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Ghanaians voted in an election seen as a close fight between President Nana Akufo-Addo and his longtime rival John Mahama, in a country long viewed a beacon of stability in a troubled region.
Announcement of the death of former President Rawlings pic.twitter.com/7ext0fp4sd
— Nana Akufo-Addo (@NAkufoAddo) November 12, 2020
Watch our report:
In 1934, with the assistance of Speranzeva, Dunham established the Chicago Negro School of Ballet and a company, a Negro Dance Group, which advanced into the Katherine Dunham Dance Company.
She did her anthropological field work in the Caribbean as a graduate student in 1935, receiving a Rosenwald Fellowship to study traditional dances in Jamaica, Martinique, Trinidad and Haiti, where she became close to Haitians and took up the Vaudun religion.
Dunham took her Negro Dance Group to New York in 1937 but did not attract wide attention there until 1939, when she choreographed “Pins and Needles,” a satirical revue produced by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.
Beyond her theatrical career, Dunham did pioneering work in the field of dance anthropology and founded a school that embodied multi-cultural principles decades before the term was used in the field of education.
Her books include “Journey to Accompong” (1946), “A Touch of Innocence: Memoirs of Childhood” (1959), “Island Possessed” (1969) and “Dances of Haiti” (1984)
Dunham received some of the most prestigious awards in the arts, including the Presidential Medal of the Arts, the Albert Schweitzer Prize (presented at Carnegie Hall), Kennedy Center Honors and decorations from the French and Haitian governments.
The Pan-Africanist Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo
The President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, is seeking a second term in the upcoming presidential election on Monday. Although often positively-viewed by many other Africans on the continent and abroad as a Pan-Africanist, his win is not guaranteed in his home country as he must succeed in convincing Ghanaians that he is still the same worthy candidate for whom the majority of the population voted four years prior. Early Days and Career Début
Born in 1944 in the capital, Accra to a family of the national political elite, Akufo-Addo saw his own father Edward Akufo-Addo become president in the late 1960s as a member of the \"Big Six\" i.e. the fathers of independence of the nation of Ghana. Educated in London, Akufo-Addo he worked as a lawyer in France and England — specialising in human rights before returning to Ghana where he eventually became involved with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in 1992 when the country returned to democracy following decades of military rule.
His career path as a lawyer then as a member of parliament and minister garnered Akufo-Addo a strong anti-corruption reputation which resulted in high expectations for his presidency.
According to Kwesi Jonah, a researcher at the Ghana Institute for Democratic Governance, \"Everyone saw him as the one who would be able to put an end to corruption.\"
Accusations of mission obstruction by the special prosecutor — who resigned a month later, to oversee a corruption investigation initiative appointed by Akufo-Addo upon his election in December 2016, raised questions about the authenticity of his presidential brand amongst the Ghanian public.
Presidential Term Overview
Kwesi Jonah believes that the 76-year-old Ghanaian president was in a better position to win the election than he is today. President Akufo-Addo had promised to improve education accessibility- a sector which has seen success, and create job employment as a substantial percentage of Ghanian youth is without work.
An asset for the president, in a country where 18 to 35-year-olds represent more than half of the electorate.
He also pledged to diversify the Ghanian economy which has been dependent on primary resources (gold, cocoa and, more recently, oil), and to reduce taxes in the private sector to encourage investment.
Since his election in 2016, although President Akufo-Addo has managed to contain the increase in debt and inflation, more than half of voters believe that he has failed to improve their standard of living and create jobs — according to a survey conducted by Afrobarometer in 2019.
Economically, Ghana has taken a giant step forward in the last decade, but the country - just like most other countries, has been very much affected by the Covid-19 pandemic with its economic growth this year expected to fall to 1.5%, the lowest rate in 37 years.
Another Four Years as President?
Nevertheless, the President’s swift handling of the coronavirus crisis has been applauded both in Ghana and abroad. In particular, the
This West African nation on the Gulf of Guinea, between Togo on the west and Nigeria on the east, is about the size of Tennessee. It is bounded by Burkina Faso and Niger on the north. The land consists of a narrow coastal strip that rises to a swampy, forested plateau and then to highlands in the north. A hot and humid climate blankets the entire country.
Republic under a multiparty democratic rule.
The Abomey kingdom of the Dahomey, or Fon, peoples was established in 1625. A rich cultural life flourished, and Dahomeys wooden masks, bronze statues, tapestries, and pottery are world renowned. One of the smallest and most densely populated regions in Africa, Dahomey was annexed by the French in 1893 and incorporated into French West Africa in 1904. It became an autonomous republic within the French Community in 1958, and on Aug. 1, 1960, Dahomey was granted its independence within the Community.
Gen. Christophe Soglo deposed the first president, Hubert Maga, in an army coup in 1963. He dismissed the civilian government in 1965, proclaiming himself chief of state. A group of young army officers seized power in Dec. 1967, deposing Soglo. In Dec. 1969, Benin had its fifth coup of the decade, with the army again taking power. In May 1970, a three-man presidential commission with a six-year term was created to take over the government. In May 1972, yet another army coup ousted the triumvirate and installed Lt. Col. Mathieu Kérékou as president. Between 1974 and 1989 Dahomey embraced socialism, and changed its name to the Peoples Republic of Benin. The name Benin commemorates an African kingdom that flourished from the 15th to the 17th century in what is now southwest Nigeria. In 1990, Benin abandoned Marxist ideology, began moving toward multiparty democracy, and changed its name again, to the Republic of Benin.
By the end of the 1980s, Benins economy was near collapse. As its oil boom ended, Nigeria expelled 100,000 Beninese migrant workers and closed the border with Benin. Kérékous socialist collectivization of
Hubert Ogunde , (born 1916, Ososa, near Ijebu-Ode, Nigeria—died April 4, 1990, London, Eng.), Nigerian playwright, actor, theatre manager, and musician, who was a pioneer in the field of Nigerian folk opera (drama in which music and dancing play a significant role). He was the founder of the Ogunde Concert Party (1945), the first professional theatrical company in Nigeria. Often regarded as the father of Nigerian theatre, Ogunde sought to reawaken interest in his country’s indigenous culture.
Ogunde’s first folk opera, The Garden of Eden and the Throne of God, was performed with success in 1944 while he was still a member of the Nigerian Police Force. It was produced under the patronage of an African Protestant sect, and it mixed biblical themes with the traditions of Yoruba dance-drama. His popularity was established throughout Nigeria by his timely play Strike and Hunger (performed 1946), which dramatized the general strike of 1945. In 1946 the name of Ogunde’s group was changed to the African Music Research Party, and in 1947 it became the Ogunde Theatre Company. Many of Ogunde’s early plays were attacks on colonialism, while those of his later works with political themes deplored interparty strife and government corruption within Nigeria. Yoruba theatre became secularized through his careful blending of astute political or social satire with elements of music hall routines and slapstick.
Ogunde’s most famous play, Yoruba Ronu (performed 1964; “Yorubas, Think!”), was such a biting attack on the premier of Nigeria’s Western region that his company was banned from the region—the first instance in post-independence Nigeria of literary censorship. The ban was lifted in 1966 by Nigeria’s new military government, and in that same year the Ogunde Dance Company was formed. Otito Koro (performed 1965; “Truth is Bitter”) also satirizes political events in western Nigeria in 1963. An earlier play produced in 1946, The Tiger’s Empire, also marked the first instance in Yoruban theatre that women were billed to appear in
Raphael Abraham Frank Mensah (1924-1990s), a schoolmaster and theologian, played a foundational role in bringing Mormonism to Ghana. Born in 1924 in Winneba, Gold Coast, as the British colony of Ghana was then called, he was the eldest of five children, three sons and two daughters. Mensah experimented with a variety of religious faiths. He attended a Catholic secondary school, lived with a Muslim uncle, and then join the Methodist and later the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. He became an “International Evangelist” for the Seventh-day Adventists and served as headmaster for the Church’s Ghana Empire Secondary School. Though he represented the Seventh-day Adventists throughout West Africa, he also joined the Brotherhood of the Star and Cross, an indigenous Christian group originating from the visionary experiences of its founder, Olumba Olumba Obu, whom Mensah visited to receive counsel.
According to most accounts Mensah came into contact with Mormonism in early 1964 through Lillian Clark, a Sufi mystic living in St. Agnes, Penhalls, United Kingdom. Clark had met two Latter-day Saints missionaries, Loretta Johnson and Karen Nelson, who introduced her to Church teachings. Clark later shared the teachings with Mensah who brought them to Ghana when he returned home. One of his first converts was Joseph William Billy Johnson.
By 1964, Mensah, Johnson, and another convert, Rebecca Mould collaborated to establish a working, but unofficial, Mormon organization based in Accra. In 1969, they had garnered several hundred converts and new leadership. Mensah retained control over the faithful in Ghana from the capital, Accra, while Johnson moved to Cape Coast and Mould moved to Sekondi-Takoradi to spread LDS teachings. Mensah imported Mormon teachings into other facets of his life, teaching members of the Brotherhood of the Star and Cross from the Book of Mormon. In 1967 Mensah and Johnson established in Accra the Brigham Young Educational Institute which enrolled approximately 50 children. They based their school
John F. Hicks is a diplomat and global educator who served as a United States Ambassador to the United Nations (UN). A native of Goldsboro, North Carolina, Hicks was born in 1949. Hicks holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Morehouse College, a diploma and master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University in Bologna, Italy and Washington, D.C.
His career in international relations and diplomacy began in 1973 when he joined the United Internship Program with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This service propelled him through the ranks where he served in senior leadership positions in Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, Zambia, and the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. In 1989, Hicks was awarded the Agency’s Senior Foreign Service Presidential Meritorious Service Award.
Hicks received his first presidential appointment in 1993 as the Assistant Administrator for USAID’s Africa Bureau. In this capacity Hicks was responsible for distributing aid in addition to strategically managing United States humanitarian and economic development programs on behalf of Sub-Saharan Africa. Towards the end of his tenure with USAID, he became a member the Senior Foreign Service and was promoted to the rank of Career Minister.
In 1996 President Bill Clinton announced Hicks’s second appointment, as Ambassador to Eritrea. By 1997, Federal investigator Jacquelyn L. Williams-Bridgers had begun investigating Hicks on accusations of sexual misconduct. In September of 1997 Hicks resigned after a report by Williams-Bridgers concluded that he had engaged in sexual misconduct. Hicks was accused of sexual harassment against two secretaries in the U.S. Embassy in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. The women claimed he engaged in inappropriate physical contact and created a hostile work environment for them.
Originally, Hicks denied these accusations and prepared to defend himself in the upcoming hearings. He decided, however, to resign to spare his family embarrassment, and instead to pursue a career in the United
Igbo Ukwu is an African Iron Age archaeological site located near the modern town of Onitsha, in the forest zone of southeastern Nigeria. Although it is unclear what kind of a site it is—settlement, residence, or burial—we know that the the Igbo Ukwu was used during the late 10th century A.D.
Igbo-Ukwu was discovered in 1938 by workmen who were digging a cistern and professionally excavated by Thurston Shaw in 1959/60 and 1974.
Eventually, three localities were identified: Igbo-Isaiah, an underground storage chamber; Igbo-Richard, a burial chamber once lined with wooden planks and floor matting and containing the remains of six individuals; and Igbo-Jonah, an underground cache of ritual and ceremonial objects thought to have been collected during the dismantling of a shrine.
The Igbo-Richard locality was clearly a burial place for an elite (wealthy) person, buried with a large array of grave goods, but it is unknown whether this person was a ruler or had some other religious or secular role in his or her community. The principal interment is an adult seated on a wooden stool, dressed in fine clothing and with rich grave effects including over 150,000 glass beads. The remains of five attendants were found alongside.
The burial included a number of elaborate cast bronze vases, bowls, and ornaments, made with the lost wax (or lost latex) technique.
Elephant tusks and bronze and silver objects illustrated with elephants were found. The bronze pommel of a sword hilt in the form of a horse and rider was also found in this burial, as were wooden objects and vegetable textiles preserved by their proximity to bronze artifacts.
Over 165,000 glass and carnelian beads were found at Igbo-Ukwu, as were objects of copper, bronze, and iron, broken and complete pottery and burned animal bone.
The vast majority of the beads were made of monochrome glass, of yellow, grayish blue, dark blue, dark green, peacock blue, and reddish brown colors. There were also striped beads and multicolored eye beads, as well as stone beads and a
Garnet moved to the West African nation but died on February 13, 1882, barely two months after his arrival .
Defeaning vuvuzelas and party songs took over Ghana's capital Accra on Saturday, the final day of campaigning ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections.
Twelve candidates, including three women, are vying for the west African nation's top job, but Monday's vote is essentially a fight between President Nana Akufo-Addo, 76, and former head of state John Mahama.
The city centre was plastered with billboards and posters and flags at every corner.
Akufo-Addo, running for a second term, drove through the shanty town of Nima, making whistle stops to acknowledge mammoth crowds clad in T-shirts of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).
\"It’s a done deal. It’s clear. The crowd says it all. Four more (years) for Nana,\" a party supporter, Dauda Faisal said.
Defying all COVID-19 protocols -– with just a handful wearing face masks -- the ecstatic crowd waved miniature flags as the president headed towards the rally grounds where he was due to address supporters.
Opposition leader John Mahama meanwhile kicked off his final day of campaigning by meeting local chiefs and labour union leaders, assuring them of more jobs if he won the December 7 election.
Mahama, 62, who has been campaigning hard for months, was expected later in the evening at a rally organised by his party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
More than 17 million people are registered to vote in the nation's eighth poll since it returned to democracy nearly 30 years ago.
This is the third time that Akufo-Addo and Mahama are running against each other, and the race is expected to be very close.
Results could be announced within 24 hours after the polls close.
One specific challenge with our healthcare system strengthening efforts in Kenya is that many patients preferred to receive care from herbalists and found it convenient to consult them.
This helped us overcome many of the challenges with trust and lack of convenience that patients often mention when deciding to forgo care from the healthcare system.
The inclusion of these peer providers who have successfully managed their conditions has helped serve as a bridge between the community and healthcare system to improve our relationship and ability to communicate with each other.
This integrated approach has enabled our programme to build trust with the communities we serve and directly address the challenges with misinformation as members of the community feel much greater comfort with seeking advice from providers who are based within the community.
Our examples from Kenya show that when healthcare providers integrate into communities, people will be more likely to seek out their advice and trust their opinions.
Slavery has been rife throughout all of ancient history. Most, if not all, ancient civilizations practiced this institution and it is described (and defended) in early writings of the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Egyptians. It was also practiced by early societies in central America and Africa. (See Bernard Lewiss work Race and Slavery in the Middle East 1 for a detailed chapter on the origins and practices of slavery.)
The Quran prescribes a humanitarian approach to slavery -- free men could not be enslaved, and those faithful to foreign religions could live as protected persons, dhimmis, under Muslim rule (as long as they maintained payment of taxes called Kharaj and Jizya). However, the spread of the Islamic Empire resulted in a much harsher interpretation of the law. For example, if a dhimmis was unable to pay the taxes they could be enslaved, and people from outside the borders of the Islamic Empire were considered an acceptable source of slaves.
Although the law required owners to treat slaves well and provide medical treatment, a slave had no right to be heard in court (testimony was forbidden by slaves), had no right to property, could marry only with permission of their owner, and was considered to be a chattel, that is the (moveable) property, of the slave owner. Conversion to Islam did not automatically give a slave freedom nor did it confer freedom to their children.
Whilst highly educated slaves and those in the military did win their freedom, those used for basic duties rarely achieved freedom. In addition, the recorded mortality rate was high -- this was still significant even as late as the nineteenth century and was remarked upon by western travelers in North Africa and Egypt.
Slaves were obtained through conquest, tribute from vassal states (in the first such treaty, Nubia was required to provide hundreds of male and female slaves), offspring (children of slaves were also slaves, but since many slaves were castrated this was not as common as it had been in the Roman empire), and purchase.
Because the world has another face
Open your eyes
--Angelique Kidjo1
As an amateur medievalist, I have become keenly aware of how the history of Europe in the middle ages is often misunderstood or dismissed by otherwise intelligent, educated individuals. The medieval era of those nations outside of Europe is doubly ignored, first for its disreputable time frame (the dark ages), and then for its apparent lack of direct impact on modern western society.
Such is the case with Africa in the middle ages, a fascinating field of study that suffers from the further insult of racism. With the unavoidable exception of Egypt, the history of Africa before the incursion of Europeans has in the past been dismissed, erroneously and at times deliberately, as inconsequential to the development of modern society. Fortunately, some scholars are working to correct this grave error. The study of medieval African societies has value, not only because we can learn from all civilizations in all time frames, but because these societies reflected and influenced a myriad of cultures that, due to the Diaspora that began in the 16th century, have spread throughout the modern world.
One of these fascinating and near-forgotten societies is the medieval Kingdom of Mali, which thrived as a dominant power in west Africa from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century. Founded by the Mande-speaking Mandinka2 people, early Mali was governed by a council of caste-leaders who chose a mansa to rule.
In time, the position of mansa evolved into a more powerful role similar to a king or emperor.
According to tradition, Mali was suffering from a fearful drought when a visitor told the king, Mansa Barmandana, that the drought would break if he converted to Islam. This he did, and as predicted the drought did end.
Other Mandinkans followed the kings lead and converted as well, but the mansa did not force a conversion, and many retained their Mandinkan beliefs. This religious freedom would remain throughout the centuries to come as Mali emerged as a
Transair, an ambitious company founded 10 years ago, has no passengers because of the pandemic - but it still has to fly its planes.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates the crisis will inflict a hit of $314 billion on airlines' turnover this year, equivalent to a fall of 55% over 2019.
Such talk is grim news for Senegal's three airlines, the biggest of which is the national flag carrier Air Senegal, founded in 2016, which specialises in scheduled flights between West Africa and Europe.
\"Before (the pandemic), we were expanding, we were even thinking about starting inter-continental flights in a few years,\" Transair's boss and founder, Alioune Fall, told AFP.
Of this, 45 billion francs is likely to go to Air Senegal, while Transair, as a private company, is likely to be offered low-interest loans and a delay in value-added tax (VAT) payments.
Roseau is the capital, principal town, and major port of Dominica, an island nation of 72,000 people in the Caribbean Sea. The town had a population of 16,582 people in 2007, making it one of the least populous capitals in the world. Roseau is located on the southwestern coast of the nation at the mouth of the Roseau River. Its main exports are skin oils, limes and their juice, tropical vegetables, and spices. Throughout the nation’s history the town has been the commercial center of the island.
The history of Roseau had begun well before Europeans began to settle the island nation. The island of Dominica was discovered and named by Christopher Columbus on November 3, 1493. It was occupied, however, only by the Carib people for the next century. When the Spanish finally attempted a settlement, the Carib drove them from the island.
In 1642 Father Raymond Breton, a French missionary, visited the island and encountered a Carib village where Roseau now sits. The Carib called the area Sari. French woodcutters, who were the first Europeans on the island, befriended the natives and lived together with them until increasing French settlement caused the Caribs to retreat to interior forests.
The new French settlers renamed the Carib village Roseau after the river reeds, Roseaux, that grew on the river banks. The town’s location meant settlers had access to fresh water from the river and flat lands in the area to cultivate. The French also brought the first enslaved people from West Africa to the island colony. By 1800 people of African ancestry were the majority of the island’s residents where they toiled on coffee plantations, and the majority of the inhabitants of Roseau. Slavery was abolished on the island and throughout the British Empire in 1833.
Dominica by that point had become the object of nearly half-century struggle between the French and the English. The 1763 Treaty of Paris which ended a global conflict between the British and the French called the Seven Years’ War (on North America it was
In the 21st century, there’s never been more focus on Africa than now. Thanks to the revolutions sweeping through North Africa and the Middle East, Africa has the world’s attention. But just because all eyes happen to be on Africa at the moment doesn’t mean myths about this part of the world have been dispelled. Despite the intense interest in Africa today, racial stereotypes about it persist. Do you have any misperceptions about Africa?
This list of common myths about Africa aims to clear them up.
What’s the No. 1 stereotype about Africa? Arguably, that Africa’s not a continent, but a country. Ever hear someone refer to African food or African art or even the African language? Such individuals have no idea that Africa’s the second largest continent in the world. Instead, they view it as a tiny country with no distinct traditions, cultures or ethnic groups. They fail to realize that referring to, say, African food sounds just as odd as referring to North American food or the North American language or the North American people.
Africa’s home to 53 countries, including island nations along the continent’s coast. These countries contain diverse groups of people who speak a variety of languages and practice a wide range of customs. Take Nigeria--Africa’s most populous country. Among the nation’s population of 152 million, more than 250 distinct ethnic groups live.
While English is the former British colonys official language, the dialects of ethnic groups indigenous to the West African nation, such as Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo, are commonly spoken as well. To boot, Nigerians practice Christianity, Islam and indigenous religions. So much for the myth that all Africans are alike.
The most populated nation on the continent certainly proves otherwise.
If you turn to popular culture for images of people on the African continent, you’re likely to notice a pattern. Time and time again, Africans are depicted as if they’re one and the same. You’ll see Africans portrayed wearing face paint and animal print and all with
Also Sunday, Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo said the country's health minister has the coronavirus.
Ghana has among the most COVID-19 cases in West Africa, but one of the lowest death rates because of what experts say has been extensive testing.
In hard-hit Colombia, the number of COVID-19 cases climbed past the 50,000 mark, the health ministry said Sunday.
French President Emmanuel Macron told the nation Sunday that the coronavirus pandemic has taught him what he says is the need for more economic independence.
With the French economy expected to contract as much as 11% this year, Macron said he will come up with a blueprint for more economic independence by next month.
May 16: Nigeria receives COVID-Organics, scientific tests ordered
\tNigerian president Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday (May 16) received the country’s share of a purported coronavirus herbal cure, COVID-Organics.
Madagascar donated a consignment of the controversial cure to the West African bloc, ECOWAS.
May 12: Nigeria accepts COVID-Organics
\tNigeria is set to fly in Madagascar’s herbal cure donation from Guinea-Bissau, a top official at the president who is leader of the presidential task force on COVID-19 disclosed on Monday.
“Mr President has given instructions for the airlifting of Nigeria’s allocation of the Madagascar Covid-19 Syrup; also given clear instructions that it must be subjected to the standard validation process for pharmaceuticals; there will be no exceptions for this.
May 6: ECOWAS ‘rejects’ COVID-Organics, Madagascar’s untested virus cure
\tThe Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, has dissociated itself from reports of a donation from Madagascar regarding a coronavirus herbal cure, COVID-Organics.
William Bill Pinkney is the first African American, and only the fourth person in the world to circumnavigate the globe alone by boat. Pinkney was born on September 15, 1935, in Chicago, Illinois to Marion Henderson Pinkney and William Pinkney, Sr. He attended Tilden Tech High School in Chicago, and after graduating received training as an x-ray technician.
After high school Pinkney had a variety of different jobs. He was on active duty in the Navy from 1956 to 1960 as a hospital corpsman. He decided to move to Puerto Rico after leaving the Navy and while there held a series of jobs including one as a professional limbo dancer. Eventually he hired on to work as a crewman on sailboats. Pinkney then moved to New York, trained to become a make-up artist and eventually landed a job at Revlon, the cosmetics company. From there he moved back to his hometown of Chicago to work for the Johnson and Johnson Company. By 1980, however, Pinkney was an employee of the city of Chicago.
Despite the variety of jobs, Pinkney continued his interest in sailing that he had developed in Puerto Rico and became particularly adept at sailing alone. At the age of 50, after thinking about the legacy he would leave behind for his two grandchildren, April and Brian Walton, Pinkney decided he would attempt to sail around the world alone to encourage them to think and do the impossible. After receiving funding from the industrialist Armand Hammer and a Boston law firm, Aldrich, Eastman, and Waltch, he began to plan his solo voyage.
At the age of 55 Pinkney began his odyssey on August 5, 1990, setting sail from Boston Harbor. He sailed on a 47-foot boat called The Commitment, which had been specially rigged so one man could operate it. Out of all the possible routes, Pinkney chose the most difficult one, which would take him around the five capes. He made stops in Bermuda, Brazil, South Africa, Tasmania, and finally around Cape Horn (the most difficult part of the voyage). His voyage took him 22 months, including a six month
May 22: Cases pass 100,000 mark
\tConfirmed cases of coronavirus across Africa passed the 100,000 mark barely 24-hours after the deaths hit 3,000.
The five most impacted nations were as follows:
\t
\t\tSouth Africa: 19,137 confirmed cases
\t\tEgypt: 15,003
\t\tAlgeria: 7,728
\t\tMorocco: 7,300
\t\tNigeria: 7,016
\tSouth Africa is the most impact across the continent and in the southern African region.
VIDEO
April 18: Cases across Africa pass 20,000 mark
\tConfirmed cases of coronavirus passed the 20,000 mark barely 24-hours after the deaths topped 1,000.
Under the worst-case scenario with no interventions against the virus, Africa could see 3.3 million deaths and 1.2 billion infections, the report by the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa said.
Additional files on UNECA report from AP
April 17: Africa’s coronavirus deaths pass 1,000 mark as cases approach 20,000
\tAfrica’s coronavirus deaths have surpassed the 1,000 mark according to tallies by the john Hopkins University.
May 19: govt to explain boom recoveries and address hot spot case management
\tTotal confirmed cases = 5,918 (new cases = 183)
Total recoveries = 1,754 (new = 0)
Total deaths = 31 (new = 2)
Active cases = 4,137
\tFigures valid as of May 19, 2020
\tNo new figures were released on Monday but the government through the Information Ministry will release new tallies at a press conference scheduled for later today.
May 17: 5,735 cases, prez fact-checked on testing ‘record’
\tTotal confirmed cases = 5735 (new cases = 97)
Total recoveries = 1,754 (new = 294)
Total deaths = 29 (new = 5)
Active cases = 3,952
\tFigures valid as of close of day May 16, 2020
\tGhana maintained her spot as West Africa’s most impacted after the Health Ministry released latest figures yesterday.
AFP Fact-check – Ghana’s leader falsely claims his country fronts COVID-19 testing
May 16: 5,530 cases, jumbo recoveries
\tTotal confirmed cases = 5,638 (new cases = 108)
Total recoveries = 1,460 (new recoveries = 1086)
Total deaths = 24 (new deaths = 0)
Active cases = 4,150
\tGhana recorded a boost in recoveries with a record 1,086 discharges authorities reported early Saturday.
READ MORE – Uniting behind a people’s vaccine against COVID-19
May 14: 5,530 cases, 13 of 16 regions infected
\tTotal confirmed cases = 5,530 (new cases = 122)
Total recoveries = 674 (new recoveries = 160)
Active cases = 4,832
\tThirteen of the 16 regions in the country have recorded cases of the disease.
Statistics as at close of day May 13, 2020
\tTotal confirmed cases = 5,408 (new cases = 281)
Total recoveries = 514
Total deaths = 24
Active cases = 4,872
May 12: Cases hit 5,127; gold-rich Obuasi new hotspot
\tGhana’s case statistics passed the 5,000 mark after 427 new cases were recorded according to head of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Aboagye.
With Nigeria one of 36 countries at the risk of an acute food crisis in Africa, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) says it has scaled up its outreach to 1.2 million people monthly in the northeast region of the country in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.
While the COVID-19 pandemic is threatening to double the number of hungry people in Nigeria, Mr Onyemaobi said the food security situation in Nigeria was quite alarming even before the pandemic.
Mr Onyemaobi said COVID-19 would double the number of food insecure people in Nigeria \"unless we all put heads together to extend food assistance to the most vulnerable people in our communities, towns and villages.\"
Current efforts
As a strategy to curtail the spread of the coronavirus disease, Mr Onyemaobi said WFP is distributing two months' of food and nutrition assistance in IDP camps and among vulnerable communities to ensure that people have sufficient food while they are on lockdown.
Hunger threat in West Africa
Meanwhile,Elisabeth Byers, the WFP spokesperson, according to a report by the United Nations (UN) website, said, in West Africa, \"An additional 20 million people could struggle to feed themselves due to the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 in the next six months, doubling the number of food-insecure to 43 million in this region.\"
THE ruling Zanu PF has failed to deal with Zimbabwe’s multifaceted crisis as the socio-economic situation continues to deteriorate since 2018 elections, a survey has shown.
According to a report on citizens’ perceptions and expectations titled Dancing on the Same Spot by SIVIO Institute, an independent organisation focused on ensuring that citizens are at the centre of processes of economic-political-social and policy change, the socio-economic crisis has worsened with no prospects of a turnaround in the immediate future.
It noted that the opposition MDC Alliance has also failed to deliver on its promises in local authorities they run, but added that the opposition party has continuously shifted the blame on Zanu PF, accusing the governing party of interference.
We have been tracking how the promises made by Zanu PF during the elections have been converted into policy programmes,” the report read.
This government still has a lot of work to convince its own citizens and also the international community that they are actually about reforms and turning around the fortunes of the countries,” the report read.
More than a million African soldiers served in colonial armies in World War II.
May 8, 1945, marks the 75th anniversary of the surrender of the German armed forces and the end of the Second World War in Europe.
More than a million Africans served as combatants as well as war workers and carriers in World War II for the colonial powers - more than half enlisted by Britain with the rest serving France and Belgium.
On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Allied landing in Provence in southern France, President Emmanuel Macron expressed gratitude for the contribution of African soldiers in defeating the German forces occupying France.
Senegalese writer and filmmaker Ousmane Sembene, himself a former colonial soldier, put it like this in a 2015 interview with DW: \"In war, we saw the white men naked and we have not forgotten that picture.\"
Henry Francis Downing was an author, playwright, consul and sailor. He was born in New York City in 1846, the son of Henry and Nancy Downing. His family maintained an oyster business that had been owned by his grandfather, Thomas Downing, a well known freeman. His uncle was famed New York businessman and civil rights leader, George Thomas Downing.
In 1864 Henry Downing enlisted in the Union Navy at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. He began his service on board the U.S.S. North Carolina and was transferred to the U.S.S. Pawtuxet in December of 1864. Navy records listed him as having deserted in 1865, though it was later revealed he left the ship to attend his stepfather’s funeral, and his mother had obtained his discharge so that he could assist her.
After the Civil War, Downing began a journey around the world. He reached Liberia where his cousin, Hilary Johnson, would later become president of Liberia from 1884 to 1892. Downing lived in Liberia for three years where he was a private secretary to the secretary of state.
Downing returned to the United States and in 1872, reenlisted in the Navy and served for three years. Most of his time was served on the U.S.S. Hartford which operated off the coast of East Africa. With considerable time spent in both West and East Africa, Downing was one of the African Americans most knowledgeable about the African continent and its politics.
Returning to New York in 1875, Downing became a messenger and clerk of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In 1876 at the age of 33, he married a woman named Isadora. The couple had two children.
By the 1880s, Downing became involved in New York politics and was a supporter of the Democrats and New York Governor Grover Cleveland. When Cleveland was elected President in 1884, Downing was rewarded for his support by an appointment as U.S. counsel to Luanda, Angola. He served in this post from 1886 to 1887, leaving because he was unsuccessful in getting significant American trade with this African nation.
After his resignation Downing returned to New
Coordinates: 14°N 14°W / 14°N 14°W
Senegal (/ˌ s ɛ n ɪ ˈ ɡ ɔː l, -ˈ ɡ ɑː l/ ( listen);[7] [8] French: Sénégal ), officially the Republic of Senegal (French: République du Sénégal [ʁepyblik dy seneɡal]), is a country in West Africa. Senegal is bordered by Mauritania in the north, Mali to the east, Guinea to the southeast, and Guinea-Bissau to the southwest. Senegal also borders The Gambia, a country occupying a narrow sliver of land along the banks of the Gambia River, which separates Senegals southern region of Casamance from the rest of the country. Senegal also shares a maritime border with Cape Verde. Senegals economic and political capital is Dakar. It is the westernmost country in the mainland of the Old World, or Afro-Eurasia,[9] and owes its name to the Senegal River, which borders it to the east and north. The name Senegal comes from the Wolof Sunuu Gaal, which means Our Boat. Senegal covers a land area of almost 197,000 square kilometres (76,000 sq mi) and has an estimated population of about 15 million[2]. The climate is Sahelian, but there is a rainy season.
Cultures and influences [ edit ]
The territory of modern Senegal has been inhabited by various ethnic groups since prehistory. Organized kingdoms emerged around the seventh century, and parts of the country were ruled by prominent regional empires such as the Jolof Empire. The present state of Senegal has its roots in European colonialism, which began during the mid-15th century, when various European powers began competing for trade in the area. The establishment of coastal trading posts gradually led to control of the mainland, culminating in French rule of the area by the 19th century, albeit amid much local resistance. Senegal peacefully attained independence from France in 1960, and has since been among the more politically stable countries in Africa.
Senegals economy is centered mostly on commodities and natural resources. Major industries are fish processing, phosphate mining, fertilizer production, petroleum
