Navigation

Tag Archives | Africa

Western Powers Go Full Retard on Africa, Part 1: China vs. AFRICOM, a Resource War

By on January 22, 2013 in News 10

via chycho

In Africa, China has been securing access to resources through lucrative trade agreements while Western powers have decided to take the military option to secure their share of the pie.

“Across Africa, the red flag of China is flying. Lucrative deals are being struck to buy its commodities – oil, platinum, gold and minerals… From Nigeria in the north, to Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Angola in the west, across Chad and Sudan in the east, and south through Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, China has seized a vice-like grip on a continent which officials have decided is crucial to the superpower’s long-term survival.”

China in Africa: New Imperialism?

Chinese world trade has increase over 20-fold in under 20 years and even though Africa represents a minor portion of that growth at present, it is vital for China’s long term security and prosperity. Africa not only contains a vast quantity of the world’s natural resources (more info), it is also the second largest continent with some of the most fertile farmlands (pdf) in the world.

… Read the rest
Continue Reading

Liberian Law Enforcement Hope to Crack Down on Bong County’s Marijuana Farmers

By on December 28, 2012 in News 2

Picture: Golbez (CC)

Meanwhile, in news that writes itself…

Via AllAfrica.com:

Law enforcement officials in Liberia’s central region of Bong County say weak drug laws are making it difficult for the Government of Liberia (GoL) to crack down on marijuana farmers engaged in domestic marijuana trade in that part of the country, the Heritage has gathered.

According to report, many farmers in Liberia are turning to growing marijuana to make ends meet. Marijuana is largely a domestic trade, the report notes. The United Nations (UN) Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) says marijuana is the world’s most widely used illegal drug. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime adds that many African countries, like Liberia, have ideal growing climates for marijuana.

Keep reading.

… Read the rest

Continue Reading

Swaziland Outlaws ‘Rape-Provoking’ Clothing

By on December 25, 2012 in News 4

Picture: Julia70(CC)

The African nation of Swaziland has just made “If she didn’t want it then she shouldn’t have dressed that way” its national policy:

Via Raw Story:

Police in Africa’s last absolute monarchy Swaziland have banned women from wearing miniskirts and midriff-revealing tops saying they provoke rape, local media reported on Monday.

Offenders face a six-month jail term under the ban, which invokes a colonial criminal act dating back to 1889.

“The act of the rapist is made easy, because it would be easy to remove the half-cloth worn by the women,” police spokeswoman Wendy Hleta was quoted as saying in the Independent Online news.

The ban also applies to low-rise jeans. “They will be arrested,” she said.

Hleta said women wearing revealing clothing were responsible for assaults or rapes committed against them.

Fight back the bile and keep reading.

… Read the rest

Continue Reading

More Than 100 Graves In Benin Robbed For Organs For Voodoo Rituals

By on December 4, 2012 in News 2

Even after death, you may still be of use to the living. Via Reuters:

Tomb raiders have dug up more than 100 graves at a cemetery in Benin since Saturday for what authorities suspect is a black-market trade in human organs and skulls for voodoo ritual fetishes. The incident is the most serious case of grave-robbing in the West African state, the world capital of voodoo where most of the country’s 9 million residents practice a benign form of the official religion.

Authorities in Dangbo began an investigation after a mason working at the cemetery said he spotted several masked men digging up the graves, from which organs and skulls were removed. “The desecration of graves is about money in this region,” said Joseph Afaton, director of the cemetery. “It is for sacrifices, or for bewitching.”

… Read the rest

Continue Reading

When Predator Drones Acquire Minds Of Their Own

By on November 15, 2012 in News 7

A preview of the uprising of the machines, from the Washington Post‘s glimpse into a secretive U.S. military base in the Horn of Africa:

Camp Lemonnier is the centerpiece of an expanding constellation of half a dozen U.S. drone and surveillance bases in Africa, created to combat a new generation of terrorist groups across the continent.

As the pace of drone operations has intensified in Djibouti, Air Force mechanics have reported mysterious incidents in which the airborne robots went haywire.

In March 2011, a Predator parked at the camp started its engine without any human direction, even though the ignition had been turned off and the fuel lines closed. Technicians concluded that a software bug had infected the “brains” of the drone, but never pinpointed the problem.

“After that whole starting-itself incident, we were fairly wary of the aircraft and watched it pretty closely,” an unnamed Air Force squadron commander testified to an investigative board, according to a transcript.

… Read the rest
Continue Reading

Legendary Monsters Of Africa

By on November 8, 2012 in News 5

Mental Floss has a nice rundown of supernatural monstrosities of traditional African folklore, including ghost apes, flying reptiles, and, at right, the one-eyed Popobawa bat and airborne vampiric pest the Adze:

The Popobawa is a fairly recent manifestation reported in Zanzibar and Tanzania. The creature is a demon who appears as a normal human by day, and a one-eyed, bat-winged monster at night. The Popobawa attacks and sodomizes both men and women in the dark of night. Reports of attacks come every few years, with a large number in 1995 attributed to mass hysteria.

The Adze is a vampire in the legends of the Ewe people of Ghana and Togo. It takes the form of a firefly, but if you capture one, it will revert to human appearance. In the insect form, the adze will suck your blood while you sleep and spread disease, which is a possible explanation for malarial outbreaks.

… Read the rest
Continue Reading

Chimps Attacking Humans In Revenge For Habitat Destruction?

By on October 16, 2012 in News 42

Does this portend a future war between apes and humanity? Local media in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are interpreting a spate of chimp violence perpetrated against people as motivated by revenge. Via New Scientist:

Habitat loss may be to blame for an apparent spate of violent attacks by chimpanzees on humans in the war-torn eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Mistrust of chimpanzees has been heightened by local media reports, which suggest that as many as 10 people have been killed and 17 injured by chimps, in acts that were reported as “revenge attacks” for people encroaching on their territory.

Klaus Zuberbuhler, a psychologist at the University of St Andrews in Fife, UK, and scientific director of the Budongo Conservation Field Station in Uganda, says restricting the chimps’ habitat can certainly affect their behaviour, though it is debatable whether the chimps’ aggression towards humans is a form of revenge.

… Read the rest
Continue Reading

Nigerian Woman Gives Birth to “Funny Creature”

By on September 17, 2012 in News 21

Picture: Liza Phoenix (CC)

AllAfrica.com reports that a Nigerian woman gave birth to a horse-like creature this past Tuesday at the World Liberation Ministry in Benin City:

The woman, we were told, had been in her matrimonial home for 11 years without a baby and the pastor said there was ‘a woman here for 11 years, no child,’ that the person always got pregnant but whenever she went for test, it will show and at another time it will not show again”.

Ogbovoh continued: “So the woman came out and the pastor said ‘let us put you in an all night on Friday, but the woman pleaded with the congregation to go on with the prayers since she may not be able to wait. So the pastor now agreed. The pastor called her and asked the men to give little space and the pastor insisted that something inside the woman was not a human being, he said it was a funny creature.

… Read the rest
Continue Reading