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Story Archives of 'Africa'
Stimulus Money in Action
By Jen Nathan on Wednesday, November 4, 2009.If you’ve ever driven down a narrow rural road marred by pot holes, or walked through a crowded street begging for a larger sidewalk, you might have wondered where all that economic stimulus money is going. Now there’s an app for that.
Uniting Africa With a Roll of the Dice
By Todd Bookman on Tuesday, November 3, 2009.
Arbitrary borders, ethnic conflict, and minimal infrastructure divided the pan-African movement of the past century, but one man hopes to bring disparate African nations together - with a board game.
It’s called Jekaben, meaning "Let's Unite and Decide Together" in the Bambara language. A Senegalese entrepreneur who created the game hopes it will inspire youth to make the United States of Africa a reality.
The Serial Callers of Ghana
By Anna Boiko-Weyrauch on Monday, October 19, 2009.
Live call-in talk shows have become staples on radio stations across the globe, just like here in the U.S. They are relatively cheap to produce and the worldwide proliferation of cell phones connects eager callers to discussions on public affairs. Callers are mostly regular people, who call in on a whim.
Talk show hosts in Ghana are finding themselves up against a crop of professionals that hijack the conversation. Producers call them dedicated serial callers, and they are a growing force on Ghana’s airwaves.
Anna Boiko-Weyrauch has more from Accra, Ghana. Reporting for this piece was conducted by Karen Attiah.
(Photo courtesy Anna Boiko-Weyrauch)
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
By Deb Baker on Friday, October 9, 2009.
When William Kamkwamba, was 14, his family in Malawi couldn’t afford school fees. At the library, he saw a windmill in a book called Using Energy. He realized electricity would help people in his village pump water, light their homes, charge cell phones - William saw that "A windmill meant more than just power, it was freedom."
Combating Khat in Ethiopia
By Angela Robson on Wednesday, October 7, 2009.
Ethiopia has the highest per capita rate of roadside fatalities in the world, and many of these deaths involve drivers high on khat (sometimes spelled chat or qat). Khat is a stimulant that consists of the buds and leaves of a flowering evergreen plant and when you chew it like tobacco, it is a strong stimulant.
Fool’s Gold Fuse African Rhythm, Indie Rock
By Virginia Prescott on Tuesday, September 22, 2009.
If you’re feeling blue about the end of summer, we have some radio sunshine to cheer you up. The band Fool’s Gold have just released their self-titled debut record. It’s a mix of African guitars, hand-clapping rhythms, and Hebrew lyrics.
You can call it world music, indie rock, afro-pop - but when a French television reporter asked the members of Fool’s Gold how they describe their music, they said it’s just "hot weather music." Guitarist Lewis Pesacov and singer and bassist Luke Top join us to bring some of their southern California sunshine to New England.
We hear a bit of the Congolese-inspired "Surprise Hotel" as well as "Nadine," which has more of an Ethiopian sensibility, and one of your songs that switches between English and Hebrew lyrics. And we talk about the birth of a second generation of American musicians inspired by American "world music" - kids who grew up in homes with Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon on the stereo in the '80s, now reinventing it again and making it their own.
African Fashion Hits the Catwalk
By Anna Boiko-Weyrauch on Tuesday, August 4, 2009.
Did you hear the news? Tribal is in this season. The New York, Paris, Milan and shows presented Louis Vuitton doing grass skirts! Galliano’s cheetah prints! Ralph Lauren’s Egypto-sheaths!
African themes come and go on the runways. Some fashion watchers think African designers will soon be starting their own trends.
In Accra, Ghana, Anna Boiko-Weyrauch takes us through the world of up-and-coming African designers.
(Photo by Anna Boiko-Weyrauch)
Here's What's Awesome: Desert-Blocking Bacteria, Implantable Telescopes
By Brady Carlson on Sunday, July 26, 2009.
This week's edition of Here's What's Awesome has some pretty heavy-duty items - in fact, they remind me of something Margaret Mead might have said: "A small group of awesome links could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
That's next time, on This Old Desert
Mandatory Clean Up Days
By Sarah Simpson on Tuesday, July 21, 2009.
The United Nations estimates that only 10% of the trash in Africa actually makes it to a dump. The rest is left to rot in the streets or is burned in toxic bonfires. In Lagos, Nigeria – the largest city in sub-Saharan Africa – authorities hold a mandatory monthly clean up day.
Cracking Down on Conflict Diamonds
By Virginia Prescott on Monday, July 20, 2009.
Former Liberian president Charles Taylor’s trial at the International Criminal Court in the Hague enters its second week. He’s facing war crimes charges for allegedly masterminding the brutal 11-year civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone in order to appropriate its diamond wealth. Taylor is being tried for murder, rape, mutilation, and conscripting child soldiers.
Taylor’s presidency ended in 2003 – and that same year the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme was created to regulate the sale and transport of rough diamonds, and to ensure the gems are not associated with human rights abuses. Lately, however, civil groups have criticized the scheme as ineffective in Zimbabwe and other diamond-producing African nations.
Annie Dunnebacke is a campaigner with the group Global Witness. She joins us from London to discuss the crackdown on conflict diamonds.
Global Witness and the Combating Conflict Diamond Campaign
(Photo by AdamCohn via Flickr/Creative Commons)
