Sudan Still in Crisis!

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!

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.

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.

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!

"Plastics!"

It’s been more than four decades since Dustin Hoffman’s character in the movie, “The Graduate,” was given the advice to pursue a career in plastics. And while in the grand scheme of things it may not seem like a major issue, plastics are still affecting nearly every part of our lives -- even among those of us living in Africa. It is true that they have helped in the advancement of medical treatments and procedures as well as in flight and space exploration, but they continue to take their toll on our environment as well.

CNN reports that this week, California’s governor is signing into law the complete banning of plastic bags in nearly every store or supermarket. And on the other side of the globe -- in Ghana where the streets are choked with trash and littered with plastic waste that blocks gutters and clogs storm drains -- something is also being done. Discarded plastic drinking bottles are being collected, cleaned, reformed and then stitched together to make brightly colored, fashionable bags.

An important part of the project is education, those associated with the project explain. It is true that there are clothing companies around the world using materials made from recycled plastic, but this process shows that the bags are obviously made from the original plastic packaging. The Ghanaians love them and realize that plastics need to be dealt with -- before and after use.

In these days of increasing environmental awareness, other nations can learn from this as well.

The World's Cup

Many of us saw the advertisement for the movie, “Invictus” ... about the South African rugby team. The film itself is based on events that took place in South Africa not long after Nelson Mandela had been elected president of the country. In the movie, Mandela infers to the South African rugby team that if they can gain the support of non-white South Africans and succeed in the upcoming World Cup, the country will be unified and inspired.

Mandela also shares with the players a poem, “Invictus,” that had inspired him during his time in prison, helping him to “stand when all he wanted to do was lie down.” In the end, the team did win the Rugby World Cup -- and in a nation divided sharply by apartheid -- 62,000 fans of all races gathered together to celebrate.

Next month, the biggest sporting tournament ever to take place in Africa begins. The football (soccer in America) World Cup is 30 days away and much of South Africa is excited. While it is always nice if the best team wins -- it’s even nicer when the jubilation spills out of the stadium and helps change the lives of those who live in poverty.

Yes, it’s a lot to hope for, but hope is the thing which changes lives.

The Truth shall set you free!

“Every child must go to school. Nobody is free until every child has received at least a basic education. You are free because you are educated, I am free because I am educated,” says James Kofi Annan a former child slave. Now free, Annan is rescuing victims of child trafficking in Ghana and has even built a school to help give them a better future.

Annan quit his promising job at Barclays Bank to open Challenging Heights School. Now, he buys back children from slavery and educates them at the school in Sankor, right in the middle of an area known for children being sold by their parents. At any time his school has several dozen former child slaves, mixed in with 300 other students.

“The wrong in society has to do with the impoverishment of children, exploitation of children, putting children in slavery and in child labor,” he said. “We must resolve this issue, then I can go back to my business. Otherwise we will fight and fight until every child has received this justice.”

To see a video interview of Annan’s amazing story, click on the link below.

http://cnn.com/video/?/video/international/2010/05/18/ia.fish.school.bk.b.cnn

"In Africa?"

Newspapers, new programs, magazines and Internet news sources are all filled with stories regarding the plight of those living throughout Africa. Stories range from issues concerning hunger, drought, famine, flooding, political unrest, and so on. But something that didn’t make the headlines -- at least not in a big way -- was in fact a big story: the peaceful transition of power in Africa’s most populated nation, Nigeria.

According to CNN, Goodluck Jonathan (that’s his name) was sworn in as Nigeria's acting president a few days ago just hours after it was reported that the nation’s elected leader, Umaru Yar'Adua, had died after a long illness.

U.S. President Barack Obama praised the efforts of President Yar'Adua in promoting “peace and stability in Africa through his support of Nigerian peacekeeping efforts as well as his strong criticism of undemocratic actions in the region.”

Perhaps Yar'Adua’s greatest legacy, however, is the ability of his country to continue on after his death without any sign of a planned coup d’etat or other political unrest. Many countries in other parts of the world take such things for granted. Perhaps in light of Nigeria’s accomplishment, it may soon be taken for granted in Africa as well.

Re-visiting Religious Persecution ...

A few weeks ago, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life issued a report stating that a recent study showed that more than two out of three people around the world live in countries with high or very high restrictions on religion. Now, a new report from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom goes even further naming more than two dozen countries engaging in what is classically described as religious persecution.

“The numbers are shocking,” the report says. “In Nigeria more than 12,000 people have been killed in a cycle of violence between Christians and Muslims stretching back more than a decade. The number of people convicted and sentenced for the killings: zero.” Not a single criminal, Muslim or Christian, has been convicted and sentenced in Nigeria's ten years of religious violence, the report claims.

The U.S. Commission did praise Nigeria's government, saying that when an USCRIF team went to the African nation in March, it found officials attentive and even grateful for its concerns. And a "concern" it is for everyone ... because the nations named in this study are not limited to Africa! The report also lists Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, India, Iran, Indonesia, Laos, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Venezuela, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka. Also mentioned are China's crackdown on Uyghur Muslims in the west of the country as well as imprisonment of Buddhists and Protestants in Vietnam. The report also criticizes the United States government itself for not doing enough to fight the problem.

The promotion of inter-religious dialogue is also a key tenet of the mission of the Missionaries of Africa. See www.missionariesofafrica.org/about/mission.html for more information.

Wisdom, Counsel, Understanding ...

In an age when many national leaders seem determined to make decisions unilaterally -- without taking the time to consider the ramifications of their actions -- a wind of change has blown across Uganda.

According to CNN, when Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad left Uganda without striking a deal on the African nation's oil, President Yoweri Museveni cut-off Iran’s visiting diplomat by stating to the press quite bluntly: “We have not concluded anything on oil.”

Ahmadinejad arrived in Uganda on Friday to seek support for his country's controversial nuclear program. But Uganda’s leader countered with his own thoughts. “Nuclear weapons are dangerous for humanity,” President Museveni stated, “even more dangerous than all the other previous weapon systems. We should work for a nuclear weapons-free world.”

The United States and its allies fear Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb -- despite Tehran's repeated denial that it was following such a path. Museveni has recently sought guidance from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Iranian Foreign Minister Manounchehr Mottaki “to hear from them why they are in dispute over nuclear use,” he said.

“Now I'm going to engage the United States to hear their version, then come back to and consult with our African brothers whom I represent on the U.N. Security Council,” President Museveni said. Uganda is a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.

Last week, citizens of Sudan voted in the first multi-party election in nearly 25 years ... and international observers were jubilant that democracy had finally come to this part of East Africa. Now -- any praise may seem a bit premature. A report by the Carter Center -- as well as official comments by the U.S., Great Britain and Norway -- note that “Sudan's first multiparty elections in more than two decades fell short of international standards.”

“We note initial assessments of the electoral process from independent observers, including the judgment that the elections failed to meet international standards,” a joint statement from the three nations. “We are reassured that voting passed reasonably peacefully, reportedly with significant participation,” the statement continued, “but share ... serious concerns about weak logistical and technical preparations and reported irregularities in many parts of Sudan.”

The European Union Election Observation Mission also criticized the election for showing “significant deficiencies against international standards” but said the vote paves the way for democratic progress.

The election was a key part of a 2005 peace deal, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, that helped end decades of civil war between the country's north and south. The conflict pitted Christian and Animist southerners against Muslim northerners, leaving more than two million people dead. The peace deal also called for a referendum next year to determine whether the south should become an independent nation.

Let us continue to pray for the people of Sudan and all that the future holds for them!

A Sign of Hope?

According to a recent study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in Washington, at least three out of 10 people across much of Africa say they have experienced divine healing, seen the devil being driven out of a person or received a direct revelation from God. At least half of all Christians in sub-Saharan Africa believe Jesus will return to Earth in their lifetime. Muslims, too, hold fervently to their own beliefs as well. Nearly one in three Muslims in the region expect to see the re-establishment of Islam's golden age before they die.

The Pew study also examined Christian and Muslim attitudes toward one another -- in a region that has seen religious violence between the two communities, as well as attacks on American targets such as the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Across the 19 countries in the survey, Christians and Muslims both associated positive traits with the other religion. Muslims see Christians as tolerant, honest and respectful of women; Christians say Muslims are honest, devout and respectful of women. Many people also said they were more worried by extremists of their own religion than by the other.

The study, "Tolerance and Tension: Islam and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa," is based on more than 25,000 face-to-face interviews in more than 60 languages in 19 countries.

"Our hearts are restless, O God, until they rest in you." St. Augustine of Hippo (an African).

Fighting Africa's Brain Drain

In some parts of West Africa, literacy rates for 15 to 19 year olds and 45 to 49 year olds range from 13% to 18%. In other areas of the continent, the rates are even lower. But amidst such discouraging statistics, there are those who “break the barrier” -- and totally destroy preconceptions or stereotypes. Akasease Yiadom is such a man.

Three years ago, the World War II veteran enrolled at the Presbyterian University College's business school in Abetifi, Ghana. This month, the hardworking student graduated. Akasease Yiadom is 99 years old.

“Education has no end,” he explained. “As long as your brain can work alright, your eyes can see alright, and your ears can hear alright, if you go to school -- you can learn.” Now that he has finished his studies, Yiadom is urging his classmates to resist the lure of higher salaries overseas and stay in Ghana.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) more than a million Ghanaians left Ghana from 2000 to 2007. But more recently, more than 85 percent have begun to return home -- either temporarily or permanently. It seems they are heeding the words of Yiadom:

“Don't leave; fight, and serve the country. And if you do, you might live to a hundred!”

The Face of Change in Somalia?

This week, hundreds of Somalis -- mostly women and children -- marched through the streets of Mogadishu protesting against Al-Shabaab militants. The protesters, along with traditional warriors wearing white clothes and armed with spears and wooden shields, chanted slogans denouncing the al Qaeda-inspired group. It was only the second public national demonstration against Al-Shabaab, which controls much of southern Somalia. It came a few days after the militant group destroyed tombs of revered Sufi clerics.

“People were really disturbed by the move of Al-Shabaab to destroy the tombs of the revered sheikhs of Ahlu Sunna,” said one civilian spokesperson. Observers noted that the protesters shouted slogans of support for the U.N.-backed government.

“We call for a holy war against them,” said Sheikh Abdulkadir Somow, from the Sufi Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama group, which recently signed a deal with the government in neighboring Ethiopia. Some of the demonstrators carried posters with slogans such as “Down and defeat to Al-Shabaab,” observers said. They also carried slogans to support the transitional government such as “Support Peace and Government.”

As one observer commented, “perhaps real change in Somalia will come from these protesters -- women and children who are determined to make a difference in this world.”

A Lasting Peace?

The Movement for Liberation and Justice, an umbrella group comprised of 10 rebel groups fighting against the Sudanese government, has signed a ceasefire agreement -- according to Sudan's state-run media. The agreement was signed last week in Doha, Qatar, by Sudanese official Ghazi Salahuddin and Al-Tigani Sessi of the Movement for Liberation and Justice. Qatar has been mediating talks between the two sides in the Darfur conflict.

In the past seven years, more than 300,000 people have been killed through direct combat, disease or malnutrition, according to the United Nations. An additional 2.7 million people fled their homes because of fighting among rebels, government forces and allied militias. According to United Nations’ spokespersons as well Western government representatives and numerous human rights orgainzations, the Sudanese government launched a brutal counter-insurgency campaign, aided by government-backed Arab militias that went from village to village in Darfur, killing, torturing and raping residents.

Last year, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was charged by the International Criminal Court with genocide in connection with the government's campaign of violence in Darfur.

Let’s pray that peace is truly at hand.

A new Somalia?

“Things can and are changing in Somalia.” At least that’s what was said this week in response to an historic agreement signed between a rebel group and the country's government. The peace agreement between the government and the Ahlu Sunnah group was signed Monday night at the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, according to published news reports.

“The agreement with Ahlu Sunnah is a historic success for the Somali people and it is a further positive step for the full return of Somalia's nationhood," President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said. Ahlu Sunnah is a large, moderate Sunni-based religious movement influenced by Sufi Islam that has been fighting extremists from such militant groups as Al-Shabaab for about a year.

“We preach peace and harmony among all nations and races of the world, but recently new and violent Islamist groups have surfaced in our country,” said Ahlu Sunnah's spiritual leader, Sheikh Mohamud Sheikh Hassan. “We have united with the Somali government and fight against these violent groups together and this is not a fight or a struggle against people, it is against ideology.”

Somalia has not had a stable government for nearly 20 years. As a result of its civil war, hundreds of thousands have been killed and millions more have been displaced.

Indeed it is time for change.

The Crisis in Nigeria

With each passing week, it seems that the crisis in Nigeria continues to escalate. Last weekend, an estimated 400+ people were killed after members of a machete-wielding Muslim group attacked a mostly Christian town south of the city of Jos. Some authorities believe the weekend slaughter was a revenge attack for the killing of around 150 members of the Hausa Muslim community by Christian mobs in Kuru Karama, south of Jos, in January 2010.

As tensions escalate, people are aware that what can be considered small skirmishes could erupt into a major conflict.

In September 2001, simmering tension erupted into violence leading to the deaths of 1,000 Christians and Muslims after what seemed to be a relatively minor incident. In February 2004, allegations of cattle theft led to the murder of around 700 Muslims and Christians in the city of Yelwa. Again in November 2008, several hundred more people of both religions were killed after disputed local elections in Jos. Aside from religious tensions, the ethnic groups are fighting for land, resources, job and opportunities in a region stricken by poverty. Authorities say that economic difficulties are exacerbating past tensions.

The Nigerian government has issued a red alert for the region amid fears of revenge attacks and calls for justice by the United Nations and Human Rights Watch. Meanwhile, the crisis continues.

A Light for the World

“A living example of faith put into action,” is how many describe Immaculee Ilibagiza -- a young woman whose life was transformed dramatically during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Immaculee and seven other women spent 91 days huddled silently together in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor's house. She entered the bathroom as a vibrant, 115-pound university student with a loving family. When she emerged, she weighed just 65 pounds and discovered most of her family had been brutally murdered.

Overcome with grief and hatred, she began praying the rosary as a way of drowning out the negativity that was building up inside her. Now whenever she talks about her ordeal at workshops or lectures, she explains that she found solace and peace in prayer ... and began to pray from the time she opened her eyes in the morning to the time she closed her eyes at night. She even found it possible, and in fact imperative, to forgive her tormentors and her family's murderers.

Today Immaculée is regarded as one of world's leading speakers on peace, faith, and forgiveness. Indeed, “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

For more information on Immaculee’s amazing story, go to www.immaculee.com.

And Justice for All.

As the season of Lent begins, many people spend time wondering what they should “give up” or sacrifice in order to make these 40 days as spiritually fruitful as possible. The other day while I was visiting a nursing home, a rather elderly woman recalled how very many years ago she gave up chocolate during Lent. And after 40 years, she still recalls the difficulty of that season.

But as a person grows in faith, one may begin to consider how their lenten sacrifice will help them after lent.

Recently, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of “justice” in his Lenten message and how “the meaning of the term ‘justice,’ in common usage implies ‘to render to every man his due.’” But he was not speaking of merely material things.

The indifference that today forces hundreds of millions into death through lack of food, water and medicine is deplorable, the Pope stated, “yet ‘distributive’ justice does not render to the human being the totality of his ‘due.’ Just as man needs bread, so does man have even more need of God.”

May yours be a blessed and fruitful Lent.

As Kenya goes, so goes East Africa ...

... or so it seems. In the midst of the struggles and crises rising throughout much of East Africa, struggles in Kenya are erupting once again as well.
Last month, the United States and Britain suspended education aid to Kenya after auditors accused the government program of fraud. Then this week, Prime Minister Odinga suspended agriculture minister William Ruto and education minister Samuel Ongeri for three months after a corruption scandal in their ministries. The prime minister claims that millions of dollars worth of subsidized maize and education funds have disappeared in recent months said.

But then, shortly after the prime minister made the announcement on Sunday, President Kibaki revoked the suspension. He said Odinga had no power to suspend the ministers and he had not consulted him before announcing the suspension.

Kenya leaders are calling on former U.N. chief Kofi Annan to intervene in the dispute between the nation’s prime minister and president. They are asking for Annan's “immediate intervention.”

Let us hope and pray that a full crisis can be averted.