Retracing the Footsteps of a Liberation Struggle Icon: “Where Others Wavered, the Autobiography of Sam Nujoma”

The road to demobilisation

New Era, Republic of Namibia

IN an attempt to prevent further delay in the implementation of Resolution 435, SWAPO approached the UN and offered to repay the full UNTAG operational costs after independence – for both military and civilian components, repaying the UN with its own resources.

Our offer was not accepted. Our campaign against the reduction of UNTAG peacekeeping forces was fought and lost. This reduction, of course, seriously downgraded the potential effectiveness of the peacekeeping forces in an emergency situation, given the sheer size of the land which Namibian territory constituted.

On 16 February 1989, the implementation of Resolution 435 was finally authorized by UN Security Council Resolution 632. Although the Security Council agreed to the reduction of the UNTAG military component, we had won the concession that the 3,500 forces which had been subtracted from the full original strength of 7,500 would be held in reserve.

Resolution 640, later in the year, required the disbandment of Koevoet, but this, unlike the cut in UNTAG numbers, was not carried out.

The weeks we had lost while we and our friends had done all in our power to retain the full strength of the peacekeeping force inevitably delayed UNTAG’s arrival in Namibia, with further consequences that assisted those intent on torpedoing the implementation of Resolution 435. General Prem Chad, in command of the military component of UNTAG, arrived in Windhoek on 26 February 1989. But by the end of March, on the eve of the final cessation of hostilities, fewer than one quarter of the 4,650-strong UNTAG force were in place, and of these scarcely a handful were in the northern Namibian war zone.

My own movements were restricted in the early months by the need to be with our military forces at Headquarters in Lubango and with the SWAPO Political Headquarters in Luanda. So much of our fighting had been done by men and women politically motivated, that we had to do all in our power to explain to them the full implications of their approaching demobilization. Some of the commanders expressed strong misgivings about our agreeing to the demobilization of PLAN and the ending of the armed liberation struggle.

There was a huge task awaiting us back home and we could lose no time in preparing the way, particularly in facing the economic problems confronting the country. I addressed the Council of Ministers of the Southern African Development Co-ordinating Conference (SADCC) in Luanda on 3 February 1989, and outlined the future role we could play in cooperation with Angola, Botswana and Zambia, particularly in dealing with the region’s transport problems. I also warned that apartheid South Africa would do all in its power to “ undermine and predetermine the outcome of the transition to independence” in its favour and install a puppet government in Namibia.

An international businessman arranged for me to meet, in London, senior directors of the Anglo-American Corporation, which I did at the Ritz Hotel on 9 February. The Consolidated Diamond Mines (CDM) of South West Africa, a key subsidiary of DeBeers, was a major contributor to the Namibian economy through its gem diamond mining operation north of the Orange River mouth. CDM had made scarcely any attempt in the past to show any interest either in contact with SWAPO or in the democratic future of the country. Nevertheless, we wanted to make it clear to the directors of such major companies that we had no wish to disrupt their operations, only to ensure that proper return went to the Namibian people, through taxes, wages and the localizing of subsidiary activities. I found Mr Nicholas Oppenheimer and his colleagues receptive and friendly and relations have been cordial since impendence.

Perhaps because Rio Tinto Zinc (RTZ) had so flagrantly defied UN Decree No. 1 in exporting Namibian uranium from the mine that they managed and mined at Rossing, near Swakopmund, this company had done much more for the country than CDM. They had set up the Rossing Foundation, which contributed to research, education and training in agriculture and other fields, and seemed much more interested in the future of the country than was CDM, despite the latter’s much longer involvement in exploitation of Namibian resources.

It was not true, however, as was reported from time to time, that I had had personal meetings with RTZ Chairmen over the years. This rumour must have come from their own public relations officials, or was at least kept alive by them, as they never contradicted it, though SWAPO did. Their breach of UN Decree No. 1 took place under the Labour administration in Britain. They claimed that they were dependent on the uranium from Rossing and that the ore they extracted illegally at Rossing was the richest and was indispensable to Britain’s nuclear power programme.

Though my meeting in February 1989 with RTZ was off the record, the press got wind of it. I gave an interview to the London Times in which I announced that independent Namibia would join the OAU, SADCC and UN and that we were also considering membership of the Commonwealth, simply that the procedures had to be followed.

We valued the great support SWAPO had received over many years from the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation, which has continued since our independence to fund and administer training programmes over a wide field. For me, the most important event of the first three months of 1989 took place on 29 and 30 March when I inspected huge parades of our PLAN combatants at the Hainjeko Military Academy in Lubango, Kahama, Xangongo and other SWAPO military training camps, and read out to them the terms of the ceasefire which would come into full effect on 1 April 1989. I told them that from that day most of them would become civilians again and would be returned to Namibia to take part in “the political mobilization of the masses, to vote for SWAPO, and thereby consolidate the revolutionary gains for which SWAPO had fought, for so many years”.

It was a deeply moving occasion as I stood with Comrades Hidipo Hamutenya, first Minister of Information and Broadcasting: Peter Mueshihange, first Minister of Defence: Dimo Hamaambo, the Army Commander: the Chief of Staff Charles Namoloh, known as “Ho Chi Minh”: and the field Commanders, among them Patrick Iyambo Lungada, who had fought heroically since the launching of the armed liberation struggle at Omugulu-gOmbashe. Over 9,000 men and women combatants of PLAN marched past as I took the salute.

I announced the demobilization of all but a basic security force that would be needed if South Africa and its western allies, as we anticipated, were to try a last minute trick to destroy the process of withdrawal and implementation of Resolution 435. This reserve included those fighters who were still deployed further south. We could not afford to disband those in the forward positions that would be the frontline if South Africa were to violate the ceasefire agreement.

From the demobilization parade I hurried to Zimbabwe to attend the meeting in Harare of the Association of West European Parliamentarians Against Apartheid, a commitment which I had made earlier.

Margaret Thatcher, then British Prime Minister, had been on a state visit to Zimbabwe only two days before and had flown on to Malawi. She had given a press conference before leaving and refused to confirm or deny that her last stop would be Windhoek. We were suspicious of what she had in mind. She had met ‘Pik’ Botha in London a fortnight before, and clearly meant to be part of the Namibian “ settlement” though she had been a major obstacle by supporting Reagan’s policies since 1981. President Mugabe told me that she did not inform him that she was going to fly from Blantyre, Malawi to Windhoek, Namibia.

Mobs Block Passage for Buses Carrying Immigrant Children in California

Right-wing mob blocks passage for buses carrying immigrants and
their children in California.

By Holly Yan, CNN
11:46 AM EDT, Wed July 2, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
140 undocumented immigrants arrive from Texas in Southern California
Protesters block them from being processed at the Murrieta Border Patrol station
Mayor: "Please remember these are human beings that are fleeing the violence"
"Everybody needs to go through the legal ways," one protester says

Explore the journey out of the shadows led by undocumented immigrant and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas. CNN Films' "Documented" airs Sunday, July 6, at 9 p.m.

(CNN) -- A wall of angry protesters blocked three buses of undocumented immigrants in Southern California, forcing them to turn around -- but with no clear final destination.

The immigrants had traveled from South Texas to San Diego and were on their way to be processed at the Murrieta Border Patrol station when the standoff took place Tuesday.

Protesters chanting "USA!" "Impeach Obama!" and "Deport! Deport!" blocked their route. A heated yelling match ensued between the demonstrators and a group of counterprotesters.

After the buses turned around, the 140 people on board were taken to a border station in San Ysidro, said Ron Zermeno of the National Border Patrol Council.

On Wednesday, Zermeno told CNN that at least 136 immigrants were fed and screened at the Murrieta facility. Ten children among the group were taken to local hospitals, though it's unclear why. Seven children were diagnosed with active scabies, an itchy and highly contagious skin disease. Those children are being kept separate from the others at the San Ysidro station, he said.

An additional 17 immigrants were taken to the Boulevard station in eastern San Diego County, Zermeno told CNN.

Border Patrol officials told CNN affiliate KGTV several children were taken to Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego with unknown illnesses.

Enormous challenge

The U.S. government is struggling to process and accommodate an influx of undocumented immigrants, and specifically a spike in immigrant children. The government doesn't have enough beds, food or sanitary facilities.

Authorities estimate 60,000 to 80,000 children without parents will cross the border this year in what the White House has called an "immediate humanitarian crisis."

To help relieve crowded facilities in Texas, undocumented immigrants are now being sent elsewhere to be processed.

But Zermeno said processing immigrants, rather than enforcing the borders, is only making the situation worse.

"My concern is they are going to be eating in the same holding cells as someone sitting 5 feet away using the bathroom," he said.

Murrieta Police Chief Sean Hadden said he was told to expect 140 immigrants every 72 hours, with the next group scheduled to arrive on Friday, the Fourth of July. He encouraged the public to attend a town hall meeting Wednesday evening.
Intense debate

The furor in Murrieta illustrated the conflict between protecting the borders and the safety of immigrant families and children.

"If these children were from Canada, we would not be having this interview," immigration rights advocate Enrique Morones told CNN.

 Feds struggle controling immigrant kids Gov. Perry: Immigrants told what to say Clinton: Send some immigrant kids home

"The parents have had enough. They are saying, 'If I don't send my child north, they are going to die.'"

The mayor of Murrieta, Alan Long, had urged residents Monday to protest the decision to move undocumented immigrants to the area, the Los Angeles Times reported.

He spoke again Tuesday at a Murrieta City Council meeting, thanking police and others.

"Please remember these are human beings that are fleeing the violence in their home countries," Long said. "The problem is that they need to come into this country the legal way."

Protester Ellen Meeks said the country's identity has eroded with an influx of undocumented immigrants.

"I just wish America would be America again because it's not, and it's not just pointed to the Hispanics," Meeks said. "Everybody needs to go through the legal ways."


California protesters block transport of undocumented immigrants

July 02, 2014 01:15
Rt.com

Anti-immigration protesters impeded the arrival of several buses transporting undocumented immigrants into a US Border Patrol station in Murrieta, California on Tuesday, some 60 miles north of San Diego.

The arrival of the group of Central American families had been decried by Murrieta’s mayor, Alan Long, who alleged that the group of immigrants, adults with their children numbering about 140 people, represented a public safety threat to the community.

Assembled protesters, who numbered 150, converged on a street leading up to an access road into the processing center, preventing the two buses from reaching the facility, reported Reuters.

Police at the scene did not attempt to break up the demonstration, which included picket signs with messages such as “Return to sender” and “Bus illegal children to the White House,” and anti-immigration slogans. Almost a half hour into the incident, the two unmarked buses turned around and left.

A representative of the border patrol agents union said that the immigrants would likely be rerouted to one of the other six Border Patrol stations in the San Diego region. Local news reports seemed to confirm that the 140 undocumented immigrants were instead being driven to the Chula Vista Border Patrol facility in San Diego County.

The Central American immigrants had been flown to San Diego from Texas, and were on their way for processing at the Murrieta facility where US immigration officials told Reuters they would be released under supervision and await deportation.

Tuesday’s incident in Murrieta highlights the influx of both families and unattended minors from Central America, which have strained the border patrol’s resources and led to the creation of several temporary processing facilities to deal with overflow conditions in Texas.

Unlike undocumented immigrants from Mexico, who are subject to immediate deportation, the latest influx of families and children feeling violence and poverty in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras are instead subject to processing by authorities.

Unaccompanied minors are the responsibility of the US Department of Health and Human Services, which is currently scrambling to create enough housing and provide basic care. Some 500,000 unattended children have crossed into the US illegally within the past year alone. The agency’s program, Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC), was only meant to serve the needs of some 8,000 children per year while being processed through US immigration court.

Temporary facilities have been set up in Nogales, Arizona to cope with overflow from South Texas. Meanwhile, another group of immigrants had been driven to a similar facility in El Centro, California, some 100 miles east of San Diego.

Republic of Namibia: Minsozi is Miss SPYL

Winners in the SWAPO Party Youth League pageant for 2014.

By Pinehas Nakaziko
New Era, Republic of Namibia

WINDHOEK-Minsozi Kompeli (22) from the Zambezi region has been crowned Miss Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) with Patricia Hanstein as  first princess and Ricardine Katuuo as second princess.

Lovey Kuzatjike was judged  Miss Personality during the first ever Miss SPYL beauty pageant on Saturday at Nampower Convention Centre in the City. The event saw seven young girls competing against one aother for the title of SPYL under the theme ‘Evolution of Beauty’.Minsozi who is now the ambassador of the SPYL, says winning the competition is a very big opportunity for her to shine and teach fellow youths what she knows. She adds that she feels honoured and excited at the same time, for the recognition.

The main aim of the pageants was to mobilise young girls to collectively open up to women social issues. The winners and two runner-ups would however embark on different social projects initiated by the SPYLfrom now on.It was a night to remember filled with a host of entertainment activities, featuring, among others, The Dogg, FTS, Kamasutra, Bejamen from Dillimani Cultural Troupe and Max the Don.

Israel Bombards 34 Sites in Gaza Strip Hours After Finding Missing Teens Dead

IDF bombs Palestinians after finding three dead Israeli youth.

July 01, 2014 07:30

The Israeli Air Force bombed dozens of sites in the Gaza Strip hours after a search for three missing young Israelis led to discovery of their dead bodies. The Israeli government is contemplating further action.

The airstrikes on 34 targets were conducted on Tuesday morning in a standard Israeli response to rocket launches from the Gaza Strip, the IAF reported. The tension has been reaching the boiling point amid two weeks of door-to-door searches and arrests in the Palestinian territories by the IDF. Palestinian militants launched five rockets at Israel overnight, or over 20 projectiles since late Sunday.

Palestinian rockets caused damaged to a building in Israel, while Israeli bombs left several people lightly injured.

Also overnight a Palestinian man was killed by the IDF as he was trying to throw a home-made grenade at a group of Israeli soldiers conducting arrests in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. The killed man was identified as Yousouf Ibrahim abu Zagha, 19, by the Palestinians. Several people have been killed amid clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians angered by the Israeli searches and arrests over the two weeks.

The Israeli government has blamed the Palestinian militant movement Hamas for the alleged abduction of three Israelis aged between 16 and 19, who went missing on June 12. Many of the people arrested by the Israeli forces have links to Hamas.

Hamas warned Israel against waging war on the Gaza Strip, saying this would “open the gates of hell” on Israel. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said that Israel bears responsibility for the latest escalation in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile the bodies discovered Monday afternoon in a field northwest of Hebron have been identified as belonging to Gil-Ad Shaer, Naftali Fraenkel, and Eyal Yifrah, the missing teenagers.

On Tuesday, United Nations human rights spokesman Ravina Shamdasani pressed both sides to exercise "maximum restraint" following the discovery of the bodies near the West Bank city of Hebron.

"We urge all parties to refrain from punishing individuals for offences they have not personally committed or by imposing collective penalties," Shamdasani told a news briefing in Geneva.


Funeral held for man killed by Israel in West Bank

Wed Jul 2, 2014 12:0AM GMT
presstv.ir

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have held a funeral for a young man shot dead by Israeli forces during a raid on the Jenin refugee camp.

The 20-year-old Palestinian, identified as Yousef Abu Zagha, was killed on Monday after troops opened fire on him in the northern West Bank. Mourners participated in his funeral at the refugee camp on Tuesday.

The killing happened as Israel attacked the besieged Gaza Strip and the West Bank hours after the bodies of three Israeli settlers, previously reported missing, were found near the town of Halhul north of the city of al-Khalil (Hebron).

The Tel Aviv regime claims the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas is responsible for the death of the three. Hamas rejects the allegation.

Israeli forces have killed several Palestinians and arrested hundreds of others, including Hamas members and lawmakers, as part of the military operations purportedly in search of the three settlers.

A funeral ceremony was also held for the three Israeli teens on Tuesday.

Hamas had earlier denied involvement in the alleged disappearance of the settlers and said Israel is trying to sabotage a recent reconciliation accord reached between the Palestinian factions of Hamas and Fatah, which led to the formation of the Palestinian national unity government last month.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights had urged Israel to exercise restraint in its search for the allegedly missing Israelis. The UN office said the scale of the operations and the number of the people they are affecting is deeply disturbing.

Umdala Wethu’s 15th Anniversary Marked

Joshua Nkomo of ZAPU and Robert Mugabe of ZANU, the
Patriotic Front of Zimbabwe.

July 2, 2014
Bulawayo Bureau
Zimbabwe Herald

Ex-ZIPRA combatants and the Nkomo family yesterday called on former freedom fighters to unite in the spirit of the late Vice President Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo and bury past grievances to foster national progress.

Speaking during commemorations to mark 15 years since Dr Nkomo’s death, the Nkomo family and surviving ex-Zipra cadres implored Zimbabweans to move on and let go of past injustices.

“I’m personally in pain and hurting. I believe you could also be bleeding too. Kodwa yithina esingaqeda lokhu ukopha. Abamasiko bathi asithobeni amanxeba. It’s time we seriously heal ourselves, individually, at family level and then collaboratively as a nation,” Dr Nkomo’s son, Sibangilizwe told a large gathering at Bulawayo’s Stanley Square.

“This is important for us to go forward socially, economically and in all other aspects of our lives. It’s the only way to truly honour our founding fathers and mothers whose sacrifices can’t be in vain.”

Sibangilizwe, who chairs the Joshua Nkomo Cultural Movement (JNCM), said holding onto past political grievances, in apparent reference to the political strife in the early 1980s and political differences to date, would continue to hinder progress.

Sibangilizwe said the Nkomo family was committed to national healing and nation building and would play its part accordingly.

Zipra Veterans Trust leader Cde Buster Magwizi said it was incumbent upon all Zimbabweans to respect Dr Nkomo’s vision of a peaceful and united country.

The Zipra cadres and the Nkomo family applauded the Government for a three-pronged honour bestowed on Dr Nkomo last December.


Father Zimbabwe was resolute on land redistribution

July 2, 2014 Opinion & Analysis
Zimbabwe Herald

In his book, The Story of My Life, Dr Nkomo reveals how he and President Mugabe forged a strong front at the negotiating table, and more critically, he confirmed that the British and Americans agreed to fund land reform in post-independence Zimbabwe, although the two countries were to renege on their pledges later. As we commemorate the life of Father Zimbabwe, we reproduce excerpts of his autobiography:

“The British wanted a constitution which would ‘safeguard’ the political power of the white Zimbabweans, and thus preserve the resentment against them that they had earned by their past conduct.

They wanted a constitution on the so-called “Westminster model”, with a ceremonial head of state and an executive prime minister, exactly the pattern that had been rejected as unsuitable by most African states.

We wanted an electoral system with no racial bias, and a strong executive presidency. On both points we reluctantly gave ground to British arguments.

The pressure on us to accept the second best was intense: the alternative was to continue a war of which everyone was sick, and to accept that if this attempt at a settlement failed, the British would probably wash their hands of the whole affair.

The most hopeful aspect of the Lancaster House proceedings was the co-operation that built up between Robert Mugabe and myself as leaders of the two wings of the Patriotic Front.

Every morning and lunchtime our two delegations sat down together and agreed on our position.

The working problems were minimal. Socially, though, the two delegations lived quite separately.

ZAPU had the advantage of having rooms at reduced rates in the Metropole Hotel, and was provided with offices and secretarial help that were finally used by both parties.

The Zanu delegation, who were receiving exactly the same lodging allowances as us, moved into flats where they looked after themselves. I am afraid it looked as though any money they saved in this way was spent on whisky.

Our relationships with the white delegates from the Rhodesian Front party were dominated by the knowledge that we were still at war, that as we talked people were fighting and dying.

There was no friendship between us; there could not be.

Ian Smith himself seemed a beaten man, hardly speaking.

The most forceful personality from the white Rhodesian Front party was the finance minister, David Smith (who was no relation).

But as time went on, in the coffee breaks, we began to grumble together about the English weather and exchange occasional smiles. That at least was progress.

It was harder to make contact with Bishop Muzorewa’s team. The Bishop seemed to have decided that his only chance of political survival lay in sticking fast by the hard-line whites.

He talked like an old-time settler, impatient with the talking, threatening to break off and go home, where, he said: “After all, I have a country to run.”

It was upsetting to hear a black man identify so strongly with the Smith Regime that he referred to our guerillas as “terrorists” — while the soldiers serving under him as ‘prime minister’ were conducting those savage raids on our civilian camps across the boarder.

Lord Carrington as chairman arranged the conference as far as possible so as to avoid direct confrontations between the two sides. Before each plenary session he would organise separate meetings, first with the other side and then with the Patriotic Front.

This meant that we would find ourselves confronted with some deal worked out between Carrington and Muzorewa, and when we argued against it we would be told that altering the terms would mean the conference breaking down.

By dealing with each side separately, Lord Carrington put himself at the centre of a spider’s web, of which he alone could pull the strings. One day, in good spirits, I told him I was going to call him Spider: he managed to laugh but I think he was angry.

The British and the Rhodesians had many common interests, which they used the conference to preserve.

Even after the 15 years of illegal independence, British companies still had as large a stake in the country as the local whites — not just in mines, manufacturing and service businesses, but also in land, which was the great point of argument.

We said that the new constitution of Zimbabwe should permit the government to expropriate farmland if it was not being properly used.

The British said fine, so long as we paid the full market price.

But we knew that vast acreages were lying idle, unused and therefore without a market price, in the areas formerly reserved for white ownership. To buy areas adequate for resettling the many land-hungry African farmers who had been confined within the former tribal trust areas would be beyond the financial ability of the new state.

What we wanted was an arrangement like that made for Kenya at independence, whereby the British government itself would compensate farmers whose land was taken over in the interest of efficiency and food production.

The British argued that the settlers in Rhodesia had been independent for a long time, and Britain could not now take responsibility for them.

We replied that we did not regard the white farmers as settlers: as far as we were concerned they were Zimbabweans, and financial arrangements should be made to see that their Zimbabwean land was properly used.

This was the one point at which Americans were helpful.

They said they could not use their tax payers’ money to compensate inefficient landowners for not using land. But if the British would help to buy the land, American funds could be used to develop it.

Neither the British nor the Americans would tell us how much they would put up, but the principle was a useful one.”

Nicolas Sarkozy Detained For Questioning

Nicolas Sarkozy with martyred Libyan leader
Col. Muammar Gaddafi. Sarkozy would later
pushed for the bombing of Libya and the
assassination of Gaddafi to cover-up his
$70 million loan from the oil-rich state.

July 2, 2014

PARIS. — France’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy has been detained for questioning in connection with a probe into influence-peddling, a judicial source said yesterday.
Under French law, suspects in criminal cases can be held in custody for up to 48 hours before they must be either charged or released.

Investigators are seeking to establish whether Sarkozy, with the help of his lawyer Thierry Herzog, attempted to pervert the course of justice by seeking to obtain inside information from a magistrate about a probe into alleged misdeeds in the financing of his 2007 election campaign.

They suspect Sarkozy (59), was also tipped off that his mobile phone had been tapped by judges looking into allegations that his 2007 election campaign had been financed in part by former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Sarkozy has denied the claims that he received up to US$70 million at the time from Gaddafi.

Judges last year obtained the unprecedented authorisation to tap the phones of a former president in connection with the Gaddafi investigation, which is on-going.

Investigators eventually discovered that Sarkozy had a secret phone registered under an assumed name. It was conversations with Herzog recorded on that device that triggered the investigation.

The legal authorisation to record normally privileged lawyer-client conversations has provoked criticism from parts of France’s legal establishment.

Sarkozy’s lawyer Herzog and two magistrates were detained Monday for questioning.

The charges against France’s former leader carry a possible jail term, which would scuttle his hopes of making a political comeback in time for the next presidential campaign in 2017.

Sarkozy is alleged to have been helped to victory in 2007 with envelopes stuffed with cash from France’s richest woman, L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, when she was too mentally frail to know what she was doing.

Sarkozy was cleared last year of taking Bettencourt’s money, but his former campaign treasurer is one of 10 people still awaiting trial in that case.

Leaked excerpts suggest Sarkozy got a friendly judge to try to influence the outcome of confidential legal deliberations related to the Bettencourt case in return for support securing a lucrative post in Monaco.

They also imply he had a mole in a senior position who tipped him off about a planned police raid on his offices.

Such interference in the judicial process is regarded as “influence-peddling” under French law and carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.

Separately, Sarkozy has recently been linked to a scandal over the funding of his campaign for re-election in 2012.

The leader of his UMP party resigned last month after it emerged that US$13,6 million spent in support of Sarkozy had been fraudulently passed off as party expenses.

Sarkozy denies any knowledge or involvement in the falsification of bills for organising campaign rallies and other events. A criminal investigation into that case was opened last week. —France 24/AFP.

Pro-Morsi Alliance Says Three Islamist Party Leaders Arrested

Magdy Hussein is the head of the Istiqlal Party in Egypt.

Ahram Online, Tuesday 1 Jul 2014

The statement released by the National Alliance to Support Legitimacy also says the homes of youth leaders have been raided

A statement by a Muslim Brotherhood-led coalition said on Tuesday that security forces arrested three leaders of Islamist political parties.

The National Alliance to Support Legitimacy (NASL) said security forces have arrested Nasr Abdel-Salam, acting head of the Building and Development Party, Magdy Hussein, head of the Istiqlal Party and Hossam Khalaf of the Wasat Party.

The statement added that security forces also raided the homes of youth leaders, such as Diaa El-Sawi, spokesman of the Youth against the Coup movement.

Security sources are yet to confirm the claims made by the Brotherhood's statement.

Authorities have cracked down hard on supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and his Brotherhood since his deposal last summer. Hundreds were killed and thousands jailed or facing trials, including Morsi himself and his group's top leadership.

A wave of violent attacks, mainly targeting security personnel and installations, has also spread since Morsi's ouster. The government has blamed the attacks on Morsi's group and its allies, designating the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/105205.aspx

Ethiopian Dam Tripartite Committee to Meet Soon in Cairo

Great Renaissance Dam Project in Ethiopia.

MENA, Tuesday 1 Jul 2014

Egypt's irrigation minister has invited his Sudanese and Ethiopian counterparts for a meeting over the Grand Renaissance Dam project, state-run news agency MENA reported

A tripartite committee is to meet soon in Cairo to resume negotiations over Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam, state news agency MENA reported on Tuesday.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn announced last week after theirmeetingin Equatorial Guinea's capital of Malabo that the committee will resume work after it was halted last December.

Egypt's Irrigation Minister Hossam Moghazy met on Tuesday with his Sudanese counterpart Moataz Moussa in Khartoum.

Moghazy said that he'd invited Moussa and Ethiopian Irrigation Minister Alamayo Tegno for more talks in Egypt over the issue.

The planned Grand Renaissance Dam is a $4.2 billion hydro-electric dam on the Blue Nile, one of the main tributaries of the Nile.

The project has been a source of concern for the Egyptian government since May last year, when images of the dam's construction stirred public anxiety about possible effects on Egypt's share of the Nile water, the country's main source of potable water.

Meanwhile, Moghazy asked his Sudanese counterpart for help in bringing together views from Nile Basin countries on the dam's issues and concerns.

The Sudanese minister welcomed Moghazy's invitation and said it would be an opportunity for Nile Basin countries to cooperate.

Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan formed a tripartite technical committee to study the possible effects of the dam and try to generate consensus. Ethiopia maintains that Egypt's water share will not be negatively affected by the successful completion of the project.

However, the tripartite committee's success was thwarted last December when Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir announced his support for the dam during a meeting with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/105252.aspx

White House on Uninsured Minority Men: More Male Latino Millennials Uninsured Than African Americans, Whites

Obamacare advertisement designed to encourage enrollment. 

By Michael Oleaga (m.oleaga@latinpost.com)
Jul 01, 2014 02:45 PM EDT

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released data on the characteristics of uninsured men, notably within the Latino and African American communities. The report, using data from the 2012 American Community Survey and taking into account economic and social factors, such as education and poverty, revealed Latino and African American millennials are more likely to be uninsured.

The Office of Minority Health revealed 28 percent of adult males between 19 and 24 years old are uninsured. Of the 19- to 24-year-old demographic, Latinos represented 43 percent of the uninsured men, ahead African Americans' 38 percent. Men between 25 and 34 years old represented 29 percent of the uninsured, which Latinos also topped with 42 percent ahead of 41 percent for African Americans.

The report highlighted developments that may explain the low figures for uninsured minority men.

More than 70 percent of uninsured African Americans and whites received a high school diploma, but the statistic drops for Asian and Latinos, down to 60 percent. Six percent of uninsured African Americans and Latinos had a college degree.

Despite the lowered rate of having an academic diploma, uninsured male Latinos, at 81 percent, reported having a full-time worker in the household. The report, however, did not specify if the full-time worker included the uninsured male Latinos. Within the Latino household, 24 percent of Latinos stated they live in a "limited English proficient" household, which is 4 percentage points lower compared to Asian households.

Fewer of the Latinos are diabled compared to whites and African-Americans. Six percent of uninsured Latinos and 5 percent of uninsured Asians are disabled, while whites and African Americans entered double digits, 12 percent and 11 percent, respectively.

The Department of Health and Human Services published the report to improve their rollout of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to uninsured males regardless of ethnicity.

"This type of data and knowledge about uninsured minority males can help inform targeted interventions and outreach efforts to improve enrollment opportunities for minority men in health insurance coverage, including the open enrollment periods for the Health Insurance Marketplace," the department said.

According to the Office of Minority Health, the U.S. has made improvements in public health and health care, adding, "The health status of racial and ethnic minority men still lags behind the general population. Increasing insurance coverage of minority males is critical to their ability to access health care systems, reduce preventable illnesses and improve their health outcomes."

As Latin Post reported, the Obama administration confirmed more than eight million people signed up for the ACA. The HHS received a lower than expected number of applicants that reported their race or ethnicity as "Latino," representing 10.7 percent of individuals enrolled. In comparison to Whites, they represented the largest proportion with 62.9 percent.
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For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com.

Wimbledon: Rememberng Althea Gibson Tennis' First African-American Star

Tennis champion Althea Gibson who won at the Wimbledon
Championships in 1957 and 1958.

By Alison Moran, June 20, 2014 at 5:08 pm
Chicago Now

Althea Gibson, history's first African-American Wimbledon champion. She won in 1957 and 1958.
As the world prepares for Wimbledon to begin on Monday, June 23, all eyes will be on the world's #1 player. Who is it? Despite an early exit in May's French Open, Serena Williams retained her #1 ranking in the world. She'll take on her American teammate Anna Tatishvili in the opening round. Looking at the other draws on the Ladies Singles site at Wimbledon.com ,  sister Venus appears to be sitting this one out.

Have any two Americans since Chris Evert and Billie Jean King done more to revolutionize the pristine, often stuffy game? When I was playing tennis in the 70's, the decorum of a tennis tournament was almost the same as Mass on Sunday. Quiet. Polite protestations if you disagreed with a call. Graciousness.

My local tennis pro, the late, great Nancy Dillon, a legend in the Oak Park-River Forest community, taught us all at the River Forest Park District to attack the net, to be aggressive. I don't recall politeness as the key component of her game. She was the antithesis of what I saw on television. When I watched "Breakfast at Wimbledon," and the US Open matches,  I really don't remember any knock-down, drag-out arguments with the judges on the women's side of Wimbledon. Just the zany, boyish, loud antics of John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors, which actually made five-hour matches a treat to watch.

Slowly, the women's tournament revolutionized with Martina Navratilova's sheer physicality and iron will, Steffi Graf's  one-handed backhand, Monica Seles' grunts. Slowly, the women's game got louder and more boisterous. And, to the detriment of American women everywhere, dominated by Europeans. Lindsay Davenport, where are you?

It's worth remembering that Venus and Serena Williams weren't the only African-American players in all of  the history of tennis. The late, and great Arthur Ashe, who died way too young of AIDS after contracting it from a blood transfusion, was a personal hero of mine. He made his name as the victor in the US Open in 1968 and Wimbledon in 1975, the first African-American male to break through the color line.

But even Ashe, as great as he was, wasn't the first African American Wimbledon champion. I don't know how many people remember the late Althea Gibson, the "Jackie Robinson" of women's tennis, as she is sometimes called. She won Wimbledon in 1957 and 1958, in the middle of the Civil Rights era....post-Plessy vs. Ferguson of 1954, but  pre-Civil Rights Act of 1965. Also, pre-Title IX. And a forgotten hero to the larger community.

Lord, how did she get there?

According to her website, http://www.altheagibson.com, Gibson was born in Silver, South Carolina on August 25, 1927. She grew up in a poor family in Harlem but caught the attention of a Lynchburg, Virginia doctor, Walter Johnson, who was active in the African American tennis community.

Dr.  Johnson became Althea's patron and was later known for mentoring Ashe. Through her connection with Johnson, Althea had access to better instruction and competitions. He also connected her to the United States Tennis Association (USTA), opening her up to the tennis scene. She started playing tennis at the Harlem Tennis Club in 1941, winning her first match in 1942 at the age of 15. Later on, she competed at Florida A&M University.

She was the first African American to be named as the Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press in 1957. She was given that honor again the following year. According to her Wikipedia site, when she won her second U.S. Championship, she went professional.

Gibson was the first African-American, male or female to win championships the French Open, the United States Open, the Australian Doubles and Wimbledon in the 1950s. Even though she was subject to the segregation that plagued African Americans at the time; she trailblazed across the tennis scene.

In all, she won eleven major titles , including three straight doubles at the French Open in 1956, 1957 and 1958. She was winner of the French Open in 1956, Wimbledon in 1957 and 1958 and the U.S. Open in 1957 and 1958. At the end, she earned international acclaim for winning 56 doubles and singles.

Tennis was a very different game in the '50's. There was no prize money (Wimbledon champs now earn $1,000,000 on both the men's and women's tournaments). There were no endorsement deals, and no professional tours for women. Those came later, after the United States Tennis Association (USTA), the Virginia Slims and Lipton pro tours, and others were established in the 1970's.  And unlike Venus and Serena, no clothing lines or personal businesses to supplement their income.

However, they might well look to Gibson as a role model. Gibson was clearly an adventurer and unafraid to risk whatever she felt she had to offer the world. Right after she retired from tennis, she ventured into the entertainment world, releasing an album, "Althea Gibson Sings" in 1959, and appearing in a John Ford movie "The Horse Soldiers" the same year. In the movie, starring John Wayne, William Holden and future soap star Constance Towers, she played Lukey, the loyal maid to Ms. Towers.

There was one professional sports association available to women at that time....the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). Gibson decided after retiring from tennis in 1958 to become a golf pro. She became the LPGA's first African-American member in 1964. Though she competed until 1970, according to Wikipedia sources,  she "did not really establish herself on the pro golf tour and tried to play a few events after 1968 when open tennis started. By that time, she was in her 40s and was too old to beat the younger competition. When she stopped competing, she worked as a tennis instructor."

Her 50's brought new opportunities  as she embarked on a career in public service. She became New Jersey's State Commissioner on Athletics in 1975, and served in several other positions in the New Jersey legislature, including an appointment to the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness.

Married and divorced twice, she had no children.

Her later years brought ill health. Gibson suffered two cerebral hemorraghes and in 1992, a stroke. Broke, living on welfare and unable to pay for rent or medication, she reached out to former doubles partner Angela Buxton to say she was considering suicide. Buxton, according to Wikipedia sources, arranged for a letter to be published in a tennis magazine. The fundraising campaign brought in over $1 million dollars.

Gibson died of natural causes in September, 2003, after  her circulatory system collapsed.

She is remembered around the world. Gibson has been inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame and the New Jersey Hall of Fame. In Wilmington, North Carolina, the new tennis center there was named the Althea Gibson Sports Complex. And in 2012, a statue of Gibson was dedicated at a park in New Jersey.

The tennis center in North Carolina must be seen as particularly sweet revenge for Gibson, who once wryly observed that "Shaking hands with the Queen of England was a long way from being forced to sit in the colored section at the back of the bus in Wilmington, North Carolina"

Port Authur, Texas Library Celebrates African American Music and Zachary Breaux

A vintage photograph of the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

Sherry Koonce
The Port Arthur News

PORT ARTHUR — Drumroll please — Port Arthur Public Library had a lot more going on Saturday than checking out books, and from the sounds emanating from the Lucy Stiefel Gallery, it seemed the old adage of being quite in the library no longer applied.

In conjunction with African American Music Appreciation Month, the library hosted local African American musicians while paying tribute to native jazz musician Zachary Breaux for the second consecutive year.

From the smooth sounds of jazz performed by Pat Juneau and the All Stars of Port Arthur, to the big boom of Tekoa Academy’s Drum Corp, the library sounds were as electrifying as they were moving.

“Black music is important because it is part of what we feel; it is a music that has feelings,” Josiah Alexander, director of Tekoa’s Drum Corp.

Five members of the Drum Corps’ drum line participated in Saturday’s tribute to African American music. From third grader to 10th grade, the youngsters showed their musical talent.

Jacarius Tatman, 13, has been a member of drum Corp since he was in the first grade, and enjoys listening to those who have made that mark in music like Port Arthur’s Zachary Breaux.

“He is very inspirational; he’s done a lot of things with music that people have never thought to do,” Tatman.

Pat Juneau and his band — all seasoned musicians who know their way around the stage — entertained crowds with Jazz standards such as Duke Ellington’s “Misty,” and paid homage to Breaux with a lively rendition of his “Small Town in Texas.”

“This is our heritage; it’s been around before I got here, and its something we need to teach our  youth,” Shelton Forrest, All-Star keyboard player, said.

Also in attendance was Port Arthur’s Glenn Patrick Lee, with the Gospel band Salt of the Earth.

June is designated every year as African-American Music Appreciation Month — a time to celebrate African American Music in the United States. It was originally started as Black Music Month by President Jimmy Carter, who on June 7, 1979, decreed that June would be the month of black music.

President Barack Obama in 2009 renamed the celebration to African-American Music Appreciation Month.

E-mail: skoonce@panews.com

Twitter: skooncePANews

- See more at: http://www.panews.com/local/x1760116597/PA-library-celebrates-African-American-music-and-Zachary-Breaux#sthash.uG3qqGeH.dpuf

New Wave of African Writers With an Internationalist Bent

Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has gained
international recognition.

By FELICIA R. LEE
New York Times
JUNE 29, 2014

More than a decade ago, when the young Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was struggling to get her first novel, “Purple Hibiscus,” published, an agent told her that things would be easier “if only you were Indian,” because Indian writers were in vogue. Another suggested changing the setting from Nigeria to America. Ms. Adichie didn’t take this as commentary on her work, she said, but on the timidity of the publishing world when it came to unknown writers and unfamiliar cultures, especially African ones.

Flowers and tributes were left by admirers on the steps of Maya Angelou’s brownstone on 120th Street in Harlem.Maya Angelou Often Left New York, but She Always Came BackMAY 29, 2014
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These days she wouldn’t receive that kind of advice. Black literary writers with African roots (though some grew up elsewhere), mostly young cosmopolitans who write in English, are making a splash in the book world, especially in the United States. They are on best-seller lists, garner high profile reviews and win major awards, in America and in Britain. Ms. Adichie, 36, the author of “Americanah,” which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction this year, is a prominent member of an expanding group that includes Dinaw Mengestu, Helen Oyeyemi, NoViolet Bulawayo, Teju Cole, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor and Taiye Selasi, among others.

There are reasons for the critical mass now, say writers, publishers and literature scholars. After years of political and social turmoil, positive changes in several African nations are helping to greatly expand the number of writers and readers. Newer awards like the Caine Prize for African Writing have helped, too, as have social media, the Internet and top M.F.A. programs. At the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, black writers with recent African roots will make up more than 10 percent of the fiction students come September. Moreover, the number of African immigrants in the United States has more than quadrupled in the past two decades, to almost 1.7 million.

And publishing follows trends: Women, Asian-American, Indian and Latino writers have all been “discovered” and had their moment in the sun — as have African-Americans, some of whom envy the attention given to writers with more recent links in Africa.

“People used to ask where the African writers were,” said Aminatta Forna, author of “The Hired Man” (2013, set in Croatia). “They were cleaning offices and working as clerks.”

Some writers and critics scoff at the idea of lumping together diverse writers with ties to a diverse continent. But others say that this wave represents something new in its sheer size, after a long fallow period. (There were some remarkable exceptions, like Wole Soyinka’s 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature and Ben Okri’s 1991 Booker Prize.) And it differs from the postcolonial wave, roughly beginning in the 1960s, which brought international acclaim to writers like Chinua Achebe and Nuruddin Farah, among others.

There are more women, for one thing. More important, the stories being told, while sometimes set in Africa, often reflect the writers’ experiences of living, studying or working elsewhere and are flecked with cultural references — and settings — familiar to Western audiences.

Ms. Adichie’s “Americanah” chronicles the lives of Ifemelu and her lover, Obinze, whose adventures take them from Nigeria to America and Britain. In the United States, Ifemelu writes a popular blog about her growing racial consciousness and finds love with American men, both black and white. Back in Nigeria, her friends use the word “Americanah” to tease her about her Americanized attitudes.

Ms. Adichie, who divides her time between the United States and Nigeria and runs a summer writing workshop in Lagos, has now written three well-received novels and a book of stories. She has amassed awards and has a movie adaptation this year of her novel “Half of a Yellow Sun,” about the Biafran war. She even made it into a Beyoncé song: “Flawless,” released in December, sampled several lines about feminism from a public lecture she gave.

The success of “Half of a Yellow Sun” (2006), after the critical embrace of “Purple Hibiscus” (2003), was a major factor in sending publishers scrambling to find other talented African writers.

The flowering of new African writers is “an amazing phenomenon,” said Manthia Diawara, a professor of comparative literature and film at New York University. “It is a literature more about being a citizen of the world — going to Europe, going back to Lagos,” he said. “Now we are talking about how the West relates to Africa and it frees writers to create their own worlds. They have several identities and they speak several languages.”

But for all the different themes and kinds of writing, the novelist Dinaw Mengestu said that he saw a thread. “There’s this investigation of what happens to the dislocated soul,” said Mr. Mengestu, 36, the author of “All Our Names” and a MacArthur “genius” award winner, who was born in Ethiopia but left at age 2 and grew up in Illinois.

The novelist Okey Ndibe, 54, said for his part, “My reflexes are shaped mostly by life in Nigeria, but so many aspects of me are in the American mode.” His second novel, “Foreign Gods, Inc.,” is about an educated Nigerian in New York eking out a living as a taxi driver. Mr. Ndibe, who arrived in America in 1988, said that as someone coming from a place where being black was the norm, he became fascinated by the experience of American blacks. “My protagonist’s life in America is as important as his life in Nigeria, if not more so,” he said.

Jonathan Galassi, the president and publisher of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, agreed that “there is a new, self-aware internationalism” and “a much more welcoming interest” in this country, too. Earlier generations, he added, “had it much harder.”

Breaking in isn’t getting easier for everyone, however. Some professionals in the book world say that too many literary publishers would rather put out work by writers from Africa than work by African-Americans because in the current climate the Africans are considered more appealing for what is seen as a “black slot.”

Marita Golden, an African-American writer who is a founder of the Hurston/Wright Foundation, which supports black writers around the world, acknowledged that those sentiments exist but disagreed with them.

“Black writers operate within a small, culturally defined sphere,” she said. “That space is not defined by us, so with any shifts people may feel victimized or that they’ve lost, or they’re experiencing a deficit.”

Ms. Adichie said she understood those feelings, too. “In the U.S., to be a black person who is not African-American in certain circles is to be seen as quote-unquote, the good black,” she said. “Or people will say, ‘You are African so you are not angry.’ Or, ‘You’re African so you don’t have all those issues.’ ”

Publishers, not surprisingly, tend to disagree with the idea that African-American writers are being overlooked now. “Hogwash,” said Robin Desser, vice president and editorial director at Alfred A. Knopf and Ms. Adichie’s editor. “When the next Toni Morrison comes around I can say that publishers will go crazy.”

Given the inroads they have made and the new roots they have planted, African writers say they have proved they are much more that a trend.

“My hope is we all become part of the canon, not just here but internationally,” said Ishmael Beah, 33, who lives in the United States. His 2007 memoir, “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier,” about Sierra Leone’s civil war, was a best seller. His novel, “Radiance of Tomorrow,” about the aftermath of that conflict, came out this year.

“We all have a lot to say,” Mr. Beah said, “and we realize that we have to speak for ourselves about the diversity, the difficulties, the beauty of this continent.”

Woodbury, NJ Honors Site of Former African American Cemetery With Plaque

Plaque recognizing 19th century African cemetery in
Woodbury, NJ. 

By Jason Laday/South Jersey Times
June 29, 2014 at 6:00 AM

WOODBURY — After decades without any recognition of its historic significance, the site of a former African American cemetery, located under what is now a parking garage at Inspira Hospital, will now be marked with a plaque explaining to passersby that they are treading past hallowed ground.

In a ceremony on Friday afternoon that included members from the African American Oral History Project, city and hospital officials, as well as family members of those formerly interred at the cemetery, and residents honored the 11 Civil War veterans previously were buried at the site, placing a flag near the plaque for each one of them.

"It's beautiful to see the City of Woodbury and Inspira Medical Center choose to recognize the importance of the cemetery to colored people in Woodbury, and to the country," said Gloria Holmes, who, along with others from the African American Oral History Project, has spearheaded the effort to get a plaque for the cemetery site for more than a year. "It also recognizes the men who served in the Civil War, and made such a sacrifice to get their freedom."

The cemetery, founded in 1832 on what is now Red Bank Avenue, contained the remains of at least 47 people, including 11 Civil War veterans and a prominent African Methodist Episcopal bishop, until 1962 when they were transferred to the Presbyterian Cemetery on North Broad Street.

A plaque at the Broad Street cemetery remembers the names of all of those transferred.

Today, the Red Bank Cemetery is the home of a parking garage for Inspira Medical Center.

If their story is never told, then they will be forgotten.

Several residents from around Gloucester County attended the ceremony, stating there is a possibility they could be related to some of the Civil War veterans formerly buried at the site.

Pastor Lawrence H. Money, from Monroeville, and his wife, Rosalind Money (nee Gibson), who grew up in Woodbury, both share last names with several of the veterans.

While they aren't positive of any relation, they said they were nonetheless excited to take part in the historic ceremony.

"It's exciting," said Money, who is a pastor at Campbell AME Church in Woodbury. "It's good to see that they aren't lost to history, and that they didn't give up their lives for nothing.

"Years later, our children will remember this," he added. "If their story is never told, then they will be forgotten."
---
Contact staff writer Jason Laday at 856-686-3628 or jladay@southjerseymedia.com.

African American and Native History Collide at Arkansas Archeological Site

Africans and Indians at burial site near Little Rock, Arkansas.

Quapaw Tribe/PAAC
Indian Country
7/1/14

The centuries-old remains of American Indians and what are believed to be former African American slaves have shared a common resting place near Little Rock for a long, long time. The area is suddenly a curious and compelling archeological site.

Descendants of both groups recently came together at the site near Little Rock, Arkansas to observe unmarked African American graves among prehistoric Indian mounds, and discuss what they might do together to learn more and preserve the unmarked graves. Members of the Quapaw Tribe met with members of Preservation of African American Cemeteries (PAAC), along with Dr. John House of the Arkansas Archeological Survey and state Sen. Linda Chesterfield of Little Rock. The meeting sparked feelings of histories colliding—again, it seems—to provide a kind of closure.

“We feel like this is fate, in a way, because our tribal heritage and our ancestry especially here in Arkansas is very important to us,” said Chairman John Berrey of the Quapaw Tribe. “The fact that this particular discovery brought us together with another important group from Arkansas history made it a unique and special meeting.”

As a former teacher and a lifelong Arkansas history enthusiast, Chesterfield said she was touched by the meaning of the moment.

“The history of African Americans and Native Americans are very much aligned here in Arkansas,” she said. “The Quapaws are especially interesting because while Africans were being brought here in slavery, the Quapaws were being taken into slavery by Europeans. So it is wonderful to see these two groups working together now to discover and preserve their separate and mutual histories.”

Tamela Tenpenny-Lewis, president of the PAAC, described it as “coming full circle” in a common mission.

“History put us together to do something that both groups felt strongly about and had been working on independently,” Tenpenny-Lewis said. “We have both answered the call.”

Carla Hines-Coleman, vice president of PAAC, said: “This was meant to happen in its own time and way. It feels wonderful to be part of it, and we are all excited to see what we can do together to make the most of the opportunity.”

The burial sites were discovered on land purchased by the tribe in 2013, which was part of the historic Thiboult Plantation near the Little Rock Port Authority, and, before that, part of the tribe’s historic Arkansas reservation. The tribe and PAAC wished to keep the burial site’s exact location unknown to the public because of the possibility of looters who might disturb the graves in search of historic artifacts, which Dr. House said has been known to happen at other early Indian burial sites in Arkansas.

“This is a very special place on the landscape,” House said. “So much of Arkansas’ history is told only through the lens of what occurred after white Europeans came here. But there were centuries of prior history, very much of it involving the Quapaw Tribe and other Native American tribes.”

House estimated that the Native American graves at the site dated to between 1400 and 1600, while the African American graves in the same location probably date from before the Civil War to the early 1900s. He said it was not necessarily uncommon for a prehistoric grave site to serve as grave sites for later cultures. “What made it suitable for grave sites in earlier centuries made it suitable in more recent history as well, such as being on land that rises above the level of normal floods,” he said.

The Preservation of African American Cemeteries was founded in 2003 to create a network of persons and groups committed to locating, documenting and preserving previously unknown African American cemeteries.

The Quapaw Tribe is one of the main Indigenous Peoples of the state of Arkansas. They occupied areas spreading from Little Rock southward and eastward to the Mississippi River for centuries before white European explorers arrived in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Quapaws were relocated to northeast Oklahoma in the mid-1800s, and they have been active for numerous recent years in “coming home” to celebrate and preserve their Arkansas cultural heritage.

“We look so forward to working with our new friends, and with Dr. House, to learn more about this particular site,” Berrey said. “We aren’t sure yet exactly what we will do at the site, so the immediate desire is to simply not disturb it.”

Read more at https://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/07/01/african-american-and-native-history-collide-arkansas-archeological-site-155573

Shopping While Black: Detroit’s Civil Rights and Justice Department Lawyer Racially Profiled in Grosse Pointe

Atty. Portia Roberson fell victim to racial
profiling outside Detroit.

Staff report

GROSSE POINTE — Portia Roberson, an attorney and head of Detroit’s Civil Rights and Justice Department, was racially profiled in Grosse Pointe this weekend.

Shopping at the Talbots on Kercheval, June 29, Roberson went to the store to make a return. She was approached by two Grosse Pointe Police officers when leaving the fitting room.

The police searched her bags and checked her receipt, clearing her of wrongdoing. However, the officer did take her name and other identifying information and informed the store manager Roberson could not be held.

Other shoppers were not stopped.

This is how Roberson described the scenario in her social media update:

“I was in Grosse Pointe today at the Talbots on Kercheval. I had a somewhat large bag with me as well as my purse because I am returning two purchases that I ordered online and I needed a way to carry them in the store. I inform the sales clerk when I walk in that I have the second bag because I have two items to return, however, I want to look around first. I try on a pair of pants that I like so I come back out to see if they have another pair in a different color. I go back into the fitting room to make sure those fit also. I convince myself that I need both pairs (of course) and leave the fitting room to pay for my items and return the others. When I exit the fitting room, I’m confronted by two Grosse Pointe police officers who ask to search my bag and ask me if I have any merchandise in the bag. I tell them to go ahead and search and point out the items and the receipt. He tells me it is clear that someone made a mistake and then takes my bag to the store manager to point out that everything that I have in my possession, I have purchased. They take my name, address, and phone number so it is on “record.” I then proceed to the counter to give them back all the items that I had intended to purchase and to return everything that I had previously purchased. The manager’s explanation was that she had asked the police to do a walk around the store because it was so busy (four customers, including me)…I pointed out to her that after searching me, they left without searching anyone else. I must tell you that my hands were shaking and my voice cracked when speaking. Honestly, I am still shaken. Today, I received a very harsh reminder and I will be calling corporate headquarters in the morning.”

In posting about the incident she used the hashtags #notstealingfromanywherebutdefinitelynottalbots and #postracial.

Lt. Michael Seidel of the Grosse Pointe Police Department said Grosse Pointe Park police responded to the incident and confirmed that there was a call for service.

Grosse Pointe Park made headlines because of its decision to erect a barrier — first of snow, now of permanent materials — between Detroit and Grosse Pointe Park. The barrier is the brainchild of developer David Cotton who intends to revive Grosse Pointe Park’s shopping strip.

Calls to Talbots headquarters have not yet been returned.

According to the store’s website, “Talbots stores are designed to convey an open and welcoming feel that complements the brand’s timeless appeal.” They also describe their customer as “well-educated, active in their communities, and socially and culturally aware. They are typically Baby boomers though ageless in both style and attitude. Approximately 70 percent have a college education and the majority is professionally employed.”

Roberson is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Wayne State University law school. She is the daughter of former Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Dalton Roberson.

Scores Feared Dead as Bomb Blast Rocks Biggest Marketplace in Maiduguri

Bomb blast in the Monday Market in Maiduguri, Borno State capital.

Nigerian Accord

An early morning bomb blast has been reported at the ever busy Monday Market, the biggest open air marketplace in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, North Eastern Nigeria.

Eyewitnesses informed African Examiner that the bomb erupted during early morning business activities around the popular market in the city.

As at the time of filing this report, the blast causalities were yet to be ascertained. However, the security teams are said to have arrived the scene to take control of the situation.

In the main time, a state government official has confirmed the blast, explaining that the losses in the blast less than 72 hours to last Friday night Bauchi  bombing, was huge, yet added the security and other emergency teams were working to take care of the victims and avert further havoc.

No one has claimed responsibility for the new blast.

AFRICAN EXAMINER


Deadly bomb hits Maiduguri

Tuesday, 01 July 2014 10:33
Written by BBC

AT least five people have been killed in an explosion at a market in Maiduguri, north-eastern Nigeria, a witness has told the BBC.

The explosives were reportedly hidden in a vehicle carrying charcoal.

No group has said it carried out the attack but Maiduguri is the epicentre of the violent campaign waged by militant group Boko Haram.

Earlier, the Nigerian army said it had broken up a Boko Haram cell linked to the abduction of 200 schoolgirls.

The BBC's Habiba Adamu reports from the capital, Abuja, that a resident who visited the scene counted five bodies while another resident said the number of dead was higher.

The driver of the vehicle was believed to be among those killed or wounded, Reuters news agency reports.

Several vehicles had been damaged, it reports.

Nigerian Troops Smash Terrorists’ Intelligence Network

Federal Republic of Nigeria Major-General Chris Olukolade.

Written by Editor
Nigerian Guardian

MILITARY authorities Monday said “a terrorists’ intelligence cell headed by a businessman who participated actively in the abduction of school girls in Chibok has been busted by troops.”

  A statement by Major-General Chris Olukolade, Director, Defence Information, said: “The man, Babuji Ya’ari who is also a member of the Youth Vigilance Group popularly known as Civilian JTF which he uses as cover while remaining an active terrorist, also spearheaded the murder of the Emir of Gwoza.  His main role in the group is to spy and gather information for the terrorists group.

  “Babuji has been coordinating several deadly attacks in Maiduguri since 2011, including the daring attacks on Customs and military locations as well as the planting of IEDs in several locations in the town.

  “The arrest of the businessman who is known to deal in tricycles has also yielded some vital information and facilitated the arrest of other members of the terrorists’ intelligence cell who are women.  One of them, Hafsat Bako had earlier escaped to Gombe State to avoid suspicion but was tracked and arrested.  Prior to her arrest, Hafsat coordinated the payment of other operatives on the payroll of the group. In her confession, she disclosed that a minimum of N10,000 is paid to each operative depending on the enormity of his task.

  “Another female suspect named Haj Kaka who doubles as an armourer and a spy for the terrorists group has also been arrested.  Until their arrest, all the suspects actively operated a terrorists’ intelligence cell in collaboration with others still at large.”

  It added: “In another development, troops deployed in Goniri, Yobe State, over the weekend, had an encounter with terrorists, resulting in casualties on both sides after the attack was successfully repelled.” 

ISIS Threatens Al Qaeda as Flagship Movement of Extremists

ISIL fighters are battling for control of Iraq.

By BEN HUBBARDJUNE 30, 2014
New York Times

Those still allied with Al Qaeda think the new group will fall victim to the same tactics that somehow have simultaneously made it an enemy of the West and of Ayman al-Zawahri, the leader of Al Qaeda.

On Monday, members of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria paraded through Raqqa, Syria, the group’s de facto capital, in a show of success and mystique. Credit Image by Reuters
“We all dream of an Islamic state, but we want a political Islam that is able to stand up and not be erased from the map,” Mr. Mteiri said. “The great powers will never accept this, and they are bigger and stronger than ISIS.”

Although many dismissed as propaganda ISIS’ announcement on Sunday that it had established a caliphate — or global Islamic state — the group’s out-of-nowhere rise in just over one year has created a clash over ideology and tactics between partisans of the world’s two leading jihadist organizations. It also has created a generational split as ISIS has electrified a new group of radical jihadists with its emphasis on sectarian warfare and founding an Islamic state.

On Monday, ISIS members paraded through Raqqa in Syria, demonstrating the kind of success that has won it a growing following and outsize mystique: It showed off what appeared to be a Scud missile and other heavy weapons apparently looted from Iraqi military bases.

“It is clear that the first and second generation that started Al Qaeda, most of them are supporting Zawahri, but the new generation is more radical and closer to ISIS,” said Hassan Abu Hanieh, a Jordanian expert on Islamist movements.

While Al Qaeda remains committed to using terrorist tactics against the West and Arab governments, it has criticized ISIS for killing civilians and for waging war on other Muslims. This rivalry has disrupted the jihadist landscape across the Middle East and spurred new debates about how to fight jihad and what, exactly, an Islamic state is supposed to look like.

“People don’t have to like it, but they have to respond to it,” said Shadi Hamid, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, of the group’s declaration of an Islamic state. “Now that there is an actual caliphate with a caliph, a lot of Muslims are going to have to talk about what that means, and there is going to be some sympathy.”

The successes of ISIS owe much to the failures of other Islamist movements and the group’s ability to take advantage of local circumstances, including Sunni anger in Iraq at the Shiite-controlled government, experts say.

The Egyptian military’s ouster one year ago of the country’s elected Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, dealt a harsh blow to the Muslim Brotherhood’s philosophy of gradual change through electoral politics and societal reform.

Al Qaeda’s central leadership has been waning in power and influence for years. American drone strikes have limited the ability of its leaders to manage their far-flung affiliates, and Mr. Zawahri, who took over after the death of Bin Laden, is widely seen as out of touch and lacking the charisma to inspire young militants.

This younger generation has been wooed through ISIS’ social media campaigns and finds its activist approach to statehood more inspiring than Al Qaeda’s long-term vision.

“Al Qaeda is an organization and we are a state,” said an ISIS fighter who gave his name as Abu Omar in an online chat. “Osama bin Laden, God have mercy on him, was fighting to establish the Islamic state to rule the world, and — praise God — we have achieved his dream.”

The global ambitions of ISIS were clear in the audio recording, read by the group’s spokesman, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, announcing the caliphate that it released Sunday when it changed its name and emphasized that it did not recognize any geographic limit to its authority.

Reactions from other militants around the region were split. Small groups in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and elsewhere lauded the declaration, while hundreds of men waved black flags and fired their guns in the air in celebration in Raqqa, the group’s de facto capital.

Others mocked the move as little more than bravado.

“Now while I am preparing my meal to break the Ramadan fast, news is breaking that al-Adnani has announced the caliphate!” Hani al-Sibai, a jihadist preacher in London, wrote on Twitter. “Either you pledge allegiance or return to Saturn!”

ISIS grew out of the remnants of Al Qaeda in Iraq, which took advantage of the vacuum caused by Syria’s civil war to reorganize, gather resources and recruit new fighters. It developed a reputation for ruthlessness after launching car bomb attacks on rebel bases, executing minorities and forcing its puritan views on civilians.

Its lightning surge into Iraq last month rode a wave of widespread anger among the country’s Sunnis at the discriminatory policies of Iraq’s prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. That advance posed a dilemma for some Islamists who had criticized ISIS’ violence toward rebel groups in Syria but now saw it as standing up for Iraq’s Sunnis.

Abu Mohammed al-Maqdissi, a radical cleric who recently condemned ISIS as a “deviant organization,” has remained silent on the group’s advances since being released from prison in Jordan this month. But Munif Samara, an Islamist doctor who knows him well, said the cleric was studying the new developments and that ISIS had behaved well in Iraq.

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“The Iraqi situation is very different from the Syrian situation,” Mr. Samara said. “ISIS has not had any problems with the Sunnis in Iraq, so there is no reason for any Islamic group to be against it.”

While most expect ISIS to remain on the scene, many suspect that it has overreached and will not be able to sustain its recent advances.

Others note that many of its current allies in Iraq appreciate its help in fighting a common enemy but reject its ideology, meaning the group could face stiff resistance if it tries to assert its authority.

Reflecting those latent tensions, Sheikh Zaydan al-Jabiri, the head of the political wing of Iraq’s Tribal Revolutionaries Council, praised ISIS in an interview here for helping Iraqi’s Sunnis stand up to Mr. Maliki’s government, which he saw as a proxy for Shiite Iran.

“As long as the Islamic State is standing for the same principles as the tribes, we are together,” he said.

But when a visitor played the recording of the ISIS spokesman announcing the caliphate, Sheikh Jabiri called the speaker a “son of a dog” and said that tribes were already Muslim and would not let anyone rule them in the name of Islam.

“That project won’t work us,” he said. “No way.”

Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon; Karam Shoumali from Istanbul; and Ranya Kadri from Amman.

Namibia: Riruako Was Courageous – Pohamba

Republic of Namibia President Hifikepunye Pohamba.

President Pohamba addressing mourners at the burial of Riruako at the Okahandja cemetery for Ovaherero heroes and heroines

By Magreth Nunuhe
New Era

WINDHOEK – The late OvaHerero Paramount Chief Kuaima Riruako will be remembered for his openness and courage when expressing himself on issues affecting his people and the country. President Hifikepunye Pohamba said this in a speech delivered by Prime Minister Dr Hage Geingob at Parliament Gardens during the memorial service on Friday.

“He was ever bold and vocal on national issues and expressed his views freely and honestly,” said the President, adding that Riruako would especially be remembered for the role he played in dealing with the Namibian-German past.

The President praised the chief for standing firm on his demands for reparation and introducing a motion in parliament which was widely debated and eventually unanimously approved, calling for reparation for victims of genocide committed by imperial Germany.

“In that way, he demonstrated to his community in particular and to the people of Namibia in general how strongly he felt about the need to address the past injustices committed by German occupation forces in Namibia during 1904-1908,” stated Pohamba. He  said the late chief equally played a prominent role in the return of human remains of the victims of genocide.

“Chief Riruako is no more, but his legacy will live on and his actions will be remembered and emulated by many of his compatriots,” he said.

Chief Immanuel Kauluma Elifas, Chairperson of the Council of Traditional Leaders said even though he had learned that Riruako was hospitalized, he had hoped the chief would get better and recover soon “so that we can continue to provide leadership to our people”.

“Unfortunately, the wish of the Almighty God cannot be disputed, therefore as Christians, we must stand firm, accept and console the family members of the late, especially the Ovaherero community,” Elifas said in a speech read by !Oë #Gan Damara Clan Chief, Immanuel /Gâseb, who is also the Deputy Chairperson of the Council of Traditional Leaders.

Elifas said Riruako visited him at Onamungundo Palace and brought him an expensive bull as a gift and also took the opportunity to teach him the history of the Ovaherero.

“He related that some of his great grandparents were actually born in villages in Ondonga such as Elombe, Onamutene, Ondjondjo,” said Elifas, adding Ovaherero were allowed to settle in those villages “because of the spirit of mutual brotherhood that existed between Omkwaniilwa Nehale lya Mpingana and Ombara Maharero and Ombara Tjamuaha”.

Elifas appealed to the Ovaherero community to remain united in this dark moment and abide by their customary norms when handling chieftainship succession issues since it is an issue that is bound to create division among Namibian communities.

“The leadership of the late Chief Riruako has made history as he was vocal in both political and traditional matters. He was indeed a brave man who stood tall in addressing issues of common interest,” he said.

Chief Riruako, 79, died on 2 June after a short illness in the Roman Catholic Hospital in Windhoek and he was buried by thousands of mourners at Okahandja, who included Pohamba and several Cabinet ministers and chiefs.

He was buried at the Okahandja sacred burial site where his predecessors, Chief Hosea Kutako and Chief Clemens Kapuuo are also interred.