25 August 2022
Tanzania: No right to voice one’s opinion on social media? A regional manager at Tanzania Railways Corporation has been sacked for voicing his disagreement with the government’s introduction of charges for mobile money transfers. The reason given was that “he had gone against the Public Service Act of 2003”. The concerned will appeal the sacking.
BBC Africa Live 24 August 2022. 7:39
South Africa: Worldwide, around 10% of victims of sexual violence are estimated to be male. It could be more in South Africa – but boys and men are even less likely than girls and women to report such sexual violence against them. Even if they do not risk to become pregnant, shame and stigma hit male victims as much as female victims. Thinking about sexual violence needs to start to include male victims – one of the advantages of this is that “the male rape victim brings home that sexual vulnerability is a social and political, and not a natural, biological condition”. In the article’s author’s view, this will not only undermine patriarchy but it “is also likely to open new avenues for alliance building and solidarity (between) women and men”.
https://theconversation.com/sexual-violence-in-south-africa-where-are-the-male-victims-186161
Uganda: To improve connectivity and as part of the “Digital Acceleration Programme”, Uganda will install 2,000 wi-fi hotspots country-wide for use “by government offices during working hours” and by “the public past working hours and during weekends.”
BBC Africa Live 24 August 2022. 8:52
23 August 2022
Sudan: The Blue Nile is rising – the infrastructure minister has issued a warning for Sinja city and told inhabitants to take precautions, though for the time being, the situation is under control. The Blue Nile is the one where the filling of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has Egypt and Sudan worried that they’ll get too little water, being downstream. Overall in Sudan, floods caused by heavy rains have killed at least 79 since the beginning of August.
BBC Africa Live 23 August 2022. 7:12
Mozambique: The World Bank is granting 300m USD to the country – a first since the hidden debt scandal of 2016 where much of 2.7bn USD of undisclosed state debts went into corrupt officials’ pockets. The 300m USD are to improve infrastructure for the economy and people’s living conditions.
BBC Africa Live 23 August 2022. 6:43
Modern slavery: An estimated 40 million are enslaved around the world nowadays – this includes child soldiers, sex and human trafficking, forced marriage, forced labour. Besides reasons like poverty, corruption and inequality, “contemporary slavery is a regular feature of armed conflict” and this is what the article looks into. While modern slavery exists everywhere, also in rich countries, armed conflict-related contemporary slavery concerns the Global South most of all. The authors analysed 1,113 armed conflicts and found that 87% of them used child soldiers (less than 16 year olds), “34% included sexual exploitation and forced marriage, about 24% included forced labour and almost 17% included human trafficking.”
https://theconversation.com/slavery-and-war-are-tightly-connected-but-we-had-no-idea-just-how-much-until-we-crunched-the-data-169904
Congo-Kinshasa: A new Ebola case in Beni (North Kivu) has had Kinshasa declare a resurgence of Ebola not long after the last outbreak was declared over – it is the 14th outbreak in the country since 1976. “Scientists say it is unrealistic to think Ebola will ever be eradicated, but it is now easier to prevent a crisis.”
BBC Africa Live 23 August 2022. 15:15
Kenya/UK: The British government having shown them and their complaints “the cold shoulder”, the lawyers of the Kipsigi and Talai maltreated and forcibly evicted from the Rift valley by colonial authorities at the beginning of the 20th century to make way for tea plantations say there was no choice but to file a case at the European Court of Human Rights.
BBC Africa Live 23 August 2022. 13:35
https://www.rfi.fr/fr/afrique/20220823-kenya-les-kipsigi-et-les-talai-portent-plainte-contre-le-royaume-uni
Zambia: Independence in no way abolished the colour bar in the country’s mining industry. The contrary happened: it was reinforced. The creation of the “expatriate” category – explicitly racial – made it impossible for black – “local” – workers to aspire to higher wages. The article explains how this was done and how it was made acceptable to the government of the newly independent country.
https://theconversation.com/zambias-copper-mines-hard-baked-racism-into-the-workplace-by-labelling-whites-expats-188751