Controversy Reigns After Senegal Stripped of its Africa Cup Title

A night of jubilation in Morocco was ushered in by anger in Senegal after the Confederation that governed football in the continent made the controversial decision to strip the Senegalese national team of their continental football title and hand it to their North African rivals.  Last week (over two months after the final whistle blew at a contentious and acrimonious final in Rabat) came the news that the Africa Cup tournament host Morocco was named the winners of the Africa Cup of Nations.

The Confederation of African Football (Caf) had ruled that Senegal had broken the rules by leaving the pitch in protest at a refereeing decision. The match later resumed and Senegal won 1-0 but Caf said that the walkout meant they had forfeited the game.

Moroccans took to the streets to celebrate and local media have shown videos of happy fans driving through Tangier waving the national flag, banging tambourines and honking their horns. Other pictures show triumphant supporters letting off flares.  Moroccan journalist Jalal Bounour said that it was "a sleepless night as fans welcomed the news with great excitement and joy".

There was an overwhelming sense that justice had been done after what Moroccans saw as a violation of the rules.  "I believe this was a sporting injustice, Morocco was certainly wronged and the facts were clear," one man told the BBC in Rabat.  "The entire Moroccan people are out in every city and everywhere, happy with our cup. The cup has returned to us, the cup that was denied to us," a woman, who was wearing the national team's top, told a local sports channel.  "My friend told me that Morocco had won, and I was so happy. I was sleeping at home when I heard this news, and I was so happy. We're so happy now," another man said.

Another fan said the nation was still astonished by the decision: "The team is in shock, I swear I am in shock. Thank God, our cup has returned to us and we are grateful because it was given to us."  The news also dropped like a bombshell in the Senegalese capital, Dakar - but for the opposite reason.  "I'm stunned. Football no longer exists. This is not football. No-one here understands or accepts this decision," a young man, Daouda Seck, told the AFP news agency.  "We're shocked. Corruption has ended up winning."

His views echoed the official response from the Senegalese government which said it would appeal against the decision to take the title away from the national side, adding that the ruling undermined Caf's credibility.  The authorities have also called for an "independent international investigation into suspected corruption within Caf's governing bodies".

"Caf is set to become a laughing stock in the football world, and Africans will be ridiculed for everything that has been said and criticized regarding the organization of this tournament," another Senegal fan told the BBC.  "I think the best team won on the pitch, and that should be respected off it as well, so the rules, the laws of the sport should come into play at that level," Senegalese student Ralf Nonga told AFP.

 

Alarming Rise of Kidnapping of Foreigners in Western Region of Africa

When Marin Petrović arrived in Mali in early September last year, he was elated.  Petrović enjoyed the sights and sounds of Bamako's markets, busy roads, schools, and even sampled some local beers, according to a social media post.

"The next day I set off for Mopti, known for its 100-year-old mud mosque," he continued, referring to the Grand Mosque of Mopti, a 15-meter tall architectural feat made from mud bricks. But before Petrović could continue his dream of exploring Mali's ancient treasures, his trip took an unexpected turn.

"An armed attack takes place on the road between Bla and San," he said in the same Instagram post.  "Six motorbikes with two long-bearded terrorists, each armed with Kalashnikovs, surround the vehicle and drag me into the bushes, along non-existent paths through the undergrowth, through swamps, far from the main road… I was kidnapped by al-Qaeda jihadists!!!"  Petrović had become the latest victim of a concerning trend for foreign travelers and expatriate workers in West Africa's Sahel region.

Guinea Residents Mob Research Center After Chimp Kills Baby

People living near a chimpanzee research center in Guinea attacked the facility after a woman said one of the animals had killed her infant, the center’s managers said. An angry crowd ransacked the building, destroying and setting fire to equipment including drones, computers and over 200 documents.

Eyewitnesses said the crowd was reacting to the news that the mutilated body of an infant had been found two miles from the Nimba Mountains Nature Reserve, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The child’s mother, Seny Zogba, said she was working in a cassava field when a chimpanzee came up from behind, bit her and pulled her baby into the forest.

Local ecologist Alidjiou Sylla said the dwindling supply of food in the reserve was pushing the animals to leave the protected area more frequently, increasingly the likelihood of attacks. The research center said it had recorded six chimpanzee attacks on humans within the reserve since the start of the year.

The forests of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in West Africa are home to the largest population of the critically endangered western chimpanzee, estimated to have declined by 80% between 1990 and 2014, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. There are just seven left in Guinea’s Bossou forest, which forms part of the Nimba Mountains Nature Reserve, and is close to subsistence farming communities of the Nzerekore Region.  Chimpanzees are respected in Guinea and traditionally given gifts in the form of food, prompting  some to venture out of the protected area and into human settlements, where they can sometimes attack.

Nigerian Officials Warn Against Church's "Miracle" Water

Nigeria’s drug approval agency (NAFDAC) has warned people not to buy “miracle” products produced by a church with popular Nigerian Christian televangelist Jeremiah Fufeyin at the helm.  The products in question go by names such as "miracle water" and "River Jordan water."

NAFDAC says that the products claims to have healing properties (such as the ability to cure women of infertility) are "bogus."  The agency also says Fufeyin's Christ Mercyland Deliverance Ministry was selling these wares even though they did not have NAFDAC approval.

The church hit back at NAFDAC, saying the church is "law-abiding" and has been using "spiritual items in expression of [their] spiritual beliefs".  In a statement, Christ Mercyland Deliverance Ministry added that it operates under Nigeria's laws, which guarantee freedom of religion without interference.

NAFDAC began investigating the products after receiving complaints from members of the public, the agency's statement said.   It also said the products violate regulatory approval and that Fufeyin's church had "refused to co-operate with the investigation".  The church, which has hundreds of thousands of YouTube subscribers and enjoys huge success across social media, denied this claim. It said it had communicated with Nafdac by letter.

Fufeyin has long attracted followers from across the country, claiming to perform miracles and heal ailments. The preacher has said he is a billionaire, but has faced criticism for his lavish lifestyle.  In Nigeria, it is not uncommon for preachers like Fufeyin to sell products claiming to treat ailments. For instance, the late televangelist TB Joshua sold "anointed water", which was marketed as having healing powers.

A BBC investigation revealed that TB Joshua also encouraged sick members of his congregation to stop taking their prescribed medication.  Meanwhile, he secretly instructed pharmacists to procure those same prescription drugs and mix them into the "healing" fruit drinks he gave to his followers.

 

Buildings in Lagos Keep Crashing Down

Lagos, dubbed "the building-collapse capital of Nigeria", has seen at least 90 buildings falling down in the last 12 years, leaving more than 350 people dead, according to the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria.

One of the most notorious incidents was in 2021, when a 21-storey block of luxury flats under construction in the suburb of Ikoyi collapsed, killing 42 people.  The official investigation into the collapse has been sitting with the state governor since he received it in 2022.  A list of recommendations has reportedly been drawn up by a panel of experts following the investigation but that also has not been made public.

The BBC has repeatedly asked the Lagos state authorities to see the recommendations, and the report into the Ikoyi building collapse, but neither has been made available.  The coroner, however, has had her say and in 2022, she did not hold back.  In a damning judgment on the deaths, Chief Magistrate Oyetade Komolafe, attributed the building collapse to the irresponsibility and negligence of the government agencies that were supposed to approve and supervise the plans and construction.

Lagos’s population is booming and is now estimated to stand at more than 20 million.  As the city grows so does the demand for housing and commercial property, resulting in giant building sites everywhere across the city.  There is widespread belief that the government officials take bribes to issue fake building certificates and ignore proper building procedures.  With all the construction going on, one would think that the offices of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LSBCA) would be very busy.

But inside the  LSBCA's offices everything appears calm - there is no sense of the urgency of the problems or challenges it faces.  Spokesperson Olusegun Olaoye acknowledges criticism of his agency, but dismisses allegations that officials have been bribed to issue fake certificates and rather blames a lack of resources.  “At the moment we have about 300 building inspectors and supervisors but we are looking to add to that,” he says.

Experts agree that more supervisors are needed.  Muhammad Danmarya, architect and construction expert, says they should number in their thousands. “Three hundred is just not right for a state like Lagos. Each local government area should have at least 100 inspectors and supervisors and Lagos has 57 of those areas,” he argues.  “There’s always construction going on everywhere you look, so it’s important that inspection and supervision is going on all the time.”

In the absence of necessary building inspections across the state, some less scrupulous companies are getting away with violating building codes, using sub-standard materials and employing poorly trained workers – three of the reasons cited for the high frequency of collapses.  “They just come here to pick us up any time they have a job for us and pay us after we are done,” says laborer Habu Isah, who has worked on construction sites for years.  “I have never undergone any training, I just learned everything on the job.”

But even if violations are identified in the wake of a collapse, the state’s building agency does not take any legal action.  “To my knowledge there haven’t been any prosecutions in the past as far as building collapses in Lagos are concerned,” LASBCA’s Olaoye admits.  “I know the statistics are worrying but there are ongoing efforts to halt the trend.”

Political influence is a barrier to pursuing prosecutions, as well.  “If you are connected to people in power, even if you are the culprit in a building collapse case nothing will happen to you,” says a Lagos state politician, who talked to the BBC on the condition of anonymity.  “We’ve seen it so many times, some of the high-profile cases have to do with structures of highly placed people and they are still roaming around freely. In Nigeria when you are rich and connected you can avoid problems easily.”

With 19 building collapses already recorded so far this year by the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, the final total is likely to be the highest in the past decade. The head of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria recently said that the country lacked the capacity to properly investigate what is going on.  “We don’t have the expertise, the equipment, and the resources to do so,” said Prof Sadiq Abubakar.   In the meantime, construction workers and others will carry on paying with their lives.

 

Accused of Witchcraft and Murdered for Their Land

Over in Kenya, there has been a sudden surge of elderly people accused of witchcraft then murdered along the Kilifi coast.  Seventy-four-year-old Tambala Jefwa recently survived two attacks and shared his story with the BBC.  Jefwa was accused of being a witch and has been attacked twice in his home 50 miles inland from the coastal town of Malindi. The first left him without an eye. The second nearly killed him.

Jefwa and his wife own more than 30 acres of land where they grow maize and raise a few chickens. There has been a dispute with family members over boundaries. They believe this was the real reason Jefwa was almost killed, not that people genuinely believed he was a witch.  “I was left for dead. I lost so much blood. I don’t know why they attacked me, but it can only be the land,” said Jefwa.

Belief in witchcraft and superstition is common in many countries.  But in parts of Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania and South Africa, it can be used to justify killing elderly people to take their land.  A report called "The Aged on Edge" by Kenyan human rights organization Haki Yetu says one elderly person is murdered along the Kilifi coast every week in the name of witchcraft. Its program officer, Julius Wanyama, says many families believe it is one of their own who orders the killing.  “They use the word witchcraft as a justification because they will get public sympathy. And people will say: ‘If he was a witch, it is good you have killed him.’”

Few people in this region have title deeds for their land. Without a will, they rely on passing it down customarily through the family. Wanyama says seven out of 10 of the killings are elderly men because land ownership and inheritance lie with them.  “Historically people here in Kilifi do not have [land] documentation. The only document they have is the narrative from these elderly people. That is why mostly men are being killed, because once you kill them, then you have removed the obstacle,” said Wanyama.

In traditional African culture, the elderly are revered for their wisdom and knowledge.  But in Kilifi, it is the reverse. Old people are so fearful of becoming a target, many dye their hair in an attempt to look younger.  It is rare for someone in this region to survive after being accused of witchcraft.  For men like Tambala Jefwa there is real fear that whoever tried to murder him will come back.

 

Worshippers Die After Being Locked Inside a Burning Mosque

At least 11 worshippers have been killed and dozens others injured after a man attacked a mosque in Nigeria's northern Kano state.  A man allegedly sprayed the mosque with petrol and locked its doors before setting it on fire, trapping about 40 worshippers, according to reports.  Police say they have arrested a 38-year-old suspect.

The incident happened when people were attending morning prayers in Gezawa area of Kano state. Residents said flames engulfed the mosque after the attack with worshippers heard wailing as they struggled to open the locked doors.Neighbors rushed to help those trapped inside. 

The attack was triggered by a family dispute over the sharing of inheritance.  Police said the suspect confessed that his actions were part of a dispute over inheritance, claiming he was targeting some family members who were inside the mosque.  “What happened is not associated with any act of terrorism, rather it was a skirmish that arose as a result of inheritance distribution," Umar Sanda, a local police chief, told journalists after visiting the scene. 

Initial reports said one worshipper had died from the attack but the death toll later rose after more victims died while receiving treatment at the Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital in Kano.  More victims, including children, are still receiving treatment at the hospital, according to police. 

 

Another Cholera Outbreak in Southern Africa-- This Time on a Cruise Ship

Mauritius has denied a Norwegian cruise ship permission to dock at the capital Port Louis over fears of a potential cholera outbreak on board.  At least 15 people on the Norwegian Dawn have been in isolation over suspected illness.

The passengers developed mild symptoms of a stomach illness during a trip to South Africa, a representative of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings said.  69-year-old passenger Mary Francovilla Dees told reporters that despite the delay the atmosphere on the ship has been fairly calm.  "The passengers on this ship have appeared to take this in their stride," she said. Francovilla said passengers have entertained themselves by sitting by the pool, attending shows and going to the bar.  A Dutch passenger on board told BN DeStem they were told there could be a cholera outbreak on board by the captain.

There have been cholera outbreaks in southern Africa over the last few months, with Zambia being hardest hit.  Since January 2023, at least 188,000 people have been infected with cholera across seven countries in southern Africa, according to the UN. More than 3,000 people have died.

"The health and safety of passengers as well as that of the country as a whole are of the utmost to the authorities," the Mauritius Ports Authority said.  The ship arrived in Mauritius on Saturday evening after arriving a day early because it did not stop in Réunion Island.  There are 2,184 passengers and 1,026 crew members on the ship. About 2,000 planned to disembark in Port Louis, with another 2,000 expected to board at the same time.  Those who were disembarking or joining the cruise will now do so on February 27, the Norwegian Cruise Line spokesperson said.

New Hope for the Last Two Northern White Rhinos on Earth

Last November, Curra-- a southern white rhinoceros at Kenya's Ol Pejeta Conservancy died.   Heavy rains had flooded the animal’s enclosure and it was discovered she had been infected by free dormant bacteria spores which eventually resulted in her death.  But amid the tragedy comes a beacon of hope — one that might save an entire subspecies from extinction.

 During the postmortem, a 70-day-old male fetus was found in Curra’s womb. She had been pregnant.  A couple of months earlier, scientists with the BioRescue consortium implanted Curra with two southern white rhino embryos, hoping that she would become a surrogate mother. Never before had a rhino been impregnated via in vitro fertilization.  “We knew that if it was from the embryo transfer, it would be a huge breakthrough,” said  JanStejskal, BioRescue's project coordinator.  Weeks later, DNA analysis confirmed that the pregnancy was the result of the embryo transfer. It was the world’s first IVF rhino pregnancy.

Scientists and conservationists are now hoping that IVF can be used to save another rhino subspecies: the northern white rhino, which is critically endangered because of poachers who have relentlessly hunted them for their horns. 

African Capital Without Power Over Unpaid Bill

A Turkish firm has cut the power supply to Guinea-Bissau's capital over an unpaid bill of at least $15m, plunging the city into darkness.  It has severely disrupted daily life, with even radio stations off-air.  Karpowership had been supplying 100% of Guinea-Bissau's electricity since signing a five-year agreement with the state-owned electricity and water utility company in 2019.

Economy Minister Suleimane Seidi acknowledged the arrears, saying most of the bill would be paid in 15 days.  Karpowership is one of the world's biggest floating power plant operators, with several African states relying on it for electricity.

But it has taken a tough line over non-payment. Last month, it cut power to Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, over an unpaid bill of $40m. The Turkish company has also signed a deal to supply power to South Africa, saying it will cover more than 5% of the country's total electricity needs.  South Africa has been hit by a wave of power cuts with people going without electricity for up to 10 hours a day.

Power was cut in Bissau, a city with a population of more than 400,000, in the early hours of Tuesday.  Some public hospitals are now using generators to carry out surgery, local journalist Assana Sambu told the BBC. State-run Rádio Nacional is among media outlets that have stopped broadcasting, while the private radio station where he works is only partially operating, he added.

Karpowership also supplies electricity to six other African countries - Ghana, The Gambia, Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Senegal and Sierra Leone. The company prides itself as "the owner, operator and builder of the world's only Powership (floating power plant)".  Its involvement in the electricity sector is the latest example of Tukey's growing influence in Africa.  Although access to electricity has increased in sub-Saharan Africa in recent years, it still remains low, with more than 50% of the region's population having no connection to a power grid.

Yet Another Nigerian Mob Killing

A Muslim man in northern Nigeria has been killed by a mob for alleged blasphemy.  Usman Buda, who worked as a butcher at the Sokoto city abattoir, "was mobbed and attacked by some Muslim faithfuls [who] inflicted serious injuries on him", Sokoto state police spokesman Ahmad Rufa'i is quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

When the police arrived on the scene, "the mob escaped and left the victim unconscious", he added, the Premium Times reports..  Buda was taken for treatment by police when they went to rescue him but his death was confirmed at the hospital.  The authorities are now looking for the alleged perpetrators.

AFP reports that Buda was killed after an argument over some child beggars who had asked for money. It quotes a witness as saying that he got embroiled in a row after he disapproved of the children. He then made the alleged blasphemous remarks about the Prophet Muhammad.  A gruesome video being shared on social media shows a mob targeting a man with stones as he stumbles and falls.

In response, Sokoto state Governor Ahmed Aliyu "called on the people of the state to remain calm and law-abiding at all times", but he added that people should not do anything that is capable of degrading the personality of the Prophet Muhammad.

In May last year, a female student was attacked by Muslim students at her college in Sokoto, who killed her and set her body alight. She had been accused of blaspheming.

 

Egyptian Police Hunt LGBT People on Dating Apps

In Egypt, homosexuality is highly stigmatized, and there have long been allegations that police are hunting LGBT people online.  The BBC has uncovered evidence that the police are using dating apps to hunt down LGBT folks-- using the law on "debauchery" (a sex work law) to criminalize the LGBT community.

Transcripts submitted in police arrest reports show how officers are posing online to seek out - and in some cases allegedly fabricate evidence against - LGBT people looking for dates online.  They reveal how the police initiate text conversations with their targets. 

It is extremely difficult for LGBT people to openly meet potential dates in public in Egypt, so dating apps are a popular way to do that. But just using the apps - regardless of your sexuality - can be grounds for arrest based on the incitement of debauchery or public morality laws in Egypt.

It is not just Egyptians who are being targeted. In one transcript, police describe identifying a foreigner, who we are calling Matt, on the popular gay dating app Grindr. A police informant then engaged Matt in conversation, and - the transcript says - Matt "admitted his perversion, his willingness to engage in debauchery for free, and sent pictures of himself and his body".   Matt told the BBC that he was subsequently arrested, charged with "debauchery", and eventually deported. 

In some of the transcripts, the police appear to be trying to pressure people who seem to be simply seeking dates or new friendships into agreeing to sex for money. Legal experts in Egypt tell us that proving there has been an exchange of money, or an offer of one, can give the authorities the ammunition they need to take a case to court.

One such victim was a gay man called Laith. In April 2018, the contemporary dancer was contacted from a friend's phone number.   "Hello, how are you?" the message said. The "friend" asked to meet for a drink. But when Laith arrived to meet him, his friend was nowhere in sight. He was met instead by police who arrested him and threw him into a cell belonging to the vice squad.  Laith told the BBC that police then made a fake profile for him on the WhosHere app, and digitally altered his photos to make them look explicit. He says they then mocked up a conversation on the app which appeared to show him offering sex work.  He says the pictures are proof that he was framed, because the legs in the picture do not resemble his own - one of his legs is bigger than the other.  Laith was jailed for three months for "habitual debauchery", reduced to a month on appeal. Laith says the police also tried to get him to inform on other gay people he knew of, telling him, "can fabricate a whole story about you if you don't give me names."

Criminal gangs are using the same tactics as the police to find LGBT people. They then attack and humiliate them, and extort them by threatening to post the videos online.  The BBC tracked down two people called Laila and Jamal, who were victims of a video that went viral in Egypt a few years ago. The footage shows them being forced to strip and dance, while being beaten and abused. They are forced at knife point to give their full names and admit they are gay. They told me the duo behind the video - named Bakar and Yahia - are notorious amongst the community.

There were at least four videos in which Bakar and Yahia either appeared, or could be heard, extorting and abusing LGBT people before they uploaded the videos to Whatsapp, YouTube and Facebook. In one of these videos, an 18-year-old gay man we are calling Saeed is forced to, falsely, say he is a sex worker. I met him to hear about what happened next. He told me that he considered legal action but says his lawyer advised against this, telling him his sexuality would be perceived as more of a crime than the attack he suffered.  Saeed is now alienated from his family. He says they cut him off when the gang sent them the video in a bid to blackmail them too. "I have been suffering from depression after what happened, with the videos circulating to all my friends in Egypt. I don't go out, and I don't have a phone. No-one used to know anything about me."

There have been dozens of attacks like this-- carried out by multiple gangs. There are only a few reports of attackers being arrested.  Covering any of these issues inside Egypt itself has been banned since 2017, when the country's Supreme Council for Media Regulation imposed a media blackout on LGBT representation except if the coverage "acknowledge[s] the fact that their conduct is inappropriate".  Shockingly, the Egyptian government has spoken publicly about its use of online surveillance to target what it described as "homosexual gatherings".

 

What the Heck is Going on in Sudan?

The fighting that has erupted in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country is a direct result of a vicious power struggle within the country's military leadership. The clashes are between the regular army and a paramilitary force called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The fighting is the latest episode in bouts of tension that followed the 2019 ousting of long-serving President Omar al-Bashir, who came to power in a coup in 1989.  There were huge street protests calling for an end to his near-three decade rule and the army mounted a coup to get rid of him. But civilians continued to campaign for the introduction of democracy.  A joint military-civilian government was then established but that was overthrown in another coup in October 2021, when Gen Burhan took over. And since then the rivalry between Gen Burhan and Gen Dagalo has intensified. A framework deal to put power back in the hands of civilians was agreed last December but talks to finalise the details have failed.

Since the 2021 coup, Sudan has been run by a council of generals, led by the two military men at the centre of this dispute: Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the armed forces and in effect the country's president and his deputy and leader of the RSF, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti.  They have disagreed on the direction the country is going in and the proposed move towards civilian rule. The main sticking points are plans to include the 100,000-strong RSF into the army, and who would then lead the new force.

The RSF was formed in 2013 and has its origins in the notorious Janjaweed militia that brutally fought rebels in Darfur, where they were accused of ethnic cleansing. Since then, Gen Dagalo has built a powerful force that has intervened in conflicts in Yemen and Libya. He has also developed economic interests including controlling some of Sudan's gold mines. The RSF has been accused of human rights abuses, including the massacre of more than 120 protesters in June 2019. Such a strong force outside the army has been seen as a source of instability in the country.

The shooting began on April 15 following days of tension as members of the RSF were redeployed around the country in a move that the army saw as a threat. There had been some hope that talks could resolve the situation but these never happened. It is disputed who fired the first shot but the fighting swiftly escalated in different parts of the country with more than 400 civilians dying, according to the World Health Organization.

Even though the conflict appears to be around the control of key installations, much of it is happening in urban areas and civilians have become the unwitting victims. It is not exactly clear where the RSF bases are, but it seems that their fighters moved into densely populated areas. The Sudanese air force has mounted air strikes in the capital, a city of more than six million people, which is likely to have led to civilian casualties.  Several ceasefires have been announced to allow people to escape the fighting but these have not been observed.

 

Netflix Courts Controversy With Casting Choice in Cleopatra Documentary

Adele James in "Queen Cleopatra"

A fairly polarizing topic in entertainment these days is “race-swapping,” or intentionally changing the race of established characters. Recent examples include “Velma” from Scooby-Doo (an originally white character being depicted as Indian in the new HBO Max series), and the Little Mermaid (an originally white character in the Disney animated movie being portrayed by an African-American actress in the live-action version, later this year).  Given the cultural and political changes of the last few years, it should come as no surprise where the backlash is coming from--there are certain segments of society who cherish purist (to put it kindly) ideals and don’t like agendas being pushed on them.

However, a more recent trend has had filmmakers race-swapping actual historical figures. A notable example is Cleopatra from an upcoming Netflix series. Cleopatra’s ancestry has been traced to the Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty — these are people generally considered bronze, olive or honey-skinned. When the trailer dropped last week for “Queen Cleopatra,” people noticed Cleopatra was a black woman, played by Adele James.

The film’s director defended her casting choice by saying it was very intentionally conceived, saying, "Why shouldn’t Cleopatra be a melanated sister? And why do some people need Cleopatra to be white? Her proximity to whiteness seems to give her value, and for some Egyptians it seems to really matter,” Gharavi told Variety. “We need to have a conversation with ourselves about our colorism, and the internalized white supremacy that Hollywood has indoctrinated us with,” Gharavi added.

To be clear-- Cleopatra was neither white nor black. But Gharavi doesn’t seem to care because, by the sounds of it, she’s fighting racism with her decision to cast a black actress. No one needs Cleopatra to be anything-- it's a question of what she was. If you're making a documentary, the only thing anyone needs is accuracy.

Regardless, Egypt has decided that they’ve had enough with the rewriting of their history-- and they might be suing. According to Newsweek, top-dog Egyptian lawyer Mahmoud al-Semary is asking the country’s public prosecutor to sue Netflix and the makers of the docuseries. “Most of what [the] Netflix platform displays [does] not conform to Islamic and societal values and principles, especially Egyptian ones,” al-Semary said.

Cleopatra was a source for pride for Egyptians and it shouldn't be unexpected that they’re going to take offense when you decide to blackwash her. The show advertises itself as a documentary on “prominent and iconic African queens”. Then in the trailer itself, somebody is heard saying “I don’t care what they teach you in school: Cleopatra was black”.

And that is the problem. If Cleopatra was a fictional character where race wasn’t important then race-swap as much as you want. But if you're going to base something on a historical figure you should probably stick with their actual race.

 

New Currency Notes Trigger Panic in Nigeria

Desperate bank customers stripped naked and fought in mass brawls to get access to their money in chaotic scenes in Nigeria after the government replaced bank notes-- but printed too few of them.  Customers entered banks naked and stripped to their underwear in protest.  Banks were forced to close and locked their doors after angry crowds brawled.  People across the nation began waiting in long ATM queues in attempt to get their cash.  

Frantic Nigerians are expressing their frustration after the Government moved to replace high-denomination notes.  Video shared on Twitter shows how a naked customer demanded to close his bank account - reportedly valued at 520,000 naira - after employees refused to give him more than 20,000N at the counter.  Another man climbed on top of the service counter and stripped after workers apparently fail to provide him with his requested money.

Some firms were forced to close and lock their doors after angry crowds brawled inside. Others even erected tents to protect cash-seeking customers from the sun as they waited in long queues.  The chaos comes as Nigeria battles major cash and fuel shortages just three weeks before the presidential election. Candidates have traded accusations of blame over the shortages with the ruling party hopeful even suggesting his enemies had manufactured the crisis to undermine his election chances.

Nigeria's Central Bank announced last October that it would be taking the N200, N500 and N1,000 notes out of circulation beginning in January.  The Government intended to replace the banknotes with new designs that it claimed would be more secure. However the replacements were not immediately available and the switch deadline was extended.  Citizens are now unable to withdrawal money from their accounts, making it hard for them to participate in the cash-reliant economy. 

Japhet Joshua Babatunde, who is a customer at the FirstBank branch in Ikoyi, said his salary was deposited over a week ago and he still cannot access funds.   "I'm angry — it's my own money I came to collect, not a loan," he said.  Another customer claimed to have visited the bank for five consecutive days but still wasn't able to get any cash.

A security guard at that the Ikoyi FirstBank also revealed that he was ordered to lock customers outside after fights erupted in the bank.   The branch did eventually start dispensing cash from its ATM, but limited customers to 10,000 naira.  

Across the nation, crowds have been seen jostling outside ATM machines and banks to try and access scarce cash supplies.  A leading Nigerian lender told the newspaper that many banks did not receive enough supply of the new banknotes to meet customer demand. The Central Bank has urged citizens to exercise patience as the governmental agency works "assiduously to address the challenge of queues at ATMs."   It also reportedly encouraged customers to use cards and electronic payments, but industry executives say those types of payments are failing because of the "volume increases that no one did anything to prepare for."

One of Africa's top oil producers, Nigeria often struggles with fuel shortages as it imports most of its petrol and diesel because its refineries are not working.  Across the nation, people have been sleeping in cars outside gas stations for a chance to fill their tanks.  Earlier this week, riots broke out in the northern city of Kano, with an angry mob protesting a visit by outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari and blaming the ruling APC for the currency hardship.

Buhari addressed the crisis yesterday, blaming 'inefficient' banks for being 'only concerned about themselves.'   He also asked the nation to 'give him seven days to resolve the cash crunch.' It is unclear what steps he plans to take to ease the shortage.  Both cash and fuel shortages are stirring up public anger and tension as presidential hopefuls near the end of the campaign trail.   Campaign rhetoric has been heating in the run up to the February 25 vote to decide on the successor to Buhari, a former army commander who steps down after two terms in office

 

Arrest in the Death of Prominent Kenyan Gay Rights Campaigner

In Kenya, a suspect had been arrested in connection with the death of a prominent LGBTQ rights campaigner whose body was found stuffed into a metal box in the west of the country.

Motorbike taxi riders alerted police after they saw the box dumped by the roadside from a vehicle with a concealed number plate.  Activist Edwin Chiloba’s remains were found near Eldoret town in Uasin Gishu county, where he ran his fashion business, independent rights group the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) said. 

Research suggests acceptance of homosexuality is gradually increasing in Kenya, but it remains a taboo subject for many. The country’s film board has banned two films for their portrayals of gay lives in recent years.

The death drew condemnation from several human rights groups, including the International Commission of Jurists Kenya section, which called for the speedy investigation and apprehension of those behind his killing.  “Chiloba’s death is a tragedy and an affront to human dignity and violation of the right to life #JusticeForChiloba,” it said on Twitter.   Resila Onyango, Kenya National Police Service’s spokesperson, said officers had arrested one person in connection with Chiloba’s death.  “Police arrested one male suspect in Eldoret on Friday. He is the main suspect but the matter is still under investigation,” she said.

“Words cannot even explain how we as a community are feeling right now. Edwin Chiloba was a fighter, fighting relentlessly to change the hearts and minds of society when it came to LGBTQ+ lives,” GALCK, a Kenyan gay rights group said.  Under a British colonial-era law, gay sex in Kenya is punishable by 14 years in prison. It is rarely enforced but discrimination is common. 

 

Piss-Poor Media Relations in Sudan

Six journalists in South Sudan have been detained over the circulation of footage showing President Salva Kiir appearing to wet himself at an official event, according to the national journalists union.

The footage from December showed a dark stain spread down the 71-year-old president’s gray trousers as he stood for the national anthem at a road commissioning event. The video never aired on television but subsequently circulated on social media.

The journalists, who work with the state-run South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation, were detained this week, said Patrick Oyet, president of the South Sudan Union of Journalists.   They “are suspected of having knowledge on how the video of the president urinating himself came out,” he told Reuters.

Kiir has been president since South Sudan gained independence in 2011. Government officials have repeatedly denied rumors circulating on social media that he is unwell. The country has been embroiled in conflict for much of the past decade.

The detained journalists are camera operators Joseph Oliver and Mustafa Osman; video editor Victor Lado; contributor Jacob Benjamin; and Cherbek Ruben and Joval Toombe from the control room, Oyet said.  “We are concerned because those who are detained now have stayed longer than what the law says,” he added.

By law, South Sudanese authorities are allowed to detain suspects for only 24 hours before bringing them before a judge.  The incident “matches a pattern of security personnel resorting to arbitrary detention whenever officials deem coverage unfavorable,” said the sub-Saharan Africa representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists, Muthoki Mumo. 

 

Shocking Secret: Kenya is Quietly Sliding Under Water

Kenya’s great lakes are flooding, in a devastating and long-ignored environmental disaster that is displacing hundreds of thousands of people.  One of the first scientists to realize that something was wrong with the lakes was a geologist named Simon Onywere. Between 2010 and 2013 he had been studying Lake Baringo, Kenya’s fourth-largest lake by volume. The bones of residents of the area around the lake weaken uncommonly fast, and Onywere was investigating whether this may be linked to high fluoride levels in the water. Then, in early 2013, while he was meeting with residents of Marigat, a town near the lake, one old man stood up, saying, “We don’t care about the fluoride. What we want to know is how the water has entered our schools.”

Curious to know what the man was talking about, Onywere visited the local Salabani primary school. There, he found the lake lapping through the grounds of the school. He looked at the location of the lake and the location of the school, and wondered how the lake had moved 2km without it becoming news.

Onywere rushed back to Nairobi, where he and his colleagues at several Kenyan universities studied recent satellite images of the lake. The images showed that the lake had, in the past year, flooded the area around it. Then Onywere searched for images of some of the lakes nearby: Lakes Bogoria, Naivasha and Nakuru. All of these had flooded. As he extended his search, he saw that Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake, had flooded, too. So had Lake Turkana, the largest desert lake in the world.  By September 2013, it was clear to Onywere and his colleagues how extreme the damage was. In Baringo, schools had been flooded and people had been displaced. Lake Nakuru, which was previously enclosed by a national park, now extended beyond it. It had increased in size by 50%.  Throughout the 2010s, the lakes rose slowly, and tens of thousands of people were forced to move from their homes. Then, at the start of 2020, after a particularly vicious period of rain in Kenya’s highlands, the lakes’ expansion accelerated.

Onywere found it extraordinary how little attention was being paid to the problem. Once the pandemic took hold in March 2020, the government seemed to take even less interest. Onywere went to see the Benjamin Cheboi (the governor of Baringo County), but claims the governor showed little interest.  Cheboi now disputes this, saying that he and Onywere never met. 

Over the past decade, as these lakes have risen, they have become a source of alarm rather than pride. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes. And this seems to be just the start of the disaster . . . 

Mystery Deaths of Elephants in Botswana Raises Concerns

Just north of Botswana’s world-famous Okavango Delta, it was lush and green as the summer rains tapered off and the air began to cool, but something wasn’t right. Savanna elephants, weighing as much as seven tons each, stumbled and staggered and walked in circles. Their heavy legs weakened as they struggled to take another step. One by one, they collapsed, many falling chest-first.

The first cluster of 44 elephants died in March 2020. By mid-June, conservationists had counted more than 350 carcasses scattered across the remote, roughly 3,000-square-mile region. By the following January, the number of mysterious deaths surpassed 450.

“There was a very foul smell,” says Davango Martin, the former manager of Kadizora Camp, a tourist lodge in the area. He was driving through the grounds in early May when he first noticed the stench and came across an elephant carcass splayed in a thicket of bush. “It was all rotten and nothing had actually eaten it—only maggots.”

Any loss of African elephants is alarming. Their numbers have plunged from an estimated million in 1979 to approximately 415,000, driven down by decades of ivory poaching, shrinking habitat, and confrontations with humans. Botswana, with some 130,000 elephants, is considered one of their last strongholds, so the mysterious deaths of hundreds made international news. 

In September 2020, under intense international pressure from concerned conservationists, Botswana authorities announced that they’d identified the culprit: cyanobacteria neurotoxins. Poisons released by blue-green algae that bloom in stagnant, nutrient-rich water, cyanobacteria neurotoxins attack the nervous system if ingested. 

However, a 14-month review of documents and interviews with investigators by National Geographic has found that much of the evidence leading to that diagnosis was unreliable—and that the Botswana government missed crucial opportunities to complete a timely and thorough investigation. 

Several outside experts, as well officials at labs that conducted analyses for the government, say tests for various possible causes of death—including cyanobacteria—were inconclusive and the evidence was degraded and mishandled, raising concerns that whatever killed the elephants could emerge as a threat again.

Mystery has shrouded the deaths from the very start . . .  

Anger in Kenya After Lesbian's Murder

Rights groups are calling on Kenyan authorities to investigate the murder of a non-binary lesbian, which has sparked the trending hashtag #JusticeForSheila.  "No one deserves such cruel treatment. Sheila didn't have to experience all this pain," Amnesty Kenya tweeted.

The killing has started an online debate about LGBTQ rights in Kenya - a country where gay sex is illegal.  Members of the country's LGBTQ community routinely face discrimination and stigma, and efforts to decriminalize gay sex have been thwarted.

It is not definitively clear what happened to Lumumba in the central Nyeri county, but there are reports that Lumumba was raped.  Lumumba's body was discovered days after going missing when their colleagues at a hospitality business noticed their absence, according to news site K24 TV.  Police have not yet determined the motivation behind Lumumba's killing.

LGBTQ and LGBTQ-supporting Kenyans have taken to social media to highlight the discrimination the group faces. Human rights activist Njeri wa Migwi said she   had spoken to Lumumba's best friend on Thursday: "We cried together," she posted on Facebook."Your life mattered Sheila," Ms Migwa continued.  "Sheila and I are both 25 and lesbians. I can't rest because I am one statistic away from being this," one person tweeted.  "Queer people deserve to thrive without fear of being persecuted. Sheila's death reflects the reality LGBT persons live in," another person said. 

Kenya's National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC) says what happened to Lumumba is not a rare event.  "It bears mentioning that unfortunately these are not isolated incidents and are part of a pattern of attacks and violence against LGBTIQ+persons in the country," the Commission said in a tweet. In 2021 the hashtags #JusticeForErica and #JusticeForJoash were trending following the murder of trans-woman activist Erica Chandra and LGBTQ activist Joash Mosoti.

In 2019, Kenya's High Court ruled against campaigners seeking to overturn a law banning gay sex, which is punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Right's groups like NGLHRC have historically warned that it gives rise to a climate of homophobia.  The law is specific to men but activists say that lesbian, bi, trans and non-binary voices are also affected.