Despite more than a decade of externally funded water and sanitation infrastructure projects in Lusaka, the city’s slums are the epicentre of the most recent cholera outbreak that still lingers six months after the first case was reported. The government’s heavy handed response to this outbreak has added insult to injury for poor communities living in, what is referred to in politically correct parlance as, peri-urban areas. It is the poor that suffer the indignity of sanitation and water inadequacies, a result of more than two decades of failed policy intervention.
Features
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While Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa is trying to convince the world that he is making progress since replacing his mentor, former President Robert Mugabe, a number of Zimbabweans in the diaspora do not agree with his assessment of the current situation in the country.
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Africans should be interested in General Reynaldo Bignone who died on Wednesday, 7 March 2018, at a military hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina where he was serving a life sentence for crimes against humanity. But, why should Africa be interested in knowing him?
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The announcement of a date for general elections in a country roiled in political conflict and ruled by an unpopular leader should be regarded as a positive move. But not so in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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One of the propositions of Leftists’ theory of history is that human beings are the makers of their own history. A corollary to this – that human beings do not make this history simply as they wish, but that they make it with materials and circumstances fashioned and transmitted by and from the past – is as important as the main thesis.
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The handshake between Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga on Friday 9 March 2018 shocked and surprised their respective supporters. What has left many dumbfounded is the fact that the other major key political players of both Jubilee and National Super Alliance were not privy to this meeting of the two hitherto political nemeses. Is it the beginning of a true national reconciliation process?
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The international conference on saving the Lake Chad was held in Abuja, Nigeria on 25-28 February 2018. The theme of the meeting was “Saving the Lake Chad to revitalise the Basin’s ecosystem for sustainable livelihood, security and development.” With over 1600 participants and presenters attending, this meeting grappled with the issues of how to go about saving Lake Chad. It was concluded that the Transaqua project, which would take water from the right tributary of inter-lacustrine region, and the River Congo, conveying the 2,000km water channel to Chari River is the preferred feasible option to save the Lake.
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It is fitting that Africa converse with Africans at home and abroad, as opposed to continually beseeching Caucasians in the language of acquiescence to the destructive power of the paradigm; the language of compromise and culpability in the paradigm’s corruption; the language of ignorance of our wealth, our power, and our collective heritages; the language of defeat. Why should Africa present an image of itself as a place yearning to take an inferior place among inferior Caucasian nations, when Africa is the source of the very concept of civilization?
Food & Health
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What kind of a moron appoints Robert Mugabe as goodwill ambassador for health? That is what the new Ethiopian-born Director General of the World Health Organization did – sparking global consternation. The appointment, now reversed, underlines one fact: Tedros Adhanom lacks what it takes to head even a village clinic.
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Activists from anti-capitalist militant organizations in North Africa met in Tunis on 4th and 5th July 2017 to set up the North African Network for Food Sovereignty. The network is a unifying structure for struggles in the region and will be involved in local, continental and international mobilisation.
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On 23 May 2017 Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of Ethiopia was elected WHO Director-General. In a letter released a head of the election, over 200 scientists, policy experts and others concerned persons are urging the new Director-General to recognize and address factory farming as a growing public health challenge. Just as the WHO has bravely confronted companies that harm human health by peddling tobacco and sugar-sweetened beverages, it must not waver in advocating for the regulation of industrial animal farming.
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Somalia’s president has declared the famine ravaging the country a national disaster. There has been little response from the world. Drought is a natural calamity that can happen anywhere, but what makes it more deadly in Somalia is the continued conflict that prevents relief aid from reaching the needy or makes it difficult for affected nomads to travel to other places to find help.
Land Rights & Environment
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The controversial announcement by the African National Congress that land will be expropriated without compensation has raised contentions on land reform in South Africa. Land is symbolic of the discontent at post-apartheid transformation but it is real agrarian reform to improve income and livelihoods that is desperately needed for the black majority that are living below the poverty line.
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“The restitution of those cultural objects which our museums and collections, directly or indirectly, possess thanks to the colonial system and are now being demanded, must also not be postponed with cheap arguments and tricks.” Gert v. Paczensky and Herbert Ganslmayr, Nofretete will nach Hause. [1]
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Refugees across Africa are often in national energy plans. The involvement of various players including the private sector working on green and renewable energy could be welcome news to refugees living in big camps such as Kakuma, Kenya.
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The meeting between US ambassador to Uganda Debra Malac with Uganda's disgraced Minister for Foreign Affairs Sam Kutesa on 19 January 2018 demonstrated that the value of Uganda’s cooperation in furthering American foreign policy and corporate interests clearly outweighs any embarrassment caused by Kutesa’s alleged incontinence.
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Storms and hurricanes are becoming more severe due to warmer sea temperatures. Low lying island nations now experience annual flooding with the seawater contaminating groundwater supplies. Whether it is flooding or drought, or any other climate related catastrophic event, the poor nations of the world and their populations suffer most.
Arts & Book Reviews
Gender & Minorities
Governance
Land and Environment
Pan-Africanism
Advocacy & Campaigns
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