Interviewed by Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

The Invisible War Democratic Republic of Congo—It’s the deadliest conflict since World War II. More than 5 million people have died in the past decade, yet it goes virtually unnoticed and unreported in the United States. The conflict is in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Central Africa. At its heart are the natural resources found in Congo and multinational corporations that extract them. The prospects for peace have slightly improved: A peace accord was just signed in Congo’s eastern Kivu provinces. But without a comprehensive truth and reconciliation process for the entire country and a renegotiation of all mining contracts, the suffering will undoubtedly continue. In its latest Congo mortality report, the International Rescue Committee found that a stunning 5.4 million “excess deaths” have occurred in Congo since 1998. These are deaths beyond those that would normally occur. In other words, a loss of life on the scale of Sept. 11 occurring every two days, in a country whose population is one-sixth our own. Truthdig

Reparations for Darfur   USAfrica: A Mortal Danger for Black Africans   Nuba-Darfur-South Sudan Table

Reparations and the Pan-African War on Genocide  Letter from Chinweizu / Letters from Kola Boof / Reparations and the Pan-African War on Genocide

Apartheid dead but racism endures—Under apartheid, black education was purposely substandard and certain skilled jobs, notably in big corporations such as the railroad, were reserved for whites. Now white South Africans complain about government affirmative action programs that work against them. Yet despite these programs and a booming economy, more blacks are out of work than under white rule. Government statistics show that 10 percent of black households are in the top income bracket compared with 65 percent of white households. Blacks are 85 percent of the 48 million population. President Thabo Mbeki hoped business friendly policies would create a trickle-down effect, but they didn't, and many blacks criticize Mbeki for leaving the reins of the economy in white hands. In 2004, in its most recent available figures, the Department of Trade and Industry said black ownership of businesses had gone from zero to 10 percent and blacks occupied 15 percent of skilled positions. Whites-only suburbs and restaurants have been desegregated, but few blacks can afford their prices. Most still live in black townships and work for whites as laborers, farm hands or domestic workers. Oakley-Smith says she can list scores of racist incidents — segregated toilets in big companies, rude and racist remarks by white supervisors in the mines, whites posting pictures of monkeys under the names of black supervisors.— Yahoo News

Clinton or Obama: Who’s Best on Darfur?  /  Nuba-Darfur-South Sudan

How a Black African Views His American Black Brothers  /  Origins Of African American Spiritualism 

Nuba-Darfur-South Sudan Table

Global News:Politics—Literature & the Arts 

Genocide, slavery, rape, and colorism are wrong.—It is now less than a month since I was appointed National Chairwoman of the United States branch of South Sudan's Sudanese Sensitization Peace Project (the SSPP).  This was a most ironic appointment considering the fact that I am a half-Arab Northerner, originally born Muslim, a "traitor" to the North.  I did spy work for the SPLA (South), and now, in my job rounding up celebrities and politicians to take a stance on behalf of Darfur and the 2011 secession of South Sudan, I find myself greatly pained that absolutely none of the African Presidents of the African Union are doing what they should to challenge and confront President Bashir's regime in Khartoum, even as they acknowledge that he, and in full disclosure, my former boyfriend, Hasan al Turabi, are responsible for carrying out genocide. Millions of blacks around the world—whether their worlds be Johannesburg, Harlem, Dakar, London or Los Angeles—love to evoke the names "Nubia" and "Cush" to the point of overkill, yet as we get high linking ourselves to some glorious ancient past, we place little stock in fixing our present or constructing our future. Kola Boof  Nuba-Darfur-South Sudan Table

Arthur Edgar E. Smith: Female Characters in Camara Laye /  John Pepper Clark's Raft Running Adrift  /  Wole Soyinka Kongi's Harvest  / Langston Hughes

By Orikinla Osinachi

The Population Emergency—Sub-Saharan Africa has been experiencing phenomenal population growth since the beginning of the XXth Century, following several centuries of population stagnation attributable to the slave trade and colonization. The region's population in fact increased from 100 million in 1900 to 770 million in 2005. The latest United Nations projections, published in March 2007, envisaged a figure of 1.5 to 2 billion inhabitants being reached between the present and 2050. . . .And although two-thirds of its population still live in rural areas, massive migration to the towns and cities is under way. Thus, whereas in 1960, just one city, Johannesburg, had a population of over one million, Africa now has about 40 of them. Science Daily

Ojukwu Interview

Global News: Politics—Literature & the Arts

Bush in the bush—AGOA, AFRICOM and Kenya topped US President George W Bush's six-day tour of Africa—Johnson-Sirleaf is the ideal African leader as far as the Bush administration is concerned. Other preferred African leaders are Tanzanian president, Ghanaian President John Jufour and, of course, Beninois President Boni Yaye. The momentum behind the Americans in Africa is not what it was during the Cold War era. The war on terror, Africa's potential as a major oil supplier to the US (currently 16 per cent of US oil imports), and AFRICOM are the superpower's priorities in Africa today. The continent is no longer enemy turf, not even with Chinese competition for hydrocarbons and raw materials. There is also progress on the ground for champions of what is mistakenly called free trade, and there are no obvious socialists to be found. The botched handling of Africa's underdevelopment concerns is America's opportunity on the continent. Bush made smarmy speeches of little substance and even less consequence. Few understood what he was talking about, but most pretended that they did. Weekly Aahram

Nobody ever chose to be a slave (Mbeki) / South African Oppression and Poverty  (Mfanelo Skwatsha)

Say No to Africom—With little scrutiny from Democrats in Congress and nary a whimper of protest from the liberal establishment, the United States will soon establish permanent military bases in sub-Saharan Africa. An alarming step forward in the militarization of the African continent, the US Africa Command (Africom) will oversee all US military and security interests throughout the region, excluding Egypt. Africom is set to launch by September 2008 and the Senate recently confirmed Gen. William "Kip" Ward as its first commander. Danny Glover & Nicole Lee. The Nation

By  Adeyinka Makinde

Mfanelo Skwatsha (PAC) On Tour 

An individual has to take a decision . . . take stock of himself and act—"The writer is first and foremost a citizen and the writer's responsibility is not different from that of a citizen. . . . People sometimes take a snobbish attitude, saying we cannot engage on this level because it's not pure enough for us. . . . On all levels humanity is involved. And wherever humanity is involved, that's my constituency.”—Wole Soyinka, the 1986 Nobel literature prize winner—the first black writer to receive the award.

Cape Verde—We are pleased with what has been achieved, but our aspirations for a higher level of development are much greater, regardless of the opinion the rest of the world may have of us. At independence we had an illiteracy rate of nearly 70 percent, but today it is 24 percent. Life expectancy stood at 50 years, and now it is between 75 and 77 years. The infant mortality rate has fallen sharply and is now one of the lowest in Africa. The government (of the ruling African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde, PAICV) regards it as essential to respond to the expectations of Cape Verdeans by increasing the levels of education, training, health, safety and stability. In a word, more development is needed. While our people recognise the progress already made, they are not satisfied yet, and it is the dissatisfaction of Cape Verdeans and of the government itself that will propel us further. Cape Verde Foreign Minister Víctor Barbosa Borges

U.S. Push to Seize Control of Africa's Gulf of Guinea Oil  / Kip's Folly: A Black Commander for U.S. Forces in Africa /  AFRICOM Plot Thickens