Amandla News - February 2019

A new year, a new Amandla

U.S. Visa Ban For Ghana Applications Page 4

Burundi Kicks Out Foregin Aid Groups Egypt’s El-Sisi Takes Helm at African Union Page 17

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Contact us today for the 2019 Media Kit Volume 18 Issue 2 | Pan-African Community Newspaper | February 15, 2019 | amandlanews.com

Political Vigilante Groups Have Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister: No Place In A Democratic Ghana France is ‘Impoverishing Africa’

Ghana’s Inspector General of Police, David Asante-Apeatu, has called upon political parties in the country to denounce and disbande all associated vigilante groups, calling the activity “politically motivated.” Vigilantism in the country has been rampant in recent years, with several cases of vandalism and abuse attributed to these groups. The time has come to rid Ghana of this scourge that has run rampant for far too long and preserve the rule of law.

The Deputy Prime Minister of Italy, Luigi Di Maio, has left little doubt on what he feels is the primary cause of African migrant crisis that Europe is faced with.

Di Maio called upon the European Union to sanction countries such as France that the prime minister feels is manipulating the econmies of 14 African countries which use the CFA franc, the currency underwritten by the French Treasury.

But the latest EU figures also show that many African migrants to Europe arrive from former Italian colonies of Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Amandla Readers Weigh In On Calls for Changes To Ghana Constitution

Ethiopia’s Teff Flour Not A Dutch Invention After All!

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As calls for the revamping of Ghana’s constitution gain more traction, Amandla readers have been writing in with their observations and opinions on the importance of the initiative, as these are necessary steps towards ushering in a period of government transparency in Ghana.

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A recent ruling by a three-judge court in the Netherlands has struck down a 2003 patent filed

by Dutchman Jans Roosjen as the inventor of teff flour, used in making such Ethiopian staples as injera flatbread. Teff is a grain variety so old that its original cultivation date is lost to history and can only best be estimated at between 1000 and 4000 BCE. PAGE 15

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February 15, 2019

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Volume 18 Issue 2

Letters to the Editor Amandla Readers Weigh in on Ghana Constitution Revamp Dear Editor, I would be very grateful if you could publish my comments on Ghana’s Constitution in your newspaper.

I have observed with keen interest the recent upsurge in dissatisfaction and disagreements on certain Articles and provisions of the Ghana Constitution by well-meaning Ghanaians from all walks of life.

Most Ghanaians would agree that our Constitution is packaged and riddled with flaws to the extent that some suggest the entire Constitution must be replaced. I don’t believe throwing out the Constitution entirely will be the answer.

I rather think amendments are warranted if Ghana hopes to seriously practice the Western system of government it has adopted.

My question is: who takes the initiative to amend the Constitution? Will it emanate from a bill introduced by a Member of Parliament (MP) or from the Executive arm of government?

From my point of view our Constitution in its current state sets us up as a nation to fail in perpetuity unless we do something about it. On cursory glance, sections of the Constitution appear to be democratic on paper but in reality, autocratic in practice.

For example, Articles 78 & 79 spell out how a sitting President chooses government ministers. These sections need to be eliminated or amended as soon as possible. If we have up to 38 MPs who also serve as Ministers, it removes and totally defeats accountability in government. To efficiently run a system such as

we have in Ghana, MPs must not serve as government ministers. It’s conflicting and compromising!

Clear boundaries between the powers of the Executive and Legislature must be delineated. My take is that no Member of Parliament should be made to serve as a minister at the same time.

From my layman’s point of view Parliament, and not the Executive arm, must be able to introduce all bills that are relevant to the progress and stability of Ghana.

If a President wants a bill enacted, he/she does so through an MP. In this case, MPs may not be totally beholden to the Presidency. Both would need one another to efficiently work.

It is rather unfortunate that Ghana, with its so-called intelligentsia and vibrant Press could harbor a Constitution that basically allows the Presidency to “hijack and/or intimidate” the Legislature.

Thus, Parliamentarians have no free will to deliver on their duties with full confidence, independence, and authority.

Parliament’s ability to provide the much-needed oversight is weakened by Articles (78, 79) which influences the ability of MPs to constructively challenge or criticize their colleague MPs who double as government ministers.

Publisher & Editor in Chief For one thing, the average MP Kwabena Opong would hope to be appointed a minister should the need arise. This setup is withDeputy Publisher & Editor out doubt flawed and makes mockery of Kofi Ayim Ghana’s economic progress and nascent P. O. Box 7030 West Orange, NJ 07052 democracy dispensation.

Ultimately, I deeply feel that our 973-731-1339 / 201-704-5838 Constitution stalls our progress as a nation due to the overlap in powers becontact@amandlanews.com tween the Executive and the Legislative Amandla is a monthly publication of branches. This bizarre marriage must the Amandla Company. It is an asso- cease sooner rather than later. ciate member of the New Jersey Press Richard Amoako Association. The publishers may not New Jersey necessarily share the opinions and ***** ***** ***** viewpoints expressed in the articles that appear in the publication.

Dear Editor, I certainly agree that it’s time to amend some parts of the constitution and not the entire document. While I believe that the indemnity clause May not be the best, I agree with the principle and the underlying context.

If we have to go back and right all the wrongs perpetrated by all those who were involved in those coup D’états, I don’t think we would have enough jurists or courts to handle the number of cases that could be levelled against individuals and their estates, in cases where those involved are deceased.

We may even be able to find lawyers who would be able to find some precedence in the law to file lawsuits against individuals/estates involved in the Aliens Compliance Order in the late sixties. A lot of people lost their lives as well as properties in their ignorance and haste to comply

I believe that Ghana has made significant strides since the ratification of the 1992 Constitution. We can see the level of sophistication of the Ghanaian citizenry increase as evident by the last few elections where the parties in government lost, and they gave up power.

There is still a lot of work to be done, in terms engaging more the citizenry, especially in the political process.

I don’t believe that the Indemnity Clause confers on certain Ghanaians an upperclass status, but rather a way to avoid and or avert chaos in the judiciary.

Almost every Ghanaian who grew up in the sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties, could make a case for how they have been adversely affected by these uprisings/coups, and imagine if every single one of us decided to file a lawsuit.

There would be chaos and the country would be ungovernable.

Let’s focus more on the areas that rob us of the services of some muchneeded talent and resources from abroad. Every Ghanaian, whether they have a citizenship of another Country, must be allowed to enter and help and

not be treated as a foreigner.

Those, in my opinion, are the areas of the constitution that we need to focus on. This is just my two cents.

Thank you.

Mohammed Mardah New York ***** ***** ***** Dear Editor, Ghana’s Constitution, crafted in 1992 under President Rawlings is flawed.

A critical look and analysis of some of the Clauses show that it was written to protect past military coup makers.

In short, it legitimizes the overthrow of democratic elected government through the barrel of the gun.

The framers of the Constitution probably had President Rawlings in mind and probably thought he was going to be a Life President when they put the most important document of the nation together.

Some aspects of the Constitution look more dictatorial than democratic and gives the President unfettered powers. There are no checks and balances between the three arms of government, because most critical positions are handpicked and appointed by the President.

Government appointed Ministers who go through Parliament for vetting are usually treated with kid gloves by their colleagues from the same political party.

Ghana must not use the Westminster or Presidential type of government and turn around to vest so much power in the presidency.

No Speaker of Parliament in Ghana would have the audacity to prevent the President from giving the State of the Nation’s address as U.S. Congress Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi did to President Trump! Wake up Ghana.

Kwame Osei-Fosu New Jersey.

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Editorial Political Vigilantism and Democratic Governance in Ghana

Political vigilantism is not new in Ghana. In the colonial era when Kwame Nkrumah initiated his independence agenda, he set the pace for youth activism with his Veranda Boys, with whose help the Convention People’s Party (CPP) was able to obtain political sovereignty from the British.

In the period prior to independence the two main political contenders in the Gold Coast, the Convention People’s Party and the National Liberation Movement (NLM) that later morphed into the United Party, were locked in a fierce violent battle that ended the lives of some notable personalities in the Ashanti capital of Kumasi and elsewhere.

Vigilante Groups, (VGs) or groups that take the law into their own hands, do not contribute anything to the development of the nation. Rather, they are intimidating and destructive.

They resort to acts of defiance of the law, including storming and disrupting law courts in session, as happened in Kumasi last year.

The two major political parties in contemporary Ghana – the New Patriotic Party (NPP), and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) – are equally guilty in their handling of vigilante groups. In both parties, Vigilante Groups have attacked government offices, forcibly removing employees because they belonged to quondam governments.

Individuals have been forcibly removed from their positions because of their affiliation with past governments.

Ghana does not have any laws against vigilantism. Following the recent incident at Ayawaso West Wuogon, Accra, several calls have been made for a law to be enacted in Ghana against it. Over the years (and even as vigilantism has become an unwelcome part of Ghanaian politics), it has wrecked lives, caused limbs to be lost and unnecessary destruction, yet no political party thus far has had the spine and wherewithal to outlaw it.

Members of government and the legislature from both sides of the political divide appear to agree to the proscription of the practice, but the political will is always lacking, for one reason: vigilantism helps win elections.

The NDC in particular has benefited from vigilantism in past elections. The Electoral Commission was

Members of the Invisible Forces take their turn to ask a question at the Tema Town Hall meeting

The National Democratic Congress also recently outdoored “The Hawks” vigilante group.

National Democratic Congress (NDC) has outdoored its newest vigilante group in the Eastern region, known as the ‘Eastern Mambas’.

cowed into using a few constituencies in Tain in then Brong Ahafo region to win the 2009 elections for late President J. E. A. Mills.

Vigilantes aided by the military prevented the NPP led by then opposition Presidential candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo

from campaigning in some areas for the elections. And then there was the carnage visited on NPP by NDC Vigilante at Talensi, Chereponi, Atiwa and other places.

Without serious police patrolling during elections, any attempt to proscribe vigilantism in Ghanaian

politics (despite its obvious misguided “advantages”) may result in more violence.

A well-trained police service or force, as the case may be, is needed to contain all forms of election and social violence. Acts of political vigilantism may also be curtailed if and when major policy initiatives that drive more youths into productive areas and skills training for jobs and self-employment are enacted and implemented.

The role of the media is most important in political vigilantism. Most researchers practically ignore the media as a major player in it. Known partisan media houses actively fan the flames of vigilantism with impunity.

They can be reckless, and Ghanaians must be reminded of Rwanda in how the East African nation was engulfed in flames that ended the lives of more than two million of its citizens.

Talk of equalization and reference to past events of vigilantism will only serve to perpetuate violence in Ghana’s electoral architecture.

Ghanaians must put pressure on the two main political parties to end political vigilantism.

The effort to end it must be nonpartisan and embrace the support of all Ghanaians, including religious communities, professional groups, youth organizations and civil society groups.

All hands on deck are needed to eradicate, once and for all, this socio-political canker that has placed a blight on the otherwise glowing nascent democracy of Ghana. Ghana cannot adopt the system of tooth for tooth and eye for eye, otherwise it would be a nation of toothless and eyeless people!

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Volume 18 Issue 2

North America Marriage Scam Paired Soilders at U.S. Base with Immigrants JOSH SHAFFER

A sergeant and a private at Fort Bragg sought to arrange sham marriages between soldiers and immigrants, offering cash, housing benefits and furniture as incentive for potential brides, according to federal court documents.

Arrest warrants were issued this week for Sgt. Edward Kumi Anguah, described as “the facilitator” of the conspiracy, and Pvt. Ahmid MohammedMurtada, a recently naturalized citizen from Ghana serving in a Fort Bragg Army unit, court records show.

The investigation began in December when an agent for the Department of Homeland Security interviewed Pvt. Endasia East about having an affair with a single soldier while married to Sulemana Ibrahim, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

During that interview, “she confirmed the marriage was in fact fraudulent,” according to court records.

On its website, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says it does not recognize “relationships entered into for purposes of evading

immigration laws.”

Mohammed, as he is called in court records, served in the same unit with East and approached her about marrying Ibrahim, who wanted to gain lawful permanent residence, an affidavit said. Court records show Ibrahim was a citizen of Ghana living in New York on a tourist visa that expired in July 2018.

As part of the deal, East was to receive a Basic Housing Allowance stipend, typically $1,000 or more, two months’ rent totaling $1,250 and furniture for a new off-post apartment.

East and Ibrahim married at the Cumberland County Courthouse in July, then East went to dinner with Anguah, who said he arranged many fraudulent marriages, the affidavit said.

“She was told by Sgt. Anguah and Private Mohammed that she would need to stage photos with Ibrahim in order to make the marriage look legitimate,” according to court documents.

The two soldiers also instructed East to place Ibrahim on her apartment lease to give the appearance he lived in Fayetteville rather than New York, records said. She also added him to service member life insurance documents.

“Private East stated Sgt. Anguah had asked her if she was willing to find additional soldiers for him to arrange marriages to,” the affidavit said. “She told Sgt. Anguah she would be on the

lookout.”

East later called Anguah and mentioned a friend “interested in doing the same thing that I’m doing with Ibrahim,” records said, to which Anguah answered, “Yeah.”

In January, an undercover officer met Anguah at a Starbucks in Fayetteville and told him she wanted $800 to marry an immigrant, and Anguah suggested $2,000 instead.

Later, the affidavit said, he told her he was going to get $6,000 and take a cut.

“Sgt. Anguah stated he would take care of the ring and ‘everything,’“ the affidavit said.

On Monday, Anguah called the agent with a man who identified himself as Kwaphoom Eugene Hoomkwap on the line. On the phone, Hoomkwap said he wanted to get off work in New York to get married in Fayetteville, court records said.

On Thursday, they met at the Fayetteville courthouse for the marriage license.

Federal arrest warrants were issued Thursday for Hoomkwap, Ibrahim, Mohammed-Murtada and Anguah on charges of marriage fraud, misuse of visas and aiding and abetting.

News & Observer

countries of origin of deportees to provide travel documents to facilitate their removal. When those documents are not provided, ICE faces the possibility of releasing the immigrants as the US constitution does not permit indefinite detention of prospective deportees.

For its part, Ghana’s US embassy has previously noted that the US was not providing it with enough paperwork and following due process to show that the intended deportees were indeed Ghanaian.

In an interview with Ghanaian media during the United Nations General Assembly in September, Baffour Adjei

Bawuah, Ghana’s ambassador to the US said the embassy had “difficulty just endorsing, as it were, a documentation when the embassy wouldn’t even have a basic information about the people who are being deported.”

As such, “to just be given names and asking for proper documentation for them to be deported was a bit tough for any embassy,” he added.

Trump’s homeland security department has been attempting to match the president’s aggressive migrant rhetoric with policy tweaks that could help accelerate the expulsion of illegal migrants while also restricting entry of new ones.

In 2017, ICE removed more African migrants than any other group, even as overall removals fell.

It’s not the first time the US has issued similar visa restrictions on African countries. In 2017, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Eritrea were all issued visa restrictions for failing to comply with removal orders for nationals.

The restrictions ranged from tourist, business, exchange and student visas for government officials and their families. Eritrea was the worst hit though as all its nationals were disallowed from applying tourist B visas.

Quartz

U.S. Issues Visa Ban on Ghana for Failure to Accept Deportees YOMI KAZEEM

Applying for a US visa will no longer be a straightforward process for Ghanaian nationals, for now at least.

The US department of homeland security (DHS) and department of state has issued visa sanctions on Ghana owing to its “lack of cooperation” in accepting its citizens ordered removed from the US.

In a statement, secretary of homeland security Kirstjen Nielsen said Ghana has “denied or unreasonably delayed accepting their nationals ordered removed from the United States.”

As a result, the US has initially placed unspecified visa restrictions on certain categories of applicants from Ghana until cooperation on removals improves “to an acceptable level.”

However, should Ghana fail to comply with the removal orders, DHS says the scope of the sanctions could be imposed more broadly.

Ghanaian citizens, a former British colony, are big fans of the American dream.

In 2015, one of the most recent years for which data is available, Ghana, with 1.73 million people, accounted for the highest number of applicants for the US diversity visa program also known as “green card lottery”. Those applications would account for 7% of the country’s 25 million population.

As the US continues to tighten its immigration policies, its immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) officials have been handed more powers to arrest and deport immigrants following the signing of two executive orders by president Donald Trump.

But ICE’s operation still require

Volume 18 Issue 2

Amandla

February 15, 2019

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North America GAMA Does it Again KOFI AYIM

A 20-person delegation of health professionals under the auspices of the Ghana Association for Medical Aid (GAMA) embarked on a oneweek goodwill mission to Ghana from January 19 to January 26, 2019.

Led by Dr. Andrew Baddoo, a New Jersey–based nephrologist, the non-profit organization screened and treated about 260 orphans at the SOS Children’s Village, a non-profit entity at Tema, on January 20.

Treatment of sinus infections, allergies, dehydration, malnourishment, glaucoma, and cataracts, among other afflictions, were administered to children and youth between the ages of two and eighteen.

The visually impaired were not only diagnosed and treated but given free eyeglasses.

All children were given dewormers as precautionary measures against parasitic infections, known to be a major cause of malnourishment.

In addition, each school-going child screened by the Mission was gifted with a free school bag.

Administrators and caregivers at the

non-profit orphanage also benefited from treatment by GAMA. On January 21 and 22, the Mission moved camp to Ashiaman, a highly populated urban area in Tema municipality. Almost 950 patients received treatments of varying degrees, after which GAMA moved its services to historic Dodowa township on January 23 and 24.

Almost 650 people from within and outside Dodowa were treated.

On January 25, the Mission left the Greater Accra Region for the Eastern Region and set up camp at mountainous Aburi. More than 500 patients went through the professional hands of GAMA. Diseases that were treated at Ashiaman, Dodowa, and Aburi included, but were not limited to, diabetes, high blood pressure, muscleskeletal pain, seasonal allergies, eye problems (glaucoma, cataracts, etc.), respiratory infections, skin ulcers, and wound care.

Consultation and counseling for kidney failure and best practices in general health were also offered. Local volunteers from the Uriel Impact Generations collaborated with GAMA to facilitate service deliveries.

As faith may have it, GAMA came to the rescue and paid for a prosthetic leg for a 22-year-old woman who had been struck by an 18-wheeler truck, mangling a leg in the process.She had come to request help from the Mission.

In all locations, GAMA donated up to six months’ worth of medical suppliers to patients it screened and treated. Surplus medicine was

donated to local clinics to be given free of charge to patients. GAMA services, including medication, are free of charge.

About two-thirds of the health professionals who embarked on the goodwill mission were non-Ghanaians. The Mission has since returned to the U.S., but work has already begun for the next and third trip of GAMA to Ghana.

Dr. Andrew Baddoo attending to a patient

Members of the GAMA mission alond with a regional police officer.

Orphans at the SOS Children’s Village with their new school bags.

Dr. Andrew Baddoo (microphone in hand) alongside GAMA executives

Lucy Ankrah, DNP, APN-BC and Karen Korley, BSN, FNP-C attending to a child.

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Volume 18 Issue 2

February 15, 2019

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Black History Month Remembering our Heroes & Sheroes Ghana’s Forgotten Hero Was First African Woman to Hold Cabinet Portfolio MILDRED EUROPA TAYLOR

In Africa, many of the male freedom fighters are well known and celebrated while their female counterparts are usually forgotten and relegated to the background.

From the likes of Kenya’s Muthoni wa Kirima, Zimbabwe’s Sheba Tavarwisa, South Africa’s Albertina Sisulu, and Nigeria’s Funmilayo Ransome-Kutithese, these women were very instrumental in the fight for the liberation of their respective countries.

Showing that they were not just passive on-lookers, some of these women led battles to ward off their enemies while others chose the rather civilian and activist role.

In Ghana, the first sub-Saharan African country to gain its independence, scores of women provided financial and other support services in the struggle for freedom from European colonisers.

A 2007 paper on the Contributions of Women to Ghana’s Independence and Democratic Governance cited by an article in the Daily Graphic stated that these women were the main basis of the political success of the Convention People’s Party that was formed by Kwame Nkrumah to campaign for independence.

Most of these women were traders who formed voluntary groups and became loyal supporters of the Nkrumah and his CPP, giving in their all to ensure that the independence dream was a reality.

In spite of the indispensable role played by these women in the political struggle, there was no woman holding a Cabinet position when Ghana attained republican status.

Being at the forefront of political affairs even after independence, a Representation of the People (Women Members) Bill was introduced in 1960, which ensured that 10 women were elected unopposed as Members of Parliament (MPs) in June 1960.

This made Ghana one of the first African countries to introduce a quota system for women, the Daily Graphic article said.

Susanna Al-Hassan, a politician and author who had taken part in Ghana’s emancipation process, was

one of those women.

She served as a member of parliament for the then Northern Region parliamentary constituency between 1960 and 1966.

Largely described as a northern female hero, Al-Hassan became the first African woman to hold a cabinet portfolio and Ghana’s first female to be appointed a minister.

Born in Tamale, Ghana’s northern regional capital, Al-Hassan schooled at Achimota School before becoming the headmistress of Bolgatanga Girls’ Middle School from 1955 to 1960.

From 1961, she became the Deputy Minister of Education in Nkrumah’s republican government, making her the first woman to be appointed minister in her country.

She served for two years before being moved to the Minister of Social Affairs, first from 1963 to 1966, and again in 1967.

In 1965, Dr Nkrumah appointed her as the Minister of Social Welfare and Community Development, while most of her colleague female MPs were appointed as district commissioners.

During this period, prostitution had come to the forefront of the state’s agenda, especially in northern Ghana, and officials sought ways to deal with the menace.

Campaigns associated prostitution with terms such as “social evil”, “enemy” and “crusade”, among the aged and illiterate population, who were “so deeply entrenched that nothing seems important enough to motivate them to transform their lives.”

Al-Hassan, however, believed that the issue had to do with “the soaring rate of depravity and lewdness among our younger generation especially school girls and young working girls” who travelled to Tamale for work and school, said Jessica Camaert in the book: Undesirable Practices: Women, Children, and the Politics of the Body in Northern Ghana, 1930–1972.

On January 7, 1997, Al-Hassan passed away and was commemorated on a 50th-anniversary stamp in 2007.

As an author, she wrote several books for young children. Some of her works include: Issa and Amina: Stories for Africa (1983); Asana and the Magic Calabash (1998); The river that became a lake: The building of the Volta Dam (1979), and The river that became a lake: The story of the Volta river project (1979).

Al-Hassan is one of the many forgotten female heroes who were strong crusaders of Ghana’s independence struggle.

Ghana’s first woman minister, Susanna Al-Hassan

Hannah Cudjoe, a political activist, is credited as the founder of the All African Women’s League in 1960. She also served as the party organizer and propaganda secretary of the CPP. There are also the likes of Ama Nkrumah, a strong supporter of Nkrumah, who is noted for slashing her face with a razor during a CPP rally to show that no sacrifice was too great in the united struggle for freedom and independence.

Writer and journalist, Mabel Dove Danquah, who is also the first female member of the legislative

assembly in 1954, used her communication skills to challenge colonial supremacy and female rights in the 1950s.

For Dr Evelyn Mansa Amarteifio, her focus was on the emancipation of women in the Gold Coast. Together with a group of other prominent women, she established the first women’s organization on a national scale, the National Federation of Gold Coast Women which would later become the Ghana Assembly of Women (GAW).

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February 15, 2019

Volume 18 Issue 2

Amandla

Black History Month Remembering our Heroes & Sheroes Celebrating Gordon Chavunduka, Famed Zimbabwean Traditional Healer and Independence Hero ELIZABETH OFOSUAH JOHNSON

Gordon Lloyd Chavunduka was a Zimbabwean Politician who played a role in the fight for the country’s independence. Aside from his involvement in politics, the very versatile Dr Chavunduka was also a traditional healer, sociologist, author and academic who contributed to each of these sectors in huge ways.

Dr Gordon Lloyd Chavunduka was born on August 16, 1932, to Solomon and Lillian Chavunduka in Penhalonga, St Augustines Mission, Zimbabwe. His parents were not of inf luential status thus, the family lived a very normal life.

Gordon, however, rose above his status to become a very inf luential person in his country.

After working as an agricultural instructor, his father later resigned from the position to become a farmer and Anglican priest.

It’s his father’s great knowledge in herbs and plants that developed Gordon’s interest in herbs and plants and their traditional use for healing process which he believed worked better for Africans.

Gordon received a quality education in Zimbabwe, South Africa and later the UK and USA. He started school in 1940 at the age of 6 and after completing Standard 4, he was sent to South Africa by his father for further studies.

At the time, education in South Africa was way advanced and people in other southern African countries moved into the country for further studies.

Gordon returned to complete his O levels in Zimbabwe due to the high level of instability in South Africa at the time. He went on to bag several degrees to his name such as a certificate in education, a degree in sociology and doctorate in philosophy.

While in school, he read extensively on plants and herbs and often practised usage with any that he could find. His keen interest led him to attend Alvord School of Agriculture and later worked with the Ministry of Agriculture.

Gordon retired from civil service after being asked to further his studies in sociology in a personal letter from a professor in the field.

He later taught Sociology brief ly at the University College of Rhodesia after returning to Africa in 1966.

Dr Chavunduka made his entry into politics in 1969 after returning from the UK where he attained his Doctorate in Philosophy.

He became the President of the NPU, a liberation party that sought to attain the independence of Zimbabwe after the two relevant parties in existence had been banned with several of its leaders and members detained.

According to the Colonial Relic, Dr Chavunduka was not particularly interested in politics but decided to lead the NPU to fill the gap that the loss of the ZANU and ZAPU had created to keep the momentum and struggle for a free nation going.

With the collapsing of the NPU due to internal problems, Dr Chavunduka was invited to take the role of Secretary-General for the ANC after the arrest of John Chirisa who was then the Secretary-General in 1972.

With this position, Dr Chavunduka was invited to England by then British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson in 1974 creating more discussion for Zimbabwe’s independence.

He later resigned from politics in 1977 but played a significant role in giving advice and strategies that led to Zimbabwe’s freedom.

Aside from his work in politics, Dr. Gordon Chavunduka also promoted traditional healing methods and the use of indigenous

Dr. Gordon Lloyd Chavunduka was a Zimbabwean sociologist and traditional healer.

plants and herbs. He wrote several papers and books on the topic of traditional medicine and healing as well as in sociology and philosophy.

He also authored more than 12 books in both English and Shona on traditional healing, witchcraft and agriculture.

He served as the president of the Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association and was also the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Zimbabwe from 1992 to 1996.

He also became a senior member of the MDC-T Guardian Council mainly to give wisdom and direction to the leadership.

On January 11, 2013, Dr Gordon Chavunduka passed away at 83 after a short battle with an illness.

He left behind a wife who he married in 1960 and 4 children. His death was marked by the Zimbabwean government as a loss to the nation and Africa.

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Volume 18 Issue 2

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February 15, 2019

Black History Month Remembering our Heroes & Sheroes “Hidden Figure” Dr. Gladys West Inducted Into U.S. Air Force Pioneers Hall of Fame

On December 6, 2018, 87-yearold mathematician Dr. Gladys West was presented with the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers award for her decades of contributions to the Air Force’s space program.

Dr. West was among the pioneering “Hidden Figures” who did computing for the U.S. military in the era before electronic systems, and the woman we should all thank for the system most of us rely on to pinpoint our location and find our way.

According to Air Force Space Command Public Affairs, “Dr. Gladys West is among a small group of women who did computing for the U.S. military in the era before electronic systems.

Hired in 1956 as a mathematician at the U.S. Naval Weapons Laboratory, she participated in a path-breaking, award-winning astronomical study that proved, during the early 1960s, the regularity of Pluto’s motion relative to Neptune.”

From the mid-1970s through the 1980s, “using complex algorithms to account for variations in gravitational, tidal, and other forces that distort Earth’s shape, she

Dr. Gladys West, a mathematician and one of the so-called “Hidden Figures” who was lesser known for her contributions to inventing GPS, has been inducted into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame.

programmed an IBM 7030 ‘Stretch’ computer to deliver increasingly refined calculations for an extremely accurate geodetic Earth model, a geoid, optimized for what ultimately became the Global Positioning System (GPS) orbit.”

Air Force Space Command Vice Commander Lt. Gen. DT Thompson delivers presents Dr. Gladys West with an award as she is inducted into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame.

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Volume 18 Issue 2

Feature

Africa Needs Real Economic Growth, Not IMF Accountants LAWRENCE FREEMAN

A recent forum sponsored by Brookings Institute in Washington DC entitled: “Top priorities for Africa in 2019” produced a healthy discussion that alluded to important fundamental conceptions of economics.

Although the deeper principles of what should be called economic science were not elucidated, issues raised in the dialogue serve as a useful starting point for further elaboration of that subject.

The event was organized to present FORESIGHT AFRICA, a new publication by the Africa Growth Initiative.

Representative from the International Monetary Fund-(IMF), and Mo Ibrahim Foundation, joined Ambassador LindaThomas Greenfield, and Brahima Coulibaly, director of the African Growth Initiative, for a wide-ranging discussion on the future of Africa to a packed audience.

Members of the audience challenged the prevailing assumptions of the International Monetary Fund. One participant raised the inadequacy of the IMF’s rigid macro-analytic approach, when what is needed, she said, is a finetuned micro-economic intervention to deal with the scope of the challenges facing African nations.

Another suggested the need for a state-funded public sector job program to put the millions of unemployed youth to work—a proposal which the IMF representative categorically rejected. The IMF’s hostility to state sector involvement belies the several hundred-year historical record of the modern economy, which is replete with successful and indispensable interventions by the state to foster economic growth.

Measuring Real Economic Growth While the Brookings report, FORESIGHT AFRICA, provides some relevant statistics, its analysis rests on erroneous axioms of what comprises economic growth The commonly accepted notion that African nations today are experiencing “jobless economic growth” reveals the fundamental antagonism between the analysis of the IMF and its co-thinkers, and proponents of real i.e. physicaleconomic growth.

Jobless growth is a moronic oxymoron. Real*economic growth augments the productive power of society to increase its surplus of tangible wealth in

Africa’s bright economic future can be found in its youth.

order to sustain an expanding population at a higher standard of living. The IMF pretends to measure growth by adding up monetary values such as the price of extracted resources and real estate, stock market gains, etc.

The aggregation of prices is not a measure of the economy’s growth.

The only true calculation for economic growth is the result: an improvement in the living conditions of the population.

Creating Growth

Real

Economic

An excellent example of this defective thinking is highlighted in the article from the Brookings report entitled “How Industries without smokestacks can address Africa’s youth unemployment crisis.”

Author John Page reports that Africa has not only failed to industrialize, but shockingly, its share of global manufacturing today is smaller than it was in 1980!

He forecast that Africa’s working age population (15-64 years of age) will grow by 450 million between 2015 and 2035, and that “20 percent of new employment for wages will be in the service sector, and only 4 to 5 percent will be in a wage paying job in industry.”

His conclusions for the future of youth employment in Africa are illfounded and deadly when he states that since: “industry has declined as a share of output and employment…over the past four decades…Africa may not be able to rely on industry to lead structural change…”

Page then proceeds to dangerously

postulate the equivalence of employment in manufacturing with tourists and service jobs. He writes: “The same forces that limit Africa’s opportunities in industry, however, are also creating a growing number of tradeable services—such as tourism and remote office services…”

“Growth in tourism is outpacing manufacturing in many African countries… It has the potential to create some of the millions of formal sector jobs Africa needs each year to employ youth entering the labor force…”

This is not an academic question for the people of Africa. We should all be level-headed about the implications of this prognostication: without industrialization, Africans will die. African are dying every day due to lack of infrastructure, a diminutive manufacturing sector, and an inefficient food-producing industry. The industrialization of Africa with a massive expansion of its manufacturing base is not an option, but a life-or-death necessity!

Nor is this conjecture on my part.

From the standpoint of economic science of physical economy there is no equivalence. Manufacturing, by transforming nature and producing needed goods, contributes real value to society; tourism and services do not.

A variety of services are required for a functioning society, but this sector should not perform role of a primary employer for new entrants into the labor force. Tourism serves no vital task except to promote the natural beauty of a county. No new wealth is created by tourism; it is essentially collecting other people’s earned income.

Service-related jobs, whether useful or not, will never lead to real economic growth for one elementary reason. They do not contribute to the creation of new wealth.

A properly organized economy would only have a relatively small percentage of its employed labor in the service sector. To do otherwise, as some African nations unfortunately are, is not sustainable, and will lead to calamity.

To equate non-goods producing employment with manufacturing jobs is a grave fundamental error that should be rejected by serious economists and leaders.

Africa’s Youth Bulge Is Not A Curse FORESIGHT AFRICA estimates that today 60% of Africa’s 1.25 billion people are under 25 years of age.

That amounts to 750 million youth, a majority of which are unemployed or mis-employed in the pathological informal economy.

It is projected that in sub-Saharan Africa alone, the youth population will expand by 522 million, and comprise one-third of the world’s youth by 2050.

Thus, making Africa the continent with the youngest population, and potentially the largest workforce on the planet.

While these figures are striking, they do not justify enforced population reduction measures, as extremists advocate. Human life is intrinsically sacred because it is endowed with the CONTINUED ON PAGE 11

Volume 18 Issue 2

Amandla

February 15, 2019

11

Feature AFRICA NEEDS ECONOMIC GROWTH CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10 divine spark of creativity. Contrary to popular misguided opinion, human creativity is the underlying source of all wealth; not money or even natural resources.

Paleoanthropology shows us that millions of years ago before the emergence of homo sapiens-sapiens (wisewise man), proto-humans, homo hablis, (handy man) designed tools first in the mind’s eye before shaping rocks into useful implements that were used to transform the environment for the benefit of mankind. Africa is not facing a crisis of too many people, but rather the urgency to formulate the best policies today that will incorporate millions of youth as productive members of the labor force.

What African nations most desperately need, and which will have the greatest impact of their economies, is infrastructure, infrastructure, and more infrastructure.

It is not hyperbole to state that the lack of infrastructure is responsible for millions of deaths on the continent. The dearth of on-grid energy, arguably the most crucial component of an industrialized-manufacturing society, is preventing African nations

from attaining the levels of economic growth required to sustain their populations.

For example. If we desire, as we should, that Africans enjoy the same relative living standard as Western nations, then each of the 2.5 billion Africans in the year 2050 should have access to at least one kilowatt (1,000 watts) of power every day.

That would require, starting immediately, erecting enough power plants to generate 2,400 gigawatts of electricity. Itemize the bill of materials to build that many thermal, hydro, and nuclear power plants.

Now contemplate the number of workers that would be employed in this endeavor. Extend the same mode of thinking to constructing hundreds of thousands of kilometers of highspeed rail lines to connect the major cities, ports, and manufacturing centers across this vast continent. Add to that the number of new roads, hospitals, schools, libraries, and water ways that need to be built to provide an adequate standard of living.

How many tens of millions or more youths will Africa need to employ in just the construction of primary infrastructure projects?

Imagine how many additional jobs will be created in the spin-off industries.

Africa’s Future Begins Today

Trillions of dollars of long-term low interest credit must be made available to fund these projects. Only state-issued public credit will suffice for this scope of investment.

The private sector, investments funds, or any other fund that is motivated by seeking high yield and quick financial returns on their investment will never, ever, underwrite the credit necessary. The overriding concern of the nation state is not making quick monetary profits, but the welfare of its citizens living and their posterity.

The IMF thus far shown itself to be mentally, emotionally, and ideologically incapable of comprehending the true economic needs of Africa, or how to fund them. Those who are blinded by their erroneous view of evaluating an economy by its monetary worth, will forever be incompetent, and are not qualified to give advice, much less diktats to developing nations.

Credit issuance by the nation state is not a new or novel concept. The success of United States’ economy, which was maintained with ups and downs until its decline over the last five decades, emanated from the accomplishment of President George Washington’s Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton. It was Hamilton’s understanding of credit

France Outraged Over Africa Colonialism Remark PETER STUBLEY

France summoned the Italian ambassador in protest after her country’s deputy prime minister claimed French colonialism in Africa was fuelling immigration.

Luigi Di Maio, the leader of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, sparked the latest war of words between the two countries by making the comments during a rally in the Abruzzo region.

He then refused to back down, telling reporters that French economic policy “contributes to the fact that the refugees leave and then die in the sea or arrive on our coasts.”

As a result Italian ambassador Teresa Castaldo was summoned by chief of staff of Nathalie Loiseau, the French minister for European affairs.

French diplomatic officials described Mr Di Maio’s remarks as “hostile and without cause given the partnership between France and Italy in the European Union”.

One said: “It’s not the first time the

Luigi Di Maio, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister, accused the French government of creating poverty in Africa and forcing migrants to make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to Europe.

Italian authorities have made unacceptable and aggressive comments.”

Since winning power last year, Italian leaders have openly supported the “gilet jaunes” protest movement and accused France of harbouring terrorists responsible for murders in Italy.

France meanhwile, has criticised Italy for closing its ports to refugees crossing the Mediterranean. Last week Italy faced further pressue after an estimated 170 refugees drowned.

Mr Di Maio criitcised France again over the weekend when he told supporters: ”If we have people who are leaving Africa now it’s because some European countries, and France in particular, have never stopped colonising Africa.

“If France didn’t have its African colonies, because that’s what they should be called, it would be the 15th largest world economy. Instead it’s among the first, exactly because of what it is doing in Africa.”

and the central role of manufacturing that created the basis for U.S. economic growth from thirteen indebted colonies.

Over the last 230 years, those leaders, in the U.S. or abroad, who were wise enough to comprehend and apply Hamilton’s understanding of national banking and credit, have been successful in stimulating economic growth for their nations.

Africa’s future does not begin in 2050; it begins now. It is incumbent on Africans, with the assistance of their friends and allies, to prioritize crucial transformative infrastructure and related projects that must be built and funded. This cannot wait.

This is a war to eradicate poverty, hunger, and disease, and secure a productive life for billions of Africans living and yet to be born. Thus, this campaign should be conducted with a military-like commitment to achieve objectives and goals each month and each year. Hence, we are not waiting for the future; we are creating the future in the present.

Lawrence Freeman has been involved in Africa for over 25 years as a writer, analyst, and consultant. He teaches courses on African History in Maryland. In 2014 he was appointed Vice chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Lake Chad Basin Commission.

He added: “I’ve stopped being a hypocrite talking only about the effects of immigration and it’s time to talk about the causes. The EU should sanction all those countries like France that are impoverishing African countries and are causing those people to leave.”

After Ms Castaldo was summoned

by Ms Loiseau, Mr Di Maio said: “I don’t think it’s a diplomatic case”. He claimed that France was manipulating the economies of 14 African nations using the CFA franc, a colonial-era currency which has a fixed exchange rate to the Euro. Those countries still using the CFA franc include Mali, Niger, Cameroon and the Central African Republic “France is one of those countries that by printing money for 14 African states prevents their economic development and contributes to the fact that the refugees leave and then die in the sea or arrive on our coasts,” he said.

In 2017 the French president Emmanuel Macron argued the currency brought stability but said it was up to the leaders of the African countries to make changes.

He was criticised for claiming “civilisational” problems and women having “seven or eight children” was hampering development in African nations.

The Independent

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Volume 18 Issue 2

Amandla

Business & Technology

South Korea Seeks to Partner with Africa on Technology

In partnership with the African Development Bank, Korea is ready to step up technology transfers to Africa, officials have said.

Speaking at a meeting on potential technology partnerships between Korea and Africa, representatives of Busan Metropolitan City, Busan Techno Park, and Korea’s Green Technology Center said there was huge potential for cooperation and immense opportunities for job-creating bankable projects.

The range of business options include agriculture, green growth, smart urban transportation management, and numerous business opportunities.

President of the African Development Bank, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina said: “the partnership could drive towards an exponentially different future.

He added that the bank intends to explore the creation of a strategic partnership with Korea that could lead to the creation of a Korea-Africa research and training Drone Center, which could help pave the way for Africa’s 4th Industrial Revolution.

According to Hyung-Ju Kim, Director, Global Strategy Division, Green Technology Center, “Korean expertise can provide a practical and pragmatic solution to a wide range of Africa’s most pressing technology needs.

The African Development Bank could play a major role by bringing technology to the table while the bank identifies and facilitates bankable projects that can boost technology cooperation between Africa and Korea.

Adesina said: “We are determined to expand the use of drones in agriculture in Africa. What we do in Africa today, will determine global food security tomorrow.”

For the President of the African Development Bank, it is important that the technological partnership with Korea translates into capacity building on the ground, through training, so that Africa can industrialise, build or assemble drones.

Busan City’s dominance as a Smart City on the cutting of artificial intelligence is thanks in part to political vision, one of the largest research and development expenditures in the world, and a team of 12,000 researchers and scientists.

Speaking afterwards to the African diplomatic corps in Seoul, Adesina identified three main

President of the African Development Bank, Dr Akinwumi Adesina that the partnership between Africa and South Korea could drive towards an exponentially different future

obstacles to private sector development —access to finance, energy and stability.

The Bank has invested $1 billion in AfreximBank, including $ 650 million in trade finance lines of credit and $ 350 million in trade insurance. The Bank has also invested $ 630 million in First Rand Bank and AbSA in South Africa to support expanded access to trade finance for 20 countries.

This financing effort includes small and medium-sized enterprises, which represent more than 80 per cent of businesses in Africa. In this respect, he cited the Asian example, where large companies relied on value chains dominated by SMEs including suppliers and subcontractors. The Bank’s strategy is to develop large companies while connecting them to SMEs for increased value creation.

“Without electricity it is impossible to industrialise Africa,” Adesina said. The Bank has made access to electricity a top priority.

Its ‘Desert to Power’ initiative will develop an estimated 10,000 MW in the Sahel region, making it the largest solar project in the world.

Adesina, the head of Africa’s leading development finance institution, says, the Bank’s 2018 Africa Investment Forum in South Africa, “secured investment commitments worth $ 38.7 billion in less than 72 hours, which provides a strong indication of global interest in Africa’s emerging markets.”

Experts say in order for the African Development Bank to continue supporting the continent’s development, a general capital increase is necessary.

According to Adesina, an $11 billion increase in paid-in capital for example would significantly change the lives of millions of people, including 105 million who would have access to electricity; 137 million who would benefit from access to improved agricultural technologies; 22 million who

would benefit from investments in private sector projects; 151 million with access to improved transportation services; and 110 million who would be provided with access to improved water and sanitation services.

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Amandla

Volume 18 Issue 2

West Africa

Cameroon U.S. Cuts Aid Over Human Rights Concerns

The United States has cut defense assistance to Cameroon -- including plans to supply armored vehicles -- due to concerns over human rights violations, an official said Thursday.

A State Department official said that the United States appreciated Cameroon’s contributions in fighting Boko Haram extremists from neighboring Nigeria but had concerns about a deadly crackdown on a revolt at home.

“We do not take these measures lightly, but we will not shirk from reducing assistance further if evolving conditions require it,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

“We emphasize that it is in Cameroon’s interest to show greater transparency in investigating credible allegations of gross violations of human rights security forces, particularly in the northwest, southwest and far north regions,” he said.

He said that the United States no longer planned to provide Cameroon with nine armored vehicles, four defender boats or an upgrade of a Cessna aircraft.

Nigeria Women Shut Out of Nigeria’s Poll by Violence, Fraud and Sexism

The United States has cut defense Experts predict the number of women who win seats in Nigeria’s Saturday elections is likely to fall below the existing 6 percent - already one of the lowest rates in the world.

UN Women said only 51 women are standing for Congress with the four biggest parties, down more than a third on 2015’s historic poll, when Muhammadu Buhari became the first Nigerian to oust a sitting president at the ballot box.

Women were attacked, threatened with violence and forced to give up their places to men during the party primaries last year, said Mufuliat Fijabi, head of the Nigerian Women Trust Fund, an advocacy group seeking to boost women’s leadership.

Men arrested in connection with Cameroon’s anglophone crisis are seen at the military court in the capital Yaounde in December 2018.

The United States will also suspend training and the delivery of spare parts for a C-130 transport aircraft owned by Cameroon, hold back a radar system and withdraw an offer for Yaounde to take part in a program in which individual US states help develop foreign militaries.

Human rights groups have urged a probe of the majority French-speaking country’s crackdown on an armed

revolt by the English-speaking minority in the southwest and northwest regions.

The government has deployed thousands of soldiers in an operation that has killed at least 500 civilians and more than 200 members of the security forces, according to estimates by the International Crisis Group think tank.

President Paul Biya has ruled Cameroon for 36 years, winning a

seventh consecutive term in October.

Authorities recently banned protests after unauthorized demonstrations.

The State Department official said that the United States was still offering other assistance to Cameroon, crediting its contributions both in the fight against Boko Haram and in restoring security to the piracy-ridden Gulf of Guinea.

AFP

“It’s worse this year because the conduct of the political parties’ primaries is not the type that we’ve ever seen before,” Fijabi told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“Some of the parties clearly stated that they feel that women cannot win the elections for them.”

Some party leaders pressured women to step down, while others irregularly removed winning women’s names from their lists of candidates submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Fijabi said.

INEC said it must accept candidate lists as presented by the parties, but that it is working with them on the need to open up political space for women.

Women make up about 12 percent of the 8,878 total candidates for national and gubernatorial elections and 7 percent of the 71 candidates running for president on Feb. 16.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, ranks 181 out of 193 countries for the percentage of women in parliament, according to the InterParliamentary Union (IPU), the international organization of parliaments.

The presidency is expected to be a race between incumbent Muhammadu Buhari and former vice president Atiku Abubakar, both men in their 70s.

Zainab Sulaiman Umar, a 26-year-old running for a seat in the Kano State House of Assembly, said she was attacked by a group of men with knives while campaigning last year.

“They wanted to scare me, but I didn’t give up,” she said.

“I believe it’s something that women will look up to ... and I hope

that more women will come into politics.”

Having the means to finance a campaign is also a significant obstacle for women seeking office, said Umar, who took part in a training program for female candidates organized by UN Women, the United Nations agency for gender equality.

The agency is pushing for the adoption of a bill that would introduce affirmative action for women in politics.

Reuters

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Volume 18 Issue 2

West Africa

Ghana Ghana Seeks $300 Million to Prop Up Loss-Making Cocoa Board EKOW DONTOH

Ghana is in talks with lenders for $300 million in loans to support the country’s loss-making cocoa regulator.

Ghana Cocoa Board, which oversees sales and purchases in the world’s second-biggest grower of the chocolate-ingredient, needs 1.1 billion cedis ($223 million) to meet its commitments for the annual season through September, according to a document that was submitted to lawmakers on Dec. 22.

The board recorded a shortfall of 2 billion cedis in the previous harvest, it said.

The proceeds of the loan will be used to refinance 1.4 billion cedis in so-called cocoa-bills that were sold in the previous season, some at rates of as much as 18.3 percent, according to the document.

The board is in talks with a syndicate of lenders including Cooperative Rabobank UA and Societe Generale SA to borrow the money at 295 basis points over Libor, it said. This year the board has sold almost 2 billion cedis of the securities.

Ghana’s cocoa regulator is struggling to cover its expenses after keeping farmers’ minimum pay unchanged for three seasons straight, even though

prices have declined from highs that were reached mid-2016.

While cocoa rebounded in 2018, forecasts of bumper crops from West Africa’s biggest growers have again weighed on prices since the beginning of the year.

The loan will be repaid over three years after a one-year moratorium, according to the document. The board will set aside 50,000 tons of beans per

year at a projected price of $2,200 per ton to service the agreement, it said.

Futures contracts in London traded at 1,627 pounds ($2,128) per ton at 1:36 p.m. on Friday.

The plan will allow Ghana “to prolong the maturity of our debts,” Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta said by phone. “We expect this to allow us the fiscal space to develop the cocoa industry.”

Nigeria 20,000 Nigerian Girls Sold to Prostitution Ring, Trafficking Agency Says Nigeria’s anti-trafficking agency says it has received concrete intelligence that around 20,000 Nigerian girls have been forced into prostitution in Mali.

Many of the girls are working in hotels and nightclubs after being sold to prostitution rings by human traffickers, according to a fact-finding mission carried out by the agency in collaboration with Malian authorities in December.

NAPTIP’s Arinze Osakwe told CNN most of the girls said they were lured by human traffickers who promised them employment in Malaysia.

The new trend is that they told them they were taking them to Malaysia and they found themselves in Mali. They told them they would be working in five-star restaurants where they would be paid $700 per month,” Osakwe, who was part of an earlier NAPTIP rescue mission, said.

Some of the girls had been sold as sex

Nigerial girls as young as 13 are trafficked acros borders with promises of work abroad.

slaves in gold mining camps in northern parts of Mali, he said.

Officials from the agency under Operation Timbuktu rescued 104 Nigerian girls from three brothels in Bamako, Mali’s capital in 2011.

They were forced to become sex workers in mining communities in northern Mali.

“We brought back 104 girls just from three ramshackle brothels, and those were the ones that were even willing

to come. They were mostly between the age of 13 and 25, and they had been trapped in the country for many years,” Osakwe said.

“Since then, we have been working with local authorities and receiving reports from the Nigerian embassy in Bamako that the number of Nigerian girls trafficked to Mali has spiked tremendously,” he said.

The agency said it is working with Malian authorities, the International

Organization for Migration and National Emergency Management Agency to send the girls back to Nigeria.

Every year, tens of thousands of Nigerians are trafficked illegally to destinations abroad especially Europe.

Around 97 percent of victims are women, and 77 percent have been sexually exploited by their traffickers, according to IOM estimates.

CNN

Volume 18 Issue 2

February 15, 2019

Amandla

15

East Africa

Ethiopia Teff Flour No Longer Patented as a Dutch Invention ABDI LATIF DAHIR

A legal tussle over who owns teff, Ethiopia’s staple grain, has been quietly settled.

A three-judge court in the Netherlands ruled a European patent for the products made of teff lacked “inventiveness,” ending a years-long controversy over who owned the ancient grain.

The controversial patent, which was originally filed in 2003, listed Dutchman Jans Roosjen as the inventor of the teff flour that’s used to make injera flatbread and other traditional Ethiopian food.

The Ethiopian embassy in the Netherlands confirmed the ruling, which was first filed in June 2014 and whose verdict was delivered in November.

“The reason for the late announcement is the time for appeal was still running,” the embassy wrote on its Twitter handle. “As no appeal was made, the verdict is now final: the claim to processing teff by patent holder is null and void in the Netherlands.”

Rich in protein, fiber, and minerals, teff has slowly been gaining a global foothold especially after the Ethiopian government lifted the ban on exports in

Rich in protein, fiber and minerals, teff is used to make ehtiopian staples such as injera flatbread..

2015.

It has also been marked as the next big superfood, as huge numbers of people in the West have moved away from low-fat and sugar-free diets and gravitated towards gluten-free.

Looking at it as a lucrative industry as such, teff products have been introduced in countries including Spain and the United States. Yet its patent by a Dutchman left many Ethiopians, who have cultivated and used it for millennia, confounded.

“It is an issue of our inability to own our national assets in the international

legal system,” Fitsum Arega, the former commissioner of the Ethiopian Investment Commission, has said on Twitter of the patent. “We need to defend it.”

The furor over the teff ownership comes at a time when Africans are increasingly raising questions about creative and artistic theft, cultural appropriation, and pushing to reclaim their narrative.

This is especially being amplified by the internet and social media, where online petitions are agitating for change, including most recently on Disney’s

Uganda Gov’t Minister Wants “Curvy” Beauty Pageant to Boost Tourism AANU ADEOYE

An online petition is calling on Uganda’s Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities to scrap its plans for a “Miss Curvy Uganda” beauty pageant.

The petition comes in the wake of comments made by Uganda’s State Minister for Tourism, Godfrey Kiwanda, at the pageant’s launch event in Kampala on Tuesday, when he said the country’s women should be used as a strategy to boost tourism.

“We have naturally endowed, nicelooking women who are amazing to look at,” Kiwanda said. “Why don’t we use these people as a strategy to promote our tourism industry?”

The pageant is part of the ministry’s Tulambule initiative that aims to highlight Uganda’s tourist attractions.

According to a mission statement on its website, “the event is organized to

Godfrey Kiwanda, Uganda’s State Minister for Tourism.

recognize and acknowledge the big, bold and beautiful plus-size Ugandan ladies.”

Curvy women have now been added to a list of tourist attractions which also includes national parks, wildlife and spectacular waterfalls.

Unsurprisingly, the suggestion that women be used to attract foreign tourists has received widespread condemnation on social media, in the local press and from a fellow minister in Uganda’s cabinet.

Minister of Ethics and Integrity Rev. Fr. Simon Lokodo has called on the

Tourism Ministry to showcase the wide array of tourist attractions in Uganda instead of “scandalizing” the nation.

“I totally condemn that pageant and I would want it stopped,” Lokodo said in an interview with Record TV Uganda. “It is not fair to women, and girls growing up because it un-dignifies them.”

The petition was created by Primrose Murungi, a Ugandan woman, who says she feels personally attacked by the minister’s comments and the pageant. Murungi described it as “degrading” and “objectifying”.

trademarking of the Swahili phrase “Hakuna Matata.”

Following the controversy of French and American companies trying to trademark rooibos tea, South Africa sought and won a “geographic indicator status” over the product, meaning goods made in the country and approved by the government could only use the name.

In Kenya, Benin, Nigeria, and beyond, artists and museum curators are also seeking the return of looted artifacts kept in Western museums across the world.

Quartz

It’s “not fair,” she wrote, “in a country where women are grabbed by men while walking on the streets and now they have legalized it by making them tourist attractions.”

At the time of writing, the petition had attracted close to 1,800 signatures.

Tourism generates about $750 million in direct contribution to Uganda’s GDP, according to a 2018 forecast by The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).

The finalists of the pageant are due to be selected in June according to organizers, but it’s unclear if it will still go ahead in light of the controversy generated.

The Ministry of Tourism has yet to comment publicly since the minister’s remarks were first reported.

The incident marks the second time in only a matter of weeks that male Ugandan leaders have made allegedly disparaging comments about women.

In December, President Yoweri Museveni criticized Quinn Abenakyo, winner of the Miss World Africa beauty pageant, for “wearing Indian hair”.

“We must show African beauty in its natural form,” Museveni wrote in a tweet.

CNN

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Volume 18 Issue 2

Central Africa

Zambia Zambian First Lady’s Fire Truck Inspection Trip to US Sparks Outrage MEL FRYKBERG

An expensive overseas trip by Zambian first lady Esther Lungu to collect four fire trucks donated by the Los Angeles City Fire Department has stirred a hornet’s nest back home.

In January, the first lady travelled to the US, in what has been described as a collaboration between Zambia’s Fire and Rescue Service and the LA fire department to collect the four trucks, the

Rwanda Rwanda gets $11m Design Lab JULIUS BIZIMUNGU

Co-Creation Hub (CcHub), a Nigerian innovation centre, yesterday unveiled its first African ‘Design Lab’ in Kigali as part of its expansion strategy.

Over the next five years, the firm plans to spend $11 million on designing design technology solutions to systemic problems in in public health, education and governance.

The launch of CcHUB Design Lab was presided over by the Minister for ICT and Innovation, Paula Ingabire. The project is set to assemble a multidisciplinary team of product designers and engineers who collaborate with scientists and stakeholders globally to solve some of Africa’s complex problems.

CcHUB’s Founder and CEO, Bosun Tijani, said that it was necessary to adopt the concept of design thinking as it would relieve Africa the burden of innovating just for the sake of it.

“It is important to understand that we don’t have luxury to build solutions just for the sake of solutions.

decades. Two of the trucks are 1985 models, a third one is a 1995 model and the other one a 1996 model.

Furthermore, the first lady’s entourage included 25 people in all. A bedroom attendant, cook, cleaner, waiter, seven police officers, three secretaries, two fire brigade officers, a communications officer and an accountant were among those accompanying Lungu.

And the exorbitant sojourn abroad went ahead despite civil rights activist Laura Miti appealing unsuccessfully to US Ambassador to Zambia Daniel Foote to withdraw the donation to Zambia.

Details of how much the two-week An expensive overseas trip by Zambian first lady Esther Lungu to collect four fire trucks trip for 25 people cost Zambian taxpayers has stirred a hornet’s nest back home. will not be made available due to Lusaka’s repeated refusal to pass the Access to Lusaka Times reported. to Zambian standards.

According to presidential spokesper- However, it has emerged that the do- Information Bill following a litany of son Amos Chanda the purpose of the trip nated fire trucks were retired by the LA excuses.

African News Agency was to assess if the fire trucks conformed fire department after serving the area for

We have to build for end users who desperately need solutions for the existing problems in society. Applying design thinking will help African countries not waste time during the process of building solutions,” he noted.

The entrepreneur highlighted a few things that the concept of design can bring; ensuring better outcomes, improve processes, expand capabilities and increase equity. These, he said, are all critically important to rapidly innovate and build the much-needed solutions in Africa.

Bosun had previously told this paper that they were seeking to build solutions for digital epidemiology, improve adherence to treatment, and strengthen efficient collection of data, all of which are aimed at designing the right solutions for healthcare.

The launch of the CcHUB Design Lab coincided with the announcement of the partnership with Rwanda Biomedical Centre as its first local company to partner, joining the likes of Go-Ga Lab, Nimcure and Safe Online.

The hub, which is expanding its physical presence out of Nigeria for the first time in its eight year history, also plans to use technology to widen STEM education, improve interests and learning outcomes and introduce smart applications in schools.

Minister for ICT & Innovation Paula Ingabire (centre) launches the African ‘Design Lab’ with a tweet from her phone on Thursday. Looking on are tech-prenuers Bosun Tijani (left), the founder of Co-Creation Hub (CcHub) and Femi Longe (R) the co-founder and head of innovation. Rwanda is the firm’s first operation outside Nigeria.

On the other hand, they have bigger plans to bridge the gap between government and citizens and improve technology delivery of public services.

To achieve all this, they say they will invest some $11 million for the next five years.

Already, CcHUB boasts a preincubation portfolio of over 60 companies, including digital blood bank, Lifebank, recycling venture, WeCyclers

and Budgit, a web platform that simplifies the Nigerian budget and public data.

It has reportedly built a community of over 13,000 technologists, entrepreneurs and thought-leaders, and has incubated and provided support to a portfolio of over 110 early stage ventures.

The Design Lab, they say, further reinforces CcHUB’s commitment to solving Africa’s biggest development and social challenges.

Volume 18 Issue 2

Amandla

February 15, 2019

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Central Africa

Burundi Why Burundi Is Kicking Out Aid Groups JASON BEAUBIEN

For 26 years, Handicap International has not only been providing crutches, prosthetics and wheelchairs to people with disabilities in Burundi, it has also been a leading advocate for people with disabilities in the country. Much of its work has focused on helping people get physical therapy, accessible housing and jobs.

But all of that is over now. HI has been ordered by the government to stop its work in Burundi in a dispute over ethnic quotas. The government is requiring all foreign aid groups to commit to having 60 percent of their local employees be Hutus and 40 percent Tutsis – the quota for government agencies.

The government is also demanding that foreign charities provide staff lists specifically identifying employees by their ethnicity. Rather than comply, Handicap International (which just recently changed its name to Humanity & Inclusion) is laying off all 105 of its local employees, shutting down its operations and pulling out of the central African nation.

Two other organizations — human rights group Avocats Sans Frontières and a Belgian NGO called RCN Justice & Démocratie — have announced that they’re also departing over the new requirements.

The operation of dozens of other international aid groups remains suspended in a country where threequarters of the population lives in poverty.

The government initiative began on Sept. 27, when the head of Burundi’s National Security Council, Gen. Silas Ntigurirwa, went on national television and said that foreign aid agencies were operating illegally in Burundi.

“The National Security Council has decided to suspend all activities of these NGOs for a period of three months dating from October 1 to allow the institutions in charge of them to verify their compliance with the laws and rules in place,” the general declared.

Burundi is adjacent to Rwanda.

Like its neighbor, it has a population that’s predominantly Hutu with a smaller Tutsi minority. The country fought a violent civil war from 1993 to 2005 that was intertwined with the

An expensive overseas trip by Zambian first lady Esther Lungu to collect four fire trucks has stirred a hornet’s nest back home.

Rwandan genocide and had ethnic tensions at its roots.

Last fall roughly 130 foreign aid groups were ordered to suspend their operations and reapply for permission to operate in the country. According to the government, 84 agencies had done so as of Jan. 1.

Other charities that refused to go along with the new rules regarding ethnic quotas were told they were not allowed to work in the country in any way.

“We were clearly told that if we do not share the ethnic origin of all our employees then we are not allowed to start again our operations,” says Dominique Delvigne, who oversees HI’s operations in Burundi as the group’s geographic director for the African Great Lakes region.

“We’ve never asked the staff to share their ethnic origin and we do not want to do it in this current context,” he says.

Ethnicity is not something that’s officially noted on identification cards in Burundi as it was in Rwanda before the 1994 genocide. Opponents of the new rules say it’s not the role or responsibility of foreign NGOs to collect this information.

This clash between the government and foreign aid workers comes as tensions in the country have been escalating. Amnesty International says security forces routinely kill, abduct, torture and detain people.

The economy is in a tailspin.

Burundi posted negative economic

growth for the last three years, according to the African Development Bank.

In 2015, President Pierre Nkurunziza defied term limits and won a controversial third term. Last year, the Central African nation quit the International Criminal Court and ejected the BBC and VOA. Hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled since Nkurunziza’s latest re-election.

“It’s very important to remember that the government in Burundi has been using ethnicity any time it’s cornered,” says a Burundian named Terry who now lives in the United States.

He asked that his last name not be used because he still has family in Burundi and is concerned they could be harassed if he criticizes the government. Terry says there’s still a lot of ethnic tension in Burundi, and he worries how the information that NGOs are being asked to collect might eventually be used.

“It could be used to track people.

It could be used to intimidate people,” he says. “Or it could be used to kill or to identify people to be killed who are considered opponents.”

The new rules also require foreign aid groups to deposit a certain percentage of their annual budget in Burundi’s central bank — seen as a rather blatant attempt to give the government access to much-needed foreign currency.

In announcing the ethnic quotas for NGO staff, government officials said they are attempting to make sure

that aid groups hire more Hutus, who traditionally have been underrepresented in some sectors.

At the time of the initial announcement of the new rules, a spokesman for the president also accused foreign NGOs of spreading homosexuality and attempting to destabilize Burundi. Some of the NGOs do “nothing,” he said, accusing one unnamed group of passing out only three chickens over the course of three years.

Dozens of aid groups are still in negotiations with the government about their operating status in Burundi.

Dominique Delvigne of HI says the decree has had a huge impact not just on aid workers, but on the whole country.

“The effect of the suspension was immediate,” he says. “We were not allowed anymore to work. We couldn’t even go and work with our support staff in our offices. We really had to stop the activities.”

Agencies running hospitals and schools were allowed to continue, but all the other groups had to close their doors. At least three aid workers who ignored the order were arrested.

“As you can understand it was a very hard decision to make,” Delvigne says. But he says it was an important decision. The government’s request for ethnic information on HI’s employees was a “red line” he says they were not willing to cross.

NPR

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February 15, 2019

Amandla

Volume 18 Issue 2

Volume 18 Issue 2

February 15, 2019

Amandla

19

North Africa

Egypt As Kagame Steps Down, Egypt Takes Helm At African Union NICOLAS DELAUNAY

chairperson can do,” said Jobson.

Amnesty International expressed fears that Egypt’s chairmanship could undermine human rights mechanisms in the AU. “During his time in power President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has demonstrated a shocking contempt for human rights.

Under his leadership the country has undergone a catastrophic decline in rights and freedoms,” said Najia Bounaim, Amnesty’s North Africa Campaigns Director.

AFP

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Kagame, who has been leading institutional reforms since 2016, pushed for a continent-wide import tax to fund the AU and reduce its dependence on external donors, who still

pay for more than half the institution’s annual budget.

But member states have resisted this along with reform of the AU Commission, its executive organ. In November 2018, most states rejected a proposal to give the head of the AU Commission the power to name deputies and commissioners.

Like other regional heavyweights Nigeria and South Africa, Egypt is not keen on a powerful AU, an African diplomat told AFP. Especially because Cairo has “never forgotten” its suspension in 2013 after Egypt’s army deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who in 2012 became the country’s first democratically elected president, the diplomat said.

“Traditionally, leaders of big powers have not really helped the position of AU chairperson, as they don’t want an AU which is too strong or too intrusive,” said Elissa Jobson of the International Crisis Group.

“The AU and the AU commission are only as strong as its members want them to be. Unlike the EU, African countries have not transferred some of their sovereignty to the AU.” Kagame suffered a crushing blow from the AU after expressing “serious doubts” about the results of Democratic Republic of Congo’s recent presidential election, which was officially won by Felix Tshisekedi.

While also disputed by the Catholic church, the results were validated by DRC’s constitutional court and saluted by continental heavyweights South Africa, Kenya and Egypt.

“This whole thing was an embarrassment for the AU, it showed the limitations of what the AU

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Resisting AU power

Nearly six years after the African Union shut it out in the cold, Egypt will take the organization’s helm. The AU chairmainsip, previously held by Rwandan President Paul Kagame (L), has now been transferred to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi (R)

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Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who led an active, reformist tenure as African Union chair, on Sunday passes the baton to Egypt, seen as more likely to focus on security issues than expanding the powers of the body.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will officially take over the post of ceremonial head of the AU which rotates between the five regions of the continent at the start of a two-day summit in Addis Ababa.

While multiple crises on the continent will be on the agenda of heads of state from the 55 member nations, the summit will also focus on institutional reforms, and the establishment of a continent-wide free trade zone.

The Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) was agreed by 44 nations in March 2018, but only 19 countries have ratified the agreement, with 22 needed for it to come into effect.

The single market is a flagship of the AU’s “Agenda 2063” programme, conceived as a strategic framework for socioeconomic transformation.

Cairo is backing the initiative, but analysts say it will be less likely to focus on the financial and administrative reforms pushed by Kagame.

Sisi is however expected to focus more on security, peacekeeping and post-war reconstruction, issues closely tied to the AU’s 2019 theme of “Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons”.

“Egypt has an interest in Africa, they want to strengthen their position on the African continent and they don’t want to be seen as a country only focused on the Arab world,” said Liesl Louw-Vaudran, an analyst at the Institute for Security Studies.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Saturday that peaceful elections in DR Congo, Mali and Madagascar, as well as peace deals in South Sudan and Central African Republic and the truce between Ethiopia and Eritrea, were signs of a “wind of hope” on the continent.

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February 15, 2019

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