Nigerian comedy has boomed in the last decade, and Bright “Basketmouth” Okpocha is, arguably, the country’s most successful stand-up comic. Born and bred in the notorious Lagos slum Ajegunle, he discovered his gift for comedy by chance and has never looked back. “Basketmouth means somebody who doesn’t hold anything back, which is like a basket. A basket doesn’t hold water. And when I decided to go with the name Basketmouth, it actually defined my kind of art, my kind of delivery, because I just say it the way it comes, I do not have any filtering system, and that’s how…
Author: AMA
Kate Henshaw has always been known as one of the Nollywood stars with integrity. Nollywood is the second largest film industry in the world, producing over 1,000 films a year. Kate has been in the film industry for over 21 years. Having made over 70 Nollywood films, the movie star has decided to leave the fictional world and run for a seat in Nigeria’s House of Representatives. “People are really intrigued. They want to know why, why am I going into politics…. As an actor, I’ve always been in the forefront fighting for different causes that I feel I am…
By Al Jazeera The global burden of disease caused by treatable surgical conditions is twice that of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. The solution is simple: more surgeries. Yet almost one in three people, mainly the world’s poorest, have no access to surgery. And without access to appropriate equipment and training, a life-saving operation can quickly become a life-threatening one. In Uganda, we see how the use of a simple pulse oximeter, a cheap drill cover and a basic, three-minute checklist is proving that universal access to essential surgery can be safe and affordable. In the developed world, 100 percent…
By Al Jazeera Niokolo Koba Park in Senegal is an important world heritage site, which started out as a hunting reserve during the colonial era in 1926. However, over time, attitudes towards hunting wild animals has changed. As the home of the West African lion and other protected species, local tribes were forced out of the area to protect the wildlife. However, the villagers know the area well and are aware of the lucrative nature of the poaching industry. Although locating poachers unaided is a difficult task, rangers do occasionally receive tips, which aids them in their task. Al Jazeera’s…
Fraught with logistic and security concerns journalists have struggled to report on Boko Haram’s insurgency in northern Nigeria. Since 2009, around 17,000 people have been killed as the armed group battles the central government. Both sides have been accused of human rights abuses, but with a deteriorating security situation – journalists have struggled to speak to the victims and file stories directly from the ground. And as most of the region’s telecom infrastructure has been destroyed, journalists have had a limited choice as to where to get their information: Boko Haram’s propaganda machine or official press releases from the government.…
By Al Jazeera The African Union (AU) has said that there may be “catastrophic consequences” for Burundi and the region if political differences are not resolved peacefully. This comes a day after Burundi’s former army chief of staff Jean Bikomagu was assassinated, further indicating the possibility of renewed conflict in the country which has witnessed violence since April over President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to seek a third term. Nkurunziza won the July presidential elections despite deadly violence and boycott by the opposition parties and civil society groups. AU Commission chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on Sunday called for “utmost restraint” from all…
By Mandeep Tiwana Since August 16, 2012, South Africans have been coming to terms with the police killing of 34 striking mineworkers at the Lonmin platinum mine at Marikana. This biggest massacre by police of civilians in post-apartheid South Africa continues to haunt the collective conscience of a nation. South Africans should have made great strides in addressing inequality and ensuring better conditions for its workers, but they have not because of the continued dominance of the neoliberal economic discourse. In many ways, Marikana has become the symbol of the global collusion between political and economic elites, fostering inequality and…
By Al Jazeera Their job is to protect the most vulnerable people in what are often impoverished and war-torn regions of the world. But the UN’s peacekeepers are facing serious allegations of wide-spread sexual abuse, exploitation and gross misconduct. The latest is in Central African Republic, over the killing of a teenager and his father, and the alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says he is “angered and ashamed” by the allegations and described them as “a cancer in our system”. There are around 118,000 military, police and civilian staff involved in UN peacekeeping. They…
By Al Jazeera Unidentified attackers have shot and killed Burundi’s former army chief of staff in the second high-profile killing this month, amid chaos linked to the disputed re-election of President Pierre Nkurunziza. Colonel Jean Bikomagu was shot dead outside his home in the capital Bujumbura in the morning as he returned from church, said a witness who declined to give his name, the Reuters news agency reported. Bikomagu’s daughter, who was with him at the time, was seriously wounded and rushed to hospital. A former Burundian security chief and close ally of Nkurunziza was killed in early August. The…
By Al Jazeera A blast in northeastern Nigeria’s Borno state has killed at least 47 people and injured another 52, according to a military source and a civilian joint task force member. The explosion, in a region where hundreds of people have been killed in attacks by suspected members of Boko Haram in the last few weeks, struck the town of Sabon Gari at around 1.30pm local time on Tuesday, the sources said. Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris, reporting from the city of Kano, said the attack happened close to a cattle market. “According to sources in the area, this attack…