Global Voices

English

The world is talking, are you listening?

Myweku writes about the introduction of Rooti Dolls, by Chris and Ada Ngoforo, a Nigerian couple:

The 12 Rooti dolls are programmed to speak in several African languages. Amongst them, there’s Nina, a “vibrant girl” with Nigerian parents, who “loves watching Nollywood” and can interact in the Nigerian languages of Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa [...]

 Mensah wrote on koaci.com:

For Nigerian soldiers, enlisted men, officers and even aspirants, the military hierarchy has decided that the knowledge of the French language is now a prerequisite for anyone to get a promotion.

Dapa Arnaud gives a list of the 10 most active african presidents [fr] on social media. At the top of the list is  president Paul Kagame in Rwanda:

In place since 2003, the president of Rwanda is the most active on the internet.  According to the Ecofin agency, Paul Kagame interacts with many users on Twitter through his account @PaulKagame. His personal website named “The Journey Continues, Dukomeze Imihigo” is also one of the most visited websites in the country. His presence is also quite strong on other social media sites such as Facebook, Google+, Flickr or YouTube.

On January 23, 2013, an excerpt from the annual report of l'ACAT-France, A World of Torture 2013, makes a fresh assessment of the state of torture in the world [fr]:

“A report called A World of Torture in 2013, assesses torture practices that continue to be alarming, from Pakistan to Italy, by way of South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Bolivia. From authoritarian regimes to democratic countries, none are exempt from criticism on the topic. In 2013, torture remains as endemic, omnipresent and multi-faceted as ever”.

MyWeku compiles a list of 10 best African food blogs for 2013: “There are seemingly a million food blogs out there, but only a handful showcase African food. Even so it has still been a struggle to pick 10 of our favourites for this year (2013).”

Mr. Jaeger has worked on several of Knitting Factory’s Fela efforts including Fela: Live In Detroit 1986, and the Ginger Baker compiled Fela: Vinyl Box Set 2.

Wes Flexner speaks with the person behind the artwork for “Best of Black President Pt 2″, an extensive collection of  legendary Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti’s music ranging from 1971’s “Black Man’s Cry” to 1992’s “Underground System”.

Mbawana Alliy says that e-commerce & mobile payments in Africa will not scale without business process integration:”As I tell the startups in our accelerator who are exploring integrating payments, its not just about accepting payments its about a business process and even business model rethink and in turn convince both consumers or businesses to pay electronically to effectively monetize their services.”

“Let's support Olaolu Femi” (screenshot of a Facebook community).

On Nov. 5, 2011, Olaolu Femi, a Nigerian student in Ukraine, was attacked by a group of young people in the city of Luhansk; he was detained the next day, and his alleged attempt to defend himself and a friend was interpreted by the Ukrainian prosecutors as attempted murder, for which he is now facing a minimum of 10-15 years and up to life in jail. He has spent the past year in a pre-trial detention center. “Self-defence is no offence” is the slogan of the campaign in his support [en].

More »

Lagos will become the first city in the African continent to host the Social Media Week (SMW Lagos) co-produced by Dragon Africa and AFRIKA21 in February 18 – 22, 2013.
More »

Seven African nations of ECOWAS namely Nigeria, Senegal, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire and Togo have agreed with Malian government [fr] to send 3,300 soldiers a year to Northern Mali to take back control of northern Mali from Islamist fighters. Other nations outside the ECOWAS might also send in troops.

We are told that miners do everything to waterproof the soil and ensure that waste does not contaminate subterranean water. But it must be recognized that there is always a risk, as they can never be completely sure that they are not contaminating subterranean pools. Moreover, with the impact of climate change, people will increasingly rely on subterranean water to supply towns

Alain Tossounon, reporting comments [fr] from a meeting with Dam Mogbanté, Executive Secretary of the Global Water Patnership West Africa

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria's Finance and Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy is not interested in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) top job.  Pascal Lamy will retire soon and there's been speculations that Okonjo-Iweala may seek to replace him.

More »

China continues to deepen her presence in Africa as students in Lagos will now learn Chinese.

Here are Apostrophekola's top African photo tumblrs: “…I think you should be following if you have any interest in Africa. With these tumblrs, a picture is definitely worth a thousand words”

Simi Dosekun intends to blog about the concept of post-feminism in Africa: “My posts will cover my research interests: African feminism, how as African women we think of ourselves, media and popular culture, the dubious concept of post-feminism which I think is, ironically enough, infiltrating popular discourse in Africa.”

Two Northern youth groups on Wednesday criticized the Senate President, David Mark over his recent comments urging northern leaders to check the activities of the dreaded Boko Haram sect, Connected Africa reports.

Mbwna Ally wonders whether copy/clone strategy works in Africa: “Every so often I hear venture capitalists and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley ask a recurring question regarding Tech Startups in Africa- why not just use the “copy to” strategy? Clone an e-bay, clone a Groupon… After all there are 1,000s of Groupon clones in China! And the Samwer brothers in Germany are notorious for doing this right that it angers many innovators in America.”

Kollo writes about Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA):”The event, which attracted international and African celebrities as well as notable personalities from other professions turned out to be a joyous carnival of some sort as several movie actors, actresses, producers and writers literally broke down in tears of happiness as they received accolades for their industriousness, creativity, passion and initiative in the movie industry.”

Enough is Enough (EIE) together with other partners wish to expound the rising profile of new media and governance in a conference “New Media and Governance: Tools and Trends”. The aim of this intellectual gathering of “government policy makers, civil society, academic institutions, private sector and youth” is to analyse “the use of new media for improved governance, accountability and civic engagement.” The conference is slated for May 14-15, 2012 in Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, Nigeria.

Emannuel Iduma discusses #SaveOke campaign in the context of Kony 2012: “I am interested, in joining my voice to #SaveOke, in telling ways in which KONY 2012 implicate readings of virality…If a #SaveOke video is made, and it goes viral, the complex questions of white supremacy and black inactivity will not arise. We might just ask, ‘is this real?’ or ‘why exhibit his ailment?’ Those questions are within the realm of simplicity. This is a simple, human, matter.”

Nigeria's arts community recently lost a  theater artist and poet: Ify Agwu Omalicha. She died in an auto crash on her way to Abuja. Ayodele Olofintuade laments that Ify death is a consequence of years of neglect and corruption that leaders of Nigeria “have perpetuated over and again”. As such denying Ify's son the joy of a mother's love. In this post, NigeriansTalk collates some tributes from Ify's colleagues.

The first African Film Festival will take place in Athens, Greece, from February 23 to 29, 2012, with the collaboration of various African countries’ embassies and consulates. Twenty one films from Angola, South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Nigeria, Egypt and Ethiopia will be screened. The event is hosted by the Greek Film Archive [el].

Gamel identifies social innovations that weave the African dream: “Tech in Education: This project is the main motivation behind today’s post. Tech in Education is a 48hr gathering of ideas, people and digital tools aimed at creating novel web and mobile solutions to improve learning amongst primary and secondary school students in Nigeria.”

African Urbanism discusses the UK's Colonial Film Catalogue, a database of more than 6000 films, which provides a window into British colonial period: “…these videos find their value in providing a fantastic trip through time into life in these places — showing people as they were (or, rather, how the government/companies would like you to see them), and life at the time (again, likely how we're supposed to see them).”

MyWeku interviews the UK organizer of Occupy Nigeria movement: The removal led to petrol prices doubling overnight and triggered a spate of protests that seem to be gathering momentum. The demonstrations are being led and organised by Occupy Nigeria under the globally recognised “Occupy Movement”.

Victoria discusses protests, fuel subsidy removal and the role of social media in Nigeria: “Follow #occupynigeria for just a couple minutes and you'll see precisely what I'm talking about — in a highly mobile country of more than 150 million, tweets are coming in so fast at times its almost impossible to keep up with the conversation.”

Erik believes that 2011 was a great year for startups in Africa: “The past few years have been about building an infrastructure that improves the chances of the technology startups in Africa to succeed. Seeing this buildout in action in 2011 was exciting, but it should be recognized for what it really was: a setup for 2012 and beyond.”

Bunmi Oloruntoba and Emmanuel Iduma come up with 3bute: “3bute [pronounced: tribute] is an online anthology devoted to the question of African modernity. Along that theme, we look on the web for what writers–especially African bloggers–have written and we recycle/ adapt selected writing into 3 pages of narrative art.”

The June 12 Coalition of Democratic Formations in Nigeria reacts to the increase in the price of fuel: “We are hereby calling on all Nigerians to rise up together to challenge this illegal and inhuman policy of petrol price hike by the Goodluck administration by joining forces with the organized labour, civil society groups and other pro masses organizations…”