Olumide Fafore's Blog: September 2015

Wednesday, 30 September 2015

Photos: The Gay Pride festival in Uganda defied local law and taboo

Members of the Ugandan lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community celebrated their fourth annual Pride Uganda festival defying strict laws criminalizing homosexuality with up to 14 years in jail.

Photo: Fragkiska Megaloudi

Many families in northeastern Nigeria are forced to survive off just one meal a day, after being displaced by Boko Haram and losing their main sources of income.

Families driven out of villages, farmers unable to tend crops, food stocks of entire communities raided: Boko Haram’s impact on the people of Western and Central Africa lingers long after the rape and slaughter.

Photo: Mohammad Ibrahim

A little girl feeds the family herd in Kaduna State

Malama Amina stands quietly in the middle of her late husband’s compound in northwestern Nigeria trying to figure out how she will feed herself and her six children in the coming months.
Thieves stole 48 cows during a raid on their village in Kaduna State earlier this year. Her husband was killed trying to save the herd. At an average sale price of $500 per cow, the family lost its entire life savings as well as its sole means of income.

Raids on the Islamic militants' camps near the border with Cameroon this week yielded women and children thought to have been held captive as well as 43 suspected enemy fighters and intelligence about bomb-making, Nigerian army says

An estimated 2,000 women and children have been seized by Boko Haram since January 2014

Over the years, the growing number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria is becoming alarming. IDPs are people who have fled their homes because of conflict and persecution based on religion, race, nationality, membership of a social group or political opinion but remain within their home country’s borders.

Bonang Matheba. File photo
Image by: Sunday Times

Speculation that Matheba would no longer be the face of Revlon South Africa, remain just that.

The 28-year old will carry on as the face of the beauty brand, according to Michelle Stevens, Revlon SA spokesperson."We have no plans to end our relationship with Bonang," said Stevens.

Central African Republic's interim President Samba-Panza
Image by: REUTERS

"We fear that the violence we're seeing in Bangui is a return to the dark days of late 2013 and 2014, when thousands were killed and tens of thousands had to flee their homes," UN refugee agency spokesman Leo Dobbs told reporters Tuesday.

At least 36 people have died in the last three days and 27,400 fled their homes amid the latest flare up of violence in the conflict-torn country, the United Nations said.

Photos: President Buhari and Nigeria's Delegation to the UN General Assembly

President Buhari with members of his entourage including Nigerian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Prof Joy Ogwu, Rotimi Amaechi, Femi Adeshina, Abike Dabiri, Aminu Tambuwal and others. More pics after cut....

Video: Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe To UN General Assembly "We Are Not Gays"

Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe yesterday took his anti-gay campaign to the ongoing UN General Assembly where he bluntly told world leaders at the United Nations that Africans are not gays and totally reject attempts to prescribe new rights including gay rights in Africa
"We equally reject attempts to prescribe "new rights" that are contrary to our values, norms, traditions, and beliefs. We are not gays! Cooperation and respect for each other will advance the cause of human rights worldwide. Confrontation, vilification, and double-standards will not." he said.

Hope for Borno: Local women collect items for displaced persons in Borno State, Nigeria

Jaclyn Damiano and Gina Sampaio, both of Lebanon Township, co-hosted a party on Sunday, Sept. 27, to collect donations and raise awareness for Flemington resident, Iby Ikotidem's organization, Hope for Borno, https://www.facebook.com/hopeforborno?fref=ts
Hope for Borno distributes needed items to thousands of internally displaced persons at IDP camps in the state of Borno in Nigeria.

One woman was abducted by soldiers and taken to a military camp, tied up and raped repeatedly for two months.

The abduction of women and girls for use as sex slaves — some of them held indefinitely, tied up with hundreds of others in secret rape camps — is a disturbing new aspect of South Sudan’s 21-month conflict, already characterised by well-documented war crimes and human rights abuses.
Nigeria’s ‘Chibok girls’, abducted by Boko Haram in April 2014, and Iraq’s Yazidi women taken as sex slaves by Islamic State are well-known.

Mzansi Magic talent blessed the DStv's iRock music festival this past weekend.

Cast members from shows such as iSibaya, The Road and others joined musicians in Limpopo during the Heritage weekend for the musical extravaganza.
The diverse line-up of musicians included legend Thomas Chauke, Mafikizolo, Riky Rick, Beatenberg and Khuli Chana amongst others.
Singer Calandray who won the 'Battle for the stage' competition and walked away with a R5000 cash prize was the opening act that for the night. More pics after cut....

A wounded man is carried into the hospital in Bangui. Photograph: Getty Images

At least 21 people have been killed in Bangui on Saturday and about 100 others wounded as Muslims attacked a mainly Christian neighbourhood, a government spokesman said.
The reprisal attack in the capital of Central African Republic comes after a Muslim man was killed and his body found dumped in a street close to the airport.
Muslims left their stronghold in the third district of Bangui and attacked the largely Christian fifth district using automatic guns, heavier weapons and grenades.

The importance of schooling and vocational training for young, outcast mothers is paramount according to Single Mothers Association.

Faith Jacha, the founder of the Single Mothers Association (SMA), says both are true. “The phenomenon is universal and pervasive. It is not confined to one class, age-group or region. The causes as well as the consequences of being a single mother vary,” she said in a recent interview.
Jacha set up SMA in 2010 and opened a Facebook page to help single mothers. She herself was forced by her parents into marriage with a man 30 years her senior whom she had never seen before. After four years and two children, she decided it was not the life she wanted to live.

Photos: 80th Birthday Celebration of OPC Leader, Dr Frederick Fasehun in Lagos.

The 80th birthday celebration of the founder of Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC, took place yesterday Sunday, 27th September 2015 in Lagos and was attended by several dignitaries, family, friends and well wishers such as the Ondo state Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko. More pics after cut...

President Buhari with Korea's president, Park Geun-hye at the UN House yesterday Sunday 27th
September 2015. More pics after cut....

The opening ceremony of an exercise organized by the US military in Ndjamena, Chad earlier this year to take on Boko Haram.
Image by: Reuters

Numerous worldwide threats exist across almost every part of the planet including China, Iran, North Korea and Russia. This typically puts Africa at the bottom of the pecking order.

But America is taking more notice of the African continent due to the expansion of extremist organisations operating in Africa like al-Qaeda, al-Shabbab, Ansar al-Sharia, al-Murabitun, Boko Haram, Islamic State (IS) and others.

The four main threats

Photos: The Struggle To Trace Conflict Minerals

A smartphone, a lightbulb, an underwire bra and a pair of earrings: These everyday items contain materials that human rights groups say help fuel one of the world’s bloodiest conflicts. The so-called conflict minerals are tantalum, tungsten, tin and gold, mined and extracted from ore often in war-torn areas such as eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where the mineral trade has been linked to armed groups that regularly commit mass atrocities, including rape and murder.

Sijbrandus Scheffer at Southwark Crown Court

The two Dutchmen worked together to influence decisions over who would win a lucrative $43 million dollar contract from the United Nations to supply medication to treat HIV, AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in the Congo.

It is true that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has just spent a negligible four of its 48 months term. I understand that this period represents a paltry 8. 3 per cent of the entire tenure but then, it is also true that none of these 180 days will ever come back.

Someone likened opportunities to sunrises which you will miss if you wait too long. This is why a government which rode on the affection of the bulk of the people of Nigeria should have seized the opportunity of that fondness, which will not last forever, to set its promise of change for Nigeria in motion.

This is more so because in Nigeria, governance only goes on for a little more than two of the four years of an administration’s term. By the two and half years mark, permutations and scheming for the next election start to take over and governance is left to suffer. That is one reason why there is no time to waste in public office in Nigeria.

Jean Acheson: the Rwandan government decided to keep its borders open and to prepare camps for refugees

Rwanda where I have lived since 2013, when I moved here to become an economist at its ministry of finance, is a tiny country, about the size of Munster.

Most people associate it with the horrendous genocide of 1994 – and, if they follow African affairs in general or Bono’s Twitter feed in particular, with its subsequent transformation into a stable state that has lifted a million people out of poverty in the past decade – and which also has free wifi on city buses.

Just to the south of Rwanda is Burundi, a country of a similar size and with a similar unfortunate, bloody history.

http://gautengcarnival.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/IMG_7765.jpg

The Guateng Canival was held on Thursday 24 September 2015 in celebration of Heritage day in South Africa. It was held in Pretoria and a display of Africanism. More pics after cut...

Everywhere she looks in Nigeria, Opeke notices missed opportunities. But the founder and CEO of Main One Cable Company also sees ways to address them [Al Jazeera]

The only major road through Lekki is clogged, even on a Saturday afternoon. The expressway through the swampy peninsula that expands the city of Lagos in an easterly direction is riddled with street hawkers peddling red grapes, shoe racks and phone chargers to the cars caught in the hold up.
"Selling imported fruit and Chinese rubbish. Such a waste of initiative," mutters Funke Opeke from the backseat of the SUV. The driver steers past a junction where a swarm of okada drivers on motorbikes are waiting by the roadside for anyone looking for a ride. "Look, there's 50 young men right there. Imagine you'd give all of them a six-month course in building affordable housing," she says.

President Buhari arrived New York early this morning 25 September 2015 for the UN general meeting. In his delegation are former Rivers and Ekiti state governors, Rotimi Ameachi and Kayode Fayemi, former house of representatives member Abike Dabiri Erewa, SSA Household & Domestic Sarki Abba, SSA Media & Publicity Femi Adesina, Senator Hadi Sirika and others. More pics after cut...

Scientists create human sperm in lab, but does it work?

The team hailed their technique as a step towards solving male infertility, but admitted it would take several years before the "quality" of the sperm will be confirmed.

The method, patented in June, took 20 years to refine, said the researchers from Kallistem biotech company in Lyon, east France.

The beautiful trio celebrated 100 episodes of their talk show “Afternoon Express”. on Tuesday 22 September 2015.
The show debuted back on 04 May.
“Afternoon Express” airs weekdays at 16:00 on SABC 3. More pics after cut....

Zulu women sing traditional hymns during the King Shaka Day ceremony in KwaDukuza, KwaZulu-Natal in this 2011 file photo. Picture: SUNDAY TIMES

SOUTH Africa has seldom approached Heritage Day with a more fractured sense of what constitutes our heritage and what should be celebrated.
Angry exchanges over the character of our universities, language policy, public memorials and so on have exposed the divides that run through our society and have even called into question whether we are one nation.

Post-election violence in Kenya in January 2008. The country was forewarned in its peer review report that trouble was brewing, but took no action. EPA

Why is the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), the continent’s most important governance assessment and promotion tool, in the doldrums?
One reason is failure to sell its successes. Many of the reforms that have come about because of the process have sadly drowned in a sea of acronyms and technical jargon. In fact, the majority of Africa’s population has never heard about it. This is worrying given its impact, and its potential.

When Maula prison was first constructed in this east African nation more than 50 years ago, the facility was designed to hold just 800 inmates.
But in the years since then, the prison population has exploded. Today, Maula houses 2,650 inmates — many of them Ethiopian migrants, seemingly detained indefinitely in harsh and unsanitary conditions.
More pics after cut....

Uganda Schönheitswettbewerb für HIV-Positive

In Uganda's capital Kampala, teenagers living with HIV virus on Friday (18.09.2015) gathered around catwalks in a music-filled hall to witness the crowning of Miss and Mister Y+ or "Youth Positive".
The beauty Pageant was organized to fight stigma and give hope to young people living with the virus. Organizers travelled around the country to encourage young people with HIV to take part in the event. It was open to candidates - age between 16 and 25. The show is now in its second year. More pics after cut...

Lt. Col. Mamadou Bamba announced the coup in Burkina Faso on television Thursday. (Screen shot by AFP Photo)

A military coup has abruptly interrupted Burkina Faso’s transition, removing the interim government less than a month before a democratic presidential election. The military coup occurred less than a year after the downfall of the long-ruling dictator Blaise Compaoré and was organized by close members of Compaoré’s former presidential guard. The coup last week by Burkina Faso’s presidential guard was followed by reports on Monday of other major figures in the country’s military launching a counter-coup to disarm the presidential guard. Under pressure, coup leader General Gilbert Diendéré released a press statement confirming his commitment to return power to civilian authorities at the conclusion of the final agreement to be made under the auspice of regional mediators.

Left to right: Andy's wife, mother and sister-in-law play with his son, Jason, on a visit to his home village. | DREUX RICHARD PHOTOS

During a visit to southeastern Nigeria in early 2014, Andy hires laborers to begin construction on a tract of land he owns north of Onitsha’s city center, the most promising of three properties he purchased with profits from his two nightclubs in Tokyo’s Kabuki-cho entertainment district. Word spreads that an entrepreneur living abroad is developing the site, and Andy’s workers are soon attacked by a group of machete-wielding locals who say the government never compensated them when the land was originally expropriated.
Andy blames himself for leaving the plot empty too long; vacant land attracts extortionists. But it’s good luck he’s home when it happens, and better luck the land has turned out to be worth fighting over — a renowned businessman has begun developing the adjacent plot, promising to turn it into one of the nation’s premier dining and entertainment complexes.

Senator President, Bukola Saraki says he is being tried at the Code of Conduct Tribunal because he is the Senate President. In a personal statement he signed yesterday September 22nd, Saraki said

"I reiterate my belief that the only reason while I am going through this trial is because I am senate president. If I were to be just a senator, I doubt if anybody will be interested in the asset declaration form I filled over twelve years ago" do you share his views?

Friday, 18 September 2015

Meet: Top 10 South African Idols

And here they are: the 8 contestants who received the most votes from the Idols SA fans over the past two weeks and set a new Idols SA record for this phase of the competition, with well over 3 million votes cast for the Top 16.

24-year-old Karabo Mogane from Nelspruit, who has come a long way from Somizi Mhlongo’s famous comment about his “dishwashing-water personality” at his original audition in Pretoria, to the Top 10!

The youngest competitor in Idols SA Season 11, 16-year-old Loyiso Gijana from Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape, whose performance in the Top 16 Guys Spectacular Gareth Cliff called a “tour de force”.

21-year-old Rhema Varrie from Alberton on the East Rand, who said earlier he hoped to win the competition so he can pursue a career in music.

Anas Aremeyaw Anas is an undercover journalist who specializes in print media and documentaries. Working both on his own and in collaboration with other news agencies and journalists, he has successfully ensured that corrupt acts and practices are exposed in Ghana and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Recently, he has been in the news for exposing corruption in Ghana’s justice system. As a result, he has received several lawsuits and petitions as the judges involved in the scandal are being called into accountability.

An Indian worker cleans a statue of Mahatama Gandhi before the arrival of British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond at Gandhi Darshan in New Delhi on March 12, 2015.Getty Images

Was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the revered leader of India’s freedom movement, a racist?
A controversial new book by two South African university professors reveals shocking details about Gandhi’s life in South Africa between 1893 and 1914, before he returned to India.
During his stay in South Africa, Gandhi routinely expressed “disdain for Africans,” says S. Anand, founder of Navayana, the publisher of the book titled “The South African Gandhi: Stretcher-Bearer of Empire.”

School girls line up at their school in Enugu State, Nigeria.

A few days ago, I read Langston Hughes’ poem ‘Harlem’ and it made me think about the deferred dreams of millions of young Nigerians. Dreams that were once so close that they gripped our imaginations, shaped our choices, and propelled us forward – and yet so far away and out of reach that most of us abandoned them while still in our teens. “What happens to these deferred dreams?”

General Gilbert Diendere, a one-time powerful aide to deposed Burkina Faso president Blaise Compaore, was appointed head of a new ruling authority set up on Sept. 17, 2015.
(AFP)

Burkina's military seized the airwaves and installed a general loyal to the ex-president Thursday as the new head of state, carrying out a coup weeks before national elections.
The developments capped a dramatic year in this West African country where President Blaise Compaore was ousted in a popular uprising last October after he tried to prolong his 27-year rule.
That paved the way for the formation of a transitional government, but soldiers arrested the interim president and prime minister late Wednesday and announced hours later that they had been removed from office.

Kwame Nkrumah–The Confession And Plea Of Julius Nyerere 1

A NYERERE QUOTE

“Kwame Nkrumah was your leader, but he was our leader too, for he was an African leader…He was a visionary leader. He thought big, but he thought big for Ghana and its people and for Africa and its people. He had a great dream for Africa and its people. He had the well-being of our people at heart. He was no looter. He did not have a Swiss bank account. He died poor. Shakespeare wrote that the evil men do lives after them, but the good is often interred with their bones…”

“We should round up all the gays and send them to Uganda to be shot!”

This was a friend of mine speaking, an educated entrepreneur in his 30s, a devout Christian from Nigeria. A homophobe.

We need to protect the children, families and the culture of Nigeria, he continued. Handing out the harshest punishments to homosexuals, he said, would be an important deterrent to the younger generation.

My friend is not alone in his views. These opinions are sadly common not only in Nigeria, but also in the rest of Africa. Having spent most of my career there, I’ve noticed an increasing homophobia on the continent.

Almost 2.8 billion people live in countries where identifying as lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual and intersex could lead to imprisonment, corporal punishment or even death.

I had read about homophobia, heard opinions like those of my friend’s that are shocking and far too familiar. But rarely had I come across work that captured the feelings and voices of the persecuted.

The African International hair fair extravaganza was held in Midrand, Guateng in South Africa on Saturday. 12 September 2015. More pics after cut.

The president said this was triggered by the bombarding of Libya by Nato forces and the subsequent killing of president Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Zuma said there was stability in the region until the Arab Spring, saying it was the "actions taken in the bombarding of Libya and killing of its leader that opened the floodgates ... today those who were part of destabilising that part of the world, they do not want to accept the refugees. It is their responsibility. They caused it, they must address it."

APC lists new cases of looting, says PDP mess must be cleared for Nigerians to enjoy better life

Motto: “Justice, Peace and Unity”

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has listed new instances of the insane looting of the treasury by some officials of the Jonathan Administration, saying the corruption mess that characterized the Administration was so pervasive that until it is cleaned, Nigeria will not be able to actualize its potentials.

”Those who would rather give comfort to the looters by dismissing the media exposure of looting cases as mere hell-raising should realize that no sane person can be silent in the face of what is unfolding as the worst cases of brazen stealing of public funds in Nigeria’s history,” the party said in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

In South Africa's Poor Townships, Social Entrepreneurs Are Creating A Food Delivery Service

People who live a long way from grocery stores pay more for food because they have to travel there and back, which costs money, and they waste more time doing it. That's why two social entrepreneurs from Cape Town, South Africa, have come up with Lakheni, a group buying club that aggregates orders, with local daycare centers serving as a base.

It was another swift act of violence carried out in the Islamic State, the execution of a man deemed to have insulted Islam and quickly put to death this week. His was not a beheading that would attract the world’s attention. It was a routine occurrence, carried out by a member of ISIS in the Syrian city of Aleppo, as part of the daily administration of the Islamic caliphate where Sharia is the law of the land and strict adherence is heavily policed.

The hope of recovering the abducted Chibok girls yesterday dimmed further with the declaration by a returnee from Boko Haram camp.
Twenty-one-year old Tabitha Adamu, one of the women freed from the sect’s camp and handed over to the Borno State Government last week, said the girls had turned to Boko Haram fighters.
Tabitha, who is expectant for one of the sect’s commanders who forcibly married her, said she mingled with the girls at various times in the sect’s camp.

Oprah Winfrey Donates $100,000 to GEANCO, Nigerian Foundation for Girls In Honour of David Oyelowo

Oprah Winfrey is joining her Selma and The Butler co-star David Oyelowo to make an equally meaningful impact in the world off-screen as they did onscreen.
Winfrey will donate $100,000 in Oyelowo’s honor to the GEANCO Foundation which specializes in providing vital healthcare and education needs to girls in Nigeria. Oyelowo and Oscar-nominated Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave), are both involved with the foundation and coincidentally both British actors of Nigerian descent who have been friends since they were teenagers.

The late Benedict Daswa who is likely to be South Africa's first saint.
Image by: Thohoyandou Roman Catholic Church.

On February 2 1990 a mob of villagers murdered him when he refused to support their superstitions.
Yesterday, the Catholic church confirmed Daswa as a "venerable servant of God".
Pope Francis has declared February 1 the feast day of Blessed Daswa. A shrine will be built in the area at which he may be venerated.

Sammy Sosa: Radio DJ noted for her stint on Metro FM, with co-host Mo Flava. She recently gained acclaims as the host of Vuzu Amp’s hip hop search show “The Hustle”.
More pics after cut......

South Africa: a dangerous place to be poor, black and a woman : Times

South Africa has one of the highest rates of femicide in the world.
Image by: Times

Judged against global gender benchmarks, South African women appear to have surpassed their expectations in terms of important indicators. These include:

solid representation and leadership in state decision-making structures;
extensive legal and constitutional mechanisms protecting their rights;
ground breaking laws safeguarding their interests; and

A Lost Generation: Uganda's Disillusioned Youth By Charles Parkes

Almost every day, the traffic along Entebbe road, leading into Kampala, will draw slowly to a stop. Seconds later, a wailing police car will buzz between the halted cars and taxis. A moment of silence, and President Yoweri Museveni's motorcade will shoot past, all sirens and khaki-clad soldiers. If you look closely, you'll see the President himself through a black limousine's window (he's usually reading a newspaper).
As Museveni rushes from his residence into Kampala to address Uganda's political crises this scene is repeated endlessly - the next renegade former ally, the latest action in the campaign against Al-Shabaab or the next politically motivated arrest. With campaigns winding up and battle lines already being drawn for the 2016 election, it seems the number of army-escorted journeys can only increase.

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Wednesday, 30 September 2015

Tuesday, 29 September 2015

One woman was abducted by soldiers and taken to a military camp, tied up and raped repeatedly for two months.

Mzansi Magic talent blessed the DStv's iRock music festival this past weekend.

Monday, 28 September 2015

Friday, 25 September 2015

Wednesday, 23 September 2015

Friday, 18 September 2015

Wednesday, 16 September 2015

Tuesday, 15 September 2015

Monday, 14 September 2015

Friday, 11 September 2015

Tuesday, 8 September 2015