Early next year, the people of southern Sudan will vote on a referendum as to whether or not to secede from the rest of the country. International observers are concerned that a vote for secession could lead to horrific acts of violence leveled against those southerners still living in the north.
Refugees International (a humanitarian agency working for the protection of displaced people) is calling upon the United Nations to make citizenship issues among their top priorities. The agency said in a new report that the issue of post-referendum citizenship was not being adequately addressed by international organizations involved in the country, including the United Nations and the American government.
If the referendum passes, as most people expect, those who are now considered internally displaced could become refugees overnight. Sudanese from the south who now live in the north would be "key targets for post-referendum violence," the report stated. People “need to think in concrete terms about the possible risks to vulnerable communities," said Joel Charny, vice president for policy at Refugees International and a co-author of the report.
The southern population living in the north is centered in and around Khartoum, Sudan's capital. Though some of the population is relatively affluent, including many university students, the majority is lower-class and works in the underground economy. The agency stated that southerners are already routinely discriminated against -- including being denied housing, employment and government services and even being forcibly moved from the city center to surrounding countryside.
The worst case scenario would be an all out genocide aimed at the more than 1.5 million southerners living in northern Sudan.
The people of Sudan remain in our prayers!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Primitive Ideas
More than a century ago, German explorer Leo Frobenius visited West Africa and came across some sculpted bronze and terracotta figures. He was sure he had discovered remains of the mythical lost city of Atlantis. “Before us stood a head of marvellous beauty, wonderfully cast in antique bronze, true to the life, incrusted with a patina of glorious dark green. This was, in very deed, the Olokun, Atlantic Africa's Poseidon,” Frobenius wrote. “I was moved to silent melancholy at the thought that this assembly of degenerate and feeble-minded posterity should be the legitimate guardians of so much loveliness.”
He refused to believe that the sophisticated and ornately carved bronze sculptures were made in Africa.
Thirty years later, Europeans were forced to rethink their previously held beliefs about Africa’s art history and artistic ability when 18 brass and copper sculptures were discovered in what had been the “Ife kingdom” (in the lush forests of the lower Niger in West Africa in what is today the south western region of Nigeria).
A 1948 article in the Illustrated London News declared: “African art worthy to rank with the finest works of Italy and Greece." Today, as the collection makes its way throughout Britain and on to the U.S., the British newspaper, The Independant, is noting that at the same historical time that the European Renaissance was producing illustrations, African artisans were “working with brass, bronze, copper and terracotta to produce a series of exquisite heads that are not only the equal of Donatello in technical brilliance, but also just as naturalistic in their refinement.”
So much for primitive Africa.
He refused to believe that the sophisticated and ornately carved bronze sculptures were made in Africa.
Thirty years later, Europeans were forced to rethink their previously held beliefs about Africa’s art history and artistic ability when 18 brass and copper sculptures were discovered in what had been the “Ife kingdom” (in the lush forests of the lower Niger in West Africa in what is today the south western region of Nigeria).
A 1948 article in the Illustrated London News declared: “African art worthy to rank with the finest works of Italy and Greece." Today, as the collection makes its way throughout Britain and on to the U.S., the British newspaper, The Independant, is noting that at the same historical time that the European Renaissance was producing illustrations, African artisans were “working with brass, bronze, copper and terracotta to produce a series of exquisite heads that are not only the equal of Donatello in technical brilliance, but also just as naturalistic in their refinement.”
So much for primitive Africa.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
South Africa's Time
Thirty-four years ago this week, on June 16, 1976, thousands of black school children in Soweto, South Africa, took to the streets to protest the apartheid education system that obliged them to be taught in Afrikaans. It was supposed to be a peaceful protest, but the students were met with police gunfire and at least 23 of them were killed. The shooting sparked off days of protests known as the Soweto uprisings, which many regard as the beginning of the end of the apartheid regime.
June 16 is now a national holiday in South Africa. It is called “Youth Day.”
How ironic and at the same time appropriate that South Africa’s celebration of “Youth Day” should occur as it hosts this year’s World Cup tournament.
“Most people know our history, but don't fully know it,” one young South African woman told a reporter. “So they're coming here (all of the people for the World Cup games) and we sort of embrace with them what really happened because they'll be seeing people like me, other people sharing the same story.” For the first time, a lot of people will hear the story of how apartheid came to an end.
It is time.
June 16 is now a national holiday in South Africa. It is called “Youth Day.”
How ironic and at the same time appropriate that South Africa’s celebration of “Youth Day” should occur as it hosts this year’s World Cup tournament.
“Most people know our history, but don't fully know it,” one young South African woman told a reporter. “So they're coming here (all of the people for the World Cup games) and we sort of embrace with them what really happened because they'll be seeing people like me, other people sharing the same story.” For the first time, a lot of people will hear the story of how apartheid came to an end.
It is time.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Africa's World Cup
South Africa the nation known for its history of apartheid, as well as reform, is once again at a crossroads in its history. This past year, South Africa was selected by football’s (soccer in the U.S.) world governing body FIFA to host the greatest 19th edition of the World Cup. Many South Africans are seeeing this not only as a sporting extravaganza, but also as an event to demonstrate the progress of its democracy and how South Africa is ready to take its place on the global stage.
According to CNN, Nelson Mandela, the former president who spearheaded many of the nation’s reforms, will be at the opening of the games later this week to watch South Africa kick off the tournament in front of more than 90,000 fans from nearly every nation on the globe. Many South Africans, though, are looking past the games to see what impact the event will have not only on the country’s economy, but on it political progress as well.
Statistics from the United Nations estimate that South Africa ranks 129th out of 182 of the world’s poorest countries. Unemployment is currently around 30 percent. The average life expectancy is 50 years of age (and declining) -- with 63 percent of all deaths attributed to HIV/AIDS (World Health Organization figures).
If the World Cup and South Africa are serious about making a real difference in the lives of South Africans -- they truly do have their work cut out for them!
According to CNN, Nelson Mandela, the former president who spearheaded many of the nation’s reforms, will be at the opening of the games later this week to watch South Africa kick off the tournament in front of more than 90,000 fans from nearly every nation on the globe. Many South Africans, though, are looking past the games to see what impact the event will have not only on the country’s economy, but on it political progress as well.
Statistics from the United Nations estimate that South Africa ranks 129th out of 182 of the world’s poorest countries. Unemployment is currently around 30 percent. The average life expectancy is 50 years of age (and declining) -- with 63 percent of all deaths attributed to HIV/AIDS (World Health Organization figures).
If the World Cup and South Africa are serious about making a real difference in the lives of South Africans -- they truly do have their work cut out for them!
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