Out of Africa

Women in general are in danger of being anemic - generallyafter childbirth, many lose so much blood that their count stays low for quite a while afterwards. Also, Africans tend to already have high numbers in having sickle-cell, and as a result of the blood disease tend to be anemic (having low red-blood count) as well.

Well, an article in the New York Times recently revealed another way of getting anemia for Africans - particularly African women: the hookworm.

The hookworm is a parasite that lives inside the intestine and causes anemia. According to a recent study, almost seven million pregnant women in sub-Saharan African are infected with this parasite. Severe anemia is one of the main reasons why women die during pregnancy. It can also contribute to the death of newborns.

Maternal anemia is very common in Africa. However, most African women are anemic before giving birth instead of after. Besides hookworm, other cause are a poor diet, malaria and general genetics (like having sickle-cell). Without iron supplements, anemia is hard to prevent, and now that it is now that this new parasite also causes the blood deficiency, even iron (or even mosquito nets) may not be enough. Heavy hookworm loads are associated with low hemoglobin levels in pregnant women.

Authorities however have remained reluctant to make deworming part of maternal care for African women. This is primarily because they are unsure of how it might affect the baby.

I spent all of yesterday working as support staff for focus groups. Half of the day was with Africans (sub-Saharan black Africans, primarily from West and Central Africa). One of the main complaints about the US media is how it portrays Africa. Everything is primitive or bad or poor when it comes to Africa. Forget the bustling cities of Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa. Forget the amount of progress being made all around the world.

Well, I found this image on-line — the “World at Night” — and it kind of reinforced some of those complaints.

     (to see the larget picture, click here)

As you can see from the picture - there are barely any city lights (the white spots) in Africa. Instead it’s pretty much all dark (meaning no lights at all) or there’s that nice long strip that’s all red (signifying “wildfires” as the source of light at night). I’m sorry, but seeing as places like Ghana and Chad actually have electricity pretty much 24/7 … as I’m sure does Ivory Coast and possibly places like Kenya and Cameron … this map just frustrates me.  You also got to love how Lagos, Nigeria is pretty much lit up by “natural gas flares” (the green).  Can Africa get any more primitive?

And it’s all based off of information gathered from NASA (of course).

NOTE: I’m equally enraged by the “fishing fleet lights” off the coast of South America. But at least they get some bright white lights on their continent. And Australia?? … let me just focus on Africa.

No matter how bad you claim they are … you know you can’t resist African films. Just the way Indians (and others around the world) love all the crazy nuances that make Bollywood, Bollywood — we Africans, too, love the often bad acting, soap opera dramas our film industry produces.

Well … for all you proud African-film watchers, and even for you closet ones, here’s a chance for you to contribute. The African Council for Arts and Culture recently announced a Name and Logo Contest for the Nigerian and Ghanaian film industry. All lovers of the new African Cinema and Music are invited to submit proposals for the following categories:

1. GHANAIAN FILM INDUSTRY:The Ghanaian home movie sub sector is informally nicknamed “Gollywood”. The Council feels this name sounds too much like “gullibility”, which they find as ”an insult to the creative talents of Ghana.” So fans … submit a serious name and logo proposal for the Ghanaian Movie Industry. PRIZE: N200,000 Naira (two Hundred Thousand Naira or equivalent in Ghanaian Cedi).

2. NIGERIAN FILM INDUSTRY: The Nigeria home video sub-sector is currently nicknamed “Nollywood.” “Nolly” apparently means “nothing, so …”  again, the Council does not ”feel comfortable promoting ‘nothingwood.’”  Also, why they feel it’s an insult to the pioneers of the industry to simply “jump into the “wood” bandwagon just because the Indians call theirs “Bollywood” and the Americans “Hollywood.”” A Nigerian way is needed … so Nollywood fans here’s your chance to make your mark on the industry. Prize money for the name and logo that will replace the “nothingwood” name is N200,000 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira).

3. YORUBA LANGUAGE FILMS: The history of the Nigerian film industry is linked with that of the Yoruba language films. The Candomble and Capoera in Brazil, the Orisah and Santaria in Cuba, Calypso in Trinidad and Tobago all have roots in Yoruba Culture. It’s definitely a Diasporic culture, and therefore the film industry should be of interested to the Yoruba Diaspora. All the Yoruba films I have every watched are about juju … highly amusing, but something the Council is disappointed with. Their biggest problem, voodoo is ”portrayed in the home videos as forces of evil that are negative and inferior to the Abrahamic religions of Islam and Christianity.

We pray the brave Yoruba filmmakers, artistes, designers, politicians, intellectuals and millionaires take the lead in branding and placing the Positive Progressive Virtues of our African Civilizations in their moves, music and lifestyle for posterity.

“Yoruwood” is the current name being “whispered” for Yoruba home movies. So a more serious one, along with a logo, is in search. The prize money for the name and logo of the Yoruba Film Genre is N100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Naira)

4.THE HAUSA LANGUAGE GENRE: This is a newer film sub sector of the Nigerian home video industry, which is emerging. Right now, since the main location of development is in Kano, they current name is … you guessed it … “Kannywood.” A more respectable name is needed. Prize money = N100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Naira)

5. IGBO LANGUAGE MOVIES: Not to be left out, the Igbo language movies is another sub-sector coming largely out of the eastern Nigerian city of Enugu. Big surprise here though. It’s not called “Enuguwood”, or “Igbowood” or “Iggywood” or any wood-ism. The informal name is “Ikenga.” But something more serious is still needed. The prize money is N100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Naira).

Three other categories exist, CROSS OVER MOVIES, ADULT CONTENT AND EROTIC ARTS, and AFROMEDIA NIGERIA FILM & CULTURAL ENTREPRISES DEVELOPMENT FUND (ANFCED). Prizes are awarded for all of them.

For more information, read this release from Nollywoodwatch.com. Deadline is September 30, 2008.

I think the coolest thing about this is that the African Council for Arts and Culture is a Diasporic organization based in Germany. It just shows how active the community in the Diaspora can be, and how they can help to initiate change for the African continent.

Now start working on those names and logos!!!

Credit: RICHARD LEWIS/AP

Today Nelson Mandela turns 90.

Not only does this man represent a sense of pride, progress and change for South Africans, he represents it for Africans as a whole.

He represents the moral integrity Africans need from the leaders to move forward into a better tomorrow.

Even in the Diaspora, he represents an image that is large than life.

He’s won a Nobel Peace Prize. He’s been TIME’s Man of the Year. He was South Africa’s first black president. He’s a man who changed history.

BBC has a collection of his most famous quotes. My favorite:

“The value of our shared reward will and must be measured by the joyful peace which will triumph, because the common humanity that bonds both black and white into one human race, will have said to each one of us that we shall all live like the children of paradise…

“But there are still some within our country who wrongly believe they can make a contribution to the cause of justice and peace by clinging to the shibboleths [dogmas] that have been proved to spell nothing but disaster.

“It remains our hope that these, too, will be blessed with sufficient reason to realise that history will not be denied and that the new society cannot be created by reproducing the repugnant past, however refined or enticingly repackaged.”

Here’s an interview he gave to CNN, looking back on his life. There’s also a series of news coverage on his life and how this landmark birthday is being celebrated. His life already is, and forever will be, memorialized.

Happy 90th Birthday, Mr. Mandela!

Update: If you’re in the Chicago area, on Monday, July 21, the Jazz Philharmonic is hosting a free concert in honor of Mandela’s 90th birthday.

Aid.

It’s the number one way the world’s leading countries seek to help Africa.

Get rid of poverty? Send aid to Africa. Millions dying of AIDS? Send aid to Africa. Bad governments? … send aid to Africa?

Kenyan Njoroge Wachai says trade, not aid, is what Africa needs.

For one thing, most of the aid promised to Africa in the last G8 Summit (in 2005) hasn’t been fulfilled and is unlikely to be fulfilled by the 2010 deadline. Pledge after pledge comes in, but most of them are not being fulfilled. So Wachai has one question: “ Why do African countries keep pushing for aid that rich countries are reluctant and unwilling to give? Isn’t there an alternative?”

He makes some really good points.

• Foreign Aid isn’t free: regardless of what Africans think, another country offering you aid isn’t like a scholarship. You’re going to have to pay it back some way, some how.

rich countries are lethargic about passing their money to Africa, because it doesn’t make economic sense to do so. … African leaders, out of their foolishness, believe wrongly that rich countries are philanthropic entities flush with cash to dole out to poor countries. That’s why they, or their representatives, are always in Western capitals with begging bowls.

•  Even if it were free … foreign aid will not move Africa out of poverty: the more we rely on the help of others, the more dependent we become and get further from our hopes to be independent. The countries that are giving the aid are still thinking of themselves first and foremost. Africa should do the same.

Right now I’m really interested in the history and culture of Liberia, since I’ve worked on some articles and am hoping to do some other work about Rainbow Town and the Shine Foundation in the future. While doing some random reading/research, I fell across this piece published in the New York Times Magazine. It’s an excerpt from journalist Helene Cooper’s book “The House at Sugar Hill,” which comes out in September.

The piece is compelling, and I’m eager to read the book in its entirety when it comes out. While it’s a memoir, it offers historical information about Liberians - both natives and descendants from former American slaves. I learned so much from the little printed in the NYT magazine.

 It also tells a personal story of choosing to return home after being absent for so long. Regardless of where she lived, Africa remained a part of Helene Cooper and “The House at Sugar Hill” recounts how she found it again.  

by Leila Noelliste

From the outside, parking garage attendant Kobina Azhir looks like an American-born Black man. But Azhir, a Ghanaian seaman who came to the city 22 years ago, is one of 23,000 African immigrants living in metropolitan Chicago.

On May 31, the United African Organization, a partnership of 20 African immigrant communities, held a summit at the DuSable Museum of African American History, to shed light on immigrants like Azhir. Alie Kabba, executive director of UAO, said that “public eduction” is necessary since African immigrants are often overlooked, or misunderstood.

“We realized a few years ago that the challenge for (African immigrants) is to end our invisibility and help to educate people about contemporary African issues in order to better understand the experience of African immigrants and refugees in Illinois,” said Kabba, who came to Chicago from Sierra Leone in 1991.

The second Chicago Summit on African Immigrants and Refugees attracted more than 200 African, Arab and Latino immigrants, as well as African American supporters. Issues that Africans face within their own countries, as well as in Illinois, were discussed in plenary sessions. Though the number of participants is higher than last year’s 160, the modest turn out is a reflection of Africans’ struggle to catch broad attention and support.

“Within the larger immigrant community, we tend to be overshadowed by the Latino community because they have the numbers. So when people think about immigrants, they think about Latinos, and not Africans,” Kabba said. According to 2000 U.S. Census data, there are approximately 582,000 Mexican immigrants living in metropolitan Chicago, compared to just 23,000 African immigrants.

Nigerians make up the majority of that count. European and Asian immigrants account for 366,000 and 321,000 respectively. Like most immigrants, Africans come to America to flee political instability, pursue education, or establish a better life.

They are the most educated immigrant group in metropolitan Chicago and nationally, Kabba said. According to 2000 U.S. Census data, 95.4 percent of African immigrants who had entered metropolitan Chicago in the past 10 years had a high school degree or more, compared to 39.1 percent of Latin American immigrants, 73.8 percent of European immigrants and 85.3 percent of Asian immigrants.

But when it comes to accessing language, housing, employment and medical services African immigrants still suffer “institutional neglect,” Kabba said. He added that this is particularly damaging since African immigrants face the dual challenge of being Black and foreign. “Resources are directed to the community with the largest numbers, which is Latin Americans… The francophone (those from French-speaking African countries) have a language barrier.

“When I hear about bilingual resources, I think, ‘The definition of bilingual has got to go beyond Spanish. It’s got to include those in other communities’,” Kabba said. Carol Adams, secretary of the Illinois Department of Human Services, spoke at the summit and said that the state would take an “extra step to be inclusive” of African immigrants.

“When we talk about doing things for African American women, we are also including women who come from Africa,” Adams said. And the relationship between Africans and African Americans is critical, though plagued by miscommunication. The selection of DuSable for the summit was to represent the link between African Americans and African immigrants, who Kabba described as the “new African Americans.”

“Culture is a dynamic process,” said Kabba, and it’s a fact he has himself experienced. He had plans to move back to Sierra Leone after getting a degree in public policy from the University of Illinois, but a lengthy civil war in his homeland kept him here, where he is raising his 7-, 9-, and 12-yearold children.

“Being an African here is such a temporary identity. It’s a bridge to connect us to a more permanent space, and that permanent space is, naturally, within the African American community,” Kabba said. “When my kids grow up, they’re not going to think Sierra Leone. They’re going to think South Side, West Side, Chicago.”

(Source: The Chicago Defender)

I had meant to do this a while ago, but kept on putting it off. But as our class is coming to an end, I wanted to take the time to mention the blogs of some of my classmates who have featured Africa in one form or the other in their blogs.

• James Edwards - The Violence Project: With an entire blog about violence in Chicago, it’s kind of hard to feature news pertaining to Africa. But James did it in this post about Francis Oduro, a Ghanaian international student who was shot to death. Along with the Violence Project, my prayers go out to the Oduro family.
• Holly Fox - Familienpolitik: A new family law in Mali that would give illegitimate children inheritance rights is the subject of this post. Islamic groups are against this change and Holly provides an interesting comparison to the meaning of marriage and a marriage certificate in Mali versus the United States.
• Christa Hillstrom - Human Goods: In an earlier post I had linked to Christa’s blog about slavery in Mauritania. A more recent post looks at a former slave in Niger who is suing the government for not enforcing anti-slavery laws. In a country were human rights groups estimate about 43,000 people are still living in slavery, this is just the kind of accountability African countries need to be held to.
• Erin Halasz - Wikileads: Erin’s blog follows the online conversation about Wikileaks and the myriad ways in which its uncensorable, untraceable documents appear in public discourse. If you don’t know what Wikileaks is, basically it’s a site that leaks a whole lot of info, but is primarily user-generated like Wikipedia and stuff (Erin, or anyone else who knows, correct me if I’m wrong!). Some of the confidential documents received anonymously includes corruption in Kenya and other “shoddy standards of human rights” in sub-Saharan Africa. One of Erin’s particular posts highlights a recent posting on Wikileads of an invoice for Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Defense, charging the country for a shipment of Chinese rockets, bombs and rounds of mortar.

I hope you take the time to check out their blogs, and while these are the only posts about Africa, each is very interesting and sophisticated. To see more blogs from my class, check out our class Web site.

Recently I wrote a blog about whether or not Africans in the Diaspora should return home, or stay where they are. Well, if this beginning quote from an article in Zimbabwe’s Sunday News then all Africans have a strong incentive to go home.

DESPITE a general upward trend in economic and social growth in Africa, massive brain drain continues to its take toll on the continent, with analysts claiming that it has the same effects as the slave trade and is worse than colonialism.

For those of you who don’t know, brain drain is defined as the large emigration of people with technical skills or knowledge. Usually the drain happens as a result of conflict, lack of opportunity, political instability or health risks. For most Africans, I think lack of opportunity and political instability are on the top of the list for why they have left their homes.

According to Wikipedia, little has been discussed about the brain drain in regards to Africa. Only, since it’s listed as one of the main biggest issues facing the developing countries in Africa … I think it’s being discussed a lot. Maybe it’s not as researched.

Either way, it’s a big concern for the United Nations right now. One officials estimated that in 25 years, Africa will be void of most of its skill and intellect.

But how do we reverse Africa’s brain drain? And is it really a brain drain? I mean, there are A LOT of very very smart people in Africa. Very innovative and absolutely ingenious. What they lack is a platform and opportunity. Which, again, is why many of them find themselves overseas — getting good educations and making more money than they would be at home.

But if that keeps happening, what happens to Africa?

I won’t say that every African in the Diaspora needs to pack up and return back to their homes. But in some way we must aim to return the expertise we are gaining elsewhere.

(Source: My Mobile World)

If you’re African you most likely have either played soccer or know someone who does … and for the most part, you appreciate the sport. This is the fact a group in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex has harnessed to unify the area’s large African immigrant population.

The final day of the DFW International Alliance’s African Unity Cup soccer tournament is tomorrow. Thirteen teams have been battling it out all week long and though they may have been competitors on the soccer field, they have shared and fellowshiped as brothers off the field.

The goal of the tournament, which is held at the University of Texas at Dallas, is to transcend the past, enjoy the present and meet fellow Africans. Apparently DFW International’s board realized that the simplest way to unite the area’s African immigrants (a number equaled to about 85,000) would be through our most cherished sport — SOCCER!!!

The Africa Unity Cup finals will be a face off for third place between Sudan and Morocco and later the championship between Sierra Leone and Liberia.