Ten African Women who have made a positive Impact nationally and internationally, Part 2

In this second part, we continue to honor the different African women who have had a postive impact in their countries and internationally.

The ten women represent just a sample of the many African women who have made a difference in their world and internationally and in the process helped to change the status quo. We cannot forget the many African women who previously held leadership positions like, chieftainship with powers to mediate on local cases. Others have been in the monarchy advising the monarchy on how to govern.

6) Sally Hayfron Mugabe (Zimbabwe)



Sally Mugabe was born in Ghana, the then Gold coast, and was raised in a political conscious family at a time when African nationalist were rising up against colonial rule. The bright, inspiring, compassionate woman trained to be a teacher but was also a political activist.

Sally was the first wife of President Dr. Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and consequently the first lady of Zimbabwe from 1987 until her death in 1992. She met her husband at Takoradi Teacher training College where they were both teaching and were married in 1961.

Sally went into exile in 1967 after Ian Smith the then leader of Rhodesia, arrested and jailed Dr Mugabe with other political activists involved in the struggle for independence in 1964. Dr Mugabe together with other activist would remain in prison for the next ten years and Sally spent the next eight years agitating for her husband’s and other political prisoners release.

Their only son born in 1963, died in 1966 from a malaria attack and she had to bury him alone because her husband was not allowed to attend the funeral. After the release of Dr Mugabe in 1975 she rejoined him in Mozambique where he had taken refuge. She became involved in helping the many Zimbabweans refugees who had escaped the brutal rule of their government at home. From this effort she earned the title “Amai” which means mother from Zimbabweans.

After Zimbabwe attained her independence, Sally was elected the ZANU-PF deputy Secretary for the Women’s League. She was officially elected “Secretary General of the ZANU-PF Women’s League at the Party’s Congress of 1989”. She is also credited as having initiated women and children developments projects both in Zimbabwe and in the United Kingdom to benefit African women.

Sally is fondly remembered as the mother of Zimbabwe and many consider Mugabe to have change after the lose of his real love.

7) Angie Elizabeth Brook-Randolph, (Liberia)



Angie Randolph was a Liberian woman who set many world pace for women and for Africa. Brook was the first Associate of justice in Liberia. She held a doctorate degree in Civil Law as well as many other academic degrees in Social science and Political Science.

Between 1953-1958, she was the Assistant Attorney General of Liberia as well as being a part time professor of Law at the University of Liberia. She was later appointed Assistant secretary of State and served in the position between 1956- 1973. She was appointed the President of the United Nations-Trusteeship Council between 1967-1968 and became the first African female to hold such a position.

Brook is also notable the only African female President of the United Nations General Assembly and the second female from any nation in the world to head the U.N. She was elected for the president’s position in 1969. Brook also served as her country’s ambassador at large and ambassador to the United Nations and Cuba between 1975 to 1977. In 1977 she was appointed a supreme court judge in Liberia. She died in September 2007 and was accorded a state funeral.

Read more: http://trifter.com/africa/zimbabwe/ten-african-women-who-have-had-a-positive-impact-nationally-and-internationally-part-two/#ixzz1N0fsv3DN

Ten African Women who have made a positive Impact nationally and internationally, Part 1

This year 2011 is the 100th year celebration of women’s day. Women have come a long way to be where they are today. It is still a man’s world however, because most leadership positions are still the domain of men even though studies have shown that women are better leaders than men.

In certain parts of the world women are still treated as men’s property and have fewer opportunities to express themselves. However in the Western world, where women have had more opportunities it seems though like nothing much has changed in terms of perception.

More and more women seem to value themselves by their sexuality and are losing their dignity as women in the process. As long as women accept to be defined as “sex objects” paraded for men’s gratification, something is lost in the cause for women.

As we celebrate this 100th years, this writer honors the achievement of ten African women who have had an impact nationally and internationally.

1) Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Liberia)



Ellen Johnson is a Harvard trained administrator and the 24th elected president for Liberia. She is also the first woman to be elected president in Africa. She took over the presidency when Liberia was very fragile after many years of civil war. Since her election to the presidency in 2006, Johnson is said to have ”revived national hope by strengthening the institutions of national security and good governance”.

This has apparently led to the “revitalization of the national economy and infrastructure” as well as ”restoring Liberia’s international reputation and credibility”. Liberia currently has one of the fastest growing economies on the continent of Africa. Ellen Johnson has received many awards and honorary doctoral degrees for her able leadership.

2) Professor Wangari Maathai (Kenya)




Professor Wangari Maathai is a Kenyan woman with many first to her name. She was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree and the first woman to be chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy (1976) and an associate professor (1977) in Kenya.

Professor Wangari is internationally recognized for her persistent struggle for democracy, human rights and environmental conservation. She is tenuous in her efforts and she managed to stop the Kenyan government, then led by president Moi, in building offices at the famous Uhuru Park (freedom park). During her campaign against the endeavor she was insulted by the male dominated leadership attacking her gender and personal life. She is often quoted for her response to the men when she challenged them to forget “ the anatomy below the belt, but focus on the anatomy above the neck”.

Read more: http://trifter.com/africa/south-africa/ten-african-women-who-have-made-a-postive-impact-nationally-and-internationally-part-1/#ixzz1N0e8dqiD

How the Western Media conspire in the Global evil

Many times news is peddled in a way that communicates a message that influences how people think or react. More and more it is becoming very clear that the Western media is the intrument that is used to peddle lies as truths to the unsuspecting public.

Unfortunately the majority of the public have a for along time looked at the media as a god who told them who they were, how to think, who to hate, who to love, and why they should support the evil committed by their governments against others.

In 2001, a Kenyan journalist by the name of Philip Ochieng articulated this issue very well in an article he wrote. In the article titled “ How Western media connive in global evil” Ochieng discusses how different news media like the Time magazine created stories or distorted facts to portray “only the narrowest corporate American subjectivism”.

Churned Lies

The media, it is becoming clear, has always been a willing partner of the government to misinform the public in wars that the government engages in or intends to engage in. Some of the vilest lies were told during the Angolan crisis during which correspondents such as David Lamb and Sanford Ungar churned the vilest lies about “Soviet, Cuban and East Germany mischief”. It was shocking therefore for Henry Kissinger, the then USA secretary of State (1973-1977), to finally admit that AP and UPI news media had willingly used CIA agents as correspondents.

Apparently during the Falklands wars, the British Defense Ministry persuaded journalists to sign a documents requiring them “to submit all dispatchers to a censor”. Israel did the same thing with its media in its assault of Beirut in 1982. The worst for this writer however is what the media did after the so called 911 event. CNN showed a footage of Palestinians it said were rejoicing over the 911 tragedy.

It turns out that the footage used had been taken during a different event in 1991, ten years before the events of 911. The journalists involved justified the cruel lie on the basis of “national duty”. They only admitted that it “was mildly embarrassing”, perhaps because they were caught?

Read more: http://newsflavor.com/world/middle-east/how-the-western-media-conspire-in-the-global-evil/#ixzz1LyGtcuas

The Danger of practising Homosexuality in Africa

Homosexuality as a lifestyle is something that is scorned at in Africa and those who choose to live such a lifestyle do so at their own peril. For most Africans homosexuality is something foreign and taboo and in fact it is illegal in at least 37 countries Africa.

In Uganda lawmakers are considering a bill that would sentence homosexuals to life in prison and include capital punishment for “repeat offenders.” In contrast South Africa in 2006 was the sixth country in the world and the first in Africa to legalize gay marriage.

Making something legal does not however make people in a society accept something they consider wrong and have little understanding of. An article in the Washington Times suggests that a wave of intense anti-gay actions is washing across Africa.

London based gay activist Peter Tatchell, whose organization tracks abuse against gays and lesbians in Africa states that “Across many parts of Africa, we’ve seen a rise in [anti-gay] violence,”. According to him the violence has “been steadily building for the last 10 years, but has got markedly worse in the last year.”

Different means of dealing with homosexuals have been observed in different countries. For example,

 

South Africa: In South Africa something referred to as “correctives rape” is performed on homosexuals. Corrective rape involves the rape of lesbians to “cure” them of homosexuality. The latest reported victim was a thirteen year old girl who apparently was open about her being a lesbian.


A gay activist in South Africa estimates that about 510 women report of corrective rape each year. Some of the women after being raped are also murdered. Although legally South Africa has some of the most Liberal laws on homosexuality, this has not transformed how people feel about homosexuality as is evident by their actions.

Read more: http://socyberty.com/gay-lesbians/the-danger-of-practising-homosexuality-in-africa/#ixzz1LyF9MyGF

Kenya the Magnetic Country

The country called Kenya is on the East Coast of Africa and has a population of about 36 million people. That there is something special about this country, cannot be denied by those who have tested it. It has in fact endeared both the nobility and the simplest of human beings.

Kenyans in the Diaspora will be the first ones to tell you of how much they miss home no matter how successful they maybe in whatever country they may find themselves in. This writer has also known of many Americans and Europeans who visited the country and after that they could not extricate themselves from it.

It is therefore not that much surprising for Prince William to have waited until he was in Kenya to propose to his now princess. Prince William has a special attachment for Kenya and visits often for some charity work and just to get away from everything. Rutundu log cabin where he proposed to Kate lies hidden on the slopes of Mt Kenya and is very serene and secluded that anyone needing privacy can find here.

The Daily Mail quoting a source concerning the place stated that “‘Short of being inside the SAS’s base at Hereford, this is the safest place in the world for William. ‘It is the one place he can be himself. And he does not have to be guarded because the wildlife there are his guardians.”.

Prince William’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth 11 (then princess Elizabeth) was also vacationing in Kenya when she learnt of the death of her father, which would make her, being the heir in waiting, Queen Elizabeth 11. It is therefore symbolic that Kate too acquired her future title in Kenya.

Currently, the most powerful nation in the world has a president who also has connection with Kenya through his father. President Obama’s father is a Kenyan and so again American top leadership has something starting in Kenya. Perhaps Kenya has some prophetic mission in the world that one day we will discover.

Read more: http://trifter.com/africa/kenya/kenya-the-magnetic-country-that-hooks-many/#ixzz1LyDaczrQ