09 July 2022

Rwanda: 64-year-old Kagame has announced that he’ll again be candidate at the presidential elections of 2024. The constitution – changed in 2015 – allows him to be president until 2034.
BBC Africa Latest Updates 09 July 2022. 9:41

Kenya/Netherlands/UK: Unseeded Kenyan Angella Okutoyi and Dutch Rose Marie Nijkamp defeated 4th seeded Canadians Kayla Cross and Victoria Mboko 3-6, 6-4, 11-9 in Wimbledon to win the girls’ doubles title.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/africa/62109229




08 July 2022

Soyinka/Nigeria: Since the 1950, Sub-Saharan Africa’s first literature Nobel prize winner treats the same topics, addressing “the clash of cultures, the interface between primitiveness and modernity, colonial interventions, religious bigotry, corruption, abuse of power, poor governance, poverty and the future of independent African nations.” The article gives a brief overview of his writings: theatre, novels, poems, essays. Soyinka has recently (2021) published his third novel, Chronicles from the Land of Happiest People on Earth – it is about Nigeria, the “ever-crawling giant” and what has gone wrong.
https://theconversation.com/wole-soyinkas-life-of-writing-holds-nigeria-up-for-scrutiny-184909

Sickle cell disease: The “misshapen red blood cells” which clog blood vessels can cause extreme pain and increase risk of pneumonia, meningitis, stroke, loss of vision, maternal mortality. It comes from a gene mutation that provides some protection against malaria – and is much more common in areas with a lot of malaria, first of all Sub-Saharan Africa. But this part-immunity holds only if one parent passes on the mutation to the child (sickle cell trait), if both do, the child will suffer from sickle cell disease and not have the resistance against malaria. Between 1 and 3% of children are born with the disease in the malaria belt between Senegal and Madagascar, with Cameroon, Congo-Kinshasa, Ghana and Nigeria most concerned. Being genetic, sickle cell disease is neither preventable nor curable. The earlier in life it is discovered, the better it can be managed by appropriate treatment. Routine new-born screening would be best.
https://theconversation.com/theres-no-cure-for-sickle-cell-disease-but-spotting-it-early-can-improve-treatment-185784

Tunisia: The moderate Islamist party Ennahda has joined other parties in calling for a boycott of president Kaïs Saëid’s referendum on a new constitution, such a vote “not (being) in the interest of Tunisians”.
BBC Africa Live 08 July 2022. 5:16

Tumi Mogorosi: A short portrait of the South African musician, activist and scholar and then an analysis of his just published fourth album: Group Theory: Black Music which is sourced in US jazz and South African music, uses chorus...
https://theconversation.com/spiritual-traditions-fuel-south-african-jazz-artist-tumi-mogorosis-new-album-186349

Testosterone testing in African Football: The Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) has just opened in Morocco. It enforces testosterone testing for players. Barbra Banda, Zambia’s star player, has tested beyond the testosterone limit and a dozen other players did so too. In the mean-time, Nigeria is no longer the automatic favourite – and has proven it in its opening game which it lost 1:2 to South Africa.
https://theconversation.com/womens-afcon-final-stage-is-underway-with-a-new-challenge-testosterone-testing-186471

Ethiopia: In its annual report, the state’s Ethiopian Human Rights Commission reports human rights violation by government soldiers as well as fighters from Tigray, Oromia and Amhara. “Inhumane treatment of captured fighters, torture against suspects and forced disappearances have been rampant”, 54 journalists have been arrested in 2021 (15 of them by Tigrayan soldiers) and a communications blackout leaves Tigrayans without access to information.
BBC Africa Live 08 July 2022. 10:48