No one is born hating someone else because of their skin color, social background or religion. People hate because they have learned to hate, and if they can learn to hate they can also learn to love, because love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.
Nelson Mandela
Afronews Aug- Sept 22
Warning from WHO (WHO)
Millions of lives are in danger of hunger in the Horn of Africa, given that Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda have lost food security, or the possibility of relying with a reasonable probability, on the possibilities of feed in the next six months. The World Health Organization launches an appeal for the extraordinary collection of 123 million dollars in favor of these people affected or who will soon be affected by hunger and famine.
In addition to the pandemic, climate change and persistent war conflicts seem to be determining factors.
To the article:https://www.who.int/news/item/02-08-2022-who-launches-appeal-to-respond-to-urgent-health-needs-in-the-greater-horn-of-africto
ELECTIONS in KENYA
Presidential elections were held in Kenya on 9 August 2022.
William Ruto, vice president since 2013, was named the winner by a very narrow margin. This appointment was soon contested by Raila Odinga, a losing opponent in presidential competitions for years.
This year, Odinga seems to have the support of the outgoing president and, above all, can count on the fact that 4 out of 7 members of the electoral commission have shown themselves very doubtful about the real victory of Ruto.
It will be the Supreme Court, led by a woman, to rule on the disputed victory or not.
USA and Europe look to Africa ...
In mid-August the Institute for African Security Studies (ISS) published a speech by Paul-Simon Handy, ISS Regional Director for East Africa and Representative to the African Union, and Félicité Djilo, independent researcher, on the ruling for or not the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
USA and Europe are watching African reactions carefully.
African votes at the United Nations on the war revealed strong divisions between countries. Djibouti passed the UN resolution for Russia to end its offensive, while Algeria, Tanzania and South Africa stressed the importance of diplomacy without condemning Russia's actions. The high number of abstentions has been widely interpreted as a sign of Russian influence or evidence of the growing anti-Westernism of African governments and citizens.
This view mistakenly assumes that Africa is a political monolith. It also suggests an underlying expectation on the part of the West that the continent's states should align with them due to the West's prominence in development and humanitarian aid and their shared historical past.
African states, the authors suggest, have a more pragmatic and cynical view of a global order whose rules appear to be determined by the West.
Finally, they suggest that rather than the vengeful anti-imperialism that seems to drive many Africans, the war in Ukraine should inspire a self-assessment of Africa's ability to agree on how to resolve conflicts.
To the article:https://issafrica.org/iss-today/unpacking-africas-divided-stance-on-the-ukraine-war
Operation Dudula, a movement that recalls recent Lombard battles
In Johannesburg, but also in other South African cities, immigrants are badly seen and hardly tolerated by locals. There have been several large waves of immigration from surrounding countries. Zimbabwe, which suffered from the uncomfortable presence of the old president, paying for misery and hunger, has provided and supplies numerous job seekers to feed themselves and their families. Even Mozambique, in not distant times, the 80-90s, has seen many of its fellow citizens migrate for hunger or political reasons. Ditto for Malawi a decade earlier.
Now in Johannesburg a group that calls itself “Operation Dudula” has come into the limelight, with the very specific purpose of rejecting those immigrants who have settled, not always illegally, in abandoned buildings (history repeats itself: Italy like South Africa). It also proposes itself as an example for future xenophobic actions.
One wonders if there will ever be justice for those who are in the dust.
We propose reading the article:
and reading this poem by a South African author:
South Africa, May 2008
Today I do not love my country.
It is venal, it is cruel.
Lies are open sewers in the street.
Threats scarify the walls.
Tomorrow I may defend my land
when others X-ray the evidence:
feral shadows, short sharp knives.
I may argue our grievous inheritance.
On Wednesday I may let the winded stars
fall into my lap, breathe air's golden ghee,
smell the sea's salt cellar, run my fingers
along the downy arm of the morning.
I may on Thursday read of a hurt child
given refuge and tended by neighbors,
sing with others the famous forgiving man
who has forgotten who were enemies, who friends.
But today, today, I cannot love my country.
It staggers in the dark, lurches in a ditch.
A curdled mob drives people into pens,
brands them like cattle,
only holds a stranger's hand
to press it into fire,
strings firecrackers through a child,
burns stores and shacks, burns
By Ingrid de Kok
