Like many African countries, São Tomé e Principe (STP) is struggling to stand on her own after being raped by colonization. “Discovered” by Portuguese navigators in the late 1400’s, STP quickly became Africa’s top sugar exporter in the 1500’s due to the colonized slave labor. Sugar cultivation eventually waned, but fortunately for the Portuguese plantation […]
There is a sense in which, particularly in the summer, all roads lead to Africa. Visitors are not just rich Americans on Safari to visit Africa’s wild life or luxuriate in the stunning and exotic beauty of Africa’s landscapes and game parks. Instead, travelers include health workers going to live in an African village, World […]
We huddled around a solitary candle, the only source of light in the dingy room. Betty, our hostess, knelt on the floor while we all sat on make-shift stools and chairs. Her children’s voices could be heard from the street and front yard as they played in the dying evening light, clearly remaining outdoors to […]
Introduction “Give a man a fish,” the saying goes, “and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will always eat.” The problem with this saying, we in South Africa have discovered, is that even when you teach a man to fish, there are still signs that say, “NO FISHING.” […]
In the year 2005 our world was no stranger to deep tragedy. Tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, tropical storms, war, and the AIDS pandemic devastated countries resulting in loss of life and livelihood. The ones who were already vulnerable were made more so because of such unexplainable acts of God. Children who already lived in poverty lost […]
TOJ: What is your take on the G8 conference this past summer? Was it successful? What are some positive results of the conference and what are your critiques of the conference? BW: Yeah, well in general I believe it was a positive outcome. Two things that we need to keep in mind, anytime you get […]
The AIDS Awareness Campaign (AAC) is a team of three American journalists, writers and photographers who began an eight-month overland journey through the heart of Africa in July 2005 to examine the impact of HIV/AIDS in rural and urban communities. Through the stories of the African people whom they meet along the way, Sean Blaschke, […]
Aspects of African Liberation Political Liberation: reflection on being true to ourselves The term “liberation” tends to be used very loosely, these days, but it can also mean something specific and be crucial and relevant to our everyday life. In this regard, I have chosen to discuss political liberation in my own country of Zimbabwe […]
New values for African nations will liberate the African people from various forms of poverty, lawlessness, dictatorships, dehumanization, diseases, and a distortion of cultural identity. However, such values must evolve naturally and independently of external pressures because they must arise from the needs of the African peoples themselves. Most of us have learned the lesson […]
“Sudan is a disaster area for human rights. We must turn the eyes of the world upon the atrocities in the Sudan.”[1] “The human rights situation in Sudan is not marketable to the American people.”[2] “Everyone has the right to thought, conscience and religion…No one shall be held in slavery or servitude and the slave […]
Women the world over have been under-represented in leadership be it in educational administration, business and industry, and political arenas (Bass, 1990; Uraizee, 2000; Weiss, 1999). This phenomenon is often described in terms of a glass ceiling: one that women can see through but cannot go past due to cultural, organizational and other systemic discriminations […]
From These Stones I A woman, alone, sits at her piano, alone on her seventy-fifth birthday. Her daughter will drive through the sandy-banked streets of Coronado Shores, to help her mother into the car, and drive to the ocean-side restaurant where her long-gone family is waiting. But for now, the woman sits alone with her […]
“you are part of the river and will return to the river” Lynn Martin Water never looks so beautiful as when it plunges breaks over the long-drop and falls out of itself into droplets mist rain long strings of loud music crescendo all falling back into the river whole and unbroken again But the beauty […]
Departure The coolness of the early morning greeted me as I set off for the northeastern part of Namibia. Cruising at 12,000 feet, the unpressurized cabin filled with the muffled sound of its dual engines. The vast and desolate landscape sped by beneath us as the rising sun ushered in the new day. My destination […]
Ranking albums is fun and maddening and dicey and way too subjective. It’s also strangely satisfying. No matter how thoroughly you’ve scoured the year’s release calendars, you inevitably miss something that absolutely, inarguably belongs in there somewhere. So you slot it into the list and resume your insufferable tweaking once more. This year was a […]
I have been known to shed my share of tears over stories of human suffering, to ache for the voiceless victims whose eyes stare out at me from the pages of human interest stories. The story of the forgotten women and girl-children of Northern Uganda is therefore one that is close to my heart. As […]
A number of statistics are thrown around when discussing HIV/AIDS and Africa. In fact, statistics are the closest encounter most have with this crisis. There are no pictures of catastrophe or mass chaos as seen in the recent tsunami crisis or hurricane Katrina devastation—only mind-numbing statistics. Over 40-million people are currently infected by HIV in […]
The following 14 reflections were presented at Seattle Pacific University’s Faith/Learning Forum on the 27th of October, 2005. 1. The “faithful” are called to seek peace and justice in many faith traditions outside of Christianity (e.g., see Carmody and Carmody. Peace and Justice in the Scriptures of the World Religions: Reflections on Non-Christian Scriptures. NY: […]
Before we met in person, Our portrayals had already been exchanging elaborate letters. Our omniscient hostess, Media, facilitated this correspondence. “America, this is Africa; I’m sure you two have crossed paths.” Her soothing voice gently patronized, Dropping names, sharing photos as if they were reminders of common knowledge. Yes, we nod, we’ve heard of each […]
Aldo Leopold, an influential ecologist and one of the first prophets of the environmental movement, wrote, “One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.” People sensitive to environmental issues usually find themselves in a richly textured world that is being ripped apart at every stitch […]
My Morning Jacket – Z (ATO Records) Losing two founding members is usually the funeral call for even the best bands. That said, it’s amazing what this line-up shift, an outside producer and a trip to a new studio away from the familiar setting of their farm studio has done for Kentucky’s My Morning Jacket. […]
1. Caspian – You Are the Conductor (Dopamine/Amalagate Records) – This Massachusetts Post-Rock quartet has completely taken over my brain and broken my heart with their debut E.P. Reverb drenched guitars, intricate instrumentals, and a pulverizing rhythm section create fresh, intoxicating music. Warning: you will not want to listen to anything else. Check them out […]
Come walk with me along the way, that turns and winds so we can’t see the end, through bends, alluring in their folds and shadows. When the path seems to fade I’ll follow you up the mountain and over rocks since you like to go where there is no trail. And when we’re led to […]
I, I am Zimbabwean. I eat salads and pizza, and do not feel full without sadza. I sing Methodist hymns and avoid all but vernacular choruses. I wear jeans but would not be caught dead wearing anything except a skirt. I drive an old car and a donkey cart. I fetch water in tins on […]
Kanye West Late Registration Roc-A-Fella Records and Blackalicious The Craft Anti Records I’m taking a class on teaching English writing to speakers of other languages and one thing my professor often mentions is “the question of content.” What, exactly, are appropriate subjects for students to write about and how do we decide? Teachers must be careful not to introduce […]
People have asked if it was difficult to take a film crew to Kenya to film a documentary dealing with the pandemic of AIDS and the seemingly ineffectual efforts of a handful of people to stem the tide of affliction and disease. Our documentary, Scratching the Surface; A Journey with HEART, deals primarily with the efforts […]
In April 2005, a striking celebration occurred in Washington to mark the signing of a peace accord between rebel groups of southern Sudan and the Islamist regime in Khartoum, ending Africa’s longest and bloodiest civil war. In a packed room in the Longworth House Office Building, Sudanese exiles mingled with the American officials and religious […]
Trends in World Christianity A fact of our time is the rise of Southern Christianity. Its emergence heralds the birth of a truly dynamic world Christianity, marked by the axial shift in mass and direction of the religion’s center from North America and Europe to Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific, a phenomenon that […]
I pick up a hardening of attitudes, and I pick up racism. And I think, more than anything else, the book (Gift of Tongues) is a plea – we have to start imagining ourselves the other. (Antjie Krog, Mail and Guardian, October 3-9, 2003) For at least the last two-and-a-half decades, critical theory in the humanities […]
My daughter’s Kenyan classmate is named “Good News.” A university student from the Democratic Republic of Congo is called “Faida” meaning “good fortune” or “profitable.” “Victory” teaches Sunday school at our local church, and “Grace” and “Charity” served me in government offices the other day. While world news may or may not cover the most […]
What moves men of genius, or rather, what inspires their work, is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough. –Eugene Delacroix When Eugene Delacroix penned these words, he may have been thinking of the kind of genius that would move an African woman to […]
The softest whisper carries great power. I’ll never forget the way my Grandmother used to draw me close to her, place her mouth up against my ear and whisper in her delicate voice: “Reagan, you are my very favorite.” Year after year, over and over again, the power of her whisper was transforming. That simple […]
South African Pentecostalism and Political Participation After the first Dutch settlers arrived in South Africa in 1652, Protestant Christianity (with almost entirely European membership) through the Dutch Reformed Church held total monopoly until the 19th Century.[1] Today, some three-quarters of the Black population are members of many ‘Protestant’ churches, but this figure includes a majority of […]