Should African Women Obey Their men?

I just read an interesting article about survey being done that asked African women if they should still have to obey their husbands. Nine out of ten men felt that their wives should still obey them by law and not surprisingly, six out of ten women agreed. In Mali a proposal to change the law, so that women need no longer obey their husbands, is still causing controversy and is awaiting  parliamentary review. So the question that is being asked by many is: is the continent still struggling with the role of women? In response to that question, yes. Africa is definitely struggling with the role of women and I believe that the continent of Africa is the least active in trying to change the roles of women. As a woman, I definitely disagree with the idea of the role of a woman in some of the countries in Africa however I do still understand that Africa is a continent that practices many rituals and faiths that have been known for thousands of years, so I guess I can understand that it's hard to, "teach an old dog new tricks".


Article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/africahaveyoursay/2010/11/should-women-obey-in-modern-af.shtml

Kenya Gay Activist is Upset Over Remark

Kenya Gay activist David Kuria who works for the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya became upset after a remark was made by Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Odinga reportedly warned people in a speech, that men and women who were found engaging in homosexual acts would arrested. One thing that really caught my attention after reading this article was that if a man or woman is caught engaging in homosexual acts they can be punished by being sent to prison for up to 14 years! An MP last year in Uganda, even tried to introduce the death penalty for anyone who engaged in homosexual acts but this of course did not pass (thank goodness). So if anyone who happens to be homosexual and was thinking of moving to Kenya, do not do it because it is illegal to "be in love" there. This remark that Odinga made during his speech upset Kuria and many other gay activists across Kenya. After learning about the horrible accounts of discrimination towards homosexuals in Kenya and other parts of Africa, I was utterly disgusted because it shows that times have not yet changed in all parts of the world and that is unfortunate.

ARTICLE:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11864702

New York Museum to Return King Tut Artifacts to Egypt

  Here is an interesting article about a New York museum who is returning all 19 of King Tut's artifacts back to Egypt this coming June. The artifacts were discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter, they were eventually brought over to the United States from Carter's house in Linux,Egypt and from his niece. The artifacts were to have never left Egypt and the first place and were therefore illegally exported. The only right thing to do would be to return the artifacts to its rightful owner which is in fact Egypt.

Article:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11728564

Hospital in South Africa Performs Illegal Kidney Transplants

Heres an article that I read about a medical group known as Netcare who runs 50 hospitals in South Africa, who performed illegal kidney transplants. The medical group would actually fly underprivileged  people out from places like Brazil and pay them money to have their kidneys removed and donate them. The kidneys were then given to people in need who were usually wealthy Israelis. Netcare finally gained a conscious and pleaded guilty to all of the charges made against them and they were fined $1.1 million dollars.

Article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11725536

Adoptions From Ethiopia Rise

In the past four years adoption of children from Ethiopia  have increased by more than 50%. Six years ago, there were only 284 ethiopian children, out of the 22,990 international children who were adopted by American families. For the 2010 fiscal year, there will be 2,500 adoptions from Ethiopia. This is a remarkable increase and Ethiopia is on the verge of overtaking China as the top source country for adoption. This seems to be a great future for the orphaned children of Ethiopia and most likely Africa as a whole. Ethiopia is now helping to set examples on how beneficial it is to allow adoptions of children, instead of keeping them in institutions just to keep the child in their native country.

Website: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39636986/ns/health-kids_and_parenting

Soccer's Lost Boys of Africa

I just finished watching a documentary called "Soccer's Lost Boys" on the "Current Tv" network which is channel 9 on the tv stations in the NDNU dorms. It was about young boys mostly under the age of 17 who were mostly from Cameroon, Senegal, and Ghana who had high hopes of becoming famous football (or soccer as we call it) players for major European football teams. What happens is, a person who claims to be a famous soccer agent comes to the homes of families of young boys who show promise and ask the parents, to pay a fee in order to have their son get a chance at becoming a professional soccer player. These hopeful parents sale their homes, cars, clothes, food, themselves, and all of their possessions to raise money for the agent's fees. The agent then takes the young boy to Europe, "tries" to get an audition in front of major soccer teams and if this does not happen, the agent disappears and leaves the young boy stranded in  Europe. Many families have not seen their sons in more than 7 or 8 years because of this scam; this is because they no longer have the money to pay for their child's trip back home. There have said to be up to 20,000 young men who are all homeless and scattered over Europe and also stranded with no way to get back home. The stranded boys in Europe then turn to prostitution, drug dealing, stealing, and many other crimes to keep money in their pockets to buy food and clothing. There have been a few organizations created in the hopes of ending this trafficking in Africa but unfortunately it has not been enough to end this horrible scam from happening. What is even more sad is that many of these families in Africa here of these horrible stories of the young boys being victims of trafficking but they still use their life's savings to pay agents to do the exact  same thing, in hopes of their child being "different" and actually becoming a professional soccer player.

Zimbabwe Women Weave their Way out of Poverty

In this article (which  a slideshow) there are women of Zimbabwe who weave baskets and sell them to make money. The creative and beautiful designs have caught the eye of many people and this has increased the demand for these gorgeous baskets. Which in turn is bringing more money into the families of these talented women. You will be blown away by the photos of these baskets and amazed at how many different things these artists make baskets out of, like for example lamp shades! 

ARTICLE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11497446