15 October 2022
Africa/IMF: The IMF’s Africa director has promised support to countries on the continent hit hard by food price rises to prevent or lessen food insecurity.
BBC Africa Live 15 October 2022. 19:16
South Africa/Cultural appropriation: Die Antwoord is a two-member band that has used Kaaps hip-hop to become famous worldwide. In cultural appropriation, someone from a dominant culture takes from a marginalised culture, asymmetry of power (playing out along race, gender, class lines) being a sine qua non of such exploitation. The article explains how Die Antwoord – and blackfacing – fit in.
https://theconversation.com/what-is-cultural-appropriation-and-why-is-it-so-harmful-185976
14 October 2022
“Character is like smoke”
BBC Africa Live 14 October 2022. 6:30. Proverb of the day. A Yoruba proverb sent by Abdussemiu Aliu Lambe in Sokoto, Nigeria.
Nigeria: Lecturers will suspend their 8-mont strike on coming Monday. The reason for the suspension is not clear as “(s)everal rounds of talks with the government had failed to resolve the dispute” which was about improving conditions at public universities. 2 million students had been affected by the strike.
BBC Africa Live 14 October 2022. 8:13
Restitution of looted art: To this day, looted art is displayed undisturbedly in the Louvre, the British Museum, the Humboldt Forum, etc. – hiding the “colonial murder of knowledges”. The looting turned living artworks into “objects” and annihilated the possibility for knowledge practice and circulation where the looting took place. The looted objects became playthings for imperial citizens. The new fashion of restitution does not change this, it “is declared and controlled in the metropoles and governed by museums, provenance researchers, archives and curators there”, it is just another spectacle organised by the mighty, the Macrons of this world.
https://theconversation.com/restitution-of-looted-african-art-just-continues-colonial-policies-much-more-is-at-stake-191386
Ghana/artisanal mining: Artisanal and small-scale mining produces 40% of Ghana’s gold. It is dangerous to humans and to the environment. Government has so far failed to get it under control. The article explains how the sector works, why mining laws have not been enforced and makes recommendations how to improve on this. One of the key words for this is citizen participation.
https://theconversation.com/ghanas-artisanal-miners-are-a-law-unto-themselves-involving-communities-can-help-fix-the-problem-192256