Is Your Tap Water Safe? Study Claims Cancer Risk Even In 'Safe' Water

Image: Getty

BY JOSHUA BOTE

A new report from an environmental advocacy watchdog group cautions that carcinogenic products in tap water may altogether increase cancer risk for thousands of U.S. residents over a lifetime.

In a peer-reviewed study published in the journal Heliyon Thursday, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that 22 carcinogens commonly found in tap water — including arsenic, byproducts of water disinfectants and radionuclides such as uranium and radium — could cumulatively result in over 100,000 cancer cases over the span of a lifetime.

Although most tap water meets legal standards set by the federal government, EWG researchers found that contaminates present in tap water create a measurable risk for cancer.

"The vast majority of community water systems meet legal standards," said Olga Naidenko, the vice president for science investigations at EWG, in a statement. "Yet the latest research shows that contaminants present in the water at those concentrations — perfectly legal — can still harm human health."

An earlier study conducted by EWG found that a cumulative analysis of contaminants in California tap water found heightened risk of cancer for 15,000.

Experts say that the risk of these carcinogens have been under debate for decades. They caution that the standards set for community water systems, which are regulated nationally by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), are complicated and require a balance between cost and safety.

Tap water not as safe as you think

The study, funded by the Park Foundation, compiled a list of 22 contaminants with carcinogenic risks present in 48,363 community water systems in the United States, which EWG estimates serve about 86% of the U.S. population. Based on a cumulative risk assessment, EWG found that per 10,000 people, four will have cancer over the span of the lifetime due to the contaminants in water.

"Drinking water contains complex mixtures of contaminants, yet government agencies currently assess the health hazards of tap water pollutants one by one," said Sydney Evans, the lead author of the paper, in a statement. "In the real world, people are exposed to combinations of chemicals, so it is important that we start to assess health impacts by looking at the combined effects of multiple pollutants."

The majority of water systems, they add, are in compliance with EPA standards. The EPA, in a statement to USA TODAY, said that legal limits are set for over 90 contaminants in drinking water.

EWG said that 87% of the cancer risk present in tap water comes from arsenic and byproducts of common disinfectants.

Long-term exposure to arsenic, per the World Health Organization, can cause skin cancer, as well as cancer of the bladder and the lungs. Meanwhile, byproducts of disinfectants have been classified by the NIH and EPA as known and possible human carcinogens that can cause liver and bladder cancer.

This study does not take into account the possible contaminants present in groundwater from private wells, nor does it take into account the heightened risk of carcinogens in vulnerable populations such as infants and children. 

Clean water is complicated

In recent years, multiple crises, from Newark, New Jersey to Flint, Michigan have revealed the complications and failures in the management of public water systems, from the different water sources used by municipalities to the pipes that deliver water to homes.

The EPA regulates public drinking water under the Safe Drinking Water Act, which was enacted in 1974. It requires the EPA to set standards for contaminants through the National Primary Drinking Water Regulations, which minimizes risk for contaminants.

A spokesperson with the EPA told USA TODAY that water regulations focus primarily on the contaminants that may cause the greatest public health risk.

The standard is splintered into two categories: the maximum contaminant level (MCL), which is enforceable by law and is less stringent, and the maximum contaminant level goal (MCLG), which is only a public health guideline.

For instance, the federally-mandated MCLG for arsenic is 0 micrograms per liter; however, the MCL is 10 micrograms per liter. Meanwhile, the EWG recommends that only four ten-thousandths of a microgram (0.0004 micrograms) of arsenic be allowed in water.

Prof. David Sedlak, a professor of environmental engineering at University of California, Berkeley, and the deputy director of the National Science Foundation-funded urban water research center ReNUWIt, says that regulations for drinking water in the United States are based on a complex balance between health risks from possible carcinogens and the cost of implementing new water cleaning systems.

Sedlak, who is not affiliated with the EWG study, told USA TODAY that arsenic and carcinogenic radionucleides such as radium are both naturally occurring in water systems. Setting the levels of regulation for these carcinogens especially challenging.

"For disinfectants," he said, "they've been in scrutiny over the decades and it's part of the reason why many cities have switched from chlorine to ozone."

The Water Research Center says that using ozone water treatment in lieu of chlorine reduces the risk of chemicals leaching into water supplies.

SOURCE: USA TODAY

In Nigeria, Dreadlocks Are Entangled With Beliefs About Danger

Flavour, a popular Nigerian musician, can wear his dreadlocks in peace because they are seen as a temporary fashion statement. Elizabeth Farida/Wikimedia Commons

BY AUGUSTINE AGWUELE

A grown man wearing his hair in dreadlocks is bound to attract attention in Nigeria. And it’s not always positive attention. Many Nigerians, regardless of their education and status, view dreadlocked men as dangerous. The hairstyle sometimes even gets a violent reaction.

This bias is deeply rooted in traditional religious beliefs and myths, especially those of the Yoruba and Igbo people.

My book on the symbolism of dreadlocks in Yorubaland tries to explain what knotted hair means to Yoruba people, and where these ideas come from. Numbering around 40 million, Yoruba people predominantly occupy southwestern Nigeria. In West Africa, they are found in Benin Republic, Ghana, Togo, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. In the diaspora, they are significantly present in the US, Brazil, Cuba, Haiti and the Caribbean.

An affront to society’s orderliness

A popular phrase used by Yoruba people to describe dreadlocks is “a crazy person’s hair”. The language also has an idiom that shows how people feel about madness. A person will ask, “kini ogun were?” (what is the cure for madness?) and get the response, “egba ni ogun were” (whip is the cure for madness).

Mentally disturbed people often wear dreadlocks due to neglect. Because they are unpredictable, they are avoided as they roam the streets, and sometimes beaten. Their knotted hair show disharmony with the community; being unkempt and unruly, they are viewed as an affront to societal norm of orderliness.

Adult men with dreadlocks are viewed similarly. They are perceived as volatile and dangerous. Their untamed hair connotes wildness. Therefore, they are associated with the wilderness; uncultivated and unruly. In traditional Yoruba and Igbo worldview, unkempt hair is akin to the forest – mysterious, dark, and to be avoided.

There are exceptions: musicians and athletes who wear these hairstyles are “tolerated” as they are presumed to be assuming a persona that matches their brand. Essentially, theirs is a temporary fashion statement. And because they are famous and successful, they are protected from attacks on the streets.

Dark and frightening by tradition

The Yoruba thought system has it that some children are raised in the forest by gnomes and other mysterious beings. They come back into the community with supernatural powers, strange mannerisms, and sometimes knotted hair. Since they traverse the physical and spiritual worlds, it is believed that they can discern the destiny of others and can negatively influence them.

These knotted-haired people are avoided, more so when their dreadlocks are greying because “normal” adult Igbo and Yoruba males shave their heads completely, or they cut their hair very short. Deviating hairstyles are viewed suspiciously.

Unlike adult males, children born with knotted hair are revered and welcomed as a gift of the gods and not a product of the wild. Such children are called “dada” among the Yoruba in western Nigeria and the Hausa in the north. In south eastern Nigeria, the Igbo call them “ezenwa” or “elena”.

In Yoruba mythology, Dada is the son of Yemoja, the goddess of the sea, wealth, procreation, and increase. Dada is said to be one of the deified Yoruba kings. His younger brother is believed to be Shango, the god of thunder, who wears cornrows.

Children-dada are presumed to be spiritual beings and descendants of the gods by virtue of their dreadlocks. As such, their hair is not to be groomed and can only be touched by their mothers. They are the bringers of wealth, which is symbolised in both Yoruba and Igbo cultures by cowrie shells. They are celebrated. Feasts are held in their honour.

Their time on earth is special. It is marked by special rites that define different phases of life. In nearly all cases, their hair is shaved before puberty in order to integrate them into the community. The shaving ritual takes place at a river, where the shaved head is washed. The cut hair is then stored in a pot containing medicinal ingredients and water from the river. The concoction is believed to have healing properties and needed when they fall ill.

After the hair-shaving ceremony, the dada wears “tamed” hair in conformity with societal expectations. The child is still recognised as special and mysterious but is now integrated into society. The visible sign of their spirituality is no longer present. Any grownup, therefore, who still wears their dreadlocks is deemed to have been possessed by evil forces, or chose to do so malevolently; in either case, dangerous.

Challenges to the culture
Despite their negative associations, dreadlocks increased in Nigeria’s religious and popular cultures in the 1960s. Itinerant priests of the Celestial Church of Christ appear in white gowns and knotted hair. The famous musician and talented artist from Osogbo, Twin Seven Seven, performed on stage and television with his dreadlocks and white attire. He was the sole survivor of seven (considered a mysterious number in Yoruba tradition) sets of twins.

Yorubaland has the highest rate of twins in the world. Twins are considered spiritual beings, so they are also revered and celebrated. Being a twin, having knotted hair, and only wearing white clothes (like the gods or ghosts), further mystified Twin Seven-Seven in popular imagination and fanciful stories about him spread. For example, it was said that he was raised in the forest by spiritual beings, hence his creative imagination and hairstyle.

In the 1970s and 80s, other Nigerian musicians like Majek Fashek were inspired by the fame of Jamaican reggae artists to begin styling their hair the same way. From the 1990s, Nigerian footballers joined in by wearing cornrows and dreadlocks.

Barring these exceptions, adults with unkempt hair are judged deviant beings who have become conduits for evil. Since it is difficult to differentiate between adults wearing dreadlocks as fashion statement from those with “evil dreadlocks”, people either flee from them or attack them out of fear and self preservation.

SOURCE: THE CONVERSATION

ICC Pretrial Hearing Starts In Central African Republic Case

In this Friday, Jan. 25, 2019 file photo, the chief of Central African Republic's soccer federation Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona stands during his initial appearance before the judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, the Netherlands. Two leaders of a predominantly Christian militia, Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona and Alfred Yekatom, involved in a bitter conflict with Muslim forces in the Central African Republic have appeared at the International Criminal Court for a hearing, that started Thursday Sept. 19, 2019, at which prosecutors are seeking to persuade judges that they have sufficient evidence to send the suspects to trial. (Koen Van Well/Pool photo via AP, File)

BY MIKE CORDER

THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS (AP) — Prosecutors urged International Criminal Court judges Thursday to put on trial two alleged leaders of a predominantly Christian militia involved in a bitter conflict with Muslim forces in Central African Republic, saying they armed and incited members to attack Muslim civilians in an attempt to regain power.

Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona and Alfred Yekatom are suspected of involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, persecution, torture and the use of child soldiers when they were senior leaders in the anti-Balaka militia. They have not entered pleas.

Prosecutor Kweku Vanderpuye told a three-judge panel at the global court that the crimes followed atrocities by Muslim forces known as the Seleka as they seized power in Central African Republic in 2013, forcing President Francois Bozize to flee into exile.

The interreligious violence left thousands dead and displaced hundreds of thousands more. Mosques, shops and homes were looted and destroyed. Bursts of deadly violence continue today despite attempts to make peace.

Vanderpuye alleged that Ngaissona was an influential leader of the anti-Balaka group and Yekatom a military leader who called himself Rambo and commanded thousands of fighters drawn from the ranks of local self-defense groups.

“From exile, Mr. Ngaissona and other members of Bozize’s inner circle used these groups,” Vanderpuye told judges. “They exploited the vengeance and hatred felt by the people to create a formidable fighting force which could defeat the Seleka, opening the way for them to reclaim power.”

However, the anti-Balaka did not limit themselves to fighting Seleka forces and instead “relentlessly terrorized” Muslim civilians as well, he said.

The prosecutor told judges that the anti-Balaka fighters used child soldiers to commit atrocities, recounting the story of one former child soldier who told prosecutors he was ordered to stab or cut off the ears of Muslim prisoners.

“When the prisoner was exhausted we would dig a shallow grave about knee height, put him in and then the chiefs will come back and kill him,” Vanderpuye said, quoting the former child soldier.

Ngaissona, who was chief of Central African Republic’s soccer federation when he was arrested on an ICC warrant in Paris last year, faces 111 charges. Yekatom, who was turned over to the court in 2018, faces 21 charges.

Yekatom’s lawyer, Mylène Dimitri, argued that her client cannot adequately defend himself because prosecutors are withholding evidence that they have collected in their investigations into crimes by the Seleka.

Yekatom “is defending himself in the dark,” Dimitri told the panel.

Central African Republic’s government asked the ICC in 2014 to investigate crimes allegedly committed by both the Seleka and the anti-Balaka. So far, no Seleka fighters have been publicly targeted by the court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda.

Judges will likely take months to decide whether to send the suspects to trial.

UK Deportation Of Three Men Halted After Detention Centre Death

Protest at Harmondsworth immigration removal centre after the death of Oscar Okwurime last week


Court rules deportees may have evidence about death of Oscar Okwurime in Harmondsworth

BY DIANE TAYLOR

The deportation of three men from the UK to Nigeria on Tuesday night was halted by the high court because they may be able to provide evidence about the death of a man in a detention centre.

Oscar Okwurime died in Harmondsworth detention centre next to Heathrow airport last Thursday. In an order made in the high court on Monday preventing the three men flying, Mr Justice Butler said: “There is a serious issue that there should not be a removal of persons for whom there are grounds to believe that they may have material evidence to give in relation to the death of Oscar Okwurime.”

However, he refused to accede to the request of lawyers representing some of the detainees who were in detention with Okwurime to widen the order to others due to fly on Tuesday who may also have information about his death.

A second application to broaden the injunction to this bigger group by lawyers representing some of the detainees before Mr Justice Jacobs on Tuesday evening also failed. The lawyers are making an emergency out of hours application to the court of appeal.

The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has called for an independent public inquiry into the death of Okwurime at Harmondsworth which, together with the neighbouring Colnbrook site, is the biggest such detention centre in Europe.

McDonnell tweeted: “I am deeply saddened and extremely concerned at another death in Harmondsworth detention centre in my constituency. An independent public inquiry is now urgently needed into the fatalities, medical impacts and harm caused by the use of detention.”

Guardian Today: the headlines, the analysis, the debate - sent direct to you

Detainees say Okwurime was arrested last month when he arrived at Heathrow from Nigeria. They say he had claimed asylum on arrival. His former cellmate, also from Nigeria, was released from detention just hours before he died.

He told the Guardian: “I called Oscar after lock-up on the night that he died. I may have been the last person he spoke to before he died. He was hoping that like me, he too would be released from detention. When he arrived in Harmondsworth, his blood pressure was taken. The nurse told him it was very high and that he needed to relax.

“He kept trying to get an appointment with a doctor in the detention centre but I don’t think he succeeded. This is such a difficult situation. I’m heartbroken. He was such a lovely and intelligent guy.”

Detainees reported hearing Okwurime calling out for help on the night he died. “We are all locked in during the night,” said one. . “If we had not been locked in, I would have gone to his assistance when he cried out for help.”

After Okwurime’s death, a note was circulated to detainees from Mitie Care & Custody, which has a Home Office contract to run the centre. The centre manager, Paul Rennie, said his company had launched an internal investigation alongside other investigations.

He described it as a “very sad and tragic event”, adding: “Please be assured we are doing all we can to reduce the risk of such incidents happening again in the future.”

The Home Office said police, the coroner and the prisons and probation ombudsman were investigating Okwurime’s death.

Toufique Hossain and Jamie Bell of Duncan Lewis Solicitors, who brought Tuesday’s legal challenge, said: “The offer of condolences from the organisation in whose supposed ‘care’ a man died is void of any meaning. The Home Office is a removal machine that is now sweeping up potential key witnesses to its own neglect.”

Karen Doyle, of the Movement for Justice campaign group, said: “Fellow detainees responded to the horrendous discovery of Oscar’s death with a determination to expose the truth and stop a cover-up. Despite being incarcerated they got their voice out. They are the only voice Oscar has left. And until all of them are safe from removal the truth will only be partial and justice will be jeopardised. Mitie and the Home Office must jointly be held to account.”

A Home Office spokesperson previously told the Guardian: “Any death in detention is a tragic event and our thoughts and condolences are with the family and friends of Mr Okwurime. The welfare of all those in our care is of the utmost importance. All deaths in immigration detention are subject to investigation by the police, the coroner and the independent prisons and probation ombudsman.”

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN UK

African Leaders Converge In Accra For Maiden Edition Of Kofi Annan Peace And Security (KAPS) Forum

Kofi Annan

EIN PRESS RELEASE

The Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) (https://www.KAIPTC.org/) has organized the maiden edition of the Kofi Annan Peace and Security (KAPS) Forum in Accra, Ghana, to facilitate discussions on evolving trends in peace and security in Africa. The forum was also organized to honour the sterling achievements of H.E. the late Kofi Annan and to immortalize his memory.

Under the theme, ‘Peace Operations in the Context of Violent Extremism in Africa’, the forum was held under the Distinguished patronage of H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana and the Chairmanship of H.E. Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the UN Office for West Africa and Sahel (UNOWAS).

Among the high level delegates were seven former African Heads of State namely; H.E. Pierre Buyoya, Former President of Burundi and AU High Representative to Mali and Sahel (MISAHEL), H.E Catharine Samba-Panza, Former President of Central African Republic, H.E. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Former President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, H.E. Dr Ernest Bai Koroma, Former President of Sierra Leone, Professor Amos Claudius Sawyer, Former President of Liberia, H.E. Olusegun Obasanjo, Former President of Nigeria and H.E. John Dramani Mahama, Former President of Ghana.

Addressing the delegates at the opening ceremony, the Commandant of KAIPTC, Air Vice Marshall Griffiths S. Evans shared the rationale behind the forum;

“The forum seeks to provide a platform for robust engagement on critical peace and security issues affecting the African continent. Our actions are guided by our mission to foster peace and stability through the provision of a globally-recognized capacity and policy support for all actors on African peace and security issues”, he stated.

In his address, the President of the Republic of Ghana, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, identified key interventions which can be implemented to tackle violent extremism.

“It is important that we promote and develop, on the continent, a system and culture of accountable governance, free of corruption, whereby our people are governed in accordance with the rule of law, respect for individual liberties and human rights, and the principles of democratic accountability”, he stressed.

He also threw more light on Ghana’s counter terrorism policy to combat violent extremism.

“Our Counter Terrorism Policy seeks to prevent acts of terrorism in the country. The Counter Terrorism Policy has led to the setting up of a Counter Terrorism Unit, within the National Security Council Secretariat, to lead and co-ordinate our efforts in the fight. Ghana has adopted a well-coordinated Inter Agency Approach, which encourages the timely sharing of information and intelligence, operational coordination and joint strategy formulation, and has proved essential towards ensuring the efficient execution of the country's Counter Terrorism Policy”, he explained.

The Kofi Annan Forum brought together over two hundred high-level delegates and diplomats from governmental and intergovernmental organizations (including the African Union and its Regional Economic Communities, United Nations and European Union). Security professionals and representatives from policy and research think tanks, development partners, training institutions and civil society groups were all present to participate in the dialogues.

The forum also seeks to deepen the collaboration between KAIPTC and international organisations such as the United Nations, African Union, Regional Economic Communities, Governments, development partners, civil society organisations and the business community.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training Centre (KAIPTC).

For further information, please contact the Corporate Affairs Unit of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) on +233302-718200 ext 1104/1203 or +233 550 303030. You can find the KAIPTC on facebook and twitter as: @Kaiptcgh. You can further find out more about the KAIPTC on our website: https://www.KAIPTC.org/.

About the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre: The Ghana Ministry of Defence (MoD) established the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) (https://www.KAIPTC.org/) in 1998 and commissioned it in 2004. The purpose was to build upon and share Ghana's five decades of internationally acclaimed experience and competence in peace operations with other states in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region and the rest of Africa. This was in recognition of the need for training military, police and civilian men and women to meet the changing demands of multidimensional peace operations. The Centre is one of the three (3) Peacekeeping Training Centres of Excellence mandated by the ECOWAS to offer training in peacekeeping and peace support operations (PSO) in Africa.

The Centre delivers training courses in in three thematic areas; Peace Support Operations, Conflict Management and Peace and Security Studies and also runs Masters and PhD programmes in same. The KAIPTC has a world-class research department that undertakes research in the thematic areas in Peace and Security. Located in Accra, Ghana, the KAIPTC is an internationally-recognized institution and has till date trained and tutored over 21, 496 participants and students since its inception.

KAIPTC is a gender sensitive organization and committed to gender equality. Following the launch of its Gender policy in 2014, the Centre has mainstreamed gender into its policies and programmes, and integrates same in its focal areas, namely training, research and post-graduate education. The Centre has developed a Sexual Harassment policy and fully oriented employees on same. It has also provided a Nursing and Childcare Centre and instituted a paternity leave policy, all with the aim to create a conducive work environment at KAIPTC.

Disappearing Lives – Africa’s Last Tribes In Pictures

CHRISTOPHER RIMMER/WEBWIRE

Captured over three years “Confluence – Tradition & Modernity and the Last Tribes of the Kunene River” is the title of a stunning exhibition of photographic portraits by internationally acclaimed photographer, Christopher Rimmer. The series features majestic portraits of the last remaining African tribes who live along the Kunene River in Namibia and Angola.

British photographer, Christopher Rimmer’s latest body of work, “Confluence – Tradition & Modernity and the Last Tribes of the Kunene River,” recently debuted to critical acclaim at Art Expo in New York and will be exhibited worldwide throughout 2019.

Rimmer, who is best known for his large-scale portraits of subjects who exist on the fringes of mainstream society, has frequently used Sub-Saharan Africa as a backdrop for his work. The talented photographer considered it critical to record the last remaining tribes of this region before their ancient way of life is erased by the unstoppable juggernaut of commercialization and progress.

“The Kunene region is rich is untapped mineral wealth,” Rimmer explains, “and the river itself offers the potential to be dammed for a hydro electrical scheme that will generate power for large scale mining projects. This in turn has attracted a massive in-flow of investment capital, particularly from China, that has the potential to transform this ancient landscape and also forever alter the traditional ways of life of the tribes who live there.”

“I considered it important that these unique and majestic people be captured at this particular point in time before modernity changes their ancient way of life completely. I doubt the way of life I have captured in Confluence will be present in any meaningful way within twenty years and I find this rather sad because a unique and beautiful way of life will be lost forever.”

The exhibition comprises twenty large-scale portraits of the Ovahimba, Ovakahona, Ovazimba, Mwila, Herero and Macubal people, each who have their own unique customs, language, dress and spiritual traditions and live along this ancient and beautiful river which forms the natural border between Angola in the north and Namibia in the south.

As a backdrop, Rimmer has employed what is known in the film industry as a ‘scrim’ to considerable effect. A ‘scrim’ is basically a translucent piece of fabric stretched around a frame and placed behind the subject that darkens and distorts the space behind the subject. He explains, “I used this as a device as a means to encourage the viewer to focus on the form and expression of the subject, whilst still retaining an awareness of the landscape in which the subjects live and in which they were photographed. In some of the photographs from the series, you can actually see the Kunene River in the background.”

The stunning and thought provoking images which make up “Confluence – Tradition and Modernity and the Last Tribes of the Kunene River” may be viewed on Christopher Rimmer’s website at: https://christopherrimmer.com/confluence-exhibition/

Mugabe Is Dead, But Old Men Still Run Southern Africa

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa at the funeral of his predecessor, Robert Mugabe. EPA-EFE/Aaron Ufumeli

BY HENNING MELBER

The death of Robert Gabriel Mugabe (95) saw another of the first-generation leaders of newly independent southern African states leave the world stage.

Southern Africa was the last region on the continent to obtain majority rule. The independence of Zimbabwe (1980), Namibia (1990) and democracy in South Africa (1994) ended white settler minority regimes. They were replaced in power by liberation movements. The Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu, later Zanu-PF), the South West African People’s Organisation (Swapo) and the African National Congress (ANC) have been in government since then.

Mugabe’s death invites a look at the succession – or lack of – in these three countries.

Despite the cultivation of heroic narratives and patriotic history, the first-generation freedom fighters who took over the state offices are not immortal. Mugabe’s male-dominated leadership structures based on liberation struggle credentials remain entrenched.

In all three countries a second struggle generation is gradually entering the higher echelons of party and state. But the “born free” – people who were born after liberation – as well as women have hardly made significant inroads into the meritocratic, male-dominated core structures of power.

The question is how much longer the “old men syndrome” will remain alive and kicking in the three countries, despite growing frustration among the politically powerless.
Zimbabwe

Celebrated by many as an icon of the anti-colonial struggle, Mugabe was nevertheless an autocratic ruler who overstayed his time in office. The military finally replaced him with his longtime confidante Emmerson Mnangagwa in a soft coup in November 2017.

Mnangagwa’s sidelining was initiated by Mugabe’s younger wife Grace (born in 1965, she was 40 years his junior) to hijack the succession of her husband. She led a group of Zanu-PF members, dubbed the G40 (for Generation 40). The name referred to a constitutional clause that everyone above the age of 40 qualified as a presidential candidate. But, the military and security apparatus and its leadership was still firmly rooted in the struggle generation and opted for “Team Lacoste” named after “the Crocodile”, which is Mnangagwa’s nickname.

This ended the political careers of the G40. So far, the “elders” remain in charge and in firm control.

Morgan Tsvangirai (born 1952) founded the Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai in 1999. The opposition party has been denied electoral victory several times since 2002.

After Tsvangirai’s death earlier this year the much younger Nelson Chamisa (born in 1978) won the internal party power struggle. He challenged Mnangagwa in the elections in July last year.

Thanks mainly to rural area results, Zanu-PF recorded a landslide victory in the parliamentary elections. Mnangagwa also secured a (disputed) and much more narrow first term in office as elected head of state.

This is partly due to a continued stricter social control in rural areas. Political interaction and activities in villages can be much more easily monitored than in urban areas. But it also suggests that traditional values – such as respect for elders – remain alive. This gives the generation in power a comparative advantage over younger competitors.

Similar generational constellations also benefited the governing parties in Namibia and South Africa.
Namibia

Namibia has had three state presidents since independence in 1990. Sam Nujoma, co-founder of Swapo in 1960, was its president until 2007 and the country’s first head of state for three terms until 2005. In May he celebrated his 90th birthday in seemingly good health. Though he remains influential, he has been less visible lately.

In a heavy-handed inner-party battle he ensured that his crown prince Hifikepunye Pohamba (born 1936) followed for two terms. Pohamba was succeeded by Namibia’s first Prime Minister Hage Geingob (born 1941).

After a clash with Nujoma, Geingob left Namibia to head the Global Coalition for Africa in Washington. Returning to Namibia’s parliament, he made a comeback under Pohamba. Reappointed as Prime Minister in 2012, he became state president in 2015 and party leader in 2017.

Geingob is tipped to be reelected as head of state for another five-year term in the next presidential and parliamentary elections in November. His current Vice President Nangolo Mbumba is the same age. In the Swapo electoral college on 7 September he secured another top ranking on the party’s candidate list for the National Assembly and will remain in the inner circle of “Team Hage”.

Five years ago the delegates, in a surprise move, ousted some of the old party cadres. But the elders remained dominant in cabinet. This time the expected further generational shift did not happen.

Party president Geingob could also fill ten secure seats on the electoral list and brought some of those seniors back, who did not make the cut. As the head of state he can appoint another eight non-voting members to parliament. This will allow him to retain several more of the trusted old cadres.

Despite this, Namibia’s second struggle generation (those who went into exile in the mid-1970s) is gradually taking over.
South Africa

Nelson Mandela,(1918-2013) served only one term as state president. His successors Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma (both born 1942) were recalled by the ANC and did not survive the full two terms in office.

Zuma was succeeded by Cyril Ramaphosa. Born in 1952, he is ten years younger than his predecessor.

Inter-generational tensions have begun to show in South Africa. In the latest national elections young South Africans, or “born frees”, showed their disdain for the ANC’s old guard and agenda by staying away from the polls as a form of protest.

This younger generation has shown its frustration with the limits to liberation. Many dismiss formal politics. Their preference is to engage in social movements or other parties.

One such choice is to support Julius Malema (born 1981) and his Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) which was founded in 2013 and appeals to a smaller pan-African segment of the younger generation. But the party’s election results remained behind its expectations and kept it in a distant third place, garnering only 10,80% in the latest polls.
The future

For obvious reasons, the first-generation freedom fighters, who took over the state offices after liberation, continue to place a high value on seniority in age.

Younger generations of leaders and women make only limited inroads into the structures of power, and the “born free” are not represented.

Rather, the second struggle generation is moving upward to take over, maintaining a system which leaves little room for renewal beyond the confines of individual credentials within the ranks of the former liberation movements.

The continued cultivation of a heroic narrative and patriotic history includes the internalised conception that freedom fighters never retire. Theirs is a lifelong struggle. “A luta continua” remains alive as long as they are.

But this is a backward looking perspective, nurtured by a romanticised past. It blocks new ideas and visions by younger generations contributing to governance, which would create ownership and make them feel represented. It prevents rather than creating a common future.

SOURCE: THE CONVERSATION

10,000 Nigerian Girls Forced Into Prostitution In Burkina Faso – Ambassador

Ramatu Ahmed, Nigerian Ambassador to Burkina Faso. Image via NAN

BY NAN

OUAGADOUGOU (NEWS AGENCY OF NIGERIA) -- The Nigerian Ambassador to Burkina Faso, Ramatu Ahmed says no fewer than 10,000 Nigerian girls are forced into prostitution in Burkina Faso.

Ahmed disclosed this in an Interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN) in Ouagadougou on Monday

She said the victims of sex-trade were mainly underage girls kept in appalling conditions in Ouagadougou and in mining camps across the West African country.

Ahmed who had been in Burkina Faso since August 2017, said that over 200 Nigerian girls had been voluntarily repatriated this year.

According to the Ambassador, many of the girls who were promised jobs in the country and Europe by the human traffickers are not willing to return home.

“The spate of human trafficking here in Burkina Faso is a big concern to the embassy because at present, we have nothing less than 10,00 Nigerian girls who have been trafficked into Burkina Faso as commercial sex workers and most of these girls are underage, most left school and are roaming about doing commercial sex work in Burkina Faso.

“This apart from been a dent to our country, it is also a sort of concern as far as their health is concerned, This is very serious to us and most of the girls who wants to go back as a result this voluntary repatriation do it because they were tricked, they did not know the condition there are going to found themselves here.

“For every Nigerian girl that escapes and wants to go back, there are more than 10 in the bush that are willing to carry on.

She said the Embassy is partnering with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) office in Ouagadougou to assist in the voluntary repatriation of some of the victims of human trafficking.

“200 girls have been repatriated to Nigeria by the embassy , this is apart from the ones that runs to the churches , some to other Civil society Organisations(CSOs) and the International Organisations on Migration (IOM).

In fact, the IOM is complaining to the embassy that most its money meant for West Africa is used to repatriate Nigerian girls back home and they are complaining that with time, they would not be able to cope with the number.

“So if the embassy alone have repatriated 200 girls, you can imagine how many girls the IOM has repatriated and the reason they are complaining.

Ahmed also appealed to Nigerian parents and guardians to monitor their children and wards more closely and not to be swayed by promises of greener pastures abroad.

“I am pleading with Nigerian parents that they should know what their children are doing, most of the girls said that their parents don;t know what they are here and some will tell us that their parents know and some will say that they were sent by either their father, mother, Uncle.

“This is problem that emanates from the family, for the girls, i wish to tell them that anybody they see that comes to tell them that he is taking then to somewhere, either employed as hair dressers or work in the shop, these are human traffickers.

Anybody that will tell them not work in Nigeria but to move outside is simply a human trafficker and they should be weary of such persons. she said

It will be recalled that the U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report (TIR) 2019, Burkina Faso is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking.

NAN reports that the Director General of National Agency for the Prohibtion of Trafficking In Persons (NAPTIP), Julie Okah Donlie while briefing the ECOWAS Parliament on the spate of trafficking in West Africa in December 2018 said that 500 girls were trafficked from Nigeria on daily basis.

She added that a whopping 20,000 Nigerians girls were also discovered in Mali.

One Skill That Doesn’t Deteriorate With Age

Toni Morrisson. Image taken at the Typewriters Booth, Leimert Park Village Book Fair Saturday, August 24, 2019.

BY ROGER J. KREUZ

When Toni Morrison died on Aug. 5, the world lost one of its most influential literary voices.

But Morrison wasn’t a literary wunderkind. “The Bluest Eye,” Morrison’s first novel, wasn’t published until she was 39. And her last, “God Help the Child,” appeared when she was 84. Morrison published four novels, four children’s books, many essays and other works of nonfiction after the age of 70.

Morrison isn’t unique in this regard. Numerous writers produce significant work well into their 70s, 80s and even their 90s. Herman Wouk, for example, was 97 when he published his final novel, “The Lawgiver.”

Such literary feats underscore an important point: Age doesn’t seem to diminish our capacity to speak, write and learn new vocabulary. Our eyesight may dim and our recall may falter, but, by comparison, our ability to produce and to comprehend language is well preserved into older adulthood.

In our forthcoming book, “Changing Minds: How Aging Affects Language and How Language Affects Aging,” my co-author, Richard M. Roberts, and I highlight some of the latest research that has emerged on language and aging. For those who might fear the loss of their language abilities as they grow older, there’s plenty of good news to report.
Language mastery is a lifelong journey

Some aspects of our language abilities, such as our knowledge of word meanings, actually improve during middle and late adulthood.

One study, for example, found that older adults living in a retirement community near Chicago had an average vocabulary size of over 21,000 words. The researchers also studied a sample of college students and found that their average vocabularies included only about 16,000 words.

In another study, older adult speakers of Hebrew – with an average age of 75 – performed better than younger and middle-aged participants on discerning the meaning of words.

On the other hand, our language abilities sometimes function as a canary in the cognitive coal mine: They can be a sign of future mental impairment decades before such issues manifest themselves.

In 1996, epidemiologist David Snowdon and a team of researchers studied the writing samples of women who had become nuns. They found that the grammatical complexity of essays written by the nuns when they joined their religious order could predict which sisters would develop dementia several decades later. (Hundreds of nuns have donated their brains to science, and this allows for a conclusive diagnosis of dementia.)

While Toni Morrison’s writing remained searingly clear and focused as she aged, other authors have not been as fortunate. The prose in Iris Murdoch’s final novel, “Jackson’s Dilemma,” suggests some degree of cognitive impairment. Indeed, she died from dementia-related causes four years after its publication.
Don’t put down that book

Our ability to read and write can be preserved well into older adulthood. Making use of these abilities is important, because reading and writing seem to prevent cognitive decline.

Keeping a journal, for example, has been shown to substantially reduce the risk of developing various forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.

Reading fiction, meanwhile, has been associated with a longer lifespan. A large-scale study conducted by the Yale University School of Public Health found that people who read books for at least 30 minutes a day lived, on average, nearly two years longer than nonreaders. This effect persisted even after controlling for factors like gender, education and health. The researchers suggest that the imaginative work of constructing a fictional universe in our heads helps grease our cognitive wheels.

Language is a constant companion during our life journey, so perhaps it’s no surprise that it’s interwoven into our health and our longevity. And researchers continue to make discoveries about the connections between language and aging. For example, a study published in July 2019 found that studying a foreign language in older adulthood improves overall cognitive functioning.

A thread seems to run through most of the findings: In order to age well, it helps to keep writing, reading and talking.

While few of us possess the gifts of a Toni Morrison, all of us stand to gain by continuing to flex our literary muscles.

Richard M. Roberts, a U.S. diplomat currently serving as the Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Okinawa, Japan, is a contributing author of this article.

Roger J. Kreuz and Richard M. Roberts are the authors of:

Changing Minds: How Aging Affects Language and How Language Affects Aging

SOURCE: THE CONVERSATION

A Hard Lesson for Migrants Who Give Up: There May Be No Welcome Mat Back Home

Thiaroye-sur-Mer has been a major source of migration for more than a decade.CreditYagazie Emezi for The New York Times

BY ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS

THIAROYE-SUR-MER, SENEGAL (THE NEW YORK TIMES) — The fishing village has long sent its men to sea, but after foreign trawlers scraped the bottom clean, the men began coming back empty-handed. It has long sent its men abroad for work, too, but their luck is often no better.

Last November, when El Hadji Macoura Diop, a 37-year-old fisherman, failed to reach Europe by boat, he could not bring himself to call his wife and tell her he was giving up. “I knew it would just destroy her,” he said.

Hard as it is to leave home for an unknown land and an uncertain future, coming back, migrants say, can be even harder. Often, they feel ashamed to admit defeat, especially to families that may have scrimped to raise money for their trip. And they struggle to reintegrate into the societies they left behind.

In 2010, when he was 19, Yaya Guindo fled his life herding cattle in a small farming village in Ivory Coast. Last winter, after eight years on the road working in construction and at restaurants, he returned, broken and defeated, from a detention center in Libya.





He tried to go home, he said, but his friends mocked him. “I didn’t have anything,” he said. “I was embarrassed.”

Moustapha Diouf, right, himself a returned migrant, created a community center for them in Thiaroye-sur-Mer, Senegal.CreditYagazie Emezi for The New York Times


The experiences of Mr. Diop and Mr. Guindo are far from unusual. Researchers estimate that one out of four people who migrate in search of opportunity return to their country of birth — some by choice, others not.

Just since 2017, the International Organization for Migration has helped more than 62,000 migrants return to 13 countries in West and Central Africa, transported on charter flights and buses arranged by the agency. Many said they wanted to go home after being detained in abysmal conditions in Libyan detention centers, like one in Tajoura that was bombed in early July, killing more than 50 people.

Once back, they are offered help reintegrating, including temporary shelter, pocket money, job training and psychological counseling.

“These people left for a reason, and if you don’t address that, they will keep dying at sea,” said Florence Kim, a spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration, which runs the program. “If you give people what they needed in the first place, they don’t need to take the risks.”

The organization placed Mr. Guindo in a training program as a restaurant worker in a trendy neighborhood of Abidjan, the largest city in Ivory Coast. Other returning migrants have been given training as carpenters, tailors or shopkeepers.

But after the initial support, the migrants are on their own.

“We’re trying not to create a parallel system where migrants who are coming back to their country would have better service than Ivorians who chose not to leave,” Lavinia Prati, a reintegration officer for the International Organization for Migration.

The transition can be rocky.

Mr. Guindo, for example, has angered his employers by skipping work to play basketball for a local club. He says he needs to maintain good relations with the club because it is giving him housing in exchange for playing.

Yet as hard as it is to adjust, Mr. Guindo said he was staying put.

“I saw people dying of hunger, I saw women raped, men beheaded,” he said. “What I saw, what I lived, what I heard — I would not leave again.”

Another returnee to Ivory Coast, Jessica Kablan, 27, came back seven months pregnant by a man she had turned to for protection on the road. Although the nature of the relationship was intrinsically coercive, it seemed to her the best choice she could make under the circumstances. When her boyfriend back home — who had helped pay for her trip — realized she was pregnant, he ended the relationship.

She does not blame him.

“I came back with a child,” she said. “How could he accept that?”

Meliane Lorng, a psychologist who counsels returning migrants through the International Organization for Migration, says the women with children often don’t tell their families that they are back, “because the infant is the living testimony that they were raped.”

Uncounted other migrants, like the fisherman, have returned on their own, without the help of humanitarian agencies.

Thiaroye-sur-Mer has been a major source of migration for more than a decade. Hundreds of men have tried to reach Europe — mainly Spain. Everyone knows the migrant motto, “Barca ou barzakh”: Wolof for “Barcelona or die.”

Some make it. Some die trying. And some return, said Moustapha Diouf, himself a returned migrant, who created a community center for them.

To the outsider, Thiaroye-sur-Mer can seem like an idyllic place, not somewhere people would be eager to leave: Men sit on the beach, mending their nets, while children play in the surf. But when they do come back home, migrants often get a stark reminder of why they left in the first place.

One recent day, Mr. Diop, the Thiaroye-sur-Mer fisherman who abandoned his attempt to reach Europe, and his five partners came back to shore with about 100 small silver fish called sardinella in their nets. Once the owner of the boat got his share, they would earn about a dollar each, he said.

There was a time when some migrants setting off in hopes of a better life left right from the shores of the village by pirogue, the colorfully painted wooden canoes used for fishing. More recently, the grapevine has advised them to go by air to Morocco, where Senegalese do not need visas, and then catch passage across the Mediterranean with a smuggler.

From the roofs of the village houses, the view of the ocean goes on forever. It is easy to imagine that Europe might be just beyond the horizon. And it is possible to forget, if only for a moment, the many dangers of the journey.

Often, it is the women who encourage the men to migrate.

Mr. Diop’s mother, Fatou Ndaw, 55, chose him to go because he was the oldest of three brothers, and a fisherman. “He was the one who knows how to read the signs of the ocean,” she said.

Mr. Diop tried twice.

On his first attempt, in 2006, he headed for the Canary Islands. Along the way, he watched as six people from his village died after bouts of vomiting and dehydration, their bodies tossed overboard with a prayer.

Mr. Diop landed, but he was deported two days before an uncle living in Spain arrived to claim him, he said.

To pay for his second attempt, last fall, Mr. Diop’s mother sold her jewelry; his wife, Mbayang Hanne, saved the money that she earned frying doughnuts under a tent on the beach and selling them with coffee.

Mr. Diop bought a round-trip plane ticket to Casablanca, where he did not need a visa and could stay with a childhood friend. From there, he took a bus to Tangier and boarded a boat for Spain.

This time, his boat was stopped before it reached international waters. Mr. Diop says he was fingerprinted and dropped at the Algerian border. He walked 16 hours with other migrants until a car picked them up and took them to Casablanca.

In Casablanca, the weather was bad and the boats were not running. He slept on the street in the rain. His round-trip ticket on Royal Air Maroc was expiring in two days. Homesick and miserable, Mr. Diop called his parents. They advised him to use the ticket to return home.

He spent some sleepless nights agonizing over whether to call his wife, and decided not to.

At the airport back in Dakar, he did not even have enough money for a taxi. A stranger took pity on him and drove him home.

To Mr. Diop's relief, his wife was out when he got there — but all that did was put off the inevitable. When she returned, she was shocked to find him in the house.

It was hard to explain why he had failed when so many others had succeeded. Some of his neighbors, Mr. Diop felt, were judging him. But others told him it was not his fault.

“Europe doesn’t belong to anybody,” he recalled their telling him. “If God decides, one day you’ll have breakfast in Europe. Never give up.”

And he has not. Mr. Diop says he is not discouraged by deaths he has seen on the migrant path. It is simply part of the risk, he says.

He and his family are saving for him to leave again.

Ousmane Balde contributed reporting from Thiaroye-sur-Mer. Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.

SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES

As Biafra Berths At EU

Lanre Adewole. Image: Twitter

BY LANRE ADEWOLE

Let’s assume there were accruable deficits from the Nuremberg attack of Senator Ike Ekweremadu to Igbo separatist movement IPOB, the glorious (yes, glorious) appearance of its leader Maxi Nnamdi Kanu at the European Union congregation of September 10, at its Brussels’ conclave, must have restored the movement’s balance to solid green, from any shade of red, aftermath the Ike’s show. Without doubt, majority of my Yoruba brethren is still anti-Ndigbo, despite the confidence-building rapprochement between the genuine leaders of the two ethnic blocs and there could be justification for the grassroots’ anger, if the commercial conducts and a times, the away-politics of Ndigbo in the South-West, particularly in Lagos, come into play, as the balance for trust, reliability, trade-truth, shared humility and abiding neighbourliness.

Yes, it could be frustrating loving an average Igbo trader, businessman or even politician, operating around one’s neighbourhood. For a race with scarred sensibility and warrior mentality, and some may add, damaged conscience, unconditional understanding is required to understand such a people.

If Ndigbo still feel till today that it can only thrive in togetherness strictly with its own, it is pertinent to see beyond the parochialism of One Nigeria, One Nation that has only existed in the greed of those with controlling levers of power to understand why Ndigbo are insistently desirous of becoming a big fish in a small ocean of their landlocked domain, when it could still be a big fish, growing fatter, in the bigger Nigeria ocean of orisirisi (odds and ends).

For sure, Ndigbo didn’t become an agony neighbour overnight. Like the cantankerous Never-Trump US Rep. Ilhan Oman said, some people did something, in describing the monstrosity of 9/11 bombing, a nation did something to one of her own between July 6, 1967 and January 15, 1970 and still doing something to the hurting one and funny enough not expecting the beaten one, not to cry. The beaten one, will cry mana, (pardon my code-mixing) and unlike the rest of America which has continuously raged at the Somali-naturalized American, the rest of Nigeria, in reverse gear, is taunting the one, that needed reassurances that forcing the race to stay in the Nigeria space, was a genuine effort at everyone, becoming family again.

If such a fellow wants out, why force and forcing him in?

To force her way out of Nigeria, where she feels treated as surplus to requirement, Ndigbo has over time, become brash, proud and loud, almost insufferable, a racial trait I feel, was deliberately developed for the rest of Nigeria to just cast her out. As if in a game of wit, the rest of Nigeria (Hausa and Yoruba precisely) has refused to let go, without an overt silver lining the edginess to the diagonal relationships, would ever be smoothened. So what is the way out, for the unloveable and the seeming unstoppable?

Except for public display of political correctness, the soul of an average Ndigbo is already severed from the soulless nation called Nigeria. You ask if I share the race’s sentiment. I’m for new things and the simple argument that won me over was from Chief Ladi Rotimi-Williams, SAN, the unsung brilliant scion of Timi the Law. “If UK that wedged us into a country is renegotiating its future, why must we hold on forever to what such a Kingdom gave us. Why cant we look at what they gave us again after almost 60 years”. Brilliant, isn’t it?

I’m for a renegotiated Nigeria. Thankfully, it is the song everywhere. Even Buhari’s Aso Rock said it was for it, though before the 2019 poll. Hope nothing has changed after the exercise. Two Octobers would make it 60 years of the borrowed nationhood, governance structure and deliberately-skewed political power distribution, to heavily favour the North, which has been unabashedly garrulous in “victory”.

Whatever you want to say about Kanu, his overseas advocacy is pumping the debate on togetherness and the forms it should take. The Nigerian government may pretend for all it can, that he’s just a pest that would be blown away with time, if ignored. Unfortunately for the current operators of the Nigerian state, this guy and his message are perching dangerously on where he could not be left alone for too long and can’t be smashed anyhow, for precious things, not to go into smithereens with the blast.

I like the phase Mr. Kanu has moved his secessionist message. Guess he had read Madiba’s Long Walk To Freedom. There is no point wasting precious lives in the name of confrontation with security agencies. Buratai and his men are trained to kill, only intellectualism can maim them. Yes, blood is always required to uproot status quo, but Biafra has shed enough. Fortunately for IPOB, save for a couple of dramatis personae, the current administration is headed and loaded to the hilt, with provincial fellows. If Kanu could keep his head and continuously tap into foreign influences, contacts and platforms, soon, he would be seated side-by-side with the Nigerian delegation at the United Nations, possibly including his tormentors-in-power. Someday, the ear of the world, would arch to the real Nigerian story and nobody would be able to stand in the way of the debate on the future of our togetherness.

You ask where is Yoruba in all of these. After Gani Adams’ local activism landed him the prestigious Iba title, the gap has been yawning for genuine emancipators. Though the pretenders around are just into the bokoto (cow) politics of 2023, the usual fire-brigade approach, well known with our sporting activities, may still work for Yoruba next year when Nigeria @60, would be entering a crucial phase, regarding her future. Somehow, everyone would be ready and I will personally be praying for Nnamdi Kanu.

SOURCE: NIGERIAN TRIBUNE