Content about Africa

Just a couple of short weeks ago very few Americans knew the name Hosni Mubarak. Indeed Mr. Mubarak could have walked the streets with anonymity in my hometown of St. Louis, caught a movie, and went out to dinner and would not have been recognized.

Today that is no longer the case as coverage on Egypt is in the media 24/7. At first the coverage of the protests was almost exclusively positive. As Americans we pride ourselves on being a nation that stands for liberty and democratic values. People sympathized with the young people in Tahrir Square even if they were not sure why the people had taken to the streets.

Sudan has been in one conflict after another, as one government after another strove for ownership of this oil-rich nation. This history has set the basis for what is now the Republic of Sudan.

We Muslims know that we cannot stop the hate campaign against Muslims because the enemy of Islam believes that Muslims have become a danger to their existence. We know these enemies are trying to bring about a clash between Muslims and Christians, but that will not happen. We have read the article written by Donna Gehrke-White and Tim Collie, published in Newsmax Magazine, November, 2010, and found it most misleading and incoherent, written by those who do not know much about Islam. The only thing that is evident from this article is that it is the work of one of the hundreds of hate groups which are trying to bring about a clash between Muslims and Christians. It is the cover up of the hatred felt for American Muslims, be they indigenous or settlers.

In parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America, particularly Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru, peasants and indigenous farmers are losing tens of millions of hectares of their fertile farmland to foreign states and private sector investors. These invaders, representing large banks and agribusiness corporations are grabbing the land from their rightful owners and using it to produce food and fuel, primarily for export, not with a concern for reducing worldwide poverty, but moreso to gain profit.

El-Hajj Omar Ibn Said was a Muslim scholar who was captured in his native Senegal and enslaved. Although he wrote 14 manuscripts, all in Arabic, he is best known for his 1931 autobiographical essay, the narrative of which describes events in his life, including his abduction from his homeland and his acceptance of other “God-fearing people.”

In a small predominately Muslim village located 18 miles (30 km) from the city of Jos, Nigeria, lies the Kuru Karama village, at the point where Nigeria’s Muslim north and predominantly Christian south meet. According to Human Rights Watch, armed men surrounded the small village, then hunted down and attacked Muslim residents, some of whom had sought refuge in homes and at a local mosque.

Timbuktu is a name often used to describe an extremely faraway place, and is regarded by many as a myth. In reality it is a city in Mali, West Africa, where 700,000 preserved manuscripts from the 12th to the 16th century are now providing invaluable documentation of the region’s intellectual legacy. These manuscripts are changing the way world scholars understand and study Islam and African history. Additionally we now know that the first universities in the world were established in Timbuktu in the 12th century. The new image of Timbuktu is that of a historical symbol of intellectual light. In 1988 it was designated a World Heritage Site.

Nobel Peace Prize nominee Aminatou Haidar has ended the month-long hunger strike initiated in protest to her forced exile from her home in Western Sahara.

Dr Babagana Ahmadu, the country representative of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in The Gambia, has hailed President Jammeh’s efforts in agricultural, noting that his leadership is extraordinary and needs to be emulated by all African leaders for the betterment of the continent.