Black lawmakers and civil rights groups are concerned by a proposal in the Senate’s immigration reform bill that would do away with diversity visas that are often a pathway for African and Caribbean immigrants to enter the United States. Advocates said they haven’t seen evidence yet that a new merit-based program is an acceptable replacement [...]
Is the International Criminal Court Too Focused On Africa?
April 17, 2013 | Posted by
Many observers and critics of the International Criminal Court argue that it has focused entirely on Africa and needs to expand its investigations to other continents. Some cast the ICC as a colonialist tool that is biased specifically against Africans. But while it is true that all of the individuals charged by the court have [...]
Ahmadinejad Tours West Africa, Says Iran Does Not Need Atomic Bomb
April 15, 2013 | Posted by
While on a tour of West Africa and set to include unspecified bilateral deals, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been defending his country’s controversial nuclear program. Ahmadinejad said Tehran has no use for an atomic bomb. He was speaking during a visit to Benin on Monday, the first stop on a three-nation West Africa tour. [...]
Rectifying Africa’s Distorted Image
April 14, 2013 | Posted by
It is time to change our image of Africa. Critics say that for too long now, aid organizations, foreign diplomats, politicians and journalists look at this vast continent as a convenient photo-opportunity to illustrate victimhood and desperation. And few men are more forceful in advocating a change in how we perceive Africa than Kenyan author [...]
Africans Face Racism in Mumbai: ‘You Are Not Wanted’
April 11, 2013 | Posted by
Africans staying in and around India’s commercial capital, Mumbai (formerly Bombay), complain of indiscriminate racism and constant police harassment, reports the BBC’s Zubair Ahmed. Nigerian Sambo Davis is married to an Indian woman and lives in Mumbai. All his documents are valid, but he was arrested by the police recently on suspicion of being a [...]
South Africans Thankful Mandela Discharged From Hospital
April 8, 2013 | Posted by
Former South African President Nelson Mandela is recuperating at his home in Johannesburg. He was discharged from hospital on Saturday after he was treated for a lung infection. But as Mike Hanna of Al Jazeera reports from Soweto, some South Africans are still worried about the health of the man they call, the father of [...]
Darfur Donor Conference begins in Doha
April 7, 2013 | Posted by
Hundreds of delegates are meeting Doha for a donor conference to raise support for a mulit-billion dollar project to rebuild Sudan’s Darfur region after a decade-long conflict. The two-day conference beginning on Sunday was agreed under a July 2011 peace deal that Khartoum signed in the Qatari capital with an alliance of rebel splinter groups. [...]
‘We Are the World’ Movement 28 Years Later
April 5, 2013 | Posted by
Twenty-eight years ago this month, dozens of popular musicians “checked their egos at the door” of a Los Angeles studio to record ‘We Are the World’ (WATW), generating over $75 million for famine relief. Now AllAfrica and USA for Africa are inviting the public to join artists and entertainers in a two-year initiative in advance [...]
Mali Maelstrom: ‘New Redivision of Africa Has Begun’
April 4, 2013 | Posted by
In Mali, the national military – backed by French intervention forces – is fighting an Islamist resurgence in the country’s north. Rebel fighters have launched a series of attacks on the city of Timbuktu. Former Ethiopian diplomat Mohamed Hassan says France is locked in a power struggle for influence in Africa.
Africa Priming to Become ‘Workbench of the World’ in New Industrial Era
April 1, 2013 | Posted by
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — Europe’s Industrial Revolution spurred unprecedented technological and economic progress. It also inflicted a tremendous human cost as millions of workers toiled in dangerous conditions. The same would hold true some two centuries later in East Asia, where explosive industrial growth was coupled with sweatshops and child labor. Now African leaders are [...]
