As the daughter of a Ghanaian father and a German mother, Jennifer Yaa Akoto (23) was raised a cosmopolite from her infancy. She was born in Hamburg and grew up in Ghana with sojourns in Cameroun,Togo and Chad before finally ending up shuttling between Hamburg, Lomé and Paris, a wanderer between worlds, a modern-day nomad who has always drawn strength from a state of permanent transition, which she has always seen as the inexhaustible source of her inspiration.
From the 29th of June to the 1st of July 2012, visitors will be immersed in the colorful world of the African continent, in the Dortmund Fredenbaumpark.
The third special on the Afro-Ruhr Festival are the colorful program points that have come about because many new partners have been obtained in comparison to last year. This time, the Fredenbaumpark is decorated with more than 100 flags of the respective African countries.
The Afro-Ruhr Festival is a three-day open-air event with music, a varied family program, profit activities, soccer tournament, literature tent, art, DJ tent, a bazaar and great food. In addition, the festival offers an ideal platform for an interesting and varied cross-cultural exchange.
“Dialogue and International Understanding” is therefore the motto of many interactive activities. The goal of the event “Africa-meets-Ruhr area” is to make the guest active and participate. On each day of the festival, visitors are led on a musical journey with well-known and internationally recognized artist / interior. In addition to the musical diversity from all corners of the colorful African continent as “coupé Décalé”, soukous, Afrobeat, reggae, highlife, jazz, hip-hop rhythms and traditional there are also rock, blues and punk from Germany. The audience can enjoy the music and dance to the rhythm.
In addition to the music and dance offerings, visitors can expect three days of the following offer:
A bazaar with stalls: arts and crafts, textiles and food stalls offering specialties from different countries.
Activities for children and adults (safari train, bouncy castle, wheel of fortune with win games, archery, climbing, and a healthy diet sugar exhibition by AOK Northwest, fire safety education from the Dortmund Fire Brigade, etc.)
Tent with literature readings of African authors, as fairy tales, novels, etc.
Action and information booths, while the focus is mainly on the intercultural dialogue with a focus on global learning.
Tent with disco DJs: e.g. Radio Europe is the global player sound system with DJs T Daladala and Ali bring the dance floor and the visitor to vibrate.
The festival begins on Friday, 29 June from 09:30 with a conference in Dortmund’s city hall, which is organized in cooperation with the mayor office. The conference theme is “Together in diversity-a world in Dortmund.” Becoming Hot from 16.00 all visitors to the festival site Fredenbaumpark Dortmund are warmly welcomed.
A special highlight is certainly the intercultural football tournament on Saturday, 30-06-2012,. For a winning challenge, there is the “African Cup Ruhr”. Teams from Guinea, Cameroon, Ghana, Angola, Nigeria, Gambia and Germany will be able to live out their fighting spirit.
On Sunday the 1st of July, the festival site opens its door at 10.00. An ecumenical church service with gospel music will take place from 12.00-14.00. No participant will then say that church services are boring. Organized by the worship of the African community in cooperation with the Office for Mission, Ecumenism and Global Responsibility (MÖWe).
The event has offers for both young and old and the audience will continue to experience an adventure through the African continent in Fredenbaumpark.
Highlight of each day is the musical journey:
The 7th Africa Day “Afrika Tage” festival organised in Dusseldorf, Germany is scheduled to take place on the 3 – 5 August 2012.
In the past ( retrospective ), the organizers have been able to deepen their various program offerings by reinforcing the impressions of visitors and participants in terms of African culture. As part of the “7 Africa-day Düsseldorf ” they plan to offer the audience next to the music and cultural program on the stage again proven sporting, political, social and environmental issues through articles, workshops, lectures and discussion forums.
They want to promote tolerance and understanding of world cultures. Many program items are already among the well-established components of the Africa Day Dusseldorf, such as the World Mobile – What is water, a street soccer tournament, with the motto “Street Football for integration , fair play and tolerance.
” In a lot of times the request and by the strong response of the visitors, and the church with the gospel choir on Sunday is an integral part of the Africa-day Düsseldorf festival. For the first time, the organizers want to target a separate event tent with lectures, films and discussion forums on political and cultural issues that affects the visitors.
This particularly includes nutritional counseling, environmental protection, “hazardous waste into Africa from Europe,” Climate Project “Solar Energy” and the theme of “circumcision of women in Africa and Europe”.
Application forms: – clubs and organizations, please click here Download marketers, please click – here download
Source: Enije
I’m Waiting is the soundtrack from the new movie “Relentless” by Andy Okoroafor. The song was a collaboration between Bantu and Nneka. Enjoy!!!
Athens – Immigrants abound in the neighbourhood around Athens’ Agios Panteleimon church, but for now they are keeping out of sight.
Washed up here after fleeing poverty and violence in Asia and Africa, they now face beatings, insults and exclusion fuelled by Greece’s own economic hardship.
Nazi graffiti have spread and weeds have taken over the children’s playground at the foot of the church.
“They closed the square because of the strangers who came there, the Muslims,†explains one passer-by at the playground’s barricaded gate, as local kids play football and elders backgammon, with scarcely a foreign face in sight.
“They†are far-right local vigilantes – some of them supporters of the Golden Dawn party that entered parliament after winning seven percent of votes in Greece’s election on May 6.
They rule the streets in neighbourhoods such as Agios Panteleimon, a once-upmarket district gone to seed, and drive many to seek refuge in centres such as one run by the aid group Medecins du Monde.
Kamal, an Algerian immigrant in the centre, who says he is too scared to go out at night after being beaten up twice, once by “men in blackâ€, and once by the police.
“The threat is still there and the situation is getting worse,†said Nikitas Kanakis, a local leader of the aid group, at the shelter, also a distribution centre, packed with immigrants and Greeks alike queueing for medicine.
“The members of Golden Dawn feel more powerful and more accepted by the population,†Kanakis added.
“They promise Greeks social progress. They want to impose an agenda of fear, and virtually all the other parties are playing their game.â€
A new general election is set for June 17 and Golden Dawn is expected to stay in parliament, albeit at a reduced strength, polls show.
The charity says immigrants regularly suffer beatings and members of his staff have been threatened and intimidated on their own premises.
“A Pakistani man came yesterday with his head swollen and his eye bruised after he was hit in the street,†said a doctor at the centre, Aspasia Michalakis.
“He hadn’t come to be treated earlier because he was afraid.â€
Three years of financial and economic chaos have fuelled a backlash against immigrants.
In the western Greek port of Patras on Tuesday, police fired tear gas against hundreds of people, hooded and armed with iron bars and handmade bombs, who tried to attack migrants over the fatal stabbing of a Greek man.
A 30-year-old Patras resident was fatally stabbed outside his home on Saturday after a dispute with three men, believed to be Afghan nationals. A 17-year-old Afghan has been arrested.
In a separate case, one of Golden Dawn’s parliamentary candidates, Themis Skordeli, is awaiting trial on charges of taking part in the stabbing of three Afghan immigrants in September.
A court postponed her trial, along with that of two other candidates, on Wednesday for the sixth time. It is the first case of its kind to come to trial in over a decade.
Greece’s eastern border with Turkey is one of the main ports of entry for unauthorised migrants into the European Union. Greek official estimates of the number of legalised migrants in Greece last year vary from 784 000 to 970 000.
Along with economics, immigration was high on the agenda in the elections.
The rise of Golden Dawn was “a shock for the countryâ€, said Ketty Kehayioylou, a local official of the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR.
“But the phenomenon did not happen overnight,†she added.
“The economic crisis, the presence of illegal immigrants, the lack of assistance and structures to receive them, created a lot of frustration and made fertile ground†for xenophobia, she added.
In Agios Panteleimon, immigrants keep a low profile but say the rounds of elections have channelled the anti-immigrant energy in a different direction and tensions have dipped in the neighbourhood.
“For the past couple of months there have been far fewer attacks. They are attacking us democratically now,†said Yonous Muhammadi, an Afghan member of the Greek Forum of Refugees, who has himself been attacked in his office.
“It is not that seven percent of people in Greece are fascists: May 6 was a protest against austerity,†he said.
“But with the media coverage, Greeks are beginning to understand what Golden Dawn’s ideology really is,†he added. “It will not have the same success in June.”
It is little comfort to one Iranian migrant sheltered by Medecins du Monde.
“If the fascists win again, we are dead,” he said.
Source: AFP
Violent race riots prompt top-level calls for immediate arrest, expulsion of tens of thousands of African migrants.
Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai demanded on Thursday that all illegal African immigrants be put “behind bars” before kicking them all out.
“We must put all these infiltrators behind bars in detention and holding centres, then send them home because they come and take work from Israelis,” he told army radio.
Unless the government took urgent action, there would “soon be half a million to a million, and we cannot lose our country to this,” said the minister, who has frequently called for the expulsion of non-Jewish immigrants, sparking cries of racism.
Violent race riots that shook southern Tel Aviv overnight sparked shock in Israel on Thursday, but also prompted top-level calls for the immediate arrest and expulsion of tens of thousands of African migrants.
The latest unrest to sweep the impoverished neighbourhoods around Tel Aviv’s central bus station erupted on Wednesday night when a demonstration of around 1,000 people who were protesting against the rising number of Africans moving into the area turned violent.
“Shock, violence and hatred of foreigners in Tel Aviv” was the headline in the Maariv daily, which described scenes of chaos as demonstrators went on the rampage with sticks and stones, attacking African-run shops and smashing up a car driven by two African men.
“Blacks out!” shouted demonstrators in the crowd, while others yelled “Send the Sudanese back to Sudan,” several media reports said, as other protesters derided the “bleeding-heart leftists” working to help them.
Most reports said the rally turned nasty after the crowd was whipped up by several racist speeches by right-wing MPs, several of them from the ruling Likud party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The infiltrators are a cancer in our body,” Likud MP Miri Regev told the crowd, as fellow MP Danny Danon shouted: “The infiltrators must be expelled from Israel! Expulsion now!”
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said 20 people had been arrested on suspicion of vandalising shops and attacking cars driven by Africans, but added that there were no reports of anyone being injured.
The police have also extended the remand of seven Israeli minors accused of attacking African immigrants earlier this week, he said.
Interior ministry statistics show there are more than 60,000 African immigrants living illegally in Israel.
Some are asylum seekers fleeing persecution, while others are economic migrants. Almost all of them sneak across the border from the Egyptian Sinai and end up living in the run-down neighbourhoods around Tel Aviv’s bus station.
The issue of illegal immigration from Africa has thrown into relief sharp divisions within Israel, with many top officials, including Netanyahu, warning that their growing numbers pose a major threat to the security and identity of Israel.
Wednesday’s nights violence made headlines in all the main Hebrew-language newspapers, as well as on the TV and radio stations, with army radio denouncing it as a “pogrom.”
In a bid to halt the influx of immigrants from Africa, Israel has been building a 250-kilometre (155-mile) fence along the Egyptian border. It has also built a vast detention centre near the border to house anyone caught crossing the frontier.
At the start of the year, Netanyahu said he was planning to visit several African capitals to discuss the issue of immigration, but so far no such plans have been made public.
Three black cabinet members are appointed in the new French Government. With their appointment France is now the frontrunner of political diversity in Europe. In not a single European country with a large black community there has been a black cabinet Minister in recent history.
The line-up. Christiane Taubira, from French Guiana, is the new Minister of Justice. George Pau-Langevin from Guadeloupe, a member of Parliament representing Paris, is named junior Minister for Educational success. And Victorin Lurel, also from Guadeloupe, is the new Minister in charge of overseas departments. He succeeds Marie-Luce Penchard, who was also from Guadeloupe.
Although Taubira is not the first black Minister in France, with her appointment as Minister of Justice she can be seen as being the first black person in France to hold such an important cabinet position. Responding to the question that this cabinet has a lot of diversity, Taubira replied that it also includes the diversity of political, professional and social experiences.
Taubira, who is on the left of the Socialist Party, served as a deputy at the French National Assembly since 1993. She is also the author of a law, now called “Loi Taubira,” voted by the French Assembly in 2001, which recognizes the slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.
France has made a giant step forward, but the road wasn’t easy. After the ethnic urban riots in 2005 and the violent strikes on the island of Guadeloupe in 2009 it became clear the country lacked diversity in every major institution. To ease the tension, the first black Minister Rama Yade was appointed in 2007. Yade, originally from Senegal, became a junior Minister in the Zarkosy government. In the same year there was a little uproar when black news anchor Harry Roselmack read the news on of France’s largest television networks. His appearance was a result of ‘diversity’ talks between the networks and the government. And after the riots in Guadeloupe in 2009 the French Prime Minister quickly installed the first black Minister of the overseas departments, Marie-Luce Penchard, in an attempt to deescalate the conflict.
The biggest difference between the two previous Ministers is that new appointed Ministers are seasoned and well known politicians. With three black cabinet Ministers the French national motto liberté, égalité, fraternité is now enriched with the word that has been shouted in streets of Paris since 2005, ‘diversité’. Viva la France!
Source: Afro-Europe
Hollywood Weekly, an Arts and Entertainment publication in the US, has featured (Nollywood Celebrities) Desmond Elliot, Jackie Appiah, Monalisa Chinda, and Joseph Benjamin on the cover of its May 2012 edition. The edition has profiles of the four Nollywood stars. This is the first time the magazine will feature Nollywood stars.
Hollywood Weekly was established in 2001, and it is available at retail stores and news stands in Hollywood and adjacent areas. It is also distributed digitally and on new media mobile applications.
The Hague has a new top event: The Hague African Festival. This year, the festival will take place on Sunday July 1, 2011 in the Zuiderpark. The festival, which boasts a world-class musical component, is a natural meeting place for different cultures.
The Hague African Festival is being run by the African migrant organisation Stichting Sankofa, previously responsible for the now discontinued African Festival Delft. The aim of Sankofa (the meaning of the word is roughly captured by the phrase ‘to understand the present, you need to know the past’) is to build bridges between Africans and Dutch people. In the words of chairman George Duncan, The Hague has been chosen as the festival location ‘due to its international appeal as the city of justice and peace, and the evident commitment of the municipality. It is a challenge to build up a new event here.’
The festival location, Roggeveld in the Zuiderpark, also lends itself to expansion in the future, and the cosmopolitan city of The Hague is a major hub for the African communities of the Netherlands. The main sponsors of the festival are Oxfam – Novib, The Hague municipality (citizenship department) and Fonds 1818. The production of the festival has been entrusted to Julius Douwes, previously responsible for the production of a major jazz event.
The Hague African Festival offers a colorful and inviting window on the Africa of today, with a focus on the richness of the African cultural heritage and contemporary developments within African cultures. Particular energy has been devoted to putting together a representative programme of African music that reflects both tradition and contemporary dance music.
In designing the festival, the organisers have chosen to immerse the visitor in ‘the African way of life’. The Hague African Festival will provide a natural and welcoming meeting place for all residents of The Hague: an international top event for an international city, helping it to put itself even more firmly on the cultural world map. The festival will host a lively and varied African Market. In dozens of stands, a wide diversity of products will be for sale, and of course the African cuisine will appeal to everybody’s taste and appetite!
In the African Village debates and presentations will take place during the day. In the Transformation Tube documentaries will be shown.
There will also be an interactive programme for children including workshops in the Kids’ Corner. The day will be a festive all-in experience for the whole family, with a varied programme from 12.00 hrs. in the afternoon until 23.00 hrs. at night.
THE HAGUE – Up to 500 children will fall under the children Asylum law known as the “MauorWet” (MauroLaw).
This information was reported by UNICEF Netherlands and Defence for Children on Tuesday night in the television program “Nieuwsuur.”
The organizations asked for figures on the number of asylum procedures running. They also asked for the number of children in distress communities and churches to be mapped.
The bill, also known Maurowet (Maurolaw), is designed for children of asylum seekers who have lived in the Netherlands for more than eight years. With the Maurowet, such children would qualify for a residence permit.
Leers
The organizations called on Minister Gerd Leers (Asylum) to make sure children who fall under this law are not deported until the upcoming election that is scheduled for September 2012.
According to Unicef Netherlands and Defence for Children, the chance that these children will receive a residence permit if the law is adopted is very high.
