Farewell Sembene

Firoze Manji
Jun 14, 2007

It is with an angry sadness that we learned of this giant's death over the weekend. If there was one book that I could name that had such a profound effect on my thinking, it was God's Bits of Woods. We named our son after Sembene Ousmane. We have long wanted to interview Sembene Ousmane in these pages, but somehow didn't manage to work up the courage to speak with such a giant. His contribution to our understanding of the struggle for emancipation in Africa is unmeasurable. His memory lives ...read more

East Africa: South Sudan suffers from Uganda's LRA rebels - report

Contributor
Jun 14, 2007

Security forces in southern Sudan are in desperate need for training and funding to protect civilians against attacks by Ugandan rebels, aid agency World Vision said in a report on Wednesday. Civilians and officials in Western Equatoria state, where Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels had been staying under a Sudanese-brokered truce with the government in Kampala, have blamed the guerrillas for looting, raping, killing and abducting children in the area.

Uganda

Wole Soyinka. The Invention & The Detainee

Contributor
Jun 14, 2007

The first formal publication of two early plays by Soyinka, with a foreword by Abiola Irele. Widely regarded as Soyinka's first play, The Invention (1959) reflects the obsession with race that marked the apartheid regime, and prophetically depicts the beginnings of the crumbling of the apartheid system in the futuristic setting of Johannesburg in 1976. It expresses the concern of the African diapsora with apartheid, which was felt to be an affront to the entire race. The Detainee (1965) is a ...read more

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe: Biafra Revisited

Contributor
Jun 14, 2007

It is now forty years since the beginning of the genocide of the Igbo people, a holocaust of unprecedented proportions in recent African history. According to the author of this study it was the ‘foundational genocide of post-conquest, European-occupied Africa’. This text demonstrates that the Biafran War, 1967-1970, was the second phase of the Igbo genocide, following the initial massacre of 100,000 Igbo across the principal towns and cities of northern Nigeria.
ISBN: 978-0-9552050-0-2...read more

Joe Ebiegberi Alagoa: The Practice of History in Africa. A History of African Historiography

Contributor
Jun 14, 2007

A history of African historiography from an African perspective, attempting to answer questions concerning the practice of history from the civilizations of ancient Egypt, through the varied cultures and regions of the continent, to contemporary times. The book presents the philosophy of the oral tradition as co-existent with the written traditions of ancient Egypt, the Islamic tradition, and the western European historiographical traditions.
ISBN: 978-97837314-7-9 312pp. 2006 Onyoma Re...read more

South Africa: AIDS Conference signals new unity, chance for progress

Contributor
Jun 14, 2007

South Africa has crossed a Rubicon in the past few months in relation to HIV and the ball is now in civil society’s court to achieve progress, Mark Heywood of the AIDS Law Project told the closing session of the Third South African AIDS Conference in Durban on June 8.

South Africa

Africa: Will e-learning make teachers redundant?

Contributor
Jun 14, 2007

Does electronic learning (eLearning) threaten to displace the teacher? This question emerged at an international conference held in Nairobi last week, attended by 1,400 people from 88 countries. The latest in information communication technology (ICT) with a focus on education, training and development was showcased.

Tribute to Sembene Ousmane

Contributor
Jun 13, 2007

One of Africa’s most respected and famous filmmakers Ousmane Sembene, also known as the Father of African Cinema, passed away on 9 June. Messages of condolence have been pouring into the office of the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI), an institution that Sembene co-founded in 1969.

He did not spare African rulers. He remained critical of post-colonial Africa for failing to meet many of her peoples’ expectations, where injustice continues to prevail. Sembene Ousmane is reco...read more

Kenya: Learning at the flick of a switch

Contributor
Jun 07, 2007

The role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in improving education throughout Africa has been in the spotlight over recent days at the e-Learning Africa Conference. An annual event, the gathering was held in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi this year (May 28-30), bringing together participants from across the globe.

Kenya

Nigeria: Author Adichie wins Orange Prize

Contributor
Jun 08, 2007

Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has been named winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction. She beat five other contenders for the £30,000 women-only award, including Kiran Desai, shortlisted for her Booker Prize winner The Inheritance of Loss. Adichie's novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, is her second work and set during the Biafran War of the 1960s.

Nigeria

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