Africa

Photo: Two indigenous persons. Source: Survival International

Concern Over 'Fortress Conservation' and Evictions of Kenyans from Ancestral Homelands

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Nature conservancies, with the stated goal of protecting wilderness and endangered wildlife, have enabled the removal of tribal peoples from their ancestral homelands in Africa to allow superior “western” models of conservation to prevail, according to the activist group Survival International.

Under the western model, half of all land must be kept in a natural state to protect Earth, as the National Geographic Society recently declared on its magazine pages, if a stable climate and high quality of life are to be preserved in the near future.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 24 January 2022

Image: Covers of 'Born in Blackness'. Sources: Amazon and Hugenduble

"Africa Has Been the Linchpin of The Machine of Modernity"

By Jan Servaes*

BRUSSELS (IDN) — This remarkable quote appears on page 6 of Howard French's latest book, published in October 2021, "Born in Blackness. Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World. 1471 to the Second World War". In doing so, he casts a lot of doubt on traditionally held opinions about Africa over the centuries.

Howard French, professor of journalism at Columbia University in New York and former bureau chief of the New York Times in the Caribbean and Central America, West and Central Africa, Tokyo, and Shanghai, tries to make it clear that the way we think about history is often wrong.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 23 January 2022

Photo: Ikoyi Bridge, Nigeria | Rejoice Emmanuel, UNDP Nigeria

The Global Corporate Tax Deal--An African Perspective

Viewpoint by Orria Goni and Luckystar Miyandazi

Orria Goni is SDG Financing and South-South Cooperation Advisor, UNDP, and Luckystar Miyandazi is Regional Tax Specialist, UNDP. This article was posted on UNDP Blog.

NEW YORK (IDN) — On October 30, 2021, the leaders of the world's 20 largest economies, the G20, endorsed a two-pillar blueprint to address the tax challenges arising from the digitalization of the economy. The agreement includes partial reallocation of taxing rights to market jurisdictions and a 15 per cent global minimum tax for multinational enterprises (MNEs).

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 23 January 2022

The Anti-Colonial Roots of Relations Between Cuba and Africa

By Kester Kenn Klomegah*

MOSCOW (IDN) — Many Africans remember Fidel Castro and Ernesto Guevara, internationalist symbols in the struggles for the independence of the peoples in Latin America and the Caribbean. Africa and Cuba have maintained cordial relations for decades, before and after the Cold War.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Africa; 21 January 2022

Photo: After the release of Convention Peoples’ Party (CPP) leaders from prison in 1951. From left to Right: Kojo Botsio, Kwame Nkrumah, Komla Agbeli Gbedemah and Kofi Baako. NB: The PG symbol written on their cap stands for Prison Graduates. It was a popular title for these freedom fighters. Credit: Ghanaian Museum, Sep 8, 2021

Nkrumah’s Prison Cap Left an Indelible Memory With 'MLK'

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in anguish over the extreme violence displayed at the aftermath of the legendary Montgomery bus boycott, found solace in Ghana which he visited with his wife Coretta Scott King at the invitation of the newly installed Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah.

Alongside African American leaders including A. Philip Randolph, Adam Clayton Powell and Ralph Bunch, MLK was there to observe Ghana’s independence ceremony. It was March of 1957.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 18 January 2022

Photo: Some family members had to be carried out of the service after being overcome with grief. Credit: Dean Moses.

Growing Calls for Investigation into Bronx Fire That Took Over a Dozen African Lives

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — A smoky building fire that raced through a 19-story building on an early Sunday this month took 17 lives—adults and children, many from the African nation of The Gambia—is raising questions about the building’s reported insufficient heat and automatic doors that should have been shut but weren’t working.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 18 January 2022

Photo: Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu. Source: The Guardian Nigeria.

Nigeria’s Police Force Appears to Be Adding Self-Destruction to Its List of Woes

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene

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

ABUJA (IDN) — The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, would like to close the case of the suspicious death of Sylvester Omoroni Jr., and simply move on to something else. He’s surprised there's pushback and can’t understand why.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 13 January 2022

Photo: First Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi, Russia, in October 2019. Credit: kremlin.ru

Russia Chooses St. Petersburg for Second African Leaders Summit

By Kester Kenn Klomegah*

MOSCOW (IDN) — With high optimism and high desire to strengthen its geopolitical influence, Russian authorities are gearing up to hold the second African leaders' summit in St. Petersburg scheduled early November 2022. The gathering, as expected, will focus on enhancing further constructive cooperation and advancing integration processes within the framework of the African Union and a number of sub-regional structures.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Russia; 12 January 2022

Photo: Kwasi Wiredu. Source: Globe Echo.

Distinguished Philosopher Kwasi Wiredu Passes At 90

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Distinguished philosopher, writer, and teacher Kwasi Wiredu, born in Ghana and recognized on three continents, has passed away at the age of 90.

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy cites Wiredu for his decades-long study of “conceptual decolonization” in contemporary African systems of thought.

: Global Information Network; ARTS & CULTURE; 11 January 2022

Photo: Actor Sydney Poitier Meets Mandela. Source: AP Archive (18 May 1996).

Recollecting Poitier’s Brush with Africa in Early American Films

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Not long ago, movies made in Hollywood filmed in major cities in Africa displayed an unapologetic ignorance of even minimal facts about the continent.

Cities named Lagos, Nairobi or Johannesburg became “somewhere in Africa”, anti-colonial sentiments became a “coloured struggle”, and the continent became a “setting and backdrop which eliminates the African as a human factor.”