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Voters appear to have turned out in large numbers in Guinea to elect a new president, with reports saying people formed long, calm queues.
The vote is regarded as the West African country’s first democratic election.
The poll follows a pledge by military ruler Sekouba Konate to return the country to civilian rule.
He has vowed not to [...]

Dr. Anthea Bulter is an Associate Professor of Religion at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Women in the Church of God in Christ: Making A Sanctified World (UNC Press, 2007). Source Religion Dispatches

President Obama’s recent announcement of his intent to nominate the Rev. Dr. Suzan D. Johnson Cook, [...]

The Gulf Coasts of Louisiana is being damaged by oil just as the Nigerian Delta has been contaminated by oil for years. In the case of Nigeria, the culprit has been Shell Oil. For years, most people in the United States did not pay attention. The only thing known about Nigeria, the most populous [...]

Ethiopia is the second most populous state on the African continent (Nigeria is the most populated state on the continent). Ethiopians are voting and it is important to watch what happens there. Ethiopia is pivotal in the horn of Africa. Among the new “African” Americans, Ethiopian immigrants are sizable. Check out Washington, D.C. for example. [...]

Profile: Namadi Sambo, Nigeria’s new vice-president
Nigeria’s new Vice-President Namadi Sambo has a good head for business, which might serve him well in a country where the line between politics and business is often quite blurred.
He owns three companies and is a qualified architect, but he has yet to prove himself as a political heavyweight.
Indeed, [...]

Interesting story! One of my concerns about this is we hope that this discovery of oil will not harm the wonderful growth of civil society in Ghana and harm the environment.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — First lady Michelle Obama made a surprise visit Tuesday to the ruins of the Haitian capital, a high-profile reminder that hundreds of thousands remain in desperate straits three months after the earthquake.
The first lady and Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, took a helicopter tour of Port-au-Prince, where many people [...]

Dr. Paul Farmer, UN Deputy Special Envoy for Haiti, on Haiti’s Challenges Following Catastrophic Earthquake and Years of Western Domination
Last year, the well-known activist medical anthropologist Dr. Paul Farmer was appointed the UN Deputy Special Envoy for Haiti. Farmer is founder of the charity Partners in Health, which provides healthcare for people with HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, [...]

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This is the first in a series of conversations that Chuck D had last summer. They are all worth checking out.
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