Somali judge presides over the International Court of Justice

Somali judge Abdulqawi Yusuf presides over the International Court of Justice

Somali judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf has been elected as President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) based in the Hague, the Netherlands.

He was elected to the court’s Chamber of Summary Procedure on Tuesday along with four other judges and two alternate judges who shall hear cases brought before the court.

Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf was reelected to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in November last year. The prominent lawyer who has been a Member of the Court since 2009 has also held the position of Vice-President since 2015.

He is one of three Members of the Court from Africa including Judge Mohamed Bennouna from Morocco and Judge Julia Sebutinde from Uganda.

Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, before his election in 2009, served as Chief Legal Counsel to various international organizations including UNESCO and UNIDO.

He studied law in Somalia and has authored more than 7 books and over 50 articles in various fields of public international law.

This article by Ismail Akwei was first published on face2faceafrica.com

Meet Robert L. Johnson, first African American billionaire

In commemoration of Black History Month, we shine a light on the first African American billionaire, Robert Louis Johnson.

Robert Johnson is an entrepreneur, media mogul, investor and philanthropist. He co-founded Black Entertainment Television (BET) and was a former majority owner of North Carolina’s Charlotte Bobcats. He also founded the RLJ Companies that invest in other businesses.

71-year-old Johnson launched BET in 1980 after he left the National Cable and Television Association NCTA where he was vice president of government relations. Prior to that, he served as the public affairs director for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and also worked as the director of communications for the Washington, D.C. office of the National Urban League.

He launched BET which only aired for two hours on Friday night. It took five years to turn in profit from the first cable television network aimed at African-Americans. It became the first black-controlled company listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1991.

Viacom acquired BET in 2000 for a reported $3 billion and Johnson remained CEO until 2006. His RLJ holding company was still raking in money from its offices around the world including Monrovia, Liberia.

Johnson served as a member of several boards including the NBA Board of Governors, The Business Council, and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

He became the first African-American majority club owner of a major American sports league with his 2002 purchase of the Charlotte Bobcats which he sold to Michael Jordan in 2010.

Johnson gave back to his community and beyond as he created the Liberia Enterprise Development Fund in 2007 with a $30 million investment to provide credit for Liberian entrepreneurs.

Robert Johnson is currently worth about $600 million and he continues to be influential in the black community despite the backlash he received for not supporting Barack Obama during his campaign to be president.

This article by Ismail Akwei was first published on face2faceafrica.com

South Sudan’s first female pilot takes the captain’s seat at Delta Air Lines

South Sudan’s first female pilot Aluel Bol

South Sudan’s first female pilot Aluel Bol Aluenge has risen to the position of captain with major American airline company Delta Air Lines after working with Ethiopian Airlines and FlyDubai.

34-year-old Aluel Bol was celebrated in 2011 after completing an aviation training in the United States with the support of the South Sudanese government.

“I feel extremely delighted especially at the mere thought of achieving my dream. As a child growing up, I always wanted to be a pilot and my late dad made sure that he did all what it takes to make me succeed,” said Bol seven years ago.

She is being celebrated again for rising up the ladder to become a captain at one of the leading airline companies in the world.

Local news media widely reported her success and friends and family congratulated her on social media. “#SouthSudan first woman pilot Aluel Bol becomes a captain at @Delta Airlines. Congratulations Capt. Aluel!” says Twitter user Sisi Majok.

Aluel Bol is from South Sudan’s Lakes State and is the daughter of late Justice James Bol. She was a refugee in Kenya during her country’s ethnic and political conflict.

This article by Ismail Akwei was first published on face2faceafrica.com

Dutch government takes over Caribbean island after corruption probe

Sint Eustatius

The Dutch government has taken control of the tiny Caribbean island of Sint Eustatius after a committee of inquiry discovered massive financial misappropriation and abuse by its governing council.

The governing body of the 8.1 square mile island – a special municipality of the Netherlands – has been dissolved and its deputies and acting lieutenant governor sacked, regional news portal Caribbean360 quotes the Ministry of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations.

The State Secretary for Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations, Raymond Knops, who announced the decision on Monday said concerns were raised on how the island was governed, and that led to the investigation. He added that a government commissioner will be appointed to be in charge of administration until the next election for a new island council.

Caribbean360 cited portions of the report that says: “there were also signs of discrimination, intimidation, threats and insults, and the pursuit of personal power at the expense of the inhabitants … Citizens and entrepreneurs experience legal inequality. No administration is in order and the island is neglected in a physical sense”.

“Since other measures have not brought the island council to repentance, there is only one thing left to do: governing intervention. It is the harshest measure, but now that everything else has failed, it is the only possibility that remains … The people of St Eustatius deserve better,” says Knops.

The island popular referred to as Statia has a population of 3,877 as at 2016. It is located in the northern Leeward Islands portion of the West Indies, southeast of the Virgin Islands. Formerly part of the Netherlands Antilles, Sint Eustatius became a special municipality within The Netherlands in 2010.

English is widely spoken on the island even though the official language is Dutch. Education is solely in English.

This article by Ismail Akwei was first published on face2faceafrica.com

Meet Maria Borges, first black model to walk in natural hair

In commemoration of Black History Month, we shine a light on the first black model to ever walk in natural hair in Victoria’s Secret fashion show, Maria Borges.

Maria Borges is an Angolan fashion model who was named Forbes Africa Magazine’s top model of 2013. She made history in 2015 by walking in the Victoria’s Secret fashion show whilst wearing her natural afro hair.

The Riccardo Tisci favorite was born in Angola and raised by her siblings during the Angolan Civil War. She was discovered in 2010 when she placed second at the Angolan edition of the contest Elite Model Look.

After signing with Supreme Agency in 2012, Borges debuted her first Fashion week where she walked 17 runways. Her career flourished since then and she has appeared in every Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show since 2013, appeared in editorials for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Brazilian Marie Claire, French Numèro, V, W, i-D, and Interview. She has also appeared in campaigns for dozens of fashion brands.

25-year-old Maria Borges was the first African woman to feature on the cover of the American version of ELLE in 2017, 20 years after Sudanese model Alek Wek in 1997.

We salute this trailblazer for paving the path for other black women to be comfortable in their skins and hair.

This article by Ismail Akwei was first published on face2faceafrica.com