African Studies Blog

This paper presented by Anthony A Kopoka at the International Conference on Street Children and Street Children’s Health in East Africa, examines Africa’s response to the growing problem of street children. Using Tanzania as a case study the paper examines initiatives that have been and are being taken by various segments of the community to address the problem of street children. It looks at;

• What kinds of policies and strategies are African governments putting in place, what are the families and communities doing?
• How are families, schools and individual members of society dealing with the problems.
• How is the government dealing with the increasing numbers of unsupervised children living alone in urban streets?
• What role can Non-Government Organizations (NG0s) and community based organizations play in addressing the problem of street children?

Read the paper here.

A 2006 report by Human Rights Watch on the situation of street children in the DRC lists these key findings:

• Many street children live in fear of the very state forces charged to protect them. The testimonies from children interviewed revealed a common pattern of routine abuse by police, soldiers, and members of the military police
• The police routinely arrest street children when crimes are committed in areas where they are known to gather. While it is true that street children are sometimes involved in crimes, the police often hold them collectively responsible for crimes or knowledgeable about the events or the perpetrators
• Civilians also exploit street children. They employ children as porters, vendors, cleaners, or labourers in homes and stores, often paying them little money for long hours and physically demanding work
• Two additional and interrelated factors are helping to fuel the increasing numbers of street children: the abuse and abandonment of children accused of sorcery, and the impact of HIV and AIDS on families and children affected by or infected with the virus.

Read the full report here.

An article in The Economist describes Morgan Tsvangirai, Prime Minister of Zimbabwe’s tour of America and Europe as a hard sell to get funds for his country’s battered economy although he won recognition  for himself and his MDC party from the various leaders he met.

Read this at Economist.com

The Economist reports that Kenya has taken concrete steps to switch from connecting to the Internet by satellite links to fibre optic cable. Last week Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki plugged in the first of three fibre-optic submarine cables in Mombasa. This is considered a communications revolution in East Africa and will speed up Internet connection in Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, as well as bits of Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan. It is expected that the high bandwidth and the competition between the three cables will reduce communication costs and help create new business.

Read it at Economist.com

BL2470.G8 S27 2009x.

Sarro, Ramon. The politics of religious change on the Upper Guinea Coast : Iconoclasm done and undone. Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, c2009.

BX1682.C59 M37 2009.

Martin, Phyllis. Catholic women of Congo-Brazzaville : mothers and sisters in troubled times.

Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c2009.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o.  Something torn and new : an African renaissance. New York : BasicCivitas Books, c2009.

DT159.6.D27 M36 2009.