Algeria’s Relationship with the Media Grows Tense Amid Political Woes

On Aug. 10, Algerian officials sentenced journalist Khaled Drareni to three years in prison for reporting on the 2019 Hirak protests. Calling for the removal of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the Hirak pro-democracy protests were some of the largest anti-government demonstrations since the Algerian civil war in the 1990s. While the protests were successful in removing Bouteflika from power, Algerian activists are unsatisfied with the corruption that still drives the Algerian government. Drareni’s sentencing has amplified the divide between independent publications and state-run media, drawing attention to the censorship that Algerian journalists face.

Hirak protests in Algiers. Becker. CC BY 2.0.

From 1991 to 2002, Algeria was engaged in a civil war between the government and Islamist political groups. Throughout this unrest, journalists in Algeria explored the many human rights abuses present in the country. As the war began to resolve in 1999, Abdelaziz Bouteflika was elected president of Algeria. With his 2005 Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, he offered amnesty to groups that committed violence between 1992 and 2006. While this charter protected many Algerians from prosecution, Bouteflika also used it to restrict the press from investigating human rights violations. 

Following the enactment of this charter, independent publications were allowed a modicum of freedom as they operated independently of the state. However, the divide between independent publications and the Algerian state-run media only grew as Bouteflika consolidated his power.

An Algerian soldier barricades a street. Magha Rebia. CC BY 2.0.

In recent years, as pro-democracy movements gain traction in Algeria, independent publications have generally been the only media covering the protests. With tensions between Algerian citizens and the government mounting over the past decade, independent publications have been increasingly villainized by the state. Using state-owned companies as leverage, the Algerian government has stripped most independent publications of their primary source of income—advertisements. 

Within the past year, multiple independent media outlets critical of the regime have been blocked, including Maghreb Emergent and Radio M. Reporters Without Borders, an international organization that works to protect freedom of the press globally, now ranks Algeria 146th out of 180 countries in the 2020 World Press Freedom Index, which evaluates the degree of freedom awarded to journalists. Algeria’s ranking in this index has dropped drastically in the past five years -- in 2015, Algeria was ranked 27 places higher. 

The imprisonment of Khaled Drareni only amplifies the harsh restrictions being gradually imposed on the Algerian media. In April 2020, Algeria passed a law criminalizing “fake news” to maintain “public order and state security.” This law increases the repression of journalists in an already corrupt state. With privately-owned media facing severe blockades, social media has become a driving force in disseminating information to young people across the country. Social media platforms have become a pivotal tool for activists, allowing them to coordinate nonviolent protests and spread news that is not aired on radio or television. This movement has encouraged reporters at state-backed media companies to resign and actively fight for marginalized voices to be heard. Algeria remains in a state of flux as reporters stripped of their formal platforms are actively working toward freedom of the press through alternative means of communication.

Sarah Leidich

is currently an English and Film major at Barnard College of Columbia University. Sarah is inspired by global art in every form, and hopes to explore the intersection of activism, art, and storytelling through her writing.

The Back-to-Africa Movement: A Response to Racism

Some Black Americans have chosen to move to Africa to embrace their heritage and ancestral roots after experiencing racism, violence and stereotyping in the United States. 

A village in Tanzania. ceasrgp. CC BY-SA 2.0

The Back-to-Africa movement was initially started to encourage those of African ancestry to travel back to Africa where their ancestors once lived. Even though many are unsure of the movement’s founder, many in the U.S. attribute it to Marcus Garvey, who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1914 in New York City’s Harlem district. He encouraged many Black people to seek social equality even if it meant moving to Africa through “self-emancipation.”

However, the Back-to-Africa movement can be traced even further back to the 19th century and the establishment of the American Colonization Society The predominantly-White group, founded by Robert Finley in 1817, shipped up to 12,000 freed slaves and freeborn Black Americans to Liberia. Historians’ views on the American Colonization Society’s work remain split; some view it as an early group dedicated to Black Americans’ freedom while others see it as nothing more than an attempt to remove Black people from the United States. Either way, the group was unpopular among the African American community, and should not be confused with more recent Back-to-Africa movements.

Painting of Marcus Garvey. David Drissel. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Many African Americans have more recently picked up the Back-to-Africa movement to help strengthen Black identity. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X both made visits to Ghana in order to reconnect with their heritage. 

Obadele Kambon is a recent example of the modern Back-to-Africa movement. Kambon was living in Chicago in 2007 when he was wrongfully accused of possessing a loaded firearm illegally in his car. In reality, he had an unloaded, licensed gun. The fear of mistreatment and wrongful convictions, sometimes even leading to death, was a main influence in Kambon’s decision to move to Ghana in 2008.He said his participation in the Back-to-Africa movement made him realize what it “feels like to be a White person in America, just to be able to live without worrying that something is going to happen to you.”

Many of those who have moved to Africa from the United States fear that “nothing can fix [racism].” Africa holds the potential to reconnect people with their roots while offering them a life less affected by racism and violence. 71% of African Americans in the United States have said that they have experienced discrimination in some form. For many African Americans, heading abroad frees them from the need to prove themselves to be more than their skin color.

2019 was marked by Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo as the “Year of Return.” It coincided with the 400th anniversary of what is believed to be the first enslaved Africans arriving in the United States. Last year, Ghana rewarded over 100 citizenships to Black individuals from the Americas as a part of its “Year of Return” initiative. The campaign brought over 500,000 visitors to the region—and some of them have decided to stay.

Eva Ashbaugh

is a Political Science and Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies double major at the University of Pittsburgh. As a political science major concentrating on International Relations, she is passionate about human rights, foreign policy, and fighting for equality. She hopes to one day travel and help educate people to make the world a better place.

South Africa’s Success Continues in Slowing Rhino Poaching

Poaching, the illegal hunting and sometimes killing of animals, has always been a serious threat to conservation efforts. Animals like rhinos, elephants, tigers and lions are often the target of poachers looking to make money through exotic pet sales and traditional medicine practices. While habitat destruction does contribute most to the strain on many animal species, the illegal trading and selling of wildlife has gained popularity as e-commerce continues to grow. 

Kruger National Park, South Africa. Vincent van Zalinge. Unsplash.

In South Africa, this illegal practice has finally decreased to the point where native rhino species can finally thrive. Rhinos are often hunted in South Africa because their horns are used for traditional medicine in Asia. In just the first six months of 2020, South African rhino poaching decreased by 53% - a goal that the South African Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries has been working toward for the past five years. Only 166 rhinos have been poached for their horns in the first six months of 2020. This is a significant drop when compared to the 316 rhinos that were poached in the first six months of 2019.  

Street art against rhino poaching. Kosmoseleevike. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Barbara Creecy, South Africa’s minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, said, “After a decade of implementing various strategies, and campaigning against ever-increasing rhino poaching by local poachers recruited and managed by crime syndicates, efforts are paying off. We have been able to arrest the escalation of rhino losses.” The ministry credits this success in part to COVID-19 lockdown measures as they kept poachers from actively hunting. 

Poached rhinoceros. Kehworks. CC BY-NC 2.0.

Additionally, the lockdown measures have made poachers much easier to spot. From January to June, 38 suspected rhino poachers have been arrested in Kruger National Park and 23 firearms have been confiscated. These arrests also led to historic convictions as the ministry reports that from January to June, the National Prosecuting Authority managed to obtain convictions in 15 cases marking a conviction rate of 100%. To guarantee that these poachers will not return to poaching, they were given lengthy sentences. Coordinated efforts with the South African Police Service, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (also known as the “Hawks”) and the Department of Justice have curtailed the selling and purchasing of poached rhino horns. 

White rhino silhouette in Kruger National Park. Javier Ábalos. CC BY-SA 2.0.

South Africa’s success came just in time to celebrate World Ranger Day on July 31, a day dedicated to rangers who have lost their lives in the line of duty. The minister paid tribute to these brave men and women who have risked their health and safety, both by stopping poachers and risking possible exposure to COVID-19. “Our rangers have remained at the forefront of the battle against poaching, despite the national lockdown, contributing to the decrease in poaching. In this time, rangers have had to face not only the threats posed by poachers, but they, and their families, have also had to deal with the danger of contracting COVID-19,”  said the minister. It is apparent that their bravery has paid off as the rhino population of South Africa is now at a decreased risk of population decline.

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Renee Richardson

Renee is currently an English student at The University of Georgia. She lives in Ellijay, Georgia, a small mountain town in the middle of Appalachia. A passionate writer, she is inspired often by her hikes along the Appalachian trail and her efforts to fight for equality across all spectrums. She hopes to further her passion as a writer into a flourishing career that positively impacts others.

Aliens Built the Pyramids? The Perils of Mixing of Archaeology and Ethnocentrism

On July 31, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted, “Aliens built the pyramids obv.” With almost 90,000 retweets, over 500,000 likes and 25,000 replies, theories about extraterrestrial efforts to build Earth’s architectural marvels continue to stir conversation. These debunked theories have been popularized by the TV show “Ancient Aliens,” which focuses on the supposed possibility that aliens built many of the grand structures seen today. 

Elon Musk’s tweet about the Egyptian pyramids. Elon Musk. Twitter.

While the theories can be entertaining to consider, many academics and archaeologists find that this perspective erases the history of the people present when these structures were built. With regard to the pyramids, the belief that extraterrestrials deserve credit erases possible Black African history in Egypt.

Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation replying to Elon Musk. Rania A. Al Mashat. Twitter.

Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation, Rania al-Mashat, corrected Musk by tweeting, “I follow your work with a lot of admiration. I invite you & SpaceX to explore the writings about how the pyramids were built and also to check out the tombs of the pyramid builders.” This correction by the minister was necessary, as speculation over how the Egyptian pyramids were built can be answered by accurate historical accounts.

The belief that aliens are responsible for building structures such as the pyramids is called pseudoarchaeology and it has gained popularity on the internet. Several serious books have been written about the topic, and many of these texts have even been peer reviewed by other archaeologists. The first pseudoarchaeological book to gain widespread traction was a series of texts written by Erich von Daniken, the first of which was called "Chariots of the Gods." Thirty-two more volumes followed. Most of Von Daniken’s texts question architectural structures specifically in non-White regions like Latin America, Africa and Asia, with little speculation directed at ancient Viking or Celtic structures.

The Great Sphinx and two of the Egyptian pyramids. Museums Victoria. Unsplash.

A major problem with texts such as “Chariots of the Gods” comes from the ethnocentric bias many of them have. Rather than crediting the actual, often non-White, builders for architectural feats like the pyramids of Egypt, the assumption is that the structure is too complex for humans to understand or build. Archaeologist Eric Cline told Forbes that, “Pseudoarchaeologists cannot accept the fact that the mere humans might have come up with great innovations such as … the Sphinx all on their own; rather, they frequently seek or invoke divine, or even alien, assistance to explain how these came to be.” 

Mexico’s Teotihuacan. Alejandro Morelos. Unsplash.

Questions have even been asked about the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Teotihuacan, an ancient Aztec city located near present-day Mexico City. Many pseudoarchaeologists believe the ruins could have once been a spaceport due to the presence of mica and liquid mercury in the area. This type of misinformation may be interesting, but it greatly takes away from the intricate planning necessary to accomplish such great feats of engineering. 

While far-fetched theories about the past are entertainment for some, it is clearly more important to recognize the history which has already been uncovered. Theorizing without noting facts not only discounts history itself, but also greatly takes away from those who built Earth’s great marvels.

Renee Richardson

is currently an English student at The University of Georgia. She lives in Ellijay, Georgia, a small mountain town in the middle of Appalachia. A passionate writer, she is inspired often by her hikes along the Appalachian trail and her efforts to fight for equality across all spectrums. She hopes to further her passion as a writer into a flourishing career that positively impacts others.

Congo Faces New Ebola Outbreak Amid Global Pandemic

The World Health Organization has called on the international community for financial support and aid in combating the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This latest outbreak was announced by the country’s government on June 1 and has seen 56 cases reported in the Equateur province, a region which has been a hot spot for the disease in recent years.

Ebola is a deadly disease with outbreaks occurring primarily in Africa. In humans, the virus can be caused by one of four virus species: Ebola virus, Sudan virus, Tai Forest virus and Bundibugyo virus. The virus spreads through direct contact with organic matter from infected humans and animals. Common symptoms include fever, aches, weakness, fatigue, abdominal pain, gastrointestinal symptoms, and hemorrhaging, bleeding and bruising.

This latest outbreak comes as the 11th in a long line of Ebola outbreaks in the Congo since the disease was first discovered in 1976. A couple of weeks ago, the WHO celebrated the end of the country’s 10th outbreak, which began in August 2018. That Ebola outbreak was the deadliest recorded in the DRC and second worst in history, seeing 2,280 deaths.

According to The New York Times, the WHO has gathered $1.75 million to combat the outbreak, but this funding would only last the organization for a couple more weeks. Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s regional director for Africa, called for additional funding to be allocated toward vaccinations, testing and treatment, as well as contact tracing and health education resources.

“Responding to Ebola in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is complex, but we must not let COVID-19 distract us from tackling other pressing health threats,” Dr. Moeti said. “The current Ebola outbreak is running into headwinds because cases are scattered across remote areas in dense rainforests. This makes for a costly response as ensuring that responders and supplies reach affected populations is extremely challenging.”

Dr. Moeti also stated that over 12,000 people living in the Equateur province had been vaccinated since the outbreak was first reported in June.

WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus echoed Dr. Moeti’s sentiments in a recent news release on the situation.

“This is a reminder that COVID-19 is not the only health threat people face,” Dr. Ghebreyesus said. “Although much of our attention is on the pandemic, WHO is continuing to monitor and respond to many other health emergencies.”

This call for funding follows a challenging six months for the organization, as the WHO has partnered with global leaders to combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

While much of the world has been supportive of the organization, the United States has been an exception. President Donald Trump pulled the country out of the WHO in late May over concerns about Chinese influence, with the withdrawal going into effect on July 6, 2021. The U.S. is the organization’s single largest financial contributor, having provided over $400 million in 2019.

President Trump has not publicly commented on this latest Ebola outbreak. While the U.S. directed $21 million in aid through the U.S. Agency for International Development for the 10th outbreak in 2019, it is unclear whether the country will direct any funding toward this latest outbreak’s relief efforts.

The WHO is expected to continue Ebola relief operations within the Equateur province for the foreseeable future, as governmental agencies such as the United Nations have directed additional funding to the organization. However, it is unclear how long this funding will last and how the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will complicate these relief measures.

Jacob Sutherland

is a recent graduate from the University of California San Diego where he majored in Political Science and minored in Spanish Language Studies. He previously served as the News Editor for The UCSD Guardian, and hopes to shed light on social justice issues in his work.

7 Reasons to Climb Mount Kilimanjaro - and How to Do It Sustainably

Mount Kilimanjaro, commonly known as the “roof of Africa,” is the tallest free-standing mountain in the world. At 19,340 feet, its snowcapped peak extends well above the clouds. Kilimanjaro is located in northeast Tanzania, towering over all of East Africa. Relative to other destination climbs, “Mount Kili,” as it is often known, is fairly easy. Nonetheless, the 75,000 individuals who summit the mountain each year push their bodies to the limit, experience Tanzanian culture and take in surreal views. 

1.) Mount Kilimanjaro is the most accessible of the Seven Summits, the highest peaks on every continent. As the only Seven Summit hike free of technical climbing, Mount Kili does not require equipment like harnesses or ropes. Hikers simply need adequate physical fitness, a pair of hiking poles and their own two feet. 

2.) That’s not to say Mt. Kilimanjaro isn’t a thrilling, challenging adventure. It remains a taxing endeavor that demands strength, stamina and an awareness of potential oxygen deprivation. Most tour operators ensure that their clients consult a doctor before embarking on the climb. The hike, however, is predominantly safe, with altitude sickness being the main reason that hikers do not complete the climb. Ultimately, Mt. Kili is a realistic challenge that testifies to its hikers’ willpower. 

3.) Mt. Kilimanjaro is beautiful, both from up close and afar. Its paths scale across multiple climate zones, including lush rainforests, wide open moorlands and chilly glaciers. Additionally, the scenic campsites offer an ideal respite from a long day of trekking. 

4.) The mountain is a  dormant volcano composed of three different cones: Kibo, Mawenzi and Shira. Although Mawenzi and Shira are extinct, Kibo could erupt again. Along their journey to the top, hikers witness miles of lava and rock. The highest point on Kibo’s crater is Uhuru, or “freedom” in Swahili. 

5.) The hike lasts roughly one week. Ascents can take as few as four nights and as long as eight, depending on the route. Once climbers complete the challenge, they can descend the mountain and turn their attention to the surrounding wildlife. Northern Tanzania is teeming with wildlife and offers some of the best safari experiences in all of Africa. Elephant herds in Tarangire National Park, flamingos and pelicans at Lake Manyara, and wildebeest in the Serengeti are only a few of the wildlife encounters to be had in northern Tanzania. 

6.) Guides hail from surrounding parts of Tanzania. To the visitors, they teach Swahili hiking phrases, singsongs, and provide support during trying periods of the climb. On the trails, these porters call out “Pole pole!” (slowly slowly) to save their clients from altitude sickness. Before leaving the campsites in the morning, they often amplify the group’s energy with song and dance. 

7.) By making sustainable choices, hikers can exercise social responsibility and promote the welfare of hardworking porters, guides and cooks. The Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project (KPAP) is a nonprofit organization seeking to improve the working conditions of exploited porters. Although they are the backbone of the trek, oftentimes guides are ill-equipped, overworked and underpaid. KPAP suggests that hikers take action by giving mountain clothing to porters and selecting ethical climbing companies. A cheap Kilimanjaro trip means lower wages and poor working conditions for the Tanzanians who carry gear, cook for and guide tourists. When hikers purchase Kili climbing programs at non-exploitative prices, they not only indulge in Tanzania’s riches, but also give back to the community. 

Anna Wood

is an Anthropology major and Global Health/Spanish double minor at Middlebury College. As an anthropology major with a focus in public health, she studies the intersection of health and sociocultural elements. She is also passionate about food systems and endurance sports.

COVID-19 Further Complicates Kenya’s Health Care System

Kenya is facing a double burden of communicable and noncommunicable diseases. Clustering of infections, such as HIV and tuberculosis, and noncommunicable diseases, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, renders Kenyans vulnerable to COVID-19. This has pressured an already overstretched health care system.

Hospital entrance sign in Kenya’s Rift Valley province. Melanie K Reed. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

In mid-March, shortly after Kenya’s first confirmed COVID-19 case, the word “corona” began circulating around western Kenya’s villages. Young people used the word as a novelty, and the overall population remained preoccupied with existing illnesses. “This is a disease for whites,” said Sylvanus, a local father of seven. When calling after white people on the street, children replaced their traditional “mzungu!” (white person) with “coronavirus!” At this point, Europe was the pandemic’s epicenter. Kenyans felt that this foreign virus was removed from their world. 

However, Kenya’s high prevalence of preexisting health conditions renders a significant portion of the population immunocompromised and therefore vulnerable to the coronavirus. In a country experiencing health issues such as HIV, tuberculosis, diabetes and malaria, the pandemic has posed a threat to an already fragmented health care system. Although less than 4% of Africa’s population is over the age of 65, countries such as Kenya have seen high coronavirus mortality rates. 

Global evidence shows that people with underlying medical conditions are at a greater risk from COVID-19. In 2019, half a million Kenyans were living with diabetes, and over half of accounted deaths were associated with noncommunicable diseases. Currently, Kenya’s health care system is structured to manage individual diseases, rather than multiple ones. Because patients frequently carry more than one health condition, the health care system has been overstretched and inadequate. HIV, tuberculosis and malaria treatments are easily accessible, but noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes and cancer often go undiagnosed, and care is costly. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these shortcomings, as social distancing restrictions prevent Kenyans from accessing medical resources, and a surge of coronavirus cases imposes a double burden of disease. Additionally, front-line workers with undiagnosed, chronic illnesses have critically compromised their health, and hospitals have dealt with equipment shortages. 

Transcontinental travel has heavily contributed to the increase in COVID-19 cases across Africa. In order to minimize Kenya’s number of infections, President Uhuru Kenyatta stopped all flights from Europe. Kenyatta also imposed a national curfew and restricted movement between populated areas. Domestically, middle-class, urban dwellers have carried the virus into rural areas. On Kenyan television, villagers have urged educated, urban residents to remain in the city, instead of threatening the lives of others. 

In African countries, lockdowns are nearly impossible to implement because they would spur social and economic crises. Many people rely on cash earned daily to sustain themselves and their families. A strict lockdown would result in poverty and starvation. Kinship systems also play a crucial role in social welfare, as relatives care for one another. For people already barely getting by, cutting these social ties would be dangerous. Finally, a lockdown would interrupt the supply chains of essential drugs, preventing access to tuberculosis, HIV and malaria treatments. 

According to several African presidents, developed countries are failing to fulfill their pledges of financial support and debt relief. Throughout the pandemic, outside aid has not met the continent’s needs. While wealthy countries in the global north have funneled trillions of dollars into their own stimulus packages and health initiatives, the global south cannot afford such measures. With limited testing capacity, Africa has not confirmed many of the world’s COVID-19 cases, but the continent has been grossly affected by the economic crisis and global trade disruptions. Furthermore, the global shortage of testing kits, hygienic material and personal protective equipment has left developed countries vying for their own supplies, without consideration for underdeveloped nations. 

Anna Wood

is an Anthropology major and Global Health/Spanish double minor at Middlebury College. As an anthropology major with a focus in public health, she studies the intersection of health and sociocultural elements. She is also passionate about food systems and endurance sports.

Nearly a Decade of Strife in Libya

After the overthrow of then-leader Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, Libya has been in a constant state of political unrest. Since 2014, the Government of National Accord (GNA) and the Libyan National Army (LNA)  have sought control over the country, sparking a destructive civil war. Based in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, the GNA is recognized by the United Nations. Allied with General Khalifa Hifter, the Benghazi-based LNA receives aid from Russia, France and the United Arab Emirates. 

Libyan civilians have endured chaos, including shelling near the front lines, injuries from explosive devices and abductions for ransom. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that 1.3 million Libyans require urgent humanitarian assistance.

Armed Conflict and War Crimes 

Weapons proliferation has been a major security concern in Libya, as allied countries provide the GNA and LNA with advanced military equipment. State-provided arms transfers make Libya a volatile battleground. Currently, the country has the world's largest uncontrolled ammunition supply, with an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 metric tons of uncontrolled munitions. Yacoub El Hillo, the U.N.’s resident and humanitarian coordinator in Libya, announced, “The increasing use of explosive weapons has resulted in unnecessary loss of life, displacement, destruction and damage to vital civilian infrastructure.” The Islamic State group has also used the country as a hub to coordinate broader regional violence, further complicating efforts to create a united government. 

In April 2019, Khalifa Hifter’s forces attacked Tripoli, resulting in over 1,000 fatalities. As General Hifter continues his campaigns, the International Criminal Court (ICC) warns of potential war crimes, including mass murder, desecration of corpses and kidnappings. In a statement to the U.N. Security Council, chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda accused the LNA of targeting innocent civilians: "Of particular concern to my Office are the high numbers of civilian casualties, largely reported to be resulting from airstrikes and shelling operations. Intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities is a war crime under the Rome Statute. Likewise, the Rome Statute prohibits the intentional directing of attacks against hospitals and other buildings protected under international law, such as those dedicated to religion or education, when they are not military objectives." 

Civilian Victims and Internal Displacement 

Displaced civilians flee their homes in Libya. Magharebia. CC BY 2.0

Due to ongoing conflict, nearly 400,000 Libyans have been forced to flee their homes and are now internally displaced. According to UNICEF, Libyan hospitals and schools serve as shelters for thousands of displaced civilians around Tripoli. Yet, with military forces continually targeting these makeshift shelters, Libyans face inadequate access to health care, essential medicines, food, safe drinking water and education. School has been suspended indefinitely for nearly 200,000 children, leaving them susceptible to abuse, human trafficking and violence.

Given the lack of eyewitnesses and credible reports, experts can only estimate the total number of fatalities since 2011. Small Arms Survey, a research-based organization, suspects that approximately 27,000 people have perished in the nine-year-long dispute. 

Migrants, Refugees and Asylum-Seekers 

Migrants aboard an inflatable vessel in the Mediterranean Sea. Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet. Public Domain.

Within this war-torn nation, there are currently 654,000 migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers, mainly from sub-Saharan Africa. Approximately 90% of people crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe depart from Libya. Migrants and asylum-seekers who are captured at sea and returned to Libyan territory are detained in centers run by the GNA’s Interior Ministry, where many suffer inhumane conditions including sexual violence, extortion and forced labor. While the GNA manages formal migrant detention centers, smugglers and traffickers run numerous informal facilities. “Those interned there, mainly refugees, keep dying of diseases and hunger. They are victims of violence, rape and arbitrary treatment at the hands of militias,” said Julien Raickmann, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) chief in Libya. Since January, more than 4,000 migrants have been intercepted at sea and returned to Libya, while hundreds have disappeared altogether. Despite threats of detention, migrants and asylum-seekers still venture to Libya, hoping to reach Europe. 

Humanitarian Relief 

After nine years of instability, thousands of Libyan civilians and migrants face displacement, malnutrition and violence. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) launched the 2020 Humanitarian Response Plan, which pledges $115 million in relief efforts. Protection is at the core of this plan, as well as the provision of food, shelter, health care, water and sanitation. The U.N.’s refugee agency, UNHCR, will also work at 12 disembarkation points in Libya to aid and protect migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers. At detention centers, they will provide humanitarian assistance and mitigate maltreatment. These organizations seek durable solutions to prevent another decade of turmoil.

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Shannon Moran

Shannon is a Journalism major at the University of Georgia, minoring in English and Spanish. As a fluent Spanish speaker, she is passionate about languages, cultural immersion, and human rights activism. She has visited seven countries and thirty states and hopes to continue traveling the world in pursuit of compelling stories.

Shoemaker’s Solar-Powered Hand-Washing Station Protects Ghana from COVID-19

As COVID-19 slowly spreads throughout the world, some have used this experience as an opportunity to create. 32-year-old shoemaker Richard Kwarteng and his brother Jude Osei are two brothers who are certainly included in this innovation boom. Located in Kumasi, Ghana’s cultural capital, the brothers used the city’s two-week lockdown as time to invent a solar-powered hand-washing basin called SolaWash. 

They noticed that opportunities to wash one’s hands were often slim in Ghana.  One day, while staring at a pile of recyclables and other materials, Kwarteng had a brilliant idea.

In a statement obtained by CNN, he said, “My brother and I decided we would create a basin to encourage regular hand-washing etiquette." They took this observation and from it came the first solar-powered hand-washing machine in Ghana. They designed it so that the faucet would run for 25 seconds, following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, then shut off without even having to touch it. A video of their product quickly went viral on Twitter, and it caught the attention of many.

The Building Process 

The SolaWash hand-washing machine. Best Trends gh. YouTube.

To create such an invention, the brothers began with the recycled materials they had and then headed to the market. They already had the large barrel their design would revolve around so they only had to purchase a sink, a faucet, a motherboard, a solar panel, a sensor and an alarm. After obtaining all the materials, they knew they needed help with the electrical work so they called upon their friend Amkwaah Boakye to do the wiring. They were able to gather the materials in only 48 hours and complete their project in just five days. 

How Does It Work? 

To wash your hands using the basin, you simply place them under the faucet. The device, programmed by the brothers, releases soapy water when hands or other items are picked up by the sensor installed underneath the faucet. The faucet runs for 25 seconds, then an alarm beeps to let the user know their hand-washing is complete. Water is then released again to rinse off any excess soap before drying. Their design is meant to not only be sanitary but also to conserve as much water and energy as possible. 

What Will They Do With It? 

President Akufo-Addo addresses Ghana about COVID-19. Joy News. YouTube.

The brothers have been commended by Ghanaian President Akufo-Addo for their incredible work, and he hopes to make their product widely available. Ghana's Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation also reached out to the brothers in order to plan for mass distribution. They are hoping to quickly manufacture and distribute these hand-washing basins in order to curb the spread of COVID-19, and Kwarteng is encouraging this as well. 

Richard Kwarteng receiving his product certification. Best trends gh. YouTube.

This process can officially begin as the Ghana Standards Authority released their official certification of the product. Professor Alex Dodoo, director-general of the GSA, has his full support behind the brothers as well. He presented the certificate to a manufacturer in Accra on Wednesday, and said the product had been tested for its safety and efficiency. Dodoo also noted that the hand-washing basin was ready for mass production, and he hopes to see this product used around the world. The certification given by the GSA attests to the product’s quality as it met international standards for electrically-controlled machines. That means that the hand-washing basin has the potential to not only save Ghanaian lives, but also many others around the world especially in places that do not have widespread sanitation accessibility.

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Renee Richardson

Renee is currently an English student at The University of Georgia. She lives in Ellijay, Georgia, a small mountain town in the middle of Appalachia. A passionate writer, she is inspired often by her hikes along the Appalachian trail and her efforts to fight for equality across all spectrums. She hopes to further her passion as a writer into a flourishing career that positively impacts others.

Coronavirus—the Newest Excuse for Miners’ Mistreatment in the Congo

In the far south of the Democratic Republic of Congo lies the Copperbelt, a region that leads Africa in copper production and accounts for 70% of the world’s cobalt supply. The area’s mines play a key role in supplying the world with electrical wires and the batteries found inside smartphones and electric cars.

The Congo’s Copperbelt is also a region of severe worker mistreatment. Miners, often children, receive around $1 a day as they toil in shafts prone to collapse for long hours. This occurs while cobalt’s market price hovers at nearly $30,000 per ton.

As COVID-19 ravages Africa, copper and cobalt mines in the Congo have adjusted by instituting harsh rules to curb the virus’s impact on their production levels. The mines’ provisions have, unsurprisingly, not been in workers’ favor. The adjustments, confirmed by workers and union representatives, include:

·       Mandatory confinement at mine sites, 24 hours per day, or risk losing employment

·       Extended shifts without receiving additional pay

·       Inadequate food and water rations

·       Overcrowded sleeping arrangements and unsanitary toilet and hand-washing facilities

·       Limited or nonexistent communication about the confinement’s duration or future COVID-19 measures

The response to allegations of further worker mistreatment in the Congo has been immediate. Eleven human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, sent a letter to 13 mining corporations across the region setting standards for worker treatment.

“We believe that companies around the world will be remembered,” the letter states, “by how they treat their workers during these challenging times. At a minimum, companies should not require workers to be held in mandatory confinement under threat of unemployment, should provide adequate personal protective equipment and access to water and sanitation facilities for all workers, and employ social distancing measures at all times.”

Whether the suggested guidelines will be followed in the Copperbelt remains to be seen. Mining titans Glencore, Eurasian Resources Group, Chemaf, Huayou Cobalt and Ivanhoe Mines declined to immediately respond to requests for comment.

Workers shovel copper into railway cars at a processing plant in Lubumbashi, from where it will be sent abroad. International Labour Organization ILO. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Pressure has been mounting on copper and cobalt producers – and their recipients – for years. International Rights Advocates, a human rights lobbying group, filed suit against Apple, Google, Microsoft, Dell and Tesla in December 2019 accusing them of “knowingly benefiting from” the use of child labor at Congolese mines. While the companies restated their commitment to “only sourcing responsibly-produced materials,” very few tangible steps have been taken.

The problem, then, continues today. Though Apple revealed its full list of cobalt suppliers upon request, many major companies cannot verify that their supply chains are free of worker mistreatment. Faced with slim human rights pressure from buyers and a generally impoverished workforce, most cobalt and copper producers feel little incentive to change. Their COVID-19 response so far stands as only the most recent example.

Accountability remains the first step toward ending the mistreatment of Congolese miners. Supply chain traceability alone could prevent companies from buying minerals unearthed by unprotected workers facing mandatory confinement. A positive step came in late May when Huayou Cobalt, China’s top producer, agreed to temporarily stop sourcing cobalt from the informal sector “until relevant standards can be recognized and supported by the whole industry.”

While this step is welcome, much more can be done. COVID-19’s spread complicates mines’ production efforts, but by no means necessitates mandatory confinement, threats to employment, and steep cuts to health and wellness standards. Groups such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Rights and Accountability in Government are working to fight against worker mistreatment, and this letter is just the first move.

Stephen Kenney

is a Journalism and Political Science double major at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He enjoys sharing his passion for geography with others by writing compelling stories from across the globe. In his free time, Stephen enjoys reading, long-distance running and rooting for the Tar Heels.

The Detrimental Impact of Covid-19 on Developing Nations

The world has dealt with COVID-19 since the beginning of the year with varying countries successfully staving it off. However, the question of how developing countries are doing has crossed the media only a few times. The problem is our inability to know the true extent of their situation since they do not have the same means as more developed countries like ourselves and other impacted countries. Their economic situations are close to being called a crisis while medical care is scarce to come by. In countries like Bangladesh, Nigeria and South Africa, their vulnerability to the virus has increased with the global economic shut-down and sparse supplies. 

The Economic Crisis 

The biggest issue with developing countries is their reliance on “foreign income and tourism”. This ultimately means that regardless of confirmed COVID-19 cases, they will feel the impact of the virus as the world economy faces major setbacks and in some cases come close to halting as some countries' exports are affected. For example, in Bangladesh “only 15% of Bangladeshi workers make over $6 a day”, meaning very few families are able to support themselves in the event of an economic shut down. The World Bank has sent aid across the globe and plans to send out close to $160 billion dollars of relief money to Africa and countries such as Pakistan, India, Ethiopia and more, hoping to help relieve them of economic stress and strengthen “their national health systems.” An issue that has risen with giving aid to these countries is that their situation is not like the United States of America where we can enforce “social distancing guidelines and then pair them with stimulus packages”. Poorer countries, such as Bangladesh, are more spread out with the majority of their population self-employed or working in informal sectors meaning they are not under the tax and benefits system. They tend to live “hand-to-mouth” instead of pay-check to paycheck. This means they are completely reliant on what they make that day to feed their families and survive. Further complicating the matter, with so few resources spread out across the country, we are unable to find the COVID-19 epicenters of these countries. They lack the proper test kits and quantity, resulting in an inaccurate number of positive COVID-19 cases and too few resources for help and trained professionals. 

The Impact on Medical Care

It has been predicted that with the rest of the world’s cases slowly dropping, the new world epicenter for COVID-19 will shift to Africa. Currently, they have “10,000 reported confirmed cases and over 500 fatalities”. While they were not the first to be impacted, their curve of cases has yet to flatten, worrying health officials worldwide. Just this last week, Capetown, South Africa jumped 43% with confirmed cases, alerting the WHO of the rising crisis but no way to determine the true epicenter of the continent. Without proper safety equipment in hospitals, many doctors or nurses try to avoid seeing patients who predict they have the virus, seeing as they won’t be protected themselves. Additionally, there is a severe lack of testing kits available, so they’ve tried to spread them out as much as possible nationwide. A stark example is Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with over 200 million inhabitants, which has reported almost 900 COVID-19 cases with only 28 confirmed deaths. They have only conducted just over 7,000 tests with only 5,000 of these coming in this past week and being used. This lack of equipment again adds to the ignorance of the true numbers of cases these countries have and how we can help. 

Lastly, countries such as South Africa and Bangladesh have an inability to obtain an adequate amount of medical supplies, and the ones they do have are spread so thin that they are hardly useful. Populations are scrambling to seek help, but social-distancing guidelines like we’ve seen in our own country are impossible to implement in countries where most of their population do not live in an urban setting. For example, in Bangladesh, the entire country only has “432 ICU beds with only 110 outside the capital city of Dhaka”. This ultimately means unless the Bangladeshi population lives inside the city, it’s unlikely they will receive the help they need. Already Bangladesh has over 5,000 confirmed cases and over 150 deaths.  Their inability to give out adequate healthcare has required donations from all around the world to enable people to get the help they need. Bangladesh, Nigeria and South Africa are only a few examples of the countries who rely on each other to take home food and money to their families, and most do not live in a country that has an organized, official census. This makes it hard for health officials to know how much supplies they need to send to these countries and give them aid.

Implemented Strategies

Initially, their ability to sustain their countries through this pandemic has looked grim, but the world has flooded in to help by donating supplies and tests. For example, in Bangladesh, officials have implemented a survey to try to get a good grasp on the exact number of population while increasing their efforts to educate the general population on what COVID-19 is and how to keep themselves safe. Additionally, they are working on an already established census to call citizens to check in on them, making sure they have the help and resources they need. In other countries like South America and Nigeria, they are currently working on educating their populations and trying to implement as little contact as possible with people not related to each other. At the end of the day, the most that can be done is a step by step process that starts with getting the full scope of what these countries are dealing with. This starts with getting more test kits sent out and more government officials working on getting the exact numbers on a population.

Ultimately, the world has been floored by this pandemic, and each day brings a new challenge. But globally, people are gathering to find ways to help countries who are not as equipped to function as normal, while ensuring the safety of everyone is kept at the forefront of their minds.

Elizabeth Misnick

is a Professional Writing and Rhetoric major at Baylor University. She grew up in a military family and lived in Europe for almost half her life, traveling and living in different countries. She hopes to continue writing professionally throughout her career and publish her writing in the future.

Why We’re Involved in a Project in Africa to Promote Edible Insects

There is a wealth of indigenous knowledge about capturing and eating insects in sub-Saharan Africa. But the development of edible insects as a food industry has been very slow, despite its many potential benefits.

Sustainability is one. Insects have a small carbon and water footprint. Studies show that insect farming emits less carbon and methane gas than large livestock like cattle and pigs. Much less water is needed to produce the same amount of protein. Insects use feed more efficiently than other sources of animal protein. Farming them could be a new source of jobs and income.

There should be more awareness and promotion of insects as food for humans and as feed for animals, especially at the policy, legislative and business level. In most African nations, edible insects are still viewed as an insignificant source of food and even, in some instances, as food for the poor. There are very few success stories of large-scale insect farming and industrial use in Africa.

We have been involved in a project to promote the integrated use of insects as food in urban areas in Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Our project works on the edible insect value chain and discovered that the seasonal supply of insects and poor hygiene standards made the market unstable and unattractive to consumers. Traders sold insects in an informal setting and had little interaction with farmers.

We carried out training among farmers, traders, municipalities and others with an interest in this emerging industry. The training included how to handle and process insects after they were harvested, food safety along the value chain and farming crickets (Acheta domesticus and Gryllus bumaculatus).

The trainees have learnt how to rear and sell insects better and have become more aware of what a sustainable value chain should look like. For example, market facilities have to be clean and there must be a steady supply of insects. The training also created awareness of the need to farm insects rather than catching them in the wild. Catching insects can reduce insect populations dramatically when consumption increases. And there are no food safety standards for wild insects.

Together with the urban council in the town of Chinhoyi in Zimbabwe we built a model market structure where traders are selling their insects. Traders are selling some of the most popular edible insects; wild harvested mopane worms (Gonimbrasia belina), termites (Macrotermes natalensis) and wild harvested crickets. Farmers are still building stocks of farmed crickets, but the plan is to sell farmed crickets in the near future. It is still too early to see the impact but one notable improvement is hygiene. The market has also helped women traders, who are the main group selling insects there. They have become more organised about their business.

We hope this will lead to an increase in consumer willingness to buy edible insects, and demonstrate best practice to other regions of Zimbabwe and beyond. Through our project, we have also helped insect traders and farmers to form industry associations.

Why insects are valuable

Insects are highly nutritious and contain protein, fat and energy in proportions similar to grains, vegetables and seeds. They are rich in macro minerals like calcium, sodium and magnesium and micro minerals like zinc, manganese, iron and copper, all of which should be part of a healthy diet. In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, these minerals come from fruits and vegetables, most of which are farmed seasonally. Edible insects could supply these minerals during seasons where there is less fruit and vegetable production.

They contain essential amino acids such as threonine, cysteine, valine, methionine and isoleucine. The recommended daily minimum intake of amino acids can be consumed by eating just 100 grams of the edible stink bug (Encosternum delegorguei), for example.

Earlier this year, parts of eastern and southern Africa were ravaged by Cyclone Idai. The cyclone destroyed crops and livestock, causing severe food shortages. We believe that in disaster-struck areas, edible insects can build resilience by being a food resource in recovery programmes and an alternative to traditional smallholder farming. There is an excellent example of that in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where orphanages have started insect farms to grow their own protein. The farms have helped decrease hunger and improve health among the orphans.

Read more: Economic chaos is causing a food security and humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe

What needs to happen?

We were involved in setting up an international conference in Zimbabwe to discuss ways to foster the edible insects industry.

Research is required so that policy makers and those involved in the sector – farmers, processes, marketers and consumers – can make evidence-based decisions. This must happen across disciplines. Researchers should work with farmers and people in business to foster skills, innovation and enterprise. For example, they could develop business cases and scenarios.

Policy makers must understand that the sector is unique. Edible insects have not been categorised under any agricultural sub-sector such as crop or animal farming. On the African continent, they have not previously been farmed and treated as a commodity. That is why it would be helpful to establish and coordinate platforms such as meetings, workshops, exhibitions, magazines and websites.

Policy should also allow innovation and investment to happen at national, regional and international levels. Industry participants will need access to markets and credit.

Farmers, food and feed processors, traders and marketers must seize opportunities to invest and enter niche markets. They can also contribute to policy development and share knowledge about traditional ways of producing and eating insects.

There is momentum generated by several research and business initiatives that have been ignited in sub-Saharan Africa. And there is growing enthusiasm for using edible insects as alternative sources of protein and to build resilience against climatic shocks. It’s an essential step towards improving food security in the region.

Robert Musundire is a Associate Professor of Entomology in the Department of Crop Science and Post-Harvest Technology, Chinhoyi University of Technology

THIS ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON THE CONVERSATION

How New Media Can Be Used to Spark Interest in Elections Among Young Ghanaians

There has been growing evidence around the world that young people are increasingly becoming apathetic about taking part in events such as elections, according to Ceron in a study conducted in 2015. Given that university students are also increasingly using social media, scholars have started to look at how it can be used to invigorate their diminishing interest in governance as well as in elections.

We conducted research  on how students in Ghana used new media. The aim was to understand the motivations and political information needs that influenced them to use new media technologies for elections.

We found that young people were drawn to use new media technologies to have conversations on elections. Posts going viral gave them a sense of relevance and empowerment. Another reason was that it gave them the opportunity to engage in the comfort of their private spaces – offline.

The findings should enable more strategic targeting of university students by political actors and institutions. This could be in terms of turn out efforts, political messaging, communication as well as political campaigning. This has already been done successfully in a number of countries.

How it’s been done elsewhere

New media technologies have been used in a myriad of ways to mobilise people to vote in various countries. For example, in Italy in 2014, Sweden in 2010 and in the 2010 British elections.

Astute use of technologies was also evident in Barack Obama’s campaigns for the US presidency in 2008 and 2012.

In Africa, social media was used during the mass protests of 2011 in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. In all three cases, people uploaded photographs of the protests which then went viral. This reinforced global appreciation of the need for democratic change in the countries.

Social media has also been used to monitor elections and disseminate results. For instance in Nigeria, young Nigerians embarked on the “Enough is Enough” campaign on election vigilance to hold politically elected leaders accountable.

In Ghana, some civil society groups launched the “the Voter Decides” campaign in 2012. This sought to track the process of voting, monitor collation of results and ensure that the right results were announced.

But the deployment of various new media technologies by political actors for elections and other civil engagements hasn’t necessarily translated into reversing the dwindling interest in politics. This is clear from research by communication scholars like Christian Vaccari.

It raises the question: what motivates the young new media user to deploy the technologies from an informational and communications perspective?

Why Ghanaian Students use new media technologies

In our research on Ghanaian students, our main findings were that:

• Students are drawn to deploying new media technologies for the currency and breadth of information they can access.

• They are both consumers and producers of media content.

• They are able to navigate their way around the gatekeeping or filtration process conducted by editors.

• The opportunity to go viral or become virtual celebrities in seconds when they click the “enter” or “send” button is an experience they relish.

• The virtual space is a safe haven for many.

• They spend a great deal of time on social media. This is attested to when a student asserts: “my world is on the mobile phone.”

The potency of social media

Our findings reinforce the view that social media is a viable resource that can be relied on for voter mobilisation, campaigning and voting. Students suggest that political candidates must find ways to woo Ghanaian students into conversations before election fever catches on. If the candidates delay, their efforts will be perceived by the youth as self-serving.

Practically, many young people want to be part of the process of constructing political narratives offline rather than on campaign platforms. They want to be in their safe haven – online and anonymous – where they can’t be reproached for their youthful exuberance.

These kinds of conversations have the potential of reducing apathy and getting young people involved in the political process.

Political actors and candidates should seriously look at how media technologies can be used for effective reciprocal political communication with university students. If they understand what motivates and influences students to use new media technologies for conversations on the elections, political actors are much more likely to be able to count on the involvement of young people in conversations on the elections and participation in the electoral process.

Adwoa Sikayena Amankwah is a Senior Lecturer of Communication Studies, University of Professional Studies Accra

THIS ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON THE CONVERSATION

Bosnia’s 25-year Struggle With Transitional Justice

The Bosnian war started 25 years ago this week.

Although bombs ceased falling in 1995, in many ways the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) are as divided as ever. The past two decades have repeatedly shown that divisions exacerbated by the war continue to permeate politics. 

In fact, according to a 2013 public opinion poll, just one in six residents of BiH feels that the three ethnic groups that live there – the Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats – have reached reconciliation.

It would be easy to pass this sentiment off as what one former U.S. secretary of state called “ancient tribal, ethnic and religious rivalries.” But I believe it raises profound doubts about the ability of international justice to bring about a more peaceful world.

As I demonstrate in my book, “The Costs of Justice,” transitional justice – the process of dealing with human rights abuses committed by a previous regime – is an inherently political process made even more contentious by taking it out of the country. The fallout is not just a lack of reconciliation, but also the constant threat of violence. 

In BiH, more than 30 percent believe a renewal of armed conflict could be right around the corner.

The G word

Ongoing resentment in BiH was highlighted by two recent events. 

First was the fall election of a Serbian genocide denier, Mladen Grujicic, as mayor of Srebrenica – a town where more than 8,000 Bosniaks, or Bosnian Muslims, were systematically killed in 1995.

Next came the Bosniak response: a February request for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to review its 2007 ruling that cleared the neighboring state of Serbia of complicity in genocide during the war. 

The war may be long over, but wounds are still oozing. 

Lack of reconciliation in BiH comes despite – or perhaps because of – a major international effort to ensure justice in the region. BiH, like other states of the former Yugoslavia, was under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague for more than two decades. 

The ICTY’s establishment in 1993 was greeted by human rights advocates as the harbinger of a new era of justice. At the time, transitional justice scholars preached its numerous benefits. These included deterring future rights violations, strengthening rule of law, increasing the legitimacy of a new regime and, perhaps most importantly, encouraging reconciliation within broader society.

There are many ways to address past rights abuses – from issuing apologies and providing victim compensation to holding truth commissions and launching criminal trials. The international community has historically focused on the latter – whether at Nuremberg, Tokyo or The Hague.

Criminal prosecutions are largely symbolic, but they are nonetheless important. They signal the end of impunity, or the ability to escape punishment, and the start of a more just order. The fact that post-conflict countries frequently lack institutions strong or independent enough to pursue criminal prosecutions on their own makes international mechanisms indispensable. Indeed, BiH’s inability to carry out its own criminal trials for a decade and a half points to a real need for international courts. 

But the very process of taking criminal prosecutions out of the domestic purview can ultimately be a blow to justice. Most locals, for instance, lose interest in trials that play out in faraway courtrooms, meaning trials fail to bring about the sorts of dialogue that might lead to mutual understanding. 

Formidable challenges of international prosecutions, from learning the intricacies of a foreign culture and political regime to collecting evidence essential for a successful prosecution, mean that international trials also take a long time to complete. And, of course, they are expensive. The ICTY cost more than US$1 billion, or between $10 million and $15 million for each person accused. Various countries, including the United States, footed the bill.

And yet, rather than improve relations in the region, the ICTY may have incited tensions. Each of the parties claimed they were unfairly targeted. Serbs were infuriated by their overrepresentation on the court’s docket. Croats couldn’t believe that any of their heroes were facing judgment. 

Little surprise then that only 8 percent of those polled in BiH in 2013 felt the ICTY had done a good job facilitating reconciliation. 

While international courts did little for reconciliation, they fundamentally sabotaged more organic forms of justice than could otherwise have happened at the local level. In the former Yugoslavia, political leaders who were struggling to balance international pressure for – and domestic opposition to – ICTY cooperation opted for half-baked local initiatives designed to satisfy both. The result was a watered-down truth commissionhere, an apology of questionable sincerity there. 

These half-measures ultimately replaced what might have been more earnest mechanisms had they not been established in the context of ongoing international trials. The recent Bosniak appeal to the ICJ, just like the key political victory of a Serb genocide denier, highlights the degree to which justice and historical memory remain politicized in BiH a quarter-century after the war began. 

The ICTY’s long shadow

The ICTY and subsequent tribunals demonstrated that international prosecutions can play an important role in ending impunity. But they must carefully balance the need of the international community to ensure accountability with the needs of a local populace to deal with past rights abuses on their own terms. 

Limiting international prosecutions to the most serious perpetrators is one way to reach this balance. Few in Serbia shed tears for the arrest of Slobodan Milosevic, a corrupt dictator. 

Even then, the recent experience of the International Criminal Court (ICC), established in 2002 as a permanent and global version of the ICTY, demonstrates this can be a tough sell. Numerous African states have accused the ICC of the same bias Yugoslavs attributed to the ICTY. They are threatening to withdraw as a result.

Back in Bosnia, the ICJ last month rejected the Bosniak request on the grounds it did not come from all three members of the country’s tripartite presidency. In other words, the very lack of reconciliation between Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats that prompted the initial appeal now makes that appeal impossible. It is ironic that Bosniaks still feel the need to turn to international justice mechanisms for redress. After all, international justice may bear some blame for the predicament they’re in today.

Brian Grodsky is an Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

THIS ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON THE CONVERSATION

African Countries Can’t Industrialise? Yes, They Can

Narratives are essential. Humans are, after all, “helpless story junkies”. Business and economic success depend much more than is commonly acknowledged on getting the narrative right. And if there is a narrative where getting it right or wrong matters hugely, it is the narrative about Africa’s industrial development. 

Africa is the poorest continent. It is likely to be the most affected by climate change. It is the continent where terrorist groups are spreading fast. 

Therefore, African industrialisation is essential. Unfortunately, the dominant narrative is that Africa has been de-industrialising, even prematurely. In this narrative, it is also questioned whether Africa can ever industrialise. African countries have even been advised not to try. The World Bank’s “Trouble in the Making”report concludes that manufacturing is becoming less relevant for low-income countries.

Fortunately, a very different narrative is possible. In a recent paper, I argue that Africa can industrialise because of three factors. These are “brilliant” new technologies enabling digitisation, smart materials and 3D-printing; a more vibrantentrepreneurship scene; and Africa’s growing middle class (as measured by the share of households that earn between $11 and $110 per person per day), which supports the continent’s first generation of indigenous tech-entrepreneurs.

Consider therefore the following narrative: More than 300digital platforms, mostly indigenous, are operating across the continent. There are also more than 400 high-tech hubs, and more are being added. In addition, venture capital funding into African tech start-ups increased ten-fold between 2012 and 2018. 

Moreover, manufacturing has more than doubled in size in real terms since 1980. And since 2000, manufacturing value added has grown at more than 4% a year. That is double the average between 1980 and 2000 (numbers from the Expanded African Sector Database). 

As a result, total employment in manufacturing in 18 of the largest African economies (for which there is data) grew from roughly 9 million in 2004 to more than 17 million by 2014. That is an 83% increase in ten years. The proportion of labour in manufacturing for Africa as a region grew from roughly 5% in the 1970s to almost 10% by 2008.

So, how will these trends shape the future? I argue that they will result in three varieties of industrialisation. 

Three varieties

The first variety can be labelled “acquiring traditional manufacturing capabilities”. This variety is implied by Overseas Development Institute researchers Karishma Banga and Dirk Willem te Velde. It will be experienced by countries and sectors where technological change is too fast and complex to benefit immediately. These countries and sectors will need time to first put complementary investments in place, while at the same time continuing to promote traditional labour-intensive manufacturing. 

The second variety, “fostering sectors with the characteristics of manufacturing”, is elaborated in a recent UNU-WIDER book. Here it is argued that service sectors can take up “the role held by manufacturing in the past”. In many countries, services such as ICT and telecoms, tourism and transport, financial and farming services can lead to productive development. 

The third variety, “resurgent entrepreneurship-led industrialisation” is based on my earlier work. I point to the growing list of achievements of African countries in terms of high-tech manufacturing. For example South Africa leads in advanced manufacturing in having one of the world’s largest 3D-printers, used to manufacture parts for the aviation industry. 

Different combinations of these varieties will dominate in different countries. For example, Kenya is already experiencing the simultaneous development of high-tech financial services alongside growth in traditional manufacturing, such as food processing and textiles, as well as clusters of advanced manufacturing. While every country’s pathway will be a unique combination of these varieties, what they will have in common is that progress will require that they deal with the impact of new technology, especially digitisation, on manufacturing. 

To ensure momentum is maintained, the narrative about industrialisation has to change. As Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari pointed out, neither land – the core resource of feudalism – nor physical capital – the core resource of 20th-century capitalism – will be decisive for competitiveness in the future. Instead, data and data science, free information flows, ICT (data) skills, and decentralisation of decision-making will be the decisive factors. 

What needs to be done

With an outdated story that gives up on manufacturing, Africa will fail to close the huge digital gap it still faces. The gap is reflected in the fact the continent contributes less than 1% of world’s digital knowledge production. To reduce this gap, African countries will have to start by expanding internet access and use. If internet use across the continent can be expanded to the same rate as in high-income countries, 140 million new jobs and US$2,2 trillion could be added to GDP. 

What must be done to change the narrative? What do African governments need to do? The first is that its leaders need to start telling more stories about the future than about the past. Perhaps, like China’s leaders, they can even be inspired by science fiction. British best-selling author Neil Gaiman relates how China started to embrace science fiction after sending a delegation to 

“the US, to Apple, to Microsoft, to Google, and they asked the people there who were inventing the future about themselves. And they found that all of them had read science fiction when they were boys or girls.”

Helping to imagine the future of African industrialisation, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa recently stressed that fact that Africa is one of the early adopters of mobile telephony and moreover that the continent needs to aspire to more:

We need to focus on the new technologies that are going to revolutionise the world, and we need to be ahead of the curve.

This is the right narrative. It is necessary, although not sufficient for African industrialisation. For this, words need to lead to actions. And some consistent actions, at least for a start, would be for African governments to refrain from creating stumbling blocks for their brave new tech-entrepreneurs, such as curbing access to the internet, restricting digital information flows, under-investing in science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, neglecting data-privacy legislation, and restricting the rights of women to work in manufacturing.

Wim Naudé is a Professorial Fellow, Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT), United Nations University

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The Call for Change: Women Speak Out on Sexualized Violence in South Africa

The tallies have been rising on women murdered on the streets of South Africa. From a country with a history of violence and suppression, the fight is nowhere finished. Multiday protests throughout major cities have brought the crisis to international attention. 

Protest drawing awareness to rape victims at University of Cape Town. Devin O’Donnell.

The brutal murder of Uyinene Mrwetyana, a University of Cape Town student who was raped and killed while at the post office is unfortunately not a standalone incident. Mrwetyana joined upwards of 30 women that had been murdered in August alone. This marks the highest rates gender-based violence the country has seen, in a month that is, ironically, also designated as the national awareness month for Women’s Rights. 

There are many reasons thought to be behind the high numbers. Culturally, it comes from a history of women being viewed as inferior and the belief that women must obey their husbands. In many parts of South Africa, there is a general acceptance of rape, including martial rape and gang rape, as not being seen as wrong. This has led to South Africa having the highest rate of domestic abuse in the world. Domestic abuse was only outlawed in 1998 and martial rape in 1993. A studied done by the South Africa Medical Research Council found that 50% of men have abused their partners. Most relevant to the recent murders, every six hours a partner kills their female counterpart and one in four men in South Africa have raped someone. 

Studies have also found that there are certain traits in men and women that can lead to a greater risk of abuse in the country. Men who have grown up with violence, without father figures, and who use alcohol are more likely to abuse. It is also tied to race and socioeconomic status, as women of color, who are unemployed, and/or are from rural communities are more likely to be victims. Psychological studies have found that domestic abuse is often used as a response to feeling powerless. Apartheid proved violence is successful as a means for control and left people with a lack of trust in the government. Men who feel helpless regress to using violence against their partners in an attempt to regain a sense of control and self-worth. They also have a lack of fear of being prosecuted due to flaws in the police system – which is legitimate when only 15% of perpetrators are convicted. 

The exceptionally high rates of HIV in South Africa pose an additional danger to rapes. The belief in a virgin cleansing myth, if you rape a virgin you will be cured of HIV, has led to high rates of abuse in children, with 50% of children being abused before they turn 18. Rates of sexual abuse have also been found to be exceptionally high in schools and often deters girls from pursuing education. Additionally, South Africa has increased rates of violence surrounding homophobia, with rates of “corrective rape” reaching 10 a week just in Cape Town. This mirrors statistics for gay black men. 

President Ramaphosa said that measures have to be taken now to address the femicide. He has proposed longer sentencing and introducing more sexual offence courts. With current rates of rape reporting lingering at 2%, there is a chance that this will cause little change. The women marching firmly believe that change is necessary, but will it be enough?

DEVIN O’DONNELL’s interest in travel was cemented by a multi-month trip to East Africa when she was 19. Since then, she has continued to have immersive experiences on multiple continents. Devin has written for a start-up news site and graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in Neuroscience.

Robert Mugabe: As Divisive in Death as he was in Life

Robert Mugabe, the former president of Zimbabwe, has died. Mugabe was 95, and had been struggling with ill health for some time. The country’s current President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced Mugabe’s death on Twitter on September 6:

The responses to Mnangagwa’s announcement were immediate and widely varied. Some hailed Mugabe as a liberation hero. Others dismissed him as a “monster”. This suggests that Mugabe will be as divisive a figure in death as he was in life.

The official mantra of the Zimbabwe government and its Zimbabwe African National Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) will emphasise his leadership of the struggle to overthrow Ian Smith’s racist settler regime in what was then Rhodesia. It will also extol his subsequent championing of the seizure of white-owned farms and the return of land into African hands.

In contrast, critics will highlight how – after initially preaching racial reconciliation after the liberation war in December 1979  – Mugabe threw away the promise of the early independence years. He did this in several ways, among them a brutal clampdown on political opposition in Matabeleland in the 1980s, and Zanu-PF’s systematic rigging of elections to keep he and his cronies in power.

They’ll also mention the massive corruption over which he presided, and the economy’s disastrous downward plunge during his presidency.

Inevitably, the focus will primarily be on his domestic record. Yet many of those who will sing his praises as a hero of African nationalism will be from elsewhere on the continent. So where should we place Mugabe among the pantheon of African nationalists who led their countries to independence?

Slide into despotism

Most African countries have been independent of colonial rule for half a century or more.

The early African nationalist leaders were often regarded as gods at independence. Yet they very quickly came to be perceived as having feet of very heavy clay.

Nationalist leaders symbolised African freedom and liberation. But few were to prove genuinely tolerant of democracy and diversity. One party rule, nominally in the name of “the people”, became widespread. In some cases, it was linked to interesting experiments in one-party democracy, as seen in Tanzania under Julius Nyerere and Zambia under Kenneth Kaunda.

Even in these cases, intolerance and authoritarianism eventually encroached. Often, party rule was succeeded by military coups.

In Zimbabwe’s case, Mugabe proved unable to shift the country, as he had wished, to one-partyism. However, this did not prevent Zanu-PF becoming increasingly intolerant over the years in response to both economic crisis and rising opposition. Successive elections were shamelessly perverted.

When, despite this, Zanu-PF lost control of parliament in 2008, it responded by rigging the presidential election in a campaign of unforgivable brutality. Under Mugabe, the potential for democracy was snuffed out by a brutal despotism.

A wasted inheritance

Whether the economic policies they pursued were ostensibly capitalist or socialist, the early African nationalist leaders presided over rapid economic decline, following an initial period of relative prosperity after independence.

In retrospect, it’s widely recognised that the challenges they faced were immense. Most post-colonial economies were underdeveloped and depended upon the export of a small number of agricultural or mineral commodities. From the 1970s, growth was crowded out by the International Monetary Fund demanding that mounting debts be surmounted through the pursuit of structural adjustment programmes. This hindered spending on infrastructure as well as social services and education and swelled political discontent.

In contrast, Mugabe inherited a viable, relatively broad-based economy that included substantial industrial and prosperous commercial agricultural sectors. Even though these were largely white controlled, there was far greater potential for development than in most other post-colonial African countries.

But, through massive corruption and mismanagement, his government threw that potential away. He also presided over a disastrous downward spiral of the economy, which saw both industry and commercial agriculture collapse. The economy has never recovered and remains in a state of acute and persistent crisis today.

Read more: Zimbabwe's economy is collapsing: why Mnangagwa doesn't have the answers

Reputation

On the political front, the rule of some leaders – like Milton Obote in Uganda and Siad Barre in Somalia – created so much conflict that coups and crises drove their countries into civil war. Zimbabwe under Mugabe was spared this fate – but perhaps only because the political opposition in Matabeleland in the 1980s was so brutalised after up to 30 000 people were killed, that they shrank from more conflict. Peace, then, was merely the absence of outright war.

Some leaders, notably Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere in Tanzania, are still revered for their commitments to national independence and African unity. This is despite the fact that, domestically, their records were marked by failure. By 1966, when Nkrumah was displaced by a military coup, his one-party rule had become politically corrupt and repressive.

Despite this, Nyerere always retained his reputation for personal integrity and commitment to African development. Both Nkrumah’s and Nyerere’s ideas continue to inspire younger generations of political activists, while other post-independence leaders’ names are largely forgotten.

Will Mugabe be similarly feted by later generations? Will the enormous flaws of his rule be forgotten amid celebrations of his unique role in the liberation of southern Africa as a whole?

A Greek tragedy

The problem for pan-Africanist historians who rush to praise Mugabe is that they will need to repudiate the contrary view of the millions of Zimbabweans who have suffered under his rule or have fled the country to escape it. He contributed no political ideas that have lasted. He inherited the benefits as well as the costs of settler rule but reduced his country to penury. He destroyed the best of its institutional inheritance, notably an efficient civil service, which could have been put to good use for all.

The cynics would say that the reputation of Patrice Lumumba, as an African revolutionary and fighter for Congolese unity has lasted because he was assassinated in 1961. In other words, he had the historical good fortune to die young, without the burden of having made major and grievous mistakes.

In contrast, there are many who would say that Mugabe simply lived too long, and his life was one of Greek tragedy: his early promise and virtue marked him out as popular hero, but he died a monster whom history will condemn.

ROGER SOUTHALL is a Professor of Sociology at the University of the Witwatersrand.

THIS ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON THE CONVERSATION

I am Congo

Get to know the Congo before you walk through the streets yourself. In this immersive experience, you'll see the vast forest of the congo, the countries colorful style, and break taking shots of life in the city. As part of the "I am" series, videographers spent time in the Congo meeting local artisans, traders and musicians. Their experience, laid out for you here.

Senior Welfare Benefits Universal Across Uganda

Uganda recently raised the age for welfare benefits to 80. At the same time, the government expanded the program to be universal across the country, thus both increasing and cutting the number of people who will receive benefits used for necessities.

Uganda’s Senior Citizens grant gives 25,500 Ugandan shillings each month to those who are part of the program, which launched in 2010. Vjkombajn. CC0.

It is estimated that 8 million Ugandans (out of 37.7 million people) live below the poverty line. With a faltering tradition of family support, people are forced to continue working past the point when they should. Generally, they continue with trade or small-scale farming. Those who are ill or otherwise unable to work doubly suffer. 

In 2010, Uganda, together with the UK Department for International Development, Irish Aid and the United Nations Children’s Fund, began to create social pensions that assist those who have such precarious incomes. 

As of July, Uganda’s welfare Senior Citizens grant, part of their Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment (SAGE) program, has raised their age of entry to 80, which cuts people out between the ages of 65 and 79 who had previously been eligible. These people will have no access to monthly benefits as of the upcoming year. However, at the same time, they expanded the grant so it is universal in Uganda. For the first 100,000 people who joined, the age for eligibility was 65, which was lowered to 60 in Karamoja due to the lower life expectancy there. After that number was reached, the government rolled out the pension to another 40 districts. However, with those districts, it was available only to the 100 oldest in a village. Now, the pension is universal, though the entry age is 80. As of June, according to HelpAge, more than 160,000 people have been enrolled in the program. Due to making everyone eligible, roughly 365,000 Ugandans now have the opportunity to receive a pension. The exact number is unclear.

There is also the problem of earlier deaths, possibly increased by the enlarged population of those living below the poverty line. Julius Mukunda, co-ordinator of the Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group, believes that the government’s failure to care for the elderly is because of their prioritization of political projects, according to The East African. Inflation pressures have also lowered power levels for SAGE benefits.

The non-contributory pension gives each person 25,000 Ugandan shillings, which converts to $7 US, each month. People use it for food, school supplies, and other necessities. "[The pension] has been instrumental in my life. When I get the money, I become happy. I have used it to buy a goat for my family to rear. I use it to pay school fees and buy books for my children," said Longora, an older man in Napak, Uganda, according to HelpAge.

Households that receive the grants have had their poverty reduced by 19 percent while spending has gone up 33 percent. Households also use the pension to further increase their income, for example by buying livestock. Children who are part of these households have been found to have better education and are less likely to be involved in child labor.

Several other countries in Africa, such as Mauritius, Kenya and Zanzibar, have implemented a social welfare pension, while Mozambique is planning to create a social protection program. However, issues persist, such as mobility issues in getting to the pay point, missing records, and financial abuse.

If the people receiving these pensions continue to speak out about how they have helped themselves and their families, they can hold their governments to account for how services are used. This assertion helps to reduce long-term problems such as financial abuse and other errors. It is each government’s responsibility to make sure citizens are aware of social protection programs and that those services are accessible, inclusive, and efficient.

NOEMI ARELLANO-SUMMER is a journalist and writer living in Boston, MA. She is a voracious reader and has a fondness for history and art. She is currently at work on her first novel and wants to eventually take a trip across Europe.

Enter Kenya’s Rose Oasis

Some of the best roses in the world bloom in Kenya. While the country is widely known for its scenic national parks and wildlife reserves, it’s also a major flower producer. Winnie Gathonie Njonge is the production manager at Nini Flowers, which sits on the shores of Lake Naivasha. She knows all there is about growing perfect roses and oversees the harvesting of 300,000 to 450,000 a day. “The ultimate goal of growing roses is to make other people happy,” she says. It brings her joy to know the roses she cultivates are sent to the United States, Japan and other countries, spreading love and beauty all over the world.