The New Africa Magazine/ Dr Filomena Mathins

C H R I S T M A S E D I T I O N 2 0 2 1

Editorial
Team
Publisher’s Desk
Welcome to the month of December and
last edition of our magazine in 2021.
So many events unfolded this year; the
most popular being the emergence of the
Omicron virus when the world was and is
still battling with Covid-19.
We have a full coverage of the variant: its
emergence, spread and ways of controlling
it. The allege murder of a 12 year old
Dowen pupil in Lagos, Nigeria, brought
sorrows to many Nigerian families and we
closely followed the event too.
Editor’s Desk
Welcome to the last month of the year
2021, Merry Christmas and Happy New
Year in Advance. It is a fact that the year
2021 has come with it’s various issues
ranging from health challenges which has
brought us all to a new norm of life where
we all have to guard ourselves with nose
masks at all times and to take cognizance
of our individual hygiene not just in Africa
alone, but globally.
Gift Chidinma
Nnamoko Orairu.
We also have an exclusive ranking of the
Richest Men in Africa in 2021, the Top
10 African Countries with the Strongest
Exchange Rates Against the Dollar in
2021, the History of Africa, Ijebu’s Myth of
the Queen of Sheeba, and lots of other
interesting articles.
We hope you will enjoy every page of our
unique magazine even as we strive to
project the greatness of Africa to the larger
world.
Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New
Year in advance.
of ECOWAS which is the West African
Parliament and Chair of ECOFEPA which is
the Network of Women Parliamentarians
of West Africa. She sheds more light on
why African women need to be more active
in the development of Africa.
In addition, there’s a special feature on
the effects of bullying on children as this is
becoming a menace.
SENIOR EDITORS:
Karima Rhanem
Sunny Ojeme
EDITORS:
Orji Ikechukwu
Richard Susan
ADMINSTRATIVE EDITOR
Alfred Olaiya
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS:
Mounir Hadi
Darlington Osigwe
Odunayo Akinsioye
Francis Jojo Antwi
Blessing Ehiwario Samuel
PROOF READERS:
Henrietta Kushimo
Prince Bright
GRAPHIC DESIGNERS:
Olayiwola Makanjuola
Kay Johnson
Duru Chukwuemeka
DIGITAL MARKETERS:
Alfred Olaiya
Anthony Christopher Ajah
WEBSITE MANAGERS:
Oluseye Kushimo
PHOTOGRAPHER:
Johnson Emmanuel
CONSULTANTS:
Dr. Fati Ibrahim
Dr. Eno Praise
Dr. Toni Olumide
LEGAL
Barrister Vincent Tortsugh
This month, the New Africa Magazine
features various interesting, informative,
Educating and Entertaining News and
Articles with special focus on Filomena
Martins from Cape Verde, Member
Finally, i urge you to read, enjoy and don’t
forget to send in your comments to us via
our website as we are poised to satisfying
your needs.
PUBLISHER/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:
Gift Chidinma Nnamoko Orairu.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH
Dr. Filomena
Martins
I’m Filomena Martins from Cape Verde. I hold a Degree in
Philosophy and Master in Management, Evaluation and
Supervision of Educational Systems. I joined active politics
in 1998. Since then, I have held various positions and
roles, including National MP, Minister of Education and
Higher Education, Member of ECOWAS which is the West
African Parliament and Chair of ECOFEPA which is the
Network of Women Parliamentarians of West Africa.

Do you think African women are
doing enough when it comes to their
participation in politics?
It is a complex issue that must be
analyzed from several angles... African
women are increasingly aware of the
struggle they have to fight for their
participation in politics to become
effective. In this sense, those with
academic and political training are paving
the way, either through the creation of
laws, or through raising awareness so
that others can empower themselves
and take an active part in decisionmaking
processes.
The biggest problem they face is the
very low percentage of illiterate and
semi-illiterate women. In this sense, they
accompany and encourage the entry of
girls into school. But it is a long process,
a fight that is far from being won.
the entry of girls into school, parents are
obliged to send their children, girls and
boys to school. Through a program of
school canteens and school health, it was
ensured that by going to school, children
would have, in addition to schooling, a
hot meal as well as health care!
In the curricular plan, the contents of
citizenship, democracy, cultural diversity
and gender must be improved so that,
from the start, boys internalize, that they
must respect meminas and that they,
like them, are competent and necessary
for the balanced development of society.
Girls, in turn, must gain self-confidence
and self-esteem and feel naturally
capable, just like them.
From a general point of view, Africa
has to intensify the areas of training in
ICTs, in economic and financial areas, in
innovation and applied research.
awareness of this dependence. The
parents, mother and father, in a different
way, condition the girl...
Can you access the inclusion
of women at different cadres
of governance in some African
countries?
The inclusion of women, as I said, is
very weak. Statistics prove that the
percentage of women who manage to
access positions and functions of political
leadership and public administration in
How well do you think women are
being accepted into leadership roles
in Africa?
We cannot deny that some progress has
already been made, but we are very, very
far from having a real and encouraged
acceptance of women in leadership
positions, whether in politicians or
in public administration. In Africa, in
addition to the difficulties that women
face in other countries and continents,
the culture here has a profoundly
patriarchal matrix. The man is the
center, the brain from which everything
turns and is determined... the woman is
something that exists to serve him and
that she must submit to, for that, as far
as I am concerned, the interpretation of
religion is distorted in order to legitimize
this view. Only in this way can it be
understood that in this century, despite
the fact that there are laws that prohibit
it, child marriage and female genital
mutilation are defended, women’s right
of access to land is being denied, despite
the fact that West Africa is an Africa rural.
As a former Minister of Education
in an African country, what areasdo
you Africa is lacking when it comes
to education of the girl child and
education generally?
As Minister of Education, we promote
Do you think that having women
in political leadership provides a
different kind of voice?
Arguably! See, in Africa, the percentage
of existing women is slightly higher than
that of men. Now, if we want a balanced
and sustainable development, we cannot
leave half of the population, excluded
from this process.
From a scientific and, above all,
neurological point of view, it has been
proven that the dominant and most
sensitive brain areas, differ from women
to men, have specific characteristics...in
this sense, the elements that a woman
considers decisive in an analysis, in order
to decide well, are not exactly those that
the man prioritizes. The feeling, the look,
the technical and professional analysis
of women, together with that of men,
is what gives us the best and necessary
decision for the development of society.
The woman takes on the emotion
necessary for reason and intelligence to
decide well.
What barriers are still in the way of
optimal participation of women in the
political process in Africa?
The barriers are illiteracy, semiilliteracy,
social, economic and cultural
dependence, as well as weak or no
their respective countries does not reach
15%!!! In some countries, it doesn’t reach
5%! Therefore, the assessment is frankly
negative, despite the small advances.
Which country leader would
you recommend for exemplary
demonstration of walking the talk
when it comes to the appointment
of women into decision making
positions?
The Prime Minister of Cape Verde, Dr
José Maria Neves, current President of
the Republic. He always defended very
consistent positions on gender equality
and equity, he was a great defender of
women’s capacities and competences
in favor of balanced and sustainable
development of societies.
As PM, he constituted a parity

government! The portfolios of
Defense, Finance, Agriculture,
Infrastructure, Internal
Administration, Education and Higher
Education, for example, were given
to women who performed them with
great performance.
Defining a pathway through
activism by women has not yielded
positive results in Africa. What
strategies can women deploy to
get desired results?
Yes, this strategy has not had the
desired effective and efficient effects,
for multiple reasons. For me, one of
the main causes has to do with the
fact that, as there is still an incipient
awareness of the struggle for gender
equality, they often fight amongst
themselves. That is, instead of
women coming together and devising
strategies that prepare them to
dispute places with men, they dispute
among themselves, the same place.
Unfortunately, we are witnessing a
scenario of “Woman against Woman!”
Genuine, uncomplicated awareness,
based on excellent training, will be
one of the many strategies to be
undertaken.
We have to be aware that if there are
10 seats and one is already occupied
by a woman, this is not mine, but
at least the other four, occupied by
men!!
What benefits does ECOWAS offer?
ECOWAS, despite having to improve
its internal organization and
strategies, can be considered a gain
for the region.
At the moment, it seeks to harmonize
its policies, in all areas, namely,
education (so as to guarantee that
young people can study in any
of the member states, through a
system of credits and exchanges),
agriculture, (to guarantee and fight
for food security and design common
production policies), create a green
economy since we are the ones who
pollute the environment least and
suffer the most from pollution and
climate change.
Commission has to be more
vehement in the fight against
coups d’état and the consequent
fulfillment of the Constitution of
the Republic of the different States.
Immense resources are spent with
ECOMIB, instead of these resources
being applied in education, health,
infrastructure of the country, air and
maritime transport that guarantee
the circulation of citizens and make
the created free trade zone viable.
There is much to be done and
improved...
At the same time, public policies
for women, girls and young women
are being drawn up simultaneously,
in order to combat cultural and
religious pressure at the same time.
Anyway, the advantages are
numerous.
As a former ECOWAS deputy, what
major problems face the ECOWAS?
The biggest challenge for ECOWAS
is, for me, to introduce gains in
effectiveness and efficiency in its
internal management. There are
many fats in the organization that
prevent the financial and human
resources employed, from having the
best result.
On the other hand, from a political
point of view, the ECOWAS

Libya’s
Presidency
Gadafy’s son given go-ahead to run for Libya’s Presidency.
A
court in Libya has said
Saif al-Islam Gadafy, a
son of Libya’s overthrown
dictator, can run for
president, adding to the
uncertainty and chaos
surrounding the forthcoming poll.
The electoral commission disqualified
him from the December 24th election
that western governments hope will
unite a fragmented country.
However, the court in Sebha, in southern
Libya, accepted Gadafy’s appeal against
his exclusion from the race, according to
multiple reports citing his lawyer.
The electoral commission had declared
Gadafy ineligible because he had been
convicted of a crime. He was sentenced
to death in 2015 in absentia by a court
in Tripoli for war crimes during the 2011
uprising in which his father, Muammer
Gadafy, was overthrown and later killed.
The junior Gadafy was captured in 2011
by a militia from the northwestern town
of Zintan and held captive there until
2017, when he was freed.
He is still wanted by the International
Criminal Court for alleged crimes against
humanity during attempts by the former
regime to suppress the Nato-backed
uprising.

For many years his father’s heir
apparent, Gadafy cultivated the image
of a moderniser who wanted to bring
human rights to Libya. But when protests
erupted in 2011, he warned of rivers
of blood and was filmed brandishing
a machine gun and vowing to crush
insurgents.
The UN and western governments hope
the elections will help turn a corner in a
country where militias have held sway
for most of the past decade and foreign
governments have engaged in proxy
wars by sending arms and mercenaries.
Some 98 candidates have registered for
the poll, but the electoral commission
disqualified 25 last week, including
Gadafy.
Analysts say Gadafy has appeal among
those nostalgic for stability after a
decade of chaos and lawlessness.
He also has a natural constituency
among certain tribes and regions
which benefited under his father. He is,
however, a polarising figure who is hated
by many of those who rose up in 2011.
Powerful militias in western Libya have
rejected his candidacy. Some even
reportedly blockaded the Sebha court
this week to prevent consideration of his
appeal.
Other prominent candidates include
Khalifa Haftar, the strongman who
controls eastern Libya and who launched
in 2019 an ultimately-failed military
offensive to capture Tripoli in the west,
and seize control of the country. Another
candidate is Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh,
prime minister of the Government of
National Unity. His candidacy is in breach
of a pledge he made not to run as a
condition for heading the GNU whose
main task was to prepare the election. A
court in Tripoli rejected several appeals
to disqualify him.
Analysts say there is still uncertainty the
election will be held on time and some
have warned it could trigger further
turmoil if the results are not accepted by
the losers.

From a
humble
beginning to a
superstar

If there is a lesson to be learned
from Nigerian rapper Zlatan, it
is that you should never give up
on your dreams, even if it takes a
while to achieve them.
From humble beginnings, he grew
up in Ilorin, in Kwara state, where his
parents were both pastors. “I used to
play drums in the church, so I kind of
understood rhythm,” he tells me.
After graduating from secondary
school he failed the entrance exam to
take him on to further study, but he
set to work and passed the following
year.
The only trouble was that there was a
deadline looming and school fees had
to be paid in just a few days - or else
he’d be refused admission.
Although the fees were less than
£200 ($265), Zlatan remembers that
this was a huge amount for his family
to find in such a short space of time.
“There was nothing at home” he
recalls. “My Dad was not working.”
Zlatan’s father had an old broken
down Mercedes Benz that sat outside
their house. “The only thing my Dad
knows how to do well is to pray. He
prayed, and a couple of days before
the fees were due, this person - we
don’t know if this person was a ghost,
a Ninja or a human being - he just
came from nowhere and said he
wanted to buy the car without testing
or starting it. He wanted to pay a
deposit.” The money went straight to
paying Zlatan’s school fees.
While studying for a diploma in
business administration, a friend put
him forward for the 2014 edition of
the “One Mic Campus Tour” music
competition, which he won. The prize
was a brand-new car. From then on
everything changed.
People wanted to know more about
Zlatan and his music. His parents
too became more supportive of his
musical ambitions.
He began following established artist
Olamide on social media, messaging
him regularly in order to create some
familiarity: “I just said some crazy
words to gain his attention.” One day
Olamide called him, and made his
first breakthrough record “My Body”
with him, along with a video.
Zlatan built on this success, with
further collaborations with Chinko
Ekun and Lil Kesh on the single “Able
God”. Then came the hit song “Zanku”
which was accompanied by the
popular Zanku dance.
“There were all kinds of dances going
around at the time. The Ghanaians
had Azonto, and I said to myself that
if I ever get recognized by people, I
want to invent my own dance.”
Further collaborations with big stars
such as Davido and Burna Boy only
added to his reputation, and in
January 2020 Zlatan launched his
own record label - Zanku Records. He
says it’s a dream come true to be able
to promote other artists, and his new
album “Rosan” (The Journey) has just
been released.
There were all
kinds of dances
going around
at the time. The
Ghanaians had
Azonto, and I
said to myself
that if I ever get
recognized by
people, I want to
invent my own
dance.

African
Countries With
the Strongest
Exchange Rates
Against the Dollar
In 2021

According to Investopedia, “exchange rates have a substantial influence on
companies’ operations and profitability. Exchange rate volatility affects not just
multinationals and large corporations, but it also affects small and mediumsized
enterprises, including those who only operate in their home country.
While understanding and managing exchange rate risk is a subject of obvious
importance to business owners, investors should also be familiar with it because
of the huge impact it can have on their holdings.
As you may well know, exchange rate basically means the value of a currency
when converted to another during trade. The dollar, for example, is currently
the most universally accepted benchmark currency because of its wide usage
during international trade. Therefore, the top ten strongest currencies in Africa
are basically currencies with the highest values when converted to the dollar, or
any other universally accepted currency for that matter.

Top ten African currencies with the highest exchange
rates against the dollar
Tunisian dinar: This is currently
the strongest and most valuable
currency in Africa. As at the time of
publication, checks by BI Africa shows
that TND1000 converts to $353.05.
Seychellois rupee: This tiny island
country which is located in the
Somali Sea, has one of the strongest
currencies in Africa. SCR1000
converted to $78.35 as at the time of
filing this report.
Libyan dinar: Libya currently has the
second strongest and most valuable
currency on the continent, second
only to Tunisia. When converted to
the dollar, LYD1000 will give you
$219.20.
Namibian dollar: When we
converted NAD1000 to the dollar, we
got $67.16.
Eritrean nakfa: In Eritrea which is
located in the Horn of Africa, they
use a currency called the Eritrean
nakfa. The currency has the eighth
strongest exchange rate against the
dollar. As at the time of comparison, ERN1000 converted to
$66.66.
Ghanaian cedi: This West African
country’s currency has the third
highest exchange rate against the
dollar in Africa. When we converted
GHS1000, we got $164.74. That said,
it’s important to note that Ghana
had, in 2007, re-denominated its
currency such that ten thousand
Cedis became equivalent to one Ghana Cedi. The country’s
Central Bank explained that the re-denomination became
necessary for the sake of statistical convenience.
Moroccan dirham: Morocco has the
fourth strongest currency in Africa,
for now. Checks by BI Africa showed
that when converted to the dollar,
DH1000 becomes $110.46.
South African rand: South Africa
is one of the continent’s strongest
economies. It also has one of the
strongest currencies. When we
converted ZAR1000 to the dollar, we
got $66.63.
Swazi lilangeni: Although it is
among the poorest countries on the
continent, Eswatini (Swaziland) has
one of the strongest currency. When
converted to the dollar, SZL1000
gave us $66.62.
Botswanan pula: Botswana
in Southern Africa has the fifth
strongest currency on the continent.
BWP1000 converts to $88.22.
However, this may have changed
slightly by the time you convert yours
due to exchange rate volatility.

European
exploration
of Africa

The geography of North Africa
has been reasonably well
known among Europeans
since classical antiquity in
Greco-Roman geography.
Northwest Africa (the Maghreb) was
known as either Libya or Africa, while
Egypt was considered part of Asia.
European exploration of Sub-Saharan
Africa begins with the Age of Discovery
in the 15th century, pioneered by the
Kingdom of Portugal under Henry the
Navigator. The Cape of Good Hope was
first reached by Bartolomeu Dias on
12 March 1488, opening the important
sea route to India and the Far East, but
European exploration of Africa itself
remained very limited during the 16th
and 17th centuries. The European
powers were content to establish
trading posts along the coast while they
were actively exploring and colonizing
the New World.
Exploration of the interior of Africa
was thus mostly left to the Muslim
slave traders, who in tandem with the
Muslim conquest of Sudan established
far-reaching networks and supported
the economy of a number of Sahelian
kingdoms during the 15th to 18th
centuries.
At the beginning of the 19th century,
European knowledge of the geography
of the interior of Sub-Saharan Africa was
still rather limited. Expeditions exploring
Southern Africa were made during the
1830s and 1840s, so that around the
midpoint of the 19th century and the
beginning of the colonial Scramble for
Africa, the unexplored parts were now
limited to what would turn out to be
the Congo Basin and the African Great
Lakes. This “Heart of Africa” remained
one of the last remaining “blank spots”
on world maps of the later 19th century
(alongside the Arctic, Antarctic and
the interior of the Amazon basin). It
was left for 19th-century European
explorers, including those searching for
the famed sources of the Nile, notably
John Hanning Speke, Sir Richard Burton,
David Livingstone and Henry Morton
Stanley, to complete the exploration
of Africa by the 1870s. After this, the
general geography of Africa was known,
but it was left to further expeditions
during the 1880s onward, notably, those
led by Oskar Lenz, to flesh out more
detail such as the continent’s geological
makeup.

Is the Queen of
Sheba (Bilikisu
Sungbo) buried
in Ijebu?
The Ijebu people in Ogun State
believe that the Queen of Sheba
is actually Bilikisu Sungbo, a
wealthy and childless widow
from medieval times. The past
is a repository. Within its dark
pages and hazy corners lie stories that would
light the path and connect the dots between
our questions and the answers that stare
at us from places we have never thought to
look in.
Regardless of where you get your accounts
of times gone past, from the oral stories
of older folk or thick volumes curated in
London’s many scholarly halls, one thing
strikes many people from the moment they
begin to notice patterns. Mythology, and its
slightly more accurate sister, History, lean in
favor of the male gender.
From Zeus to Sango to George Washington,
the icons and legends of entire civilizations
and nations are not the women who birthed
its fore-bearers, but the bearded God who
made children with humans and the father
of a nation who kept other nations in chains.
This is not to say there is no space for the
female folk. Among the few women who find
a place in old wives tales and history texts,
perhaps the most prominent is the legend
of a queen of biblical times. She is known as
Bilquis, Bilikisu, or more notably, the Queen
of Sheba.
The legend of the Queen of Sheba is one
of history’s more fertile legends; over time,
it has been re-imagined by Jewish, Islamic,
Arabian and other many interpretations.
As a result of this, accounts of her life differ
depending on who’s telling the story. Still, her
story is widely recognized as a Biblical one,
and the most popular account of it is that
offered in the Bible; the story of her visit to
King Solomon.
According to the Book of Kings, the Queen of
Sheba came to Jerusalem with a very great
retinue, with camels bearing spices, and very
much gold and precious stones, “and when
she was with Solomon, she communed with
him of all that was in her heart. And Solomon
told her all her questions: there was nothing hid
from the king, which he did not tell her” (I Kings
10:2–3)
In the Queen’s time with King Solomon, she
was so astounded by the opulence and
advancement of his court, as well as his
wisdom, that she offered her respect for the
King and the God of Israel, Yahweh. Out of
this respect, she gave large amounts of gold,
rare wood and spices, precious stones in
tribute to King Solomon.
“And King Solomon gave unto the queen of
Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked,
beside that which Solomon gave her of his royal
bounty. So she turned and went to her own
country, she and her servants.” (I Kings 10:13)
It is said that after spending time with
Solomon, the Queen converted to his

eligion, Judaism. Other accounts of the
Queen’s life go far further than this; some
suggest the place of her birth as a nation in
present-day Yemen. The Ethiopian account
of Queen Sheba, or Makeda as she is called
there, goes on to state that, on her way back,
she had a child for King Solomon, named
Melenik I.
Despite the many disparities in the many
accounts, there are certain ‘facts’ about the
Queen of Sheba that are common to almost
all the many stories.
She was from a great kingdom somewhere
in the Middle East or Africa. Biblical accounts
describe the Queen of the Sheba as a “queen
of the South” who came from the uttermost
ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of King
Solomon. The Kingdom of Israel and Judea,
over which Solomon ruled, covered a great
area of the middle east; to its south lay arts
of South Arabia and farther south, the many
ancient nation-states of Africa.
She was a black queen, of very dark skin.
Apart from her origin, historians point to the
Canticles, known as the Songs of Solomon,
as evidence of this. She is deemed to be the
object of the writer’s fancy, who says in Song
of Solomon 1:4, “I am black and beautiful”.
The Queen of Sheba was wealthy beyond
measure. All accounts of her visit to King
Solomon speak of the scale of the gifts that
she gave him; including large quantities of
gold and rare wood that Solomon used to
build his throne and later, the Temple in
Jerusalem.
Even though these ‘truths’ make up the pillar
of any story about the Queen, each account
has such different elements that it can be
difficult to even decide if they are all talking
about the same person.
One of the less popular accounts of Queen
Sheba comes, not from the middle east, or
Ethiopia, but from Nigeria, in the town of
Ijebu Ode.
The Ijebu people claim that the Queen of
Sheba was one of their noblewomen known
as Oloye Bilikisu Sungbo. It is worth noting
that this name ‘Bilikisu’ is the same name by
which she is referred to in the Quran.
In Ijebu-Ode, there is a medieval system of
walls and ditches, over 160 kilometers long
known as Sungbo’s Eredo. The locals claim
that it was erected in her honor. As part of
his 72 day trip around Nigeria, Pulse’s Fu’ad
Lawal visited the place where she is said
to be buried in Ijebu-Ode. While there, he
met the custodian, a visibly aged man who
has been keeping the grounds officially for
4 years, and unofficially, for a while before
that. The site of Bilikisu Sungbo’s grave is
some way into the bush in an area called
Oke-Eiri, surrounded by white walls with a
message at the gate welcoming visitors to
the seat of the great Queen. The grave itself
is bordered by a small gate in front and on
the sides by a small fence made with iron
bars, punctuated by small cement pillars with
Arabic inscriptions on them.
According to the custodian, “the grave site
was found by hunters of old”. These hunters
were men known in Ijebuland as ‘Alori’,
who went beyond the primary searches for
animals, to explore the forests that made
up large parts of Yoruba land in ancient and
medieval times.
“They were the police investigators of the
time like you have detectives today”, he said.
The diversity in the many stories of the
Queen of Sheba shows how time, location
and cultural differences can color a single
story in different shades. Beyond that,
though, it tells of the power of a story and
of the icons that it creates. By virtue of the
fertility of her legend, the Queen of Sheba
means different things to different people.
To some, she is a part of religious folklore,
to others, she is the beginning of a dynasty.
The most authoritative and detailed account
of the Queen of Sheba is contained in the
Ethiopian National Saga, the Kebra Nagast.
It is a detailed history of the Queen of
Sheba’s visit to Solomon, as well as the
Ethiopians’ conversion from sun worship to
Judaism after their Queen was converted
during her visit to Israel.
According to the text, the Queen of Sheba
(or Makeda as she is called there) had a son
with Solomon, named Melenik I. He is said to
be the progenitor of the Solomonic Dynasty,
an imperial house that ruled Ethiopia for
centuries until their deposition in September
1974. The last Emperor of Ethiopia from
that lineage was the famed Emperor Haile
Selassie 1.
The Ijebu see the Queen of Sheba, Bilikisun
Sungbo, as something more than a
noblewoman. To them, she is a goddess,
benevolent now as she was wise and
powerful in her life.
According to the custodian of the grounds
where she is said to be buried, people
come from far and near to pray to her.
With many who had prayed for either fruit
of the womb or other prayer requests,
testifying about their answered prayers.
The questions then arise; Which of these
queens, Bilikisu, Makeda or Bilquis is the real
Queen of Sheba? Was she a mighty queen
who birthed an entire line of Kings or was
she a soul-devouring goddess as she is so
lazily described in the hit television series,
“American Gods”.
Where are her remains? In Ethiopia or
Yemen, where locals say she reigned for
decades? Or was she buried in Ijebu?
The truth is that there are no answers.
Makeda is as real to the Ethiopians as
Bilikisun is to the Ijebu people. It is the case
with all legends that have been reinterpreted
by time, the strength of their truth lies in the
hearts of those who believe in them. Nothing
states this more clearly than the submission
of the archaeologist, Patrick Darling.
In 1999 after excavations in Sungbo’s Eredo,
he was quoted as saying “I don’t want to
overplay the Sheba theory, but it cannot be
discounted… The local people believe it and
that’s what is important…”
There are many facts that stand against
those who claim that she was buried in
Ijebu; carbon dating and advancements
in archaeology have shown that Bilikisun
Sungbo and the monuments built in her
honor came centuries after the biblical
accounts of the Queen of Sheba.
The facts may stand against it, but there is
nothing as strong as belief. If the Ijebu people
believe that the Queen of Sheba was buried
in Oke-Eiri, then maybe she was.

BULLYING
A THREAT TO CHILD
DEVELOPMENT

It is no doubt these days that
there is a possibility of every
home having a part of Dowen
college in their homes or in
one of their children. This is
fast becoming a trend as the
narrative of parental guidance is
drastically changing. The world
itself has accepted BULLYING as
part of living, which is what led to
the death of 12 year old Sylvester
Oromoni.
Bullying is a repeated aggressive
behavior where one person (or
group of people) in a position of
power deliberately intimidates,
abuses, or coerces an individual
with the intention to hurt that
person physically or emotionally.
The most recent case of bullying
in Nigeria, is the sad case of late
Sylvester Oromoni, the 12 year old
boy of Dowen college. The Junior
Secondary School 2 pupil was
brutally and gruesomely murdered
after been beaten by five senior
boys in his hostel in Dowen College,
Lekki, Lagos in school, which led to
his eventual death on November
30, 2021.
These boys have been identified as
cult members in the school.
It’s no more news that the son of
late senator Buruji Kashamu who
represented Ogun east Federal
Constituency in the Nigerian Senate
has been fingered in the death of
the Dowen College pupil, Sylvester
Oromoni. With the calibre of
person his father is in the society,
one would have expected better
from the Kashamu’s son.
Now this brings us to the
question: Are adults also bullied?
In the case of the tragic incident
at Dowen college, it is said that
the school is trying to cover up the
perpetrators of the heinous act
because they are from influential
backgrounds, which still points
majorly to one of them who is said
to be the son of Buruji kashamu.
Is the school also being bullied to
kill the truth? Why is the school
being silent on this incident? Some
even said those accused of this
dastardly act have been flown out
of Nigeria.Many times Teachers
often underestimate how much
bullying is occurring at their schools
while most times parents are aware
their child is being bullied only
about half the time or not even
aware at all. Bullying excludes the
victim from a group while hazing is
part of initiation of the victim into
a group.
School bullying is becoming a
threat that no school can afford
to dismiss. In the same vein, not
all students who bully others
have obvious behavior problems,
as well, being bullied can affect
everything about a child: how
they see themselves, their friends,
school, and their future. Students
who are bullied often feel less of
themselves.
Bullying isn’t good for anyone.
It has a detrimental impact on
students’ health, wellbeing and
learning, and effects the whole
school community. The case of
Sylvester Oromoni is one case
out of the many cases happening
everyday in schools, home and the
society at large.
However, what role is the
Government taking on situations
like these? Many have questioned
the stand of the Government if
the accused could be immediately
flown out of the country.

How 12-year-old Sylvester
Oromoni Dowen College student
was allegedly murdered in Lagos.
Sylvester Oromoni, a 12-yearold
student of Dowen
College, located in Lekki area
of Lagos State, was allegedly
murdered by some cult
groups.
The deceased was said to have been
assaulted by some cult groups, who he
identified before his death, as students
of the college for refusing to join the
fraternity.
He was admitted in a Lagos hospital
following the attack and confirmed dead
shortly after.
A relation of the deceased, Perrison
Oromoni, revealed that the 12-yearold
passed away after a series of tests
and x-rays indicated that he sustained
internal injuries from severe beating. But
Dowen College, who reached out to the
family, said his injuries were sustained
while playing football.
Perrison further stated that it was
confirmed that he was being bullied and
beaten up, causing internal damages.
“Before his passing, Sylvester, the
deceased, said they had been pressuring
him to join a cult group.. He said they
were going to kill him if he talked.”
In a screenshot shared on his blogging
site, Perrison said the late Sylvester
mentioned a few names of the students,
who pressured him to join their cult
group before he died. According to
a media report, a representative of
Dowen College, Ayomide Falona, has
said investigations have begun into
the matter while refuting the claims of
assault.
When the Lagos State Police Public
Relations Officer (PPRO), Adekunle
Ajisebutu, was contacted, he said he had
not been briefed.
Condemning the act, Nigerians on
Twitter have called on security agencies
to look into the situation while urging
parents to monitor their wards who are
boarders.

Searchlight
On Rwanda.
The majority of Rwandans are
subsistence farmers. With one
of the lowest urbanization rates
in Africa, only about 8% of the
population lives in towns.
Coffee is Rwanda’s main export, accounting
for over 60% of the country’s foreign
exchange earning. Coffee accounts for about
30%. There are, however, a few coffee and
tea plantations and processing plants in
the northern part of the country, but these
industries suffered looting and destruction
in 1994. With economic aid from the
international community, tea and coffee are
being rehabilitated and have reached pre-
1994 production levels.
Rwanda has a small industrial sector that
only employs about 3% of the population.
Other than agricultural processing, there
is also a brewery. The industrial sector was
hard hit by the recent turmoil and has just
begun to recover. The Rwandan economy was
completely devastated by war in 1990-1994.
The present government is trying to help the
economy recover by adopting a neo-liberal
approach. This includes trying to increase the
revenue from exports of coffee and tea by
privatizing large sectors of this government
run industry. There is also an attempt
to diversify the type of foreign exchange
earning exports. One of the major problems
that the Rwandan economy is facing is that
energy imports use more foreign exchange
reserves than exports. Another approach is
to cut government spending by reducing the
number of civil service employees and selling
government run parastatals.
Another serious obstacle that the recovery
of the economy faces is that in Rwanda, as a
landlocked country, transportation costs are
high. With assistance from donor countries,
and in cooperation with the East African

S E A R C H L I G H T O N R W A N D A
community, Rwanda is planning to improve
its transportation infrastructure. The scarcity
of arable land and a rapid rate of population
growth has severely strained the country’s
efforts to develop its economy. Intense
demographic pressure, the shortage of arable
land, and lack of access to the Indian Ocean
have been three critical problems in Rwanda’s
economic development.
New challenges arose in 1994 when several
social problems brought on catastrophic
changes to the country’s economy. These
included the murder of hundreds of
thousands of Rwanda’s citizens in ethnic
violence, the flight of over a million, and the
return of large numbers of refugees who had
fled the country.
Today, Rwanda is slightly more urbanized than
in 1993. Kigali’s population has increased by
nearly 100,000 and has now reached 300,000.
Seventy percent of this new urban population
consists of arrivals from rural areas.
Nonetheless, Rwanda remains one of the
least urbanized countries in Africa. Only 8% of
the population lives in towns, an increase of
only 5% since 1965.
Virtually all potential farmland has been
brought under cultivation, though some land
has recently gone fallow because farmers
have fled or been killed. The Belgian colonial
government converted Rwanda to a cashbased
economy by setting up enforced tea
and coffee production. These two crops
have remained the country’s main exports
ever since. A policy to diversify the country’s
export base was implemented recently under
an IMF-sponsored Structural Adjustment
Program (SAP) launched in 1990, but this
program was abandoned in 1994.
Rwanda’s government is the nation’s main
employer. Since independence, the ruling
party has allocated government positions
primarily according to a patronage system
that rewards party loyalty and regional origin.
But after the political crisis of 1994 and the
flight of much of the civil service, the new
government promised to end the patronage
system and to introduce strict criteria for
competent performance in state employment.
It has also pledged to privatize most
parastatals.
Rwanda’s two most profitable parastatals,
Electrogas and Rwandatel, which control
the energy and telecommunications sectors
respectively, are soon to be privatized.
A government policy encouraging overcultivation
of arable land with the aim of
keeping out refugees was an important
factor leading to the 1990 invasion. It
has subsequently been changed to allow
returnees to re-acquire their land, but
implementation of the new policy has been
beset by complications. Other measures
orienting the economy towards the free
market have been undertaken by the
government. Tariff bands have been reduced.
The Rwandan franc now floats freely. There
are numerous independent foreign exchange
bureaus in Kigali. Depositors may maintain
foreign exchange accounts; expatriates may
repatriate their money, unless it comes from
sales of tea and coffee. In this case, they must
change 90% of their moneys at a Rwandan
bank.
The World Bank works closely with the
Finance Ministry in formulating economic
policy. Together, they recently announced a
new growth plan for low inflation, privatization
and aid directed at infrastructural recovery
rather than emergency relief. Agricultural
policy is aimed at improving the production of
subsistence and commercial crops.
These notwitstanding, Rwanda is still heavily
dependent on international aid for food,
though land cultivation increased by 34% and
the amount of food harvested increased by
6% between 1996 and 1997. The total cereal
and pulse deficit for 1997 reached 192,000
tons. The government lacks resources to
increase production significantly, and so
strives to create a stable political climate,
to ensure that farmers suffer no major
disruptions, and to enable aid agencies to
carry on their work. The government has also
sought help from international donors to
increase commercial agricultural production.
Rwanda’s major exports are coffee, tea, tin
cassiterite, Wolfframite, and pyrethrum.
Coffee makes up between 50% to 80% of the
total export. Because of declines in export
earnings and increased need for imports,
Rwanda’s policy has been directed at ensuring

that net private and official transfers are
sufficient to keep the current account deficit
at acceptable levels.
The government also has taken steps
to ensure that tea, coffee and industrial
production at least maintains pre-war levels.
The government has loosened restrictions on
foreign exchange in an attempt to stimulate
nontraditional exports. It has established
reasonably tight control of its border with
Uganda in an effort to reduce smuggling.
Rwanda was unable to import or export
goods easily through Uganda until the RPF
came to power in 1994. This route now
functions well. An alternative route through
Tanzania to Dar es Salaam is more arduous
and costly, although Tanzania has facilitated
the operation of this route in efforts to
compete with Mombassa in Kenya.
Political insecurity has disrupted much of the
trade between Rwanda and the Congo. Trade
with Uganda is booming, in part because of
family and business networks operated by
returned refugees. The same was true of
Burundi until neighboring countries imposed
sanctions in 1996.
Rwanda is a member of three regional
trade organizations: the Common Market
for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA),
the Communauté Economique des États
de l’Afrique (CEEAC), and the Communauté
Economique des Pays des Grands Lacs
(CEPGL). The country has also made a bid to
join the East African Cooperation (EAC).
Cattle have played an important political and
social role in the country under the Tutsi,
whose dominance was traditionally based
on the ubuhake (a feudal patron-client
relationship based on possession of cattle).
Most farmers have some livestock, though
animal husbandry is generally considered a
supplemental source of income.
Fishing in Rwanda is underexploited. Lake
Kivu is well-stocked and could support an
annual catch of 5,000 tons. The potential
of Lake Ihema has also underutilized.
Manufacturing is a relatively minor source of
Rwanda’s revenue, employing about three
percent of the labor force and contributing
only about 17% of the nation’s GDP. The small
manufacturing sector is based on processing
agricultural products and low-technology
consumer items such as beer, matches,
sugar, and soap. Industry suffered severe
setbacks in 1994, when many skilled workers
were put to death or were forced to flee. Half
of the country’s 120 working factories were
damaged or looted.

New ways into the
lucrative world of
data science.

What is a data scientist?
The job title sprang out of nowhere as
technology firms have scrambled to
find people to perform sophisticated
analytical tasks over the last decade.
Reports of six-figure salaries abounded
as businesses competed for staff
to slice and dice data in pursuit of
business lessons and emerging trends.
Recruitment firm PageGroup cites
annual salaries for data science work
of between £60,000-150,000, while
cautioning that the job title covers
a huge range of disciplines and
responsibilities.
The line has become blurred between
data science and other tasks such
as data analysis. James Hobson, a
technology specialist at PageGroup
notes that “there are different
interpretations of what constitutes a
data scientist”.
Whatever the title, demand for staff
has outstripped the supply of those
traditionally considered suitable to
the work, usually candidates with
doctorates in computer science.
A 2020 report into emerging jobs in
the US by LinkedIn estimated that data
science vacancies were growing at 37%
a year.
So new entrants are coming into the
field from unorthodox routes, aided by
new software packages. Edward Green
and Balraj Oates are two of those,
although they both hesitate over the
data scientist label.
For Mr Green, his data science journey
began at 15 when he embarked on
series of extended stays in London’s
Great Ormond Street Hospital while
being treated for a complex medical
problem that required three bouts of
surgery over two and a half years.
Most of us would prefer to forget such
an ordeal. But Mr Green remembers
it as his gateway to a career working
with technology. “The day I had my
first surgery was the day the iPad was
released,” he says.
He joined the hospital’s patient council
and began capturing medical data
on an iPad so it could be displayed
to patients. This experiment saw him
head straight into IT from school.
His surgeon had worked with McLaren,
studying the application of F1 pit
stop techniques to the movement of
patients in and out of intensive care. So
motor racing - and work at McLaren’s
technology centre just outside London
where data from cars are analysed -
was his next step.
F1 motor racing teams like McLaren
generate huge amoun of data.
At McLaren he uses data science
software from US firm Alteryx that has
developed its own self-service tool
which can help people to become data
experts.
For Mr Green, it trained him to juggle
vast quantities of data. In McLaren’s
case that means 1.5 terabytes worth
collected from every race. “Sometimes
the drivers feel they don’t need this
data, but they do,” he says.
Euan Davis researches the future
of work at Cognizant, a technology
services group. He says that
perceptions of the field have changed.
“Data science used to be a very dry
job. It was seen as nerdy but now it’s
creative. Communication matters
because you have to sell what you
uncover and that means telling stories
around data.”
The future belongs to people with soft
skills just as much as to those who
master hard data analysis, he says.
“The data science position is becoming
a hybrid role. Now it’s about being
a trusted advisor. The data scientist
has to be able to read the data in a
way that tells something important to
business executives.”
Data visualisation tools, software that
translates complex information into
simple images, have changed the data
science game, says Mr Davis: “The tools
are getting easier to use and more
intuitive.”
Being able to transform data into
a visual format is becoming a big
business. Various data analysis
businesses such as Tableau and
Cloudera offer this type of program,
translating information into simple
charts and icons for data scientists
and others. This approach recognises
that not everyone is comfortable trying
to extract clear information from the
bewildering columns of figures that
appear in large spreadsheets.
This new technology has created a
grey area between the work of a data
scientist and data analyst. Traditionally
a data analyst might spend more time
on routine analysis and providing
regular reports. A data scientist would
be responsible for the way data is
manipulated.
Mr Davis thinks this technology will
prove reassuring in an era when “our
jobs are changing around machines
and we have to understand data”.
She was introduced to the discipline via
a competitive event, a hackathon where
players analysed global Covid case data
to create regional comparisons of the
pandemic.
Alteryx software allowed her to drag
and drop icons representing data sets
such as death rates. Importantly, by
manipulating icons rather than pages
of calculations she could match the

speed of analysis of a statistician on
her team. She compares working with
data science tools to using a calculator.
This, she says, “started my data
journey”. It propelled her back into the
working world after a 12-year break
raising three children.
Mrs Oates spotted the hackathon on
the Women Returners website, which
helps professionals returning to work
after an extended career break.
She mentioned her data science
experience to another mother at her
children’s school who turned out to be
seeking a data development specialist.
Mrs Oates now applies her new-found
knowledge in the financial services
industry while her eldest child studies
coding.
“It’s never too late to think about
developing a career and it’s more
accessible than you think” Mrs Oates
says, before adding how important it is
to market yourself. “I got into this work
through a conversation at the school
gate!”

Should You
Refrigerate Avocados?
Here’s what you need to know about when to
refrigerate avocados and for how long.
A perfectly ripe avocado is a beautiful thing.
Cutting into one and finding an interior that’s
buttery, smooth, and a beautiful light green
hue is a satisfying feeling. Perhaps you’ve
heard that avocado should never go in the
refrigerator, that it prevents them ripening
or turns the green flesh black. Is that true?
Should you ever store a ripe avocado in the
refrigerator? What about an unripe avocado?
And what are you supposed to do with the
leftover half of an avocado? To answer all of
these questions, we consulted some food
professionals.
keep it at peak ripeness for a few more days.
Kevin Takarada, founder of MakiMaki Sushi in
New York City, notes that putting an avocado
in the refrigerator will slow down further
ripening. He says that you can hold a ripe
avocado in the fridge for around five days.
Ann Ziata, chef-instructor at the Institute
of Culinary Education in New York City
recommends checking your avocado a few
days after putting it in the fridge.
“The riper the avocado, the less time it will last
in the fridge,” she says. “If it was only slightly
ripe when you put it in, it may last three to
four days or even longer.”
softens.
If you’re only planning on eating half an
avocado, Takarada recommends keeping the
pit inside the other half and wrapping the
exposed surface with plastic wrap. Consume
the half of the avocado within a day or two,
and if you find the cut surface has browned,
simply cut off the top layer to reveal light
green flesh underneath. For avocado slices,
Ziata recommends topping them with lemon
juice and olive oil, then covering them with
an airtight lid or a layer of plastic wrap that’s
flush against the slices before refrigerating.
Unless the avocado you buy at the
supermarket is already ripe, you should ripen
it at room temperature. If you have an already
ripe avocado, you have a choice: Cut into it
and enjoy it, or pop it in the fridge to help
If you cut into an avocado only to realize it
is underripe, don’t fret. Ziata recommends
coating the avocado with a squeeze of lemon
juice and olive oil, covering it in plastic wrap,
and keeping it in the refrigerator until it

The African tech
firm hoping to power
space missions.
Most satellites are simply computers that are tossed out the
side of a rocket [that] are tumbling in space,
Jonathan Lun.

Mr Lun and his Cape Town-based company,
Hypernova Space Technologies, are keen to
give these tumbling satellites a little bit more
autonomy. The firm has developed a thruster
system that could give even the smallest types
of satellites the capacity to move around.
The company is hopeful that their technology
could be applied to nanosatellites which are
small satellites weighing under 10kg and, even
applied to the tiniest of them all, the 10cm
cubes known as cubesats.
There are an estimated 3,200 nanosatellites
floating around in orbit already, and that
number is expected to grow rapidly in the
near future: SpaceX alone is in the process of
launching a constellation of around 42,000
satellites. But experts are concerned that this
explosion in numbers may lead to problems.
Without manoeuvrability - the capacity to
change direction - nanosatellites risk colliding
with each other, causing space debris which
might cause problems for other missions.
Mobility would also make it much easier to
retrieve, or dispose of, satellites once their
working life was over. But as nanosatellites
are deliberately designed to be small and
cheap, any new thruster technology needs to
be simple to be commercially viable.
Around a decade ago, Mr Lun came across
an interesting thruster technology that had
previously been researched by Nasa but
never fully pursued. He found that an electric
reaction could be used to vaporise solid
metal fuel, a process which then created a
jet of fast-moving plasma that could propel
a satellite along. One big advantage to using
solid fuels in this way would be that the
material would be stable enough to add to a
thruster-system prior to launch - removing
the need for any last-minute fuelling before
sending satellites off into space.
“They don’t have to worry about filling it up,
they don’t have to worry about [the material]
being toxic, they don’t have to worry about
it during launch, something breaking and
leaking,” adds Stephen Tillemans, the head of
engineering at Hypernova.
Mr Tillemans confirms the company has
successfully run several environmental
tests, such as, running the thruster in a
vacuum, in extreme temperatures, and with
high vibration. Hypernova’s first mission in
space will be in early 2022 with EnduroSat,
a company based in Bulgaria. Together,
the companies are aiming to assess the
performance of the thruster technology in
space, including measuring its force and
demonstrating that it can successfully change
the orbit of a satellite.
Hypernova are not alone in their research,
other organisations are also investing in
developing the thruster technology that
could propel small satellites through space,
including MIT in the US, and the European
Space Agency and its Helicon Plasma
Thruster.
Hypernova is also collaborating with other
players in the South African space industry,
such as the Electrical and Electronic
Engineering department at Stellenbosch
University, which is currently developing a
technology that would allow satellites to dock
with each other. The European Space Agency
is developing its own plasma thruster
Looking much further in to the future, Mr
Lun is confident that it would be possible to
scale-up Hypernova’s thruster technology so
it could potentially be used for much bigger
satellites and more ambitious missions.
He is even hopeful that using metal as a fuel
will facilitate bigger opportunities for the
industry as a whole because thrusters could
potentially be powered using substances
found in space - both substances mined
in-situ, or collected from space debris, for
instance.
“So, if we can now switch over from rare
expensive liquids and gases as fuel sources,
to move stuff around in space with cheap
and abandoned iron ore or other metals, it
changes the game completely.”

Why
France
faces so
much
anger
in West
Africa
Why
France
faces so
much
anger
in West
Africa

It all started so positively. Where
have things gone wrong? Why does
France now appear so unpopular in
Africa?
French President Emmanuel Macron
has increased aid to the continent,
begun the return of cultural artefacts
stolen during the colonial wars and
reached out beyond the usual intergovernment
ties to engage younger
generations and civil society.
He has kept French troops in the Sahel
to fight the jihadist militants that kill so
many local civilians, police and soldiers
and supported the regional bloc
Ecowas as it tries to defend electoral
politics against military takeovers.
This year he flew to Rwanda to publicly
acknowledge French failures during
the 1994 genocide. Yet his country is
now the target of embittered African
complaints and criticism on a scale that
is probably unprecedented.
Last month, a convoy of French
troops heading north to support the
fight against Islamist militants was
repeatedly blockaded by protesters as
it crossed Burkina Faso and Niger.
In September Mali’s Prime Minister
Choguel Maïga was met with a wave of
sympathetic comment when he used
a speech at the UN to accuse France
of “abandoning his country in midflight”,
after Mr Macron began to scale
back the deployment of troops in the
country.
Among progressive West African
commentators and urban youth, it is
now commonplace to hear calls for the
abolition of the CFA franc - the regional
currency used by many francophone
countries and which is pegged to the
euro under a French government
guarantee. Its critics say this enables
France to control the economies of
those countries which use it, while
France says it guarantees economic
stability.
Neo-colonial arrogance
What explains this paradox? How is it
that a president more concerned for
Africa than most recent predecessors,
and more aware too of how the
continent is changing, encounters a
level of French unpopularity not felt for
decades?
Certainly, Mr Macron’s self-confident
- critics would say arrogant - personal
style is a factor. Despite reaching out
to Africa, President Macron has faced
a backlash. He has made his share of
diplomatic blunders. After 13 French
troops died in a helicopter crash in
Mali in November 2019 he demanded
that West African leaders fly to France
for an emergency summit, an outburst
perceived as neo-colonial arrogance,
particularly as Mali and Niger had
suffered far heavier recent military
losses.
President Macron was forced into
a rapid course-correction, flying to
Niamey, Niger’s capital, to pay his
respects to the Nigérien military
dead and postponing the summit
until January 2020. But the causes of
France’s current discomfort also extend
back to decades before Mr Macron’s
election in 2017.
“You can cite historical controversies
linked to colonisation. Many of us are
the children of parents who knew the
colonial period and its humiliations,”
explains Ivorian political analyst Sylvain
Nguessan.
During the early post-independence
decades, France maintained a dense
web of personal connections with
African leaders and elites - dubbed
“françafrique” - which too often slid
into a mutual protection of vested
interests, with little regard for human
rights or transparency. Among outside
powers, Paris was far from alone in
colluding with dictatorial allies, but its
relationships were particularly close
and unquestioning.
Charisma and change
The most damning failure came in
Rwanda in 1994, when France failed to
act even as its ally, the regime of then-
President Juvenal Habyarimana, began
to prepare genocide. From the mid-
1990s onwards several governments
worked to reform France’s engagement
with Africa and give more priority
to development and democratic
governance.
But momentum later faltered.
Nicolas Sarkozy began his tenure
as president in 2007 by remarking,
with a spectacular lack of tact, that
“the African man has not sufficiently
entered into history”. He favoured old
allies such as the Bongo family, who
have governed Gabon since 1967.
When François Hollande became
president in 2012 he had no choice but
to focus on security issues in the Sahel
- a swathe of land south of the Sahara
desert. He never really had the political
strength to revive reform efforts.
But with Mr Macron’s accession to
office, France had a president fully
aware of the need for change - and
with the political clout and personal
enthusiasm to attack the task.
In 2017 he told students in the
Burkinabe capital, Ouagadougou,
that France would back a reform of
the CFA franc if African governments
wanted this. He also invited civil
society, youth and cultural figures to
this year’s France-Africa summit in
Montpellier, rather than the usual flock
of presidents.
Sahel - a festering wound
Yet his readiness to speak plainly,
challenge old structures and question
comfortable assumptions has not
always played well, even among those
who are clamouring for change.
Despite France’s counter-terrorism

operation, militants are still a major
problem in the vast Sahel region of West
Africa. Moreover, the situation in the
Sahel has deteriorated into a festering
wound. The French military presence
fuels an increasingly widespread sense
of grievance across West Africa. Despite
a massive and sustained military effort
- with more than 5,000 troops deployed
and more than 50 killed - France has not
been able to decisively overcome the
threat from jihadists, whose attacks on
local communities and security forces
continue.
The reasons are complex, both military
and social, environmental and economic.
Yet a significant proportion of local public
opinion feels that France, as a high-tech
Western military power, should have
been able to “sort” the problem and
should now get out of the way if it cannot
do so. Those feelings seem to have
motivated the protesters who blockaded
the French army convoy. And this comes
after earlier causes of resentments,
as Mr Nguessan points out: “The
speeches of Sarkozy in Dakar, Macron
in Ouagadougou; the war in Ivory Coast;
the discouraging results of the campaign
against terrorism.
“Questions related to the currency, debt,
support for local dictators and ill-chosen
words.”
France is still regarded as a prop for
the old guard establishment - even if
supporting democratic bodies.
But underlying social and communal
factors also shape the attitudes of some.
One senior Sahel military officer says
he sees the French as allies of Tuareg
former separatist rebels in northern
Mali - an allegation fiercely and credibly
denied in Paris.
Similar complexities surround France’s
support for West Africa regional body
Ecowas - which is currently trying to
pressure coup leaders in Mali and
Guinea to rapidly return their countries
to civilian constitutional rule.
A growing number of young people
regard the regional bloc as an
incumbent presidents’ club, too slow to
criticise civilian rulers who manipulate
democratic rules and unwilling to
acknowledge the strength of popular
support for military leaders promising
reform. So in backing Ecowas as the
legitimate African crisis management
institution, France ends up being
perceived as a prop for the old guard
establishment.

Why the world has so
many Guineas

The world has more Guineas than expected. What explains the prevalence
of the name?
Equatorial Guinea. Guinea-Bissau. Papua New Guinea. The Gulf of Guinea.
Guinea, Virginia Guinea, Nova Scotia.
Etymologists dispute the earliest origins of the word “Guinea”. Some trace it to
a word in Tuareg, a Berber language, for black people: aginaw. Others think it
is originally referred to Djenné, a trading city in modern-day Mali. In the 15th
century, Portuguese sailors used “Guiné” to describe an area near what is
today Senegal, and by the 18th century, Europeans used “Guinea” to refer to
much of the West African coastline.
At independence, many countries developed their own Guinea : French
Guinea became Guinea, Spanish Guinea became Equatorial Guinea, and
Portuguese Guinea became Guinea-Bissau. The region was a major source of
gold, hence the name “guinea” for the British gold coin.

In loving memory
of our boss,
mentor, and father,
Richard
Ossai
Many times, we wish we could once again relive the luxury of talking to you while you sit calmly
with your legs crossed, listening to us with rapt attention. The highlights of our days with you are
those times we often pour out our hearts to you without the fear of being judged, rebuked or
even written off, we miss those moments so much daddy Richie. Your calm and ease of being
talked to is next to non. It is even more gratifying that you genuinely listen to us and thereafter
offer exceptional counsel. Your optimism is out of this world, it is in fact, infectious. You have left
in us memories that will last, not for a while, but for a lifetime daddy Richie.
Thank you for allowing yourself be a vessel for positive impact in the lives of so many people
whose paths crossed with yours while you were alive. You personify honesty, integrity, empathy
and compassion. A rare gem you are, and a symbol of what a good man should be.
Adieu sir Ossai, we would forever cherish the moments we’ve shared with you .
Adieu Boss..
Remembered by Mrs Gift, Abubakar, Bolatito, and The Entire Ossai Family

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