A number of black-rights advocacy organisations have emerged in recent years to tackle legacy of discrimination.
By Afifa Ltifi
Al-Jazeera - 24 Apr 2014
Tunis - For four consecutive days last month, black
Tunisians marched against racism, travelling from the island of Djerba
in the southeast to Tunis in the north.
The "Equality Caravan", which marked the International Day for the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination, was organised by a group of black
Tunisian citizens who hoisted banners reading "Wseef is not a colour," referring to a pejorative racial epithet sometimes used against black Tunisians.
"We wanted to raise awareness, break the taboo subject of racism
through this march. We wanted to shock people about the reality of
discrimination," said event organiser Maha Abdulhamid, the co-founder
and a former member of the black rights' organisation ADAM for Equality
and Development in Tunisia.
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Friday, April 25, 2014
ANC's glory fades as South Africa's 'born free' generation votes
By David Smith
Twenty years after South Africa's first multiracial election, political history cuts little ice with the young electorate
The Guardian, Thursday 24 April 2014
Six months pregnant, Elizabeth Kganyo was determined to cast her vote, even if it meant standing in a sun-baked queue for hours on end. "I was so excited because it was the first time," she recalls, sitting on an upturned plastic basket outside her shack in Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg. "Everybody wanted to vote. Everybody was happy."
South Africa held its first multiracial election 20 years ago on Sunday, defying bombs, bluster and the threat of civil war to conjure a spectacle of voters in long, winding lines that ravished the world. But for Kganyo, like millions of others who put a cross beside the face of Nelson Mandela, those days of miracles and wonder are a fading memory. "It's not the same now. We're not happy to vote any more. It's not like the first time."
Next month, South Africans return to the polls for the first election since Mandela's death and the first in which the so-called "born free" generation – those whose lives began after racial apartheid – are eligible to vote. The African National Congress is in no doubt of a fifth consecutive victory on 7 May but faces an unprecedented long-term challenge both on the streets and at the ballot box.
Read more.....
Twenty years after South Africa's first multiracial election, political history cuts little ice with the young electorate
The Guardian, Thursday 24 April 2014
Six months pregnant, Elizabeth Kganyo was determined to cast her vote, even if it meant standing in a sun-baked queue for hours on end. "I was so excited because it was the first time," she recalls, sitting on an upturned plastic basket outside her shack in Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg. "Everybody wanted to vote. Everybody was happy."
South Africa held its first multiracial election 20 years ago on Sunday, defying bombs, bluster and the threat of civil war to conjure a spectacle of voters in long, winding lines that ravished the world. But for Kganyo, like millions of others who put a cross beside the face of Nelson Mandela, those days of miracles and wonder are a fading memory. "It's not the same now. We're not happy to vote any more. It's not like the first time."
Next month, South Africans return to the polls for the first election since Mandela's death and the first in which the so-called "born free" generation – those whose lives began after racial apartheid – are eligible to vote. The African National Congress is in no doubt of a fifth consecutive victory on 7 May but faces an unprecedented long-term challenge both on the streets and at the ballot box.
Read more.....
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
French, Korean consortium to build $1.4 bln Abidjan rail line
By REUTERS
Ivory Coast said it had signed an initial agreement with a consortium including France's Bouygues and South Korea's Hyundai and Dongsan Engineering to build a 1 billion euro ($1.4 billion) urban rail line in Abidjan.French-speaking West Africa's largest economy has been emerging from a decade-long political crisis that ended in a brief civil war in 2011, and the government is now seeking to improve long neglected infrastructure. The proposed project would involve construction of a 37 km (23 mile) rail line from Abidjan's international airport in the south of the city, through the city centre to its northern suburbs. The line would transport an estimated 300,000 passengers a day, alleviating the traffic jams that currently plague the city of around 5 million inhabitants, the government said in a statement. "The estimated cost of the project is around 1 billion euros," an official with Ivory Coast's transport ministry said, declining to give a timetable for when construction was expected to begin.
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Ivory Coast said it had signed an initial agreement with a consortium including France's Bouygues and South Korea's Hyundai and Dongsan Engineering to build a 1 billion euro ($1.4 billion) urban rail line in Abidjan.French-speaking West Africa's largest economy has been emerging from a decade-long political crisis that ended in a brief civil war in 2011, and the government is now seeking to improve long neglected infrastructure. The proposed project would involve construction of a 37 km (23 mile) rail line from Abidjan's international airport in the south of the city, through the city centre to its northern suburbs. The line would transport an estimated 300,000 passengers a day, alleviating the traffic jams that currently plague the city of around 5 million inhabitants, the government said in a statement. "The estimated cost of the project is around 1 billion euros," an official with Ivory Coast's transport ministry said, declining to give a timetable for when construction was expected to begin.
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