Ever since it won the first democratic elections, held in November 1989 and supervised by the UN, by a comfortable 57%, the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO, now called the ‘SWAPO Party of Namibia’) has continued to enjoy an absolute majority over its opponents. A majority that grew even further over the years from…
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The structure of the economy of Namibia reflects the contradictions that are typical of all southern Africa. On the one hand, the country may boast of one of the highest per capita incomes in the continent (almost 12,000 dollars which, in terms of 2017 real purchasing power, amounts to five times that of the poorest…
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A Camillian and also professor at the University of Ouagadougou, Father Jacques Simporè assists the sick and most neglected. He has always worked with tenacity against the spread of HIV decimating the country. Fr. Jacques Simporè’s dream was to place himself at the service of science and the poor: besides the motivation he received from…
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The 2,720 kilometre wall, which separates the areas occupied by Morocco and those liberated by the Polisario Front in Western Sahara, is actually the largest active military barrier in the world, and the second longest wall after the Great Wall of China. One can observe the wall only from the mandatory safety distance of five…
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The Bari, a South Sudan ethnic group who live on the Savannah along the White Nile, believe that death is not a curse but a ‘going to rest’ . Among the Bari, death is seen as something natural, the common fate of all. It is desired by God but is not seen as a curse.…
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He has transformed sterile land into a forest by digging trenches in the hardened earth that hold water and other nutrients, allowing the growing crops to resist drought. This is an ancient unconventional technique known as zaï. The land is different in the province of Yatenga in the northern region of Burkina Faso, a few…
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Originally from the Argentine, Mons. José Luis Gerardo Ponce de León has for five years been Bishop of Manzini in the Kingdom of Eswatini, the former Swaziland. He shares his experience with us. Before becoming Bishop of Manzini I had been appointed, in 2009, to the Apostolic Vicariate of Ingwavuma in South Africa, a diocese…
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With only 2.6 million inhabitants and an area of 824,292 square kilometres, Namibia presents a particularly complicated ethnic and cultural geography. Low population density and the absence of large urban centres of development (Windhoek, the political capital and the main city of the country, has little more than 300,000 inhabitants) deprive Namibia of the powerful…
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She lives and works in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has dedicated all her life to her mission to welcome and care for the worst cases, those who need her as an experienced surgeon and as one who has unfailing faith in divine providence. “In the Congo, it is the missionaries who are really…
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The SWAPO movement succeeded in bringing on board the different ethnic groups, even co-opting some of the tribal leaders. In Namibia too, as in the rest of Africa, ethnic diversity is a difficult problem to manage. It may be said that the political fortunes of SWAPO were due, leaving aside the fidelity of the Ovambo…
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In the Chadian region bordering with Libya, an area rich in gold, we find a crossroads of illegal trading, ethnic disputes and military positioning. The Tibesti region is a triangle of mountains and desert in the north west of Chad, confined between the Libyan and Niger borders. It is an impenetrable territory accessible only by…
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Xenophobic attacks against immigrants are causing a lot of damage to South Africa’s image across the continent. Local politicians are partly to blame for their populists rethorics. On the 2 and 3 September, 12 people were killed in anti-foreign riots in Pretoria and in Johannesburg townships. Mobs looted shops and torched vehicles owned by foreigners.…
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Advocacy is a strategy used around the world by NGOs, activists, and even policy makers themselves, to influence policies. Advocacy is about creating reform of…
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0nce upon a time there was a colony of little fishes who lived together in their own small pool, isolated from the rest of the fish…
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The world is afire again, the flames heartbreakingly consume shrubs, trees and forests in Australia, Portugal, Brazil, and recently in California and Siberia and elsewhere too.…
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