Out of Africa

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.

If you’ve checked out my blogroll, you would have already had the chance to browse some pretty cool, or at least interesting, blogs written by Africans and/or about Africa.

When I decided to begin this blog, I knew that covering every thing Africa would be close to impossible. The most I could do is offer a glimpse, and some perspective, on some of the issues African face — on and off the continent.

The blogs in my blogroll, and some of the ones below, I feel, do the same. While they could never act as the sole source of African news, issues, lifestyle, etc., they can offer a glimpse into the lives of Africans.

Here’s a list of some newer blogs I recently found (some are also on my blogroll):

• Interested in African music? Check out Awesome Tapes from Africa. Updated regularly enough, you can check out actual cassette tapes from various African countries. The blogger offers reviews of sorts, as well as music clippings from each tape.
• Texas? Africa? Baptist? All three describe me more or less. And they describe this blogger, who is from Texas and is working on her dissertation about the Democratic Republic of Congo. Similar to this blog, it aggregates news on Africa and provides some personal insight on issues in the US (and how the connect to Africa) as well.
• Reuters is the place to go for business news. And while they have a really good Africa section, they also have an Africa blog. Get some insight into African business, politics and lifestyle.
• Ravished Hearts: Getting the Word Out About AIDS. The disease is killing Africa’s future. Need I say more?
• I want to be a journalist, so this blog caught my eye. Focused on sub-Saharan Africa, this reporter tells recaps many of the stories he “regrets” happened in Africa. Provides historical context, as well as a view into the future.
• Thoughts on Africa: Blog that aggregates news, info about Africa and refugees.