News from Africa

Over the past five years, Africa’s contributions to the world’s research –- that is, new knowledge –- have varied from a low of 0.7% to the present and highest level of 1.1% . There are many reasons for Africa’s small contribution to world research. One of them, sadly, is that at least some of this new knowledge is produced by African scientists working beyond their own countries and continent. Many have chosen to leave because they feel the facilities and funding opportunities are better than those “at home”. It’s also important to point out that the sum of knowledge generated each year, including Africa’s contribution to it, is measured using research articles published by scientists and scholars in scientifically recognised journals. This means some of the actual work that’s being done isn’t getting the attention or credit it deserves, yet. The journal system is not a perfect way of assessing scientific productivity. For now, though, it’s a means that can be applied fairly to doc...

Reuters A total of 11 people have pleaded guilty to possessing banned plastic bags in Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa, the privately owned Business Daily newspaper has reported. The group - which included street vendors selling apples and sugar cane in plastic bags - were arrested two days ago following a raid by environment officials, the newspaper added. Magistrate Martin Rabera let them go free, saying: The court sympathises with you as you are first offenders. However, we are sending a strong warning to the accused and the public that as long as you continue breaking the law, we will be here for you." Business Daily also quoted Jane Alango, who was prosecuting, as saying: Besides polluting the environment, the bags have killed many animals. People can use baskets and other containers in place of the bags. Today these people should be used to set an example to those still using the banned bags." A ban on plastic carrier bags came into f...

IT IS easy to buy a rolex in Uganda—albeit not one that will tell the time. Sold at ubiquitous roadside stalls, the Ugandan rolex is a greasy snack, made from an omelette wrapped in a  chapati  (“roll eggs”). Sellers compete side-by-side for the same custom. So do the motorcycle-taxi drivers, hustling for rides; or the countless small shopkeepers, stocking near-identical goods. In Uganda, as in much of Africa, the informal service economy is a crowded place to be. But it is hard to find work anywhere else. Last year GDP in sub-Saharan Africa grew by just 1.4%. Income per person fell. But growth in itself is not the issue that troubles policymakers and intrigues academics: for most of this century, after all, African economies have been among the fastest-growing in the world. What has flummoxed observers is where that growth comes from. In 1954 Arthur Lewis, a Nobel prize-winning economist, argued that development occurs as labour shifts from an unproductive “traditional” se...

Recent intercommunal conflicts in Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, DR Congo, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan and Zimbabwe bring to mind the role of a certain ethnocentrism or tribalism in  conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa .  In Rwanda, the genocide that took place because of enmity between Hutus and Tutsis has become our contemporary example of tribalism gone wild and uncontrolled. Similar conflicts in Kenya between the Luos and Kikuyus, in Liberia between the Americo-Liberians and the native Africans, in Nigeria between Northern Hausa/Fulani and the Southern Ibos and/or Yorubas have been equally violent and tragic ( map image from  here ). What we are yet to uncover is a mapping of how ethnic differences become prominent; in the narrative reports from the recent conflicts in Kenya, there were incidents of long-time neighbors turning against each other; we find the same narratives from Rwanda and Liberia where neighbors and friends become enemies overn...

Most of all, they recognize that tribalism has caused many of Africa's problems and they are determined not to repeat the mistakes of their parents. Yet outside the sturdy iron gates of their schools, young Kenyans are finding a different reality, where tribalism still infuses all aspects of society. Christopher Khaemba, the principal of Alliance High School, one of the oldest and most prestigious boys' secondary schools in Kenya, said, "If Africa is to go forward, the next generation has to be able to develop national identities rather than tribal loyalties that have wreaked havoc across the continent." Converging in the Cities In Nairobi, the capital, the population has more than doubled in the past five years, as peasants have left their increasingly unprofitable fields of coffee and corn and squeezed into tin-roofed working-class slums in hopes of finding a job. Migration to the cities is occurring across the continent, and while urban life weakens rural t...

Troubled South African Airways (SAA) has reduced the frequency of its flights to Uganda from 7 to 6 flights a week effective October 29  In Summary Flights to Luanda (Angola) will be reduced from 7 to 4 per week and the aircraft type down gauged and Kinshasa (DRC) from 6 to 5 per week. ADVERTISEMENT By Jonathan Adengo Kampala.  Troubled South African Airways (SAA) has reduced the frequency of its flights to Uganda from 7 to 6 flights a week effective October 29. There had been speculation that the airline plans to cancel flights to Entebbe. SAA country manager for Uganda Yogi Birigwa, in an interview with Daily Monitor, reiterated the airline’s commitment to the route saying it is not true. “We are only reducing one frequency,“ she said. “Contrary to speculation in the media, the Ugandan market remains important to us and SAA will maintain its presence there. We will adjust capacity to Entebbe from 7 to 6 flights per week,” explained Mr Tlali Tlali, the sp...

Zimbabwe has suspended import duty on fertilized poultry eggs for a six month period in a bid to revive poultry production following successive outbreaks of Avian Influenza in the country Zimbabwe was hit by two outbreaks of the highly pathogenic bird flu in May and July at Lanark Farm near Mazowe, which is owned by the biggest chicken breeder in the country, Irvine's. A total 215,000 birds were culled to contain the outbreaks. In a statutory instrument published in the Government Gazette last Friday, government listed six poultry importers exempt from paying duty. "Duty is wholly suspended on fertilised poultry eggs for hatching of tariff code 0407,11,00 imported by approved poultry breeders, for a period of six months with effect from August 1, 2017," reads the statutory instrument. The approved poultry breeders are Irvine's Zimbabwe (432,000 ring fenced fertilized poultry eggs per week), Supa Chicks (160,000) and Chinyika Chicks (100,000). Dr. Henn (...