Archive for the ‘Radio’ Category
African Union summit – 2014 Year of Agriculture
African Union summit, Addis Ababa, January 2014
Radio France Internationale’s English service
A series of interviews and reports from the 22nd African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Includes coverage from the Executive Council and Assembly as well as stories on South Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Libya, Algeria, the AU Immediate Response to Crises force and agriculture, the summit’s theme.
Interview: Confessions of a People Smuggler
23 Jan 2014
We often hear about the plight of illegal migrants and in particular Africans making the journey across the Mediterranean Sea to the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa. But we do not often consider the other side of the story, the criminals who make big profits from what is described as “the most ruthless travel agency on the planet”. A new book coming out in Italy on Friday does just that – we meet the men who illegally smuggle migrants into Europe, making big money, taking big risks to transport tens of thousands of desperate people. RFI’s Daniel Finnan speaks to one of the authors of Confessions of a People Smuggler, Giampaolo Musumeci.
Caught between ‘The Ringtone and the Drum’
The Ringtone and the Drum
Images of Africa in the western media are often characterised by famine and conflict. The discussion of poverty in African countries often overlooks the facts of everyday life. A new book The Ringtone and the Drum
Interview: Mark Weston, author, The Ringtone and the Drum
Why did you decide to travel around three of the world’s poorest countries?
I’ve worked in international development for quite a long time now, trying to work out what’s gone wrong in the world’s poorest countries. What can be done to help improve the lives of people living there? But although I’d spent time in Africa before, and in Asia on short trips, I felt as that I hadn’t really got under the skin of what it’s like to live in poverty. I wanted to find out what the people who lived in the world’s poorest countries talk about. What do they do every day? How are they adjusting to the onrush of modernity and globalisation that’s transforming so much of the developing world?
Africa’s first coup d’état? A history of Niger’s Sawaba movement
In a new book on Niger, Dutch author Klaas van Walraven charts the history of what he calls Africa’s first coup d’état. The Sawaba movement, formed in 1954, was opposed to French colonial rule and pushed for independence. It developed into a militant social movement, aligned with Eastern bloc states, as well as Algeria and Ghana. But it was stopped in its tracks, repressed by France’s fifth republic. Can we really call this Africa’s first coup?
Protest outside Tunisian embassy in Paris after shooting of opposition leader Chokri Belaid
The shooting of Tunisian opposition leader Chokri Belaid on Wednesday sparked protests in Paris, as well as across Tunisia itself. Around 200 demonstrators gathered near the Tunisian embassy in the French capital, shouting slogans and carrying placards reading, “in Tunisia, the Islamists kill”.
Mauritania’s oil minister discusses Mali conflict fallout
Taleb Ould Abdi Vall. Photo: Agence Mauritanienne d’Information.
As the French military intervention in northern Mali continues, many countries in the region have been affected by the fallout. Mauritania, which shares a 2,000-kilometre border with Mali, has seen the arrival of thousands of refugees and has increased military patrols to try and stop Islamist armed groups from penetrating its territory.
Interview: Taleb Ould Abdi Vall, Mauritania’s Minister of Oil, Energy and Mining, at Ifri think-tank
Eritreans protest outside Paris embassy
A group of Eritean political refugees protested outside Eritrea’s Paris embassy on Friday in a demonstration against President Isaias Afewerki. There have been similar demonstrations at Eritrea embassies in other European capitals in recent days, including London and Rome. This comes following a recently reported army mutiny in the Eritrean capital Asmara, when some 200 Eritrean soldiers briefly occupied the country’s Information Ministry.
Read the rest of this entry »France Info – Mali et Algérie dans la presse européenne
L’intervention française au Mali et la situation au Sahel ont réellement été le principal sujet d’actualité de la semaine selon les deux invités : Gero von RANDOW de l’hebdomadaire allemand “Die Zeït” et Daniel FINNAN, journaliste britannique à RFI (Radio France International).
La presse allemande a été critique sur la réaction du gouvernement de Mme Merkel ; il a affiché sa solidarité avec la France mais a passé plus de temps à expliquer qu’il ne pouvait agir plus loin. Les allemands ont-ils compris l’importance du Sahel ?
Réaction différente dans la presse britannique car comme la France, le Royaume-Uni a une longue histoire de guerres en Afrique. Londres apporte son soutien à la France.
Jeudi à Bruxelles, les 27 ministres des Affaires étrangères ont approuvé l’opération Serval, et certains ont annoncé un appui logistique. Tous sont tombés d’accord sur la nécessité d’envoyer vite des instructeurs européens pour la formation de l’armée malienne. Mais cela est-il suffisant ?
Ban on Uganda’s critical State of the Nation play has no legal basis, says co-director
Poster for State of the Nation play. Afri-Talent.
The co-director of a play banned in Uganda has told RFI he’s concerned about the repercussions of continuing to stage his production. But he believes Uganda’s Media Council is on shaky legal ground. John Ssegawa, co-author of State of the Nation, says the Ugandan authorities are limiting freedom of expression.
Interview: John Ssegawa, Co-Director, State of the Nation
Could you describe the play? What is it about?
The play is all about the history of Uganda from 1962, from independence, up to today. We talk about the political journey and what we thought would be, and what is not today.
Cairo’s street artists defy authorities with graffiti protest
Cairo’s graffiti artists offered a sarcastic rebuttal to city authorities on Thursday during the last day of voting in Egypt’s presidential elections. Following plans to whitewash street art on Mohamed Mahmoud St, artists instead began the whitewashing themselves spelling out a cynical phrase in Arabic – “forget about the past, focus on the elections”.
“We decided to do it, but our way,” independent artist Mahmoud Hany tells RFI, his hands covered in paint after descending down a ladder.
The wall just off Tahrir Square is particularly iconic. It features the faces of several martyrs, anti-military council slogans and reminders of last year’s uprising.
Hany says the city authorities had threatened to cover the wall a few days ago. But they wanted to beat them to it. “We have to be with the events,” he explains.
Some of the graffiti is particularly critical of the elections. With some of the so-called revolutionary youth seeing the polls as an exercise in consolidation of power for the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF).
Slideshow: Mohamed Mahmoud St, in downtown Cairo, Egypt
Especially evident, they say, in the candidacy of figures such as former Mubarak-era prime minister Ahmed Shariq and former foreign minister Amr Moussa.
One evocative mural directs its criticism of the old regime by morphing the faces of various figures together.
“Half of it is [Field Marshall] Tantawi, and the other half is Hosni Mubarak,” says Hany. “Behind them, Amr Moussa and Shafiq,” he adds.
The young artist explained that the authorities removed the original piece featuring just Tantawi and Mubarak. So they repainted it. Adding Moussa and Shafiq, placed in the background.
Cairo’s downtown area is awash with graffiti over a year after the ousting of Mubarak. Further down Mohamed Mahmoud St each side street is blocked off by a wall constructed by the security services to protect the interior ministry. Each one serving as a canvas for Cairo’s street artists.
It is not clear how long the authorities will tolerate it for. Hany, however, is unperturbed. “Graffiti is not an art that lasts forever,” he says. “Anyone can add anything at anytime,” he adds, smiling.
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