africa

The singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka visits New York this week to help campaign for the voices of Africa's women and children to be heard at the opening of the new session of the United Nations General Assembly, and for the leaders of the G20 countries not to forget their commitments to the continent. Chaka Chaka serves as a goodwill ambassador for the UN Children's Fund, for the Roll Back Malaria campaign and for 46664 (Nelson Mandela's global HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention campaign). She recently sat down to talk to AllAfrica in our Washington, DC offices. Excerpts

You are here after participating in the Mandela Day Concert, but we also wanted to talk to you about your charity work and helping fight malaria.

Well I think coming for the concert is charity work as well because none of the musicians got paid for that… Mandela's charities is something that one had to do and you cannot say "no" to a man who was incarcerated for 27 years, who came out and said, "Let's all live together, let's all work together, let's all do things together despite color or creed."

For him to take a stand and say, "AIDS kills people and AIDS is a human rights issue," is just so commendable… He took it upon himself to say that people are dying, there's poverty out there, there's AIDS, there's malaria, there's TB and said [he would use his] name to combat malaria or AIDS or whatever.

So for me to do this, it all links to wanting to do better for other people. Coming here and doing the concert was an eye-opener – seeing that there is love and that people are willing to do better…

Why did you choose fighting malaria as cause?

I wanted to do malaria because one of my musicians died from malaria. We went to Gabon to do a show and coming back she contracted malaria. She was misdiagnosed by doctors in South Africa. They thought it was a fever and she died of cerebral malaria….

It was an eye-opener. I needed also to be educated; I needed to know more and I starting saying, Ok, yeah, I'll start to give … all the effort that I have to make sure no one dies of malaria. GA_googleFillSlot( "AllAfrica_Story_InsetB" );

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That's wishful thinking, but you know for me to go out there educating women and talking to ordinary people who may have just been sitting there or not having any knowledge about malaria… doing lots of advocacy… asking for more money, asking for transparency and political will from governments, has made me a better person, because I know there are other countries where you see positive reactions.

And people know what is supposed to be done and some of them just don't have resources to help themselves…. Phumzile's death was not something that was very good, but it's going to help other people out there.

I saw you last in western Kenya during distribution of malaria nets and water filters. Can you talk about some of the groups you are currently working with?

Working with UNICEF and Roll Back Malaria and Goodwill With Voices for me is so good – just to see that there are other [corporations] and companies who want to do their social responsibility, and want to go down to the people to help them and don't worry just about the bottom line …

Going down to Kenya, making this whole integrated program, was really very good because you just can't do one thing and say that we are concentrating on AIDS, we are concentrating on malaria, we are concentrating on TB. [There is a] synergy in all of those things. And I think what Vestiguard did was very commendable… We had so many people volunteering to test for AIDS … People cannot take their treatment if they don't know their status, but once you are aware of your status you will know to start your treatment ...

But I think the most important thing for me is to empower women, because I think they are the ones who are sort of disenfranchised, who are segregated and who are being pushed aside. But you know if you empower a woman you empower the whole nation because they know what to do with the nets. And even with the small grants … it is a good thing because whatever they have they will use it appropriately for their families and their children.

And the little that they can have [they] may use it to generate some income for themselves. But I don't think we have to leave [out] men. We also have to take them with us because I think they really have to learn that if they are not doing what they are supposed to do the whole family gets disenfranchised and they are the ones who suffer. So I think it is time to teach even our boys to be responsible so that they can be better men.

I had a quick question about eradicating malaria - what do you think is the biggest obstacle?

Well the very same effort that they put in eradicating polio, I think the same should be done with AIDS and malaria. Obviously funding is a huge obstacle. Political will – that's what we need as well. The funds should go to where they are supposed to as well … And I think it is important to have a civil society there and having their voices and …I think it is important that ordinary people know that the government received the money, where they received it, and how it should be used … If the money is not used well people will still suffer. So I think that there should be some accountability …

We don't have to despair because I know sometimes I actually feel disgruntled and say, "Why am I doing this?" because I don't see any results. But when you go to places like Zanzibar, you see that there was so much malaria and you see tourism is booming now… Nobody wants to get to get sick, so we need to get these leaders to show their counterparts that we did it this way and it can be done… and its good for the economy and its good for development as well.

In Africa, I think a huge problem is [bed net] distribution because of the infrastructure, but if we use ordinary people to do that I think it will be great thing to do.  Tourists, they make means to go to the remote areas, and really if you work with people on the ground in those areas to distribute the nets … that would be absolutely great…

There are consistently things preventing them from using the nets, but if you go out there and say, "Here are the nails and we give you the nails, we will show you how to hang the nets and please once you see how it is done, help your neighbor do that," it really helps.

This would be different from the broad, massive net distribution – get more personal but get functional as well.

Exactly, do it correctly and you know that it's done. You know because by the time we left Ethiopia we had gone to different places and hung all those nets and some of the people that we had done it for had to go to their neighbors, to go and help them. So at least there was a lot of progress that we [saw] that the nets were going to be used and [people] will be sleeping under them because everything was done.

[Explaining how she insisted on women getting nets] My worry was that are they [the men] coming back to collect all those nets so that they can sleep under them or will they give them to their pregnant wives and their children under five? … I was happy to see them and I insisted to them to make sure that they give [the nets] to their wives to sleep under but … I knew. I am an African woman, I knew their women are never going to see those nets so it was very good to have women have their own nets...

 

Addis Ababa — Ethiopian Prime minister Meles Zenawi has accused food aid agencies of lacking genuine interest to end hunger and poverty in Ethiopia.The country's 6.2 million people are reported to be in need of food aid.

During an extraordinary parliament session over the weekend, Mr Meles told Ethiopian MPs to be wary of food aid agencies with hidden business interests.

He termed the agencies "food aid industry", which benefits from their intermediary role between the hungry people and the donors in rich nations.

Some agencies, charged Mr Meles, were reporting exaggerated numbers of affected people for the sake of their ideological, economic and political interests.

The PM described the aid agencies as "lords of poverty", naming some key players, including food supply firms, retailers, transporters and distributor agencies.

"We have never been given more than 60 per cent of aid we required for the last 18 years of our administration," Mr Meles said.

A week ago, international charity organisation Oxfam and the UN humanitarian office issued an appeal for 6.2 million Ethiopians in need of emergency humanitarian assistance due to severe drought.

"Some 6.2 million Ethiopians hit by two-year recurrent drought are facing starvation and need emergency assistance," Mr Abera Tola, the head of Oxfam America in East Africa, told reporters.

 

It was another sorrowful moment for Nigerians in Genova as they gathered for the funeral service of Mrs. Helen Princess Edaeyi on 12th September.

The late Edaeyi was laid to rest at the Castagna cemetery Sampierdarena-Genova. She died at the Villa Scassi Hospital on 6th September after a short illness at the age of 32, leaving behind a one-year old baby boy.

She is also survived by her husband, brothers, sisters and parents.

In what appeared to be a divine intervention, Ms. Edaeyi who was originally a member of the Pentecostal Church in Genova was administered the Sacraments of Baptism and Matrimony by Rev. Father Paolo Ernesto (OP) less than 48 hours before her untimely death.

So many people turned up for the wake in her honour on 11th September at Madam Vicky’s bar. The funeral Mass was held at the Chapel of the Catholic Church within the hospital premises.

The officiating priest, Rev. Father Alessandro told the mourners that Ms. Edaeyi’s death was not the end. She has gone to meet the Lord and those who abide by the teachings of Christ will meet her on the last day, he said.

He went on to say that though it is painful to physically miss a dear one, no body can question the will of God.

After Mass, there was a two-kilometre procession to the cemetery. The graveside prayers were said by Mr. Jolly Osemwonta, President of Edo National Association in Italy, amidst wailing from many friends and relatives of the deceased.

It’s the dawn of an era with a revolutionary creation by Anrette Ngafor and Kibonen Nfi. Influenced by their passion for fashion and love for their roots, the two Cameroonians weave traditional and contemporary styles to bring African sexy style back to the street and catwalk.

Hatched in the New York chic bubble, KiRette Couture (KC) is mainly inspired by the “toghu” also known as the Bamenda gown - a colourful and intricately embroidered fabric typically worn, on special occasions, by the people of the North West and Western provinces in Cameroon.

Although the “toghu” cloth is KiRette Couture’s signature fabric, designs will not be limited to it. In a true edgy and funky style, this one-of-a kind label aims to create a new fashion language which transcends racial and cultural borders by exploring, experimenting with and fusing various textiles. Their sourcing and manufacturing arrangements span across Africa.

KiRette Couture is an ethical brand that specialises in tailored, handcrafted and limited edition pieces that are reasonably priced.Here’s an exclusive interview Ms. Anrette Ngafor, co-founder of KiRette Couture and head of UK branch granted The AfroNews.

Anrette, how did your journey into the fashion world begin?

As a child, I always experimented with fashion. I was fascinated by blending funky styles. On moving to the UK from Cameroon in the early 90s, I became very interested in arts and textiles. This drove me to pursue A levels in Art & Design. With the help of a teacher who fell in love with my use of colours, I applied to study for a degree in Fashion, Photography & Styling at the University of Salford.
This experience opened me up to a whole new world, including a stint at OK! magazine in London. But the ultimate opportunity came when my partner, Kibonen Nfi, and I decided to set up our own brand after an encounter on Facebook.

Who does KiRette Couture design for?

KiRette Couture designs for trendsetters. The KC woman is strong, bold and full of life. She always stands out from the crowd.

What inspires such creative collections?

Many things inspire us. Our latest “Afrik Lux” collection was roused by the concept of African luxury and rich colours prevalent at traditional celebrations. I also wanted to create beautiful pieces which people could wear for any occasion. Zinzi was our first offering. It was inspired by the Angolan Queen, Nzingha Mbandi. She was not only powerful but also a sexy and wholesome leader who sacrificed a lot for her people.

 

For years, residents have lived in muddy iron sheet-roofed hovels with no proper sanitation. Residents have resorted to relieving themselves in polythene sheets, populalry known as “flying toilets”, which are then thrown away with little regard to where they will land. A few lucky ones, however, visit public pay toilets, parting with as much as KES 3 ($0.2) which is way beyond the reach of most residents.

But that is not all. Perennial water shortage is the order of the day and electricity is in short supply. Consequently, some unscrupulous residents have resorted to illegal tapping of electricity and water connections, a scenario which has led to violent confrontations between the residents and the power and water distribution companies.

Due to the overcrowded nature of the slums, crime, prostitution and drug abuse are rampant. Not even frequent raids by security agents have managed to restore sanity.

However, a new initiative by the Kenyan government in collaboration with the United Nations Centre for Human Settlement (UN-HABITAT)is set to give Kibera a new face. Dubbed slum upgrading project, the initiative has already put up permanent flats for the slum dwellers only a few metres from their hitherto tiny shacks. The two-bedroom flats have electricity and running water, a stark contrast to the shacks previously occupied by the slum dwellers. The houses have also been fenced to ensure adequate security.

Mark Kisilu, a resident who has been living in the slum for the past two years, said that he was happy with what the Government is doing and he is looking forward to moving into the new houses, an exercise which begins today under the supervision of Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who is also the area MP.

This slum upgrading project has also provided employment to some of the people living in the slum as they have been offered jobs in the construction sites.

As it is, the slum upgrading project is set to improve the living standards of the residents. With the provision of clean drinking water and adequate sanitation facilities, the frequent epidemics in Kibera will be a thing of the past.

Despite the noble goal, the project is facing resistance from some of the residents who do not want to move into the new houses. The Nubians, who claim they are the original inhabitants of Kibera have refused to move from their houses for fear of losing the rent they charge to tenants as well as claiming that the move is against their customs that demands that they live with their extended families in one house. Fears also abound that the new houses may prove unaffordable to the slum residents who live on less than a dollar a day.

The Gambian president Yahya Jammeh escaped a fire accident after his private jet caught fire in mid air forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing. Officials said the president was on his way to attend a UNESCO general conference in Paris, France when the aircraft's engines started emitting smoke in mid air.

"Everyone was frightened when the jet [Kanilai] landed because the president was seen running down the stairs of the jet. And as he ran from the aircraft, he nearly fell off because he got stuck in his long white robe", the official told AfricaNews.

Fire fighters rushed to the abandoned jet and contained the fire. The official said the cause of the fire remains unknown and that aviation authorities are investigating the incident.

Sources close to the military told Senegambia News that the president cancelled his trip at the very last minute just before boarding the flight and instructed the minister for basic and secondary education, Fatou Lamin Faye to go on his behalf.

State run media, The Gambia Radio and Television Services (GRTS) said the cancellation was due to technical reasons, which they never explained to the public.
Some soldiers were disarmed and arrested and have been taken into custody for questioning.

This is the second time in four months that president Jammeh has cancelled trips out of the country. Last June he cancelled his trip to Abuja where he was to attend ECOWAS heads of state meeting. The cancellation was due to speculations of a coup plot.

Healthcare delivery through telecommunications is taking shape in Nigeria. Dialing 191 on MTN Nigeria network introduces a customer to a "tele-doctor" who offers medical help through the phone.

A group of private health professionals under the aegis of National e-health working Group said tele-health has a huge future in Nigeria with ready telephone users of about 67 million. Some of the challenges to telemedicine as noted at the conference included lack of policy, lack of public funding, licensing provider, reimbursement, fear of malpractice, high bandwidth telecommunications cost and inadequate power supply.

The group is proposing a national framework on health policy that will cut healthcare cost by more than half.

The group is pushing for such legislation that will promote e-health solutions for individuals, families and high disease prone communities. “e- Health has the capacity to increase accessibility of hard to reach population to quality healthcare, improved capacity building for health care workforce, improved efficiency and utilization of scarce resource” the group said in a communiqués.

The group says tele-health has a huge future in Nigeria with ready telephone users of about 67million. Some of the challenges to telemedicine as noted at the conference included lack of policy, lack of public funding, licensing provider, reimbursement, fear of malpractice, high bandwidth telecommunications cost and inadequate power supply.

“We recommended that e-Health should be integrated into the curriculum of all health training institutions in the country and that government should harmonize the various existing e-Health, telemedicine, tele-health desk officers in government ministries, and agencies,” the group said.

 

Kenya's hip hop star Nameless, female musician Wahu and Namibia's Gal Level on Friday performed in Malawi spicing up the launch of an album for the country's hip hop musician Tay-grin.

 

It was a big album launch which also saw Nigeria’s DJ Waxy perform as well as Zambia’s Peterson Mukubesa and Zimbabwe’s Buffalo Soldier. People came in large numbers in Malawi’s commercial city of Blantyre at Comesa Hall to see the African musicians rub shoulders on stage.

Kenya’s Nameless said the album launch had brought Africa together to enjoy music of different types. “It’s good that musicians from West and Central Africa came together and played music as well as share experiences. This is what happened today,” he said.

Kenya’s female musician Kagwi who was performing for the first time in Malawi said she was impressed with the support she received from Malawians adding that it revealed that Africans support each other.

“I was new on stage but Malawians welcomed me as their fellow African and I enjoyed performing though my songs were new to them,” she said.

Tay Grin said he decided to invite several musicians to the launch of his album and label Black Ryno because he wanted Malawians to experience the difference.

“Africa is rich in music and so I decided to bring musicians from Kenya, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Nigeria just for them to experience the difference,” he said.

Tay grin whose real name is Limbani Kalilani has also been nominated for the Channel O music awards this year.

Dance is intimately linked to music and performance in traditional society. Even in contemporary popular music, group dance is often a large part of the performance. Dance also appears as a genre of its own, and here the links to tradition can take different forms

Like many African countries, Zimbabwe can boast of some interesting but energy demanding traditional dances. One such group is from the Air force of Zimbabwe, which entertains the general public during national festivities and ceremonies associated with Heroes Day and Independence Day among others.

Children sat naked comfortably on wet stones close to their half naked mothers.

Unperturbed by the stares around, women left their flapped breasts dangle out naked, suspending right from their chests to stomachs as if they were paper bags holding water. Only wet see-through –half slips tightly gripped their buttocks and private parts as men in only underpants sat amidst them.

They all kept soaking their feet in warm water as they splashed the same water that seemed to be flowing right from stones all over their bodies.

A way from the spring, goats and cattle graze as a man with most likely his wife and three children weeded a garden of millet a few meters away unbothered. “Kitagata hot spring, the spring we studied about in high school,” I recalled.

We had originally traveled to Kitagata Sub County in the southwestern district of Bushenyi to attend a burial ceremony of one of our friend’s kid. Thanks to the teacher who taught “summary” to the reverend who led the burial ceremony. The ceremony was as brief as the word sounds. Since we had hired the taxi driver for eight hours, we had at least two hours to fritter away after burial before our eight hours are completed.

“Kitagata hot spring now,” I guess is what came onto most of our hearts exactly after the reverend pronounced the burial ceremony closed. There was no negotiation on this deal. The five males and seven females, that comprised our delegation, of course including the driver of the minibus we had hired left for the much-talked about Kitagata hot spring.

As we drove to the spring, our driver whose appearance manifested a person in the evening hours of his life narrated to us stories of how Ankole kingdom’s kings used to bathe in this hot spring naked during the colonial times, as their subjects watched.

Muddy road

Initially I had no interest in this gray bearded driver apart from him driving us safely on the muddy and pothole filled road from Kabwohe town to Kitagata Sub County. However, when he started narrating stories surrounding Kitagata hot spring, I had to inquire what his name was. “Farook,” the woman who helped to hire the minibus for us told me.

Farook narrated to us how several people he knows had drunk water from this hot spring and got cured of several diseases. What amused me is the story told by one of the women we traveled with. Jennifer as she is known said women fetch hot water from this hot spring to drink it not just because they are sick rather to help them be watery while in bed. She narrated how several women she knows drank water from this spring and stopped complaining of any dryness in their private parts while in bed with their husbands. Hardly had she stopped than I saw some of the women in the minibus looking keenly at their empty mineral water bottles. “They probably want to fetch some water too for this propose,” I thought.

With all these tells, what I wanted to see next was nothing other than Kitagata Hot spring. After about 45 minutes, we arrived at the spring. The naked children, the half naked women and men, no one seemed bothered with our arrival!

Yohana Niwewenka, a man aged about 40 volunteered to take us around the spring. I stood aside watching in amazement as an old woman probably in her 70s ask an old man also in his 70s to scrub her back before splashing warm water there.

28 naked female and male children, old women and men sat contentedly on stones within the spring which seemed hot by the way. Some happily splashed the warm water around their bodies. Others bathed in the spring unbothered.

According to Yohana’s narration, the persons who were in the spring were suffering from different diseases.

Even though they claimed to be sick, their facial expression was probably a manifestation of satisfied human beings. “They perhaps think that Kitagata hot spring water is going to cure them of their ailments,” I thought.

I pulled out my hands from the pockets of my jeans. Seconds later, I was folding my long sleeves as something urged me to dip my hands in the warm water. The guys I had looked at me in amusement. I felt the urge growing. I folded my trousers seconds before removing my open shows.

I clearly remember the sweetness of the warm water I felt in my right hand as I folded my fingers right inside the water to fetch it to wash my feet. I was standing on a stone with my flat shoes next to me. “Just warmth,” I remember asking my self. May be I had expected a lot.

Enunciation

I remembered Yohana’s tales that while in the water, people enunciate quietly their diseases to get healed. “Ulcers,” I said quietly. Four month alter I washed my feet in Uganda’s magic water, I still suffer from ulcers! May be the magic water didn’t work on me because I washed the wrong apart of my body which actually was not sick. But certainly the magic water helped me to get rid of one thing that was on my feet. The dust! We had acquired this dust during the burial ceremony. Nothing remained.

As I continued to wash my feet enthusiastically, the impression I got was that the water was just warm. However what scared me was not the warmness of the water. It was the wounds and skin rashes I observed on the skins of some of the men and women that had their bodies soaked in the water.

This took away my wonderful feelings. “May be the magic water which people think cures diseases, spreads them instead,” I thought. Away from this point of the spring, two women we travelled with fetched secretly water from the hottest point of the spring into their empty mineral water bottles.

As we returned to our minibus ready to return to Kampala, we asked the two ladies where they were taking the hot water they had fetched in their mineral water bottles. The answer we got was just a simple laugh.

Located about 370 kilometers from Uganda’s capital Kampala, in the south western region, Kitagata hot spring in Bushenyi district still leaves both local and foreigners in awe after 102 years when it was discovered by a hunter.