China takes over

UKTelegraph reports that the farms confiscated from white farmers has been given to Chinese nationals

my sarcastic quote: Better to give it to someone who knows how to farm than to one of the cronies who will let the land lie fallow.

Food security in Africa

Story from AlJ:

Zimbabwe activism

One change in the last ten years is that now rural Zimbabweans have cellphones.

Globalvoices has an article on netcitizen activism

Mawarire, wrapped in a Zimbabwean flag, posted a video on YouTube and Facebook, asking:

This flag, this beautiful flag, they tell me that the green is for the vegetation and the crops. I don't see any crops in my country. The yellow is for all the minerals… I don't know how much is left. I don't know who they sold it to and how much they got for it. They tell me that the black is for the majority people like me and yet for some reason I don't feel like I am a part of it.

read the whole thing...

Chinese peacekeepers in Mali

weibo link reports a Chinese UN peacekeeper in Mali was killed.

a long article about their work.

sleeping sickness

Librivox has an audiobook written in the early 1900's that investigates the problem of sleeping sickness.

they blame the epidemic on western traders and explorers who took infected porters with them, spreading the disease to new areas and killing hundreds of thousands of people.

However, what about the Arab traders, including the slave traders, who were in the area at the time? They cite Stanley and Livingstone, but ignore that Livingstone's work was most important in influencing people to oppose the slave trade...


Ironically, what opened Zimbabwe to western expansion was because the rinderpest epidemic killed off enough wildlife to stop the tsetse fly from having enough animals to feed on. There was a tsetse fly free area fenced off when I lived there 35 years ago...wonder if it is still working?

Let them abuse our boys or else post of the day

The PC professors in a US political site insist that since the US diplomats haven't been successful in pushing "gay rights" on Africa, that our multinational corporations should do it too.

Many global companies adopt an “Embassy” approach, enforcing pro-LGBT policies on local campuses so as to create a safe space in LGBT-unfriendly jurisdictions while helping promote greater tolerance in the local culture. American Express, for example, enforces global anti-discrimination policies everywhere it has offices, effectively raising the bar in jurisdictions like India where those protections are absent. Some companies take a step further, adopting an “Advocate” approach that seeks to effect change in the host nation itself. Such advocacy can take many forms, ranging from direct lobbying to support for local advocacy to symbolic action. Barclays stepped up to discuss its concerns when Ugandan legislators sought the death penalty for homosexual acts; the enacted law, while still draconian, omitted that punishment.

 All of this ignores the "elephant in the room": male on male rape.

Uganda's law was blamed on "Evangelical Christians" by the US gay activists, never mind that most Ugandans who are Christians are Anglican or Catholic.

Ah, but what about history: The slave trade from the Muslim north where boys and men were routinely raped, the good old days of colonialism where the "problem sons" of England were sent to Africa; the practice of hiring men for factories/farm or mines but not making accomadations for their families (male dormatories are especially notorious). Boarding schools, where teachers can exploit kids. And the punishment of prisoners during the genocides of Idi Amin or nowadays by both the jihadis and the "lord's army" types?

read the report from DW (German news site)

Hillary pushed women's rights by insisting on taking female rape and sexual exploitation seriously, but no one in the US wants to recognize this problem.

China in Africa

Lots of links via AlJ

or you can go to the BBC for more information, including this factoid:

In 2014, tiny Benin was the continent's biggest importer of wigs and false beards from China. It purchased Chinese hair pieces worth $411m.
A hefty three million kg (472,400 stone) were taken to Benin, with many of those wigs then whisking their way to neighbouring Nigeria.