Posts in category African News

On Monday, January 6, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his decision to resign as leader of the Liberal Party and Prime Minister of Canada, bringing an end to his nearly nine-year leadership. The announcement comes amid mounting internal pressures and challenges that have tested the party’s unity. “I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister, after the party selects its new leader,” Trudeau said during a press conference in Ottawa. While Trudeau emphasized his resilience as a leader, he acknowledged that stepping aside was in the best interest of Canadians and the party. “I am a fighter, and …

Kidole kimmoja hakivunji chawa this Swahili phrase translates into one finger doesn’t kill lice. This simply means that unity births power and force that results in change. In the wake of George Floyd’s killing the hearts of the people were set ablaze with rage. The viewing of the life leaving a man incited protests around the world as people cried, “BLACK LIVES MATTER.” It was a turning point, with the truth before their eyes the masses didn’t need a leader their rage fueled them. Similarly, in Kenya, a proposed finance bill that threatened to overburden already exhausted taxpayers sparked outrage. …

Rosie Awori (LJI) The echoes of rejoicing across Africa can be heard vibrating across the world. Aliou Cissé realized the dream of Senegalese by winning the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). With the country’s, green, yellow and red flag draped across his shoulders the coach wept in front of the stadium of jubilant supporters as Senegal took their first AFCON trophy on February 6, beating Egypt on penalties (0-0; 4-2). A victory to which Aliou Cissé, coach of the team since 2015, has earned a lot of the credit. This year’s AFCON comprised of Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, Egypt, Cape Verde, Morocco, …

Rosie Awori (LJI) The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded on Thursday October 7, to Abdulrazak Gurnah for “his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.” Gurnah joins the ranks of such illustrious past winners as Toni Morrison, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Wole Soyinka. The Swedish Academy in a statement said, “Gurnah’s dedication to truth and his aversion to simplification are striking,” the academy said. “His novels recoil from stereotypical descriptions and open our gaze to a culturally diversified East Africa unfamiliar to many in other …

The Canadian Institute for People of African Descent (CIPAD) positions itself as the first-ever institute dedicated to conducting research on the state of Blackness in Canada out of which it hopes to produce effective and culturally appropriate policies that will help to remove the disparities and inequities faced by Canadian people of African descent. The initiative was inspired, in part, by the UN declaration of the Decade for People of African Descent 2015 -2024. Speaking to the CONTACT Quammie Williams, the project manager for CIPAD, said the project was intended to “fill in the blanks” “There isn’t enough being taught about Black …

Rosie Awori (LJI) The former South African President, Jacob Zuma, was sentenced on June 29, to 15 months in prison for contempt of justice, after multiple attempts and schemes to avoid testifying in investigations into state corruption. Jacob Zuma, 79, who said he had no fear of being arrested, convicted, or imprisoned, now has five days to surrender. Otherwise, the police will be allowed to pick him up from his home to take him to a prison where he will begin serving his sentence. “The Constitutional Court has no choice but to conclude that Mr. Zuma is guilty of contempt …

Rosie Awori (LJI) Zambia’s former president, Kenneth Kaunda, the father of the country’s independence who ruled for 27 years died on Thursday June 17. He was 97. Kaunda had been admitted to the Maina Soko Medical Center, a military hospital in Lusaka, on Monday where authorities disclosed he was being treated for pneumonia. His son, Kambarage Kaunda, announced the Zambian founding president’s passing via a post on facebook and asked for prayers for the family. Kenneth Kaunda was born in 1924 to parents from Malawi. His father, a Protestant missionary, had gone to Zambia, at the time a British colony. …

Rosie Awori (LJI) Created by the NBA and FIBA to promote basketball in Africa, the Basketball Africa League (BAL) brings together 12 of the largest teams on the continent. The competition was originally scheduled for March 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic forced its postponement. Each team must carry 12 players on its line-up, eight of them being from the country of origin. Only four foreign players are allowed, two of whom must come from other African countries. It means that at least 120 of the 144 players involved will be African. Eight of the league’s 12 teams will qualify for …

Rosie Awori (LJI) Nzambi Matee, a 29-year-old Kenyan entrepreneur could no longer sit by and watch the degradation caused by plastics. After constantly seeing plastic bags strewn on the roadside she decided to find a way to solve the problem by recycling plastics and transforming them into bricks for construction projects. She received a scholarship to study material science at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she eventually developed her prototype. Soon after she launched a company “Gjenge Makers,” a social enterprise that produces sustainable low-cost construction materials made of recycled plastic waste. The bricks produced have been said …

Rosie Awori (LJI) One day after being declared the winner of the presidential elections and securing a 6th term, Chad’s President Idriss Debby died from injuries sustained at the frontline. The Chadian security forces are engaged in – the north of the capital N’Djameana against the FACT rebels. News of the death of Mr. Déby, 68, was broadcast on state television by a group of military officers, who also announced that the president’s son, Mahmat Kaka would succeed him and head a transitional military council that would lead to new elections in 18 months. “The president of the republic, head …