their homes. But distrust remains an issue. Omar Seidu is with the Ghana Statistical Service. He says publicity
and communications teams have developed materials – on paper and audio or video products – to help educate citizens. His team will work closely with community leaders before the census, he said. Naa Ardo-Acqua said she spent
days helping people in Agbogbloshie register for their ID cards at centers set up by the National Identification Authority. She said many of them were disheartened by long lines. Voice of America
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West Africa
Nigeria The Post-Presidential Legacy of Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan MICHELLE GAVIN
Before the presidential elections of March 2015, former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan’s international reputation was not a strong one. Jonathan was initially something of an accidental president who, despite his relative inexperience, ascended to lead his country when his predecessor, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, passed away in office 2010. President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2007 handpicked Yar’Adua as the ruling party’s presidential candidate, and Jonathan as its vice-presidential candidate. In 2011, Jonathan surprised many observers in and out of Nigeria by securing the ruling party’s support for another term and ultimately winning the general election. His tenure was characterized by soaring unemployment, increased instability in northern Nigeria as Boko Haram gained strength and territory, and a widespread perception that public funds were pocketed by the influential and well-placed with impunity. To this day, he and his wife are dogged by various corruption scandals winding their way through the courts. But as the votes were counted in March 2015, Jonathan conceded electoral defeat to Muhammadu Buhari, famously asserting that “nobody’s ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian.” It was an unprecedented and courageous act in Nigerian politics, and it caught many Nigerians and Nigeriawatchers by surprise. He may have wielded power ineffectually or corruptly, but in refusing to cling to it illegitimately, Goodluck Jonathan altered the course of Nigerian history. He also created a surprising new future for himself. Since his concession, the former president is experiencing something of a renaissance as a senior statesman, at least in certain circles. He has been honored with international awards and invited to deliver keynote remarks at global conferences on everything from peace-building to improving educational opportunities. He is particularly sought-after as a champion of democracy, and recently led international election observation teams for the National Democratic
Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan speaks to the media as part of the National Democratic Institute’s election monitoring delegation in Liberia on December 26, 2017.
Institute in Liberia and the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in South Africa. His solemn tweets on respect for the rule of law in Ethiopia are covered in the press. The reinvention of Goodluck Jonathan is a fascinating phenomenon, raising questions about whether there are, or should be, limits to the redemptive power of one’s finest hour. How does this kind of collective decision get made, and what is the relative weight of Nigerian popular opinion and international demand for senior statesmen in making it? Is it wise to overlook gross failures of governance in appreciation for one profound moment of integrity? Perhaps Jonathan’s example can incentivize other leaders with dubious records to find their grand gesture for the greater good as a way to clear the slate and open the door to a different life of service. At the same time, perhaps this kind of wholesale reputational rehabilitation suggests that the brand of democracy championed internationally is sometimes a fairly hollow one, fixated on electoral dynamics, unresponsive to demands for accountability, and ultimately designed for the comfort of elites. Council on Foreign Relations
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East Africa
Kenya As Fuel Prices Rise, Firewood Thieves Vex Rural Communities KAGONDU NJAGI
Lucy Muthoni has never liked dogs. But these days, a pair of meanlooking hounds tail her as she makes the rounds at her farm in central Kenya. The reason for her shift in attitude is an unusual crime wave sweeping through villages in rural Kenya: firewood theft. “I was puzzled at first. Stealing firewood is not something that happens here. But when three other women from my village told me they had lost their firewood too, I decided to act,” the 38-year old told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Muthoni lost a shoulder-high pile of firewood in late 2018. She usually stacks it at her farm during the dry season, for use later at home when the rains set in. She cannot understand what has caused this crime wave, she said. But local assistant police chief Lawrence Micheni linked the crime to increasing demand for firewood in rural shopping centers, as fuel prices rise and buyers try to cut costs. Micheni said restaurant owners and other traders have been hit with increasing electricity costs as fossil fuel prices rise and as Kenya’s government increases taxes on a variety of goods and services, including energy. As well, a 2018 ban on wood harvesting in Kenya’s disappearing forests has made firewood scarcer, creating growing temptation to steal
Eric Mutwiri takes stock of his firewood at his home in Kambandi, Kenya.
unguarded supplies. “Chicken and crop theft are the most common crimes reported at my office. But this firewood theft is something new,” Micheni said, shaking his head in disgust at the crime. Muthoni is fed up too, which is why she bought the hounds in January to patrol her farm at night, when most firewood theft occurs, she said. She has not reported her loss to authorities, however, as she - like other farmers - struggles to see it as a serious crime. “We actually laugh it off when we meet with other women in the village” who have also suffered thefts, she said.
conservation manager in central Kenya for the Kenya Forest Service is not amused, and lists firewood theft as an environmental crime. Mwanzia said illegal firewood cutting in forests can be punished by government agencies, including his own. But theft that takes place on farms is also a threat to Kenya’s trees because farmers are then forced to cut more timber on their own land to replace the stolen firewood. “This puts a lot of pressure on the environment because the tree canopy, which attracts rainfall and acts as a wind break, is reduced,” said Mwanzia in an interview. In Tharaka Nith county, where Muthoni lives, records at the environTree Losses But David Mwanzia, an ecosystem ment court indicate that at least nine cases of firewood theft have been handled since January. But most cases go unreported because farmers are not aware firewood theft should be reported as an environmental crime, said Ngai Mutuoboro of the Atiriri Bururi ma Chuka community conservation group in Tharaka Nithi county. Mutuoboro, whose group fights for the rights of indigenous communities to manage Mt. Kenya’s forests, said growing restrictions on timber cutting by the government have denied rural Kenyans a basic and long-used fuel source. “People used to get firewood from forests and in return they would take care of the trees. Now they only have the trees on their farms (for firewood) when the government banned them Women carry firewood in Kenya. It is still a major source of fuel in rural Kenya and its defrom the forests,” he said. mand has resulted in a firewood crime wave in some rural areas.
But “these are not enough to supply the energy needs of the growing population,” said the 73-year-old, in an interview.
Fuel Shift According to Kenya’s Ministry of Energy, 90% of rural households use firewood for cooking and heating. The country needs to hugely expand its electricity production to substitute for that firewood, according to Joseph Njoroge, the energy principal secretary. It aims to generate much of that new power from renewable energy sources including geothermal, hydropower, wind and solar, he said in an interview. Kenya is already an African leader in renewable energy, with more than 60% of its power coming from geothermal energy, hydropower and smaller amounts of wind and solar power, according to a 2018 report by the Stockholm Environment Institute. But other potential sources of cheap cooking fuel also are available. Mercy Ogwan is a saleswoman for Sanivation Ltd., which makes cooking briquettes in part from human poo. “We use human waste to make these briquettes so that consumers can use them in place of firewood and charcoal,” said Ogwan in an interview. Such briquettes sell for about 30% less than firewood, she said. Last year, her company produced 100 tonnes of the briquettes, which are available for sale in central Kenya, Nairobi and the Rift Valley, she said. Thomson Reuters Foundations
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Volume 18 Issue 7
East Africa
Ethiopia Sidama Activists Promise to Declare New Region KUMERRA GEMECHU
Activists in Ethiopia were set to declare a new region for their Sidama ethnic group in defiance of the central government, with some residents of the southern city of Hawassa worried that it could lead to violence. The declaration will be a litmus test of whether Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s federal government can maintain its commitment to peaceful political reforms in the face of increasing demands from competing ethno-nationalist groups. “Red berets, regional special police force are patrolling with grim faces and guns pointed. Special forces can be seen in all corners and small streets,” one resident in Hawassa told Reuters. Some of his friends were so concerned that violence would erupt on Thursday that they sent their wives and children to the national capital Addis Ababa, he added. The federal system in Africa’s second most populous nation is designed to allow larger ethnic groups a degree of autonomy. But smaller groups such as the Sidama, who make up about 5% of Ethiopia’s 105 million people, say they have been sidelined. In addition to the Sidama, at least eight more ethnic groups are campaigning for their own regions. Hawassa city is the capital of the multi-ethnic southern nations region, but some Sidama - who make up the largest group within the region - claim it as the capital of their own new region. Fasika Qedele, another Hawassa resident, said it was time for the Sidama people to achieve self-rule. “The Sidama people have lived under repression for years and years. Now we are super excited as we are on the eve of declaration of our self administration,” he said, adding the people had the capacity and the educated workforce to do this. On Wednesday, the streets of Hawassa were unusually quiet apart from patrols of truckloads of federal police. Outside the airport, freshly painted signs announced “Welcome to Sidama National Regional State”. A planning meeting between elders and activists trying to decide
Sidama youths chat slogans as they gather for a meeting to declare their own region in Hawassa, Ethiopia July, 17, 2019.
on a course of action for Thursday turned heated. Reuters journalists were asked to leave the meeting for what some activists said was their own safety. Some activists said the government would lose legitimacy if it responded to the declaration with violence. “I don’t think the government would opt to dismantle itself by resolving to the use of force,” said Tariku Lema, a youth activist. “If the government pursues this track, the people would accelerate their struggle.” On Tuesday, the National Election Board tried to defuse the situation at the last minute by promising the Sidama they could hold a referendum on having their own region within five months. But some activists said they had already requested a referendum a year ago with no response. The constitution guarantees the right to a referendum within a year, but does not say what should happen if it is not held. Tariku, the Sidama activist, said minorities would be protected in the new region like all other Ethiopians. “As citizens, they would be entitled to all social and democratic rights in the constitution,” he told Reuters. Ethiopia has seen an explosion of violence since Abiy began his reforms, which have included ending bans on political parties, releasing political prisoners and welcoming
making it the country with the highhome rebel groups. More than 2.4 million est number of displaced people in the Ethiopians have fled their homes due world. to drought or violence, the U.N. says, Reuters
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Central Africa
Cameroon Cameroon Fights Boko Haram Recruitment with Goats, Sheep ILARIA ALLEGROZZI
The government of Cameroon this week began rolling out an unlikely weapon in the fight against Boko Haram militants. Authorities are distributing thousands of goats and sheep to young Cameroonians in villages along with border with Nigeria. The program aims to providing livestock for a basic income in order to stop the Islamist militant group’s recruiting tactics. The hope is that the livestock will empower thousands of vulnerable families and stop them from joining the extremists, who promise jobs. In the village of Salak, 17-yearold Oumar Nafisatu received four sheep. Nafisatu says she is looking forward to having baby sheep so she can sell them to pay for her school fees. She is the only one to take care of herself, she says, after her father and mother passed away. Boko Haram fighters killed Nafisatu’s parents, along with 21 others, when they attacked her village in 2017, forcing her to f lee. Just a week later, Nafisatu’s only sister was killed in a suicide bomb attack in a mosque at Kolofata. Boko Haram had recruited her with promises of a job as a house
Goats are being distributed in Maroua, Cameroon, July 11, 2019, as part of an empowerment initiative designed to prevent locals from being recruited by Boko Haram militants. (M. Kindzeka/VOA)
cleaner, then forced her to carry out the attack. Cameroon’s government plans to distribute 60,000 goats and sheep by the end of the year. The minister of livestock, known only as Dr. Taiga, said the animals will go to those who have suffered in the fight against Boko Haram. He said the initiative is to help families who are vulnerable by providing animals that are fruitful and enable them to have money. They will provide for their basic
Beneficiaries of the initiative take possession of their livestock in Maroua, Cameroon, July 11, 2019. (M. Kindzeka/VOA)
needs, said Taiga, take care of their families, and help to avoid temptations that can jeopardize peace and bring chaos. The Lake Chad Basin Commission, with eight member nations in the region including Cameroon, says some areas attacked by Boko Haram have unemployment rates as high as 90 percent. Midjiyawa Bakary, governor of Cameroon’s Far North region, notes there have been no major Boko Haram attacks in the past year but says the militants are still recruiting,
and the military remains on alert. He said people should be vigilant because Boko Haram is recruiting jobless youths with promises to improve their living conditions. Village militias, known as self-defense groups, should be reactivated to work in collaboration with the military, officials, traditional rulers and the clergy, said Bakary. He said they can share information on any suspected activities that may upset the peace that has been returning to villages and towns. Voice of America
Cameroon’s minister of livestock, known only as Dr. Taiga, speaks in Maroua, Cameroon, July 11, 2019. (M. Kindzeka/VOA)
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Volume 18 Issue 7
Southern Africa
Zimbabwe Cash-Strapped Government Has No Funds to Issue Passports Zimbabwe’s passport-issuing service has ground to a halt, officials say, leaving many citizens trapped in the country as its economic crisis worsens. Applicants for new or renewed passports face an indefinite wait as the Government does not have the foreign currency to pay for special imported paper, ink and other raw materials. Officials at the Registrar General Office told AFP that even if citizens wanted to pay for an urgent application for a passport, they faced a minimum wait of 18 months before they could even submit their papers. “Last month, the urgent applicants were being told to come back at the end of 2020,” said one official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity She added non-urgent applicants were told no date was available for when they could apply. Millions of Zimbabweans have fled abroad in the last 20 years seeking work as hyperinflation wiped out savings and the formal employment sector collapsed. Many others are now seeking to leave as conditions worsen under President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who had promised an economic revival after he succeeding long-ruling Robert Mugabe in 2017. Official inflation is at nearly 100 per cent — the highest since hyperinflation forced the Government to abandon the Zimbabwe dollar in 2009 — while supplies of essentials such as bread, medicine and petrol regularly run short. Power cuts often last 19 hours a day. Isheanesu Mpofu, a 23-year-old unemployed university graduate, applied for a passport last November but is still waiting. “I went back early June to check on it and was told to check again in August,” Mr Mpofu said, adding he wanted to visit his family abroad. “Besides, it is my right to have a passport so I can travel whenever I want to.” Mr Mnangagwa addressed the problem last month, saying a dispute with the printers over unpaid bills meant a state-owned company would
A man puts an expired passport in his pocket while waiting in a queue for a new one. Picture: AP/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi
Arriving overnight, applicants hold their places while sleeping on cardboards in cold temperatures, as they wait to submit an application for a passport at the main office in Harare.
take over the job. “They said they will not print any more passports because of legacy debts,” he said, claiming the money has now been paid. A passport office official told AFP only 10 passports were being printed each day despite a reported backlog of 280,000. “We have the capacity to clear the backlog in a very short time, but all the machinery is lying idle right now,” she said. Registrar General Clement Masango told AFP he had no comment to add to the President’s remarks.
Patience … People wait in a queue to submit an application for a passport at the main office in Harare, Friday, June, 14, 2019
AFP
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Southern Africa
South Africa Army Deployed to Combat Violent Crime in Cape Town
Soldiers deployed to Lavender Hill on the Cape Flats in August 2011. Now soldiers have been ordered back to the Cape Flats to support police as crime levels rise.
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happen. We’ll knock at your door. If you refuse to open, we’ll open the door. We’ll ask to pull up your mattress. If you refuse, we’ll pull it up with you,” he added. “We vouch that the Western Cape will never be [the] same.” Murders in the Western Cape province, which includes Cape Town, increased by 6.3 percent from 3,729 to 3,963 during the year to April 2019, according to Cele. Cape Town, an international tourist destination with stunning coastal and mountain scenery, has the highest murder rate in South Africa, according to the latest official crime figures. The city has an entrenched gang culture, with thousands of young men belonging to street gangs with names like “Hard Living” and “Young Americans”. But analysts warned the move to send in troops in a bid to address the violence was not a lasting solution. “Deploying the army is a shortterm, unsustainable response to a crises,” said Gareth Newham, head of justice and violence prevention at the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies. “When will we see clear plans to professionalise the police and prevent murder so there’s no need for the army?,” he questioned in a Twitter post.
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Authorities in South Africa will deploy the army to parts of the Western Cape province, including the port city of Cape Town, to help police battle a surge of gang-related violence in its poorer neighbourhoods. The defence ministry announced in a statement on Friday that troops would be sent to the “worst-affected crime areas” for at least three months from July. The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) said the deployment will take place at a later date and not on Friday as the ministry had announced. “It will go ahead as soon as we have all the necessary paperwork in order,” SANDF head of communications Siphiwe Dlamini told the News24 channel on Friday. The ministry’s move came after recent bloodshed in mainly poor majorityblack and mixed-race areas prompted a provincial official to liken the situation in parts of the province to a “war zone”, with some 2,000 people killed since January. Communities in those districts often bear the brunt of violence spread over a vast area called the Cape Flats, where high rates of unemployment and drug abuse have fuelled gang activity. In a crime last Friday, which made national headlines, six women aged 18 to 26 were murdered when unknown gunmen entered a home and opened fire. The next day, five men, aged 18 to 39, were shot dead and one was injured in two separate shooting incidents, said Albert Fritz, a Western Cape provincial official tasked with ensuring community safety. “In the Western Cape, 1,875 people were murdered in the past six months alone. This means that many of our most vulnerable residents in the province are living in a war zone,” Fritz said after more than a dozen murders over one weekend last month. Police Minister Bheki Cele said the army’s deployment - backed by President Cyril Ramaphosa - was part of “extraordinary” measures that needed to be taken to ensure public safety. “We’ll go door to door, we’ll collect every illegal firearm, we’ll collect all criminals that we want,” Cele told local media on Thursday. “If you keep the illegal firearms and you think you will sleep peaceful, it can’t
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Volume 18 Issue 7
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Artcutainment
REVIEW: Pirates of Africa AKOSUA OFORIWAA_AYIM
When it comes to music, it is certainly an African summer! Toby Foyeh and Orchestra Africa have added to the scene with their latest album, Pirates of Africa. This is their 4th CD release and is long anticipated after their last album release, Lagos Ilu Eko, in 2006. Toby Foyeh, né Tokunbo Olowofoyeku, is a Nigerian artist and guitarist. He was born in London, England of Nigerian parents and is currently based in USA. While he is largely a self trained musician, he did study music at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. He also has a degree in Film Directing from Howard University in Washington DC. Toby Foyeh and Orchestra Africa are known for their Afrijam sound, a style of guitar based modern African music using Nigerian Yoruba music. This powerful sound is certainly present in Pirates of Africa. The 9 track project is full of feel-good music, with every single instrument played & recorded live - there is no computer assistance or synthesizing. The authentic sounds remind us of the original afrobeat and highlife genres. Foyeh has been creating music since 1981 and his expertise and talent shows throughout the album. Guitar, talking drums, horns and pure vocals, the CD automatically transfers you to a familiar
place, perhaps a chop bar in Lagos or beachside on a clear night in Accra. The artist says Pirates of Africa is about ‘the modern day African in the global society and how Africans now find themselves in all corners of the globe. It is about the new global experience, how it started in Africa and how many of the world’s music is rooted in African rhythms.’ The songs touch a variety of themes. From the love song ‘Ife Oh’ which details the story of two people falling in love to the party song ‘Afro Beat Night Music’ that honors the afrobeat sound, there’s a little something for everyone. Toby Foyeh also addresses socio-political issues on the album, namely the relationship between citizens and police, both in Africa and America, on the track ‘Olopa,’ which means police. This is a CD you can play front to back this summer and beyond! The album can be purchased online at https://kameleona f rica music.com /produc t / pirates-of-africa-cd/
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