The Trumpet Newspaper Issue 601 (July 12 - 25 2023)

TheTrumpet
Africans now have a voice... Founded in 1995
V O L 29 N O 601 J U LY 12 - 25 2023
Men in camouflage uniform (Photo by Filip Andrejevic -
Unsplash) High Res
“I have not
grieved my
son’s
murder”
- Mother of
23-year-old
fatally
stabbed.
Seun's mother - Chantelle Bucknor (Photo -
Henry Clare, Press Association)
Sierra Leone
has been at peace for 20
years after a brutal civil war
- what went right
By Christina Mammone
Flinders University
Continued on Page 2>
Following the jailing of a
man over the fatal
stabbing of her son, a
mother has said she feels she has
not been able to grieve over his
death.
Seun McMillan’s mother
said: “The impact on Seun’s
death has been horrific on me
emotionally and physically. I
have not allowed myself to be
consumed by grief, to be beaten
with bitterness and sorrow. Since
Seun’s death, I feel that I have
not grieved. I have not allowed
myself to do so, especially in
front of my children as that
would make them feel even
more loss, than they are having
to deal with.”
26-year-old Jarrad Spence-
Robinson of no fixed abode, was
convicted of murdering 23-yearold
Seun McMillan following a
trial at the Old Bailey in
Continued on Page 6

Page2 TheTrumpet JULY 12 - 25 2023
News
Sierra Leone has been at peace for
20 years after a brutal civil war -
what went right
Continued from Page 1<
Sierra Leone’s June 2023
parliamentary elections are the fifth
since the end of the civil war in 2002.
They also mark a decade since the
closure of the Special Court for Sierra
Leone. The court prosecuted high level
commanders deemed responsible for the
suffering experienced during the war.
The 11-year-long civil war (1991-2002)
was estimated to have killed over 50,000
people. Thousands were maimed and their
limbs amputated. Half of the population
was displaced. Almost all the people of
Sierra Leone were affected by the war,
leaving an enduring scar on the country and
the collective psyche.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s,
academics and peacebuilders became
increasingly interested in promoting
transitional justice alongside other methods
of peace consolidation, particularly in
countries that had experienced mass
violence and large-scale atrocities. These
included South Africa, Rwanda, Bosnia and
Peru.
Transitional justice mechanisms
Transitional justice is justice adapted to
societies undergoing transformation away
from “normalised” human rights abuse.
Sierra Leone became the first in which
two transitional justice mechanisms were
used. The Sierra Leone Truth and
Reconciliation Commission was set up in
July 2002 and a Special Court was created.
The country has remained relatively
peaceful in the two decades since the war
ended. This is in a stark contrast to other
examples such as Liberia and the
Democratic Republic of Congo.
In my thesis, I reflected on the longterm
impact and the legacy of transitional
justice in Sierra Leone. I examined whether
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lessons learned could assist in improving
the process for future use.
My research focused on the official
transitional justice mechanisms and
whether the underlying causes of the war
continued to affect the people of Sierra
Leone. Economic mismanagement, poor
governance, abject poverty and severe
disenfranchisement were some of those
underlying causes.
Through interviews with people who
worked alongside the mechanisms and in
non-government organisations, as well as
others in civil society, I gained a better
understanding of the lasting impact of
transitional justice.
Transitional justice in the long term
While in Sierra Leone, I had candid
discussions on the implementation,
limitations and legacy of the official
transitional justice mechanisms. I found
there were operational tensions between the
Truth Commission and the Special Court,
but having both - gave Sierra Leoneans
restorative and retributive justice. Some
thought that the Special Court undermined
the existing amnesty and pardon
agreements while using limited resources
for both mechanisms was not ideal. These
led to the tensions between the two
mechanisms.
Restorative justice refers to “an
approach to justice that seeks to repair harm
by providing an opportunity for those
harmed and those who take responsibility
for the harm to communicate about and
address their needs in the aftermath of a
crime.” Retributive justice is a system of
criminal justice based on the punishment of
offenders rather than on rehabilitation.
Considering the impact of the war,
incorporating both mechanisms was
essential in helping the society to reconcile
and rebuild.
My discussions also showed there was
room for improvement in the way the two
mechanisms worked. Both were hampered
due to limited funding, more funds could
have made their work easier. There should
have been wider community engagement
Helicopter flying over field (Photo - Joel Rivera-Camacho - Unsplash) b
and consultation also before both started
operations. Their effectiveness and
acceptance was largely the result of
outreach teams at grassroots level focusing
on ensuring that the process benefited as
much of the population as possible.
The Truth Commission and the Special
Court have left a legacy: they are still able
to promote reconciliation and societal
restoration now. This is despite the fact that
access to the Commission’s report has been
limited. A video edition of the report was
circulated widely around the country, but
the number of physical copies of the report
is limited. Information about the findings
and recommendations is restricted to the
Commission’s website.
Nevertheless, through the
recommendations resulting from the victim
testimonies, the report led to the
establishment of an Anti-Corruption
Commission. This addresses exploitative
practices in the chieftaincy system and
acknowledges systematic youth
disenfranchisement. The effectiveness of
the recommendations is debatable, but their
ongoing influence demonstrates a
concerted effort to ensure that certain
causes of the conflict do not resurface.
Similarly, through the Residual Special
Court for Sierra Leone, which replaced the
Special Court, the legacy of accountability
and the rule of law continues. It still
promotes societal reconstruction,
reconciliation and collaboration. For
example, there is a programme to
reintegrate former war criminals back into
the community. This acknowledges
collective trauma but works towards peace
in the long term.
A long way forward
It is vital to continue examining what
transitional justice can do. This is because
its mechanisms are put to work over a short
period but aim at long-term and lasting
peace.
My research also explored the current
situation in a more holistic way.
Particularly, it considered how socioeconomic
pressures continue to affect
income generation and perceptions of
disenfranchisement. Despite the Truth
Commission’s acknowledgement of the fact
that socio-economic injustice had a serious
impact on the pre-war society, such issues
persist. They are seen through youth
disenfranchisement and underdevelopment.
Through this research I found that the
peace which Sierra Leone has experienced
in the last two decades was achieved
through collaborative efforts. These are the
legacy of transitional justice and its
relationship to long-term peace, and the
resilience of the Sierra Leonean people.
There is still more to learn, including
how better to incorporate socio-economic
aspects of peace building. This might help
to rectify the deeply entrenched causes of
war, which current processes are not fully
capable of addressing.
Christina Mammone, Early Careers
Researcher in Peace and Conflict Studies,
Flinders University.
This article is republished from The
Conversation under a Creative Commons
license. Read the original article.

JULY 12 - 25 2023
TheTrumpet
Page3
News Analysis
Sierra Leone election: voter trust has
been shaken, and will need to be regained
By Catherine Bolten, University of Notre Dame
Julius Maada Bio, a 59-year-old
former soldier, was sworn in for
his second and final five-year term
as President of Sierra Leone on 27
June. With 56% of votes cast in the
election on 24 June, Bio was declared
winner ahead of his main rival, Samura
Kamara, who polled 41%.
Kamara rejected the result and
international election observers have
highlighted some problems with the
way votes were counted. There has
been relative calm across Sierra Leone
since Bio was sworn in. Earlier, the
opposition All People’s Congress
alleged that the police had killed one of
its supporters by firing live shots into
their party offices a day after the polls.
Police have denied this.
In this interview, Catherine Bolten,
Professor of Anthropology and Peace
Studies at the University of Notre
Dame, fielded questions on lessons
learnt from the poll and the future of
democracy in Sierra Leone. As an
anthropologist, Bolten studies politics
as a social practice, which means
analysing how “democracy” manifests
in campaigning, elections, and policymaking,
and how people imagine
Continued on Page 7

Page4 TheTrumpet JULY 12 - 25 2023
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Life imprisonment for
fatal stabbing
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The Central Criminal Court
(a.k.a Old Bailey) has found
20-year-old Godfrey Tanishe
Madondo of Southwark guilty of the
murder of 19-year-old Jeremiah
Sewell. He was sentenced last Friday
to life imprisonment – to serve a
minimum of 24 years.
20-year-old Khelsi Johnson-Davis
and 20-year-old Leah Simmonds are
also due to be sentenced next month
for perverting the course of justice in
relation to the murder.
Jeremiah was stabbed and killed
after he was attacked by Madondo as
he sat in the back of a parked car in
Beckenham Place Park, Lewisham, in
the early hours of Saturday, 16 July
2022.
Jeremiah had spent the hours prior
to the attack hanging out with friends
and associates.
They were listening to music and
socialising when the defendant’s car
arrived at around 04:25hrs.
The reason for the attack is not
known, however when Madondo
arrived he approached Jeremiah as he
sat in the car.
Someone heard somebody ask
where Jeremiah was from; and as he
answered he was stabbed twice in the
neck.
Madondo ran back to the car,
which was driven away at speed.
Jeremiah’s friends rushed him to
nearby Lewisham Hospital but,
despite the efforts of medical staff he
died a short time later.
Police were called after Jeremiah
arrived at hospital and homicide
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detectives from the Met’s Specialist
Crime Command began work to
establish what had happened.
The investigation built a
compelling case with the support of
witnesses and by utilising forensics
and CCTV.
CCTV analysis provided
detectives with movements of the car
that Madondo had been travelling in.
Prior to the murder, the occupants
were seen entering a shop in Peckham
and Madondo could be made out in
footage.
Madondo was arrested the day
after the murder, but refused to
answer any questions about the attack
of Jeremiah.
Detective Chief Inspector Chris
Wood, from the Met’s Specialist
Crime Command, led the
investigation and said: “Jeremiah’s
murder was an utterly senseless and
barbaric act – the speed in which the
situation escalated, and the fact that
Jeremiah was sitting defenceless in
the back of a car, offering no threat to
Madondo, makes it all the more futile.
“From the outset, Madondo has
not made any attempt to explain why
he attacked Jeremiah, let alone accept
Killed - Jeremiah Sewell
Jailed - Godfrey Tanishe Madondo
responsibility for his actions. They
have left Jeremiah’s family
wondering why their loved one was
viciously attacked – when he could
have provided answers; he has taken
the coward’s option and kept quiet.
“Nothing will undo the
catastrophic consequences of that
night, but I hope the conviction of
these three people will at least give
Jeremiah’s family and friends some
sense that justice has been served.”

JULY 12 - 25 2023 TheTrumpet
Page5

Page6 TheTrumpet JULY 12 - 25 2023
News
“I have not grieved my son’s murder”
Mother of 23-year-old fatally stabbed.
Continued from Page 1<
February. Last Friday, he was
sentenced to life imprisonment with
a minimum of 32 years – following
the fatal stabbing in Enfield in 2017.
Seun and Spence-Robinson were
known to each other and had fallen
out in a row over money that
Spence-Robinson believed was
owed to him.
On 2 May 2017, Spence-
Robinson was informed by a
telephone call that Seun was in the
Cowper Gardens area of Southgate
and he travelled to the scene to find
him. On arrival, he launched a swift
attack, stabbing him in the chest
before quickly fleeing in his car.
Seun died in hospital later that
evening. A post-mortem
examination found the cause of his
death to be a single stab wound to
the heart.
Detective Chief Inspector Brian
Howie, from the Met’s Specialist
Jarrad Spence-Robinson
Crime Command, said: “Seun’s
family and friends have faced a long
and difficult wait for justice – we
will never give up fighting for
families like theirs who have lost
their loved ones, no matter how
much time has passed.”
Seun’s mother added: “The pain
and loss of Shay’s death will never
leave me and has left me heart
broken. My heart currently works
with one less valve. When I look at
myself I see a different reflection, a
person that I don’t recognise. When
I see the pain on my children it hurts
more.
“Jarrad has never shown any
remorse, or respect to me and the
family for the murder of our eldest
son.
“For our family there will be no
more family events, no joint
birthdays that I arrange, Shay will
not meet new additions to our
family, I will never have any
grandchildren and yet it’s hard to
say life goes on. I thank my friends
and family for supporting me over
these years and thank the justice
system for bringing justice for
Shay.”
Victim - Seun McMillan
(Photo - Metropolitan Police)

News
JULY 12 - 25 2023
TheTrumpet
Sierra Leone election: voter trust has
been shaken, and will need to be regained
Page7
Continued from Page 3<
democratic processes in their own lives.
She has conducted research in Sierra
Leone since 2003, and published a
2016 paper that focused on how the
country managed the first election it
ran on its own in 2012.
What did you learn from the
outcome of this election?
Sierra Leoneans expect that the
election process is potentially corrupt
unless there is full transparency in the
whole process. This means from the
moment the electoral commission is
appointed to the selection criteria for
the ballot design, the selection and
training of poll workers, the invitation
to the international community for
electoral observers, and every other
decision that might affect the outcome.
The public had very high levels of
trust in the two elections immediately
after the civil war, which ended in
2002, because the United Nations was
heavily involved. It was involved in the
planning and execution of the 2002
election and, to a lesser degree, the
2007 elections.
The 2012 election was the country’s
first self-administered election since the
war began. The whole population was
committed to it being free, fair and
without violence. They succeeded.
Since then, bad old habits of
nepotism, cronyism, and back-room
deals have reappeared. Whether
corruption is as bad as opposition party
members claim is not as important as
the perception that the election is
corrupt.
If there is any lesson to be learned, it
is the necessity of rebuilding public
trust in every election by maintaining a
transparent process.
What has changed between 2012
and 2023 to result in the return of
nepotism and cronyism?
2012 may have been a special
moment, when the country came
together in a concerted effort to ensure
that the elections were conducted
without violence, with no questions
about the legitimacy of the polling, and
with full knowledge that the world was
watching.
As I wrote in my 2016 paper, drastic
measures such as restricting freedom of
movement, work, association, and even
dress in the months and days leading up
to the election and on election day were
imposed. The citizens complied
without complaint, even as these were
technically violations of basic human
rights. This is because the people were
so committed to ensuring a free and fair
election.
Once these restrictions were
allowed to loosen in succeeding
elections, it portended a return to lack
of transparency in the process, and thus
to the powerful exerting themselves
behind the scenes, because they were
no longer also committed to these
restrictions.
Who has been responsible for the
pre-election violence?
Any whiff of corruption that could
affect the outcome leads to accusations
of democratic backsliding. A standardbearer
who considers themselves
wronged will call on the party’s
followers to “demonstrate”. This is to
ensure that those who are potentially
corrupt see that others are trying to hold
them to account.
Any call for a “peaceful
demonstration” is a challenge to the
legitimacy of the claims being made by
the other side. No political leader
accuses their opposition of corruption
and calls for “peaceful demonstrations”
without knowing that violence will
occur, no matter who throws the first
stone or fires the first shot.
Rhetoric is powerful, and a hint of
grumbling about corruption will fan the
flames of violence.
What factors determine voter
turnout?
There is an old saying in Sierra
Leone politics: “same taxi, different
driver”. It describes presidential
candidates promising change when
they get into office. The new president
will do essentially what the last
president did, with minor variations.
People are also well aware that their
leaders are, by and large, corrupt. There
is plenty of evidence for this, from the
fisheries ministry officials turning a
blind eye to illegal fishing by Chinese
trawlers, to the “trickle-down
corruption” that occurs in regular
public life because public servants such
as police officers and teachers are not
being paid, and so demand bribes and
tips from the community. This
Mohamed Kenewui Konneh, Chief Electoral Commissioner and Chairman ECSL
“everyday corruption” is blamed firmly
on the cabinet ministers. The local artist
Emerson, for example, consistently
lambasts politicians in his music.
This does not dissuade people from
turning out in numbers to cast votes for
their preferred candidate. They have a
sense of two things: one which is
extremely likely, and the other which
might happen.
What’s extremely likely is that if
their ethnic or preferred candidate does
not win, their region and their ethnic
people will be neglected or harassed by
the ruling party, or they will simply
“stand still” and receive no
Catherine Bolten (Photo by Barbara
Johnston - University of Notre Dame)
development. They feel voting is the
only real power they have to be a part
of any decision-making process, and so
turnout is consistently high.
What might happen is that, if their
candidate wins, they will they reap the
benefits of foreign direct investment,
NGO relief, humanitarian distribution
and infrastructure.
So they turn out to vote for the
candidate who will hurt them the least,
and might actually help them.
What does the 2023 election
outcome portend for democracy?
It is clear that the fact that a
candidate is declared a winner and then
immediately sworn in does not protect
the country from violence or
democratic backsliding.
There may still be violence, and
there may be a crackdown on protest,
which starts down a dangerous road to
authoritarianism or potentially wider
violence.
I am not sure how this will affect the
future of democracy in Sierra Leone.
But I believe that the international
community has a duty to send
observers, if only to let a country’s
citizens know that their election
matters, and that they are part of the
foundation of the international cause of
democracy.
Backsliding anywhere is dangerous,
and no election is too small to ignore. I
hope that the democratic state in Sierra
Leone holds up for the next five years,
in order for this repair to happen.
Catherine Bolten, Professor of
Anthropology and Peace Studies,
University of Notre Dame.
This article is republished from The
Conversation under a Creative
Commons license. Read the original
article.

Page8 TheTrumpet JULY 12 - 25 2023
Passages
‘Peter Pan’ Enahoro, Nigerian
journalist and publisher, was not
afraid to speak his mind
By Olayinka Oyegbile
Trinity University, Lagos
There are some people whose lives
intersect with yours even if you
never meet them in the flesh. One
of these was Peter Osajele Aizegbeobor
Enahoro, the Nigerian journalist who was
also known by his pen name, Peter Pan.
Enahoro died on 24 April 2023 in London,
aged 88. He had worked in Nigeria from
1954 to 1967.
As a journalist and journalism teacher,
I have followed his career – one of
professional excellence and achievements.
He was a bold journalist who was not
afraid to say what he thought was right.
Enahoro served as Subeditor, Features
Editor, (the Nigerian) Sunday Times
Editor, Editor of the Daily Times and
Editor-In-Chief of Times Group. He was
to return from exile in 1996 to be the sole
administrator of the Daily Times under a
military government. He wrote his Peter
Pan column first in the Sunday Times.
When he was appointed the Editor of the
daily paper, the column was transferred
there.
By the time he started his career, the
battle against colonialism had been fought
and won. The task was to demand good
governance. He understood this very well.
He put his satirical pen to full service and
took regular digs at political leaders of the
period.
Early life
Born on 21 January 1935, he came
from a well-heeled and well-known
political family in Uromi, now in Edo
State. His parents were educationists and
he was one of 10 siblings. His elder
brother, Anthony Enahoro,was also a
journalist and nationalist. He was
renowned as the parliamentarian who
moved the first motion for Nigeria’s
independence in 1953. Another wellknown
sibling was also a journalist: Mike
Enahoro, who died in 2015, was a
broadcaster of note in the 1980s.
After his secondary school education,
as was the practice during his time, Peter
Enahoro joined the government service as
Assistant Publicity Officer in the
Department of Information. There he
showed his talent as an inquisitive officer
whose skills went beyond just writing
government statements.
Like most journalists of his time, he
never got a university education.
A great journalist
Enahoro became perhaps the youngest
Nigerian journalist to edit a national
newspaper, Daily Times, in 1962. He was
27.
The Editor of Daily Times, another
legendary Nigerian journalist, Biodun
Aloba, had spotted him taking on a
politician at a press conference and invited
him to join the paper, then owned by the
Daily Mirror of London.
It was the beginning of Enahoro’s rise
to become “perhaps Africa’s best-known
international journalist”, as Frank Barton
described him in his book The Press in
Africa.
As Editor of Sunday Times in Nigeria
(from 1958) and later the flagship
Nigerian paper of the period, Daily Times
(succeeding Babatunde Jose), he was
unsparing of politicians and soldiers who
were at the helm of affairs in the country.
By the time the military struck on 15
January 1966, cutting short the elected
government that had ushered the country
into independence, he had become a
household name whose pen was feared by
those in power.
Enahoro and his Managing Director,
Jose, were on opposite sides of the divide
in politics. Samuel Ladoke Akintola was
the Premier then of the Western Region in
Nigeria. According to Jose’s account in his
memoir Walking a Tight Rope, “Peter did
not agree with my pro-Akintola stand and
I told him from the start that he had the
freedom to express his views in his Peter
Pan column, but that the editorial column
of the Daily Times would reflect my
Peter Enahoro (Photo courtesy Peter Enahoro)
stand.” (page 207). This never in any way
affected their relationship.
Enahoro escaped from Nigeria in
1966, fearing for his life after the 15
January coup, as stated in his memoir. In
Germany and later Britain, his career
blossomed and his name became well
known all over the world through his work
in publications such as Africa, New
African and his own, which he called
Africa Now.
A long shadow
Enahoro was long gone from Nigeria
by the time I became a journalist in the
mid-1980s but his reputation loomed
large. Magazine publishing was
flourishing at that time. Many younger
journalists of the day became interested in
international reporting because of Peter
Pan’s example and success.
In 2015, when he turned 80, while
reflecting on the role of the media in
national development, he told the Daily
Trust that newspapers
are very good at saying what is wrong.
But we are not yet very good at suggesting
what can be done to heal it so that we
don’t become part of the problem.
He knew that making suggestions to
those in power had repercussions. He lost
his job.
Romance with a dictator
A part of his life that he only touched
on in his memoir was his return to Nigeria
in 1996 to work for the government of the
late dictator Sani Abacha. The same
government had declared his older brother
Anthony a wanted man.
In his memoir Then Spoke the
Thunder (2009) he tried to justify his
acceptance of the offer to “take over the
Daily Times”. Enahoro accepted the offer
made to him by Tom Ikimi, the then
Foreign Affairs Minister in the Abacha
junta. He said he accepted the offer after
Augustus Aikhomu, retired military leader
and his kinsman, told him: “They want
you to come and clear up the mess in
Daily Times … Your country needs you.”
His acceptance eroded the respect
some had for him. He was appointed in
1996 and did the job for less than two
years.
He wrote four books: How to be a
Nigerian (1966), You gotta cry to laugh!
(1972), The Complete Nigerian (2016)
and Then Spoke the Thunder (2009).
For his incisive writings and
commentaries, Enahoro’s seat in the
pantheon of journalism in Nigeria is
assured, his latter-day romance with the
military notwithstanding.
• Olayinka Oyegbile, Journalist and
Communications scholar, Trinity
University, Lagos.
• This article is republished from The
Conversation under a Creative C
.

Passages
JULY 12 - 25 2023
TheTrumpet
Silvio Berlusconi: the property developer
who became a media tycoon – and Italy’s
most flamboyant Prime Minister
By Andrea Colli
Bocconi University
Page9
Berlusconi had built a business empire
that spanned construction, banking and
insurance, TV and advertising,
publishing, sport and even supermarkets.
In just a couple of decades, Berlusconi
had transformed Fininvest into Italy’s
eighth largest company by turnover.
From outsider to Prime Minister
Despite this remarkable success – and
his notorious business skill – Berlusconi
was neither immediately nor eagerly
welcomed into the drawing rooms of the
country’s entrepreneurial elite, who
tended to consider him at best a useful
upstart. This is perhaps partially what
drove an already individualistic character
to seek a new level of primacy.
At the beginning of the 1990s,
Berlusconi turned himself into a
“political entrepreneur”. At the time, the
“Tangentopoli” scandal had exposed
deeply entrenched corruption among
national and regional politicians.
Individual politicians and entire
political parties were brought down by
the revelations and the old party system
was turned on its head, leaving an
institutional vacuum. Berlusconi stepped
in to fill that vacuum by creating a new
political party practically overnight,
leveraging his personal entrepreneurial
prestige and the communication power of
his media empire.
Having crafted a (sometimes
precarious) alliance with two different
partners on the right and far right,
Berlusconi was elected Prime Minister
for the first time in 1994. It was the
Continued on Page 10 >
Silvio Berlusconi (Photo by Agência Brasil - CCA 3.0 Brazil licence)
Silvio Berlusconi, who has died at
the age of 86, was born into a
middle-class family in Milan, a
city heavily affected by the Second World
War. He attended a private school
belonging to a religious order, and
eventually graduated with distinction in
law in 1961, specialising in advertising
contracts, an area that would of course
prove extremely useful in his later
careers.
As Berlusconi came of age, Italy was
entering its postwar economic “miracle”.
And immediately after his graduation, he
started a series of successful
entrepreneurial initiatives in a booming
construction industry.
In his early 30s, Berlusconi conceived
of a revolutionary and visionary project,
the construction of a residential area in
the northern outskirts of Milan called
Milano 2. The idea was to offer high
standard, spacious homes in new areas on
the outskirts of the city that contrasted
with an increasingly crowded and
polluted metropolis.
The project was ahead of its time in
marketing “exclusive” property to a
growing middle class looking to escape
the inner city but remain close by. It
proved a significant success, which
quickly propelled Edilnord (Berlusconi’s
construction company) into the big
leagues and enabled it to diversify under
the umbrella of a financial holding
company, Fininvest.
By the 1980s, Berlusconi had
received the Order of Merit of Labor and
the informal nickname “Il Cavaliere” (the
Knight) for his entrepreneurship.
Building an empire
Meanwhile, as video broadcasting
was being commercialised for the first
time in Italy in the mid-1970s (having
previously been a State monopoly),
Berlusconi started investing in TV.
He set up a media company that
transmitted three channels across Italy
(Canale 5, Italia 1 and Rete 4). All this
was supported by the company’s
aggressive advertising arm, Publitalia.
Berlusconi’s media empire
(complemented by the acquisition in
1984 of Arnoldo Mondadori, the most
important publishing house in the
country) became the sole real competitor
of RAI, the State-owned television
company. Berlusconi’s personal ability to
attract the most popular TV stars of the
time certainly helped, as did personal
connections in the government.
This made him a pervasive figure in
Italian society, but his popularity
skyrocketed in the mid-1980s when a
highly valuable jewel was added to his
crown: AC Milan football club. This was
already a highly strategic move given
Italy’s national obsession with the game,
but Berlusconi quickly set about turning
Milan from a domestic team into an
international brand.
In the 15 years that followed the
successful project of Milano 2,
AI is set to disrupt 70% of jobs over the
next 5 years. You MUST build your own
wealth, NOW, before its too late

Page10 TheTrumpet JULY 12 - 25 2023
TheArts
The Caine Prize for African Writing
announces 2023 shortlist
The Caine Prize for African Writing, an
esteemed annual award honouring
outstanding African writers, has
announced the shortlist for the 2023 edition.
The five shortlisted stories were carefully
selected from a pool of 297 entries originating
from 28 African countries.
The shortlisted writers for the 2023 Caine
Prize for African Writing are:
· Yejide Kilanko (Nigeria) for ‘This
Tangible Thing’, HarperVia (2023)
· Tlotlo Tsamaase (Botswana) for ‘Peeling
Time
(Deluxe
Edition)’, TorDotCom (2022)
· Mame Bougouma Diene and Woppa
Diallo (Senegal) for ‘A Soul of Small
Places’, TorDotCom (2022)
Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia,
Libya, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria,
Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa,
Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda,
Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Fareda Banda, Chair of Judges, and a
Professor of Law at SOAS, University of
London, expressed her thoughts on the
shortlist: “Together, we have meticulously
reviewed and debated 230 eligible
submissions, ultimately narrowing it down to
the final five. The entries we received
showcased the depth and breadth of writing on
the Continent and beyond. These stories span
generations, genres, and themes; challenging,
stimulating, and delighting us. They embrace
speculative fiction and artivism, highlighting
the power of engaging and innovative
storytelling in addressing gender-based
violence and reproductive autonomy.
Additionally, they explore inter-generational
wisdom and the sense of alienation
experienced by Diasporic youth. Each story
deserves recognition, as they all captivated us.”
Banda further noted the remarkable fact
that four out of the six shortlisted finalists
reside in Africa, with two from the Diaspora.
This year’s shortlist also boasts a joint
submission and an all-women judging panel,
marking significant milestones in the history
of the Caine Prize.
Ukamaka Olisakwe, Editor of Isele
Magazine, expressed her excitement: “We are
thrilled that Ekemini Pius and Yvonne
Kusiima’s short stories have been shortlisted
Continued on Page 11<
· Ekemini Pius (Nigeria) for ‘Daughters, By
Our Hands’, Isele Magazine (2022)
· Yvonne Kusiima (Uganda) for
‘Weaving’, Isele Magazine (2022)
This year’s submissions encompassed a
diverse range of talent from 28 different
countries, including Botswana, Burkina Faso,
Cameroon, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia,
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Silvio Berlusconi: the property
developer who became a media
tycoon – and Italy’s most
flamboyant Prime Minister
Continued from Page 9<
beginning of a lengthy spell in power
as head of coalitions and alliances of
the right. In the end, he was Prime
Minister three times: from 1994 to
1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011.
Berlusconi was recognised as a
charismatic politician and the electoral
campaigns that put him in government
were inevitably centered on him
personally. However, he was less
convincing as a Statesman. He lacked
a long-term vision for Italy both in
terms of statecraft and economic
development.
In his two decades in power, Italy’s
GDP remained in line with the rest of
Europe but the country’s
competitiveness, measured in terms of
export, declined consistently. This was
mirrored by a generous rise in public
spending – despite the neoliberal
leanings of Berlusconi’s governments.
Berlusconi’s politics always came
down to personal relationships over
institutions. This style as worsened by
a persistent conflict of interest between
his role as Prime Minister of the
country and de facto monarch of a
business empire largely built on
commercial TV and advertising.
He acted no differently as a
politician than he did in his
entrepreneurial life, running his
governments with incredible energy
but with an extremely low propensity
for delegation.
But while Berlusconi was able to
slot his eldest sons Marina and
Piersilvio into top jobs in his business
empire, he hasn’t been able to find an
equally charismatic successor for his
political project.
All is forgiven, again and again
Italians gave the flamboyant
Berlusconi a pass for many antics,
particularly his sometimes
unconventional behaviour in his private
life. He probably got more lenience
from the public than he deserved, and
certainly much more than the judicial
system was willing to extend him, as
was clear from his conviction for tax
fraud.
While he fought off other legal
cases over allegations of sex with a
minor, others were convicted of
recruiting prostitutes for Berlusconi’s
parties.
Even now, after his death, it is
difficult to land on a definitive view of
Berlusconi and his role in Italy’s recent
history. His own life story is certainly
emblematic of a country endowed with
many gifts – a creative place capable of
sudden and unexpected revival.
But he could equally be said to
represent Italy in a negative way too,
unfortunately too often incapable of
producing a vision of the future based
on anything other than individual
egoistic interests.
Andrea Colli, Full Professor,
Department of Social and Political
Sciences, Bocconi University.
This article is republished from The
Conversation under a Creative
Commons license. Read the original
article.

TheArts
JULY 12 - 25 2023
TheTrumpet
The Caine Prize for African Writing
announces 2023 shortlist
Page11
Continued from Page 10<
for this year’s Caine Prize. At Isele Magazine,
we strive to work with writers who hold a
mirror to our society and challenge
conventional expectations. It brings us
immense joy to see two of our brilliant writers
included in this prestigious list for the first time
ever.”
Zelda Knight, Co-Editor at Africa Risen
(TorDotCom), commented on the selected
works: “Tlotlo Tsamaase’s ‘Peeling Time’ and
‘A Soul of Small Places’ by Mame Bougouma
Diene and Woppa Diallo are evocative pieces
of feminist horror. Their incorporation of
speculative elements to depict the everyday
struggles and atrocities faced by women
captured our attention and refused to let go. We
are honoured to have these exceptional authors
nominated for the prize.”
Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, Editor of
RELATIONS: An Anthology of African and
Diaspora Voices, expressed her enthusiasm:
“We are thrilled that Yejide Kilanko’s ‘This
Tangible Thing‘ has been recognized by the
prestigious Caine Prize for African Writing.
Kilanko’s story is a powerful exploration of the
complexities of love and loss, masterfully
crafted with rich imagery and deeply evocative
prose. It is a well-deserved recognition of her
talent as a writer and a testament to the
enduring relevance of African storytelling. We
are honoured to have ‘This Tangible Thing’
included in RELATIONS and congratulate
Yejide Kilanko on this remarkable
achievement.”
The Caine Prize for African Writing also
convened an impressive panel of Judges for
2023. Chair of Judges, Fareda Banda is joined
by Edwige-Renée Dro, a writer, literary
translator, and literary activist; Kadija George
Sesay, editor and founder of Mboka Festival;
Jendella Benson, author and Head of Editorial
at Black Ballad; and Warsan Shire, a multiaward
winning writer and poet who recently
collaborated with Beyoncé Knowles-Carter on
her Peabody Award-winning visual album
Lemonade and the Disney film Black Is King.
Fareda Banda says, “Chairing the 2023
Caine Prize has been one of the highlights of
my life. My accomplished, generous, kind and
hardworking fellow judges have been a joy to
work with. This is the first all-women selection
committee in the history of the prize.”
Commenting on the 2023 panel, Sarah
Ozo-Irabor, Director of the Caine Prize, says:
2023 Caine Prize judges
“We are thrilled to have such an illustrious and
highly accomplished panel of judges who will
no doubt continue The Caine Prize’s legacy of
expanding the wealth of contemporary African
writings.”
Ellah Wakatama OBE, Chair of The Caine
Prize Board of Trustees, expressed her
thoughts on the judges and shortlist: “This year
we have, for the first time, an all-female
judging panel for The Caine Prize for African
Writing, which for me, is a particular delight.
We set out to put together a group of
formidable talent and experience across a range
of art forms and disciplines. The judges have
presented a shortlist that shows range and
ambition, across genres and with diverse
approaches to storytelling - the quality and
innovation that is a hallmark of our annual
shortlist.”
The Caine Prize for African Writing
celebrates the richness and diversity of African
literature and recognizes outstanding
achievements in African storytelling. The
winner of the 2023 Caine Prize will be
announced at a ceremony held on Monday,
2 nd October 2023 in London, UK.
JUDGES’ BIOS:
· Fareda Banda is a Professor of Law at
SOAS, University of London. She is
interested in women’s rights and law and
society in Africa. Her most recent book
African Migration, Human Rights and
Literature explores how art, and
specifically literature, can be used as a
form of art activism.
· Edwige-Renée Dro is a
writer, translator, and literary activist from
Continued on Page 12

Page12 TheTrumpet JULY 12 - 25 2023
TheArts
The Caine Prize for African Writing
announces 2023 shortlist
Continued from Page 11<
Côte d’Ivoire. Her short stories and articles
have been published in anthologies such as
New Daughters of Africa, Africa39, the
Eastern African Literary and Cultural
Studies, This is Africa, etc. In 2020, she
founded 1949: the library of women’s
writings from Africa and the black world
in Abidjan.
· Kadija George Sesay is a Sierra
Leonean/British scholar and literary
activist. She is the Publications Manager
for Inscribe/Peepal Tree Press and the
editor of several anthologies. She has
published poetry, short stories, and essays.
She is the founder/publisher of SABLE
LitMag and co-founder of Mboka Festival
of Arts Culture and Sport in The Gambia.
She is also the founder of the ‘AfriPoeTree’
app.
· Jendella Benson is a British-Nigerian
author and editor. Her debut novel Hope &
Glory was published in April 2022, and her
short story Kindle was published in The
Book of Birmingham collection. She is
Head of Editorial at Black Ballad and has
written for various publications. She is
working on her second novel.
· Warsan Shire is a Somali British writer
and poet born in Nairobi and raised in
London. She has written two chapbooks
and was awarded the inaugural Brunel
International African Poetry Prize. She
served as the first Young Poet Laureate of
London and is the youngest member of the
Royal Society of Literature. She has
collaborated with Beyoncé Knowles-
Carter on Lemonade and the Disney film
Black Is King.
SHORTLISTED WRITERS’ BIOS:
· Yejide Kilanko was born in Ibadan,
Nigeria. She writes poetry and
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The Caine Prize for African Writing 2023 shortlist
fiction. Kilanko’s debut novel, Daughters
Who Walk This Path, a Canadian national
bestseller, was longlisted for the 2016
Nigeria Prize for Literature. Her short
fiction is included in the anthology, New
Orleans Review 2017: The African
Literary Hustle. Kilanko’s latest novel, A
Good Name, was published in 2021.
Kilanko lives in Ontario, Canada where
she practices as a social worker.
· Tlotlo Tsamaase is a Motswana author
(xe/xem/xer or she/her pronouns). Tlotlo’s
debut adult novel, Womb City, comes out
in January 2024 from Erewhon Books. Xer
novella, The Silence of the Wilting Skin, is
a 2021 Lambda Literary Award finalist and
was shortlisted for a 2021 Nommo Award.
Tlotlo has received support from the Rolex
Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, and xer
story “Behind Our Irises” is the joint
winner of the Nommo Award for Best
Short Story (2021). Tlotlo’s short fiction
has appeared in News Suns 2, Africa Risen,
The Best of World SF Volume 1,
Clarkesworld, Terraform, and
Africanfuturism Anthology, and is
forthcoming in Chiral Mad 5. Xe obtained
a Bachelor’s degree in architecture from
the University of Botswana and won an
award for design architecture. Tsamaase is
currently pursuing an MFA in Creative
Writing at Chapman University.
· Mame Bougouma Diene is a Franco –
Senegalese American humanitarian based
in Pretoria, the francophone spokesperson
for the African Speculative Fiction Society
(), the French language editor for Omenana
Magazine, and a regular columnist at
Strange Horizons. You can find his fiction
and nonfiction work in Omenana, Galaxies
SF, Edilivres, Fiyah! Truancy Magazine,
EscapePod, Mythaxis, Apex Magazine and
TorDotCom; and in anthologies such as
AfroSFv2 & V3 (Storytime), Myriad
Lands (Guardbridge Books), You Left Your
Biscuit Behind (Fox Spirit Books), This
Book Ain’t Nuttin to Fuck Wit (Clash
Media), Africanfuturism (Brittle Paper),
Dominion (Aurelia Leo), Meteotopia
(Future Fiction/Co-Futures in English and
Italian), Bridging Worlds (Jembefola
Press) and Africa Risen (TorDotCom). His
novelette The Satellite Charmer is
translated in Italian by Moscabianca
Edizioni, his novelette Ogotemmeli’s Song
is translated in Bangla (Joydhak
Prakashan). He was nominated for several
Nommo Awards, and his debut collection
“Dark Moons Rising on a Starless Night”
(Clash Books) was nominated for the 2019
Splatterpunk Award.
· Woppa Diallo is a lawyer with a
specialisation in human rights,
humanitarian action and peace promotion.
She is a feminist activist committed to
social change and the realisation of
women’s rights. Woppa founded
Association pour le Maintien des Filles à
l’Ecole (AMFE) at fifteen in Matam,
Senegal, to ensure fair access to education
for girls, eradicate gender-based
stereotypes, promote sexual &
reproductive health, and the continued
socialisation of girls-victims of genderbased
violence.
· Ekemini Pius is a Nigerian writer and
editor who lives in Calabar, Nigeria. His
works have been published in the Kendeka
Prize for African Literature anthology, the
K & L Prize anthology, Afro Literary
Magazine, and Isele Magazine. His story,
‘Time and Bodies’ was shortlisted for the
2021 Kendeka Prize for African Literature.
He was also shortlisted for the 2022 Awele
Creative Trust Short Story Prize. He is an
alumnus of the 2019 Wawa Literary
Fellowship and was a finalist for the 2022
Guest Artist Space Fellowship. He is
currently working on his debut novel.
· Yvonne Kusiima is a writer from
Kampala, Uganda with a degree in Social
Sciences. She is interested in the
complexities of human societies and aims
to shake things up to make this world a
better place. She believes stories have the
power to change the status quo, one word
at a time. Her work has been published in
African Writer Magazine, Kalahari
Review, Brittle Paper, The Hektoen
International Journal of Medical
Humanities and Isele. Her work has been
shortlisted for the Isele short story prize
(2023).

JULY 12 - 25 2023 TheTrumpet
Page13

Page14 TheTrumpet JULY 12 - 25 2023
Trumpet
North West
Meet the Phenomenal Women of North
West England
By Chantelle Tindall
Trumpet’s Phenomenal North West
series aims to celebrate and bring
to light all the positive
achievements of folks in Northwest
England. Ethnic minorities et al - not
only will we highlight their
achievements, we will also follow their
stories from the start, to where they are,
and what the future holds.
It is common knowledge that as
ethnic minorities, especially those of us
from Africa, back home, people believe
we all live in London. As a case study,
most major events take place in London
e.g. movie premieres and music shows
featuring big-name artistes from the
motherland. Very often for cities outside
the capital, the fall out is a watered-down
version of the main event. Most
organisers argue that audience
engagement is a problem, so they try to
limit costs as much as possible not
putting up big shows.
Phenomenal North West aims to
change this. Drawing on the strengths of
our wider network of brands and
communities including: Trumpet North
West, Trumpet Connect and Trumpet
Media Group – we aim to get Diaspora
Africans and Friends of Africa in North
West England to connect and collaborate.
We aim for professional, business and
social networking – and more. Social
engagement as we all know is good for
the mental wellbeing. Through this much
needed connection and collaboration, we
foresee even more visibility for
stakeholders - big or small in the region.
Manchester for example is rich in
diversity. A welcoming city where
different ethnicities call home. Within
these communities are men and women
from different professional backgrounds.
Architects, Authors, Lawyers, Medical
Practitioners, Business Owners,
Entertainers, Magistrates, Media
Personalities, Charity CEOs, Clergy Men
and Women, Creatives and much more.
Phenomenal North West aims to
reveals faces from these backgrounds,
men and women who are either known or
unknown, contributing positively to their
communities through their field of
expertise. As the year unfolds, they will
be introduced to you in-depth. We will
get to know them and hopefully develop
different forms of positive collaborations.
Photo Credit: All Participants.
Continued on Page 15>

Trumpet North West
JULY 12 - 25 2023
TheTrumpet
Meet the Phenomenal Women of North
West England
Continued from Page 14<
Page15

Page16 TheTrumpet JULY 12 - 25 2023
TheTrumpet is published in London fortnightly by Trumpet
Field: 07956 385 604 E-mail: info@the-trumpet.com (ISSN: 1477-3392)