03 September
Great Britain/Institutionalised Racism: It took the British authorities 49 years to pay compensation and 70 years to apologize for the unjust hanging of Mahmood Mattan, a Somaliland-born seaman unjustly convicted of murder, executed on 3 September 1952. Unsurprisingly, granddaughter Tanya Mattan’s reaction was not too positive: “It's far too late for the people directly affected as they are no longer with us and still, we are yet to hear the words I am/we are sorry”. Mahmood Mattan clearly was a “victim of institutionalised racism”.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-62637770
02 September 2022
Weapons/West Africa-Sahel: An Enact Policy Brief looking into stockpile management of weapons in the region, since “(w)ithout effective security and stockpile management systems, the wave of political instability in the two regions is likely to endure” as “violent extremists and other non-state actors take advantage of the armouries’ sub-standard security”. Download the policy brief on:
https://enactafrica.org/research/policy-briefs/preventing-explosions-taking-stock-of-weapon-stockpiles-in-west-africa-and-the-sahel
Nigeria/Environmental impact assessments: They are to “ensure that environmental and sustainability issues are integrated into development planning.” Why don’t they work in Nigeria – even where they are actually undertaken? The country’s Environmental Impact Assessment Act urgently needs to be overhauled. The implication of people concerned – from information to participation in the decision making to the possibility to seek redress – needs to be assured. For the time being, this is very rarely the case.
https://theconversation.com/environmental-impact-assessments-dont-work-in-nigeria-heres-why-188796
Angola: It was finally yesterday Thursday that Unita filed, as expected, “a legal challenge against the results of last week's election”.
BBC Africa Live 02 September 2022. 8:03
France/French language: Since he became president, Emmanuel Macron has been trying to make the French language (spoken in about 106 countries and an official language in 32) great again. But in Africa, French colonialism looms large and Macron has been accused of condescendence and anti-French sentiment is thriving in former French colonies, not only in Mali. According to Achille Mbembe and Alain Mabanckou, the spread and importance of French “will be hindered if it is ostentatiously attached to the foreign policy interests of the French nation” and African countries will favour English like Rwanda has done some years back and Gabon and Algeria are doing presently.
https://theconversation.com/macron-is-pushing-the-french-language-in-ways-not-seen-before-189585
Zambia: The president of the Patriots for Economic Progress party, Sean Tembo, a harsh critic of the country’s president, has been arrested, allegedly for defaming Mr Hichilema in an offensive Twitter post.
BBC Africa Live 02 September 2022. 15:43