Africa

Why people are fleeing Eritrea

The UN estimates that 5,000 Eritreans are escaping from their homeland each month. The number leaving has been increasing rapidly since the last months of 2014. There are over 100,000 Eritrean refugees in both Ethiopia and Sudan. Many migrants are taking the dangerous route to Europe across the Mediterranean. Perhaps 25% of the total is from Eritrea. Why do they risk the people-smugglers and the chance of drowning? Eritrea is a former Italian colony with a population of six million. This north east African state faces Yemen and Saudi Arabia across the Red Sea. Its major neighbours are Sudan...

Understanding the Muslim far-right in Algeria, and beyond

Marieme Helie Lucas is an Algerian sociologist. She participated in the national liberation from French colonialism and was close to the then-underground PCA (Parti Communist Algerien, Algerian Communist Party). She worked as a senior civil servant during the first three years after independence, before leaving to teach at Algiers University for 12 years. In 1984, she founded the international solidarity network Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) and served as its international coordinator for 18 years. WLUML linked women fighting for their rights in Muslim contexts, throughout Africa...

Ebola: Not everything is the fault of evil capitalists

Paul Vallely (Ebola’s victims: “only Africans”?, 8 Oct) runs the risk of weakening a case by overstatement. When Ebola virus broke out this year, no one had any reason to expect it would take such a hold. The average death toll had been 67 a year since its identification in 1976. The current official total of 4,500 is already three times that of all previous recorded deaths in the last 37 years. Who could have predicted that? Who would have been brave enough after the fuss about bird ‘flu where millions of doses of vaccine were stockpiled unnecessarily? Niels Bohr’s quote about prediction is...

They are only Africans

They are only Africans. They may be dying from Ebola in record numbers, but who really cares? Such are the politics of plague. Ebola, is just another of the apocalyptic four horsemen which for ever stalk that far-away continent of which we know little and care less. Of course, no one says as much in such bald terms, not even in the farage of plain-speaking that characterises the demagogic rhetoric of our times. But it is hard to escape the sense that such is the reality of our political priorities. This is not just the worst single epidemic of Ebola in history. The frighteningly contagious...

What is Ebola virus, where does it come from?

From a scary but rare problem, Ebola Virus has exploded into public consciousness as a real disaster in West Africa and a potential threat to anywhere else connected by any means of travel. The problem has been exacerbated by the lack of local health care infrastructure, distrust of aid agencies and lack of help from the richest countries. Where has the virus come from and why is it now such a problem? Back in 1976, a new virus was discovered in a group of villages in the equatorial forests of Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo). Victims suffered fever, pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, and...

Kuchuz Day

“I’ve been attacked by homophobes” was the shocking Facebook message from H, a young gay Ugandan man as he lay hospitalised on a bed. H’s friends urgently contacted the local LGBT security team for help, as they were concerned for H’s safety when he returned home, and worried about his medical bills. The security team promised assistance, but for reasons unknown the assistance never came. H and his friends felt incredibly let down. Outcasts of society since the passing of the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Act 2014, many LGBT people are forced to live in the worse inner-city slum districts and...

LGBT protest demands release of prisoners

On Wednesday 7 May, around 50 LGBT campaigners organised a protest at the President of Uganda’s visit to the UK. President Yoweri Museveni was being welcomed by government officials as part of a Ugandan business forum, and was giving a speech near Westminster. A number of groups, including Out and Proud Diamond, an African LGBTI group, Stop AIDS, and the Peter Tatchell Foundation were present for the protest. Unions also sent delegations, most visibly the RMT. The protestors made sure that the whole speech was interrupted with drums, vuvuzelas, and loud chanting. Protestors demanded the repeal...

Ugandan anti-gay law passes

On 31st March, Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni was guest of honour at an inter-religious, ‘national thanksgiving rally’, held at the Kololo Independence Grounds in Kampala, to ‘celebrate’ the passing of the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2014. Other guest ‘celebrants’ at the event included Rebecca Kadaga, the speaker of the Ugandan Parliament; Stanley Ntagali, the Anglican Archbishop of Uganda; invited Catholic, Muslim, and Pentecostal religious leaders; sheikhs, senior pastors, bishops, and civil society leaders. The five hours of celebrations, attended by thousands of Ugandans, commenced with a...

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