Saturday, the ruling RPT and several opposition parties elected the lawyer and opposition leader Yawovi Agboyibo to run their “national dialog” talks. This process began in May 2004 and had been interrupted in February when President Eyadema died. The goal is primarily to find ways to reform the electoral process in the West African nation, […]

Monday we lost a cultural treasure and a generous human being: Ali Farka Touré, a son of Mali, and one of the world’s great musicians died in Bamako, Mali. He was born in Timbuktu in 1939, and worked as a docker on the river Niger and a driver for Mali’s national radio and television company, […]

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni strong-armed his countrymen into “re-electing” him in Thursday’s election. That means that he gets more opportunities to trample all over his opposition and pour fuel into the brutal conflict with the LRA in Northern Uganda. While the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is terrorizing the Acholi people, the government seems to be […]

One year after Togo’s dictator Gnassingbé Eyadema died, his clan is again firmly in charge of this embattled sliver of a country on the Gulf of Benin. In charge, that is, with the blessing and military aid of France, Togo’s former colonial master. For February 20, talks between the opposition and the ruling RPT are […]

In his State of the Union address yesterday, President Bush spent a measly two minutes and 15 seconds on the lack of energy independence of this country. Literally, he spoke of this country’s “addiction” to imported oil, and he pledged to reduce that dependence in the next 15 years. He said this:”Breakthroughs on this and […]

Shark fin sup is considered a delicacy in Asia. Shark’s fin is “regarded as a tonic food and an aphrodisiac, the Chinese believe shark’s fin strengthens the internal organs and retard aging,” explains a recipe. The sharks that supply their trademark body parts to this dish are caught using longlines. Fishermen then cut off the […]

Big promises, lots of talk today, and some quirky publicity, for World Aids Day. Anybody care to listen to the voices of those among us living with the dreaded disease? The stories of how the stigma, the ignorance, the silence kills millions? Anybody? Black Looks shares one of those stories, Rose’s story, with us: R: […]

As this year’s record-breaking hurricane season officially ends (tell that to Epsilon), the residents of the Canary Islands are picking up from the devastation caused by tropical storm Delta. Delta was the first tropical storm recorded to ever get anywhere near the Canary Islands, according to Jeff Masters. Although is was not officially classified as […]

What an extraordinary hurricane season! I wonder if this is the first tropical storm recorded to have hit Africa? Tropical Storm Delta slammed into Spain’s Canary Islands last night at near hurricane strength, killing at least seven people. One man died when he was blown off the roof he was trying to repair, and six […]

After apparently reasonably fair elections, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is about to take charge of battered Liberia as the first second female African head of state. This is a very hopeful turn of events for this war-torn, exploited country. On the other side of the continent, Uganda’s strongman Yoweri Museveni had his main opposition candidate Kizza Besigye […]

On October 13, the International Criminal Court (ICC) unsealed arrest warrants for five leaders of the Ugandan cult-like gang the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The LRA has for many years brutalized the civilian population of Northern Uganda, and abducted thousands of children, sometimes forcing the children to kill their own parents. Yet, these indictments have […]

Northern Uganda has been a war zone or twenty years. The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), an apocalyptic christian cult, has waged a cruel war on the Acholi people, while the Ugandan military tried to crush the LRA with brute force. The situation is complicated, as the LRA abducts Acholi children, to turn them into child […]

Interesting piece on CNN about how the African cell phone market was totally underestimated by the industry. Now, as cellphones are more and more widely used, they can’t put up cell towers fast enough. “We are developing unique ways to use the phone, which has not been done anywhere else,” says South African Michael Joseph, […]

This being the information age, it has always been pretty clear that the lack of communication infrastructure in Africa was, and is, a major obstacle to progress. The rich nations of the world can proclaim their intention to “eradicate poverty” all they want, but the real beacon of hope in Africa is not the G8, […]

This is a brilliant piece of engineering to make life easier for millions of people: water on in wheels: Millions of people worldwide are forced to walk long distances on a daily basis to collect their water requirements for the day. Traditional methods of collecting water include the use of 20-liter (5-gallon) buckets, which are […]

Congratulations to the Togolese soccer team for that coveted ticket to Germany next year! The other qualifiers from Africa are Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Tunisia. With the exception of Tunisia (1978, 1998, 2002), all African teams are newcomers to the World Cup, which leaves most of Africa’s soccer giants like Nigeria, Senegal and Cameroon […]

Interesting project by the the American Progress Action Fund and the Genocide Intervention Fund to raise awareness about the genocide in Darfur: use Journalism-School science for an activist campaign called Be A Witness.

Today is Nelson Mandela’s 87th birthday. Happy birthday, Madiba!

One of the vocal allies of children in armed conflicts around the world is the Office of the UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. The Under-Secretary-General Olara A. Otunnu is a tireless advocate for helping children around the world who are victimized by armed conflict. The website for his office published […]

Last week I met with George Piwang-Jalobo, who is an energetic campaigner for a resolution to the conflict in Northern Uganda. He is the founder and director of the Center of Conflict Management and Peace at Gulu University in Uganda. He is also a scholar at the Divinity School at Duke University, here in Durham. […]