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Herbs & Plants. Bridelia micrantha. A robust medicinal plant.

Sunday, 1 September 2024 8:00

It is a small to medium semi-deciduous to deciduous tree up to 20m in height with a dense rounded crown. The plant is traditionally used in tropical Africa to treat a wide range of human diseases.

The bark on young branches is grey-brown and smooth while on older branches, the stems are dark brown and rough, cracking into squares; branches often spiny; slash thin, fibrous, brown to dark red. Leaves alternate and simple. Inflorescence with flowers in axillary clusters containing male and female flowers; male flowers on pedicles 1-2 mm long. Fruit black, sub globose to ellipsoid drupe each with 1 seed.
Bridelia micrantha has been identified as one of the few plant species that should be integrated in the domestication process in farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa to support medicinal, nutritional and income security of local communities.

Bridelia micrantha, belonging to the family Phyllanthaceae . CC BY-NC 3.0/ JMK

Bridelia micrantha, belonging to the family Phyllanthaceae (formerly Euphorbiaceae) is traditionally used in tropical Africa to treat a wide range of human diseases including malaria, AIDS/HIV, anemia, asthma, cancer, colic, cough, diabetes, diarrhea, enlarged spleen, gonorrhea, hernia, joint pain, menstruation that is abnormal or painful, stomachaches and other stomach problems, syphilis, thrush, urinary tract infections, yellow fever, jaundice, and as a strong laxative. The plant is also used as anti-abortifacient, an antidote, and to treat diverse conditions of the central nervous system, eye infections, the gastrointestinal system, respiratory system, and the skin diseases including scabies and used hygienically as a mouth-wash.
The bark of Bridelia micrantha is used to treat burns, wounds, venereal diseases, tapeworm, diarrhoea and toothache.
The sticky substance from the inner bark is applied to fresh wounds to form an effective binding of the tissues. The bark decoction is widely used in the treatment of wounds, and as a purgative, abortifacient, aphrodisiac, cough and sore throat. In Southern Africa, the bark infusion/decoction is used as a remedy for headache, sore joints, sore eyes, diarrhea, venereal diseases and fever.

Bridelia micrantha orange leaves. CC BY-NC 3.0/ Purves, M.

A bark decoction is taken as a remedy for stomachache and tapeworm. The bark is also boiled to make a soup for treating diarrhea in children, or is mixed with milk and drunk as a tonic. Bark extract is applied to scabies. The powdered bark is applied to burns to speed healing. The bark, after the removal of the corky outer layer is administered in various preparations for stomach and intestinal complaints, and for conditions in which the stomach is considered the cause-sterility, amenorrhoea, dysmenorrhoea, beriberi, and oedemas. Some of the medicine-men use the bark for bringing to full term ‘prolonged pregnancy’, doubtless false pregnancy or obesity. The fresh bark is slightly aromatic and is used for treatment of stomachaches and as a powerful purge in cases of obstinate constipation and poisoning. Powdered bark is used in decoctions with palm-oil as a cough medicine. The hot decoction of bark and leaves may be held in the mouth for sores and to relieve sore gums, toothache and cough.

A decoction of Bridelia micrantha roots is drunk to cure aching joints. CC BY-NC 4.0/ SAplants

A decoction of Bridelia micrantha roots is drunk to cure aching joints. The root is used as a remedy for severe epigastric pain. A decoction of the root is drunk as a purgative, an anthelmintic or an antidote for poison, as it causes vomiting or diarrhoea that gets rid of the poison. An infusion made from the root is taken orally for coughs. The roots are used to treat symptoms of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus such as excessive thirst and urine production, and sweating. Root is used to treat stomach pains, possibly gastric ulcers, or can be powdered and mixed with fat or oil and rubbed into the head to cure headaches. The root may also be given for stomach-troubles as a laxative. Root-sap instilled into the anus for the treatment for oxyuris worm.
The leaves are used as a laxative and the young leaves chewed against headache. The leaf sap of Bridelia micrantha is used to treat sore eyes and in a decoction with a number of other plants for treatment of conjunctivitis. In some communities, the leaf-decoction is given as treatment for guinea-worm. Leaf and root extracts are applied as anthelmintic and to treat malaria and trypanosomiasis.
Bark, leaves and roots are pounded for external use on bruises, boils, ulcers, dislocations and burns.

The leaves are used as a laxative and the young leaves chewed against headache. CC BY-NC 4.0/ SAplants

The fruits are sweet and edible when ripe and are widely eaten particularly by children and can be used to make jams and juices. The bark is a source of tannins plus red and black dyes. A red dye is extracted by boiling the bark. A black dye is obtained from the leaves, twigs and wood. The fruit also contains a dye. The resin is used for sealing cracks in doors, baskets, pottery and winnowing trays. In East Africa, the bark is pounded to a paste which is used to seal cracks in doors, and baskets. Bridelia micrantha is also an important timber tree species in tropical Africa and the species is being overexploited as a source of wood for construction, poles, furniture, mortars, spoons and tool handles. The leaves are fed to cattle. In West Africa, the bark is added to palm wine to improve the taste.
(Photo: CC BY-SA 3.0/ Purves, M.)

Richard Komakech

The flower of Quetzal.

Sunday, 1 September 2024 8:00

At that time, Prince Ulmac, ‘The One from the Water Palace’, who had ascended the throne in ‘Year Nine of the Rabbit’, reigned in Tollan. His kingdom enjoyed such prosperity that it even aroused the envy of the Rain Gods, whom one day challenged him to play a game of ball with them. The proud king accepted!

Prince Ulmac offered three precious stones he possessed and the beautiful quetzal feathers as prizes. Even the Rain Gods bet on ‘their’ precious stones and ‘their’ feathers. Prince Ulmac did not know it, but the stones and feathers of the gods were none other than the corn cobs and the leaves that enveloped them.

After the victory, when the defeated gods presented the king with simple corn cobs, Prince Ulmac flew into a rage and demanded that the pacts be fulfilled. The gods were quite surprised by the king’s reaction, but gave in to his insistence: they gave him precious stones and quetzal feathers, but demanded that the corn cobs be returned to them.

They took leave of Prince Ulmac saying: “As you see, we give you what you want. But know that from now on, for several years, you will not see a single grain of corn: for a long time, you and your people will know what famine means.”

Soon, the land over which Prince Ulmac reigned was gripped in the grip of an extremely harsh frost: the fields were scourged by terrible hailstorms. The maize disappeared: not a single cob could withstand the terrible weather. The population, decimated by cold and hunger, was unable to endure such a calamity. All the children died before they were even one year old.

Only after four years of famine did the Rain Gods feel compassion for the people. One morning a radiant sun flooded the fields tormented for so long by frost and hail.

A farmer came out of his hut and, to his amazement, saw that in the bare ground surrounding his house some corn plants were struggling to get up, loaded as they were with large cobs.

He ran home to call his wife and children, and while they were munching with incredible greed on the beautiful fruit, a shaman appeared to the man and said to him: “Take some of these ears of corn to Prince Ulmac and tell him that the Rain Gods are willing to forgive him on condition that ‘Quetzal Flower’, daughter of Tozcuecuex, of the Tenocas lineage, is sacrificed to them.

The corn that will come out of the earth, by the will of the gods, is destined for them. The kingdom of the Toltecs will, in fact, disappear.

When the message was relayed to Prince Ulmac, he was seized with great anguish: how could he ask a mother to sacrifice her eight-year-old daughter? The news of the end of his reign shocked him even more. But before the will of the gods, even the will of a prince was bound to bend. Prince Ulmac cursed in his heart the day he had accepted that damned ball challenge, but he was forced to send the Tenocas the message that came from the gods of Rain.

The mother of ‘Quetzal Flower’ absolutely would not accept what the gods had decreed. She clutched her child to her chest and locked herself in her house, never wanting to see anyone again. All the Tenoca people dressed in mourning and proclaimed four days of fasting.

Prayers and sacrifices were continuously offered in the temples. But in the end the high priest, after scrutinizing the entrails of the last llama immolated on the altar, ruled that the will of the gods had not changed: the child was to be sacrificed for the prosperity of the Tenocas.

On the day ‘Quetzal Flower’ was offered to the gods, a voice was heard speaking to her mother: ‘Tozcuecuex,’ said the Rain Gods, ‘do not weep. Your daughter will live forever with us. Her sacrifice will bring abundance to the Tenoca people’.

And so, it did. The next night, a fertilizing rain poured over the fields. The next morning, an extraordinary surprise appeared before everyone’s eyes: corn and a hundred other fruits had sprung up in the fields, and they hung ripe and abundant. No one had sown seed in the barren fields for some years. It was the ‘Year Two of the Dog’.

The blood of ‘Quetzal Flower’ had fertilized the earth. At the beginning of ‘Year One of the Flint’, there was not a single Toltec left in the entire region: an entire people had disappeared. This was the will of the gods.

In a remote cave in the Andes, Prince Ulmac spent his days in solitude. When the gods called him to their kingdom, no one down on the plain noticed. Everyone had long forgotten the famous ball game that had sealed the fate of two peoples: the Toltecs and the Tenocas.

A Mayan Myth. (Pyramid of Uxmal, an ancient Maya city of the classical period. One of the most important archaeological sites of Maya culture. Yucatan, Mexico. Photo:123rf

The Earth, “The Common Home” of humanity.

Sunday, 1 September 2024 8:00

The encyclical Laudato Si’ offers a new way of thinking about our understanding of the current planetary crisis of environmental degradation, the causes of this situation and the path to recovery.

The new vision of reality offered by Laudato Si’ can be defined as integral ecology. It is a new paradigm or manifesto that Pope Francis proposes for the care of creation in the current era of planetary emergency. The integral approach permeates and runs through the entire encyclical: the perception of the Earth as a common home; an integral understanding of the ecological crisis as a cry of the Earth and the poor; a positive vision of the natural world as the “Gospel of creation”. Significantly, Laudato si’ has precisely this subtitle: “On the care of our common home”. The earth is our ‘home’ and it is much more than just the environment that surrounds us.
The world is not just an environment that we can exchange for another, migrating somewhere else, as soon as our planet becomes uninhabitable, as is sometimes presented by science fiction and the media. Earth is actually our only home.

“What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are growing up?” UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe.

The Pope describes the various manifestations of the contemporary ecological crisis, underlining in particular that we have inflicted serious damage on the Earth “due to the irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her” (2): pollution and waste, climate change, the depletion of natural resources, especially water,
and the loss of biodiversity.
According to the pontiff, we are playing a risky and senseless game of chance with the future of our common planetary home and of our brothers and sisters, especially future generations. Against the current alarming situation, Francis forcefully asks: “What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are growing up?” (160). We could leave just rubble, deserts and rubbish to future generations. Francis forcefully denounces that the rate of consumption, waste and alteration of the environment, beyond any denialism, is exceeding the possibilities of survival of the planet, in such a way that the current unsustainable lifestyle can only result in catastrophes, as is already happening periodically in various regions of the globe.
According to the pontiff, “Today, however, we have to realise that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate justice into debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor” (49 ).

Ecological Debt
Laudato Si’ places social justice and environmental justice in close connection. The sad paradox of the contemporary ecological crisis is that it is caused primarily by a minority of extremely wealthy people, whose victims are the poor and vulnerable members of humanity.

“Today, however, we have to realise that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate justice into debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor”. UN Photo/John Isaac

The encyclical denounces various cases of ecological and social injustice in today’s world. The most relevant is the issue of “ecological debt”. On this problem, the Pope writes: “A true ‘ecological debt’ exists, particularly between the global north and south, connected to commercial imbalances with effects on the environment, and the disproportionate use of natural resources by certain countries over long periods of time. The export of raw materials to satisfy markets in the industrialized north has caused harm locally, as for example by mercury pollution in gold mining or sulphur dioxide pollution in copper mining… The warming caused by huge consumption on the part of some rich countries has repercussions on the poorest areas of the world, especially Africa, where a rise in temperature, together with drought, has proved devastating for farming.” (51).

“There are not two separate crises, one environmental and another social, but rather a single and complex socio-environmental crisis”. 123rf

Linked to this, according to Francis, is the deterioration not only of our physical home but also of our social ties, which are intimately connected with it: “The human environment and the natural environment deteriorate together; we cannot adequately combat environmental degradation unless we attend to causes related to human and social degradation” (48). And later he writes that “there are not two separate crises, one environmental and another social, but rather a single and complex socio-environmental crisis” (139) … Everything is connected. “This requires a concern for the environment combined with a sincere love for human beings and a constant commitment to society’s problems” (91).Pope Francis speaks of solidarity and the preferential option for the poor as the best means to achieve the common good and promote eco-justice. In the current conditions of world society, where there are so many inequalities and an ever-increasing number of people who are discarded, and deprived of fundamental human rights, the principle of the common good is immediately transformed, as an unavoidable consequence, into a call for solidarity and a preferential option for the poorest.
“This option – says the document – requires drawing the consequences of the common destination of the earth’s goods… it requires contemplating first of all the absolute dignity of the poor in the light of the deepest convictions of faith. It is enough to observe reality to understand that today this option is a fundamental ethical requirement for the effective realization of the common good” (158).

“The Gospel of Creation”
A third characteristic of integral ecology is openness to a positive and religious vision of the natural world seen as creation, that is, the work of God. The same title of the second chapter of Laudato Si’, in which Pope Francis offers the theological vision of the natural world, is highly significant. The chapter bears the title “The Gospel of Creation” and offers the theological foundations of the ecological vision of the encyclical. This states that creation is truly gospel, Evangelion, that is, “good news”. In the wake of modernity, we have been too accustomed to looking at the natural world as inert matter – the Cartesian res extensa, as in modern science – or simply as an emporium of resources to be exploited, as in neo-liberal economics. Laudato Si’ is radical not only as a social doctrine but also as a theology of creation.

Laudato Si’ is radical not only as a social doctrine but also as a theology of creation. 123rf

Creation is good news because of two fundamental truths about it. First of all, creation has a fundamental and original goodness, as we read in the book of Genesis. Secondly, the physical world was brought into existence as an act of love by the triune God. Creation, therefore, is the bearer of an original blessing. The fundamental goodness of creation in the eyes of God is, for a believer, the founding basis of the intrinsic value of every created reality. If God created the world, then the world and everything in it, including all forms of animate and inanimate matter, must have value.
A second aspect regarding creation is that it manifests a ‘love story’ on the part of God. For those who have faith, the universe is not an accident, a random event or a stroke of luck, as is sometimes assumed by secular thought and culture or non-believers.
Every creature is brought into existence out of love and with a specific purpose. God’s expansive love is what animates every creature.

Every creature is brought into existence out of love and with a specific purpose. God’s expansive love is what animates every creature. 123rf

The entire creation, Francis also says, is “open to the transcendence of God, within which it develops” (79). And God is not only transcendent to creation but is also profoundly immanent in it. Creation is truly the oikos (house) of God, as it is imbued with the divine presence. The glory of God resounds throughout the universe in and through the resurrected Christ whose life now flows throughout the cosmos through the life-giving Spirit. In this way, the creatures of this world no longer present themselves to us as a merely natural reality, because the Risen One mysteriously envelops them and directs them to a destiny of fullness. (Open Photo: 123rf)

Joshtrom Isaac Kureethadam

Literature.Three women talk about their Sudan, bitter and divided.

Sunday, 1 September 2024 8:00

In A Mouth Full of Salt, Sudanese writer Reem Gaafar traces the country’s recent history from a female perspective, shedding light on decades of suffering and abuse.

Rather than news stories, it is often novels that enter into the historical perspectives that help us understand societies better. The tragedies and weaknesses of these societies. This applies to a recent publication. The author is the Sudanese Reem Gaafar who in her debut novel – A Mouth Full of Salt – explores strong themes: racism, intolerance, gender violence, oppressive traditions and female genital mutilation.
Destructive feelings and “habits” that condition life and relationships between Northern Sudanese and Southern Sudanese. And it is women above all who pay the price. The novel tells the life of three of them and through their stories – oscillating between the 80s, then the 40s and then returning to where it all began – it tells of a Sudan that concedes nothing to the female world.

In the background Khartoum, the centre of power and coups d’état, like the one included in the narrative and which concerns Jaafar Nimeiry, his regime and the evil that resulted from it. But back in time, the historical scenario is that of a North and South Sudan colonized by Great Britain and Egypt and considered two separate countries – a policy which, on the other hand, laid the foundations for the subsequent separation.
It is in that context that an encounter occurs between a man from the north and a woman from the south. An encounter that will mark not only their lives but also those of other generations. Nyamakeem does not doubt the words of the boy who stole her heart (love is mutual) nor does she have any reason to doubt the welcome she will receive from his family, there in that village on the Nile in the north of the country. But she is met with violence – first verbal and then also physical – and that mother anchored to traditions who with harsh words puts in order the roles and positions of everyone in society: “… we are Arabs… Ashraaf, our lineage it is pure and uncontaminated and goes back to the prophet Muhammad… There is only Arab blood in it. Even your reckless relatives knew to keep their non-Arab adventures in the dark. That is how it always has been and it must always be so”.

Reem Gaafar is a writer, physician and filmmaker. Photo: HhouseBook

It is with this phrase that the author gives shape to the relationships and civil clashes that for decades – and still today – mark Sudan. After all, that (black, Christian) population was a part of the population “that was always” destined for slavery, for servitude, right in the homes and service of Arab Africans. Then – a 40-year leap – there is Fatima who, unlike the other girls in the village, does not long for marriage but wants to attend Khartoum University, and Sulafa, the mother of a drowned boy, mistreated by her husband and his family because she is unable to have more children. And it is this drowning – as well as other strange, sudden events: livestock deaths, fires – which unites the threads of stories. Yes, because evil generates evil and the past, especially when marked by pain, rejection, and loss, creates a trail, like an underground river, which sooner or later finds a way to return to the surface and drag along those who seemed safe. This is the meaning of the book’s title, A Mouth Full of Salt, a reference to a Sudanese proverb: the taste that remains in the mouth after a great loss.

Antonella Sinopoli

Libya is the key hub for Moscow’s operations in Africa.

Sunday, 1 September 2024 8:00

By maintaining a strong presence in Libya, Russia is able to pursue its geopolitical goals. One of them is to challenge the West.

Until the collapse of the Soviet Union and subsequent end to the Cold War, Russia maintained a strong foothold in the Middle East, recognizing the region’s potential importance to global power dynamics. During the Cold War in particular, Russia maintained its presence by creating allies among those Arab nations that would help it achieve its goal of creating an anti-Western camp, most notably Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Libya, along with Algeria, Yemen, and Sudan.

Its relations expanded from diplomatic ties to arms shipments to support for liberation movements such as the Palestinian Liberation Organization. The Soviet influence in the region was most obvious in its support for the Arab states during the Suez Canal Crisis (1956), the Six-Day War (1967), and the Yom Kippur War (1973), conflicts that saw a strong involvement by the United States on the side of Israel.

The 1990s, however, saw a major shift in Russia’s presence in the Middle East and North Africa with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The subsequent economic crisis forced Russia to dramatically scale back its involvement in the region, reducing both military engagement and economic support in order to focus on domestic issues.

Additionally, Boris Yeltsin, the then president, saw a window to improve relations with the West. Scaling back Russia’s presence in what had been confrontational states represented one way to resolve tensions at a time when the country was reeling from internal economic turmoil.
As a result, Russia played a marginal role in major confrontations such as the First Gulf War (1990–91), the US invasion of Afghanistan (2001), and the Iraq War (2003–11).

The 2011 NATO-led intervention in Libya to topple Muammar Gaddafi represented the beginning of the end of Russia’s disengagement from the region. Due to the ongoing rapprochement with the West, Russia’s then president, Dmitry Medvedev, abstained from adopting the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973.

This allowed Western intervention in Libya to overthrow the longtime dictator, who had by then turned on his own people. To many experts, Medvedev’s decision not to veto the resolution signaled an important change in Russia’s support of its Arab allies and allowed for a regime change to happen. Among the most notable critics of this action was Vladimir Putin, the then prime minister, who described the West’s subsequent intervention as akin to “medieval calls for crusades.”

The intervention in Libya left an indelible mark on Russian elites, many of whom saw it as emblematic of Western attempts to meddle in foreign countries and impose Western-like values. This threat left Russia feeling disillusioned with the West, which it accused of hypocrisy because of its violations of international law by interfering in Libya.

It also left Russia feeling seemingly isolated at a time when the United States had promised that a regime change in Libya would not occur, and when Russia-US relations were strong and based on the pursuit of mutual trust. This backtracking convinced Russian elites of the necessity to intervene in the region to contrast US presence and therefore restore the balance of power.

Russia’s distrust of the West and recognition of the importance of the Middle East and North Africa region help explain its intervention in Syria in 2015 and in Libya in 2017. Following two decades of relative disengagement from the region, Russia saw a window of opportunity to reassert itself with the outbreak of the Syrian civil war and the request by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for help.

Additionally, the United States’ lack of intervention, underscored by the failure of Barack Obama, the then-president, to adhere to his “red line” commitment, cemented Russia’s belief that the United States would not interfere in its quest for increased influence in the area.

The end of two decades of Russian disengagement came with the recapturing of Aleppo from rebel forces in December 2016, thanks to Russian involvement, and Libyan General Khalifa Haftar’s request for help a month earlier. Libya, engulfed in a civil war, saw the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and France aiding Haftar, with Russia emerging as a prominent ally at a time when its presence in the region was
becoming more entrenched.

Emboldened by its victories in Syria and the potential to exert influence in the region by supporting another Arab country, Russia began deploying mercenaries to Libya as early as 2018. From its marginalized position, Russia saw Libya not only as another window of opportunity to reemerge as a great power competing for influence in North Africa but also as a gateway to other regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa.

With the deployment of troops under the Kremlin’s authority, the days of being second to Western regime change in neighbouring regions were over, and the potential for the resurgence of Russian primacy once again became a real prospect.

Russia reemerged as a regional power in the Middle East when Haftar attempted a takeover of Tripoli in 2019, with Russian forces fighting alongside Haftar’s. Egypt and the UAE were also involved, while Qatar and Turkey supported the Government of National Accord forces of Libya’s then prime minister, Fayez al-Sarraj.

Libya became a military quagmire for foreign power interferences, with Russia refusing to be the marginal player it had been during the First Gulf War and the US invasion of Iraq. While Haftar’s objective of gaining control of Libya was thwarted by Turkish troops, Russian involvement in the country remained consistent, with around 2,000 mercenary troops permanently stationed in eastern Libya, evidence of Russia’s unabated goal to establish a continued presence.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is keeping the Kremlin largely occupied with redefining its borders to the west. Yet, Southern missions have not been downgraded to lesser-scale priorities. On the contrary, some 800 – 1200 mercenaries from Wagner (now called Africa Corps) remain present in Libya, many controlling key oil production facilities and thus positioning the Kremlin to control output from Libya and
affect world oil prices.

Their continued presence illustrates the Kremlin’s conviction that North Africa and the Middle East is a region of vital importance, with enormous untapped resources that could help Russia’s economy in the long term. It also underscores that Russia is making a strategic bet during a time when the American presence is diminishing and the Chinese presence is growing, asserting itself alongside China as a main power by buying local support through influence and mercenary deployment.

This strategy of Russian reassertion is further exemplified by the ongoing activities of the Africa Corps in the wider Sahel region, where the mercenary group’s control has been well documented and is set to increase. In recent years, the area has been destabilized by numerous coups, creating power vacuums in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.

Russia and China have moved to fill these voids, seeking to expand their influence as French and American troops have withdrawn. While Western countries focus on short-term diplomatic solutions, Russia appears to be ahead in its strategy, providing military and financial support to nations it considers strategically important.

Indeed, it would be a mistake to frame Russia’s presence in Libya exclusively in the context of its competition with the West. Its presence is driven primarily by national interests, many of which are linked to the continent of Africa. Libya serves as the crucial hub for Moscow’s mission in Africa due to its geographical location and political instability, which favours allows Russia’s actions.

Strategically positioned at the crossroads of Africa and Europe, it provides Russia with a gateway to its operations in Sudan, Chad, Niger, and other Sahel and Central Africa countries, eventually wielding power and influence throughout these regions. Libya’s ongoing political chaos creates opportunities for Russia to establish footholds through alliances with both local factions and official authorities.

This is exemplified by Russia’s support of General Haftar over the past few years and its more recent relations with the government of Tripoli. Not least, the country’s fragmented governance has guaranteed Russia much-needed access to air and naval military bases, especially across Cyrenaica, allowing it to coordinate its military expeditions.

By maintaining a strong presence in Libya, Russia is able to pursue its broader geopolitical goals, including defying the West, expanding its military reach, and securing critical resources that are essential to sustain its economy and long-term strategic aspirations. (Photo: 123rf)

Alissa Pavia & Chiara Lovotti/ISPI

Music. Tiken Jah Fakoly. The star of African reggae.

Sunday, 1 September 2024 8:00

With his latest work the Ivorian artist, who has lived in Mali for years also for political reasons, gives new voice to 13 flagships of his career. A path that took him to the top of the continental reggae scene.

Emerging in the 1960s, reggae was welcomed promptly and with great enthusiasm throughout Africa. But Ivory Coast in particular has established a special harmony with this genre. If there has been no shortage of important African reggae protagonists of other nationalities, such as the Nigerian Majek Fashek (1963-2020) and the South African Lucky Dube (1964-2007), in half a century of reggae in Africa two great stars stand out, and they are both Ivorian , Alpha Blondy and Tiken Jah Fakoly: both with an international reputation, but on the global reggae scene the long-standing star of Tiken Jah – whose sixteenth album, Acoustic (label Chapter Two/Wagram Music) has just been released – has become brighter even than that of an extraordinary pacesetter
of African reggae like Blondy.
Tiken Jah Fakoly’s success took off with the 1996 album Mangercratie; at the time, in the convulsions of the post-Houphouët-Boigny period – the father-figure of independent Ivory Coast – Ivorian reggae, with Alpha Blondy at the head, valiantly took a stand against xenophobia, used without scruples, in the delicate Ivorian ethnic kaleidoscope, for power scheming: and in Mangercratie Tiken Jah pointed the finger at the cynicism and irresponsibility of politicians.

Tiken Jah Fakoly performing at Ancienne Belgique, Brussels. CC0 1.0/ VerwimpBruno

Born in 1968, at the age of eight Tiken Jah began listening to Bob Marley, and when he died in 1981, he cried; in the eighties, Blondy, born in 1953, had established himself, and Tiken Jah had learned from his talent as a singer, and treasured the example he offered of conscious, committed, denunciatory reggae. Threatened with death in the torn Ivorian context, Tiken Jah has been living in Mali since 2003, from where he brilliantly continued his career, and where he decided to stay despite the difficult situation that the country has been experiencing
for about fifteen years.
With the addition of a new song, in Acoustic Tiken Jah dusts off in an acoustic version thirteen workhorses from his discography, around a quarter of a century of production between the albums Mangercratie and Braquage de pouvoir released in 2022: it is therefore a sort of self-anthology, which lends itself both to a summary of his work and to a first approach for those who do not know him.
“I protested against racism, tribalism, but it was no use. (…) I have the impression of preaching night and day in the desert. (…) I’m tired, I’m tired”, sang Tiken Jah Fakoly in Délivrance, a song included in Mangercratie and re-proposed in the new album: however disillusioned, the Ivorian singer actually never fell out of love with the role he gave himself with his reggae, that of “awakening consciences”, and has not stopped making his voice heard.

Tiken Jah Fakoly at the Eurockéennes de Belfort (France). CC BY-NC 3.0/Rama

His next album, in ’99, was Cours d’histoire, “Course of History”: a challenging title for an artist who feels the responsibility of a name that is equally so, and one that has been consigned to history.
Born Moussa Doumbia Fakoly, Tiken Jah is in fact a descendant of Fakoly Koumba, who according to tradition in the thirteenth century, siding with Sundjata Keita, played a significant role in the military victory that was the basis of the birth of the glorious empire of Mali.
In Acoustic, from Cours d’histoire Tiken Jah takes up among other things Les Martyrs: «They have forgotten that they tortured, that they murdered, that they humiliated – among the various martyrs he names is Thomas Sankara – we will forgive but we will never forget”. Tiken Jah then continued to impart authoritative history lessons, which many young people, especially from West Africa, have listened to, and here he offers an anthology: in Plus rien ne m’étonne and in Tonton d’America he talks about who it was who divided up Africa and still casually divides up the world and of the uncle from across the Atlantic who takes advantage of the miseries of the black continent, while in Ça va faire ill dreams of an Africa finally united and capable of facing the arrogance of the developed countries (all three of the songs are taken from the 2004 album Coup de gueule); un Africain à Paris – Sting’s version of an Englishman in New York – he puts himself in the shoes of a son who writes to his mother, and it is an implicit invitation to Africans to stay at home, but in Ouvrez les frontières (“Open the borders”), he recalls the injustice of preventing Africans from entering Europe, while Europeans can enter Africa whenever they want.

Tiken Jah Fakoly in concert. CC BY-NC 3.0/Dieudo

Tiken Jah Fakoly has a direct and wise way in presenting his lyrics, which are simple, and therefore incisive: but being simple is not easy. In Délivrance, Tiken Jah also said: “We were optimistic, we dreamed, we hoped, but nothing has changed”; almost thirty years later, here, in the only unreleased album, Arriver à rêver, the need to dream has not yet abandoned him, and Tiken Jah finds the simplicity to say: “We will have to succeed, be able to dream, succeed, yes, to succeed, in the end, to truly change the world”. (Open Photo: Tiken Jah Fakoly, singing in a SABC recording studio in Johannesburg. 123rf)

Marcello Lorrai

Safeguarding the Environment: Costs and Benefits.

Sunday, 1 September 2024 8:00

“Do we want our children and their children to ask us: ‘Why did your generation destroy our home, when you knew that what you were doing was harmful?’ We would go to great lengths to safeguard them from anybody who would hurt them. So, we also have to protect them from living in a dysfunctional home, a planet where the systems
are no longer working”.

Our home, our Earth is given to us entirely as a gift from God. There is nothing we have done to deserve it or earn it. God has given us a perfectly placed home, with just the right conditions for us to thrive.
We are part of a delicate web of millions of species that support the life of plants, animals and tiny single-celled organisms that are neither plant nor animal. If we remove one of the strands in this web, then the whole system feels the damage. Removing too many species from this web will make irreversible changes that will cause this web of life eventually to break down and stop functioning.
Although scientists have been investigating the heavens for decades and examining other starts (suns) and their solar systems (planets), our Earth is the only place that we can live for sure.

“There is no way we can damage this planet and find another place for the human race to continue to live”. 123rf

Our planet is just the right distance away from our sun so that water can exist in solid, liquid and gas form. We are neither too close to the sun, which would be too hot (steamy), nor too far from the sun, which would be too cold (icy.) This is the miracle of God’s providence for us. Even if there was another planet in just the “sweet spot” in relation to its sun, it would take humans thousands of years to get there with the existing rockets. So, people are right when they say “There is no planet B”. There is no way we can damage this planet and find another place for the human race to continue to live.
Humans (and some people suggest, that intelligent animals) have been able to develop languages and cultures, to communicate and to appreciate and rejoice in the gift of our common home.
St Francis of Assisi loved the Earth and all of its inhabitants with his entire heart, and he is the model of us of finding joy in everything that surrounds us. The poorest of the poor people, the most distant planet, the lowliest animal, he loved as his brother or sister or mother. When we play, we are appreciating the luxury that we are alive, and that we have time to relax, and are not struggling to survive 24 hours per day. It is a delight to see kids and lambs, and kittens and puppies playing as though they do not have a care in the world, just immersing themselves in the gift of being alive.

Climate change rally. Wikimedia Commons.

Surely all of this is worth preserving – to enjoy now, and to be able to hand it on to our children. There is nothing that we would want to change in God’s plan. Even God looked at Creation on the sixth day, and saw that ‘indeed it was very good’. (Gen 1:31)
We need to protect this delicate balance from people who would just take, take, take everything for their own profit, accumulating more than they can possibly ever use in a life-time. They cut down the forests, sell the animals, make charcoal, drive heavy polluting vehicles, pollute the water, land and air, put concrete wherever there should be natural environment. Thirty years ago, at the “First African Synod”, African bishops discussed how our scarce resources are being tragically mismanaged. In his exhortation ‘Ecclesia in Africa’, after this synod, Pope John Paul II wrote about waste and embezzlement of our common patrimony by citizens lacking in public spirit and about government officials who profit from our countries, and send the money
to foreign bank accounts.

Climate demonstration organized by Fridays For Future in Stockholm. CC BY 4.0/Frankie Fouganthin

Often, we think that they are the heroes of development, the ‘big men’ (and women) making Africa ‘advanced’. But in fact, they are mostly imitating the unsustainable models of the industrialised countries, which are now in trouble because of global warming, and drowning in their own waste. Do we want to go down the same destructive path to have our “moment in the sun” and then leave others to undo the damage for centuries afterwards? Do we want our children and their children to ask us: “Why did your generation destroy our home, when you knew that what you were doing was harmful?” We would go to great lengths to safeguard them from anybody who would hurt them.
So, we also have to protect them from living in a dysfunctional home, a planet where the systems are no longer working. What price are we prepared to pay to keep our home in order? Even if we don’t have children, the world is God’s gift of love to all of us – to all creatures. Are we going to leave it unharmed for all of creation to enjoy? Are we going to leave as small a footprint as possible on the planet when we are finally called to account for how we have enjoyed God’s loving gift? (Open Photo: iStock/amriphoto)

Peter Knox

The Sahara. In the Shade of the Tent.

Sunday, 1 September 2024 8:00

The tents of the desert inhabitants are a concentration of technologies, the use of materials and design particularly suited to the environment – which is why they have varied typologies – and to the way of life of those who are always ready to get back on the road

“The first tea is as bitter as life; the second, as sweet as love; the third, as strong as death.” Yislim recites the ancient saying of the nomads of the Sahara while his wife watches over the teapot which bubbles away on a tiny brazier fired with the coals from the previous evening’s fire. All around lies endless emptiness, nothing but sand scorched by the sun and changing dunes shaped by the wind, but inside the small tent, the atmosphere is enveloping and fresh, as if it were a mirage.
The tents of desert nomads are the absolute pinnacle of architecture. They manage perfectly to combine simplicity, technique, economy of resources, resistance and lightness; it is impossible not to be fascinated by their sinuous and elementary shapes or by the skill with which they are quickly set up, or dismantled and loaded onto dromedaries.

The bedouins tent in the sahara. Shutterstock/Seleznev Oleg

There is no single type of tent: as happens with houses, the different latitudes and climatic conditions, specific local traditions or the availability of some materials rather than others have led to the development of very different models. However, almost all of them seem to recall the surrounding dunes with their shapes, generating that unique dialogue between landscape and architecture that only traditional buildings and technologies can achieve.
The Berber tent is also called the black tent because it was historically made with black goat wool. It is supported by a pair of central wooden poles approximately 2.5 meters high and connected by a crossbar; other larger versions require the insertion of several pairs of timbers of different heights. The anchoring of the cover sheet to the ground is done with a series of sturdy tie rods parallel to the seams in order to
minimize the risk of tears.
The result is a roof with an organic shape capable of offering minimal resistance to the wind, the main risk factor for the stability of structures in these contexts; the spaces between the limits of the covering sheet and the ground are closed with additional lighter sheets or left open during the summer season to allow the air to flow.

Dromedary camel in the desert, nomad tents in the background. Shutterstock/ Chantal de Bruijne

The traditional Mauri khaima manages to further optimize resources: the large square wool or cotton sheet of the covering is perforated at the top so that it can be supported by a single tall central wooden pole, which families have handed down for generations. Other variants widespread among the Tuareg or in the areas between Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia have tents made with mats or skins instead of sheets and with structures made using curved branches that can reach a semi-dome shape.
The desert teaches that everything superfluous is a burden that can even become lethal. Objects therefore often perform more than one function or can be easily reconverted as needed; this is the case of hammocks for children, which serve to stow furniture during the day and as bags for transporting furnishings when travelling.

In front of their house. (File swm)

Among the Moorish nomads, however, the amchaghab, or amsaqqab, is very widespread, a simple table made with finely carved and decorated wooden feet, connected by crosspieces and tie rods on which cushions, blankets and furnishings are placed. While travelling, the same object, turned over, becomes a comfortable sedan chair that allows children and women to travel on the back of a dromedary.
They seem like tales from ancient times, yet even today tens of thousands of people build and inhabit these marvels of ingenuity; new technologies and materials have partially modified some elements without however altering the overall characteristics of the structures.

“The first tea is as bitter as life; the second, as sweet as love; the third, as strong as death.” (File swm)

The sturdy cotton sail sheets, reinforced with double stitching and treated with waterproofing have for years replaced the goat’s wool or the skins of traditional tents, just as steel rods for reinforced concrete have become good and resistant alternatives to perimeter poles or pegs for the guy lines, which in ancient times were made with bushes or tangles of shrubs that were buried in the sand.
Inside, the apparently indistinct space is instead well divided into male and female areas, where the space for the hearth and the loom is usually found. The floors are covered with decorated mats, often even the inside of the sheets is covered with lighter fabrics decorated with geometric patterns and bright colours.
The afternoon sun filters through the coloured fabric and creates a dreamlike atmosphere full of reflections and shades, like the windows of a Gothic cathedral. An essential, austere and ephemeral cathedral, in the heart of the Sahara. (Open Photo: The nomad (Berber) tent in the Sahara, Morocco. Shutterstock/ Vladimir Melnik)

Federico Monica/Africa

The Mediterranean. Secure ports for the Russians.

Sunday, 1 September 2024 8:00

Moscow responds to Europe’s embargo by finding new landing places along the coasts of North Africa and the Middle East. And having its oil tankers sail under the Gabonese flag.

More than two years after the blockade triggered together with the first sanctions launched by Brussels in response to the invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has identified alternative landing places to those in Europe for its vessels transiting the Mediterranean, finding allied shores along the coasts of the Middle East and North Africa.
“The Russians can dock in Libya, they are welcomed by Turkish ports and are among the few who continue to calmly cross the Suez Canal with dark fleets (ghost fleets, ed.) transporting their oil”, explains Gian Enzo Duci, professor of economics at the University of Genoa in Italy. “Russian exports are continuing in quantities no less than when they could do business with Europe, concentrating mainly on Asia.”
In the western Atlantic, Russian shipowners, unable to stop their ships for refuelling and repairs at the port of Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands, have begun to look with more interest at Moroccan ports.
According to a reconstruction by Africa Intelligence, in recent months, Moscow has found a place in the sun, particularly in the ports of Casablanca and Agadir.

Cargo sea port, Casablanca, Marocco. Russian shipowners have begun to look more closely at Moroccan ports, particularly Casablanca and Agadir. iStock/Travel Faery

In October 2023 four entrepreneurs, the Russians Mikhail Burykin, Aleksei Markov and Sergey Lysenko and the Moroccan Mohammed Amine Cherkaoui, secretly purchased Chantiers et Ateliers du Maroc (Cam), a leading ship repair company in Morocco in which the French Naval Group builders were also interested. The company, on the verge of bankruptcy – which then arrived at the beginning of 2024 – was bought at the rock-bottom price of 7.5 million dirhams (around 668 thousand euros). Shortly after, the Russian-Moroccan consortium became the majority shareholder of Cam’s parent company, Ateliers et Chantiers d’Agadir et du Souss (Acas), based in Agadir.
In the corporate reorganization of Acas, the majority shareholders now also include the Moroccan billionaire Bennani-Smirès family, the Al Mada holding company owned by the Moroccan royals and the Société Chérifienne de Matériel Industriel et Ferroviaire.
The man who acted as a bridge between Russian and Moroccan interests in this operation was Mohammed Amine Cherkaoui, a member of the board of directors of Citibank Maghreb, but not only that. Cherkaoui has long worked in tandem with Mikhail Burykin. Together they manage a vast network of activities between Casablanca, Agadir and Dakhla, in Western Sahara: from fishing to real estate, from the supply of medical products and devices to energy.
In July 2023, on the occasion of the second Russia-Africa summit, Cherkaoui was part of the delegation flown to St. Petersburg together with Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch.
In October, therefore in the period in which Chantiers et Ateliers du Maroc was purchased, Cherkaoui and Burykin led a group of Moroccan entrepreneurs to Belarus, where they organised meetings with local operators in the automotive and urban transport sector, including MAZ, BKM Holding and BelAZ. Two months later, at a forum dedicated to oil & gas in Tyumen, Russia, for Water and Energy Solutions – a company specialising in the production of hydroelectric energy of which Cherkaoui is CEO – they negotiated a contract for the supply of equipment with the local Oil Tech company.

Entrance door of Dakhla, a city of Western Sahara. It is of particular interest to Moscow. 123rf

“In terms of maritime traffic, Russia’s interest in Africa remains, however, oriented more than anything else towards the search for a country that guarantees a flag of convenience for its ships,” continues professor Duci. “In light of the European ban, Moscow needs to use ships with third-party flags to transport its crude oil, which it now sends to destinations further away than in the past. The latest data on Russian oil sales, in fact, see India and China as its two main buyers.”
Ships from most countries in the world have no intention of defying the sanctions launched by Europe because this would mean being ousted from traditional markets. There are nations, however, willing to take this risk. “A few months ago, the flag of Gabon “exploded” and became the second most used in Africa after that of Liberia,” continues Duci. “It emerged that ships flying the Gabonese flag had previously been registered under other flags, especially those of Malta and Cyprus.” According to a Bloomberg investigation, in January this year, over one hundred oil tankers were flying the Gabonese flag, while in 2023 there were 20. It is easy to imagine who was the first to use these ships to circumvent the European embargo. (Tanker ship sailing through blue and calm Mediterranean Sea. Shutterstock/Mariusz Bugno)

Luca Bussotti

Mission.The Joy of Giving and Receiving.

Sunday, 1 September 2024 8:00

Three African Comboni Missionaries share their missionary life

My name is Brother Ghislain Dagbeto from Togo. I remember that in my formative years I initially resisted invitations to go to church, shedding tears at the mere mention of it. But a crucial encounter at the age of twelve, just outside our home, changed the course of my life.

A brother of the Charismatic Renewal became a source of inspiration. Unable to refuse his call to return to my Christian life, I became actively involved in my parish, until my worried mother intervened and prevented me from attending church for five years.

I obediently obeyed, cherishing the hope that God would prepare the way for me, after secondary school, secure me a scholarship for further studies and give me the independence to follow the desires of my heart.

When I finished my studies, I wanted to work with the most vulnerable. However, during my third year of university, I began to feel the signs of God’s call to the consecrated life. A religious sister in my class and the announcement of the aspirant group during Mass awakened a persistent question in me: why not me? This led me to join the vocation group in my parish, Our Lady of Charity of Godomey.

In 2014, the Comboni Novices introduced me to the Comboni Missionaries. I was fascinated by the life of St Daniel Comboni and saw him as an exemplary social worker. Initially, I was considering the priesthood, but a transformative dream during my discernment changed my course. In the dream, I was travelling with my mother and we got lost at night. A kind stranger welcomed us into his home and offered us food, drink and shelter, as if he had anticipated our arrival. This dream revealed a powerful image of fraternity that shaped my decision to become a Comboni Brother.

January 2015 was the start of a two-year journey. During this time, I worked at the National Psychiatric Hospital in Cotonou, where I gained experience as an assistant to the head of social services and the donation manager. This role reinforced my commitment to fraternity, as my relationship with abandoned patients prompted questions from colleagues about family connections. “Are these patients your relatives?” some of my colleagues asked.

On 5 September 2016, I entered the postulancy in Lome, Togo, where I studied alongside candidates for the priesthood. I was pursuing a Master’s degree in International Management at ESGIS, a school of science and management. I also had a trusting and formative experience under the guidance of Fathers Bernard and Anicet, my formators.The two of them were brothers to me. This period was crucial in moments
of vocational crisis.

On 30 August 2019, I entered the novitiate in Cotonou, embarking on a spiritual journey in which encounters with God and St Daniel Comboni were profoundly transformative. On 8 May 2021, I took my first vows in the parish of Fidrosse in Cotonou. I was then sent to the Comboni Brothers Centre in Nairobi for the final stage of basic formation as a Comboni Missionary Brother.

When I arrived, I was initially disappointed because of the confusion that surrounded this stage of the formation of the Comboni Brothers. However, I was redirected to do a second Master’s degree in social transformation. If all goes well, I will go on my first mission after defending my thesis on sustainable development.

Grateful for this enriching journey, I have become a versatile social worker, international manager, development project manager and social transformer – a testament to my dream of being a polyvalent man of God, ready to serve society in various capacities.

In conclusion, my dreams continue to drive my vocation as a Comboni Brother, pushing me forward with purpose and determination, ready to follow wherever the Lord leads.

Sister Elisabeth. “To be amazed by the mystery of my vocation”

I am Sister Elisabeth Tikabi, a Cameroonian Comboni Missionary. After completing my studies in Social Communication at the Salesian Pontifical University of Rome, I was sent to Kinshasa (DRC) more than three years ago to work at the Missionary Animation Centre of Afriquespoir (CAE). My integration was quick, also because I am a French-speaking Cameroonian and the language was not a problem.

The CAE is a multimedia centre in which three Comboni missionaries and I are directly involved. We publish the quarterly magazine Afriquespoir for the whole of francophone Africa and have a publishing house
of the same name.

In general, people are very happy with the content of our publications and also with the books we publish. These are mainly aimed at educating people in the faith and inviting them to missionary commitment.

At CAE we have a small recording studio and we produce audios and a missionary programme that is broadcast by Elikya, the television of the Archdiocese of Kinshasa. There is a lot of work behind these activities, but we are a good team and we do it very well.

Whatever the difficulties, as religious and convinced witnesses of the Gospel, we are always ready to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ through the means of communication. I appreciate the relationships I have built in this period with simplicity, dialogue and openness. This was possible thanks to our collaborators who are essential for the distribution of the magazine in Kinshasa.

Another activity of the CAE is the accompaniment of various missionary groups, such as the Comboni Lay Missionaries, the Missionary Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus or the Lybota ya Comboni, which can be translated as “Family of Comboni”, which is a group made up of relatives of the Congolese Comboni missionaries.

These groups, organized in small communities, follow the spirituality of the Cenacles of Missionary Prayer founded by a Portuguese Comboni missionary, Fr. Claudino Ferreira Gomes. With frequent meetings to experience moments of prayer together, they organize missionary animation activities which, for me, are very enriching.

Sunday is a very important day for the missionary animation of the local Church. Thanks to the support of the parish priests, members of the CAE and some collaborators, we alternate around the more than 200 parishes of the archdiocese to offer our books and magazines, which have proven to be good tools for helping Christians to commit themselves
to the Gospel.

I feel happy and never cease to be amazed by the mystery of my vocation. Why did the Lord call me, who didn’t know much about Him? I am experiencing the joy of giving and receiving. Day after day, through my commitment and all that I am, I try to participate in the construction of the Church that I love so much as a religious woman and as a journalist.

Father Bienvenu. A Great Adventure

My name is Bienvenu Clemy Mikozama from Congo Brazzaville. I am the fourth child in a family of five. They called me Bienvenu, “Welcome”, to express my parents’ joy at having their first son. Instead, Clemy is a combination of two prefixes: Cle, from Clémentine, my mother’s name, and My, from Mikozama, my father’s name

I was born in Brazzaville, the capital of my country, Congo. My family is a Protestant. I grew up in a context where the Word of God was at the centre of family life.

One of my friends, who was a Catholic and wanted to become a priest, brought me the book “Saving Africa with Africa”. When I read the life of Saint Daniele Comboni, my heart began to burn with enthusiasm. However, I thought that being a Protestant prevented me, but my friend told me that it was not an obstacle and introduced me to some
Catholic nuns. With one of them, I began the first of my
vocational discernment meetings.

One day I decided to talk to my father about my desire to become a Catholic priest. My father didn’t refuse, even though he didn’t like the idea. My mother did not object either, but she suggested the option of becoming a Protestant pastor. I don’t know why I was so determined, because I had no idea of priestly life in the Catholic Church, but the testimony of Comboni’s life triggered in me a strong desire to pursue this missionary intuition.

Seeing a European sacrifice his life to make Christ known in Africa made me ask why I shouldn’t do the same for my brothers and sisters. As a Protestant, I was proud, and I still am when I talk about my roots in the faith, which is why I say that Saint Daniel Comboni is the only reason why I changed my religious confession.

My regularity in the activities of the Catholic Church and the dialogue that my father had with the nun who accompanied me also helped me to be consistent in my desire to be a priest.

In April 2011, I met the Comboni Missionaries in Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC. When I returned home after five months of learning about the Comboni charism, I was convinced that I wanted to begin my training.

However, my passport was issued late and I had to wait a year at home before I could start my first philosophy course. That period of waiting at home wasn’t easy because; my parents wanted to change my mind. But I didn’t give up, the decision had been made on my part. I would become a Comboni priest and missionary.

In 2015, I entered the postulancy of the Comboni Missionaries in Kisangani. Three years later I went to Chad for the novitiate. During the novitiate, I appreciated going by bicycle to visit the Christian communities and experiencing the generosity of the people who supported us, especially during the months in which we were a small community of novices.

I took my first vows in May 2018. That same year I left for Ghana to study theology. There I found a very welcoming and proud people. Leaving the French-speaking context for the first time, I had some initial problems with the language, but it was a rich and wonderful experience.

In 2022 I returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo to carry out my missionary service before my priestly ordination. The DRC is the Comboni province to which I belong and here I have had very beautiful and enriching experiences.

I was ordained a priest on February 11th this year. I am the first Comboni missionary from the Republic of Congo. Missionary life is a wonderful adventure lived in Christ. Life is so precious and we must live it fully and with dignity.

Turkish Islamic Private military company launches offensive in Africa.

Sunday, 1 September 2024 8:00

The decline of the Western military presence in the Sahel and the expansion of the Russian Wagner Group there has eclipsed the offensive in Africa of the first Islamic private military company, the Turkish SADAT Group.

The expulsion of French and American troops from the Sahel and the corresponding expansion of the Russian Wagner mercenaries, now rebranded as the Africa Corps, has eclipsed the emergence of a new player: the Turkish private military company SADAT International Defence Consultancy, founded in 2012 by former Turkish army brigadier the late general Adnan Tanriverdi and 22 officers expelled from the Turkish army in 1997 for their Salafist tendencies.

The founder of the Turkish defence consulting company SADAT, 79-year-old Adnan Tanriverdi, died on Sunday, August 4, 2024.

Unlike Executive Outcomes, founded by former South African military officers in the last years of apartheid, which did not serve the interests of Pretoria, SADAT has more in common with Wagner, an instrument of Kremlin policy. There was indeed a close relationship between SADAT’s founder, 79-year-old Adnan Tanriverdi and Turkey president Recep Tayyib Erdogan. The relationship between the two men began in 1994, when the former served as a brigade commander in Istanbul, of which Erdogan was then mayor.During the controversial coup attempt of 15 July 2016, which many believe was a masquerade orchestrated by Erdogan to purge the army of opponents, SADAT played a key role in fighting the insurgency After the alleged coup, Tanriverdi was appointed chief military adviser to the president’s cabinet and began promoting Muslim Brotherhood ideology within Turkey’s National Intelligence (MIT).

President of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan. CC BY 4.0/Pres.Office

The name “SADAT” is a suffix given to families believed to be descendants of the Prophet Muhammad. This means that SADAT is not an ordinary private military company, but a kind of ‘holy’ or ‘halal’ mercenary outfit. In fact, SADAT and Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) form a common ideological front. Ariane Gatelier, a researcher at the École de Guerre Économique in Paris, recalls that Tanriverdi was forced to resign from the Turkish army in 1996 because of his Islamist positions. In 2019, after declaring that SADAT was preparing the return of the long-awaited “Mahdi” (Erdogan himself), Tanriverdi was dismissed because he had become an embarrassment to the president. But he remained Erdogan’s confidant.
SADAT’s strategic aim has been to establish military cooperation with Muslim countries in order to enable them to become ‘Islamic superpowers’. It is active in 22 Islamic countries, where it offers security audits, operational and logistical support missions and the provision of fighters to its clients, which are either governments or militant organisations. In November 2019, SADAT signed a contract with the Libyan private security company Security Side, headed by Muslim Brotherhood leader Sameh Bukatef, to train militias affiliated with Fayaz al-Sarraj’s Government of National Accord (GNA). SADAT also trains Islamist elements in Somalia and Qatar, where Turkey has established military training centres.

A large range of products and services.
SADAT, which employs more than a hundred former Turkish army officers, offers a wide range of products and services, including military training for special forces, land, sea and air forces, and military logistical support. However, unlike other PMCs, SADAT does not openly promote a direct action or combat capability. It does, however, use a wide range of weapons to support its clients’ requirements and uses standard Turkish military equipment for its personnel, including Turkish-made MPT-76 assault rifles and JMK BORA-12 sniper rifles, as well as Otokar armoured personnel carriers.

Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drone.CC BY-SA 4.0/ Bayhaluk

SADAT provides complementary services to states which have signed security and defence cooperation agreements with Turkey. According to the Nigerian SBM Intelligence consultancy, 19 African countries signed such deals (Algeria, Libya, Mali, Senegal, Gambia, Ghana, Sudan, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Uganda, Kenya, Mauritania, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Madagascar, South Africa and Gabon). Guinea and Ivory Coast are also part of the list says Ariane Gatelier. Deployments of SADAT personnel have taken place in Burkina-Faso, Nigeria, Niger and Togo for guarding Turkish businesses including factories and mines. SADAT also reportedly provides assistance to the clients of Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones such as Ethiopia, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Burkina-Faso, Niger, Togo, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Angola and Rwanda, claims SBM. According to the North Africa Post, Sadat is also deploying in Chad and a Qatari Leaks video identifies the Sudanese port city of Suakin as another potential site of SADAT involvement. Agency France Presse also claims that SADAT has sent groups in Nigeria to fight Boko Haram.

Turkish flag on Turkey army uniform. SADAT employs more than a hundred former Turkish army officers. 123rf

So far, its main operation has been in Libya. According to the SADAT’s website, the company began offering military training to Libyan security forces in 2013, after a visit to the country of its founder, Adnan Tanrverdi, to “determine the needs of the New Libyan Armed Forces”. At the time, SADAT created a concept for the Libyan military called “Sports Facilities Design for a Military Regiment” which served as kind of cover for its activities. According to the Vienna-based MENA Research Centre on the Middle East, SADAT sold 10,000 tons of weapons and ammunitions to militias loyal to the Tripoli-based GNA between July and September 2019, including armoured vehicles, missile launchers and drones. According to Pentagon sources, SADAT oversaw and paid for 5,000 Syrian mercenaries hired on behalf of the GNA. This intervention enabled the GNA to repel an attack by Marshal Khalifa Haftar, backed by Wagner mercenaries. The UN confirmed SADAT’s involvement in recruiting, financing and deploying Syrian fighters, including children, in Libya and in March 2021 accused SADAT of violating UN resolutions.

In West Africa
SADAT’s second most important operation in Africa, after Libya, takes place in Niger, following a military cooperation agreement signed in July 2020, which considers the possibility of establishing a Turkish military base there. In May 2024, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) revealed that Turkey had deployed 1,100 Syrian mercenaries in Niger since the start of the repatriation of French troops from the Barkhane anti-jihadist operation in September 2023. According to OSDH director Rami Abdulrahman, these fighters belong to the Sultan Murad faction, a Turkish proxy in northern Syria.

Boko Haram fighters. SADAT has sent groups in Nigeria to fight Boko Haram. Archive

The mercenaries have been deployed in the Liptako-Gourma region, between the borders of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, the epicentre of jihadist activity by groups linked to al-Qaeda or the Islamic State. Abdulrahman told the French newspaper Le Monde that the Syrian mercenaries were sent to guard mines, oil installations or military bases. But eventually they will be involved in the fight against jihadists. By June 2024, the OSDH estimated that 50 Syrian fighters had already been killed in Niger, mostly in jihadist attacks.
SADAT’s offensive in the Sahel is spreading to Burkina Faso. According to Le Monde, negotiations are underway between the company and the government in Ouagadougou to expand its activities there. Melih Tanriverdi denies that SADAT has any presence in Niger or Mali, despite many contradictory testimonies, but admits that the company has ambitions in the region. On SADAT’s website, he says that the company’s 2025 marketing plan includes offering integrated electronic border security solutions and reorganising the armed forces of Burkina Faso and other francophone countries. Tanriverdi also says that SADAT is looking to expand its business in the region. (Open Photo: 123rf and SADAT Logo)

François Misser

Political and economic change.

Sunday, 1 September 2024 8:00

Significant reforms. Opening up to new markets. The presidency of Pepe Mujica.

The victory of the socialist Tabaré Vázquez within the Frente Amplio confederation, achieved in the first round with 50.05% of the votes, followed the wave of political change that had affected the Indio-Latin continent since the end of the 1990s and which was attributable to the activism and initiative of numerous social movements which had the ability both to face the drama of the economic and social crisis and to transform this network into political capital.

Tabaré Vázquez was the President of Uruguay from 2005 to 2010 and from 2015 to 2020.
CC BY 2.0/Pres. Office

With close reference to the Uruguayan context, the creation of hundreds of family and collective gardens in the early 2000s was emblematic when the economic and social crisis was raging with an unemployment threshold of 20% and with 80% of the popular sectors having no stable employment. The gardens, without a doubt, were an excellent tool for reducing the food crisis of the poorest to the point that they continued to operate even after the economic recovery under the presidency of Tabaré Vázquez.
The new Uruguayan President, finding himself having to face a disastrous situation both from an economic and social perspective, has launched numerous reform programs, including a new tax system aimed at reducing the tax burden on the lowest incomes and increasing it on those medium-high, and a new healthcare system which provided for the establishment of a public healthcare fund fed by contributions from workers and businesses. Vázquez also prepared a social emergency plan based on direct monetary transfers, community socio-educational programs, socially useful works, public health programs targeting specific pathologies, the construction of shelters for the homeless, cards for the purchase of basic food products, assistance programs for the renovation and improvement of precarious homes and incentives for the start-up of new businesses managed by people in conditions of social exclusion. With reference to public education, he has increased the budget considerably, foreseeing extensive computerization programs starting from primary school.
These reforms have certainly significantly reduced the most serious situations of poverty. Proof of this is the decline in absolute poverty which went from 4% in 2005 to 1.6% in 2009.

Village in the rural area. File swm.

President Vázquez was also able to contain the country’s public debt, whose fiscal deficit reached 0.5% of GDP during his first three years in government, and then stabilized at 0.8% due to the international crisis of 2008 -2009. Uruguay has also benefited from a new development of the internal market thanks to redistributive policies and a very favourable exogenous macroeconomic cycle determined by the new geopolitical structure which, in addition to favouring the spectacular economic growth of its neighbours Brazil and Argentina – towards which the country directed approximately 70% of its exports – it favoured the presence of new important players in the region, including China in search of new markets to satisfy its growing food needs.
These factors have allowed the country to experience a phase of GDP growth at very high rates (on average 7% per year) and a clear decline in the unemployment rate.
In essence, the economic growth developed by the two great South American giants, Brazil and Argentina, has enabled their considerable economic recovery. It was during the 2009 presidential elections that Uruguay sought the decisive push for a more radical change in the Frente Amplio, which materialized in the candidacy of the leader of the Popular Participation Movement (MPP) Josè Pepe Mujica.

José Alberto “Pepe” Mujica was the president of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015.
CC BY 3.0/Pablo Valadares

A former Tupamaros guerrilla with a stormy past behind him and a long jail term of 14 years, he regained his freedom thanks to the amnesty decreed in 1985 by the restored Uruguayan Parliament, Pepe Mujica, together with other comrades, joined the left-wing alliance Frente Amplio (FA) to continue the political battle in the resurrected democratic party system. In 1989, together with other left-wing forces, he promoted the internal current “Popular Participation Movement” (MPP); in 1995 he became the first deputy of the Tupamaros; in 2005 his party received the most votes in the FA and he became Minister of Agriculture in the first FA government of Tabaré Vàzquez. His position in such a prestigious ministry for the country’s economy offered him the opportunity to create a network of consensus among farmers and trade associations, useful for consolidating the basis for his subsequent candidacy for the presidency. His period as president made him particularly popular, also at an international level for his vision of life, for the frankness with which he expresses it, as well as for his attitude of simplicity which acted as a counterbalance to the arrogance of established power, becoming at the same time the stand-in for all the evils that are borne by professional politicians, such as to nominate him as a model of a “President for export”, despite his radical past, his membership of the MPP and the image around which he had the ability to build his image.

A traditional food market at Ciudad Vieja district in Montevideo city. Shutterstock/ DFLC Prints

From a governmental point of view, his action is characterized by reforms that have caused a particular stir, including those relating to the decriminalization of abortion, the introduction of gay marriage and the liberalization of marijuana consumption.
Tabaré Vazquez returned to office in the 2014 presidential election and lasted until 2020, thus concluding a 15-year cycle of the Frente Amplio government. Despite their common political affiliation, Vazquez represented a break with the course undertaken by the Mujica presidency both domestically and internationally. However, in these fifteen years, Uruguay has had the opportunity to establish itself politically and economically in the region, boasting the highest GDP per capita and economic growth of 4.3%. Furthermore, on an international level, it was the only left-wing government capable of maintaining stable diplomatic relations with the United States and good relations also with Macri’s Argentina, despite profound political differences. But unlike Muijca, Vazquez broke that privileged channel that united his predecessor to the leaders of Bolovarism Maduro, Morales and Ortega. (Open Photo: A political act in the streets of Montevideo.123rf)
(F.R.)

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