Paul Ndiho

 

By Paul Ndiho

Historically black U.S. colleges and universities – also known as HBCU’s, play a critical role in higher learning for African-Americans, Africans, and students of all races.  As HBCUs seek to expand, they are looking to build satellite compasses in Africa.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the United States are a source of great pride for African Americans. The principal mission of an HBCU is the education of black Americans.

HBCU’s produced many of the American civil-rights era leaders.  Most notably, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who graduated from Morehouse College, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois graduated from Fisk University, Reverend Jesse Jackson from North Carolina A&T, former U.S. Ambassador to the UN and Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, graduated from Howard University — and Congressman John Lewis graduated from Fisk University.

However, less is known about the immense contributions HBCU’s had in molding and developing leaders in the struggle for the independence of countries in Africa.  Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, who became Nigeria’s first president in 1963, graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Prime Minister of Ghana, the first black African country to gain independence, also graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, Malawi’s first president, graduated from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee.

Now, a diaspora initiative, dubbed HBCU Africa homecoming is in the process of creating satellite campuses of HBCU colleges in Africa.  Kwabena Boateng leads the effort.

Morgan State University, a public historically black research university in Baltimore, Maryland, is leading the way and will initiate degree programs in Ghana this year.  Dr. David Wilson, President of Morgan State has played a crucial role in the launch of Ghana’s first satellite compass with All Nations University.

The African University College of Communications has signed a partnership agreement with Morgan State University.  The agreement enables the two universities to exchange faculty and students and provide study opportunities abroad for both schools and to encourage joint research and publications.

The Partnership also allows the AUCC to run Morgan State University’s Bachelor’s and Master’s programs in Global Journalism & Communication as well as Entrepreneurship.  Kojo Yankah is the founder and Chairman of AUCC.

Analysts say that the time of the inaugural HBCU Africa Homecoming Summit could have come at a better time.  Ghana dubbed 2019 the “year of return,” as the country welcomed over one-million Africans in the diaspora to visit the nation and discover their African roots nearly Ghana 400 years after the first enslaved Africans arrived in English America in 1619.   Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo launched the year of return campaign in Washington, DC in September of 2018.  So far, high profile visitors, including several African American celebrities, members of the U.S. Congress, and other notable personalities, have visited the country.

By Paul Ndiho

Pan Africanists believe that solidarity among people of African descent will enable the continent to fulfill its potential to independently provide for all of its people.  Historically, the Pan-African movement often takes shape in the form of a political or cultural movement.

The “scramble for Africa” conference chaired by German chancellor Bismarck in 1884 ended with almost all of the continent being divided between a small group of Europeans countries – known as the partition of Africa in Berlin in 1884. Only Liberia and Ethiopia were not colonized.  As a consequence of colonialism and imperialism, the majority of African nations lost their sovereignty and control of their natural resources.

The Pan-African movement was born as a result of colonialism – initiated by blacks whose ancestors came from Africa.  There are many well-known pan Africanists such as DR. W.E.B Dubois, Marcus Garvey, George Padmore, and henry Sylvester-Williams and Paul Robinson.  Other notable Pan African legends are DR. Kwame Nkrumah, DR. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Jomo Kenyatta, DR. Kamuzu band and Leopold Sedar Senghor.

This generation of leaders were more outspoken about fighting for the rights of Africans. While some became Pan-Africanists merely out of curiosity and sentiments of black pride.  The majority of the leaders fought for the independence of new African nations.

W. E. B. Dubois, an African American civil rights leader, founded the us-based national association for the advancement of colored people.  He moved to Accra in 1961 and lived there until his death in august of 1963.

Today, he is still considered a symbol of pan-Africanism. Morandon Henry was part of a delegation that visited the home of W.E.B Dubois’s final resting place.
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, prime minister of Ghana, the first black African country to re-gain independence, graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, who became Nigeria’s first president in 1963, was a classmate of famed American poet Langston Hughes and former U.S. Supreme court justice Thurgood Marshall also at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.
Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, Malawi’s first president, graduated from Meharry medical college in Nashville, Tennessee.
Jomo Kenyatta was a Kenyan anti-colonial activist and politician who fought against British rule.

The pan-African movement also played a significant role in 1960, when 17 sub-Saharan countries became independent from their European colonizers, 14 of them from France.

Pan Africanism was highlighted in 2019, as Ghana dubbed 2019 the “year of return”, as the country is welcomed over one-million Africans in the diaspora to visit the nation and discover their African roots.
The year of return campaign was launched by Ghanaian president Nana Akufo-Addo in Washington, dc, in September of 2018. So far, high profile visitors, including several African American celebrities, members of the U.S. Congress, and other notable personalities have visited Ghana.

 

 

 

By Paul Ndiho

The “Compact with Africa” conference, which promotes private investment by G20 countries in Africa, is underway in Germany.  The event is being held nearly a week after marking the 30th anniversary of the Berlin Wall collapsed and the end of the Cold War.

 German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosted the leaders of 12 African countries in Berlin Tuesday for discussions on boosting business investment in Africa.

Merkel announced that incentives would be created for German companies that decided to invest more in Africa.

“We believe — and I am deeply convinced about this — that more transparency can encourage more investment in these countries because for investors from G20 countries such as German medium-sized companies, it is very, very important that there is trust and that there is transparency, so that it’s clear where one is investing and under what conditions.”

Germany already has “reform partnerships” with a number of African nations including, Ghana, Tunisia and Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Ethiopia. Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo talks about African products being sold on the international market.

“On the minimum price on the global market for the sale of cocoa beans from ivory coast and Ghana. The facts that are being put out about the farmers who produce the raw material, who earn a tiny bit of the value chain of the raw material. So we now make the conscious decision that we’re moving away from the situation whereby we’re just exporters and producers of raw material, to ramping up the value chain in our own countries.”

Germany put Africa and inclusive growth high on the G20 agenda when it held the rotating presidency in 2017.  The European nation addressed the root causes of mass migration from underdeveloped to developed countries.  Rwandan President Paul Kagame says Africa has a fertile business environment.

“We are showcasing how Africa is ripe for business, for investment and how far we can go. For example, the partnership we have had, Rwanda has had, with Volkswagen, Siemens now coming in, and SAP demonstrates the competitiveness of the economies of our continent, of our different countries. “

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently led a series of commemorations to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which divided the city during the Cold War. The wall was built by Communist East Germany to prevent its citizens from fleeing to more freedom in the West.

 On November 9, 1989, East German border guards, overwhelmed by large crowds, threw open the gates to West Berlin, allowing free passage for the first time since the Berlin Wall was built.   For many Africans the fall of the Berlin Wall ushered in new hopes of freedom. In South Africa, the long and hard anti-apartheid struggle had been gaining momentum nationally and globally — and in 1994, the country became the last African nation to be freed from white rule.

 In December 2018, U.S president Donald Trump unveiled a new U.S. strategy for Africa, to combat what was characterized as the “predatory” practices of China and Russia and their growing influence on the continent.

 Last month, the first Russia-Africa summit was held at the Black Sea resort of Sochi. It opened a new chapter in relations between Moscow and Africa.  Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted the African leaders at the conference aimed at boosting economic ties with Africa.

 Across Africa and around the world, the day the Berlin wall finally collapsed is still vividly remembered as one of hope happiness and freedom.

 

By Paul Ndiho

By Paul Ndiho

The US is cutting Cameroon from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) over allegations of human rights violations in the English-speaking regions. The crisis has cost more than 3,000 lives and displaced more than 500,000 civilians from their homes.

In a letter addressed to Congress on Thursday last week, President Donald Trump said the West African nation failed to address concerns over its “persistent gross violations of internationally recognized human rights” allegedly committed by Cameroon’s security forces against the separatists in the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest pushing for secession.   Cameroon’s longtime Leader Paul Biya succumbed to pressure last month and called for a national dialogue to forge a way forward. However, leaders invited to the highly anticipated talks boycotted saying they will not take part in any negotiations.

“I want to tell you that we invited nearly every one of them. They were invited, and some of them didn’t feel comfortable coming for reasons they know best, we wanted them to come and to take part in the discussions, this was a wonderful opportunity for them to come and air their views, and they didn’t come.”

Analysts say Cameroon’s national dialogue could have opened the door to a historic peace agreement, ending the unrest, which began in October 2016. Lawyers and teachers in English-speaking cities went on strike protesting having to use French in schools and courtrooms.

Clashes broke out in the following weeks. Some protesters were killed; hundreds were arrested and put on trial for charges carrying long sentences or the death penalty. Critics said talks were not inclusive and did not involve any discussion about a return to federalism — that many say is the solution to the conflict.

 “I think the dialogue was that it was very frank and sincere. For those of us who were in the hall could tell you how honest it was and the debates were very heated, I saw how I mean, some people in government acknowledge the fact that some of the positions that we were raising were the right position.”

Political analysts say support for secession continues to grow, as hundreds of thousands demand a breakaway state called Ambazonia. By 2017, newly formed armed groups were attacking army posts in the Anglophone regions. The army responded by burning down villages and shooting civilians.

“I’m not very satisfied because the root causes of the problems are not addressed, the root causes of the problem are from the state, and if the form of the state is not addressed, then we’ll not solve the problem. But yes, we’ve come, we’ve talked, proposals have been made, certain opportunities have been provided.”

Longtime leader President Biya has struggled to contain this unrest. He rarely speaks in public or meets with his government. In addition, is said to be spending months each year holidaying in Switzerland.  Last month, his government announced that that they would drop charges against 333 prisoners held about the crisis. Still, the move failed to appease separatists and moderates alike. They say thousands more remain imprisoned on trumped-up charges.

“I did not go to jail so that we could always steal the elections and have a single electoral code. No, I went to change that and fight for the happiness of all our children. I went to prison because I said no to the war in the north-west.”

“We went back to prison for no reason, and we come out with no reason. We went to prison for our ideas, and we are ready to go back to our ideas. We are not fighting anyone. We fight for Cameroon. You can be against a government, but you stay for your country.”

In what was seen as a positive move,  last Month President Paul Biya ordered a military tribunal to halt legal proceedings and the release of main opposition leader Maurice Kamto, and other opposition figures who have been imprisoned for nine months. They had been arrested after calling for peaceful protests against alleged irregularities in the October 7, 2018, an election that saw Biya easily win a seventh term.

Biya, 86, has been President of Cameroon since November 1982. He is the second longest-serving leader on the continent, with nearly 37 years in office.

 

 

 By Paul Ndiho

A large number of armed groups continue to exact violence on the Banyamulenge people, who are already in the dire humanitarian situation in South Kivu, the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic Congo. Since May, hundreds have been killed, and tens of thousands displaced from their homes. For nearly two decades, the Democratic Republic of Congo has been the scene of deadly ethnic violence. The United Nations says it has claimed millions of lives.

A recent spate of inter-ethnic fighting in eastern Congo is raising new fears of death and displacement in the region.  The Banyamulenge people, an ethnic minority with Rwandan ancestry, say they’re being targeted by armed groups from the Mai Mai community.

Jean-Paul Ruhosha is among several activists who are sounding the alarm abroad.

 “A Massacre is going on in Congo – The Mai Mai are killing the Banyamulenge people. They’ve killed more than 250 people, they have been taking their cows, and the Congolese Government is watching all this.”

Critics say the government has done little to quell the violence, which has left thousands of people displaced in areas like Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu provinces.

It’s a challenge for President Félix Tshisekedi, who came into power promising to solve the country’s problems.

Earlier this month, a top U.N. official urged the Security Council to help bring stability to the country.

“While continuing to support the Congolese authorities, to neutralize the unacceptable threat posed by armed groups, for the civilian population, we need to come together to strengthen state functions and its capacity to govern the country following the rule of law.”

Ruhosha and other activists want the international community to actively intervene, and stop, what he calls, the systematic killings of the Banyamulenge people.

“This has been going on since May. It’s a long term conflict, and they’ve been saying that the Banyamulenge are not Congolese people, and they started this massacre since May year.”

Another activist, Gedeon Bihonzi, says the Banyamulenge are DR Congo’s most oppressed minority. He wants protection from the U.S. government.

“We need that genocide to be stopped by either by the Government of Congo or the international community. Even here in the U.S, where I am. The Government of the U.S should stand up because over two hundred people have been killed, hundreds of thousands displaced, and nobody is doing anything.” People need food, need shelter, and need to be supported in all ways.”

Bihonzi warns Congo is on a dangerous path to genocide.

“The Government is systematically killing its people. Government forces deployed in the area, and when these Mai Mai rebels come in, they start to kill in discriminatory in the presence of the government soldiers.”

Some critics say part conflict is driven by politics in neighboring countries, as foreign armed rebels try to establish a base in southern Kivu. Ruhosha says politicians are capitalizing on the political insecurity. The Congolese government categorically denies these allegations.

President Félix Tshisekedi has promised to end the violence and has called for national reconciliation. But his critics say that’s not good enough. Meanwhile, violence in Eastern Congo rages on, and there appears to be no end in sight.