“I stand to be corrected but I think I’m the only hearing person who went to a deaf school. Don’t ask me why because even I want to know why. I did my Maths and Biology and Science in sign language” In May of this year, South Africa passed a law which will officially make sign language the 12th official language. This follows intense lobbying by activists over many years. Estimates vary greatly on the number of users: from 700,000 to 2 million. This includes hearing people who communicate with t...
Jun 12, 2023•14 min
When fighting broke out between the Sudanese army and Rapid Support Forces in mid April, there were just over 360 children - including many infants - living in the Mygoma orphanage in Khartoum. Like most of the population, they were trapped. In the time since, 67 of the children have died of malnourishment or illness. Those caring for them couldn’t get enough food. Some of their regular carers couldn’t reach them. And hospitals were destroyed or inaccessible. But now, all these weeks later, a co...
Jun 09, 2023•13 min
* After this episode was recorded, mobile internet was reinstated in Senegal, although access to some social media platforms may still be restricted. Last week, protesters took to the streets in Senegal after opposition leader Ousmane Sonko was sentenced to two years in prison. The sentence could rule him out of running for president in next year’s elections. At the same time, suggestions that President Macky Sall could run for a third term has also caused anger. There have been more demonstrati...
Jun 08, 2023•24 min
Some people may find the issues discussed in this episode upsetting. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Official estimates suggest that around 1,500 people took their own lives in Ghana last year… but actual deaths may be much higher – because many people will try to cover up a suicide in the family. And experts say that for every suicide there are likely to be around 20 failed attempts. In April, Ghana’s parliament changed the law so th...
Jun 07, 2023•21 min
“The level of crime in our province is completely unacceptable. It can’t even be compared to the warzone in Ukraine. We have to stop this. If we don’t, it will swallow all of us. We can’t have so many people being murdered” Violent crime has long been a problem in South Africa. Statistics released by the police recently show that over 6 200 people were murdered in the country in just three months. In an attempt to push back against lawlessness, the government of Gauteng, a province seriously aff...
Jun 06, 2023•18 min
A week ago, Bola Tinubu was sworn in as President of Nigeria. Amid his inauguration ceremony he announced that the country's 'fuel subsidy is gone'. His statement caught people’s attention and many people headed to gas stations to stock up on fuel. People waited for hours in queues, often finding filling stations closed or charging much higher prices. The decades-long subsidy has kept down the price of petroleum products, hence the rush to the pumps. So, are people right to be concerned about th...
Jun 05, 2023•18 min
“I just have love for my people… I put myself in their shoes and I’m like, 'let me reach those people'. I feel their pain.” This week Africa Daily has been looking at what it means to be a nurse in Africa. We’ve heard from those who want to leave to find work – but have been banned from working abroad by their governments. We’ve also heard from those who’ve left the continent with high hopes – only for some to fall prey to unscrupulous agencies who take a cut of their wages. But today we’re look...
Jun 02, 2023•18 min
In March this year, the W-H-O identified 55 countries as facing the “most pressing health workforce challenges”. Basically, nations where there are less than 49 doctors, nurses and midwives per 10,000 people – the global average. Forty-one of them are in Africa. In response, some of the main destinations for emigrating heath workers – like the UK’s National Health Service – said they had stopped active recruitments from those countries. But that hasn’t quite reined in the exodus from the so-call...
Jun 01, 2023•22 min
“If people die in hospitals because there are no nurses and doctors and somebody who has been so irresponsible for not training their own nationals, but wanting poor countries to train for them, it’s a crime that must be taken seriously” Zimbabwe’s Vice President Constantino Chiwenga wants to make it a criminal offense for recruitment agencies to poach health workers from Zimbabwe. He says his country should not be subjected to training doctors and nurses for the benefit of other nations. Howeve...
May 31, 2023•16 min
The price of sugar is on the rise in Kenya and it’s really hitting people’s pockets. It’s partly due to a shortage of sugarcane in the country. In April, it was reported that some sugar mills were closing their operations, due to the lack of the raw material. Amid a dispute with millers, some farmers are moving away from sugar to other crops. So, what’s behind it all? And why are Kenyan’s paying more for their sugar? #AfricaDaily
May 30, 2023•19 min
Bola Tinubu was declared the winner of the 2023 election back in March by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission. It was an election marred by technical glitches in the electronic polling system, delays which saw some voters queuing through the night, some cases of armed men attacking polling stations and voter intimidation. But it’s unclear whether these problems were enough to affect the election’s outcome. The list of challenges for his presidency is long– insecurity, e...
May 29, 2023•15 min
"We import everything and that leads to many challenges such as affordability." A gadget to help a blind person pour a drink and not spill it. Another to count up cash. And yet another to allow them to read a book in six South African languages. These are some examples of the sorts of ‘assistive technology’ now available for people living with a disability. Next week in Nairobi, the ‘Inclusive Africa Conference’ will hear about efforts to get more such technology developed in Africa – and why it...
May 26, 2023•17 min
“Patients will complain of swollen eyelids, watery discharge, crusty eyelids, pain, light sensitivity. And if it is getting more serious, then they will complain of blurry vision.” In today’s episode Alan Kasujja investigates how Benin and Mali successfully eradicated trachoma. The announcement was made by the World Health Organisation this month. This is a disease of the eye caused by bacterial infection. It is the leading infectious cause of blindness, worldwide. Global health authorities say ...
May 25, 2023•15 min
Over the past six decades, Dr Edna Adan Ismail has been a nurse and midwife. She has spent her life fighting for maternal health care rights in Somaliland and campaigning against Female Genital Mutilation- a practice which involves the partial or total removal of genitalia. It leaves many women and girls with infections, pain and complications in child birth. She’s been in the news recently because she was awarded The Templeton Prize and prize amounting to almost $1.4 million. The award honours ...
May 24, 2023•19 min
“In diplomacy we always say, there’s no free lunch, there’s a catch somewhere” In this episode, Alan Kasujja speaks to Russian ambassador to Malawi and Zimbabwe, Nikolai Krasilnikov. His country donated 20, 000 tons of fertilizer to Malawi and 18 helicopters to Zimbabwe for policing, wild life protection duties and disaster management. But why is Russia appearing to be going out of its way to find friends in Africa? What’s the end game here? These developments come at a time when South Africa’s ...
May 23, 2023•19 min
“They insulted me: ‘you’re having another boy! When they grow up they become Seleka!’. When I took him for a consultation, I preferred to put a scarf on him and disguise him as a girl. They didn't want to see boys. If they saw them, they threatened to kill them.” In March 2013, the mostly Muslim, anti-government Seleka forces descended on Bangui, the capital of CAR, and overthrew the government of President François Bozizé - killing civilians and looting everything they could lay their hands on....
May 22, 2023•21 min
Sickle cell disease is an inherited condition which primarily impacts people with genetic ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. It’s caused by a defective gene which alters how red blood cells grow, it mutates them and they become sickle shaped. These cells don’t live as long as healthy blood cells and they can block blood vessels. This can cause severe pain and organ failure. The main a cure is a bone-marrow transplant but anyone seeking this in Tanzania had to travel abroad for this treatment. But...
May 19, 2023•16 min
It is now over a month since the conflict started in Sudan. Representatives of the Sudanese army and rival Rapid Support Forces have been negotiating in Saudi Arabia for over a week. But so far all commitments to protect civilians and allow access for humanitarian aid have been broken. In past episodes of Africa Daily, we’ve heard the story of people who’s lives have been turned upside down. Now Alan wants to find out about the two forces behind the conflict and whether either of them has an upp...
May 18, 2023•20 min
Women in Sub-Saharan Africa are twice as likely to get HIV as men. That’s why it was big news when the World Health Organisation approved a new method of HIV prevention in 2021: the dapivirine ring. It’s a silicone band that women insert vaginally and can leave in for four weeks. The ring slowly releases dapivirine, an anti-retroviral drug that stops HIV in its tracks. It’s been hailed as a game changer, but two years after the ring was approved, fewer than a thousand woman globally are using in...
May 17, 2023•14 min
Eugenia Kargbo is Africa’s first Chief Heat Officer. She was appointed by the government of Sierra Leone, and is responsible for helping people who are struggling from the effects of extreme heat and ‘burning, suffocating sunshine’. Sierra Leone isn’t among Africa’s warmest countries. Mali is thought to be the hottest country on the continent…and in the world. But Sierra Leone has been experiencing higher and higher temperatures in recent years. And Eugenia says it is a much less comfortable pla...
May 16, 2023•15 min
“There are gangs who’ve realised that gay people cannot go to the police so that makes them ‘good victims’ for blackmail... Everybody you speak to has been kitoed or knows someone has been kitoed. And that’s just how rampant it is.” Do you know what the word Kito means? Or Kitorist? Or Kitoed? In Nigeria it’s come to mean when people, usually gangs, use online dating apps to entrap gay people - and then blackmail them. It often involves the victim being attacked and humiliated on film – with the...
May 15, 2023•18 min
On World Press Freedom Day last week– journalists from Burkina Faso alongside their colleagues in Mali, called for an end to all measures that undermine press freedom. The military, who have been in charge in Burkina Faso since coups they led last year overthrew the government, are dealing with a jihadist insurgency which spread over the border from Mali in 2015. Almost half of the country is currently outside state control. Journalists there say they face intimidation over what they report and ...
May 12, 2023•18 min
Gifty Ayoka is the mother of a child with what used to be called Autism, but is now known as Autism Spectrum Disorder. It’s caused by differences in the brain that might lead to different ways of learning, moving or paying attention. When her son was born 11 years ago, there was very little knowledge about the disorder. Gifty decided to train as a language therapist herself, to help support her son. There were just three such therapists in Ghana at the time. Now there are around 50, but is that ...
May 11, 2023•16 min
"The resounding cry from the report is these babies should have the same chance. And they can." A report out today says that globally, we’ve made no progress at all over the last decade in reducing the number of pregnancies that end with a premature birth. And in Africa - just 1 in 10 of those premature babies will survive, compared to 9 out of 10 in high income countries. So why are premature babies still dying in such numbers? And what can be done to improve the situation? For Africa Daily, Mp...
May 10, 2023•19 min
Kenya imports most of its honey from countries including India, Australia and UAE. But Kenya has huge potential to produce its own honey. And it could be a hugely profitable crop for farmers or budding entrepreneurs. So how do you run a successful beekeeping and honey production business? And what are entrepreneurs in Kenya doing to take advantage of the market? #AfricaDaily
May 09, 2023•16 min
It's been a serious issue in Kenya for a long time: household air pollution caused by unclean cooking fuels. Now, a campaign is underway to persuade people to switch from charcoal, kerosene and firewood use. Pollutants from the fuels kill more than 23,000 Kenyans each year. PRESENTER: @kasujja GUESTS: Nancy Chebichi and Willah Nabukwangwa of Clean-Air (Africa)
May 08, 2023•15 min
The fighting in Sudan has continued for a third week On Thursday a new seven day ceasefire took effect, but they haven’t been fully observed in the past. Hundreds of thousands of people are continuing to leave the country. But many more are staying, either through choice or lack of choice. So, what is life like for those still in Sudan? #AfricaDaily
May 05, 2023•23 min
It’s been a case of will they? Won’t they? Speaking at an event last month, South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said that his party, the ANC, had taken the decision to pull out of the International Criminal Court. But then, the party backtracked and said it was still under discussion. It’s all come about because of President Vladimir Putin. In March, the ICC issued a warrant for his arrest, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. As a signat...
May 04, 2023•18 min
A few weeks ago the United States President Joe Biden said he wants at least two thirds of new vehicles sold in the US to be electric within a decade. The government say this is about positioning America to drive the electric vehicle future forward, outcompeting China, and tackling the climate crisis. It’s a message which puts Africa in a unique position. Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo have large reserves of copper and cobalt, two crucial components needed to make the batteries for ...
May 03, 2023•19 min
We regularly hear about plastic pollution – but what about textile waste? An activist is swimming the length of Ghana's longest river – all 450 kilometres of it - to highlight the issue of unchecked second hand clothing imports and its impact on water pollution. Ghana imports a staggering 15 million pieces of unwanted clothing every WEEK - more than any other African country. The clothes are donated or recycled by people from the west, but 40% of the items actually end up in landfill. Many are t...
May 02, 2023•19 min
