The Batteries in Your Cell Phones: See Where They Come From

An excellent report from The Washington Post.

 

A boy carries a bag used to transport cobalt-laden dirt and rock at the Musompo market (The Washington Post)

Cameroon's Brexit or Rule Breaking?

Cameroon has mounted what appears to be a daring betrayal of the central African regional block known as CEMAC, which consists of central African countries that negotiate economic deals with other partners as a single block. In doing this, Cameroon claims the Brexit precedence even though its move was to sign an individual economic agreement with the European Union (EU). Britain is moving out but Cameroon is moving in - and potentially out of CEMAC. See more here.
 
Cameroon's dictator, Paul Biya, and IMF director, Chirstine Lagarde (from African Argument)

Some Influential Cameroonians in the Diaspora

See more at Jeune Afrique.

Phiona Mutesi, The Real "Queen of Katwe"

Read more about her here. See trailer of the film below.

Free Mohamed Mkaitir!!!

Mohamed Mkaitir has been sentenced to death in Mauritania for apparently insulting the Prophet Mohammad in an anti-slavery piece he wrote. His compatriot, the anti-slavery campaigner, Biram Dah Abeid, was also being held by the government of  Mauritania, which continues to deny the festering issue of slavery and racial segregation in that country. The government of Mauritania is attempting to shift the discourse away from the repugnant treatment of human beings in that country in the name of religious piety. It is a barbaric and repugnant practice to kill someone for being critical of a religious figure or even God. It is also irresponsible to detain people for fighting for human dignity in a country that turns a blind eye to such abuses. Free Mohamed Mkhaitir!

Biram Dah Abeid has since been released but Mr. Mkaitir is still being held.

The Benefits of War: The Case of South Sudan

War has always been financially beneficial to some people and those who incur such benefits always prefer to remain anonymous. This is especially so in South Sudan where the current war time leaders are reaping the benefits of war, even as their people are dying. This is has detailed in this fascinating report. The motivation for the war is more than what meets the eye.

Making Saints and Making Ancestors

While the indigenous religious traditions of Africa appear far removed from Roman Catholicism, an important similarity between them is how they memorialize certain dead people. For Roman Catholicism and many indigenous traditions of Africa, not all the dead are worthy of special memory. Special memory is received for those whose lives have been proven worthy to receive such recognition. In Roman Catholicism such special memory is reserved for the saints while in many indigenous African traditions such memory is reserved for the ancestors. Ancestors, like saints, are not people whose lives have been found to be blameless but rather those whose lives are worthy of emulation in spite of their shortcomings. And just as in the case of the saints, people do not just become ancestors when they die - they are made ancestors. The processes of making ancestors and making saints are vastly different but the fact remains that both saints and ancestors are creations of their communities. Both saints and ancestors are seen to mediate between the physical and spiritual worlds. However, a major difference between ancestors and saints is that while most saints appear to be childless people, childless ancestors are an anomaly in many African societies. Today, one more childless person, Mother Teresa of Kolkata, was made a saint. The people called Roman Catholics made it so. If she were from an African society, she might have been made an ancestor also. In this case, she would become both a saint and an ancestor.

Migration and the Abrahamic Religions

There has been a recent rise in reflections on migration in the Abrahamic religions - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This has especially been made urgent by the recent rise in migrant deaths as desperate people from Africa and the Middle East attempt to reach Europe. But are these reflections on migration necessary? The short answer to this question is that they are not quite necessary. They are however made necessary because most followers of these religions often do not reflect on the genesis of their religions. The genesis of these religions show that they are religions that require migration and so making any theology of migration in these religions tautological. In fact, these religions see migration as necessary and sometimes create the conditions that require migration. They require both physical and spiritual migration, that is, they require people to move from one place to another both physically and spiritually.

Judaism began with the migration of Abram and continues in the life of Israel as a whole. Christianity began with the migration of Christians beyond Jerusalem and it requires that Christians move from one place to another to spread the gospel. Islam had its genesis from Muhammad's migration from Mecca to Medina and back again and followers are tasked to migrate to spread the message of Islam. Spiritually, those who become part of these religions are required to change their inner dispositions and hopes. The surface structure of these religions is therefore migratory, making a theology of migration in these religions only an exercise in the retrieval of memory. Followers of these religions only need to be reminded that migration is at the very center of their faiths. In fact, they need to be reminded that their religions require migration. They should be encouraging migration rather than seeing it as an alien phenomenon.

That these religions require migration and also create conditions that make it necessary for migration to happen should make adherents of these religions to embrace migration rather than treat it with fear and loathing, as they now do.