Cont. issues in Africa

In light of the topic of journalist abuse, I found a sight that reports on stories of abuse of journalist in Africa today.


http://cpj.org/africa/

Story one:
In Ethiopia, managing editor, Aregaqi, of the Reporter was releaed from the hospital when three men attacked him as he left his office by striking him in the head repeatedly with a stone until he fell unconscious. This attack was directed to anonymous threats received in connection of investiagtive reports accusing people close to Saudi-Ethiopian billionaire Sheikh Mohammed Hussein al-Amoudi had mismanaged his investments.

Story two:"Editor-in-Chief Tsion Girima of the private weekly Enbilta is being held in Kality prison, outside the capital, Addis Ababa, pending sentencing on Tuesday"

Girima misspelled a judges name in her paper, and instead of running a correction, she spelled the name correctly in her next edition, now Girima will serve up to one year in prison for that mistake.




Story three: “Chief” Ebrima Manneh was arrested and brought to prison...
"Though he was never charged with a crime, Chief’s arrest stemmed from his decision to republish a BBC story critical of President Yahya Jammeh’s democratic credentials on the eve of an African Union summit in Banjul. Editors at our pro-government paper overruled Chief’s decision, pulling the printed copies that carried the story and withholding them from distribution."

A reporter from the paper even went undercover to investigate Manneh's arrest. This reporter said many of the sources that he went to were afraid to speak about the disappearance, for they may be the next victim.

The reporter testified on the Chief's behave, and was relocated from his dying father to help the chief.

But the chief was never released, leaving behind wedding arrangements and bright future.



This is something to take into consideration, being a journalist in the USA, I feel secure that my government protects to a degree my freedom of speech. In Africa, the government silences it.

So you call us bias, but you do not know what we go through

Sometimes it feels good to open a book and be able to relate to a character in the majorest/minorest level.

I felt close to Lomba, because I too am a journalist and a writer.

I remember when I told my family that I was going to be a journalist and my family just kept fearing for my life saying "Don't go to Iraq!"

And I understood the immediate dangers that lie under the field of some of the most hated people in society.

Reading this book, I see the potential and the power that someone within the business can create, and the consequence one can face when trying to do what they believe is right.

I hope this leaves a reminder to those who call the media biased. Yeah, it is, and that is why I became a journalist, to combine my two passions: writing.. and being nosey.

There are people like Lomba who are suffering in prison, locked away in solitude, beaten down for owning even a pencil and paper, sleeping on lice-ridden cots, eating food that only animals would call cuisine.

Not able to know what day it is, and the days become irrelevant because freedom becomes just a whisper,anger welling up inside as you take beating after beating..... only because you were covering event.


That's why I became a journalist, because instead of staring at the TV saying, "thats bias" or "they're not telling us everything." I got up and decided to change it. Someday I hope to do news justice and uncover stories to the world that has become blind to such corruption.


Maybe I could be a Lomba?

Who knows.

The cost of oil, literally.

It's astonishing to think how much oil has affected Africa without benefiting the country at all.

The Africans seemed to not be interested in the use of it, and yet it is be sucked from the veins of the land and leaving mother earth dry. And those who fight to protect their intellect, to find themselves benefiting from a ruthless trade, are coming up short, and turned away.Not only that, but it has destroyed the land and the spirit of the people who call it home.

Where is home when greed and corruption become your needy neighbor?

"This is our land," a dark and round-faced young man named Judé piped up. "We've seen no benefit from it. We lost our land and have received nothing for it. At first they said they were going to build hospitals and dispensaries here. But they've done none of that." Exxon, Chief Tamro explained, had offered the village its choice of five options: a school, a well, a granary, one kilometer of paved road, or a marketplace. The villagers chose the school, understanding that it would house six grades, but ExxonMobil built them a two-room schoolhouse instead. "Let me ask you something, sir." The chief tried to contain his frustration. "If I take something from you, should I then come and dictate the terms of my compensation to you for the loss? Surely it is for me to apologize and ask you what I can do to make it up to you."

Oil industries within Africa have five countries that dominate the oil game, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Angola and Nigeria. They produce 83-87% of the continents oil. And althought they are not the only countries dominated by this (there are 52)they take the lead. The oil industries within Africa confirmed 73-77 billion barrels of oil make up 7 percent of the entire global total.



AFRICAN OPEC MEMBERS PRODUCTION mb/d--Last Updated on Oct.16-2008


2006
2007
1Q08
2Q08
3Q08
Jul 08
Aug 08
Sep 08
Sep/Aug

Algeria
1.37
1.36
1.40
1.40
1.41
1.40
1.41
1.41
0.00

Angola
1.39
1.66
1.87
1.90
1.85
1.90
1.87
1.77
-0.10

Libya
1.70
1.71
1.75
1.73
1.69
1.69
1.67
1.72
0.05

Nigeria
2.23
2.13
2.04
1.86
1.95
1.92
1.95
2.00
0.05

(According to the African Oil Journal)



And seeing as I'm just a naive consumer and never really checking the labels on what I purchase, by reading the article I was unaware that we tapped into more African sources than in Saudi Arabia. Everytime I go home, or go to see my friends, with each drop of oil I pump into my '95 Bonneville, I'm supporting destroying somebody else's home.



How do we stop it?

Fighting Female Genital Mutilation

Despite laws against the muilation of females, the treatment still continues in many pparts of Africa today. There are different organizations in palce that work against this practice, but the fight has been very hard against traditions that support this tpractice.

According to the afrol web site there FGM is in four types:

Gemale Genital Mutilation (FGM), aka female circumcision or female genital cutting has been in practice for several 1,000 of years in almost 30 African coutnries and Middle Eastern nations. Is it practiced by Muslims, Christians, Jews and followers of AFrican religions.

(DIRECT DEFINITION)
The World Health Organization also classified FGM into four types:

Type I
The WHO defines Type I FGM as the partial or total removal of the clitoris (clitoridectomy) and/or the prepuce (clitoral hood); see Diagram 1B. When it is important to distinguish between the major variations of Type I mutilation, the following subdivisions are proposed: Type Ia, removal of the clitoral hood or prepuce only; Type Ib, removal of the clitoris with the prepuce. In the context of women who seek out labiaplasty, Stern opposes removal of the clitoral hood and points to potential scarring and nerve damage.


Type II
The WHO's definition of Type II FGM is "partial or total removal of the clitoris and the labia minora, with or without excision of the labia majora (excision). When it is important to distinguish between the major variations that have been documented, the following subdivisions are proposed: Type IIa, removal of the labia minora only; Type IIb, partial or total removal of the clitoris and the labia minora; Type IIc, partial or total removal of the clitoris, the labia minora and the labia majora. Note also that, in French, the term ‘excision’ is often used as a general term covering all types of female genital mutilation.


Type III: Infibulation with excision
The WHO defines Type III FGC as narrowing of the vaginal orifice with creation of a covering seal by cutting and appositioning the labia minora and/or the labia majora, with or without excision of the clitoris (infibulation)." It is the most extensive form of FGM, and accounts for about 10% of all FGC procedures described from Africa. Infibulation is also known as "pharaonic circumcision."

In a study of infibulation in the Horn of Africa, Pieters observed that the procedure involves extensive tissue removal of the external genitalia, including all of the labia minora and the inside of the labia majora. The labia majora are then held together using thorns or stitching. In some cases the girl's legs have been tied together for two to six weeks, to prevent her from moving and to allow the healing of the two sides of the vulva. Nothing remains but the walls of flesh from the pubis down to the anus, with the exception of an opening at the inferior portion of the vulva to allow urine and menstrual blood to pass through; see Diagram 1D. Generally, a practitioner recognized as having the necessary skill carries out this procedure, and a local anesthetic is used. However, when carried out "in the bush," infibulation is often performed by an elderly matron or midwife of the village, with no anesthesia used.

A reverse infibulation can be performed to allow for sexual intercourse or when undergoing labor, or by female relatives, whose responsibility it is to inspect the wound every few weeks and open it some more if necessary. During childbirth, the enlargement is too small to allow vaginal delivery, and so the infibulation is opened completely and may be restored after delivery. Again, the legs are sometimes tied together to allow the wound to heal. When childbirth takes place in a hospital, the surgeons may preserve the infibulation by enlarging the vagina with deep episiotomies. Afterwards, the patient may insist that her vulva be closed again.

This practice increases the occurrence of medical complications due to a lack of modern medicine and surgical practices.[citation needed]

A five-year study of 300 women and 100 men in Sudan found that "sexual desire, pleasure, and orgasm are experienced by the majority of women who have been subjected to this extreme sexual mutilation, in spite of their being culturally bound to hide these experiences."

Most advocates of the practice continue to perform the procedure in adherence to standards of beauty that are very different from those in the west. Many infibulated women will contend that the pleasure their partners receive due to this procedure is a definitive part of a successful marriage and enjoyable sex life.[citation needed]


Type IV: Other types
There are other forms of FGM, collectively referred to as Type IV, that may not involve tissue removal. The WHO defines Type IV FGC as "all other harmful procedures to the female genitalia for non-medical purposes, for example, pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterization."This includes a diverse range of practices, such as pricking the clitoris with needles, burning or scarring the genitals as well as ripping or tearing of the vagina. Type IV is found primarily among isolated ethnic groups as well as in combination with other types.


The practice is brought by fear of a daughter's marriageablity and honor in the community. Historic reasons were more for marital fidelity, by controlling a woman's sex drive, preventing lesbianism, ensuring paternity, "calming" her personality and hygiene. In these practices it is considered an important rite of passage.
FGM practices by country

Country Prevalence Type
Benin 5-50% excision
Burkina Faso up to 70% excision
Cameroon local clitoridectomy and excision
Central Afr. Republic 45-50% clitoridectomy and excision
Chad 60% excision and infibulation
Côte d'Ivoire up to 60% excision
DRC (Congo) local excision
Djibouti 98% excision and infibulation
Egypt 85-95% clitoridectomy, excision and infibulation
Eritrea 95% clitoridectomy, excision and infibulation
Ethiopia 70-90% clitoridectomy, excision and infibulation
Gambia 60-90% excision and infibulation
Ghana 15-30% excision
Guinea 65-90% clitoridectomy, excision and infibulation
Guinea Bissau local clitoridectomy and excision
Kenya 50% clitoridectomy, excision and some infibulation
Liberia 50% excision
Mali 94% clitoridectomy, excision and infibulation
Mauritania 25% clitoridectomy and excision
Niger local excision
Nigeria 60-90% clitoridectomy, excision, some infibulation
Senegal 20% excision
Sierra Leone 90% excision
Somalia 98% infibulation
Sudan 90% infibulation and excision
Tanzania 18% excision, infibulation
Togo 12% excision
Uganda local clitoridectomy and excision
Based on statistics from Amnesty International and US govt





According to those who fight the practice of FGM, stopping this practice requires "a profound social change," according to the Director of the International Programme at the Center for Reproductive LAw and Policy, ANika Rahman.



Acccording to Amnesty International, a non-governmental based organization that conducts research inorder to prevent abuse on human rights that are violated. Amnesty has estimated over 130 million women wordwide will be affecgted by some type of FGC with over 2 million procedures being performed every year.

African Superstition

African superstition seems to be really tied into the religion in the book Ancestor Stones.

Hawa's mother who brought upon a plague to her... Asana with her twin dying... and so much more.


Africans tied superstitions with witchcraft. Witchcraft was to blame for the alter of the course of human life whether it is good or ill. The witchcraft became the explanation, the perception and the definition of their problems.. or events.... and also that which happened in nature... The Africans believed the witches were the creators of poverty, diseases, accidents, failures, famine, natural disasters, infertility and difficulties in childbirth, when these things appeared in their life. Anything that could not be explained by a human, it was attributed to witchcraft. I.E. twins.

But the Africans didn't just believe in the negative witchcraft.. but also positive... just like in Asana's case... as her mom makes her go to the man who does spells and such to try to repel her brother's ghost. But in general, Africans attributed witch craft to negative images.

We are not so different....

FYI, i had good pictures.. but my internet is messed right now.



Although the customs and the background are tweaked, the astonishing comparisons between our lives in America now, and that in the 1970's juxtaposed to that in Africa, are truly not so different.

Serah reminds me of the small town girl from which I have lived in and out of. Our stories are not so similar, but I see what makes us the same. As a small town girl, you must fight for yourself and overcome through your education, or you will be just another housewife, living under the roof of a man. Serah has seen that all too well. She had the chance to overcome and be educated, but instead she took the name of a man who prove himself more of a donkey than king.

Ambrose to me seems like what a typical man would in the 70's... and although that man has far been buried, I see the way he holds himself. He prides himself in sounding like a white man, and by saying "the trouble with the black man is that he just isn't ready to vern himself yet."

Ambrose is a empty-headed follower, paid by the government to live for the government. And while Serah holds on to what I could see is the closest thing to an African hippie, Janneh " but we need to draw the people's attention to what is happening. these guys are lining their pockets, man. grabbing what they can while they're in office. and it's our mney. yours. mine. everybody's."


So Janneh (ha, which we won't get into that past) is all anti-establishment, Serah, the lost voice in the domesticated mess we call marriage.

And although marriage is not evil... I SWEAR I'M NOT FEMINIST. I just think that Serah was the typical small town girl who married the first man that seemed appropriate and left her dreams behind. She had two kids, birthed the rights to live under the wages of the government, trying to fight the man.


I think that Serah just needed some more direction, she was listening to the direction of "man" with no voice of her own. Even thought women's rights proclaimed its way into our lives as American women in the 60's, Serah was the woman who envisioned her equal rights through a window.



While all these rights are looking to expose, just like the equivalency here in America at the time... with the socialism movements and feminism... as equal rights protests knocked on the White House's front porch, Sierra Leone fought for it's own independence from the "man."

I don't claim to be a feminist, I promise.

But I am certainly empowered and thrilled to read a book by a woman, for the voice of a woman ( and might I say some of the best and most interesting writing I have read so far!)

"Peace had been declared and yet the war was far from over." -What a beautiful statement and how completely accurate it was to depict such a time. I do not know much yet about it, but from what I do know, this seems completely accurate.


I am so glad that woman finally get a voice, and men get to take the back seat in history for once. Sit down men, it's time to listen.

Althought ironically, the first empowered woman has been robbed of her worthiness even through birth! Poor Asana, isn't it a man to take your name away from you? Ha. In oh-so-many ways.

I find it very interesting that Asana had a name before she had "even seen the light of this world." I think that's extremely neat. What a great custom. And I can't believe her mother worked on her house while she was basically in labor, what a strong person.

Oh yeah, men have to hunt and build houses, well we can birth YOUR children and fix YOUR mistakes, all at the same time. Jealous that we're so strong?

=]

I can see the difference of the times, as Asana was a twin, and yet, neither were killed. So I can tell that these people have seen the destruction of colonialization.

Although I am a bit disgusted that Hawa's mother ate somebodys unborn children. This culture is so very different from mine. I do feel bad for the woman who was so ashamed by her own illness and even her husband didn't want to see her.


Although, the book isn't a complete fist in there air, completely empowering piece, we're still talking about 6 wives to one man. Gross. Although, the one woman in the beginning of the story did leave the grandfather and go on her own. And one of the aunts did divorce. But still 6 wives?

So far I am truly enjoying the story.