Meet 24-year-old Sherrie Silver, the mastermind behind Childish Gambino's provocative video, which has attracted more than 540m views on YouTube to date. Now the award-winning choreographer is driving a social media campaign to promote investment in rural Africa's young people. Silver, who moved to London from Rwanda at the age of five, talks about why she believes farming is so empowering
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Childish Gambino choreographer urges fans to step up for young rural Africans
Sherrie Silver, who was behind acclaimed video This is America, launches virtual dance ‘petition’ to promote investment in farming
She made a name for herself as the choreographer behind one of the most controversial yet critically acclaimed music videos of last year.
Now Sherrie Silver, the creative force behind the dance moves in Childish Gambino’s This Is America, is using her success to drive a social media campaign promoting investment in young people in rural Africa.
Continue reading...Can Buhari win over his enemies to unite a deeply divided Nigeria? | Orji Sunday
As the president is sworn in for a further four years, the challenges of tackling corruption, poverty and conflict grow ever more intense
Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari will be sworn in on Wednesday, the former military dictator taking a new four-year tenure after a keenly contested election in February.
When the results were announced, it cleanly split national emotion into joy and sadness – a divide that now has knitted back together into widely felt indifference.
Continue reading...Africa’s elephant poaching is in decline, analysis suggests
Researchers still fearful as approximately 10,000 to 15,000 are killed every year
Elephant poaching rates in Africa are declining, according to a study published in the journal Nature Communications.
The annual poaching mortality rate fell from a high of more than 10% in 2011 to less than 4% in 2017, but the researchers warned that current levels were still unsustainable and could spell trouble for the future of the animals on the continent.
Continue reading...Nigeria accused of ‘scurrilous’ attempt to gag press
Access to country’s law-making National Assembly will be restricted, says Guild of Editors
Strict new conditions for covering government proceedings and the re-arrest of a prominent journalist on terrorism charges have raised concerns about deteriorating press freedom in Nigeria.
To be permitted to report on the country’s National Assembly, the highest law-making authority, journalists will now have to prove that their media outlet has a daily circulation of 40,000 copies or online media 5,000 daily views.
Continue reading...Cameroonian soldiers accused of killing baby as family flees
Army denies involvement in death of four-month old in violence-plagued anglophone region
The parents of a baby allegedly murdered by Cameroonian soldiers last Monday have gone into hiding, afraid speaking out will make them a target for the authorities.
Pictures of the dead four-month-old Martha Neba were circulated online, along with a graphic video showing her body on a sofa with bullet casings nearby and her aunt crying as an unknown man filming the video accused Cameroon’s military of killing her.
Continue reading...Cyril Ramaphosa is cautious, but he must waste no time reforming South Africa
Voters are looking for the newly inaugurated president to take on networks of graft now they have given him a new mandate
In his long career as an activist, businessman and politician, Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, has overcome many challenges. But few have been as daunting as those he will face when he sits down in his office in Pretoria on Sunday morning.
The first is to consolidate his own position. Despite his electoral win this month, and Saturday’s spectacular inauguration, the 66-year-old is politically weaker than he looks. The African National Congress is deeply divided. Many opposed Ramaphosa’s successful bid for power at an ANC conference in December 2017. Some believe he is too “pro-business” to take radical measures to redistribute wealth in one of the most unequal countries in the world and too close to South Africa’s business community.
Continue reading...Sudan, Algeria, Libya: new Arab spring stalls as Trump looks away
The US once led western states’ support of democracy around the world, but under this president that feels like a long time ago
There was a time, not so very long ago, when the US was held up as a model for other nations to emulate. That time has passed. Last week witnessed more gratuitous international hooliganism by the Trump administration. Its latest depredations include extra-territorial bullying of trade and business rivals, violent threats against Iran, an absurdly biased “peace plan” for Palestine, resumed arms sales to fuel the Saudis’ war in Yemen, and an assault on global press freedom.
Anger and dismay over Donald Trump’s wildly swinging wrecking ball obscure they ways in which the US could be using its unmatched power to benefit others – but refuses to do so. Its current policy is defined by its absences. Once again, Syrian civilians are dying in a horrific war Trump has done nothing to halt. Alarm bells are ringing over the climate crisis and mass extinction – yet Trump’s people prefer to focus on economic opportunities afforded by a melting Arctic ice cap.
Continue reading...Cyril Ramaphosa sworn in as South Africa’s president – video
Cyril Ramaphosa told South Africans on Saturday that 'a new era' had dawned as he was sworn in for a five-year term as president. More than 30,000 people gathered to witness the ceremony, which included a flypast and military parade. Ramaphosa's inauguration followed victory for his ruling African National Congress party in this month's election
Cyril Ramaphosa hails ‘new era’ as he begins South African presidency
New leader says country’s challenges can be solved as he is sworn in for five-year term
Cyril Ramaphosa told South Africans on Saturday that “a new era” had dawned as he was sworn in for a five-year term as president, but said the troubled country was at a defining moment in its history.
“It is time for us to make the future we yearn for … it is through our actions now that we will determine our destiny,” Ramaphosa said, after taking the oath of office in front of 30,000 people in the administrative capital, Pretoria.
Continue reading...The west turns a blind eye to Middle Eastern violence at its own peril | Dr Amr Darrag
In failing to hold Egypt and Saudi Arabia to account over the deaths of Giulio Regeni and Jamal Khashoggi, the west is making a rod for its own back
The parents of Giulio Regeni, the Italian doctoral student murdered in Cairo three years ago, last week wrote an emotionally charged letter to Abdel Fatah al-Sisi. “As long as this barbarism remains unpunished,” they told the Egyptian president, “until all those who are guilty, regardless of their position, are brought to justice in Italy, no one in the world can stay in your country and feel safe.”
Regeni was found in a ditch in February 2016, less than 2km away from the national security agency headquarters. His body, naked from the waist down, bore clear signs of brutal torture. Regeni’s parents, who say they have yet to see any sign that the murder is being investigated, said they could only identify their son by the tip of his nose. They want those responsible extradited to Italy.
Continue reading...Kenya court upholds ban on gay sex in major setback for activists
Judges in Nairobi say they had not seen enough evidence of discrimination to change law
LGBT campaigners have reacted with anger and dismay after judges at Kenya’s high court rejected a bid to repeal colonial-era laws criminalising gay sex.
The ruling has dealt a major setback to campaigners, who hoped that scrapping the laws would inspire other countries in Africa – where discrimination is widespread – to do the same.
Continue reading...Scientists pursue universal snakebite cure using HIV antibody techniques
British specialist among those aiming to develop ‘next generation’ treatment that could help millions of victims each year
Scientists in five countries, including the UK, hope to find a universal cure for snakebite using the same technology that discovered HIV antibodies.
A new consortium of venom specialists in India, Kenya, Nigeria, Britain and the US will locate and develop antibodies to treat critical illness from snakebites, which harm nearly 3 million people worldwide each year.
Continue reading...British man arrested on suspicion of giving bleach-based ‘cure’ to Ugandans
Sam Little arrested after Guardian exposed massive distribution network of MMS in Uganda that was being supervised by US pastor
A British man has been arrested in Uganda on suspicions of “intoxicating the public” after he claimed to have carried out a trial of a “miracle cure” on local villagers using industrial bleach.
Sam Little, 25, from Arlesey in Bedfordshire was picked up by Ugandan police at 6am on Thursday in a village church in Kitembi, a few miles outside Fort Portal in western Uganda. Also arrested were two Ugandans who are suspected of being involved in the distribution of the bleach, which is known by advocates as MMS or Miracle Mineral Solution.
Continue reading...Argentina and Algeria stamp out malaria in ‘historic achievement’
Improvements in detection, diagnosis and treatment hailed by World Health Organization as ‘a model for other countries’
Algeria and Argentina have been declared malaria-free by the World Health Organization, in what has been described as a “historic achievement” for both countries.
The declaration follows warnings that the global fight against malaria has slipped off track in recent years, with cases rising in many of the countries worst affected by the disease.
Continue reading...International community ‘lacks moral motivation to end Libyan civil war’
Ghassan Salamé, UN special envoy for Libya, says country is viewed as a prize
The international community lacks the moral motivation to end the Libyan civil war, and largely views the country as a prize to be captured, Ghassan Salamé, the UN special envoy for Libya, said on Wednesday.
Salamé’s complaint came as one of the belligerents in the civil war, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, ruled out an immediate ceasefire in talks with the French president Emmanuel Macron in Paris.
Continue reading...Binyavanga Wainaina, Kenyan author and gay rights activist, dies aged 48
One of Africa’s best-known authors and gay rights activists died on Tuesday after an illness
One of Africa’s best-known authors and gay rights activists, Binyavanga Wainaina, has died at the age of 48.
The Kenyan author died on Tuesday night in Nairobi after a short illness, the BBC reported. His death was confirmed by Tom Maliti, the chairman of the Kwani Trust, which Wainaina founded.
Continue reading...Congo violence sparks fears over UK Ebola response
Attacks on health clinics provoke concern that disclosing details of funding might ‘put a target on the head’ of medical workers
The UK has agreed not to publicly disclose how much funding has been allocated to the Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, following warnings this might put those responding to the outbreak at risk.
Harriett Baldwin, minister of state for Africa, said the Congolese government had asked for these details not to be made public over fears this will put “a target on the head of some of the responders”.
Continue reading...Judge dismissed Kenyans’ claims | Letter
Sir Peter Stewart concluded that the passage of time since the alleged ill-treatment was so great that it was impossible for the crown to mount a meaningful defence, writes David Elstein
What Bryan Cox and Mary Ruck (Letters, 20 May) do not tell your readers about the claims for compensation by the Kenyan litigants they represented was that they were all dismissed by the judge, Sir Peter Stewart, after one of the longest trials in British legal history – 230 hearing days spread over four years. He concluded that the passage of time since the alleged ill-treatment was so great that it was impossible for the crown to mount a meaningful defence, especially in the absence of virtually any corroborative evidence.
Nearly all those alleged to have committed the claimed offences were either dead or not traceable. Moreover, almost none of those accused in these 40,000 claims was a member of the British army: policemen and prison warders were the alleged culprits in nearly all cases. Abuses in screening camps were repeatedly investigated at the time, and more than 100 policemen, home guards and prison warders were prosecuted, convicted and jailed. The army had almost nothing to do with screening and detention.
Continue reading...Raw ivory sales: Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia call for end to ban
Southern African countries to appeal to watchdog for permission to sell stockpiled ivory worth more than £230m
Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia are making a fresh appeal for a global watchdog to lift restrictive measures on the trade in raw ivory.
The watchdog, Cites, prohibits unregulated commercial trade in endangered species around the world.
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