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[RFI] At least three people have been killed and several others wounded on the streets of Guinea's capital Conakry after main opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo declared himself the winner of Sunday's presidential election.
Many people have been killed since clashes began on Monday. Scores too had been killed in the run up to the vote as protestors marched against Conde's bid for a third term.
Michelle Obama released a new PSA this week about the importance of voting in the election on Nov. 3. Whether you’re opting to vote in person or by mail-in ballot, the stakes are incredibly high this time around, and now more than ever, we […]
The post Michelle Obama Encourages Voter Registration and Mail-In Voting in New PSA appeared first on The New York Beacon.
On June 11, 1963, President John F. Kennedy sent his civil right message to Congress urging it to pass a civil rights act. The message was immediately prompted by the action of Governor George Wallace of Alabama in physically blocking the entrance of two African American students whom a federal judge had ordered admitted to the University of Alabama. Kennedys message appears below.
Good evening my fellow citizens:
This afternoon, following a series of threats and defiant statements, the presence of Alabama National Guardsmen was required on the University of Alabama to carry out the final and unequivocal order of the United States District Court of the Northern District of Alabama. That order called for the admission of two clearly qualified young Alabama residents who happened to have been born Negro.
That they were admitted peacefully on the campus is due in good measure to the conduct of the students of the University of Alabama, who met their responsibilities in a constructive way.
I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents. This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.
Today we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free. And when Americans are sent to Viet Nam or West Berlin, we do not ask for whites only. It ought to be possible, therefore, for American students of any color to attend any public institution they select without having to be backed up by troops.
It ought to be possible for American consumers of any color to receive equal service in places of public accommodation, such as hotels and restaurants and theaters and retail stores, without being forced to resort to demonstrations in the street, and it ought to be possible for American citizens of any color to register and to
Absentee voting begins in Minnesota on Friday, September 18, for the 2020 presidential/general election.
Source
CNN's Kate Bolduan takes a look at the push to increase Black voter turnout in Michigan ahead of the
2020 presidential election.
The post How The Push To Increase Black Voter Turnout Differs From 2016 appeared first on The Seattle Medium.
Côte dIvoire (also known as the Ivory Coast), in western Africa on the Gulf of Guinea, is a little larger than New Mexico. Its neighbors are Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Ghana. The country consists of a coastal strip in the south, dense forests in the interior, and savannas in the north.
Republic.
Côte dIvoire was originally made up of numerous isolated settlements; today it represents more than sixty distinct tribes, including the Baoule, Bete, Senoufou, Agni, Malinke, Dan, and Lobi. Côte dIvoire attracted both French and Portuguese merchants in the 15th century who were in search of ivory and slaves. French traders set up establishments early in the 19th century, and in 1842, the French obtained territorial concessions from local tribes, gradually extending their influence along the coast and inland. The area was organized as a territory in 1893, became an autonomous republic in the French Union after World War II, and achieved independence on Aug. 7, 1960. Côte dIvoire formed a customs union in 1959 with Dahomey (Benin), Niger, and Burkina Faso. The nations economy is one of the most developed in sub-Saharan Africa. It is the worlds largest exporter of cocoa and one of the largest exporters of coffee.
From independence until his death in 1993, Felix Houphouët-Boigny served as president. Massive protests by students, farmers, and professionals forced the president to legalize opposition parties and hold the first contested presidential election in Oct. 1990, which Houphouët-Boigny won with 81% of the vote.
Beginning in Sept. 1998, thousands of demonstrators protested a constitutional revision that granted President Henri Konan Bédié greatly enhanced powers. Bédié also promoted the concept of ivoirité, which, roughly translated, means “pure Ivoirian pride.” Although its defenders describe ivoirité as a term of positive national pride, it has led to dangerous xenophobia, with numerous ethnic Malians and Burkinans driven out of the country in 1999.
President Bédié was overthrown in the
guest column:Hopewell Chin’ono TODAY as you read this article, Job Sikhala would have woken up at 5:30am from the cold concrete floor that he has been sleeping on since his persecution and incarceration at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison, which started four weeks ago. He is not a convicted prisoner, but through the vindictive nature of the Emmerson Mnangagwa regime, he was sent to a prison meant for convicted prisoners, where he is shackled in leg irons and handcuffs like a dangerous and convicted criminal. His only crime is calling out corruption and looting of public funds. Sikhala is a Member of Parliament in Zimbabwe and an officer of the High Court just like all registered lawyers. His only crime is calling for an end to corruption in Zimbabwe, something that is killing our fellow citizens daily because money meant for public services like hospitals has been looted. His prison cell is meant to house only 16 inmates, but like all other prison cells at Chikuribi, it is packed with 42 prisoners, and it only has one toilet with no running water. At times the prison cell can have more prisoners, I know so because I shared the same cell with Sikhala. At one point, the prison officials wanted to bring in more inmates with mental disorders so that we would end up at around 75 for that night. This is in the middle of a COVID-19 pandemic which requires social distancing, but not at Chikurubi. Sikhala and the other prisoners are locked up in this prison cell for 17 hours daily. If you fall sick during those 17 hours, you won’t get any medical help at all. Many die quietly and the nation never gets to know how life evolves in these prisons because of a deliberate lack of transparency mixed with lies and silly propaganda by the State. After waking up at 5:30am, Sikhala joins the other prisoners downstairs in Section B of Chikurubi, where they get porridge without sugar in it, or anything else for breakfast. Down there, they will be around 500 prisoners in Section B, yet they only have two toilets for use, yes, two toilets for 500 prisoners from the 12 cells in section B. Each section is numbered in alphabetical order and has 12 cells. There is no running water in the downstairs area just like in the cells. Prisoners spend seven hours of their time downstairs in the courtyard where they are fed and where they exercise if they wish to. When I left Chikurubi two weeks ago, almost all prisoners had no COVID-19 masks, a direct consequence of the looting of public funds and plunder of national resources which I had reported on in June and July, leading to my arrest. At 10:30am, Sikhala and his fellow inmates are given lunch which comes in old dirty wheelie bins. It will be badly cooked sadza and boiled beans or cabbage with no cooking oil or anything else. Resembling a concentration camp, prisoners are asked to go on “foreign”, which is a lining up of prisoners before they can get their food. This is the dietary routine everyday all year round, nothing more. They get no meat although the prison dietary book says that they are me
Kenya lies across the equator in east-central Africa, on the coast of the Indian Ocean. It is twice the size of Nevada. Kenya borders Somalia to the east, Ethiopia to the north, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, and Sudan to the northwest. In the north, the land is arid; the southwest corner is in the fertile Lake Victoria Basin; and a length of the eastern depression of the Great Rift Valley separates western highlands from those that rise from the lowland coastal strip.
Paleontologists believe people may first have inhabited Kenya about 2 million years ago. In the 700s, Arab seafarers established settlements along the coast, and the Portuguese took control of the area in the early 1500s. More than 40 ethnic groups reside in Kenya. Its largest group, the Kikuyu, migrated to the region at the beginning of the 18th century.
The land became a British protectorate in 1890 and a Crown colony in 1920, called British East Africa. Nationalist stirrings began in the 1940s, and in 1952 the Mau Mau movement, made up of Kikuyu militants, rebelled against the government. The fighting lasted until 1956.
On Dec. 12, 1963, Kenya achieved full independence. Jomo Kenyatta, a nationalist leader during the fight to win independence who had been jailed by the British, was its first president.
From 1964 to 1992, the country was ruled as a one-party state by the Kenya African National Union (KANU), first under Kenyatta, and then under Daniel arap Moi. Demonstrations and riots put pressure on Moi to allow multiparty elections in 1992.
The economy did not flourish under Mois rule. In the 1990s, Kenyas infrastructure began disintegrating and official graft was rampant, contributing to the withdrawal of much foreign aid. In early 1995, President Moi moved against the opposition and ordered the arrest of anyone who insulted him.
A series of disasters plagued Kenya in 1997 and 1998: severe flooding destroyed roads, bridges, and crops; epidemics of malaria and cholera overwhelmed the ineffectual health care system; and
The Supreme Court opens a new term Monday with Republicans on the cusp of realizing a dream 50 years in... View Article
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[DW] On October 31, Ivorians will elect a new leader. President Alassane Ouattara is running for a third controversial term. The opposition is urging supporters to shun the poll -- a political crisis appears imminent.
In their continued race to for the White House, former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump are in... View Article
The post Biden campaign warns Trump 'can still win this race' appeared first on TheGrio.
Nigeria, one-third larger than Texas and the most populous country in Africa, is situated on the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa. Its neighbors are Benin, Niger, Cameroon, and Chad. The lower course of the Niger River flows south through the western part of the country into the Gulf of Guinea. Swamps and mangrove forests border the southern coast; inland are hardwood forests.
Multiparty government transitioning from military to civilian rule.
The first inhabitants of what is now Nigeria were thought to have been the Nok people (500 BC–c. AD 200). The Kanuri, Hausa, and Fulani peoples subsequently migrated there. Islam was introduced in the 13th century, and the empire of Kanem controlled the area from the end of the 11th century to the 14th.
The Fulani empire ruled the region from the beginning of the 19th century until the British annexed Lagos in 1851 and seized control of the rest of the region by 1886. It formally became the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria in 1914. During World War I, native troops of the West African frontier force joined with French forces to defeat the German garrison in Cameroon.
On Oct. 1, 1960, Nigeria gained independence, becoming a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and joining the United Nations. Organized as a loose federation of self-governing states, the independent nation faced the overwhelming task of unifying a country with 250 ethnic and linguistic groups.
Rioting broke out in 1966, and military leaders, primarily of Ibo ethnicity, seized control. In July, a second military coup put Col. Yakubu Gowon in power, a choice unacceptable to the Ibos. Also in that year, the Muslim Hausas in the north massacred the predominantly Christian Ibos in the east, many of whom had been driven from the north. Thousands of Ibos took refuge in the eastern region, which declared its independence as the Republic of Biafra on May 30, 1967. Civil war broke out. In Jan. 1970, after 31 months of civil war, Biafra surrendered to the federal government.
Gowons nine-year rule was ended in 1975 in
WASHINGTON, DC, United States (AP) - The US Supreme Court began its new term yesterday with a remembrance of 'a dear friend and a treasured colleague', the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.Chief Justice John Roberts paid tribute to Ginsburg, who died last month, as the court resumed its work via telephone because of the coronavirus pandemic.
On May 19, 2017, New Orleans, Louisiana Mayor Mitch Landrieu addressed an audience in his city as a backdrop and explanation of the city’s recent decision to remove statutes of General Robert E. Lee and other Confederate military and political leaders from public squares in New Orleans. His speech appears below.
Thank you for coming.
The soul of our beloved City is deeply rooted in a history that has evolved over thousands of years; rooted in a diverse people who have been here together every step of the way – for both good and for ill.
It is a history that holds in its heart the stories of Native Americans: the Choctaw, Houma Nation, the Chitimacha. Of Hernando de Soto, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, the Acadians, the Islenos, the enslaved people from Senegambia, Free People of Color, the Haitians, the Germans, both the empires of France and Spain. The Italians, the Irish, the Cubans, the south and central Americans, the Vietnamese and so many more.
You see: New Orleans is truly a city of many nations, a melting pot, a bubbling cauldron of many cultures.
There is no other place quite like it in the world that so eloquently exemplifies the uniquely American motto: e pluribus unum—out of many we are one.
But there are also other truths about our city that we must confront. New Orleans was America’s largest slave market: a port where hundreds of thousands of souls were brought, sold and shipped up the Mississippi River to lives of forced labor of misery of rape, of torture.
America was the place where nearly 4,000 of our fellow citizens were lynched, 540 alone in Louisiana; where the courts enshrined ‘separate but equal’; where Freedom riders coming to New Orleans were beaten to a bloody pulp.
So when people say to me that the monuments in question are history, well what I just described is real history as well, and it is the searing truth.
And it immediately begs the questions: why there are no slave ship monuments, no prominent markers on public land to remember the lynchings or the slave blocks; nothing
