Link Africa

• “As oil workers prepare pipes for deepwater installation at the port of Takoradi, and the Ghanaian government passes legislation regulating the oil, Ghanaians are wondering whether the oil will benefit them.”
• “Naija Lingo is an online Dictionary for all your Nigerian pidgin/broken English needs. It is a dictionary for people who want definitions to Nigerian words or slang, names and phrases and created by the people (you) who know them”
• “In the case of one woman Brenyah mentioned, the efficiency of a new irrigation system gave the mother free time to walk her kids to school. For another, her mastery of machinery and greater participation in the family’s business encouraged her husband to start asking her opinion in family matters. “If a women helps to earn the household’s money, then she doesn’t have to depend on her husband,” says Brenyah, “and she will have a say in what the money is used for.””
• “the space in which we narrate Africa is changing.  The “we” is changing, too -– as much in the posture as in the biography of the writer.  Probably one is a reflection of the other, even for those of us who were not born to inherit the continent.  The narrative space is changing, and what we’re finally starting to see is something complicated, something troubling, something beautiful.  And we’re finally getting smart enough to hold all those things in our head at the same time. Dear Journalism, will you ever catch up?”
• “My biggest criticism is not that they are going to Africa to shed light on these “lost” recordings and forgotten about artists. I’m instead worried that they concentrate too much on those forms of music that fit nicely into the story that they, the DJs, want to tell about the music. The cataloging tendency tends to be a colonial one. Also, many of the DJs and label owners, perhaps because of its shared lineage with Hip Hop, have concentrated on Afro-Beat, or have given more weight to genres that are popular in the west like Rock and Funk.”

If you find something online that would be of interest to Vuga! readers and contributors, email tips to vugaafrica@gmail.com

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Link Africa

Now I look like an African (minus the whole white skin thing)!

• “Ghana has reduced the proportion of under-nourished people by over 75 percent since 1992. Currently, only 8 percent of its population remains under-nourished – roughly on par with many industrialized countries. In Ethiopia, primary education completion rates have increased by nearly 300 percent — meaning that millions of kids are now finishing at least eight years of schooling. Beyond that, Ethiopia is aggressively expanding access to secondary and tertiary education as well. In Burkina Faso, access to safe drinking water has increased by nearly 60 percent. Uganda has reduced its HIV/AIDS prevalence rate by over 60 percent.”
• “Africa has a new cheerleader, with even more financial clout. Bob Diamond, the new head of Barclays, is calling the continent an “incredible” opportunity.”
• “Africa is rich in untapped natural oil and gas reserves. With recent finds in Uganda and Ghana, the continent is certain to experience a flurry of exploration activity. Furthermore, Africa is expected to pass North America in 2011 and become the third largest producing area after the Middle East and Central/Eastern Europe.“
• “Anywhere along the maize belt, from Ethiopia down to South Africa and up to the Ivory Coast, a traveler can find a standard dish: maize flour boiled into a stiff porridge known as sadza in Zimbabwe, ugali in Kenya, and in the Bariba regions of Benin, dibu.”
• “You go to one of those fabulously elitist schools where everyone talks about privilege, classism, racism, sexism, etc. as if they don’t practice it in real life. But in order to really see the world, they decide to go somewhere where they can understand what their privilege looks like. So they choose AFRICA! Yay! A whole continent dedicated to helping white people understand what it means to be poor and undeveloped.”
• “Starting in December, Marvel’s king of the fictional African kingdom of Wakanda, otherwise known as T’Challa or the black panther, will be the mysterious super hero filling in Matt Murdock’s crime fighting shoes in New York city”
• “Africa has been seen as something more than a curio in global investment terms since 2007, when the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China bought up a 20 percent share in Mr. Maree’s bank for $5.5 billion. Suddenly, The Economist writes, Africa had the financial world’s attention.”

If you find something online that would be of interest to Vuga! readers and contributors, email tips to vugaafrica@gmail.com

Link Africa

A 3-year-old girl plays under an insecticide-treated mosquito net in Nairobi, Kenya

• “The blanketing of Africa with treated bed nets continues, regardless, with less than 5% of malaria control programs conducting any surveillance for resistant parasites and insects. “It is unbelievable,” Dr. Macdonald said, “how much money we are spending blindly.”
• “The fallout however does not stop there as yet, as Ugandans in general will be disappointed that the ambitious production start and construction of a mini refinery and gas or heavy fuel oil driven 100 MW power station will now delay a lot longer, while these disputes boil on.”
• “Is it the rebounding economy or that bouncing black and white ball?”
• “The circle has a precise seating placement, for each member keeps track of her own finances plus that of the woman to her right. Some groups employ common objects to symbolize financial transactions: e.g., you put your flip-flop in the center of the circle to show you are requesting a loan this week, or you put four small sticks inside the blue bank-box to represent the four future weeks in which you will make payments on that loan”
• “If locals are turning to magic (which they may well be), it is perhaps because such beliefs the world over are the last resort of the poor, the disenfranchised and the dispossessed – in short, those with no other way to change their lives”
• “In Africa the event connects artisans in an attempt to move the continent into a grassroots industrial era.”

If you find something online that would be of interest to Vuga! readers and contributors, email tips to vugaafrica@gmail.com

“Whatever cry we cry is not heard outside of here.”

In the Gulf, a reporter jumps into oil-covered waters, in Washington a woman interrupts a hearing to pour oil over herself, and a BP executive is summoned to the White House. In the Niger Delta, half a world away there is only silence. Where children splashed and fishermen sang as they cast for shrimp and crabs there is now the kind of quiet you find in mortuaries, not estuaries.

Estimates say that up to 2.5 million gallons of oil could be spilling into the Gulf of Mexico each day. The Niger Delta has borne the brunt of some 546 million gallons over the past 50 years.

Let me type that again for you: five hundred and forty six million gallons of oil have been spilled in the Niger delta over the past five decades.

According to a New York Times article:

“The oil spews from rusted and aging pipes, unchecked by what analysts say is ineffectual or collusive regulation, and abetted by deficient maintenance and sabotage. In the face of this black tide is an infrequent protest — soldiers guarding an Exxon Mobil site beat women who were demonstrating last month, according to witnesses — but mostly resentful resignation.”

A third of the US’s crude oil comes from Nigeria, and though the Niger Delta region contributes nearly 80 percent of its government’s revenue, its inhabitants haven’t seen any benefits. Life expectancy there is the lowest in Nigeria and in addition to a loss of livelihood as most of the marine and bird life disappear, people of this area must deal with gas flares, polluted water, and government-sanctioned oil thieves.

“President Obama is worried about that one,” Claytus Kanyie, a local official, said of the gulf spill, standing among dead mangroves in the soft oily muck outside Bodo. “Nobody is worried about this one. The aquatic life of our people is dying off. There used be shrimp. There are no longer any shrimp.”

Where is the media attention?