Zenzile Miriam Makeba, popularly known as Mama Africa, was a South African music icon born on March 4, 1932. She is one of the first African musicians to gain worldwide recognition after starting her singing career in her primary school choir in Pretoria. With a difficult upbringing during the apartheid days in South Africa, MakebaContinue reading “Miriam Makeba, Africa’s first Grammy Award winner was born on this day in 1932”
Category Archives: Features
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”
Why African countries need to emulate Rwanda and Ethiopia’s Car-Free Day initiative
Rwanda and Ethiopia have successfully established and implemented car-free days in major cities to ease traffic congestion, promote green transport, reduce carbon emission and encourage people to exercise. Rwanda’s capital Kigali launched the Car-Free Day in 2016 which has now become a bi-monthly event where prominent people including President Paul Kagame join hundreds of Kigali residentsContinue reading “Why African countries need to emulate Rwanda and Ethiopia’s Car-Free Day initiative”
Ismail Akwei 