African Voice Newspaper issue 605

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Friday, 13 November - Thursday, 19 November 2015 ISSUE 605

SINCE 2001

B R I TA I N ’ S N O . 1 A F R I C A N N E W S PA P E R

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African Voice UK announces winners of African Voice Leadership Awards 2015

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EUROSCEPTICS TAKE TURNS TO LAMBAST PM

Reform plans “a pig in a poke”

By Alan Oakley Tory MPs have been queueing up to take a swipe at David Cameron after the PM stance on welfare for migrants apparently weakened in a speech at the Chatham House foreign affairs think tank in central London.

The EU dealt David Cameron’s ambitions to curtail migration an embarrassing blow when it flatly rejected as “highly problematic” his scheme to clamp down on what he calls ‘benefit tourism’.

Mr Cameron formally set out his demands in a letter to the president of the European Council Donald Tusk saying four objectives lie at the heart of the UK’s renegotiations: • Protection of the single market for Britain and other non-euro countries • Boosting competitiveness by setting a target for the reduction of the “burden” of red tape

Continued on page 2 Mr Cameron was speaking at the Chatham House foreign affairs think tank in central London.

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New funds to tackle causes of migration

The UK is providing a further £200 million in bilateral aid to Africa to tackle the root causes of migration, the Prime Minister announced, as European and African leaders gathered in Malta to develop a coordinated approach to address the migrant and refugee crisis.

The UN estimates there are almost

15 million forcibly displaced people in Africa, including three million refugees.

So far this year around 140,000 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea – the majority from African countries such as Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan.

The new funding, announced at the

EU-Africa Valletta Summit, is part of the UK’s comprehensive approach to address the migration crisis.

Publisher and Editor-In-Chief Mike Abiola Editorial Board Adviser Dr Ola Ogunyemi Managing Editor Alan Oakley News Editor Peter Olorunnisomo Sports Editor Abiodun Teriba Arts Editor Golda John Columnists Milton Tella Photo Journalist Isaac Adegbite Graphic Designer Edward Mirza Accountant Fanla Agboola Chief Correspondent, Nigeria Olubunmi Omoogun London Office: Unit 7 Holles House Overton Road London SW9 7AP

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African Voice is published by African Voice UK.

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Friday, 13 November - Thursday, 19 November 2015

News

British Legion jumps in to stock poppy hijabs The Royal British Legion is selling a Muslim hijab covered in poppies for the first time after initial stocks SOLD OUT.

The headscarf is on sale on the charity’s website for £20, where it is described as “a symbol of remembrance that would appeal to British Muslims”.

The Legion stepped in after the hijab was launched by a pair of smaller charities and sold out. The major servicemen and women’s charity then came on board to cope with the high demand.

British Muslim Tabinda-Kauser Ishaq, 25, designed the light blue poppy-patterned headscarf while studying at the London College of Fashion in 2014, to coincide with the centenary of the first Muslim soldier being awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery as he fought for Britain in the First World War. She said: “The idea to do a headscarf came from knowing that many Muslims generally mark Remembrance Day. “We felt it wasn’t that widely known.

The number of Muslim soldiers who fought in World War One was even less known.

“We wanted to create something that illustrated this history.”

During last year’s Poppy Appeal, the Islamic Society of Britain and think-

The so-called Poppy Hijab has proved popular with British Muslims and others, who have chosen to wear it as a headscarf, as here, or around the neck

tank British Future started selling the hijab for £22. They produced two runs of the garment, but ended up selling out completely in just a week. A spokesman for British Future said: “The response we got last year was very positive.” The Royal British Legion has since slashed the price of the headscarf by £2 in a bid to boost sales.

Ms Ishaq added: “I thought it was a

really simple and clean way of saying that I’m very proud of being British and Muslim without it being in anyone’s face.”

More than 1 million British Muslims wear a poppy to mark Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day and around 400,000 Muslim soldiers, most from what was then British India, fought for the allies during the First World War.

UK and Ghana sign prison transfer agreement The UK has signed a compulsory prisoner transfer agreement with Ghana to allow transfer of prisoners between each country.

The UK has signed a compulsory prisoner transfer agreement with Ghana to allow transfer of prisoners between each country.

Signed during a visit to the West African nation by international development minister Grant Shapps, the agreement provides for the transfer of prisoners with or without their consent, subject to approval by the receiving state.

Signing the agreement with the Ghanaian Deputy Attorney-General, Grant Shapps said: Removing foreign national offenders is a key priority for the British Government and the agreement I have signed this morning plays an important role in supporting this from now on.

This is also a further example of the close relationship between the

International Development Minister Grant Shapps

UK and Ghana and underlines our commitment to remove prisoners who have no right to remain in the United Kingdom.

This is an important achievement for the UK and will be the latest such compulsory agreement the UK has with another

country. The Government is committed to negotiating further compulsory transfer agreements wherever it can.

This arrangement will support the rehabilitation and reintegration of prisoners from both countries into the communities in which they will live.

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News

Friday, 13 November - Thursday, 19 November 2015

Reform plans “a pig in a poke”

...Continued from front page • Exempting Britain from “evercloser union” and bolstering national parliaments • Restricting EU migrants’ access to in-work benefits such as tax credits Mr Cameron hit back at claims by former Tory chancellor Lord Lawson that the four goals were “disappointingly unambitious”, saying they reflected what the British people wanted and would be “good for Britain and good for the European Union”.

“It is mission possible and it is going to take a lot of hard work to get there,” said the Prime Minister.

In response, chief spokesman for the Commission, Margaritis Schinas, said: “We see a number of elements which appear to be feasible, like finding ways to increase the role of national parliaments, and some issues which are difficult, like ever-closer union and the relation between euro ins and outs. And some things are highly problematic as they touch upon the fundamental freedoms of our internal market. Direct discrimination between EU citizens clearly falls into this last category.”

He was echoed by the Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, who said that a benefits curb would be “the most problematic aspect of the British initiative”. Mr Sobotka added that, “The right to work and live anywhere in the EU is absolutely essential to us.”

Six months ago Mr Cameron pledged a Conservative government would “insist” that EU migrants who wanted to claim tax credits and child benefit must have lived in Britain and paid taxes for a minimum of four years. The party’s election manifesto said the welfare changes would be an “absolute requirement in the [EU membership] renegotiation”.

But in a speech his speech on Tuesday, Mr Cameron hinted that the benefit restrictions were no longer a red line for the Government. Instead, the Prime Minister said, “I understand how difficult some of these welfare issues are for other member states and I am open to different ways of dealing with this issue.”

One MP described Mr Cameron’s negotiations as “thin gruel” and “much less” than people had “come to expect from the Government.”

Fellow Tory MP Peter Lilley told the Commons that changing the wording on an “ever closer union” would make little difference and that the PM should in4

stead focus on bringing back more powers to Britain.

Meanwhile David Nuttall, also a Conservative, said that David Cameron’s letter failed to show any plan to regain control of immigration, fishing or the farming industry. He said it had become clear that the renegotiation did not involve returning any powers.

Bernard Jenkin, another Conservative, asked: “Is that it? Is that the sum total of the government’s position in this renegotiation?”

He said Britain would end up as a “second tier” country which would ultimately lose more powers.

John Baron, MP, added: “In his letter, the Prime Minister fails to adequately address the central issue of sovereignty.

Our Parliament must be sovereign – it must be able to stop unwanted EU legislation, regulations or taxes. This goes to the heart of issues such as control of our borders, supremacy of our laws and the extent of small business regulation. Sharing sovereignty with other David Cameron with Donald Tusk Parliaments falls well short of what is of benefit, all four would be included in required.” the Prime Minister’s claim.

Environment Secretary Owen Pater2) The analysis is based on a five per son said the Prime Minister had missed cent sample of European Economic Area a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to remigrants who arrived in the UK from form the UK’s relations with the EU”.

March 2009 to March 2013. Therefore, The veteran Tory Eurosceptic MP and the figures are already more than two chair of the European Scrutiny Comyears old. mittee Sir Bill Cash warned that treaty 3) The “simulation model” used by the change was needed for “virtually every DWP to calculate the caseload informaproposal” – yet treaty change was “not tion for tax credit and benefit claimants on offer”. “How is he going to be able to created a “small degree of discrepancy sell this pig in a poke?” he asked. in caseload totals when compared with Mr Cameron has also come under fire published caseload statistics per benefit/ for a claim that “around 40%” of recent tax credit.”

European Economic Area migrants reThe report continues: “This introducceived an average of around £6,000 a es some degree of uncertainty around year of in-work benefits. individual cases.”

On Wednesday, the Prime Minister 4) The figures do not differentiate used a speech on the European Union children born in the UK from those referendum to claim the UK’s welfare brought to the UK by migrants. Theresystem acted as a “draw” to migrants; fore, if a migrant mother and migrant going on to quote the figure produced by father in receipt of a benefit have a baby the Department for Work and Pensions in the UK, that baby is still classed as a (DWP) to back up his claim. migrant relying on benefits. These figLater that afternoon the DWP released ures estimate that between 75,000 and details of how they arrived at the figure, 95,000 are children. and the explanation contained a number 5) The range of error is eight per of health warnings: cent. In real terms, that is 40,000 people 1) The data is not based on how many – the difference between 195,000 and European Economic Migrants claim ei235,000. ther in-work or out-of-work benefits, but 6) According to the DWP, “around how many receive “support” from them.

66 per cent were claims where either a Therefore, in a home of four migrants main claimant or their partner (if in a where just one is receiving some form

couple) was recorded as being in work.”

Just a third were out-of-work benefit claimants.

The use of the figures has been criticised by independent fact-checking organisation Full Fact, who plan to make a complaint to the UK Statistics Authority.

Full Fact said that when Mr Cameron made the speech, it was not clear how he or the DWP had arrived at the figure. A statement from Full Fact said: “Following our intervention some years ago, the Statistics Authority made clear that the department should put in place procedures to ensure that statistics would not be used in public without being independently published.

Those procedures failed today.”

Jonathan Portes, a Senior Fellow at the National Institute of Social and Economic Research, claimed Mr Cameron’s statistics were “impossible for me/ [the] Migration Observatory to verify”.

The Prime Minister has promised voters a straight choice of whether to stay in the EU or leave in a referendum by the end of 2017.

“This is perhaps the most important decision the British people will have to take in our lifetimes,” he said.

“When the British people speak, their voice will be respected, not ignored. If we vote to leave, then we will leave.

There will not be another renegotiation and another referendum.”

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Health News

Friday, 13 November - Thursday, 19 November 2015

We need to Act FAST, time lost is brain lost A person loses 2 million nerve cells every minute that they do not receive medical treatment during a stroke and if left untreated, a stroke could result in permanent disability or death. Black people are twice as likely to have a stroke compared to the general population therefore it’s vital that we all know the signs of stroke, so that we can think and Act FAST:

Facial weakness - has their face fallen on one side?

Arm weakness - can the person raise both arms and keep them there?

Speech problems - can the person speak clearly and is their speech slurred?

Time to call 999.

Charles Bosah’s normal morning routine took a turn for the worst when he had his first experience with stroke.

“I was having a bath when I realised something had gone wrong in my head - it felt like an electric shock, so I got out of the bath and as I was walking towards my bedroom I noticed that I was

dragging my left leg. I looked into the mirror and noticed my face had changed – it had become drawn.”

He went to sit down but realised that he had lost his balance and couldn’t sit up. He immediately called the ambulance but could barely speak so he had to shout his address as they couldn’t understand him. The ambulance came and took him to Kings College hospital where he was examined.

He stayed in hospital for 2 nights and his health deteriorated. After 4 weeks of treatment he started to regain some mobility and was sent home.

Having not heard about the Act FAST Stroke campaign, he had no idea what was happening to him but looking back he knows how lucky he was and is eternally grateful to the NHS medical team that helped save his life.

“I had a great experience of the NHS, they saved my life...everything they did for me that day was 100%, I can’t thank them enough...even now when I go for a check-up I still thank those that helped me that day.”

He knows how essential is it to act quickly and is glad he dialled 999 when

he did or the outcome could have been very different, “I know I am lucky to be here.”

After returning home, he was sent to a rehabilitation centre which helped him to walk, he still uses his crutches or a walking stick for support and his balance has been affected greatly. It has been a big change for a once active and sporty man but Charles stays positive despite his restrictive mobility and is thankful that his speech has returned and that his blood pressure is under control.

He is active in spreading information on stroke through the Lambeth Stroke Association that he belongs to and is a big supporter of the Stroke Act FAST campaign “It’s so important that we know the signs of stroke and know what do if we suspect someone is having a stroke, especially African and Caribbean people. We are at a higher risk so we need to spread the word in our community.”

Stroke is the largest cause of disability in the UK, with 85% of people requiring physiotherapy after a stroke. For further information visit nhs.uk/actfast, www.stroke.org.uk or call 0303 303 3100.

Blood donation marks end of Black History Month Ian Trenholm, Chief Executive of NHS Blood and Transplant and Orin Lewis Chief Executive of the ACLT (African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust) donated blood together at the West End Donor Centre, London to mark the end of a month long campaign.

Both regular blood donors, they choose to donate together to encourage more people from black communities to become blood donors.

Last month NHS Blood and Transplant urged black people to register as blood, organ and stem cell donors and “Be There” for people from their community who need life saving or life enhancing blood transfusions, stem cell transplants and organ transplants.

Black people are currently under represented as blood donors, with less than one percent* of active blood donors coming from Black African, Black Caribbean or mixed race communities.

There are currently more people living with Sickle Cell Disease than there are active black and mixed race donors.

Ethnicity can often play an important part in blood transfusions, stem cell 6

Ian Trenholm and Orin Lewis donating

transplants and organ transplants. Black donors are more likely to have rare blood and tissue types and black patients are more likely to require these rare types so it is essential that we have more black blood, organ and stem cell donors. Some blood types are more common in black and mixed race communities whilst some rare types are only found within these communities.

Sickle Cell Disease is a genetically inherited blood disorder in which the oxygen carrying the red blood cells are more likely to alter their shape and cause problems such as bone pain. It is most common in the black community. Patients with this condition often require regular blood transfusions.

Blood transfusions from donors with a similar ethnic background give the best match and outcomes in the long term.

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Friday, 13 November - Thursday, 19 November 2015

News

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Friday, 13 November - Thursday, 19 November 2015

UN launches International Year of Pulses Under the slogan ‘nutritious seeds for a sustainable future,’ the United Nations, led by its Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), has launched the 2016 International Year of Pulses to raise awareness about the protein power and health benefits of all kinds of dried beans and peas, boost their production and trade, and encourage new and smarter uses throughout the food chain.

“Pulses are important food crops for the food security of large proportions of populations, particularly in Latin America, Africa and Asia, where pulses are part of traditional diets and often grown by small farmers,” said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva, in a news release.

“They have been an essential part of the human diet for centuries,” he added, “Yet, their nutritional value is not generally recognized and is frequently under-appreciated.”

According to FAO, pulses, including all kinds of dried beans and peas, are not merely cheap and delicious; they are also highly nutritious source of protein and vital micronutrients that can greatly benefit people’s health and livelihoods, particularly in developing countries.

There are hundreds of varieties of pulses grown throughout the world.

Popular ones include all varieties of dried beans, such as kidney beans, lima beans, butter beans and broad beans. But also chickpeas, cowpeas, black-eyed peas and pigeon peas.

Speaking about their nutritional v a l u e , t h e FA O c h i e f s a i d t h a t pulses have double the proteins found in wheat and triple the amount found in rice. They are also rich in micronutrients, amino a c i d s a n d b - v i t a m i n s , M r. G r a z i a n o da Silva underlined, adding that they are vital parts of a healthy diet.

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva

Further, the agency credited pulses as the key ingredients in many signature regional and national dishes across the world - from falafel to dahl to chilli and baked beans.

FAO also added that as an affordable alternative to more expensive animalbased protein, pulses are ideal for improving diets in poorer parts of the world, where protein sources from milk if often five time more expensive than protein sourced from pulses.

Pulses also offer a great potential to lift farmers out of rural poverty, as they can yield two to three time higher prices than cereals, and their processing provides additional economic opportunities, especially for women.

Following his address, Mr. Graziano da Silva planted a number of fava beans in a planter full of soil as he proclaimed the International Year opened.

“The International Year 2016 is a great opportunity to raise awareness of the benefits of pulses as the world embarks on efforts to achieve the newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a message on the occasion.

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Mr. Ban added that pluses contribute significantly in addressing hunger, food security, malnutrition, environmental challenges and human health and also are a vital source of plant-based proteins and amino acids.

“Despite strong evidence of the health and nutritional benefits of pulses, their consumption of pulses remains low in many developing and developed countries. The International Year can help overcome this lack of knowledge,” said Mr. Ban. Further, he also said that pulses impact the environment positively due to their nitrogen-fixing properties, which increase soil fertility.

“Much work needs to be done to end hunger and provide food security and nutrition for all. One concrete, promising opportunity lies with pulses. Let us join forces to raise awareness of the benefits of pulses,” said the Secretary-General.

The UN chief also called for collaborative commitment and concrete action by all relevant actors within the UN system, farmers’ organizations, civil society and the private sector, to make the International Year of Pulses 2016 a success.

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Friday, 13 November - Thursday, 19 November 2015

Theatre, Shows and Musicals

Arts Culture

By Edward Mirza

WEST AFRICA: WORD, SYMBOL, SONG AT THE BRITISH LIBRARY Now – February 16th, 2016

An exhibition of literature and music – from the great African empires of the Middle Ages to the cultural dynamism of West Africa today.

Fascinating stories from the region’s 17 nations show how West Africans have harnessed the power of words to build societies, drive political movements, sustain religious belief and fight injustice.

Beautiful manuscripts, historic film and sound recordings, books, photographs, and woven and printed textiles offer a unique insight into a profound and engaging literary culture with centuries-old written heritage existing alongside ancient oral traditions.

Hear the myth of the founding of ancient Mali in recorded performance. See the influence of religion through colourful fabric and a saddlebag Qur’an. Celebrate writers and artists including Africa’s first Nobel prize winner, Wole Soyinka, and internationally acclaimed musician and human rights activist Fela Kuti.

British Library, 96, Euston Road, London, NW1 2DB

THE BLACK PLAYS SERIES Now – Dec 5th

In the Clore Learning Centre, our dedicated space for people of all ages to get hands-on with theatre making, we offer regular opportunities to discover the skills and secrets behind the National Theatre’s productions.

This six-week series explores a diverse collection of plays from dramatists of African and Caribbean heritage. Combining performances, clips of past productions and lively discussion, each session examines a topic – from teenagers and revolutions to sport and traditional rituals. The discussion is led by Natasha Bonnelame (previously the Black Plays Archive Project Manager) who will be joined by guest speakers.

WEEK 2 - The Empire Writes Back Saturday 7 November, 10.30am – 12.45pm In this session Natasha Bonnelame discusses the way playwrights of the African Diaspora have re-read and rewritten European plays. This literary rebellion changes the focus and meaning of the plays, challenging Western assumptions. Acts of re-writing are not just dismissing what has come before.

They reveal a relationship between old and new and ask us to reconsider cultural ownership in a globalised world.

Plays covered: Days of Significance

by Roy Williams, Women of Troy 2099

by Courttia Newland, Trinidad Sisters by Mustapha Matura and The Lower Depths

by Tunde Ikoli.

Cottesloe Room, Clore Learning Centre, National Theatre.

SHE CALLED ME MOTHER STARRING CATHY TYSON Now- Nov 21st

Michelle Inniss’s play about an elderly, African-Caribbean homeless woman, starring Cathy Tyson to tour in Autumn 2015 Written by Michelle Inniss | Directed by Cara Nolan The debut show from Pitch Lake Productions, founded by actor Cathy Tyson, writer Michelle Inniss and director Cara Nolan will be the second show to tour for the Black Theatre Live consortium, dedicated to bringing inventive BAME theatre to venues across the country. She Called Me Mother is the first show to be commissioned by the consortium and will play in studio theatres around the country during Autumn 2015.

Starring Cathy Tyson, She Called Me Mother invites the audience into the life of Evangeline Gardner – a homeless, 70 year old African-Caribbean woman, who finds herself living on the streets. national tour from October 8 to November 21. Visit Black Theatre Live website .

Cathy Tyson © Talula Sheppard

A WOLF IN SNAKESKIN NINE LIVES BY ZODWA NYONI SHOES NATIONAL TOUR Oct 8 - Nov 14 Lucian Msamati stars alongside Sharon Now - Jan 2016 HOLY AND HORNY BY D. Clarke in the Tricycle Theatre’s latest Presented by Leeds Studio in associaTONYA JOY BOLTON world premiere. tion with West Yorkshire Playhouse FAREWELL TOUR, UK Award-winning playwright Marcus GardFleeing from his home in Zimbabwe ley returns to the Tricycle Theatre following where a fresh wave of homophobia threatOct 2 - Nov 14 I was raped. I was abused. I survived. Today I celebrate life.

Holy & Horny is an 80-minute-one-womanshow written and acted by incredibly talented Tonya Joy Bolton. The play blends successfully different art forms such as comedy, poetry, drama, and song.

Gifted with exuberant energy, Bolton plays 20 characters gliding effortlessly from one to another (one forgets it’s just her on stage!) She’s in turn disarmingly naïve Sheila, a good Christian striving for holiness; her alter-ego, sensual exhibitionist Eve; an old motherly woman who looks like a tramp and turns out to be Wisdom; Sheila’s hilarious cousin Marcia; her good-for-nothing boyfriend Gary; the Church’s gossipy community; and fiery Preacher Prophet (Profit) Webster (‘for a mere 400 Dollars I’ll pray for your soul’)...

The action’s background is a bigoted, fanatically puritanical Black Church humorously called ‘Cavalry Way’. Many themes emerge – travelling far beyond the play’s initial setting – such as ‘if God has given us a body able to experience deep pleasure, why should it be repressed?’

The Holy & Horny Farewell tour is on October 2 to November 14, 2015

2014’s critically-acclaimed The House That Will Not Stand. This fresh take on Molière’s Tartuffe, set in a world of fast-food tycoons and megachurches is a wicked new comedy that rocks the foundations of trust, faith and redemption.

Given just days to live, multi-millionaire Archibald Organdy puts his faith in the flamboyant Archbishop Tardimus Toof, a prophet, preacher and part-time masseur who arrives in Atlanta from the deep, deep south.

Toof promises to absolve Archibald’s sins and heal his disease, but his family suspect there’s more to this healer than faith, virtue and snakeskin shoes.

The Tricycle Theatre’s Olivier-Award winning Artistic Director Indhu Rubasingham (Multitudes, Red Velvet, Handbagged, The House That Will Not Stand) directs.

Completing the cast: Adjoa Andoh, Ayesha Antoine, Michelle Bonnard, Wil Johnson, Karl Queensborough and Angela Wynter.

The Tricycle Theatre, 269 Kilburn High Road, London NW6 7JR

ens his life, Ishmael has sought sanctuary in the UK. Dispersed to Leeds, Ishmael waits to hear his fate, he waits for a new life to begin amongst strangers. Strangers who don’t trust him and don’t want him there.

But not everyone is bad… can he find a place to call home again?

Some of us wanted to stop being afraid.

Some of us wanted to find ourselves.

Some of us wanted to belong.

Zodwa Nyoni (West Yorkshire Playhouse/Channel 4 Writer in Residence 2014) threads together humour and humanity to tell the real personal story behind asylum headlines.

16 November 2015 Waterside Arts Centre, Trafford 19 November 2015 Arc Stockton, Stockton on Tees 10 December 2015 Brighton, Brighton January 2016 Arcola, London 9

Friday, 13 November - Thursday, 19 November 2015

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Comment

AFRICAN CINEMA AND SOCIAL CHANGE

By Tunde Kelani

This conference is a homecoming of sorts for me, having started my formal training in filmmaking at the London Film School in the seventies. One of the attractions and excitement for me, then, was the claim that the film school was previously housed in a warehouse, and has a rough workshop atmosphere, not overtly academic and, certainly, not luxurious. What it does successfully, in an informal way, is to provide students with a technical and artistic two-year training that is almost guaranteed to turn them into practical and well-informed filmmakers. I, certainly, benefitted from this intense technical education with the right mix of aesthetic grounding and film history.

Remarkably, we, regularly, held a class titled ‘Third World Cinema’, exploring the relationships and contributions of Africa and other previously colonized places, to global cinemas. I realized, earlier on, the paucity of African films on the roster except films by Sembene Ousmane who was quite established by this time. I was intrigued and impressed by his stance on filmmaking which, in lots of ways, helped shape the direction of my filmmaking, even though I had been predisposed to a different type of cinema. At that time, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey, George Lucas’ Star Wars and Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind were the big deals, as they stretched my imagination even beyond the previous American films I watched in our local cinemas dotted around Lagos. I wanted to make films that spoke to my immediate audience first and, from there, to a wider audience, as a commitment to use cinema to share my cultural experience and art as a tool for social change. For me, the idea is to create a dialogue between the artist and the community, a task that invests the artist with certain responsibilities as a humble member of that community.

Speaking from my experience, I needed to anchor the privilege to initiate dialogue with the domestic audiences by focusing attention on various experiences shared from daily existence, for example, listening to people talk, the news, newspapers, Nigeria’s national history, festivals, etc., as it was crucial for the audience to recognize the critical issues and, most important, that I approach the audience earnestly.

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Not surprising, an essential reference point for me is the use and value of oral tradition within African cultural systems.

I know this point has been overworked in the discourse of African Cinema but it has been one of the defining elements for me in my development, as an artist and person, because most of the stories from oral tradition not only entertain, teach morals, intricacies of human relationships but what is most important, leave people room to think. In African oral tradition, audience participation is critical although it does not have to be ‘real’ or ‘realistic’ as you could have a tortoise or any other animal interact with human characters in a story and there will be no mistaking, on the part of the audience, what that character is. African oral traditions, insofar as they provide narrative realms and platforms where animals and humans interact, freely, with the audience maintaining this key relationship, encouraged me to reformulate this storytelling principle in a new medium. Certainly, Africa is a vast continent of about fifty four countries, two thousand languages or more and huge cultural diversities but, fortunately, early African filmmakers were mindful of provenances of culture; especially, what we can get from culture or how we can use culture to reaffirm our viewpoints, voices and selves.

While the term ‘Third World’, now, seem anachronistic, through the ‘Third World Cinema’ sessions at the London Film School, I got vivid impressions that there were about three phases of African cinema typified in Sembene’s films. It appears that African film was born during the era of anti-colonial struggle in which African voices, identities, belief systems and prerogatives were marginalized. Contrary to colonial logic, Africa is dynamic and not static, notably in terms of social change, as the era of independence in the sixties, when colonial shackles were wrest away, ushered intricate systems of cultural reformulating. To reiterate, changes have always been there in African societies although dominant ideologies do not pay attention to their subtleties, for instance, across intricate historical, social, gender, ethnic, and class permutations. Following ‘independence’, for example, new challenges were thrown up by incongruities which came when the new ‘champions’, flag bearers and heroes turned to feast on their own people. My interest, here, is more with how change always throws novel inspirational sparks as well as challenges to filmmakers and how, by the eighties, African filmmakers started to incorporate changes that were not considered so important, earlier, in terms of social realistic aesthetics, while still mindful of prevalent issues like underdevelopment, military dictatorship,

Tunde Kelani

social injustice, and so on. At this point, it would appear that African cinema or any art would be political as long as it, implicitly or expressly, takes a stance on certain issues.

A doyen of Nigerian national theatre, Hubert Ogunde, who pioneered the Yoruba travelling theatre, attacked colonialism, in his early plays, while his later works with political themes deplored inter-party strife and government corruption within Nigeria. His most popular play, Yoruba Ronu (1964), a social and political satire against the country’s western regional government, in the sixties, earned him and his group a ban from performing in that region until 1966. With the introduction of television broadcasting, however, attention started to shift from the theatre, as most groups started to record their performances for regular, local content programming, and, later, theatre producers like Hubert Ogunde, Moses Olaiya, Adeyemi Afolayan switched from television to filmmaking. Fresh from London Film School, I was fortunate to be nurtured by creative energies of Ola Balogun, Hubert Ogunde and Adeyemi Afolayan who produced Ija Ominira (‘Fight for Freedom’, 1978). It appeared to me that there was synergy between Sembene, Ogunde, Ola Balogun and writers like Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Cyprian Ekwensi, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, artists, musicians and various others who were invested in using creativity to entertain, address society, and make people think.

I felt I had inherited or drank from sparkly creative sources: oral tradition, literature, language, television, American films, London Film School, Sembene Ousmane, Francis Oladele, Eddie Ugbomah, Hubert Ogunde, Ola Balogun, Adeyemi Afolayan, D.O. Fagunwa, Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Cypri-

an Ekwensi, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Muraina Oyelami, and many others.

The economic downturn of the 1980s, which resulted in the collapse of the nascent Nigerian indigenous cinema industry, interestingly, ushered the advent of video film making and diverse representational practices. Overall, emerging technologies remain significant in Nigerian film history, for the transition from oral tradition, travelling theatre, television broadcast, ‘home-video’ to Nollywood as an agent of change or necessity. The popularity of Nollywood across Africa or the continent is not really about aesthetic polish, technical or artistic ‘quality’ but because they told stories that ordinary people could relate to, across audiences. The appropriation of video technology or digital media made the ownership of means of production accessible to the masses, giving the African people voices and standpoints to tell stories about changes in their societies. It was at this point, with the accumulation of various experiences, advancement in motion picture production technology, inspiration from external and internal sources, that I reaffirmed or defined what the artist’s role should be in the society. By appropriating technology, using fiction and literary adaptation and esthetic choices, I am able to track certain transformations within society.

Apart from providing me with a rich resource, adaptations are necessary for African cinema because the books may have limited audiences in terms of readership. As a filmmaker, the choice of characters one casts and the inflections imbued in the narrative are just as important as the goal of situating the work in wider audiences.

Continued next week

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News

African Voice UK announces winners of African Voice Leadership Awards 2015 African Voice, Britain’s No.1 African newspaper and patrons of the annual African leadership reward system has announced the names on the 2015 Honours List.

The awards are in the areas of governance, diplomacy, business and the film industry and are aimed at encouraging excellence in service delivery, particularly in the African film industry.

The African Voice Leadership Awards recognises African leaders who have shown dedication to developing their countries, by improving the welfare of the people and investing in infrastructure for sustainable development.

The 2015 Honours List This year’s recipients, who have won the approval of the awards screening panel of judges using the aforementioned strictly visible and measurable criteria, are three Nigerians: Senator Ibikunle Amosun, Executive Governor of Ogun State, will be honoured for improving the welfare of the people of his state and investing in infrastructure for sustainable development; Ambassador Ahmed Umar, Nigeria’s Charge d’Affairs in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, will be honoured for his contributions to promotion of Nigeria’s image abroad and service to the Diaspora community in the UK; and Mr. Chris Ndulue, Managing Director of Arik Air, will be honoured for his contribution to tourism and support for the development of the entertainment industry. The trio are winners in the categories of governance, diplomacy and business respectively.

The African Voice Leadership Awards investiture ceremony will be held as a segment of the African Film Awards 2015.

The annual ceremony celebrates excellence among ‘Nollywood’ practitioners & Black British film stars and will take place this year on FRIDAY 13 NOVEMBER 2015 at the historic Stratford Town Hall, 29 Broadway Stratford London E15 4BQ. Time: 6.00pm prompt.

This special category of the annual awards ceremony is expected to be the high point of this year’s celebration. The presentation of African Voice leadership awards to this year’s exceptionally deserving recipients aims to encourage African leaders to build a stable continent where citizens are gainfully employed and the rush for greener pastures in Europe will be arrested.

Excellence in Entertainment Ace comedian Julius Agwu, D’Genius and actor Ali Nuhu, representing Hausa language movies, are on the 19th African Film Awards 2015 Honours List, each receiving Special Recognition Awards.

Agwu will be honoured for his contributions to the development of the entertain-

Senator Ibikunle Amosun, Executive Governor of Ogun State

ment industry in Nigeria and particularly for his role in nurturing and mentoring new talent. While AIi Nuhu will be honoured for his outstanding role as a Hausa actor and as an inspiration to youth to seek careers in the industry. Ali has made a successful crossover to Nollywood with movies like SITANDA and LAST FLIGHT TO ABUJA. This year’s special celebration includes other actors from Hausa language movies, such as Adam Abdullahi Zango, Maryam Booth, Hafizu Bello and Rahamatu Sadau.

Other winners come from Black British theatre, film and television, including actors Jimmy Akingbola and Chizzy Akindolu (Holby City), Funke Adeleke (London Afrobeat Collective) and director Niyi Towolawi (Turning Point).

Also from Nollywood UK are actors Ken Smart (Moral Conflict), Gift Boyo (Lower Cut) and Hilda Nevoh–Williams (Omo Chairman) and producer Philippa Chiedu Abraham (Basira in London),.

Africa’s most prestigious film awards is celebrating an industry that is attracting global attention and uniting diverse communities here in the United Kingdom. The gala is expected to be attended by African diplomats, British politicians and business leaders based here and overseas.

Prince Mike Abiola, who founded the awards, says: “The awards from inception were intended to promote inclusiveness and cross-border collaboration among film practitioners.

“This year’s celebration is centred on the achievement of Nollywood as it embraces the power of digital motion pictures to deliver messages for the effective transformation of society.

“The awards ceremony promises to be an evening of glamour, corporate networking and rib-cracking comedy to de-stress and refresh hard working entre-

Ambassador Ahmed Umar, Nigeria’s Charge d’Affairs in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

preneurs. The event has a dedicated following of leading business executives and the crème de la crème of Britain’s diverse community.

“Friday 13 November is expected to record the biggest concentration of African

Mr. Chris Ndulue, Managing Director of Arik Air

film industry practitioners, investors and entrepreneurs under one roof to support an industry that is depending on the creative ingenuity of talented people to contribute to the economy without a legislative framework or infrastructural support.

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Friday, 13 November - Thursday, 19 November 2015

News

Tear gas used to dampen Christmas Island unrest

Authorities in Australia have been forced to deploy tear gas to quell rioting at a detention centre on Christmas Island that began after an Iranian refugee being held there died over the weekend.

In a statement, the Australian Immigration and Border Protection Department said that most detainees cooperated with the police after reinforcements were flown to the island overnight.

The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, said that tear gas and some force were used on a small number of detainees who had built barricades and were threatening to use weapons. Five men were injured, but it was unclear whether they were hurt during the riots or after the police arrived to retake control of the centre, which was extensively damaged after being set on fire.

The unrest began on Monday after the refugee, Fazel Chegeni, in his early 30s, escaped from the centre and the Australian federal police found his body at the base of a cliff.

A formal investigation into his death will be opened, but human rights advocates said that Mr. Chegeni had been severely affected by his

Christmas Island Detention Centre has been the scene of pitch battles since Monday

incarceration on the remote island in the Indian Ocean, which is closer to Indonesia than Australia’s mainland. About 200 men are held at the centre, which a private company, Serco Group, operates for the Australian government.

On Tuesday, Mr. Dutton described most of the detainees there as criminals. Some are awaiting deportation after serving jail terms. Mr. Chegeni, who had been granted refugee status, was waiting to see whether he would be settled by Australia.

Khartoum to pay ‘blood money’ for 2013 protest victims Sudanese Minister of Justice, Awad El Hassan, has announced the results of the investigations by the government committee of inquiry into the shooting of protesters during the September 2013 demonstrations.

The investigation committee concluded in its report that 86 people were killed. The government will pay the full “blood money” (ie compensation) to the families of the victims, El Hassan stated during a press conference in Khartoum.

The Minister further reported that four people whom he did not identify have been arrested. “Their immunity will be lifted and they will be brought to trial after being found guilty of participating in the killing of a number of demonstrators,” he said.

On 23 September 2013, demonstrations broke out in several Sudanese towns following the government’s decision to lift fuel subsidies, while the prices of basic consumer goods were already soaring. The authorities responded by using tear gas, rubber and live bullets. According to the Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate, some 200 protesters were killed in the Sudanese capital alone.

The Sudanese government claims that the death toll did not exceed 80 people.

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Mr. Dutton estimated the cost of the damage to the centre at more than 1 million Australian dollars, or £466,000. He said those who caused the damage would be prosecuted.

Australia’s migration policies came under criticism on Monday during a United Nations human rights review in Geneva. The review cited the towing back to sea of rickety boats carrying asylum seekers, accusations that the government had paid smugglers to turn boats around, and the treatment of asylum seekers and refugees held in offshore detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island, a part of Papua New Guinea.

“A number of states called on Australia to end abuses related to offshore processing and pushbacks of boats, as well as mandatory detention of asylum seekers,” said Elaine Pearson, director of Human Rights Watch in Australia, after the review.

She said that the government was cruel, detaining asylum seekers and refugees, sometimes for years on end, then sending them to countries that have no resources to integrate them properly into the community.

Addis Ababa appeals for aid to feed refugee influx

Ethiopia is home to the largest community of refugees in Africa

Citizens protest against President Omar Al Bashir’s lifting of fuel subsidies in 2013, which led to the deaths of 86 demonstrators

After much pressure, the Sudanese authorities formed a commission of inquiry to investigate the shootings.

In August, President Omar Al Bashir directed the Ministry of Justice to compensate the families of the protest victims. The lawyer of a number of families of protesters killed during the SeptemberOctober 2013 demonstrations told Radio Dabanga at the time that the responsibility for these crimes cannot be settled by providing compensation alone. “Internationally recognised procedures should be followed, as set out by the African Law for Human Rights and the UN.”

“First, the perpetrators have to be identified and charged. During the process, the size of the moral and financial compensations are to be discussed with the relatives of the victims,” he explained.

“The payment of the compensation is supposed to be done in the final phase.”

British and French diplomats in Khartoum welcomed the decision but also noted that justice cannot be achieved by financial measures only. They called upon the Sudanese government to conduct an independent investigation into the September protests, after a visit to more than a dozen families of victims in Khartoum on 26 September.

Ethiopian authorities say the country’s more than 730,000 refugees could go hungry if $55 million in food aid is not raised by the end of the year.

Ayalew Awoke, Deputy Director of Refugee Affairs, said on Monday that a U.S. donation of $20 million will be used up by the end of December. He warned of “a major crisis’’ unless additional aid comes in.

Ethiopia, which currently hosts Africa’s largest refugee population, is experiencing a major drought in its eastern and northeastern areas and has appealed for $596 million to feed its own population.

Dennis Weller, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Ethiopia program, said in October that South Sudan’s conflict is exacerbating Ethiopia’s food insecurity. Hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese have fled to Ethiopia and live alongside local communities.

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Friday, 13 November - Thursday, 19 November 2015

Myanmar

Opposition heads for landslide win Voters lined up as early as 3 a.m. on Sunday to vote in Burma—an early clue as to how eager they were to seize a chance for freedom after five decades of military rule.

The results suggest the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, is on its way to a landslide victory.

In early tallies the NLD is winning more than 70% of the votes. These numbers are tentative, and votes in rural ethnic areas are still being counted. But on Monday the chairman of the military-aligned ruling party conceded, “We lost.” Outside NLD headquarters, the message we saw printed on T-shirts went from “We must win” to “We won.”

Students of history may note that trouble could lie ahead. The NLD won an overwhelming victory in 1990, only to have Burma’s military junta annul the results.

The generals kept Ms. Suu Kyi under house arrest for 15 of the next 20 years.

But this election is part of a reform process that Burma’s generals initiated after impoverishing and isolating their country.

By 2011 they were afraid of a popular uprising and chafing at their dependence on China. So they set up a nominally civilian

Ms. Suu Kyi

government, released hundreds of political prisoners, lifted media controls and held by-elections that propelled Ms. Suu Kyi and 43 of her colleagues into Parliament.

The U.S. and Europe responded by relaxing economic sanctions and lifting travel bans. Burma’s leaders know they need foreign investment, especially from the West,

and that nullifying another NLD electoral triumph would blow up their Western entente and risk returning their country to the same dead end.

An NLD landslide will give the party a mandate to drive hard on its central promise of constitutional change. Burma’s constitution, imposed by the junta in 2008,

grants the military freedom from civilian oversight, control of all security ministries and 25% of seats in Parliament—enough to veto constitutional change.

The Parliament will pick the next President by March, but the current constitution bars anyone with close foreign relatives from becoming President—a plank written to bar Ms. Suu Kyi, whose sons are British. Ms. Suu Kyi has said she will nonetheless “lead the government” even if she has to settle for a post such as Parliamentary Speaker, and constitutional change is her priority.

The NLD’s electoral sweep combined with the military’s built-in veto means that both sides will need to find a governing consensus if Burma is going to emerge from its dark ages. The NLD’s mandate will give it negotiating power with the military, and it should build trust so the generals are willing to allow a constitutional rewrite.

Without reform Burma will remain a fundamentally military state prone to abuses of power and political instability.

The U.S. and other countries can help by prodding both sides toward a reform compromise. The election landslide is a landmark opportunity for Burma to join the world of developing nations, and it would be a tragedy to waste it.

India

Modi concedes Bihar loss Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party suffered a defeat in pivotal state elections, a political blow that could make it harder for his government to move ahead with its economic agenda.

The loss threatens to dent confidence in Mr. Modi, whose promises of rapid development have made him India’s most popular national leader in decades. It also sets the stage for wrangling with an emboldened opposition that will likely further delay economic policy-making and hurt Mr. Modi’s efforts to take control of Parliament’s Upper House and clear roadblocks to his agenda.

Official tallies from India’s Election Commission showed Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party far behind an alliance led by the incumbent chief minister of the eastern state of Bihar, which has a population on par with that of the Philippines. The BJP-led alliance won just 58 of the 243 seats in the Bihar state assembly. The rival camp, led by Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (United), won 178 seats.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar addressing an election rally in Kusheshwarsthan in Darbhanga last Tuesday

“It is a clear and big setback for Modi,” said Ashok Malik, a New Delhi-based political analyst.

“When you lose political capital, it affects your capacity to get things done.”

Prakash Javadekar, a member of Mr. Modi’s federal cabinet, warned against drawing sweeping conclusions from the results. “Each state election is not a referendum on Modi,” he said. “We win some, we lose some.”

State elections in India often reflect shifting caste allegiances and other local factors.

But Bihar was widely seen as a referendum on Mr. Modi’s leadership, in part because of the high-profile role the prime minister played in the BJP’s intense campaign there.

Critics of Mr. Modi said the results—and the big margin of his defeat—were a repudiation of the prime minister’s economic program, which some opposition parties describe as “pro-rich” and “anti-poor,” and a rebuke to the conservative cultural agenda of his party, which has deep roots in Hindu nationalism.

“There was a strong feeling Modi’s government is an elitist one that doesn’t care about the vast numbers of poor and oppressed in this country,” said Pavan Varma, a senior leader with Janata Dal (United).

Mr. Modi still appears to command broad national support. A survey published in September by the U.S.-based Pew Research Centre found that 87% of respondents said they had a favourable opinion of the prime minister, who took office last year.

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Friday, 13 November - Thursday, 19 November 2015

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CRIME

Minicab driver jailed for sexual assault A mincab driver has been jailed after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting a young woman in his cab.

Samson Haile, 32, of Lionel Road North, Brentford was today, Wednesday, 4 November, sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment at Isleworth Crown Court having been convicted of sexual assault.

He is also the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order which will prohibits him from working as a private hire driver in England or Wales and applying to be a private hire driver in England or Wales.

He will also be made to sign Sex Offender Register for ten years.

Haile, who was working as a private hire driver for Uber, was allocated a fare at around 22:30hrs on 27 February.

The passenger, a 26-year-old woman, got into the cab in Ladbroke Grove, W11 and Haile immediately attempted to engage her in conversation with sexual overtones. Haile’s inappropriate behaviour escalated to him stating that he wanted to have sex with the victim. Afraid for her safety, the victim told Haile that she wanted to get out of the vehicle but he continued to drive and began to touch her. The victim screamed and managed to escape

Samson Haile

the vehicle in Cromwell Road, SW5 before reporting the incident to police.

Haile then went on to pick up another group of people. He dropped these people

off at different addresses. The last passenger to be dropped off was a woman, off duty police officer, who was also subjected to sexual conversation and invitations to have sex.

The officer filed an information report the following day concerning the behaviour of Haile during her cab ride.

The officer investigating linked the report of sexual assault to the incident filed by the off duty officer and Haile was identified and arrested.

Haile was found guilty of sexual assault on 3 September at Isleworth Crown Court and was sentenced at the same court on 4 November.

Investigating officer DC Carly Driscoll of the Met’s Roads and Transport Policing Command said: “Of particular concern was the rapid escalation in the behaviour of Samson Haile. He went from talking about sex to actually touching a lone, vulnerable female within a very short space of time.

“I would like to praise the victim for having the confidence and courage to report her ordeal to police. I hope today’s sentencing gives her a degree of closure and also displays the professionalism and commitment of officers within the Met to investigate allegations of sexual crime.”

Family of murder victim make emotional appeal for help The family of Marvin Couson, who died 13 years after he was shot in Shoreditch, have launched an emotional plea for help on what would have been his 40th birthday.

Marvin’s mother and sister are appealing for witnesses and information about the incident in the Lime in London Bar - commonly known as the Lime Bar - in Curtain Road, Shoreditch EC2 on Saturday, 12 May 2002.

Marvin died on Saturday, 8 August 2015 having been confined to a hospital bed unable to communicate or do anything for himself since he was shot. He would have been 40 on Thursday, 5 November.

His mother Emily said: “For 13 years Marvin was imprisoned and we visited him every day in hospital.

Today we should have been celebrating Marvin�’s 40th birthday and he should be here celebrating with us.

“I raised my six children as a single parent and I worked very hard to look after them without support. I worked until my youngest son Joe was born in 1992. I returned to work in April 14

Marvin and his sister Margaret

2002, a month before Marvin was shot.

“Marvin worked hard fitting security systems in shops. Marvin loved dancing and would teach kids jazz and street dance.

“I want to forget the time when I was told Marvin had been shot - in the early hours of 12 May, 2002. But I will never forget that day. Marvin was my son, a brother and a father. To whoever killed Marvin, my little boy, you tried to kill our family.

“No-one should suffer like this. I would like those young boys who take guns and knives to look at the consequences of their actions. There are real people behind your cowardly actions.”

Marvin’s sister Margaret added: “Unfortunately, I struggle to remember Marvin before he was shot because I have spent the last 13 years at his bedside in the hospital. I struggle to remember even what I was like before. What I do remember is the projectile vomit, the bed sores, the trauma that the person who shot Marvin has caused, and the loss of my brother Marvin’s life.

Friday, 13 November - Thursday, 19 November 2015

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Sounds of Diaspora People of America

Back from the brink – Angie dares to Dream

Angie Stone is one of those seasoned artists who knows what she wants. She’s been in the game for over 35 years and six solo albums, but don’t call her a veteran, honey! She’s still on top of the charts and taking names.

Having worked with everyone who’s anyone, including Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder, Mary J Blige and Alicia Keys (to name a few), her talents don’t stop at just music, she’s also branched out into film, television, and theatre.

Now with new label home Shanachie Entertainment/Conjunction Entertainment/TopNotch Music, the soulstress has released her new album Dream.

But despite a resumé that also includes a stint with Sugar Hill’s pioneering female rap trio Sequence (“Funk You Up”), two gold albums and three Grammy Awards nominations, Stone has confessed to having been ready to give up on music.

“I wanted to quit,” says Stone, “because I was tired of the repetitive cadence of being an artist; of having to prove yourself over and over again. I didn’t feel like people appreciated my gift anymore. And after all the hoopla following the [altercation] with my daughter and being on reality show R&B Divas, I felt like the industry only wanted to hear about bad news, not good news.”

Then in stepped producer Walter Milsap III, who told Stone he’d had a dream.

“He literally tracked me down,” recalls the Atlanta-based Stone, “and told me, ‘God put this on my heart. We have to do this.’”

The “this” in question refers to Stone’s latest project. Dream is the singer/songwriter’s seventh studio album. The aim, states Shanachie general manager Randall Grass, was to “truly tell ‘the Angie Stone story’ to its fullest. I still feel that she is under-recognized given all the things that she has achieved.”

As evidenced by US lead single “2 Bad Habits” (which jumps 29-23 on Adult R&B Songs this week), the soul singer that fans loved on 1999 debut album Black Diamond and subsequent follow-ups Mahogany Soul and Stone Love is back in full force. Rounding out the introspective album’s tight, 10-track line-up about life and life are such additional standouts as “Begin Again” featuring Dave Hollister, “Magnet,” “Quits” and “Forget About Me.”

The latter track is a particular Stone favourite as it symbolizes a key question she struggled with. “I woke up one morning and asked God, ‘Did you forget about me’ and started crying. I called Walter later and said that God put this song on my heart.” Using her past relationship with D’Angelo as a creative springboard, Stone co-wrote “Forget About Me” as a testament about a love that will always be there, no matter what.

“While I was telling the story, I had to compare this love to something people could relate to,” explains an emotional Stone. “I thought about my relationship with D’Angelo, how people judged me being older, him being younger. People at the time just didn’t understand pure love; they just didn’t get it. I also realized in writing this song that I was in love with God and that my love for him had been interrupted as well.”

That impetus helped propel Stone back into the studio, cutting two songs a night.

“God picked me up and carried me,” she says. “I was literally zapped.”

A rejuvenated Stone is now eyeing several other proposed projects, including a biopic on her life, a movie produced and directed by Jamie Foxx, a book deal and her own ideas for a reality show concept. “I’ve been brainstorming some ideas but I would prefer scripted,” says Stone.

“Something about rebuilding my foundation from the ground up as I take my life back now.”

Concurrently, Stone says she and daughter Diamond are rebuilding their relationship after the pair’s fight earlier in the year during which Stone reportedly knocked out Diamond’s front teeth. Offering his services as a mediator, Bishop T.D. Jakes brought the two women together during a test-run of his eponymous talk show in August.

“As a mom, I’m always ready to heal and love,” says Stone. “That intervention has brought about peace and a level of respect. I think we’re on our way to a great relationship.”

In fact, Stone, Diamond and Michael, Stone’s teen son with D’Angelo, will be appearing together in the stage play Spare the Rod, Spoil the Child. A national run is scheduled to kick off in January 2016.

Stone adds that Michael, whom she calls “an exceptional rapper,” has a distribution deal on the table as well.

Having survived the storm, Stone says Dream brought back how creating music is supposed to happen: “No pressure; just doing what you love to do. I’m ready to begin again.”

Can anyone with such characterful hair ever be called a solo artist?

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Gospel

FASTING AND PRAYING BUT ARE WE EXPECTING? “You will be rewarded for this; and your expectation will not be cut off.” Pro. 23:8

By Michael Adekoya

After the church prayed all night for Peter’s release from prison, suddenly, Peter showed up at their door. When Rhoda told the Church members, ‘It’s Peter,’ they replied, ‘You’re out of your mind.’

Peter kept on knocking, and when they finally opened the door, ‘they were astonished’ (Acts 12:16). My friend, can you imagine that? Fasting and praying but not expecting the answer or solution. That was what happened in the fasting and prayer meeting on that day. This is what most of us (Christians) do today!

This is almost towards the end of the year when most people, Christians and Non-Christians, are fasting and praying for different reasons and mostly to set the course of the coming year straight.

My friend, as you’re fasting and praying, don’t just ask; you must exercise your faith and expect answers! God will astonish you by His timing (Isa 65:24) and by His methods (Acts 12:11). Stop limiting Him! Be alert in expectation so that you won’t miss your salvation, solution, idea, victory, connection, blessing or harvest.

They were all praying, but only Rhoda responded to Peter’s knocking at the door.

What a sensitive spiritual antenna Rhoda had. My friend, you need her spirit today.

And when you’ve got it, you’ll respond too.

You’ll get a divine ‘intuition’ that something miraculous and uncommon is about to happen during or after your fasting and prayer. You’ll know that God will reward your obedience. You’ll begin looking for the answers while others are locked into a posture of praying, but not really expecting anything. You’ll recognise the answer when others don’t and you’ll be willing to leave the crowd in order to respond to God.

The Bible says, “Peter kept on knocking and shouting, ‘Open the door’ but because of her gladness, Rhoda did not open the [door]...’” (Acts 12:14). Typical of many of us, isn’t it? Expecting answers and when the answers come, we refuse to open the door of our hearts to receive them. How often have we come home from church or from powerful prayer closet, moved but not changed? My friend, it is possible to grow old in a pew, believing but not experiencing; rejoicing, yet never

­­

Are you looking for a church?

Not settled in any particular congregation?

Perhaps now is the time to pray about it If you are not yet saved try one of the following: Jubilee International Churchmeets at 2,30pm on Sundays at Kings Avenue School, Park Hill. London SW4. Part of Jubilee International Churches Worldwide. For information, you may call (020)8697 3354 New Wine Christian Church- 11am holds meeting at Ringcross Tennants Club, Lough Road, Holloway, N7. a member of the Icthus Fellowship

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Worldwide. For more information call 020 7609 959 or 07957 757 663.

Praise Tabernacle- 10:30am holds meetings at 620 Western Avenue (A40), Park Royal Business Centre, opposite Warner Bros. Cinema Complex, W3. part of The Redeemed Christian Church of God. For information you may call 020 8993 3010 New Life Christian Centre 10.30am & 6.00pm. meetings at Cairo New Road, Croydon. The church has

receiving what God’s got for us. As you are fasting and praying during this end of the year, don’t just ask. You must name your answers and expect them. Not that alone, you must position yourself and be spiritually alert to open the door the door of your heart to receive them!

I must admit that when hard times or trouble come, we have the tendency to lower our expectations and end up settling for less than God wants us to have! When the Bible asks, “Is anything too hard for

a Bible school, primary, is involved in extensive mission work in Eastern Europe, Italy and India. For information you may call 020 8680 7671 Ruach Ministries - holds meeting at 9am, 11am and 6pm. For information you may call 020 8678 6888 International Central Gospel Church - Battersea Chapel, holds meetings on Sundays from 2.00pm. . For information you may call 020 8684 4934 Jesus Arena International- Sunday service at 11.00am at Broadwater Farm Centre, Adams Road N17 The Bible Life Church UK- They meet on Sunday mornings at 2.30pm at St Giles Centre, Camberwell

(PART 1)

the Lord?” (Gen 18:14), it’s easy to say, No, Lord! But it’s what we do next that proves whether or not we actually believe Him. John says, “If you know these things, happy are you if you do them (John 13:17).

My friend, hear me! If you don’t act on what God tells you directly or through His Word or through your Pastor or through your friend or prayer partner, can you really say you believe Him? This is a question you must answer today!

One of our problems is that we get attached to methods that worked for us in the past and keep going back to them. We get attached to relationships whose purpose has expired in our lives and keep resurrecting what is dead. Listen! By always looking to a certain book or tape or person or certain way for the answer, we seriously limit what God can do for us. He’s much greater than any human source. And He’s never predictable! At this period, if you’ll let Him, God will do great things. He will tell you things you could never figure out on your own. He will heal that deep hurt in your soul (Jer 33:3). What an offer!

When He (God) decided that Moses would lead the greatest migration from Egypt, the land of slavery, Moses never questioned God’s ability, he just questioned whether God could do it through him. And what was God’s answer? “Go, and I will be with your mouth, and teach you what you shall say (Exo 4:12). My friend, this is a promise you can live by throughout your life! God is not enhanced by your strengths nor limited by your weaknesses; there’s more He wants to do in you, for you and through you this year 2015 than what you’ve experienced in the past years. As you are now fasting and praying, just ask Him in expectation, then respond in faith to whatever He tells you. He’s the multiplier of our obedience. This is period of extra measure of harvests.

(Continued Next Week)

Church Street, London SE5 Christ Apostolic church (Full Gospel & Pentecostal) Surrey Docks District 163 Ilderton Rd South Bermondsey London SE16 2UT. Tel. 020 7252 2086.

Time of worship: Sunday English service 9- 11.30am. Yoruba service 11.30 -2.30pm. Prophetic counselling: Monday, Tuesday & Thursday 12noon- 5pm, Saturday only 5- 7pm.

Holy Cross Church InternationalSunday 10.am- 1 pm at Crown House 71-73 Nathan Way London SE28 0BQ Tel: 07904 234 126, 07809 381 886 Times of service:Bible study: Thursdays 8pm. Night Vigil: Friday Forth-

nightly 12am Sunday Service: Sundays 10am - 1pm Winners’ Chapel London- part of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, at 1 Churchill Close, Green Street, Green Road, Dartford, Kent, DA1 1QE meets Sunday 7.30am, 9.15am and 11am and Wednesdays at 7pm.

For details call: 01322 292097 Christ Apostolic Church, Surrey Docks District, Solution Centre, 47-47 High Street, Swancombe, Kent, DA10 0DA Tel: 07956 38 38 70 Time of worship: Wednesday Bible study: 7:30pm to 9:00pm Friday, Night Vigil: 9pm to 11pm Sunday Worship: 12:30pm to 3:00pm

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Friday, 13 November - Thursday, 19 November 2015

Africa Newsround

Burundi

Threat of civil war as Nkurunziza ultimatum falls flat Nine people have been killed by an unknown gunman in Burundi’s capital, amid concern that a spiral of violence could hit the country.

Neighbouring Rwanda has warned of an impending massacre.

Police started house-to-house searches for weapons in opposition areas of the capital, Bujumbura, on Sunday as the deadline set by Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza for “criminals” to hand over firearms or be treated as enemies of the state expired. Hundreds of police and soldiers were deployed to the opposition district Mutakura, where many residents have fled amid concern of a crackdown on “enemies of the nation.”

Burundi has succumbed to violence ever since Nkurunziza announced he would run for a third term, which he secured in July in what the opposition said was a violation of the constitution. Nkurunziza’s re-election triggered protests, and in May there was a failed coup attempt.

Commentators are warning of a real threat of civil war breaking out in Burundi after no let-up in the unrest despite a presidential ultimatum

At least 200 people have been killed since April, with bodies found dumped on the streets almost daily. More than 200,000 people have fled the country. In the latest spell of violence, an unknown gunman

Kenya

School student trapped by floods

Floods sweep away a bus near El Wak

A Standard Eight candidate is among seven people trapped in trees following flooding in Mandera County.

Darika sub-location in Khalalio division has been cut off by floods after heavy rains pounded the area on Saturday. Kenya’s Defence Forces, the Kenya Red Cross and local volunteers are involved in the rescue operation. Mandera Deputy Governor Omar Maalim, county assembly Speaker Abdikadir Sheikh and Deputy County Commissioner Elvis Korir are also involved in coordinating the rescue mission.

“Our crops have been destroyed and we have also lost livestock,” said Mr Dakane.

According to villagers, 23 people had gone to work on their farms when it started raining on Saturday. They said 16 villagers managed to leave the flooded area but the remaining seven could not do so and climbed trees to avoid being swept away.

“We are worried because a KCPE [Kenya Certificate of Primary Education] candidate is among those trapped on the farms and another man is unwell,” said Mr Noor.

Area Ward Representative Abdinoor Dakane said officials had to seek help from the military because of the raging waters.

killed nine people at a bar in the capital on Saturday night.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame, a sharp critic of Nkurunziza, has accused Burundi’s leaders of carrying out “massa-

cres” and warned a spiral of violence could lead to civil war or even genocide.

“People die every day, corpses litter the streets... How can the leaders allow their population to be massacred from morning to night?” Kagame is reported to have said.

Kagame, a former Tutsi rebel leader whose intervention stopped the 1994 Rwandan genocide, said what was happening in Burundi reminded him “a little” of what occurred in Rwanda.

“They (Burundi) should learn from what happened here,” Kagame said.

The Rwandan capital, Kigali, has become home to fleeing opposition and civil society activists. Burundi says rebel forces from the failed May coup are also holed up in Kigali and backed by Rwanda.

Kagame’s comments add to a chorus of concern coming from European capitals, Washington and the United Nations that the crisis could turn into a repeat of Burundi’s brutal 1993-2006 civil war, in which at least 300,000 people died.

Tanzania

Rampant elephant poaching prompts tracking technology

The lead elephant of 30 herds will be tracked

Tanzania authorities have fitted tracking devices to monitor the movements of 30 elephants in Ruaha National Park in a bid to prevent poaching.

Tanzania National Parks (Tanapa) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have fitted the devices to lead elephants of 30 different groups, according to Tanapa managing director, Mr Allan Kijazi, who explained: “The Ruaha ecology is vast and has the largest population of elephants in the country.”

Mr Kijazi emphasised the importance of monitoring the animals so that they do not fall prey to poachers. He said the devices will be connected to the park’s central communication system for easy monitoring and will be rolled out to other parks. Their range is said not to be restricted to within park boundaries.

Meanwhile, Kenya is among 25 African countries that have adopted a declaration demanding a total ban on ivory trade worldwide. The countries, through the African Elephant Coalition meeting in Cotonou, Benin, have called for immediate and decisive action to save the African elephant.

17

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Friday, 13 November - Thursday, 19 November 2015

Nigerian News

N8bn Solar Power Deal To Light Up Osun State

The envoy said the farm, with 37 Osun Government and France windmills, should start producing and have signed an agreement to build a 35million Euros (N8 billion) 13 be connected to the grid in the beginmegawatts solar plant in the state. ning of 2016.

Stephane Gompertz, France’s Ambassador for Climate Change, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday that the project was the first of such magnitude to be signed in Nigeria.

Gompertz said the agreement was signed on Friday by the Osun Governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola and a French company, Vergnet, adding that France was supporting Nigeria in the area of renewable energy.

“As far as new and renewable energy are concerned, the French Agency for Development helps finance through credits, projects in new and renewable energy.

“On Friday morning, I was with the French Ambassador in Abuja. We were received by the Governor of Osun State. We signed an agreement with a French company called Vergnet.

“Vergnet will build a solar plant of 13 megawatts, which is quite big for a solar plant. And as far as I am concerned, this is the first project of such magnitude to be signed here in Nigeria.

“There will be other bigger projects going up to 50 or even 100 megawatts,” he said.

Gompertz said France had supported Nigeria’s power sector through its contracts and also through loans from the French Development Agency (AFD).

He explained that the agreement to build the solar power plant also included training component to encourage transfer of technology.

According to him, the more we develop new technologies, the more people are trained to manage or to invent those technologies, and this will on the long run contribute to the development.

He noted that in 2009, the Federal Government had assigned Vergnet to establish a wind farm of 10 megawatts in Katsina state for more than 20 million Euros (about N4.5 billion).

18

According to him, the French group, TOTAL, is also willing to develop a solar energy project in Katsina state.

Meanwhile, Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) of Osun government -owned Tertiary Institutions have ended their five month old industrial strike action after signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the government.

Signing the MOU signalling the end of strike, at the Governor Office in Osogbo,the Governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, pledged that his administration will not relent in its efforts to make life more meaningful for the people and the welfare of its workforce.

Government and Staffers of the institutions during the MOU signing having recognised that the current financial challenge resulting from dwindling revenue from the Federation accounts will continue to affect the payment of salaries, pensions and critical expenditures of government decided to put an end to the strike.

Governor Aregbesola speaking through his Chief-of-Staff, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, ‎told the staff of the tertiary institutions in the state that government has no plan of merging or scrapping any of the state owned institutions.

The governor called for the cooperation of the workers in moving the state forward as it enters a new face of looking inward on how to increase the finances of the state and depend less on the Federal allocation.‎ He expressed satisfaction over what he described as high sense of maturity displayed by the leadership of the union, pledging that government would do all it could to fulfil her side of the agreement.

According to the governor, “The issue of merger has never been raised by this government. Nobody is going to merge any of the schools. The speculation is only being peddled by people

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (left), Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode (right), and All Progressive Congress, National Leader, Senator Bola Hamed Tinubu (middle), during the Official Commissioning & Launch of the Mile 12- Ikorodu Road Widening and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Operation at BRT Depot, Majidun, Ikorodu

who want to fan embers of discord.

“I can assure you that nobody will be victimised, the governor himself is a comrade who is never vindictive. For him to have given his words that you will be paid some days after you resume work shows he is not vindictive.

“I want to use this opportunity to charge you to be committed to our Internally Generated Revenue and assist government in blocking leakages. We should all face the reality of the situation we have in the country. There is glut in the oil industry and we need to look inward.

“We need to really increase our internal revenue for us to be able to meet our obligations, government cannot do it alone so this is the kind of support that we need from our institutions, as our financial situations improve every other part will be considered.”

Earlier, representatives of the union in all the four state owned tertiary institutions namely; Osun State Polytechnic, Iree, Osun State College of Technology, Esa-oke, Osun State Colleges of Education in Ila Orangun and Ilesa, the State Chairman, Joint Negotiating Council of the union, Comrade Olusoji Fasipe commended Governor Areg-

besola for his rare understanding and patience despite the condition attached to the industrial action.

He urged government not to renege on its promises of paying them within the stipulated seven days of resumption, adding that the strike has been suspended in line with the agreement made with the government.

He said the union was always on the side of government, assuring that the union would do all it could to support the administration in repositioning it’s economy as it is faced with financial challenges.

“We are ready to do our best to ensure that the state economy is revamped. We have friendly and fatherly people in government and they have been playing the role as expected and it is our believe that they would not relent in giving us more support.

“We suspend this strike based on the agreement reached with government to pay our salaries within seven days of resumption. We are optimistic and we are returning to work because our governor has emphatically promised to pay our salaries within seven days”, Comrade Fadipe said.

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Friday, 13 November - Thursday, 19 November 2015

Nigerian News

National Assembly; An assemblage of Nationalists

By Olubunmi Omoogun Chief Correspondent, Nigeria

that makes it thick including the securities there not to leave them out, all contribute to the activities of the complex.

Interestingly our Nigeria’s counterpart the British Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the UK Parliament or the British Parliament, is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories.

It alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories. Its head is the Sovereign of the United Kingdom (currently Queen Elizabeth II) and its seat is the Palace of Westminster in Westminster, London.

Nigeria may not share the same system of government with Britain, Nigeria’s colonial master however, there are some features both countries share together. Nigeria has the Senate as the upper chamber similar to the composition of the House of Lords in England where you have nationalists, The parliament is bicameral, consistpeers, interestingly former Prime ing of an upper house (the House of ministers and in Nigeria’s case Lords) and a lower house (the House of former governors.

Commons).

The maturity and political pedigree and community service are some of the indices that make these individuals that goes to these two countries upper houses thick.

In Nigeria, the 109 Senators are elected from different senatorial districts, three Senators emerging from each state of the Federation and one from Abuja the FCT. Since 1999, Nigeria has consolidated the gains of its political growth. The National Assembly is a strong element in the live of a government especially in a civil rule. It is therefore imperative that that arm is kept sacred, partly because their roles are clearly guided by the constitution.

The imposing edifice of the National Assembly at the three arms zone of Abuja near the Federal secretariat is a sight to behold. Standing on a land mass enough to accommodate many stadia is a place every Nigerian wants to visit. Students have chosen the National Assembly as a tourist attraction of some sort, they choose it as a first choice excursion destination. You need to see how excited they are when the visit! The edifice is not only housing the 109 Senators and their aides and the 369 House of Representative members but people we sometimes forget complex we seldomly talk about them are the civil servant there working under the National Assembly Service Commission.

I discover that all the attention has so far and would always be anyway, been diverted to the distinguished Senators and Honourable members for obvious reasons. I will leave that for you to ponder on! But basically the make up of the National Assembly is about everybody

The Sovereign forms the third component of the legislature (the Queenin-Parliament). The House of Lords includes two different types of members: the Lords Spiritual (the senior bishops of the Church of England) and the Lords Temporal (members of the Peerage) whose members are not elected by the population at large, but are appointed by the Sovereign on the advice of the Prime Minister. Prior to the opening of the Supreme Court in October 2009, the House of Lords also performed a judicial role through the Law Lords.

The House of Commons is a democratically elected chamber with elections held at least every five years. The two Houses meet in separate chambers in the Palace of Westminster (commonly known as the Houses of Parliament) in London. By constitutional convention, all government ministers, including the Prime Minister, are members of the House of Commons – or, less commonly, the House of Lords – and are thereby accountable to the respective branches of the legislature.

Just like Nigeria’s Parliament the British parliament is also a beehive of activities for tourists every visitor to Uk wants to see the House of Commons in Westminister. The difference though is the security people are allowed to go into the parliament to watch and move around with somebody conducting you round. And you can take pictures even with the police smiling and welcoming you not minding the freezing winter especially when you visit during th winter period of October to May.

Babatubde Fashola- Minister of Power, Works and Housing

In Nigeria, you can’t gain entry except a Senator or a Rep member sponsors you in by way of sending a visitor’s form to the security gate which is four hundred meters away. If you don’t get a clearance no chance of getting in which can be annoying sometimes. But generally people in there are lovely people and ready to help if they can.

Below is the full list of the ministers and their portfolios:

Abubakar Malami- Minister of Justice Geoffrey Onyeama- Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed Dan Ali- Minister of Defence Adamu Adamu- Minister of Education Anthony Anwuka- State minister of Education Kemi Adeosun- Minister of Finance Okechukwu Enelemah- Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment Aisha Abubakar- State minister Industry, Trade and Investment Chris Ngige- Minister of Labor and Employment James Ocholi- State Minister of Labor and Employment Mohammed Bello- FCT Minister Abdulrahman Dambazzau- Interior Minister Udoma Udo Udoma- Minister of Budget and National Planning Zainab Ahmed- State Minister Budget and National Planning

Emmanuel Ibe Kachiukwu- State Minister Petroleum resources Babatubde Fashola- Minister of Power, Works and Housing Mustapha Shehuri- State minister Power, Works, and Housing Audu Ogbeh- Minister of Agriculture and Rural development Heineken Lokpobiri- State minister Agriculture and Rural Development Chibuike Amaechi- Minister of Transportation Hadi Sirika- State Minister Aviation Isaac Folorunsho Adeoye- Minister of Health Osagie Ehanire- State Minister Health Aisha Alhassan- Minister of Women Affairs Usani Uguru- Minister Niger Delta Affairs Claudius Omoyele Daramola – State minister Niger Delta Affairs Adebayo Shittu- Minister of Communication Lai Mohammed- Minister of Information Amina Mohammed – Minister of Environment Ibrahim Jibrin- State Minister of Environment Suleiman Adamu- Minister of Water Resources Solomon Dalong- Minister of Youths and Sports Kayode Fayemi- Minister of Solid Mineral Abubakar Bwari- State Minister Solid Minerals Ogbonnaya Onu- Minister of Science and Technology.

19

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Crocked Bentaleb may feature in international break Spurs central midfielder Nabil Bentaleb has been named to Christian Gourcuff’s Algeria national team squad for two upcoming World Cup qualifiers during this week’s international break, despite not playing for Spurs for the past 12 weeks.

Manager Mauricio Pochettino has recently hinted that Bentaleb is close to a return for Tottenam, but isn’t match fit. So if you’re a Spurs fan this is either great news or terrible news. If you’re an optimist, Bentaleb’s callup potentially means that he can regain some of his lost match fitness in a couple of relatively meaningless international fixtures where if he screws up he can’t hurt Spurs’ top four ambitions. If you’re a pessimist, then you

Nabil Bentaleb has spent the start of the Premier League season in the treatment room

don’t want him anywhere close to an international match when he’s only just returning from a major injury, and the international break is just the worst thing ever.

The French-Algerian hasn’t played competitive football in 12 matches, and his early appearances for Spurs were a mixed bag. Meanwhile, Spurs have not only coped without him, they’ve thrived. Eric Dier, Dele Alli, and Mousa Dembele have coped admirably in his absence, so it may well take a while for him to prise his way back into starting contention even when fully fit. A couple of relatively low impact outings off the bench in Tanzania on Saturday and at home in Algeria on Tuesday might help him hasten his Premier League return.

Nigeria’s U17 team get rousing welcome Nigeria’s Under 17 football team got a rousing welcome back home when they arrived the country on Wednesday, three days after winning the FIFA World Cup tournament in Chile on Sunday.

Fans of the team, also known as the Golden Eaglets, trooped out en masse and followed a motorcade which drove from the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport straight to the city center in Nigeria’s capital Abuja. The long motorcade comprised of local football officials, journalists, entertainers and well-wishers of the national team.

The Golden Eaglets not only won the coveted Under-17 FIFA World Cup, but also brought home highly-valued individual awards such as the Golden Boot won by Victor Osimhen for being the tournament’s highest goal scorer and the Golden Ball, won by the team captain, Kelechi Nwakali for being the best player.

They displayed their trophy, gold medals as well as golden ball and golden boots won at the competition as security operatives led them round the capital city.

Team coach Emmanuel Amuneke told Xinhua that he was delighted by 22

the warm reception they received upon arrival. “I am glad that Nigerians had confidence in us and supported the team all the way,” he said.

Captain of the team, Nwakali, also told Xinhua he and his colleagues were glad to have made positive impacts at the competition.

“The support we got from the home fans will encourage us to do more in our outings,” he added.

Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari is expected to receive the team and the trophy at a formal reception ceremony billed for Thursday.

The Nigerian U17 team won African champions, Mali, 2-0 at the final game played in Sausalito Stadium in Vina del Mar city of Chile on Sunday, thereby obtaining their fifth crown in the U-17 category.

In a statement on Monday, Buhari hailed success of the team in defending the title previously won by Nigeria in 2013. He attributed the success to the rich display of “exemplary zeal, determination, commitment, hard work, patriotism and soccer artistry”.

The Nigerian leader added: “The Golden Eaglets’ latest victory on the

The Nigeran U17s

global stage is an affirmation of the significant progress Nigeria is now making towards positively redefining and

rediscovering its potential for greatness in the comity of nations. Courtesy of Xinhua News Agency

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Friday, 13 November - Thursday, 19 November 2015

Leone Stars hope to sparkle after Ebola gloom The World Health Organisation’s declaration that Sierra Leone is now officially free of Ebola will have an immediate positive effect on the country’s football programme, according to a Sierra Leone FA spokesman.

Sierra Leone last hosted an international fixture on home soil in July last year since when a ban was imposed by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to stop the spread of the virus which claimed over 3,500 lives in the west African country.

“The end of Ebola is welcome news considering what we have gone through in the last 18 months without hosting international fixtures in Freetown,” said Sorie Ibrahim Sesay, head of competitions at the Sierra Leone FA. Liberia have been given the green light to host matches after they too were declared free from the disease six months ago.

“We have been prematurely eliminated in various competitions we had participated in because of the simple fact that our home games have been played in either opponents’ venues or other venues where we could not command our usual home advantage” Sesay told the BBC. “Our players and officials have faced all sorts of humiliation and intimidation from supporters of our opponents which most times accounted for our defeats.

Manchester City forward Wilfried Bony and Hertha Berlin’s Salomon Kalou have both withdrawn from Ivory Coast’s forthcoming CAF World Cup qualifying tie against Liberia, it has been confirmed.

Sierra Leone FA official Sorie Ibrahim Sesay is looking forward to Ebola-free Sierra Leone soaring in the FIFA World Rankings

“Our fans back home have been deprived also of not only watching their various national selections but at the same time have missed out on the opportunity of seeing top African stars in live action in Freetown.”

Sierra Leone will stage their first official post-Ebola home fixture against 2017 Africa Cup of Nations hosts Gabon in March and Sesay believes that

the Leone Stars will improve now that they have chance to play on home soil again.

“We are optimistic that our teams will get the right place they deserve in Africa and world football. Our FIFA world ranking, which has been disastrous in the last couple of months, will improve and Sierra Leone will be a force to reckon with once more.”

minutes of playing time throughout the competition, and the former did not disappoint, standing tall and denying the home team the opener a couple of times.

After a first half stalemate, Mazembe coach Patrice Carteron made a double substitution, bringing on Daniel Nii Adjei and Roger Assalé for Nathan Sinkala and Solomon Asante respectively for the second period.

The introduction of fresh limbs began to pay off for ‘Les Corbeaux’ and on 62 minutes, Malian Adama Traore was unlucky to see his shot from close range narrowly miss the target. At the other end, Hocine Benayada fired a low shot which flew just across the face of the goal.

The turning point of the game came on 74 minutes when Assale, after beating two defenders, was felled by Farouk Chafai for a penalty which was converted with ease by Samata for the opener.

The Algerians had a good chance to draw level on 83 minutes, but substitute Rachid Nadji missed a sitter with only Kidiaba to beat after Kaddour Beldjilali had put him through.

In the fourth minute of added-on time, Mazembe broke loose on the counter with Samata and Assale two on one against Mansouri. Samata squared to Assale, who shot into an empty net to seal the victory.

Almighty Mazembe take fifth African club crown Continued from back page

World Cup in Japan in December. The Algerians earned US$1-million for their own efforts, despite failing to replicate the feat of their national rivals, ES Setif, who beat AS Vita of DR Congo last year to win the biggest prize in African club football.

A 2-1 win from the first leg last week in Algiers gave Mazembe a firm base to build on, but they had to wait until midway into the second half to get their breakthrough against a determined USMA side, who matched their hosts squarely in every department of the game.

USMA coach Miloud Hamdi handed a surprise start to second choice goalie Ismail Mansouri ahead of Mohamed Zemmamouche, who had amassed over 1000

Bony, Kalou out injured for Liberia clash

Ivory Coast face Liberia in a twolegged second round play-off, starting on Friday, and will be without Bony after the striker suffered a hamstring injury in the first half of Manchester City’s goalless draw with Aston Villa on Sunday.

Former Chelsea striker Kalou will also miss the clash after suffering a head injury during his hat-trick performance for Hertha Berlin against Hannover.

Bordeaux forward Thomas Touré is also sidelined.

Ivory Coast coach Michel Dussuyer has called up Roger Assale alongside Arthur Boka.

10-man Guinea down Namibia

Namibia succumbed to a 1-0 defeat at home as they welcomed Guinea for their 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualifier on Thursday afternoon at Sam Nujoma National Stadium.

Although the hosts were eager to bag a win at home, their visitors netted early when Salzburg forward Naby Keita bagged their away goal 27 minutes into the contest.

Despite their strides to get an equaliser, the Brave Warriors couldn’t get something as both sides headed to the tunnel with their visitors leading.

Luis Fernandez’s Syli Nationale bounced back in the second stanza and although they failed to get their second goal, they were successful in protecting their lead.

However, in the 50th minute Bamba Fousseni was given an early shower after getting his second yellow card, leaving his teammates down to 10.

Following the result, Namibia will have to go to Guinea and give it their best hoping to overturn the result.

Their coach Ricardo Mannetti will have to ensure his forwards such as Petrus Shitembi and Benson Shilongo are clinical upfront.

On the other hand, the hosts will target another win and ensure they’re through to the group stages of the qualifiers en route to Russia.

23

Friday, 13 November - Thursday, 19 November 2015 ISSUE 605

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Leone Stars hope to sparkle after Ebola gloom SEE PAGE 23

Almighty Mazembe take fifth African club crown

Mbwana Samata (9), who also provided the assist for TP Mazembe’s late second goal, celebrates his second half penalty with Thomas Ulimwengu (28)

By Alan Oakley

Tout Puissant (TP) Mazembe beat USM Alger 2-0 on Sunday in Lubumbashi to claim the 2015 Orange CAF Champions League title.

After a tense first half in which the teams contrived to cancel each other out, leading marksman Mbwana Samata broke the deadlock from the spot on 75 minutes for the DR Congo giants before substitute Roger Assale put the icing on the cake in added-on time as Mazembe, whose prefix ‘Tout Puissant’ translates as ‘almighty’, completed a 4 – 1 aggregate victory over

their Algerian guests to claim their fifth continental crown.

‘Les Corbeaux’ (the Ravens), whose other triumphs were in 1967, 1968, 2009 and 2010 pocketed a cool US$1.5 million for their endeavours in addition to a ticket to represent the continent at the FIFA Club

Continued on page 23

African Voice Newspaper is published by African Voice Communications. Unit 7 Holles House Overton Road London SW9 7AP. Tel: 020 3737 3077 Registered at the British Library as a newspaper. ISSN 1475-2166.Email: africanvoicenews@googlemail.com