Ethiopia is a Christian island surrounded by Muslim countries and Harar is the other island within that island: a difficult city for sorting, the fourth holiest city of Islam with almost a hundred mosques within its walls, and the place where the poet Arthur Rimbaud chose to refuge in his flight from Europe. Here women control on the street the sale of khat, a plant with stimulant powers that sets the pace of Harar. Consumption, ritualized in everyday life of the city, provides its inhabitants a unique identity.

About an hour outside Cartagena, Colombia is a little town with a big history. San Basilio de Palenque has about 3500 inhabitants and was formed by African slaves who escaped Spanish rulers 400 years ago.A hip hop group from the community is preserving that history with their music.Our Urban Voice is Kombilesa Mi.The Palenquero language is influenced by the Kikongo language of Angola and Congo where many of the slaves who settled in this region originated. The language is also mixed with Portuguese which was spoken by the slave traders who first brought Africans to the Americas.

⁣Eritrea - French Documentary [1980]

This 9 minute film is an insight into the work of soil and water conservation expert, Dr Chris Reij. In June 2012
I joined him on a whistle-stop tour of communities in southern Niger. This area is right on the edge of the Sahara and yet growing in the sandy soil are an abundance of vegetables, cereal crops and trees.
The film was made with funding support from IFAD.

Namib: Surviving the Sand Sea is an independently produced natural history documentary about the adaptations of Namib Desert flora and fauna by Oliver Halsey
www.oliverhalsey.net

Geoff Lawton looking at Industrial Agriculture and explaining the difference between it and Permaculture. From his DVD Permaculture Soils available at www.permaculturenews.org.

Sunday, February 12th 1961.

Footage of African students angered by reports of the death of former Congolese Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba.

Reuters Text:

"The Belgian Embassy in Cairo, United Arab Republic, was littered with bricks and broken glass February 12 after a mob of some 300 African students, shouting "Murderers of Lumumba", attacked the building.

Police prevented the students - enraged after hearing of the death of deposed Premier Patrice Lumumba - from climbing over the railing and arrested four of them.

Belgian Ambassador, M. Maurice d'Eeckhoutte, had been sitting in his first-floor study with his wife when bricks were hurled through the window.

M. d'Eeckhoutte said "They started throwing things and my wife and I left the room. ..as soon as I heard the word Lumumba I knew who they were. I shall be protesting to the United Arab Republic Foreign Ministry about this.

Katanga Minister of the Interior, Mr. Munongo, said Feb 13 that Mr. Lumumba and two companions were "massacred" by villagers after escaping from custody in Katanga."

Source: Reuters News Archive.

Note:

Lumumba was not "massacred" by villagers after escaping from custody in Katanga. He was executed by a firing squad commanded by a Belgian officer and his body later dissolved in sulphuric acid by two Belgian police officials.

Nina Simone ~ Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

Are there economic and political hit men operating across the continent? There exist a deeply worrying patten emerging of too many deaths amongst African Presidents and Top officials who have died supposedly of COVID 19 or a heart attack

This disproportionate over representative of deaths of African Presidents and top officials needs to be thoroughly investigated and closely examined in order to eliminate foul play.

Dr Hastings Banda is one of the most underrated African dictators. During His 33 year rule, the country experienced the worst human rights violations and paternalistic control of the Malawians.

He controlled every aspect of their lives, treating his people as children and addressing his ministers as my boys

He banned televisions, beards, dreadlocks and long hair among men. Any sort of political dissent was ruthlessly dealt with through his secret police and Militia.

Though he never had children, he relied on the support of his official hostess and former secretary Cecilia Kadzamira and Kadzamira's uncle John Tembo, who saw themselves as his successors when he left power.

He is remembered on the continent as the only leader who maintained ties with the Apartheid South Africa and Portuguese regimes; backed Nixon in Vietnam and refused to support an armed struggle against the Ian Smith regime in Southern Rhodesia.