Butterfly Magazine Issue 25

T h e wo r l d t h ro ug h Joshua’s eyes Page 21

Vol. 1 Issue 25 9th OCTOBER 2020

Multimedia Storyteller

Making Sierra Leone famous In collaboration with

Credit: Brut America

THE JERUSALEMA

The Song Behind the Jerusalema Dance Challenge “I never thought people would be dancing to my song in the United States of America.” His song became a worldwide hit after a viral TikTok dance challenge. South African DJ and musician Master KG tells us the origins of “Jerusalema.”

Ndlovu Youth Choir

Credit: Ndlovu Youth Choir

Jerusalema Dance Challenge

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DANCE CHALLENGE

Credit: ohAFRO

Best Jerusalema Dance Challenge with Kenya Maasai and MC Jessy

10 Best Jerusalema Dance Moves /Worldwide Transform your viewing...

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news

Being Black at

Whilst this is a step in the right direction for Cambridge, they admit there is still a way to go. BBC reporter Ashley John-Baptiste has followed three black students who started last year through what turned out to be quite an extraordinary year.

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Credit: BBC

As the new academic year begins at Cambridge, the university has exclusively revealed to the BBC that they have admitted a record number of 137 black UK students, the highest figure ever for the university and up 46 students on last year, which was also a record year.

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Sierra Leone

Cr ed

it:

Di sp lor e

Welcome to

Explore Freetown, Sierra Leone with Lansana Mansaray Transform your viewing...

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10 Things You Did Not Know About Sierra Leone

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Vickie Remoe

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Fashion

Contents Cover: Vickie Remoe Credit: Contributed

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Jerusalema Dance Challenge

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Being Black at Cambridge University

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The Library

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What’s on the Screen?

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Ask Valerie

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Freedom is Mine with Fayida

Sierra Leone

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Straight Outta Compton 6

Transform your viewing...

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The Disruptor

iChurch: Mike Todd

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The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency

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Laughter

Sports Arrow

Dominica

Alexander McCall Smith

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Health / In Loving Memory of Caleb Duncan Cooper

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Last Word

THE BUTTERFLY MAAG TEAM Editor-in-Chief Beverley Cooper-Chambers EDITORIAL TEAM Karen Ferrari Simone Scott-Sawyer Editorial Researcher Tasina J. Lewis Editorial Assistant Melissa Osborne D.M. Harris Marketing Team Marvin Osemwegie — Marketing Director Michael Brown — Social Media Analyst Financial Strategic Advisor Nastassia Hedge-Whyte, MAAT, ACCA,ICAJ Regular Features Joshua Grant aka Sports Arrow (London) Fayida Jailler (UK) Chi-Chi Osemwegie (London) Design Editor Rusdi Saleh Graphics Butterfly logo by Wayne Powell (Jamaica)

ENJOY READING & WATCHING BUTTERFLY MAAG ON YOUR SMARTPHONE Submit a story: communications@butterflymaag.com Ad copy should be submitted Friday for the following week’s publication.

Butterfly Magazine published weekly on Fridays.

Butterfly magazine is published weekly by BUTTERFLY MAGAZINE LIMITED, 86-90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE, UK. Tel: (44) (0) 203 984 9419 Butterfly ™ 2015 is the registered trademark of THE LION AND THE LAMB MEDIA HOUSE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited without written permission from the publishers BUTTERFLY MAGAZINE LIMITED. Advertising enquiries: communications@butterflymaag.com Address all correspondence to: communications@butterflymaag.com No copyright infringement is intended

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Politics

ICE CUBE - Speak with One Voice!

Credit: Universal Pictures

We must tell Politicians what WE want if they want OUR vote.

Straight Outta Compton Transform your viewing...

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Credit: BBC iPlayer

Credit: BBC iPlayer

THE LIBRARY

ALT History

WhiteWashing 8

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A Forgotten Regiment

Credit: BBC iPlayer

Credit: BBC iPlayer

A British Lynching

Books about Black Children

Credit:Ding

COMING SOON

IG: @lamelleymel - FB: Lamelle Transform your viewing...

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What’s on the Screen?

The Screeners’

TV Choice

Illustration by Wayne Powell (Jamaica)

WELCOME TO THE VIRTUAL LIBRARY

Welcome to our Virtual Library !

Feel free to browse around and choose any book to read, all you have to do is click on the book cover to get the link.

Enjoy!

Credit: Film Select Trailer

Credit: moviepilotindie

Credit: BBC iplayer/ StudiocanalUK

Man

Yardie

Fruitvale Station

Synchronic

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Credit: Movie Coverage

woman

Credit: Movie Coverage

The Public

MISBEHAVIOUR Trailer (2020) Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Keira Knightley Movie 12

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Credit: Ubongo Kids

small child

Credit:uNeek Productions

Credit Unicorn Theatre

Skip Counting

 Award Winning Short Film by Tahneek Rahman

Brother Anansi & Brother Snake Transform your viewing...

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A very inspiring Sierra Leonean movie about the life of a young girl who had a dream of becoming a very influential Lawyer in her society to help fight for the injustice, but to find out that the path is very bumpy and narrow.

Credit Netflix

Saved by Grace

Credit: KTVSierraLeone

OLDER CHILD

Project MC2 14

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Credit:Movie Coverage

young adult

Credit: Movie Coverage

Endless

One Love Transform your viewing...

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Credit: ohAFRO

gen z

The top 10 African Dance styles in 2020. These dance moves were picked based on their popularity and relevance over the years. This include, gwara gwara dance, shoki dance, alkayida dance, shaku shaku dance azonto and more.

Credit: puuung

Credit: Universal Pictures

Top 10 African Dance Styles in 2020

Straight Outta Compton - A LIVE Conversation 16

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Love ‌ is in small things

Credit: FilmSelectTrailer Credit: Collins Archie-Pearce

grandPA

Credit: Netflix

Spell

Mr Ibu in Sierra Leone

Mudbound

Two men return home from World War II to work on a farm in rural Mississippi, where they struggle to deal with racism and adjusting to life after war.

Mr Ibu, Nigeria heavy weight champion, goes to Sierra Leone o fight the Sierra Leone heavy weight champion, only to find out that it’s a boxing scam. He refuses to play ball and he is now on the run. Did he survive it? find out in the movie!

Featuring John Okafor (Mr Ibu), Desmond Finney, Fatima Bio (First Lady Republic of Sierra Leone), Ifunaya Igwe and the producer himself Collins Archie-Pearce.

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Credit: Warner Bros.

grandma

Ghosts of Mississippi

BBC iPlayer

A determined widow. A courageous D.A. They found a way to do what two trials and 25 futile years of effort couldn’t do-convict the murderer of civil rights leader Medgar Evers. Alec Baldwin, Whoopi Goldberg and James Woods star in a powerful tale of courage and commitment.

Anthony 18

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ASK VALERIE Hi Valerie, I’d known him for some time, and he told me that he loved me. We became intimate summer 2019 and he hit it, quit it and then ghosted me!

I ran into him approx. 6 months later, I still had feelings for him and then he did it again. I feel discarded and I’m in turmoil. My mum says he’s not worth my time. However, how do I get over the pain? Linda Hi Linda, No doubt those words ‘I love you’ made you let go of your defences. You’re now in a cycle of self analysation, berating yourself, questioning ‘how could I have done better?’ and all the while just wanting the pain to go away.

It’s good that you’re asking this question as it’s important that we take ownership of our own behaviour.

In order to release the pain, something needs to be said. It’s in the expressing of how you feel that you place your self on a path to a more speedy recovery. You see you can’t win respect through silence, you earn through expressing your worth and that means communicating your feelings to both yourself and the men in your life.

So set up a time to speak first with yourself and WRITE your feelings down. The intention is to stop the cycle in your head as you commit it to paper. Write your truth and do not curb it. Have compassion for yourself, forgive, learn and claim back your self-respect.

When you are silent when a man disrespects you, he takes it as its ‘OK’ to disrespect you… again. Your ’appearance’ of accepting it, decreases your value in his eyes.

I suggest you have a conversation with him, preferably face to face. In the event he has outright ghosted you i.e. no contact, I suggest you release that letter into the atmosphere and thank God for the lessons learnt.

The intention is to free you from that part of you that co-created this situation. You will feel a lot less angry and relieved! The healing has begun.

It’s not so much that he is not worth your time but more importantly you are worth your time.

To re-calibrate yourself watch this video: https://youtu.be/jC1Kg4XWQf4 Ladies for your Complimentary Vibes Check Conversation click: www.valerieacampbell.com/callbooking

We would love to hear from you!

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Freedom is Mine

Japan

BY FAYIDA JAILLER

Pyrrus Conocer

T

here have been Black-African settlers in Japan since the mid16th century, who came with Europeans as crew members or slaves. During the Nanban Trade Period from 1543 to 1614, when Europeans first began arriving in Japan in significant numbers, many traders, particularly the Portuguese brought enslaved Africans with them to Japan.

Naban slave One of the most famous Black

by Water Children settlers in Japan was Yasuke, an enslaved African, widely believed to be from African-Americans also have Mozambique. He travelled to Japan a long-standing relationship in 1579 with the Jesuit missionary with Japan. In 1845 a former Alessandro Valignano. Valignano Yasuke drawing slave named Pyrrus Conocer

by Iwasaki Shoten presented Yasuke to the Daimyo Oda was abord the Whailing ship Nobunaga (a powerful war lord) who Manhattan which was the first had never seen a black person before and who American ship to visit Tokyo. When the ship entered believed his skin had been coloured with black ink.

Edo Bay Pyrrus was greeted with great curiosity by He made him strip from the waist up and scrub his the Japanese and is depicted in Japanese drawings of skin, astonished the event. to see that the Controversy came in 2015 when a mixed-race pigment didn’t contestant won the title of Miss Universe Japan. come off. Thus Ariana Miyamoto was born in Japan to a Japanese sparked Nobunaga’s mother and an African-American father. Although fascination with she was born and raised in Japan, some viewers took the African man. umbrage at the fact that someone like Ariana who Yasuke learned did not look traditionally Japanese with her brown considerable skin and textured hair, should not have been allowed Japanese and to win the competition. adapted well to Japan remains one of the most the local culture. ethnically homogenous countries in the He began to work in Nobunaga’s service where he world, and there is certainly a long way trained as a Samurai and received his own house to go to before Black people are no and plot of land, as well as a ceremonial Katana longer ‘othered’ in Japanese society. sword. He was present when Nobunaga was But, both in yesteryear and attacked by rival forces in 1582 and forced to now, there has been plenty commit seppuku, honourable suicide. After of harmonious cooperation this Yasuke joined forces with Nobunaga’s betwee n the Japanese heir Oda Nobutada, but he was eventually and Afrodescendants. captured and his fate unknown.

Ariana Miyamoto

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Credit: Tedx Talks

Welcome to the Disruptor

To be a disruptor in business is to create a product, service, or way of doing things which displaces the existing market leaders and eventually replaces them at the helm of the sector. [`the disruptor]

Less Talk More Action

The World Through

the Eyes of a Child

Joshua Beckford is an 11-year-old boy with Autism. This makes him special because he experiences the world differently. He has a passion for making the world a better place and believes if we don’t save our Planet nothing else that we do is important.

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Why Akon’s Building

His Own $6B Mega City

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Credit: Social TV

The Gateway to Liberia is

Back in Business

BUTTERFLY MAGAZINE CONGRATULATES

TONGAYI CHOTO

ON HIS ACHIEVEMENTS Congratulations to AfriBlocks Co-Founder and CEO, Tongayi Choto for being recognized as one of the Most Influential People Of African Descent Under 40, Inside Africa 2020.

In support of the International Decade for People of African Descent, proclaimed by United Nation’s General Assembly resolution 68/237 and to be observed from 2015 to 2024, the Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD) identifies high achievers of African descent in public and private sectors from all around the world as a progressive network of relevant actors to join together in the spirit of recognition, justice and development of Africa, it’s people on the continent and across it’s Diaspora. www.mipad.org About AfriBlocks: AfriBlocks is a global Pan-African freelance network where qualified, skilled, and talented African freelancers can provide remote services to clients across the world at affordable pricing. https://afriblocks.com Transform your viewing...

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Credit: WION

AFRICA

Palki Sharma Upadhyay is a journalist at WION TV Channel, News Anchor and Designer.

Rutendo Matinyarare

Teaches About Food Colonialism Rutendo Matinyarare is an astute marketer with over 15 years experience in various industries that span from business systems, hospitality, entertainment, rubber, finance, non-profit, government and brand management.

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lead Story

From the Forest to the City.

Multimedia Storyteller Making Sierra Leone famous

The Vickie Remoe Show is a cross between ‘The Oprah Show’ and Anthony Bourdain’s ‘Parts Unknown’ with a clear and direct focus on African business and travel.

V

ickie Remoe has been affectionately called the Oprah of African television in Sierra Leone, her home, since she started her TV show The Vickie Remoe Show. She is passionate about her country and since her return has produced a catalogue of programmes that show Sierra Leone the way Sierra Leoneons want to be seen. So in keeping with a scriptwriting mantra show don’t tell, Vickie shows us Sierra Leone through their eyes.

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BM: So how did you get into TV?

V

ickie: So I was really really inspired

by Semben Ousmane who is the godfather of African cinema, he’s Senegalese. He’s basically the first African person to make a film in Sub-Saharan Africa and he started off as a writer actually but then he quickly switched to film making because at the time, you know, you realise that the majority of people can’t consume - can’t read books right – and so he actually made a lot of his books into films and then he carried on with film as a main medium and his work. I did some of my undergraduate focus on French literature and francophone literature primarily post-colonial literature. Even though I do consider myself a writer I feel like accessibility is really important and in Africa the question is how do I get it to the people? In Sierra Leone radio was always the most powerful medium to reach people.

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BM: Radio?

Vickie: Yes, radio has always been like the biggest medium, it probably still is in terms of how many people it reaches but in my life it was TV. I moved to the US when I was 13 and I consumed a lot of television because when I would come home after school I would be in doors watching TV. I got more acculturated from TV – like TV was really formative for me – you know so it was like spending time in school with American kids and then coming home and watching American television and understanding and consuming American culture that was like my primary foray into it and it shaped me and so when I came back home and I was thinking of things to do, doing a TV show just made sense. However, at the time access was a key issue because most people didn’t have access to electricity and this was 2007 and the war had just ended in 2002. There was one national TV broadcaster so it was basically very early days in the post war Sierra Leone rebuilding.

I love Sierra Leone and for very good reason, and I came back kind of feeling like what if I could tell stories that would just make people feel better about who they are and where they are from – what if we could do that – because maybe if we do that maybe they would treat each other better.

I believed in the medium because it had made an impact on me, I also believed that in my own formative years and then also just being inspired be Semben Ousmane and how he was able to use films to address a lot of social issues in Senegal in the precolonial and immediate post-colonial era. I felt the medium of TV video was very powerful and if I wanted to tell stories in Sierra Leone, about how Sierra Leone was and change the way people feel about the place people needed to see it because hearing is not enough - you needed to see it and that’s kind of how my TV experience evolved.

BM : So you said your initial aim was to come back and you wanted the people to see the good things they had in Sierra Leone.

Moyamba: Ella Koblo, Teen moms get a second chance, and men lead the dance.

BM : And what is your audience like now?

VR : It’s whatever the TV audience is in Sierra Leone, so urban, people who live in the city who have access to TV. I would say working class people primarily which is the majority of Sierra Leonians. I would say the demographic is 25 to 40 year olds.

VR : Yeah just like – it’s dynamic – there’s bad and good everywhere but if you only amplify the bad then it’s like you’re not telling the full story – it’s unbalanced.

BM : When you came back in 2008, how well received were you at that time by the broadcasting companies – were they looking for material?

BM : Is your show at the moment on mainstream television?

VR : It works differently out here - it was more that I paid for airtime, so you went in and you bought airtime and you broadcast. It wasn’t like they put out a call for content and acquired it. No, it wasn’t that.

You just get your airtime, produce your content and then get your content to them.

VR : Yes, it is in Sierra Leone, it’s currently broadcasting.

Once a week and then it repeats on weekends, so every Wednesday and Saturday.

Off-Road to Outamba for a date with Sierra Leone’s River Hippopotamus.

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BM : Going a little off topic here, I read something where you were saying they saw you first as a woman rather than a business person.

VR : Oh yeah, it was just like in general – and I say this even as somebody who I feel like middle class or upper middle class in Sierra Leone and very well educated, very exposed etcetera, like I am a woman of privilege compared to the majority of women in Sierra Leone, but that doesn’t excuse me or protect me from any kind of sexism or ageism that exists there.

Sierra Leone in the time of Covid-19, the impact of the pandemic on the front-liners, on business, on our community. This is The Local Response. Every week with Vickie Remoe.

Guest - Dr. Mamadu Baldeh, Medical Officer, Connaught Hospital’s Covid Isolation Center at the Infectious Disease Unit.

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BM : Right, you were saying that men still wanted to hit on you even when you say you’re there for a business situation.

VR : Yeah, it’s the reality of life that you have to face a lot of sexual objectification in the workplace. In the business place in Sierra Leone, even to this day, it’s not something that has changed. It’s bad behaviour that kind of turned into acceptable behaviour.

It’s not just Kesha. Women face demands for transactional sex all over the world.

BM : Taking it back to TV and media, do you find, let’s take Nollywood for example, that the way the stories are written make that type of behaviour – where women are used as sexual objects even when they are businesswomen – a good storyline?

VR : Yeah, I mean TV – most of the content, you know just reflects the existing social dynamics. They are not really trying to revolutionise things. Art reflects life in that sense whether it’s the Nollywood movies or media content that comes from the continent. I am speaking from a place of privilege meaning that whatever happens to me and whatever my experiences are, I always kind of assume that those who are less educated, less exposed have it worse – and so yeah, that’s just the reality for now.

BM : When it comes to drama on TV, what’s it like in Sierra Leone? What sort of programmes have they got?

VR : We don’t really produce a lot of content in Sierra Leone for TV. They have a couple of reality TV shows, but in terms of films or film making our films don’t really make it to TV - they’re usually on DVD’s or they go to small corner cinemas. We don’t have as much of a developed kind of film production industry like say Nigeria or Ghana.

Koinadugu: The Magic, Music, and the Meat.

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Bo: Where The Women Make It Happen

BM: Going forward for Sierra Leone and you in TV, what’s next for Vickie?

VR : I really believe in digital and mobile first. I do think that that’s the next frontier for most of the continent, not even just Sierra Leone. In terms of content it’s going to be about creating content that’s very local where the lens is not how do I attract foreign people to watch my content or how do I make my content appealing to foreigners, but exclusively focused on how do I make content that matters – that’s meaningful and fascinating for my local audience and using digital platforms to distribute that content and make it more accessible.

Makeni: The City the Never Sleeps

#COVID19 in Sierra Leone: Pharmacy Students Make Sanitizer The NAPSOL Story with Foday Umaro Turay.

COVID-19 in Sierra Leone: Ramadan at the Freetown Central Mosque

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Credit: Made in the Caribbean

Fashion

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For more information communications@butterflymaag.com

faith on tv

iChurch

FU Forgiveness University

Mike Todd

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The Power of

Jerusalema (Song Breakdown)

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Credit: silverpetticoatreview.com

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ishop Trevor is portrayed as himself in Alexander McCall Smith’s best selling series the No. 1 Detective Ladies’ Agency; and featured in the Number 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency film directed by Anthony Minghella, and television episode.

Coronavirus a Parable of Our Time The beginning...once upon a virus...

In Wuhan, China, in the third week of December 2019, Dr Ai Fen, the director of the Emergency Department, at the Central Hospital, diagnosed an unusual lung infection in a person.

A similar infection was diagnosed in another person on December 27th. Three days later Dr Ai Fen saw written on the test sheet “SARS coronavirus”. It was a red flag. She informed the hospital’s public-health department, took a picture of the laboratory report and emailed it to other doctors.

An ophthalmologist, Li Wenliang, posted in a WeChat group that a coronavirus had been discovered in Wuhan.

The news went viral among doctors and public-health officials in the city.

Li was summoned by the police and cautioned for spreading false news on the internet. News outlets warning Wuhan residents of the virus were blocked.

Li later contracted the virus and died on 7th February, 2020. His death caused anger over the government’s attempts to stifle whistle blowers.

Wuhan is a megacity of 11 million people and capital of Central China’s Hubei province. It is a commercial centre with beautiful lakes like the picturesque East Lake. It is a tale of two cities.

One side is an ultra-modern city with subways, skyscrapers, and superhighways, and the other is rural with ‘wet markets’ like Huanan, selling live wild animals such as bats, bamboo rats, monkeys, foxes, snakes, etc.

Into this city waltzed the coronavirus.

In 2012 a book ‘Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic,’ by the American writer David Quammen, was published. Quammen wrote that humanity is invading tropical forests and other wild landscapes, which harbour so many species of animals and plants, and within those creatures, so many unknown viruses. Humanity, he voiced, is cutting down the trees; killing the animals or caging them and sending them to markets. In doing so, humanity is disrupting ecosystems, and shaking viruses loose from their natural hosts. When that happens, he concluded, “they need a new host. Often, we are it.”

The book confirms what epidemiologists have long warned, that as more people live in closer proximity to wildlife, the more risk there will be of viruses, known as ‘zoonotic viruses,’ making the jump to humans.

Scientists think this is what happened with Covid -19. The origins of the coronavirus are a merry-go-round of speculations, from bats, to biologically engineered, to a plague in the biblical sense, to 5G networks. The US administration, in a blame game, has accused China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology as the source of the pandemic in a standoff, making the origin of the virus political.

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The scientific view is that Covid - 19 originated from bats as 96 percent of the virus’s genome is identical to one found in horseshoe bats, and has made the jump to humans.

When the virus was initially detected, the Chinese government suppressed and denied news of its discovery. However, their attitude changed on New Year’s Eve. The Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization about a possible viral outbreak. On New Year’s Day the Huanan seafood market was closed.

Six days later they identified the pathogen as a novel coronavirus.

On January 10th the genetic sequence of the virus was reported to scientists around the world. The World Health Organization named it SARS-CoV-2. Shortly, a German laboratory used the genetic data to create the first test for the virus, which was adopted by the WHO and made available to the international community. The whole process in scientific time was rapid.

As the Covid-19 drama played out in a far flung place, I travelled in February from London to the parish of Torrevieja, Spain, in the Anglican Diocese in Europe, to do a locum duty in the absence of their priest.

Mid-March, Spain declared a State of Emergency over the coronavirus pandemic. I joined many people, mostly tourists, at Alicante Airport in a frantic haste to get out of the country. I managed to get on the last flight to Berlin.

The next day the Airport and border closed.

In Berlin, I went into self-isolation and contemplated Covid-19. How could this microbe shake the world’s foundation, turning things upside down: politically, economically, socially, culturally, religiously, technologically, medically, in aviation, sports, entertainment, travel, etc? The thoughts of my contemplation streamed into a parable and other stories.

A Parable and Other Stories...

Covid - 19 as a parable of our time is provoking us to think critically about what truly matters in life, relationships, the environment, God. 36

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Humanity, forced into a global retreat is learning: to be still, to listen, to think seriously. Thinking seriously we become aware of things. Things forgotten, things lost, things spiritual. We think of stories to help us heal, to help us decipher Covid-19. I share the stories that emerged from my thoughts.

The first was an African story layered in wisdom.

Once upon a time, in a penthouse on the roof of a Chief’s hut, lived a rat. One day the rat saw a man setting a trap on the boundary of the village. The rat was troubled, thinking it was a bad place to set a trap.

When the man had finished setting the trap, the rat ran hastily down to break it but failed. The rat had a bad feeling that trouble was brewing because of the trap.

The rat then saw a chicken coming along and ran to it. The rat breathlessly told the chicken his apprehension about the trap and pleaded with the chicken to break it.

The chicken thought the rat was crazy and refused to break the trap. The rat pleaded fervently with the chicken, saying the trap was in a bad place and would get everybody into trouble. The chicken said that it didn’t care, the trap was not made for it or the rat and therefore they should not be bothered about it. But the rat pleaded with the chicken to care. The chicken did not care and went on with its business.

The rat was devastated but then saw a goat coming along. The rat thought, great, the goat is bigger than the chicken and can easily break the trap. The rat told the goat its concern and pleaded with it to break the trap into smithereens.

The goat thought the rat was crazy and said that he was busy and had no time for breaking traps. And like the chicken, it didn’t care either. The rat pleaded for the goat to care.

Unconcerned, the goat left to get on with its business.

The rat was hysterical and overwhelmed with a sense of foreboding, when along came a cow. The rat said to the cow, ‘Please, please, listen!

The chicken and the goat say that they don’t care!’

the chicken was slaughtered. The rat exclaimed, ‘Aha! You see, I said that this trap would be trouble. Look now the chicken is dead. He said that he didn’t care. Now he is dead!’

Morning came and people from other villages arrived.

As there were now more people for lunch, the goat was next. So the goat was slaughtered. The rat exclaimed, ‘Aha! You see. The goat said he did not care, now look, he is a goner. I told them this trap was going to get us all into serious trouble. The chicken is dead. The goat is dead.’

The cow said, ‘What are you talking about, care about what? ‘ The rat said, ‘That trap over there, we are all going to be in serious trouble because of it. Please go and break it.’

The cow responded, ‘Rat, you know what?

Sometimes you should listen to other people. They tell you they don’t care, take it like that - they don’t care, and you want me to care.’ Why? I am a cow! I am big, that thing can’t harm me.’

The rat interjected, ‘No, no, we are all going to be in serious trouble.’

‘How?’ asked the cow, and said, ‘It’s nonsense, I don’t care either.’ And off went the cow about its business.

Frustrated, the rat wondered what to do. As he was thinking, a big snake came slithering from some place, and taking a shortcut went straight to where the trap was and got caught by its tail.

Furiously, it struggled to get out but to no avail. At that moment the Chief of the village came along walking to his Royal Palace. Unaware, he walked straight to where the deadly snake caught in the trap was struggling to escape and he got bitten.

The Chief screamed, ‘I have been bitten!’ The villagers came running from everywhere saying, ‘What’s up?’ The Chief said, ‘I have been bitten. It’s a snake!’ The villagers saw the snake and killed it.

Angry, the villagers wanted to know who set the trap.

Of course they couldn’t concentrate on that now as they had to treat the Chief who had been bitten by the snake.

They took the Chief to his Palace, and shortly afterwards he died.

Funeral arrangements commenced as the sun set.

People in the village began gathering at the Chief’s Palace.

The elders ordered a meal to be prepared and, as there were few people, thought the chicken would suffice. So

Evening came. Other Chiefs turned up. And on the menu for dinner was the cow! So the cow was slaughtered. The rat exclaimed, ‘Aha! You see what has happened? They all asked how this trap was going to affect us?’ The chicken is dead. The goat is dead. The cow is dead. They are all dead. And all said that they didn’t care! I told them to care!

The Chief was buried the next day. After a Chief’s burial it is customary that his hut is burnt. So the Chief’s hut was set on fire. And the rat in its penthouse died in the inferno.

The chicken, the goat, the cow, all didn’t care! The rat insisted they should care. Their lack of care and concern had deadly consequences.

This African story transforms into a famous German poem by the Reverend Martin Niemöller: First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak outBecause I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.

Niemöller, an outspoken opponent of Adolf Hitler, spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps. His poem was addressed to fellow Germans, especially the leaders of the Protestant churches who he believed were complicit through their silence in the Nazi imprisonment, persecution and murder of millions of people.

The story and the poem seek to invoke caring, compassion, and solidarity in us.

The Rt. Revd. Dr. Musonda Trevor Selwyn Mwamba is a lawyer and former banker and was educated in Zambia, America, and England. He trained for the priesthood at St. Stephen’s House, Oxford.

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Relax

LAUGHTER GOOD FOR THE SOUL

Working at home with kids

Best Jeruslaema Dance Challenge with Kenya Maasai and MC Jessy 38

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Education

Women And Men

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Credit: HoopsAfricaUbuntuMatters

Sports Arrow

HOOPS AFRICA :

UBUNTU MATTERS

H

OOPS AFRICA: UBUNTU MATTERS is a collection of stories that celebrates the past, present, and future of basketball in Africa, spotlighting the sport’s impact on society and its development on the continent.

From the dreams of a young Zimbabwean player to honoring the NBA legends who paved the way before him, this film journeys through the growth of the game in Africa. Centering on basketball nonprofit Hoops 4 Hope in South Africa and Zimbabwe, this documentary uncovers the role the African philosophy of Ubuntu played in the Boston Celtics’ 2008 NBA Championship season and also documents the historic 2015 NBA Africa Game. Featuring Hakeem Olajuwon, Dikembe Mutombo, Adam Silver, Luol Deng, Luc Mbah a Moute, Chris Paul, Doc Rivers, Paul Pierce, and many more NBA greats, this documentary shows us all why #UbuntuMatters.

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Ngoni Mukukula

Director, Hoops 4 Hope

inica

Dominica

om Credit discoverd

Dominica, island country of the Lesser Antilles in the eastern Caribbean Sea.

itory, Kalinago Terr Indies t s e W , a ic in Dom

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Credit: my Eco Journeys

Botswana

J

In the Footsteps of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency with Alexander McCall Smith

oin the author as he travels to the heart of Botswana, inspiration and location for The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.

“Botswana is often called the gem of Africa. I come here every year for inspiration. There is a certain pace of life here” says McCall Smith. In Botswana: In The Footsteps of The No.1 Ladies’ Detective McCall Smith introduces viewers to Botswana’s unique character and beauty, as he comes face to face with a pride of lions, returns a python to the wild, and visits the SOS Children’s Village known so well to the fans of his bestselling book series.

Mats Ögren Wanger (Director, Producer)

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Credit: Jimmy Kimmel

Credit: U3A

Health

Viola Davis on Menopause

Mr Motivator fitness for U3A - Day One IN LOVING MEMORY OF CALEB COOPER THE FATHER OF BUTTERFLY MAAG’S PUBLISHER & EDITOR BEVERLEY COOPER-CHAMBERS BLESSED ARE THOSE THAT MOURN; FOR THEY SHALL BE COMFORTED. MATT. 5v4

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Last Word