AfriCan Geopardy

In this episode, we pick the brains of Dr Richard Munang on how African youths can contribute to positive change on the continent. The discussion is based on his book "making Africa work through the power of innovative volunteerism" and how the ideas therein can help the African continent rebuild better despite the many challenges. 

Dr Richard Munang is the Africa Regional Climate Change Coordinator at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). He is responsible for guiding the actualization of UNEP's climate-resilient development strategy for Africa in a manner that ensures human wellbeing. 

He is the author of the book "making Africa work through the power of innovative volunteerism".

Check out the book on www.richardmunang.com

You have to listen to this conversation to not only benefit from the unique insights from Dr Munang but, also see that the African continent have the resources (natural and human) to build resilience to climate and in the long run, attain sustainable development for its people.

Women are underrepresented in the maritime sector, globally. Women represent only two per cent of the world's 1.2 million seafarers, and 94 per cent of female seafarers are working in the cruise industry. In the AfriCan continent, though women are well represented in the seafood supply chain, they are underrepresented in the decision-making process in the fisheries sector. In this months episode, we are discussing "Women in maritime: Towards an inclusive maritime sector in Africa". We are privileged to have Captain Londy Ngcobo, a Ship navigator and Africa's First Female Dredge Master, who is passionate about Unlocking Africa's Ocean Economy with us. Captain Ngcobo has over 13 years of experience in the maritime industry which has equipped her with the ability to focus on providing sustainable tools for women to thrive in scarce skills and her zest for life encourages the youth to think outside the box, with her Forbes Women Africa piercing the phrase "I didn't choose to be Rose from the Titanic, I chose to Captain the Titanic" and through her popular TEDx Talk "Anchors Aweigh, No Rest For The First". This Black Excellence Award-winning Woman in Scarce Skills is making waves on land as a maritime advocate, Director of Womaritime experts and founder of Global Maritime Youth All which has earned her the well-known title "The Blaqmermaid."

Enjoy!

According to the Lexico online dictionary, a coup is a sudden, violent and illegal seizure of power from a government.

The coup in Mali which took place on 18th August 2020, is the third in Africa in the past three years (Sudan, 11th April 2019 and Zimbabwe, 15th November 2017).

The African Union's position about unconstitutional changes in government has led some AfriCans to ask, whether it is the African Union's job "protect people from authoritarian regimes or to protect authoritarian regimes from their people?".

On this episode, our guest, Dr Mohamed Diatta, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies notes among other things that to there is an urgent need to address the real feeling among African's that, political change can only occur through popular protests and military interference. He also warned that the longer the situation in countries like Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire to fester, there is a real chance for instability to spread in those countries.

Do listen, reflect and share.

The significance of the marine environment to the social and economic wellbeing of coastal states in Africa, in particular, Small Island nations such as Seychelles, Mauritius and Cabo Verde, cannot be overemphasised. The existence of these states practically depends on the health and sustainability of their marine environment. As a result, anything that threatens this sustainability is essentially a threat to their security.

In light of the Mauritius oil spillage, whereby a Japanese bulk carrier (MV Wakashio) broke-up and leaked oil on the shores of Mauritius in July, and taking into account that 24.3% of the country's GDP is from tourism (2018 figures), we discuss the implication of this spill with Dr Nkeiru Scotcher. Dr Scotcher is a postdoctoral fellow and instructor in Ocean Governance and the Law of the Sea at the Department of Law in Gothenburg University, Sweden.

What is clear from the conversation is the Mauritius government is not to blame for what happened during and at the aftermath of the spill as it is impossible to prepare for that which is beyond one's control (one cannot give what one does not have). Though different, the BP US Gulf of Mexico spills in 2010, and the aftermath evinces that it is difficult to prepare for such eventuality. What is clear, Dr Scotcher notes, is the need for Africa to regroup, restrategise and push for change in the international Convention, including pushing for the introduction of a protocol that can increase liability and the review of the relevant Convention.

You may reach her via email on: [email protected]

In this month's episode, we have Mamadou Sow, the Head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Southern Africa - Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

In previous episodes, we aimed to introduce the subject to our audience before handing over to our guest. However, we have not followed this protocol this time because we believe that humanitarian action is one of those hard to define concepts and means different things to different people. As Mr Sow aptly captured, the first contributors to humanitarian action are communities, many of whom use their social networks to support people in times of conflict/during displacements; disparent from what can be deduced from a google search of "humanitarian action".                    

The conversation about humanitarian action brought to the fore the need for African government to do all that they can to silence the guns, because according to Mr Sow that is the only way the continent can make progress. Mr Sow makes many recommendations on how the #AfriCan continent can turn the tide on conflict, including calling on the leaders to "be bold and consider political solutions".                

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At a time when the world is calling for #equality, we join our voices to the millions of people across the globe to highlight the need to embrace our diversity. Covid19 has exposed the level of inequality in medical research, as ethnic minorities are more likely to die of Covid than their white counterparts. Nowhere is this inequality more glaring than in the United States were "black people simply are not receiving the same quality of health care that their white counterparts receive".

With the foregoing in mind, the hosts, Drs Belhabib and Okafor-Yarwood share their personal experiences to highlight the imperative for us to embrace diversity in medical research, in our work places and daily lives. Thank you for listening.

In the June episode of African Geopardy, we are discussing "Africa's youth agency, resilience and transilience".

This is an important topic as the African continent is seen to be experiencing "youth bulge" - a demographic pattern where a large share of the population is comprised of children and young adults.

According to the United Nations, 226 million youth aged 15-24 lived in Africa in 2015, representing nearly 20% of Africa’s population, making up one-fifth of the world’s youth population. The share of Africa’s youth in the world is forecasted to increase to 42% by 2030. However, many commentators (the African Union is not one of them) see this as a problem, as they declare that the majority of young Africans are stuck in "waithood" and struggling to make ends meet. 

To discuss this topic with us, we have Mr Femi Balogun, a researcher, evaluation consultant and policy analyst. He sees the African youth population as trailblazers as they have continued to find creative ways to solve the problems in their respective environs. Their contributions might not be adequately captured, but, he made a strong case on the need to move the discussion around youths in Africa away from resilience to transilience.

Like always, thanks for listening and do share.

In light of the #Covid-19 pandemic, on the 23rd of March 2020, the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres urged warring parties across the world to lay down their weapons in support of the bigger battle against Covid-19.

By the 27th of March, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat, called on all warring parties in the African continent to engage in a lasting ceasefire, to give a chance to peacemaking.

Undoubtedly, for Africa to have a fighting chance at turning the tides on the pandemic, then it has to be able to focus its resources on doing just that, as conflicts of any form would escalate the rates of community infections.   Therefore, in this episode, we are joined by Nox Nokukhanya Ntuli, a mediation expert, to discuss mediation and the critical role it plays and can continue to play in conflict resolution, especially at a time when the African Union have set aside, 2020 as the year that all guns of violence and conflicts will be silenced in Africa.

Enjoy the episode and take care.

According to the latest figures by the Africa Center for Disease Control on, there are now over 5700 confirmed cases of Covid19, 196 deaths and 412 recoveries across 49 of the 55 countries in the African continent. The worst affected countries include South Africa, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco.

Given the fragile conditions of Africa's health system, the low number of reported cases of the Coronavirus have puzzled foreign media and researchers alike, as they wonder whether this is due to inadequate detection mechanism, the climatic conditions of the continent or merely a fluke.

In the April episode of AfriCan Geopardy, we speak to Abimbola Adebakin, a pharmacist and the Chief Executive Officer of Advantage Health Africa, a health technology group with a pharmacy franchise aimed at providing genuine, affordable and accessible medicines, about Africa's preparedness for Covid19. She identifies four areas that Africa must focus on to turn the tides of the virus - early detection, observation and treatment, control and finally, change of behaviour.

Nation-states have almost always maintained the position, "we do not negotiate with terrorists". However, as Tony Penn suggests, all conflicts occur as a result of lack of diplomacy or in this context the failure/unwillingness of both state and non-state actors to engage in lengthy negotiation – be it the traditional way, i.e. secret negotiations or the more contemporary route of open negotiations. Recognizing that the counter-terrorism mechanism which emphasizes the use of force, does not seem to be yielding enough positive results, especially in the African continent, in our March episode, we discuss the need for African governments to explore dialogue/negotiations as part of a comprehensive set of policy options in countering terrorism.  

Enjoy! and please, do share.