Lots of catching up. First up, check out the photographs of South African Russell Thokozani Kana.
* Second, Nas and Damian Marley, whose got a new album, “Distant Relatives,” coming out next year are joined by a great group of rap pioneers to talk about the African origins of hip hop and reggae [Livestream]
* In Somalia, Islamists stoned a 20 year old women to death in front of a crowd of 200 people for adultery. Her boyfriend was given 100 lashes. [BBC]
* “… Fresh off winning a prestigious international human rights award in New York, activist Aminatou Haidar received no warm welcome when she returned to Morocco last Friday. Instead, she was arrested and deported by Moroccan officials. Her crime? Leaving the citizenship line blank on her customs form, and writing Western Sahara–the disputed Moroccan territory where she lives–on the address line.” [Christian Science Monitor]
* The New Yorker Magazine sent reporter Ariel Levy to South Africa to report on the case of track and field athlete Caster Semenya. We find out that Caster Semenya thinks of herself as a woman.
* The hype about the mobile phone revolution in Africa
* Since 2001 Namibian public health officials have sterilized HIV positive women in the country’s hospitals without their consent.
“Namibian government implicated in involuntary sterilization of HIV-positive women”: “As far back as 2001, women living with HIV/AIDS were being sterilized in Namibian hospitals, without their autonomous consent. The government still thinks it can get away with it despite being exposed last year [Reality Check and HuffingtonPost]
* The people at the Red Bull Music Academy recently put up a video of half hour long interview with musician Hugh Masekela. (It was recorded in 2003). You can also read the transcript.
* Namibia is the first country in southern Africa to hold multiparty elections this year. And like earlier elections in Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa, the ruling party, SWAPO, won easily again. The opposition is partly to blame, according to “The Economist.”
* The most dominant defensive player in American college football partly traces his heritage to Cameroon. [The New York Times]
* Others–Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa–may have more people connected to the internet now, but Rwanda wants to be the Africa’s first high tech economy by 2020, and they have a plan [The Economist]
* Apparently the rough draft of a new panel report by an expert panel to the UN on its ineffective arms embargo in the DRC shows that “… killer militias in Eastern Congo have been receiving military orders from leaders based in Germany and France and getting finance from two Spanish-based charities linked to the Roman Catholic church in clear breach of the UN sanctions regime. The report also accuses the governments of Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania and Congo-Kinshasa of allowing serious breaches of sanctions and the illegal export of mineral wealth.” So expect the report to be delayed for publication and to watered down, argues Africa Confidential.
* The strange mix of repressive politics in the West African country, Gabon, and American hip hop. [Africanhiphop.com]
* Following the trail of “blood diamonds” from Johannesburg to Mumbai [Tehelka]
* Finally, luckily this thing got squashed:
