TwitterFacebookInstagram

Africa. Close to the People.

Three African women speak of their social commitment.

Kenyan Catherine Ngila is one of the most prestigious scientists on the African continent. In 2016 she was named South Africa’s best scientist and in 2021 she received the L’Oréal / UNESCO Prize for Women in Science.

She was born in Kitui, 62 years ago, the first of the family of 27 brothers and sisters to attend high school and university, although she was the daughter of her father’s fourth wife. She was orphaned at the age of six, “I realized very early on that I had to study to be able to take care of myself because I wouldn’t have my mother to take care of me”.
During her childhood and adolescence, Catherine combined long journeys to and from school with the daily transport of water from the river to the family home. What she took from the river was a cloudy, reddish liquid which she had to filter through a piece of cloth and dilute with calcium bicarbonate to try to remove the impurities. This rudimentary water treatment didn’t ease Ngila’s doubts, “and I couldn’t help but wonder if it was enough to make the water clean”.

Catherine Ngila is the director of the Department of Chemical Sciences at the University of Johannesburg. (Photo: Twitter)

Professionally, Ngila graduated from Kenyatta University in Nairobi, received her PhD in analytical chemistry from the University of New South Wales (Australia) and worked as a lecturer in Botswana and several South African universities, where she became one of the first black faculty members. Today Ngila is the director of the Department of Chemical Sciences at the University of Johannesburg and is the acting executive director of the African Academy of Sciences and a member of the South African Academy of Sciences.
The team she leads at the University of Johannesburg is working on using nanotechnology to detect and remove toxic substances and trace metals from water. “My dream – she says – is to produce a commercially viable water nanofilter accessible to rural African households”.
The other major challenge is access to higher education for girls. When she majored in chemistry, she was aware of the tendency to think that girls couldn’t pursue science. This reality prompted her to ask governments, and UNESCO itself, to promote campaigns to encourage girls to choose scientific studies. (Javier Fariñas Martín)

Eliana Silva, telling stories
In October 2020, Eliana Silva took her cue from the ‘Voices of African Women’ dossier, published by the New African magazine, to talk about the ‘inspirational story of Bina’.

At the end of the collaboration, and as a digital corollary, Silva left four tags that serve to define her as a communicator: #storytelling, #narratives, #representation, and #belonging.
Silva’s cultural heritage – the daughter of a Portuguese father and Angolan mother – led her to learn and feed on the values and riches of the metropolis and the former colony. And from this knowledge, with the help of the net, in 2014 her desire to live and work in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, developed. Maputo was another colonial mirror in which to look at oneself. But, due to your breadth of vision, you also understand the other great point of reference for the Lusophone world: Brazil. Because of her predilection for that country, she has declared: “I have a Bahian body, a Paulist brain and a Carioca soul”.
If we take for granted the definition of storytelling as the art or ability of a person to tell stories, we understand that this concept fits Eliana Silva’s personal and professional life. This is demonstrated, for example, by her latest editorial project, Marcas por Escribir, presented in February last year, through which she wanted to position companies from the Lusophone world on the market. The initiative aimed to become a space where the stories of Mozambique, Angola, and Cape Verde converge, but which also had a reflection in São Tomé and Príncipe and Guinea-Bissau. Silva has also worked in the world of institutional communication, marketing and advertising, a path that led her to the Create advertising agency, or to Índico, the official magazine of Mozambican Airlines.

Eliana Silva has also worked in the world of institutional communication, marketing and advertising. (Photo: Marcas por Escribir)

However, it is in the literature that Silva’s main references are found. In the midst of the pandemic, the author has decided to present “Bina, the discoverer of the Indian Ocean”, her first foray into the world of fiction for children and teenagers. Through this work, you approach the world of albinism, with a significant impact on societies such as that of Mozambique – it is estimated that 30,000 people in the country suffer from this genetic alteration – and also that of Angola. Bina is the result of almost ten years of work, observation and conversations with friends and acquaintances. About the book, Eliana Silva said that “it’s a book with a lot of empathy, a lot of travel, a lot of courage and a lot of colour. I wanted to share the message that all girls and boys can go anywhere” as the protagonist of this story.
In the book, it is said that Bina was born on the island of Mozambique, the island of coral origin where the Portuguese established the first capital of the colony, and with a bicycle, she crosses Brazil, France, Japan and Angola. And in this South West African country, she meets Milu. An Albino like herself, Milu helps the protagonist of this story to discover and value the uniqueness of each person, regardless of skin colour, identity, or characteristics. “Cycling will be the most fun” of this story created by Eliana Silva, who Eugenio Scalfari, a historical Italian journalist and co-founder of La Repubblica, would say are “people who tell what happens to people”. (J.F.M.)

Helena Ndume. Ophthalmologist by vocation
A person’s true calling sometimes has little to do with the first impulses of the heart. This is the case of Helena Ndume who, as a teenager, dreamed of becoming a fashion designer; instead, she finishes studying medicine.

Helena received her medical doctorate from the University of Leipzig in 1989. She later specialized in ophthalmology, realizing that this specialization was the most necessary to address blindness, a major problem in her home country of Namibia, where there were just six ophthalmologists working in the public health system. Since then, Dr Ndume has dedicated her life and her career to the treatment of blindness and visual impairment, not only in Namibia but also in neighbouring countries in southern Africa. Since 2005 she has been the head of the ophthalmology department of the public hospital in Windhoek, the capital of her country.

Helena Ndume has received important awards. (Photo: SEE International)

Years previously, supported by her husband, Dr Solomon Guramatunhu, also an ophthalmologist, she joined the Surgical Eye Expedition-SEE, an international charity with 600 ophthalmologists. With them, at least twice a year, she organizes week-long clinics in which she provides free eye surgeries to several hundred people in need.
For Dr. Ndume, “there is no money in the world that can repay the joy of those who, after being blind for many years, suddenly regain their sight. It’s not nice to stay in private practice, earning money, while there are thousands of blind people around you”, she says.
Dr. Elena Ndume has received important awards. Among them, the Nelson Mandela Prize in 2015, awarded by the United Nations in recognition of her dedication to the service of humanity. In 2022 she obtained two important awards: the Lions Club International Humanitarian Award and the Forbes Woman Africa Social Impact Award. (Celin Avel)

Africa. The French Group Bolloré Changes Strategy.

The sale of the logistics segment to the Mediterranean Shipping Company of the Italian-Swiss shipowner Gianluigi Aponte opens up new scenarios. The Bolloré dynasty looks to communication, agriculture and energy.

The change had been in the air for a while now, but the official announcement came shortly before Christmas: Bolloré sold its transport and logistics activities in Africa to the Italian-Swiss Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC). The sale of Bolloré Africa Logistics (BAL), for a total value of 5.7 billion euros, represents a significant turnaround for the French group. 250 branches in 47 countries, 16 container terminals, river ports, 74 shipping agencies, three railway concessions and a turnover of more than two billion euros: these are the numbers of the company, the flagship of the group. According to the words of the new owner, Bolloré Africa Logistics will remain autonomous and will keep the current president while only the brand will change.

Cyrille Bolloré, third son of the tycoon Vincent is head of the group.

The declared objective of the Italian-Swiss shipowner Aponte is to improve the connectivity of the continent with the rest of the world and guarantee internal trade. The MSC, in fact, in addition to ensuring continuity in the management of the ports, has announced new investments: shipyards, container terminals, storage facilities, roads and railways.
Many hypotheses have emerged in recent months to explain the reasons for the sale: from the increased Chinese competition in the logistics sector to the legal troubles linked to the port concessions, up to the difficult political relations with French president Emmanuel Macron. Equally complex is being able to identify the group’s new strategies on the continent. The only certainty is that Bolloré will not leave Africa. ‘The Bolloré group will maintain an important presence in Africa, in particular through Canal+’, reads the press release that formalizes the sale ‘and will also continue to develop sectors such as communication, entertainment, telecommunications and publishing’.

Canal + Multichoice
The development strategy, once the money from the sale has been collected, seems therefore to be directed toward communication and entertainment. Today Bolloré owns nearly 30% of Vivendi, a French media company, and about 18% of Universal Music Group, a record label considered one of the leaders in the music industry.
In 2019 it also acquired the Editis publishing group. To corroborate the hypothesis of a greater commitment by Bolloré in the entertainment sector there are: the performance of Canal + and the participation in Multichoice. Canal + has become one of the leaders in cinema and TV and made a 6% profit in the first half of 2022.
Active for 30 years in Africa, it now reaches 7 million subscribers in French-speaking countries. It offers 35 channels, many of which are in official African languages. The group has also recently set up in Ethiopia with 9 channels in the Amharic language. The company has also invested in the production of local dramas, to ensure new annual releases.
The Bolloré group’s interest in television entertainment is also expressed in its involvement in Multichoice, a South African company that manages a satellite TV system in English-speaking African countries.

Today the shares of Multichoice in the hands of Canal + amount to 26%. In the field of communication, Vivendi Africa is responsible for extending the fibre optic network. Since 2015, it has connected one and a half million users belonging to the middle class, in countries where Canal+ also operates. It is present in 12 cities in 7 African countries. The goal is to become a reference player for the very high-speed internet network in Africa. The entertainment and media sector is not the only one the group plans to focus on.
In the words of Cyrille Bolloré, third son of the tycoon Vincent, now head of the group, logistics remains one of the key areas in which the Puteaux-based company will continue together with the development of supply chains. The agricultural experience of the group in Africa, until now, has been limited to the cultivation and transformation of palm oil and rubber, through participation in the Belgian-Luxembourg Socfin.

Container terminal in Tema, Ghana. CC BY-SA 3.0/ SteKrueBe

The company is accused by local and international NGOs of land grabbing, pollution and violation of human rights. The latest investment front is energy storage through the subsidiary Blue Solutions.
According to Fabricio Protti, deputy CEO of the group, this activity is an opportunity for the African continent in search of solutions to conserve the energy also produced from renewable sources, such as wind and solar. There is another company that remains firmly in family hands. This is the Havas advertising dealership. An activity that Vincent used to strengthen his network of relationships with African heads of state. Cyrille Bolloré belongs to a different generation than that of African leaders, but it is realistic to think that he will maintain the relationships started by Vincent. A demonstration of how to operate: it is a matter of switching from port concessions to freight forwarding and, in particular, to the management of transport and logistics services for large companies.

Generational change
Cyrille Bolloré, who took over from his father after his official retirement in February 2022, also wants to explore the agricultural sector. The project provides for the technical and financial support of the farmers. This hypothesis comes from the words of Deputy Protti, who guarantees continuity in the countries in which BAL operates as insurance for future investments. Further confirmation is the news of the visit of Cyrille Bolloré to Alassane Ouattara, in the Ivory Coast, accompanied by the former French president Nicolas Sarkozy in the role of mediator. The meeting, held last January, was supposed to help the Ivorian authorities digest the sale to MSC and ensure continuity. (Open Photo: Container ship MSC Zoe. CC BY-SA 2.0/ kees torn)

Marta Gatti

 

Zimbabwe. Big Brother is watching you with a little help from China.

The country is embarking on a vast Cybercity project and on the promotion of digital technology. The downside of it is that this technology is used to build a surveillance state.

Zimbabwe is entering the digital age with determination. On the last 20 July, President Emmerson Mnangagwa launched the US. $ 500 million Cybercity project in the Mount Hampden area, 26 km northwest of Harare which will be financed by the United Arab Emirates-based Mulk International company. The future city will be surrounded by surveillance cameras for purposes of security. Similar initiatives should take place elsewhere in the country over the next years with an aim to create a society with industrial, commercial, and residential areas, driven by digital technology. For such purpose, the government relies mainly on Chinese companies which are developing surveillance technology.

Harare City.

Chinese companies such as Huawei and Hikvision are installing everywhere facial recognition close-circuit television cameras on behalf of the Zimbabwean police in Harare and Bulawayo. Facial recognition technology from the Chinese firm Hikvision is already operational at airports and international border posts.
Zimbabwe’s state-owned fixed-line telephony operator TelOne inaugurated 2017, two data centres with cloud facilities in Harare and Mazowe as part of a wider US. $ 98 million network upgrading project implemented with Huawei. This Chinese company’s involvement in Zimbabwe traces back to 2013, when Huawei helped to upgrade the Zimbabwe’s mobile network of the state-owned mobile phone company, NetOne with a $ 218 million dollar loan from the China Exim Bank. In 2017, Net-One secured another $ 71 dollar million loan from the same bank for further network expansion, also by Huawei.
Obviously, the Zimbabwean authorities do not care about the concerns over the security of Huawei’s telecommunication equipment voiced by the U.S. and U.K. governments which banned its use. It’s even the opposite: the tense relations between Harare on the one hand and the U.S. and the U.K. on the other, which imposed sanctions against Zimbabwe since 2002, only contributed to strengthening ties between the African country and China.
In February 2020, the Chinese company was even given an absolute tax exemption by the Zimbabwean Ministry of Finance.

President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa. (Photo: Gov. Ag.)

Under a $100 dollar million deal, Hikvision and the artificial intelligence Guangzhou-based start-up Clouldwalk will supply facial recognition technology, to store and process in China biometric data of millions of Zimbabweans and set up a mass police state surveillance grid in collaboration with Huawei. Cloudwalk’s access to these biometric data will enable this company to correct common race-related errors in facial-recognition software and gain new market shares in other countries. The Zimbabwean state has insisted that these technologies would empower the state to fight crime and advance the state’s law enforcement ambitions. Yet, facial recognition technology poses risk to privacy and civil liberties, warn human rights organizations.
The process is based on an algorithm that detects a face and compares it to faces from a biometric dataset. Such an algorithm also captures skin pigmentation and eye colour.
Critics point out that these systems do not always operate perfectly and may result in false matches which can undermine civil liberties or in failures to match correct identification which can provoke a denial of access to services or jobs.
In 2015, Google Photos tagged two African-Americans as gorillas through facial recognition, discovered Forbes. Another source found that Google Photos was also confusing white faces with dogs and seals. In this context, CloudWalk’s penetration of the Zimbabwe market can help the Chinese start-up to improve its means of facial recognition, by gaining access to a black population, which can improve the identification of dark-skinned people worldwide and open new business opportunities. In a way, Zimbabweans have become the guinea pigs of the Chinese facial recognition industry in its quest for a comparative advantage over Western competitors.

photo: 123rf

Zimbabwe is only one of the targets of the Chinese facial recognition industry. In 2021, the Washington-based Heritage Foundation revealed that China had built or renovated more than 280 government, presidential, parliament, military offices and foreign affairs buildings in Africa. Namibia, Ghana, Angola, Uganda and Equatorial Guinea are amongst the largest recipients of official buildings built by Chinese firms. In Zimbabwe, China built namely the National Defence College and also financed the 650-seater Parliament House.
With the use of digital spyware, a few state security officers can trace a vast number of citizens, and capture and store their data without any controls, warns the anti-censorship network “global voices advocacy”. Accordingly, section 57 of Zimbabwe’s constitution provides for the right to privacy, yet this provision is being blatantly violated by the Harare government which spies on citizens and stores their information under the guise of biometric voter registration and likely uses this
data for political ends.
Such fear is not mere paranoia. During former President Mugabe’s rule, the government used laws and security structures to carry out surveillance of opponents and generalised mass surveillance of the population. The Interception of Communications Act as well as mandatory SIM-card registration regulations made it easier for the state to monitor communications.  Since 2018, Zimbabwe collected fingerprints, photos, addresses, and phone numbers, allegedly to clean up the voters’ roll, which was reportedly full of “ghost voters”. But this frightens members of the minority Ndebele ethnic group, who are still traumatized by the massacre in 1983 of some 20,000 people by the army when Mnangagwa  was head of the security. People fear data collection “is a way to re-identify and target us,” says Rodwin Sibanda of the Habakkuk Trust, a Christian NGO founded by church leaders in Bulawayo. The fact that in China itself, these technologies were used to steal data from the Uyghur community, adds to the anxiety of Zimbabwean rights activists.

Photo: Bulawayo News

Reports from Zambia and Uganda implicated Huawei employees in assisting governments in spying on their political opponents, subsequently leading to opponents’ arrests.
Steven Feldstein considers that China’s influence is driving the proliferation of AI surveillance technology and thereby contributes to the rise of authoritarianism in Africa.  The gap between the adoption of novel facial recognition tools and robust legal measures that prevent abuses – along with citizens’ inability to provide input on how this technology should be used  – allows for rampant exploitation by private companies and state actors in the facial recognition space, writes Bulelani Jili, Meta Research Ph.D. at Harvard University, in an article published by the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Centre. Another victim in the process is Africa’s sovereignty.
In 2018, the French newspaper Le Monde revealed that servers in the African Union’s building in Addis Ababa were secretly sending data to a computer in Shanghai.
In December 2020, Reuters reported that Chinese hackers secretly redirected surveillance footage from the AU headquarters so it could be viewed abroad. Prior to the 33rd AU Summit in February of that year, the Japanese cybersecurity firm Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) alerted AU technicians of the security breach, after it spotted unusual traffic between the AU and a Chinese hacking group known as “Bronze President”, pursues Reuters. The chairperson of the AU Commission, Moussa Faki, denied however that any Chinese hacking took place while the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin dismissed the Reuters report as “an attempt to harm China-Africa relations”.

During the repression in Matabeland of 1983, China was Zimbabwe’s largest arms supplier.

China’s involvement in Zimbabwe’s cyber surveillance systems does not come as a coincidence. It aims at strengthening a strong relationship that traces back to the struggle for independence period, with the links between Robert Mugabe’s party, the Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and China. The Harare government has described the giant Asian country as an “all-weather-friend”.
During the repression in Matabeland of 1983, China was Zimbabwe’s largest arms supplier. Between 1980 and 1999, Zimbabwe imported 35 percent of its arms from China and the bilateral relationship deepened, as the EU and the US imposed sanctions to protest against the human rights violations under the Mugabe regime.
In 2015, Zimbabwe became the first foreign country to adopt the Chinese yuan as its primary international currency.
Bilateral trade is an important dimension of these links. In 2022, it amounted to US $ 2.24 billion with a $ 180 million surplus for Zimbabwe, making China, its third largest trading partner after South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. Zimbabwe’s main exports include gold, nickel ores, platinum group minerals, ferrochromium, tobacco and diamonds, while its main imports are machinery, vehicles, as well as iron and steel. China is also an important investor. The list includes the US$1 billion dollar steel manufacturing plant being constructed by Dinson Iron and Steel Company, a Zimbabwe-based subsidiary of the giant Chinese steel producer, Tsingshan Holdings whose subsidiary AfroChine, has made sizeable investments in the construction of chrome smelters.

Zimbabweans have become the guinea pigs of the Chinese facial recognition industry.

China also financed the US$ 1.4 billion Hwange Thermal Power Station expansion project. Beijing’s ambassador in Harare Guo Shaochun reminded that China also financed the National Pharmaceutical Warehouse, the Kariba South Hydro PowerStation Expansion and the upgrading of the Victoria Falls and Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airports, besides donating millions of doses of Covid-19 vaccines.
China also heavily invested in the mining sector, especially in the highly strategic lithium mines particularly coveted by the automotive industry for the production of electric cars. According to the United States Geological Survey, Zimbabwe is currently Africa’s first producer and hosts the second-largest reserves on the continent.
In 2021, the Chinese company Zhejiang Huayou acquired controlling rights to the Arcadia mine. And in 2022, President Mnangagwa officiated the launch of Sinomine’s 200-million-dollar project to build another lithium mine and processing plant in Bikita, in the Masvingo Province. The Marange diamond fields which are one of the world’s richest deposits are being mined by a joint venture formed by the Chinese company Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Group and the Zimbabwean military’s investment vehicle Matt Bronze. Chinese investors are also involved in gold and nickel mining. China has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, whatever the price. The stakes are just too high. (Open Photo: 123rf)

François Misser

DR Congo. North Kivu. The Word that Sets you Free.

Every Saturday they meet in a modest place where they share their creations and subject themselves to criticism from others.
They learn to express feelings, reality or their outlook on life while improving their pronunciation, bodily expression
and expanding their daily references.

Slam poetry (a mix of poetry recital, rap, comedy and performance) has become a business tool, a much more powerful weapon than those they are used to seeing in Goma, the capital of North Kivu (in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo). Anyone who proudly supports it and says that slam is the art of listening to each other, ‘the encounter between mouth and ear’, knows no rest because it was born between the 90s and the early years of this century.
From the hand of Depaul Bukulu, co-founder of Goma Slam Session, we access one of his regular Saturday rehearsals. Three hours in which they test their written, oral or bodily expression and submit to the verdict of their companions who, amidst applause or boos, express in real time what they are feeling, and what causes them. Subsequently, in a more detailed analysis, they recall words whose diction was incorrect or moments when the music overlapped the text.

Depaul Bukulu (R), with another of the founders of Goma Slam Session. (Photo: Carla Fibla García-Sala).

The veterans support those who have a hard time overcoming the shame of putting themselves in front of the pack. They are the centre of all eyes and capture the attention of all those who, in addition to putting their creativity to the test, are there to learn and improve their technique. It is a space of freedom where a critical spirit and self-esteem are cultivated and values such as peace and tolerance are promoted. An oasis where the 143 members who make up the collective – 30 of them are women – allow themselves to stop thinking about the conflict that has been afflicting eastern DRC for three decades and focus on writing workshops and projects that are bearing fruit. It is the power of the word – the strength it acquires when you sing it with determination and rely on a catchy musical rhythm – that ensures that no one dares to disconnect from the moment it is shared.
“The slam session is one of our activities, of our programs, in the collective. There are weekly workshops that we organize to comment on the texts and the recital that slammers or aspiring slammers are working on. It’s about giving our opinion so that everyone can learn from others and that we evolve together. We read the texts, we share our experiences and our ideas in relation to writing or society. The goal is to bring our daily life, our way of thinking and of cultivating the word closer together”, explains one of the founders of Goma Slam Session.

Freedom and its rules
There are two specific guidelines at the Goma Slam Session: ‘beware of plagiarism’ and ‘it is prudent to point out and tolerate, respecting our different points of view’.
The style is free because they don’t want to limit the creativity of those who come to the clubs trying to be themselves. But there are rules in the construction of oral poems, spoken stories in rhyme, which they learn little by little as they are corrected by their peers, or observe their reactions during their performance.
In the Saturday sessions, they feel at ease and let go. Just because someone praises a work does not mean that whoever expresses himself will then support it, and this meeting of different opinions creates a climate of trust and complicity in which criticism is constructive and everyone is aware of the good that having become slammers does them.

One of the slammers attends the workshops every Saturday to perfect the rhythm of his recital as well as his pronunciation and syntax. (Photo: Carla Fibla García-Sala).

In addition to Saturdays, the collective organizes maarifa (thinking) meetings which are a moment of discussion and exchange based on a theme related to peace or conflict in the region where they often touch on current issues that concern the young participants.
The activity takes place around a bonfire, which brings improvisation closer to the construction of the traditional African story, where the power of storytelling reigns.
They also hold a slam night at the end of each month for those who feel prepared to face an unfamiliar audience. Here, the theme usually focuses on the daily difficulties they face. With the ‘Slam in Schools’ program they have taught more than 20,000 boys and girls in more than 20 schools in Goma what slam poetry is. “Learning to express ourselves in the context of conflict in which we live and in which we have learned to accept everything without asking questions” is, according to Bukulu, the goal. They also focus on minors who have suffered sexual violence using slamotherapy, to ‘heal with words’ and learn to free themselves from what oppresses them and return to being themselves after the trauma.

DR Congo. North Kivu: A child plays near peacekeepers. Photo MONUSCO/Abel Kavanagh

This initiative is accompanied by ‘Slam en feminino’ – writing and acting workshops exclusively for them – and ‘Slam Elikya’ – which means ‘hope’ – because they are convinced that poetry can generate smiles and ensure that young people do not throw in the towel.
They also go to juvenile detention centres and homes for homeless children to show them that by writing and expressing their feelings aloud, they not only force them to reflect on their situation but also ‘feel free’, adds Bukulu. They are also starting to work in centres with people with special abilities who often feel left out.

A five-year period
The works began to consolidate in 2017 when they acquired the premises. Each member puts in a dollar a month to pay the rent and create a small fund that they set aside for travel and the purchase of equipment for activities. It is a horizontal organization in which everyone assumes responsibility and takes possession of the place. An incipient library for consulting new words and reading that is receiving donations occupies one of the rooms. The space is open from Monday to Sunday, at any time. “I like to write about violence, justice, and love. With slam poetry, I feel able to defend my way of thinking and acting in front of men”, explains Vanesa, who has been practising for two and a half years and considers it a complement to her studies, even if her parents do not fully understand what she is doing. (Open Photo: Goma with Mount Nyiragongo in the background. CC BY-SA 2.0/ MONUSCO / Abel Kavanagh)
Carla Fibla García-Sala

 

Education for Girls. A Challenge to Learning Poverty.

Despite the extraordinary progress made in the last 25 years, there are still 129 million girls who do not have access to education (32 million in primary, 97 million in secondary).

Globally, primary and secondary school enrolment rates are approaching parity (90% male and 89% female). However, the gender gap widens if school completion rates, which are lower for girls, are taken into account. In low-income countries, only 63% of female students complete primary school (against 67% of males) and only 36% finish secondary school (against 44% of boys).
The gap remains similar when looking at upper secondary completion rates: 26% for young men, and 21% for young women.
The differences are seen mainly on a regional basis. Even today, in sub-Saharan African countries, one in three girls does not complete primary school, one in four in South Asian countries, and one in 12 in the Mena area (Middle East and North Africa). In India, only 4% of girls between 5 and 14 do not finish this school cycle: a small figure, in percentage terms, but equal to 4.6 million girl students.

In East Asia, only half of the girls complete upper secondary school. (Photo: Unicef/KPanday)

The gender gap widens further with subsequent school cycles: in East Asia and the Mena area, only half of girls complete upper secondary school. A figure that drops to 30% in South Asia and 20% in Sub-Saharan Africa. The progress toward gender equality in education was slowed by Covid-19. At the ‘peak’ of the pandemic in 2020, the closure of schools affected approximately 1.6 billion girl students in over 190 countries around the world and in October 2021 – more than 18 months after the start of the emergency – 128 million young people could not attend classes.“Beyond the impact on learning, this unprecedented disruption represents an immediate and long-term threat to gender equality and can have detrimental effects on some specific aspects such as the health, well-being and protection of the female component”, writes UNICEF ​​in the report ‘When schools shut. Gender impact of Covid-19 school closures’.Although the lack of consolidated data does not yet allow an overall picture to be taken, there are some elements that can help us understand how much the pandemic has impacted access to education and the well-being of girls.

(Photo: Unicef/Wamala)

The first is an early school leaving: according to UNESCO estimates, 23.8 million students (from kindergarten to high school) are at risk of dropping out of their schooling. Of these, 11.2 million are girls. The figure seems low at the Malala Foundation, which considers the number of 20 million more realistic. A study by the Population Council of Bangladesh showed that after the reopening of schools in that country, one in ten girls in the 12-15 age group never went back to school.
Going to Africa, in the state of Ghana 97% of the students resumed attending classes after the end of the state of emergency, but among those who ‘gave up’, 60% were girls.
In a survey conducted between February and March 2021, the Kenyan authorities highlighted that 16% of girls and 8% of boys between the ages of 15 and 19 had not returned to class in the two months following the reopening of schools. The prolonged closure of schools has had, and will have in the future, an even greater impact on the skills acquired by this generation of boys and girls.

In low-income countries, only 63% of female students complete primary school. (Photo: Unicef/Mulala)

An alarming study conducted by UNICEF, UNESCO and the World Bank recently highlighted how the share of children in conditions of ‘learning poverty’ (i.e., the inability of a child under 10 to read and understand a text appropriate to their age) in middle- and low-income countries went from 57% before the pandemic to 70%.
“This generation of students is likely to lose $ 21 trillion in earnings over their lifetime,” the report reads. Again, there are no global data or studies to detect gender differences. What is certain and that emerges from surveys carried out in some countries is, for example, that girls have had greater difficulty following online lessons during lockdowns “due to the limited access to PCs, tablets and smartphones, the lack of digital skills and social norms that limit their access to digital devices”.

In Ghana 97% of the students resumed attending classes after the end of the state of emergency, but among those who ‘gave up’, 60% were girls. (Photo: Mirko Delazzari)

The UN agency report collects evidence from various regional surveys. As part of a survey conducted among 322 adolescents in five African countries (Lesotho, Malawi, Madagascar, Zambia, and Zimbabwe), 23% of male students replied that they were able to continue studying without problems during the pandemic compared to 12% of the girls. Another study conducted in India found that only 26% of female students said they had free access to a smartphone compared to 37% of males.
An additional obstacle for girls and boys was the increased burden of housework during the lockdown (house cleaning, meal preparation, care of younger siblings and assistance with homework) that some research has highlighted in Bangladesh, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Niger and Pakistan.

‘NEET’ in the world: girls are in the majority
The repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic are also beginning to be seen with regard to the ‘NEET’, (‘Not in Education, Employment or Training’) or young people aged between 18 and 24 who do not study and do not work.

At the ‘peak’ of the pandemic in 2020, the closure of schools affected approximately 1.6 billion girl students in over 190 countries around the world. (Photo: Unicef/Mulala)

According to the estimates contained in the latest ‘Education at a Glance’ report, OECD countries have gone from 14.4% in 2019 to 16.1% in 2020. While in the 25-29 age group the percentage increased from 16.4% in 2019 to 18.6% in 2020. “Young women are more likely to be ‘NEET’ than men”, the report reads. “In OECD countries, 16.5% of women between 18 and 24 do not study or work, while the percentage among men of the same age is slightly lower (14%)”.“The reasons that force young women not to undertake training courses and not to have a job are varied. In the OSCE countries, 70% of young ‘NEET’ women are not active in looking for a job and one of the main causes of this condition is their commitments related to the care of children. In addition, the share of unemployed ‘NEET’ (i.e., not looking for work) increases with age and this is particularly true for the female population, which in fact passes from 11.2 % in the 18-24 age group (against 7.5% among men) to 17.3% between 25 and 29 years (6.4% among men).

In Europe, the job market favours the hiring of young men over young women.

The gender disparity is also confirmed at the European level by the most recent Eurostat data: in 2021, 14.5% of girls and young women aged between 15 and 29 were classified as ‘NEET’ compared to 11.8% of men. A specific situation, by social conventions or pressures that tend to give greater importance to the role of women within the family, on the one hand; a job market that favours the hiring of young men over young women, which makes it difficult to reconcile work with childcare, on the other hand. Also in Europe, the share of ‘NEET’ unemployed young women (15-29 years), who are not actively looking for a job, is higher (10.2%) than the male component (6.3%). With an average gap of about 4 percentage points, in some countries (such as the Czech Republic and Romania) it exceeds 10%. (Open photo: Unicef/ Markonda)

I.Sesana, R.Panuzzo, P.Ferrera
Terre des Hommes

The qualities of a Tuareg sheikh.

At the foot of the Atlas Mountains, a mountainous massif in the Western Sahara, there was a powerful kingdom ruled by a sheikh as wise as he was good. He had married the princess Hamida,
which means gazelle.

The young queen deserved that name because of her grace and fragility. A year after the wedding she gave birth to triplets, and her father and subjects were filled with joy. But the joy was soon mingled with mourning because after a few months, the queen died.

Still, under the weight of threefold joy and great mourning, the ruler gathered his ministers and advisers to hear their opinion on the problem that was already worrying him.

Three princes, heirs to the throne, were a great hope but also a source of fear: they could in future be the cause of tensions and fratricidal wars. What to do? The cruellest minister suggested exposing the three new-borns to the blazing sun: the heir would be the survivor. But the sheik refused such a barbaric solution.

One of the councillors suggested kicking all three of them out, but the ruler did not listen to him. Another suggested drawing lots to see who would be the heir, but this idea was also disliked.

Then the ruler reflected and made his decision: “They will live together and have the same education – he said -. When they grow up, they will prove their prowess and I will be able to choose the worthiest to sit on my throne. The tree is judged by its fruit!”.

Twenty years passed and the three princes, although educated in the same way, showed an obvious difference in character. One loved game of strength and dexterity: he could take a camel in a short time, break a reed at a hundred paces with a single arrow, and surpass the strongest warriors in the kingdom. That is why he was called Ben Haid,
the strong prince.

The second loved studies and spoke several languages, knew the movement of the stars and the origin of the world. He was called Ben Huksen, the wise prince. The third ignored all these things but could sing and played the harp divinely. They called him El Gazil,
the nice prince.

The time had therefore come to put them to the test. One day the sheikh invited the three princes and nobles of the kingdom to the palace and said: “My sons, all three of you have a right to the throne and I do not know whom to choose. To remove this uncertainty, I will put you to the test: I propose that you leave the court and perform a deed worthy of a king, and then I will choose the one who has performed the most meritorious deed. I will give you one week’s time.”

The valiant prince saddled his battle horse, took his bow, arrow and scimitar, and departed, disappearing in a cloud of dust. The wise prince took the pen, paper and inkwell, and a bundle of books, and set off on his peaceful donkey.

The sympathetic prince set off quietly on foot with his harp slung over his shoulder and walked along a stream. The eight days seemed interminable to the impatient sheikh, so he jumped with joy when they announced the arrival of Ben Haid.

He was covered in dust and blood and said: “I travelled three days to the borders of the kingdom until I met a platoon of soldiers who barred my way. I defeated them all and their heads hang from the saddle of my horse. Am I not as strong as a king?” “Of course – replied the sovereign -, but we await the return of your brothers.”

He had not finished speaking when Ben Huksen entered. He had been studying all week, so much so that his hair had turned white. “I have studied the theories of the ancient sages and astronomers – he said – I have observed for three nights a star of Ophiucus conjoining with Aldebaran, the smallest star of Taurus. I can therefore predict with certainty the march of hurricanes and the rainfall for the next sixty years. Is not such wisdom worthy of a king?” “Of course – said the ruler -, but let us wait for the third brother.”

The sun was setting and the courtiers were already congratulating the two brothers, one of whom, they thought, would certainly be king. And suddenly, carried on the evening breeze, came the song of El Gazil accompanied by the chords of the harp. “Here comes the last suitor, “said the sheikh jokingly.

El Gazil looked tired but in his gaze shone the usual joy. “Alas! – he exclaimed with a sigh -. I fear, sire, that I bring you great disappointment because I have wasted my time.

A murmur of disapproval went up from the crowd of people present. He continued: “I went to Beni Unif, six kilometres from your palace.It is a poor village, and I stopped to drink at the well. But the well was without water. An old man who kept a scrawny little goat gave me some milk and advised me to leave because I would find nothing good in those ruins. And he explained to me that last winter a sandstorm had
plugged the well.”

“The people, discouraged, had dispersed, taking their cattle with them, and now the wind was the only master of the place. So, I began to play. The men who remained around came to hear my harp. I sang of the nobility of life, the beauty of being together and helping each other through difficulties. They joined me, first the young and then the old. We cleared the well and the water returned; we put the walls of the houses back up and repaired the roofs that had caved in. Then we sang of new-found joy. That is why I came late”.

The old sheikh shook his head thoughtfully and said: “Surely it seems less noble to dig a well than to know the motion of the stars or to slaughter twenty soldiers. But I say to you: you will be my successor, for you know how to guide men and help them to live happily.”

The whole court applauded the ruler’s wise judgment and so El Gazil became lord of the Atlas Mountains and grand sheikh of the Tuareg-Azjer.

Folktale from Morocco

 

South Sudan. Pope Francis. “We want to give wings to your Hope”.

To politicians: “It is time to move from words to deeds. It’s time to move on, it’s time to commit to an urgent and necessary transformation”. To refugees: “You are the seed of a new South Sudan”. To the church: “We cannot remain neutral in the face of the pain caused by injustice and violence”. From Juba, Helen Khalida

Ajou left Rumbek for Juba nine days ago to meet the Pope together with sixty young people and his bishop Msgr. Christian Carlassare. He travelled a total of 400 km. He then walked the last 5 kilometres from the city centre to the airport. He is very emotional and he no longer feels tired.In the blue sky you can see the outline of the aircraft small at first and then slowly becoming larger. The plane lands on the
only runway of the airport.

Pope Francis at the Juba airport. It will be an ecumenical visit.

It will be an ecumenical visit: Pope Francis, the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and the Moderator General of the Church of Scotland, Pastor Iain Greenshields.
The Pope was welcomed by President Salva Kiir and a group of bishops. At a distance, a group of women are calling loudly and excitedly. This is the first time for a Pope to visit the land of South Sudan.
After the formal greetings, the Pope sets off by car on the road named His Holiness Pope Francis Road in his honour. People lining the road watch the large convoy as it moves. All of them want to see, greet and sing for the visitors.
The cortege heads for the Presidential Palace for a courtesy visit to the President which is also attended by Archbishop Welby and Pastor Greenshields. Subsequently, Pope Francis will meet the Vice-Presidents of the Republic and lastly, in the garden of the Presidential Palace, he will meet with the authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps.
In his first official speech, Francis says that South Sudan is a land that he carries in his heart, where he arrives on an ecumenical pilgrimage. On the book of honour signed during the courtesy visit to the presidential palace, he writes: “Coming here as a pilgrim, I pray that rivers of peace may flow in this dear country, the gift of the Nile; may the inhabitants of South Sudan, a land of great abundance, see reconciliation blossom
and prosperity germinate”.

Photo: Vatican Media

The Nile will be the backdrop for the broad discourse. The image that inspired him to launch an unequivocal, frank, and direct message of peace is that of the watercourse that crosses the African country. The Pope’s wish is that South Sudan “be reconciled and change course”: “Its vital course will no longer be impeded by the flood of violence, hindered by the swamps of corruption or thwarted by overflowing poverty”.
“It is time to say enough, with no ‘ifs’ or ‘buts’: enough bloodshed, enough conflict, enough violence and mutual accusations against those who commit them, enough of leaving the people thirsting for peace. No more destruction, it’s time to build! Put the time of war behind you and let there be a time of peace!”
“It is time to move from words to deeds. It’s time to move on, it’s time to commit to an urgent and necessary transformation. The peace and reconciliation process demands a new leap. Let us understand each other and carry forward the Peace Agreement, as well as the Road Map!”
In his greeting to the Pope, the President of the South Sudanese Republic defines the visit as a ‘historic milestone’ and announces his willingness to resume talks mediated by the Community of Saint Egidio with non-signatory opposition groups.

The Church in South Sudan
In the cathedral of Saint Teresa in Juba, the Pope meets the bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated men and women and seminarians. “I had long desired to meet you; I want to thank the Lord for this today”, are the first words of Pope Francis. Saying that he wants to look at the waters of the Nile from the biblical perspective that often associates water with God’s action on behalf of his people, the Pope then observes how these waters today represent “the tears of a people immersed in suffering and in pain, tortured by violence”.

Juba. Cathedral Saint Teresa. The Pope meets the bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, and seminarians. Photo: Vatican Media

The Pope explains: “The waters of the great river, in fact, collect the suffering cries of your communities, they collect the cries of pain of so many broken lives, they collect the drama of a fleeing people, the affliction of women’s hearts and the fear imprinted in children’s eyes. At the same time, however, the waters of the great river take us back to the story of Moses and, therefore, are a sign of liberation and salvation: in fact, Moses was saved from those waters and, leading his family into the middle of the Red Sea, it has become an instrument of liberation, an icon of God’s help who sees the affliction of his children, hears their cry and comes down to free them”.
Pope Francis continues: Pastors are asked to “develop precisely this art of walking in the midst of suffering and tears, in the midst of the hunger for God and the thirst for love of brothers and sisters”.
The pope recalls that as pastors “we are called to intercede on behalf of our people and we are called to raise our voices against injustice and the abuse of power, things that crush people and use violence to manage affairs under the cover of conflict”.
And finally, “We can recall – said the Pope at the end of his speech – St. Daniel Comboni, who with his missionary brothers carried out a great work of evangelization in this land: he said that the missionary must be willing to do everything for Christ and for the Gospel, and that there is a need for daring and generous souls who know how to suffer and
die for Africa”.

Hope and peace for refugees
The next day, under a large white tent at the Freedom Hall, a crowd in white T-shirts, representing the over 4 million displaced people in front of the Pope, the Anglican Archbishop and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, listened to the moving testimony of children speaking out on behalf of the thousands of suffering refugees. “My name is Johnson Juma Alex. I belong to the Episcopal Church of South Sudan. I’m 14 years old. I live in a refugee camp. I came in 2014 due to the destruction that happened in my hometown of Malakal. Peace is good, problems are not. We want peace so that people can return to the city of Malakal, to their homes. I want to have a good future, where peace reigns and
children can go to school”.

“My name is Nyakuor Rebecca. I am very happy to meet you. We know that you love children and that you always say that we are important for our country and for the Church.” Photo: Vatican Media

And then a little girl spoke: “My name is Nyakuor Rebecca. I am a parishioner of Holy Trinity and I live in the refugee camp of Juba. I am very happy to meet you. On behalf of the children of South Sudan, I want to thank you for visiting. We know that you love children and that you always say that we are important for our country and for the Church. In the name of Jesus, I want to ask you to give us a special blessing for all the children of South Sudan, so that we can grow up together in peace and love”. “I am here, together with the brothers with whom I share this pilgrimage of peace to tell you how close we are to you … We are with you; we suffer for you and with you. In meeting you today – said Pope Francis – we would like to give wings to your hope”. And he continued: “We would like to tell you: you are the seed of a new South Sudan… It is you, of all the different ethnic groups, who have suffered and are suffering, but who do not want to respond to evil with more evil”.

The ecumenical meeting
It is already evening when the three religious leaders move to the park of the mausoleum of John Garang for ecumenical prayer in the presence of over 50,000 people.The Christian Churches are still today the only national institutions working for reconciliation and peace. “There is a strong legacy of Churches working together for peace and reconciliation in South Sudan that have played a vital role in achieving the nation’s independence in a peaceful way. We hope to encourage the continued unity of the Churches for the common good in South Sudan, for justice and fullness of life for all the people”, underlined the moderator
of the Church of Scotland.

The Anglican archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, Pope Francis, and the Moderator General of the Church of Scotland, Pastor Iain Greenshields at the Ecumenical Prayer. Photo: Vatican Media

“The ecumenical heritage of South Sudan is a precious treasure, a praise to the name of Jesus, an act of love for the Church his spouse, a universal example for the journey of Christian unity – the Pope continued – It is a heritage that it must be kept in the same spirit: the ecclesial divisions of past centuries do not affect those who are evangelized, but the sowing of the Gospel contributes to spreading greater unity”. “That “all may be one”; this is Jesus’ heartfelt prayer to the Father for us believers. Those who choose to follow Christ enter a new community, where there are no divisions. They enter into new relationships and a completely new way of living – said the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury Welby – because being a Christian brings everyone into the communion of believers”.

On the large square adjacent to the John Garang mausoleum, the pope was welcomed by over 100,000 people for Mass. “May everyone become “salt and light” to bring hope and peace to South Sudan”. Photo: Vatican Media

The next day before boarding his flight to Rome on the large square and in the area adjacent to the John Garang mausoleum, the pope was welcomed by over 100,000 people for Mass. In his homily, the Pope renewed his appeal: “Put down the weapons of hatred and revenge”. May everyone become “salt and light” to bring hope and peace to South Sudan. That peace of God which is not “just a truce between conflicts, but a fraternal communion, which comes from uniting, not from absorbing; from forgiving, not from overcoming; from reconciling and not from imposing oneself”.
At the airport, together with the Anglican primate Welby and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland Greenshields, he said: “We have come here and we will continue to accompany your steps, all three together, doing everything we can so that they are steps of peace, steps towards peace. You are in our hearts; you are in the hearts of Christians all over the world. Never lose hope. And do not miss the opportunity to build peace”. (Open Photo: Vatican Media)

Precocious Marriages. Increasing Due to Crises.

The terrible drought which – for the third year in a row – plagues the Horn of Africa region and the rise in food prices caused by the war in Ukraine, have led to an increase in child marriages in several
countries of the region.

The alarm was raised by UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, which citing Ethiopian sources, reports that in the districts most affected by the famine, the number of girls forced to marry before the age of 18 has increased by 119% between January and April 2022 compared to the same period of the previous year. Once again, poverty and impoverishment are confirmed among the main causes of this phenomenon. “Due to the drought, the value of the dowry (in cash, food and livestock that is paid by the future husband’s family to that of the bride, ed.) is decreasing. This means that, in order to survive, families will consider the possibility of giving more of their daughters in marriage”, UNICEF reports.

Djibouti. Afar Girl. Around the world today, there are over 650 million girls and women who were married as children. (Photo Andrea Semplici).

Across the region, the rate of pre-adolescent girls forced to marry (a ritual that, in many countries, is preceded by the practice of genital mutilation) is growing “at a worrying level”, the United Nations agency warns. The famine is also causing the failure of another factor of protection for girls: school. In Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, the number of children who may drop out of school is rising from 1.1 to 3.3 million, putting huge numbers of teenage girls at risk. “We are seeing alarming rates of child marriage and female genital mutilation across the Horn of Africa, with some destitute families arranging the marriage of girls as young as twelve to men who are more than five times their age”, commented Andy Brooks, UNICEF ​​regional consultant.
In Kenya, 14 of the 23 districts most affected by drought are also those where the highest rates of female genital mutilation are recorded: “These girls run the risk of undergoing the ‘cut’ at a very young age, while their families prepare them for marriage”, warns the UN agency. This new crisis – adding to the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic – risks nullifying the efforts made in recent years in the region to combat child marriages, the incidence of which had decreased from 70% thirty years ago to 40%. According to UNICEF ​​estimates, around 12 million girls get married every year before they reach the age of 18 (equal to 21% of the total number of brides).  Around the world today, there are over 650 million girls and women who were married as children.

Kenya. Pokot girls. In Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, the number of children who may drop out of school is rising from 1.1 to 3.3 million, putting huge numbers of teenage girls at risk. (Photo K. Zebik).

Countering this phenomenon is possible, as evidenced by the progress made between 2010 and 2020, which made it possible to save 25 million girls and adolescents. Only in South Asian countries did the incidence of early marriages decrease from 49% to 30%. Forecasts for the future, however, were not rosy even before the pandemic: due to the demographic increase in some continents where the incidence of the phenomenon is particularly high (such as sub-Saharan Africa), UNICEF ​​estimated that by 2030, a further 100 million teenagers would have been forced to marry before they came of age.
The economic crisis unleashed by Covid-19 and the decision by many governments to close schools for months – in some countries even for more than a year – have created conditions that have placed additional 10 million girls at risk.

Indian girls. Only in South Asian countries did the incidence of early marriages decrease from 49% to 30%. (Photo Unicef)

One case in point is Bangladesh. In March 2020, to limit infection from Covid-19, the government decided to close schools and, for 18 months – even when all other activities in the country had recommenced – children and young people were forced to stay at home. According to some estimates, this situation, combined with the impoverishment of many families, would have increased early marriages by 13%. Although there are no in-depth data to assess the situation in the country as a whole, some studies conducted by local NGOs shed some light on a worrying situation: research by the Manusher Jonno Foundation, conducted in a third of the districts of Bangladesh, found at least 14,000 precocious marriages in the first months of the pandemic alone. In the Rajshahi district, more than 6,500 female students were forced to marry while schools were closed. In the districts of Khulna, Kurigram, and Bagerhat the girls who did not return to their desks when the schools reopened numbered about 9,000. These numbers almost certainly represent only the tip of the iceberg of a much wider phenomenon.
Another example is that of Jordan, which has published official data on the phenomenon of early marriages, showing an increase in incidence from 10.6% in 2019 to 11.7% in 2020. This increase also affected the refugee camp of Zaatari where, according to the latest estimates, there are about 80,000 Syrian refugees.

In Guatemala, almost 30% of girls bond in a more or less formal way before they come of age to a man, often several years older than them.

The only continent where in the last 25 years there has been no progress in the fight against child marriage, is Latin America and the Caribbean. Here the often-informal nature of unions (characterized by coexistence without legal registration) contrasts with the more formalized practices found in other parts of the world and therefore makes them less visible. However, the rate of early unions is significant and involves one in four minors and 10% of children under the age of 18. In countries like Guatemala, almost 30% of girls bond in a more or less formal way before they come of age to a man, often several years older than them. The phenomenon is more present in the poorest and least educated sections of the population, where a union with a wealthier man, even if only apparently, may seem like a good strategy to get out of the condition of social exclusion. But it is precisely the informality of unions that can bring additional problems to the more vulnerable component of the couple. Many unions end after a few months because the man moves away and often does not recognize the children born of that relationship. (Open Photo: Pedro Pablo Hernández)

I.Sesana, R.Panuzzo, P.Ferrera
Terre des Hommes

.

.

The War in Ukraine Calls for an Increased African Unity.

“How Africans voted on the Ukraine War is an indication of the plurality of views [in the continent]. If the weather forecast is a cold front, it is likely immense pressure will be exerted on African countries to choose sides. We know what follows, and we have been there. Better be united and cautious.”

The above quote from Carlos Lopes, a professor at the University of Cape Town, illustrates the impact the war in Ukraine has had on Africa’s international relations. Since February 2022, Russia and the Western powers have increased their presence on the continent. Africa showed a wide range of views on the war, Russia, Ukraine, and the world. Still, a degree of unity can increase the continent’s ability to avoid a concerning trend of being part of global disputes as a proxy.

Africa is a theatre for disputes between the West, China and Russia. In 2022, leaders from Germany, France, the United States, and Russia visited some of their key African allies. Since then, African states were pushed to take sides. While a unified position on every subject is unlikely to happen, this is an opportunity for African states to identify areas of agreement if they want to survive an ideological battleground,
like that of the Cold War.

With an increasing number of African countries facing food security issues, the war has exacerbated an already tenuous situation. It’s directly affected global food supply chains, particularly grains and fertilisers, where Ukraine and Russia are major international players. In April, the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) showed that its Food Price Index reached its highest level since the 1990s, which is primarily affecting African countries.

The visit to Russia in June of Senegalese President Macky Sall and AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat shows that when the continent undertakes a coordinated approach,it may gain more leverage. African pressure – exemplified by this visit to Moscow – led to the mediated process by the UN and Turkey to ensure continuous access to grains and fertilisers from Russia and Ukraine. The Black Sea Grains Initiative, often under threat, reduced food prices by 15%, providing essential relief during a period of increasing global inflation.

The war in Ukraine impacted the political ties between African countries, the West and Russia. For Russia, its deteriorating relationship with the West forced a new political offence on the continent, hoping to regain its global influence, exploit new markets, and boost political support. The West aims to counter what it calls “malign influence” from Russia in Africa and created a new impetus to gain Africa’s support.

The sanctions imposed by the West on Russia have created an opportunity in Africa for Russian businesses that lack access to many global markets. With a growing population, massive space for development, and vast resources, the continent is an ideal space for Russian businesses looking to survive.
However, Russia’s trade with Africa is dwarfed by other global powers. With only 14 billion USD in total trade with the continent in 2021, it’s a fraction of what is seen in the West or China.

Economic relations do not reflect the entirety of Africa-Russia connections. Instead, most of Russia’s actions in Africa are of a political or military nature. Over 20 African countries have signed military agreements with Russia in the past decade. Many are facing political instability and armed conflicts. Cameroon, for instance, was one of the latest to sign a military deal with Russia in April 2022. Since 2016, Cameroon has faced a separatist civil war between its francophone and anglophone communities. 44% of all arms traded by African countries came from Russia in 2022, according to the Swedish think tank SIPRI.

In addition to traditional military agreements, Russia is notorious for using mercenaries in conflict zones on the continent.
The Wagner Group, an infamous Russian private military corporation, has played controversial roles in Mali, Sudan, Libya and the Central
African Republic (CAR).

Wagner is accused of assisting Russia by gaining influence by exploiting instability, with several allegations of human rights abuses and economic exploitation. In October 2021, the UN stated that civilians in CAR were harassed and intimidated by Wagner members. Reports allege that the Wagner Group has colluded with Sudan’s military junta to exploit gold mines in the country.

African responses to the war in Ukraine have been far from cohesive. In March and October 2022, the UN General Assembly cast votes on resolutions condemning the invasion of Ukraine and the Russian annexation of four Ukrainian regions.
In March, 26 African countries voted against, abstained or were not in the room during the vote; in October, 24 African countries abstained from voting or were absent from the room. The similar numbers in both votes showcase that the continent showed the most divided within any region regarding the war in Ukraine.

The challenges of using voting patterns to explain African positions is exemplified by South Africa, one of the countries that advocate for an “active non-alignment” approach. South Africa abstained from voting on all resolutions condemning Russia’s actions in Ukraine. On the one hand, senior South African officials, including the defence minister, visited Russia during this period. On the other hand, the country also engaged in high-level dialogue with Western countries, including presidential visits to the United States and the United Kingdom in recent months. Is Pretoria hedging its bets?

It’s important to note that the African governments’ engagements in international organisations do not necessarily reflect public opinion. Relationships between African countries and Russia tend to be centralised in high-level interactions. An upcoming paper from the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) reflects on how Africans perceive the role of Russia on the continent. The study assesses sentiments in social media in several African countries, which show that while many in the continent have strong opinions in favour of or against Russia, feelings proved to be largely indifferent.

The future of the African role in international relations amidst a global dispute is difficult to predict. Much will depend on how the Ukrainian war ends and Russia’s overall capabilities to project influence. Regardless of the war’s outcome, it is vital that the continent ensure that it does not become a pawn of global power competition. And for that to happen, African countries must know what they want from their international relationships and promote clear efforts to achieve their goals. (Photo: Russian mercenaries provide security for convoy with the president of the Central African Republic. Clément Di Roma/VOA)

Gustavo de Carvalho
South African Institute of International Affairs.

 

 

 

 

The USA in Africa. Boots on the ground.

The presence of American soldiers on the field is still strategic. General Michael Langley, the new commander of Africom, has the task of forging military pacts with many African countries and of facing new threats: from jihadist hotbeds to the expansion of Beijing and Moscow’s spheres of influence.

Michael Langley is the new general at the head of Africom, the United States African Command. A native of Shreveport, Louisiana, Langley is the first African-American general decorated with four stars in the Marine Corps’ 246-year history. He assumed the position in August 2022, becoming Africom’s sixth commander since the US military command, headquartered at Kelley Barracks in Stuttgart, Germany,
was established in 2007.

Gen. Michael E. Langley, U.S. Marine Corps, became the sixth commander of U.S. Africa Command in August 2022.

His appointment did not come by chance. Langley knows the African continent well, having led the US Marine Forces Europe and Africa between 2020 and 2021, during which he coordinated the largest Africom military exercise with Moroccan military leaders, African Lion. The operation was repeated in June 2022, with the mobilization of 7,500 soldiers sent by ten NATO countries located between Kenitra, near Rabat, some southern regions of Morocco (including Al Mahbes, in Western Sahara, on the border with Algeria), Senegal, and Ghana. Langley previously served in Egypt and Somalia in Operation Restore Hope between 1992 and 1993.

The map of Africom
Africom is one of 11 foreign military commands reporting to the US Department of Defense. Its scope includes 53 African states (with the exception of Egypt which falls within the Middle East area), 11.2 million square miles of land area (three and a half times the size of the United States), nearly 19,000 miles of coastline, more than 800 ethnic groups and over a thousand languages. The command employs around 2,000 units, 1,400 of which are stationed in Stuttgart. Hundreds more operate between MacDill, Florida and Raf Molesworth, UK air bases. Offices connected to the central one in Stuttgart are spread across 38 countries.

Us solder with the Danab Brigade in Somalia. (Photo: Sgt. Zoe Russell)

These also include key stations in Africa, at the headquarters of the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States and the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, located in Accra, Ghana. Also in Africa, at Camp Lemonnier, in Djibouti, is the headquarters of the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa. It is from here that, in particular, land-based anti-terrorist military operations on the continent are launched. The other command centres, in addition to Stuttgart, are in Ramstein (also in Germany), Vicenza and Naples (Italy).
At an operational level, one of Africom’s flagship initiatives is a program that provides for the support of its state national guards with the defense forces of African countries. There are currently 15 pairings, including those of the New York and Massachusetts National Guards with the armies of South Africa and Kenya, respectively.
In 2019, Africom released a list of some of its military outposts on the African continent: 13 are permanent (classified as Enduring Footprint), 16 are non-permanent (Non-enduring Footprint).
It is a partial list since it does not include foreign bases on which Africom relies (such as Singo in Uganda and Thiès in Senegal), nor does it refer to other sites where the command is working undercover to extend its range of action on the continent.

Threats
The main threat that Africom faces on the African continent has always been that of terrorism. According to the Global Terrorism Index 2022, Africa represents the global epicentre of international terrorism, with groups such as al-Shabaab in the Horn of Africa and Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin in the Sahel in constant turmoil. At the end of October, Africom launched new air offensives in the Buulobarde area, 200 kilometres northwest of Mogadishu, in response to two attacks carried out by jihadists in Kismayo and Beledweyne. It was the occasion that prompted President Joe Biden to send several hundred American soldiers back to the country, a year and a half after Trump’s withdrawal.
However, the ‘real’ test facing General Langley is that of countering the growing Chinese and Russian influence on the African continent.
In fact, the two powers are exploiting the triple food, energy and economic crisis, triggered at a global level by the war in Ukraine, to their advantage, hoarding new business and new allies, especially in East Africa and the Sahel.

A platoon leader in 101st Airborne Division discusses squad-level tactics with Gabonese counterparts. (Photo: U.S. Army)

According to Africom’s top management, after having built its own base in Djibouti from where it aims to more closely control the strategic Bab el-Mandeb strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, Beijing is now aiming to obtain an outpost along the Atlantic Ocean coast of Africa as well. A scenario that the US wants to hinder at all costs through the establishment of maritime exclusive economic zones with its West African partners. In the confrontation with Russia, Africom has instead targeted the Wagner contractor group – permanently positioned in Mali, the Central African Republic, Mozambique, Sudan and Libya – and the arms trafficking managed by Moscow on the continent.In its plan to widen its sphere of influence in Africa, the Kremlin is bringing pressure to bear on the direct and indirect effects of the conflict in Ukraine, following a simple scheme. Increased food and economic insecurity is worsening the state of already long-standing crisis contexts.

US soldier with Kenyan soldiers. (Photo: Sgr Amanda Stock)

East Africa (especially Somalia, the Ethiopian region of Tigray, Kenya, Sudan and South Sudan) and the entire Sahelian belt are increasingly pushed to one side by the grain crisis, by the increase in fertilizer prices (over 200 %) and the inflation of foodstuff prices (more than 40%) and by restrictions on the import-export of minerals and other raw materials with Moscow and, secondly, by the effects of climate change. All of this opens up new manoeuvering spaces for jihadist groups and exposes local governments to further vulnerability, which are looking for the best offer of low-market security. It is in these spaces that the Kremlin is finding a niche in Africa. These are gaps that Africom must plug if it does not want to see the supply channels of resources from Africa at risk. This is the real reason that keeps the US with its boots firmly on the ground in this continent. (US soldiers with Botswanan force members. Photo: Sgt. Sean Carnes)

Rocco Bellantone

Lost for Words.

To save biodiversity, we must save human diversity.

Many Indigenous languages are ‘dying out’. What is not often discussed, however, is the fact that the languages in question do not just disappear naturally. Rather, their speakers are often wiped out – by outsiders.

Even today, where Indigenous people survive, their languages can still be ‘lost’. There may be many causes, but they are almost always rooted in forced assimilation into an industrial society.

The last fluent speaker of a language dies every two weeks, taking with them “the hundreds of generations of traditional knowledge encoded in these ancestral tongues”, according to the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages.

This is not surprising, considering that two million Indigenous children worldwide are being “educated” at schools, institutions created specifically to assimilate tribal children into mainstream society.  Death doesn’t linger far from these places.

The purposeful eradication of cultural and linguistic ties is a slow form of genocide that has devastating effects not only on entire peoples but also on the environment.

Languages are closely tied to knowledge. Knowledge is only useful if it can be expressed, used and shared. Knowledge of the places where people live (forests, plains, savannahs, mountains, deserts, tundra) and what they can offer humanity (food, medicines, real solutions to curb climate change) is crucial to us all. Being able to talk about the tiniest nuances of these environments may not seem like much, but the butterfly effect from these conversations is immense.

The Awá people in Brazil call their homeland Harakwá , which means  “the place that we Know”. They have studied, managed and looked after their lands since time immemorial, passing down and developing their knowledge through the generations. They depend entirely on their land for food, spirituality, medicine – in short, life – and the land depends on the Awá to protect and nurture it.

But their lands are being destroyed for the rapacious extraction of sugar cane (partly grown for biofuels) and gold mining. Without their lands, the Awá would not survive, and nor would the vast biological diversity
found on their land.

The language of the Awá (Guajá), which carries centuries of ecological knowledge, would be lost. This is not a situation unique to the Awá – it is one repeated all over the globe, where the people living closest to their natural environments are being pushed to the brink, and their lands stolen and exploited for natural resources.

If we lose biodiversity, we lose human diversity and vice versa. Without both, humanity will be plunged into the next Dark Age, one from which we might not recover. Standing up for Indigenous rights, lands and lives has never been more important. (Photo: 123rf.com)

Paula Zamorano Osirio
Resurgence & Ecologist

 

Her Great Dream.

On the heights of a remote village at the bottom of a valley lived a melancholic girl who had not known her parents, who had died at her birth. Unaware, however, of their end, and thinking of them on the road, she kept hoping that one day she would meet them.

In her illusion, the girl shone with grace like a fairy. She ran through the wild meadows, as free as a sea wave. And the wind, blowing through the branches of the trees and bushes, made her long-braided hair sway.

Far away, an emerald-green landscape glowed placidly under the scorching sun. The grave moan of the savannah rose like a last breath of life, the last hope.

Evening came, beautiful and silent, the shadows of the trees vibrated in the moonlight like human beings. Thinking back to her loneliness and to her parents, the tender, sensitive girl wistfully contemplated the sky flooded with falling stars. And because she believed the words of adults, when she returned home to her aunt, her guardian, she wanted to know where all those stars were going.

“The stars, – the woman answered her -, are the souls of our dead. And those wandering in space are the spirits of our loved ones long since departed on their journey.”
So, the young girl, in order to find her loved ones, was convinced that she had to follow the stars to their resting place.

That very evening, her gaze full of promise, she gazed intently into the firmament. In the moonlight, she saw bats flying. And at times, in the distance, she perceived the mirage of a city she imagined to be that of her parents. All was calm and the cloudless sky bestowed serenity.

Every night, from the window of her small room, the girl contemplated the constellations. As she gazed in wonder at the stars, she thought that in them, as the old people used to say, were really the souls of the absent. “I wish I were a star too! Then I would travel alongside my parents” she told herself.

So, it was that the need to know the truth grew in her. And one night, gazing at the countless falling stars in the sky, the girl felt her heart swell. She absolutely had to follow them. But as the stars faded away at dawn, she burst into sobs.

A long sorrow. She felt abandoned to herself and suffered from loneliness. She did not stop thinking about her departed loved ones, she longed for the day when she could hold them and snuggle up in their arms. Every time she looked at the stars, she felt a strong desire to travel to the country where, according to legend, the shooting stars went.

That idea became a true obsession. Meanwhile, her days were laden with work. With her neighbours, she helped her aunt hoe the fields, sow the seeds and harvest the ripe fruit, always patient and hoping for a miracle.

Until once, tired of waiting, the girl decided to follow her instincts.  She left the house and walked towards the place where her heart yearned to realise her great dream. Some birds sang in the sweetness
of the twilight.

Others, on their way back to the nest, were wedging between the foliage. The trees darkened progressively in shadows. The last rays of the sun, imprisoned in the clouds, gilded the landscape on the horizon. All the beautiful colours of the sunset were concentrated in the girl’s gaze.

It was a strange evening. In the sky strewn with twinkling stars, some stars seemed to fall to earth like meteorites. Spotting one heading towards the sea, the girl thought to join it. And so, hoping soon to have the answer to her riddle and to arrive quickly at her parents’ house, she let herself be guided by the star that bounced from wave to wave on the agitated sea and headed towards the secret place where, one after the other, all the falling stars came together.

The magic of that unknown world astonished her. But unfortunately, it brought no answer to her question. So, she cried out: “O star, my beautiful star! Will you take me to the village where my mother and father live? I would be so happy to meet them.”

Suddenly, the star clutched the girl’s chest and carried her across the sky to the place where everyone lived, waiting to meet their loved ones.
They arrived in a village inhabited by strange people, intrigued by the sky and its mysteries.

Lost in the middle of a confused, chattering, noisy crowd, gathered to contemplate the firmament, where the shooting star had disappeared, the girl looked in vain for the figure of her dear mother. But all was but an illusion. Her heart took fright. Tremors invaded her body. She cried out to passers-by, hoping that the echo of her desperate voice would reach the ear of a valiant being.

A smell of rotting leaves floated in the air. Torches lit in the deepest darkness illuminated the paths. Stubbornly, the girl wandered through the palm trees in search of the stars that had fallen into the grass.

Suddenly, in the distance, she saw another beautiful star land. And thinking she recognised in it her missing mother, she hastened to join her on the deserted shore of the sea. Advancing on that trail, the little girl was seized by terrible anguish. Her body shuddered. She cried out for her mother, but only the echo of her own voice returned.

Her soul wounded, the girl was still crying desperately when her mother appeared to her. Still crying, moaning, the little girl was moved. And the mother, majestic and tender, surrounded her with all her affection: it was the first time her heart throbbed with love for her creature.

The woman, slim and upright, was wrapped in a golden pagne knotted on her chest; her head encircled by a golden crown adorned with rubies, emeralds and diamonds, and surmounted by a crystal flower. She sat down beside her daughter on the fine sand of the beach and held her in her arms. The father, also sweet and tender, approached. The little girl’s heart began to beat fast. He was the man of her dreams. Thrilled, all three remained together until the girl, reassured, fell asleep.

But when she awoke to that newfound serenity, her parents were no longer there. The girl stared at the horizon. And reaching out her arms towards the distant void with the colours of hope, she saw the star of happiness twinkling.

She thought then that her life was a miracle, for with the power of the love she devoted to her parents, they could appear to her in dreams in moments of despair, and in absolute secrecy.

She never spoke to anyone about those visits. She felt happy and enjoyed the profound sensation of being able to live an eternity of stillness and absolute peace. Now he knew why the elders said that the stars are the souls of our departed ones. (Photo: 123rf.com)

Folktale from DR Congo

Photo Gallery – Comboni Youth Movement at World Youth Day

Advocacy

Adenike Oladosu. Climate Change: Time to Act.

Nigerian ecofeminist Adenike Titilope Oladosu is the founder of   I Lead Climate Action, an initiative aimed at empowering women and youth to combat climate change.…

Read more

Baobab

The Crocodile and the Cockerel.

Once upon a time, the crocodile was king of the animals. He was holding court one day. He sat majestically on his throne as he received…

Read more

Youth & Mission

Jubilee of the Youth: An Unforgettable Journey of Hope.

Coming from five continents, 270 young people belonging to the Comboni Youth Movement gathered in Rome (24th July – 4th August 2025) to celebrate the Jubilee.…

Read more