Chicago has honoured the unsung hero and 1800s investigative journalist, Ida B. Wells, who campaigned against racist lynching of black men and pushed for women’s right to vote. Major downtown Chicago thoroughfare, Congress Parkway, was renamed Ida B. Wells Drive on Monday making it the first major street in the city named after a blackContinue reading “1800s anti-lynching journalist honoured with a street named after her in Chicago”
Author Archives: Ismail Akwei
How Ethiopia won a battle that quashed a Dutch patent on its native grain
It didn’t happen in 1909 or 1943, but in 2003 when a Dutchman, Jans Roosjen, secured a patent on the processing of Ethiopia and Eritrea’s indigenous teff grain which is a staple found in most of their foods including the injera flatbread.This is how Ethiopia won a battle that quashed a Dutch patent on itsContinue reading “How Ethiopia won a battle that quashed a Dutch patent on its native grain”
White men wearing black faces: don’t be fooled by hyper-realistic masks
It is offensive to most black people when white folks paint their faces black to represent the black race. This traces back to the early nineteenth-century Blackface performers who entertained white people by painting their faces with burnt cork, greasepaint or shoe polish and exaggerate their lips to represent uneducated slaves on the plantations. TheContinue reading “White men wearing black faces: don’t be fooled by hyper-realistic masks”
Babies: Unwanted seeds sown in African women by fleeting Chinese workers
China has found a home in Africa and many Chinese workers troop into countries in all the four sub-Saharan regions to engage in construction and mining work. Their migration is part of agreements with African governments to allow the Chinese to build infrastructure and develop the continent while deepening bilateral relations. However, the relations haveContinue reading “Babies: Unwanted seeds sown in African women by fleeting Chinese workers”
How Congo became the private property of Leopold II of Belgium who exploited and butchered millions
The King of the Belgians, Leopold II, who ruled from 1865 to 1909 has been described as worse than Adolf Hitler for his genocide against the people of the Congo Free State (now Democratic Republic of Congo) who he considered as his personal property including their lands and minerals. An undetermined number of Congolese, rangingContinue reading “How Congo became the private property of Leopold II of Belgium who exploited and butchered millions”
Ismail Akwei 