East Africa

Enacted February 24, 2014 and effective until August 1, 2014, Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act targeted Ugandans of minority sexual orientations and gender identities—many of whom self-identify as 'kuchu'—by imposing life sentences for homosexual sex and same-sex marriage. The original Anti-Homosexuality Bill introduced in 2009 promised even worse for kuchus: it would have mandated that all Ugandans report known homosexuals and threatened execution for serial offenders and other perpetrators of “aggravated homosexuality.” In the context of Ugandan political conflict, emerging international human rights norms, and global asymmetries of power, Uganda has become an ideological battlefront where competing actors—both US-based and Ugandan—advance their respective visions of a just and righteous global society. These factors mandate that US-based activists and organizations painstakingly consider how (or whether) they can advocate responsibly and effectively for international human rights related to gender identity and sexual orientation. Through interdisciplinary lenses and critical analysis, this paper explores three questions:

• How is Uganda distinct from other sites of antigay legislation?
• How have US-based organizations impacted Ugandan discourse and policy toward kuchus?
• How can US-based rights advocates and activists campaign for kuchus without doing them further harm?

The following text is a response sent to an email dispatched to me by the Chairman of the exiled Oromo Parliamentarians who struggle for the Independence and Self-determination of the 5 millennia long Kushitic Ethiopian Nation of the Oromos.
The Hamitic - Kushitic Oromo Nation - due to criminal, inhuman and evil persecution conceived by the colonial powers (France, England and America) and executed by the colonially promoted barbaric and incestuous pseudo-Christian Abyssinians - lost their kingdoms and were engulfed within the Cemetery of Nations Fake Ethiopia, which consists in the world's most tyrannical realm and the location of the world's more abhorrent, more enduring, and more multifaceted genocides. There are more than 45 million Oromos in Abyssinia (Fake Ethiopia) and Kenya today, despite the notorious and pathetic falsehood propagated by Wikipedia.
The present text enumerates all the major points of historical distortion and falsification carried out and diffused by the colonial academia, mass media, and diplomats, as well as by their local agents and criminal executioners, i.e. the barbaric, incestuous and Anti-Christian tribes of Amhara and Tigray (: the Abyssinians), who usurped the fair name of Ethiopia, which historically denotes the land of North Sudan and the Kushitic Nation that prospered there either in the Antiquity or in the Christian Era. Both, the Oromos and the Arabic-speaking (but not Arab) populations of Northern-Central Sudan are the descendants of Ancient Sudan's (i.e. Ancient Ethiopia's) Kushitic populations.
Representative photographic documentation was herewith added to the text in order to better illustrate the topic.

Refutation of historical forgeries propagated by European colonials and incestuous Abyssinians
First published here:
https://megalommatiscomments.wordpress.com/2017/07/26/kushitic-oromos-ancestry-in-ethiopia-ancient-sudan-semitic-amharas-tigrays-abyssinians-ancestry-in-yemen/

Political revolutions are, by their very nature, contested events, and liable to remain the subject of conflicting interpretations long after they have turned the existing order upside down and spun it around. This is especially so when they have been violent in their making and then evolved through further cycles of violence and repression, leaving large numbers of people dead and even more traumatised and intimidated into silence. The Zanzibar Revolution is a case in point, and this edited volume, published in association with the French Institute for Research in Africa (IFRA), grapples with collective and individual memories of the events of 12 January 1964 and their aftermath, and the continuing reverberations of these in the everyday life of Zanzibaris both home and abroad.

Social Memory, Silenced Voices, and Political Struggle begins and ends with reflections on the official commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the revolution in 2014, firstly in the editors’ thought-provoking introduction (‘Memory, media, and Mapinduzi: alternative voices of revolution, fifty years later’), latterly in a series of 15 black-and-white photographs by Ania Gruca (‘Capturing the commemoration: a documentary photo essay on the 50th anniversary of the revolution’). Anniversaries provide the islands’ government with a regular opportunity to reproduce its founding narrative, just in case its name (Serikali ya Mapinduzi ya Zanzibar, the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar) and longstanding slogan (Mapinduzi Daima!, Revolution Forever!) weren’t reminder enough.

European definition of micro, small and medium enterprises as an instrument of the development policy of the enterprise sector – experience, postulates and conclusions for the future

The subject of the article is the issue of separating micro, small and medium enterprises (SME) from the general economy which due to their small size encounter market barriers hindering their development. The basic legal instruments in this matter is the definition of the SME sector at the level of the EU regulations. The purpose of the analysis is to look for advantages and disadvantages of the existing definition, as well as to refer to the selected ideas of its modification, considering European Union case law. The main research hypothesis is: regarding the importance of SME’s definition for the EU economy, the changes that must be made in the analysed concept must take into account the existing economic conditions as well as the previously available use of the same definition by the institutions. However, it is equally important to identify the purpose for which the SMEs were separated under a specific definition. The purpose of this separation was to provide support for such SMEs, which they de facto need. The basic research method used in the article is the dogmatic and legal method. Its subject was the analysis of the content of normative acts, the EU case law, as well as reports and analyses in the field of the SME sector.

Przedmiotem artykułu jest problematyka wyodrębnienia z ogółu gospodarki mikro, małych i średnich przedsiębiorstw (MŚP), które z uwagi na swoje nieduże rozmiary napotykają na bariery rynkowe utrudniające im rozwój. Podstawowym narzędziem prawnym w tym zakresie jest definicja sektora MŚP określona na poziomie przepisów UE. Celem prowadzonej analizy jest poszukiwanie zalet i wad obecnej definicji oraz odniesienie się do poszczególnych pomysłów jej modyfikacji, z uwzględnieniem linii orzeczniczej organów Unii Europejskiej. Zasadnicza hipoteza badawcza brzmi: z uwagi na znaczenie definicji MŚP dla gospodarki UE, zmiany jakie powinny zostać dokonane w analizowanej definicji, muszą uwzględniać zarówno obecne uwarunkowania gospodarcze, jak i dotychczasowe doświadczenia organów stosujących tę definicję, jednak zasadniczym punktem odniesienia przy konstruowaniu zmian jest cel, dla którego przedsiębiorstwa te zostały wyodrębnione. Celem tym jest wsparcie podmiotów, takiej pomocy de facto potrzebujących. Podstawową metodą badawczą, zastosowaną w artykule jest metoda dogmatyczno-prawna. Jej przedmiotem była analiza treści aktów normatywnych, orzecznictwa organów UE, a także branżowych raportów i analiz z zakresu sektora MŚP.

Introduction to See You On The Other Side podcast, episode 133, 28 February 2017 (interview by Mike Huberty and Allison Jornlin, Madison, Wisconsin).
Online at http://othersidepodcast.com/blog/2017/02/28/133-popobawa-dr-martin-walsh-idea-virus/.

La cour de Ménélik II (r. 1889-1913) est un véritable « laboratoire iconographique ». Le roi des rois est le premier à recourir de façon méthodique à la photographie, importée sur les hauts plateaux de l'Éthiopie par des missionnaires, des commerçants et autres voyageurs. Nombre de portraits parvenus jusqu'à nous en témoignent : les dignitaires éthiopiens y posent en arborant les insignes royaux ou des armes, autant d'attributs laissant à penser que ces images ont été élaborées avec soin. L'auteur s'interroge sur les enjeux auxquels répondait la fabrication de ces images, mais aussi sur leurs significations et leurs usages. Quel éclairage apportent ces documents à l'histoire de l'Ethiopie contemporaine et de ses relations avec le monde extérieur ? Les modalités d'appropriation de ce nouveau médium sont retracées à l'aide de sources écrites éthiopiennes et européennes. Les clichés sont aussi replacés au coeur d'un ensemble iconographique plus large, comprenant des peintures d'église, des timbres-poste ou des pièces de monnaie. Dérivés de la photographie, ils témoignent de recherches sur la forme, les supports et les usages des images, au gré des innovations techniques et des besoins politiques. Ces documents comptent parmi les réponses apportées par la royauté face aux bouleversements engendrés par le triomphe de la colonisation européenne sur le continent africain. À l'heure où l'Europe exporte ses médias et ses imaginaires dans le reste du monde, ils reflètent à la fois la souveraineté politique du pays et une idéologie royale relayée tant par le texte que par l'image : souverain modernisateur, féru de techniques nouvelles, Ménélik II revendiquait aussi une ascendance salomonide trois fois millénaire.

In late 1997 and early 1998, a large outbreak of hemorrhagic fever occurred in East Africa. Clinical samples were collected in Kenya and southern Somalia, and 27 of 115 (23%) hemorrhagic fever patients tested showed evidence of acute infection with Rift Valley fever (RVF) virus as ...

South Sudan is facing a profound crisis of governance within the ruling party and its military wing, the SPLA. Without addressing serious nation-building issues, democratizing the ruling party and opening up the political space, any temporary solutions will only defer the problems to a later date

According to the World Bank (1997), Tanzania ranks as the third poorest country in the world. It remains a primarily agrarian nation with roughly three-quarters of the population living on the land, engaged in low-yielding peasant agriculture. Not unlike other nations of the developing world, its policy makers must weigh economic development aims with political stability and welfare concerns. Nowhere is this more critically illustrated than in the arena of staple food policy. During the twentieth century, market demand has persistently expanded whilst peasant output has continued to fluctuate subject to climatic conditions. Shortfalls of marketed supply became an increasing, and not unfounded, fear. In this context, the organisation of food marketing has preoccupied much of public policy debate until recently. Tanzania provides one of the most extreme examples of an about-face in food marketing. The present open market stands in stark contrast to the system of all-embracing state marketing for the preferred cereals that prevailed between 1973 and 1986. This paper seeks to explore the tension between achieving marketing efficiency and ensuring national supply of the country's basic staple food.

The objective of this study was to establish the effects of dividend announcement to current market prices at the Nairobi Securities Exchange, with four specific objectives; to determine the information content of dividend announcements, to determine the extent to which prices converge to new values after dividend announcements on a sector by sector basis, to establish the market reaction to announced information and also to establish whether investors can secure excess returns by acting on announced information. A 66 days event timeline was employed from 2005 to 2015 on daily closing stock prices. A sample of 179 dividend announcements from 22 listed companies in 8 sectors were drawn and analysed using an OLS Market Model. Findings of the research conclude that; dividend announcements do have an impact on stock prices for the Agricultural, Banking, Commercial, Construction, Manufacturing and Telecomm Sectors and not for the Energy Sector, Insurance Sector and the Nairobi Securities...

A brief editor's notice of the Swahili translation of F.X. Lwamgira’s Amakuru ga Kiziba na Abakama Bamu (1949), the English translation of which (The History of Kiziba and its Kings) is reviewed by Nico Brice-Bennett in Tanzanian Affairs 130 (2021). The notice goes on to mention other books.

These poems, composed in Somali and in English, provide a poetic reflection of the recently emerged debate on the theme of Caddaan Studies which means "White Studies". The criticism and counter-criticism contained in the debate dug so deep into life nerve of Somali Studies that over a thousand people participated. The poems, under the title "Inaugurating Caddaan Studies" were composed with a critical observation of the debate.

I worry about caves. I’ve been worrying about them ever since reading about the role played by Kitum Cave in the known history of Marburg virus disease. In the 1980s, two separate visitors to this “elephant cave” in Mount Elgon National Park were infected and subsequently died. Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) have since been identified as a reservoir host for marburgviruses, and it may well be that the inhalation of microbes from bat guano was the means by which these unfortunate tourists contracted the deadly disease.

I’m also fascinated by caves: they’re contagious in more ways than one. The islands of the Zanzibar archipelago, with their extensive limestone reef terraces, are riddled with caves and sinkholes. They’re a distinctive feature of the coral rag or karst landscape of both Unguja and Pemba, though often hidden from sight by thick vegetation, especially along the forested scarps in the south and east of the main island. Many of the caves have cultural significance as mizimu, the abodes of spirits that are regularly propitiated by the local guardians who have inherited this responsibility.

Global climate change, linked to astronomical forcing factors, has been implicated in faunal evolutionary change in equatorial Africa, including
the origin and diversification of hominin lineages. Empirical terrestrial data demonstrating that orbital forcing has a significant effect,
or is detectable, at early hominin sites in equatorial continental interiors during the Pliocene, however, remain limited. Sedimentation patterns in
the Baringo Basin within the Central Kenyan Rift Valley between ca. 2.7 and 2.55 Ma, controlled by climatic factors, provide a detailed paleoenvironmental
record spanning 35 fossil vertebrate localities, including three hominin sites. The succession includes a sequence of diatomites
that record rhythmic cycling of major freshwater lake systems consistent with w23-kyr Milankovitch precessional periodicity. The temporal
framework of shifting precipitation patterns, relative to Pliocene insolation curves, implicate African monsoonal climatic control and indicate
that climatic fluctuations in Rift Valley ecosystems were paced by global climatic change documented in marine cores. These data provide direct
evidence of orbitally mediated environmental change at Pliocene Rift Valley hominin fossil localities, providing a unique opportunity to assess
the evolutionary effect of short-term climatic flux on late Pliocene East African terrestrial communities.

Some stories, sights and sounds from a journey I once made to Africa. These I hope will help us in exploring a question on many of our minds these days, a question on which the people of Africa might shed some light. The question of how to build stronger communities and families when all around us they seem to be falling apart. Many of you are probably familiar with the African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child." To me the proverb speaks to our need to think about our community, not as a menagerie of separate, isolated individuals and family units, but as one collective entity from which we can all benefit but for which we must all take responsibility. But this means putting aside those things which divide us and pulling together our concerns, our energy, our hopes, our talents, our resources, and our love. In many parts of Africa, this process is called "harambee," which in KiSwahili means to "pull together." The stories, sounds and sights which I will share today about "harambee" come from four nations in East and Southern Africa: Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Kenya. Through the people we meet on this "safari," I hope we will discover some of the secrets that make African communities and families among the strongest in the world.