As World Cup fever hits the blogosphere, African Shirts - (http://africanshirts.blogspot.com/2006/06/im-moving-to-trinidad.html) follows the Trinidad & Tobago vs Sweden world cup match and decides he is moving to T&T.

“Trinidad and Tobago might be the smallest country to ever qualify for the World Cup, but to compensate for being a small country, they brought the biggest party machine ever. After their 0-0 draw against Sweden, one could be forgiven for thinking that they had won the World Cup. The Caribbean rum company Angustora has organised a few free events centred around Trinidad games. And after the Sweden match, fans of all hues and colours converged on downtown Dortmund, and threw possibly the biggest party since Borussia Dortmund won the Champions League.”

Also blogging on the World Cup, Soul on Ice (http://obifromsouthlondon.blogspot.com/2006/06/ex-colonised-state-of-min...) takes us back to 1980s Thatcherite Britain and the infamous Norman Tebbit “cricket test”. Who are you supporting in this world cup? England? Trinidad and Tobago, Angola or Portugal? Ghana or Italy? Argentina or Ivory Coast?

“A friend told me of the sour feeling in Cameroon when France won in '98. In the 2002 World Cup Senegal carried on like they had won the damn thing when they beat France. And most of the French team are African in origin (Patrick Viera comes to mind). Actually I was jumping up and down when they won that one. My recent post on Senegal kinda explores their relationship with France. What is the psychology behind all this? Interestingly more and more second generation Africans and Caribbean’s are returning to play for their countries of origin.”

MentalAcrobatics (http://www.mentalacrobatics.com/think/archives/2006/06/violence_in_kenya...) comments on a horrific case of rape in a Kenyan School. A group of male students sodomised another male student who is now in hospital, traumatised and in pain from the ordeal. The sexual assault is made worse when we learn that this was not the first time as the young man had previously reported an incident to the dormitory master. MentalAcrobatics writes that it is hard to believe the school authorities were unaware of what was taking place. He goes on to criticise the failure of Kenyan educational authorities to have a system in place to help deal with the continued violence in schools.

“Again and again, we see extreme violence from high school students directed at other high school students. This latest rape at Upper Hill School is just the latest example of this violence. There are measures that will be taken against the administration at Upper Hill but those actions will come too late to help one young student. We need, as a nation, to put in place a system that will help us understand and come up with solutions to this rising violence in our schools. This violence is growing into an epidemic. If it has not allready reached there.”

Blogswana (http://blogswana.wordpress.com/2006/06/12/update-on-internet-access) reports that internet penetration in Africa is now 5%, up from 2.5% last year.

“Richard Kassissieh, in Kassblog, writes that at the Maru-a-Pula school 81% of Form 1 students have a computer at home. 15% have broadband Internet access, 55% dial-up, and 30% no Internet access. Maru-a-Pula is a well-funded school located in Gabarone. Students in rurally located schools would have significantly less access, but one can envision that the trend in computer and internet access will continue and spread throughout the country over the next decade.”

Acoustic Motorbike (http://ggernst.blogeasy.com/ggernst.blogeasy.com/article.view.run?articl...) comments on sexism in Zimbabwe using her own personal experience. She is verbally accosted by various men as she goes about her daily business. She asks what it will take?

“And, of course, it’s not just about sex. It’s about men’s attitudes towards women. Maybe the message that a woman is not for beating already resonates with many men. But gender based violence is about much more than beatings. It’s about much more than rape or sexual assault. Surely it also includes the safety with which women move around in their own homes, their own streets, shops and neighbourhoods. Women are not for beating. They are also not for raping, heckling, objectifying or harassing. What messages do men grow up with then about what women are for? What do men think men are for? What do women think women or men are there for? Society has changed dramatically in the past 100 years. It is no longer acceptable to judge or stereotype someone on the basis of their race. Somehow gender differences feel like a harder thing to crack. But maybe in 1906 so did racism.”

Black Looks (http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/06/on_being_a_lesbian_activist_in_africa....) writes a piece on “Being a Lesbian Activist in Africa”.

“The LGBT community in Africa live perilous lives and activists because they are challenging the status quo, are in even more danger. They may have to move from house to house in order to avoid being outed by neighbours and reported to the police. If they are able to find work in the formal economy they have to hide their sexuality and bear the psychological pain of living a lie. Alternatively they may have to work in the informal sector, moving from job to job to avoid being discovered. Quite often LGBT activists go into hiding for short periods to avoid being discovered.”

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks,

* Please send comments to [email protected]