Mozambique’s best known visual artist, the charismatic Malangatana Ngwenya (Mah-LANG-gah-tah-nah en-GWEN-yah), known by his first name and named UNESCO Artist for Peace in 1997, died last Wednesday, January 5th, 2011, in The Pedro Hispano Hospital in Matosinhos, Portugal, after a prolonged illness.

The West African country of 1.6 million people, Guinea-Bissau, is on a crossroad of its history: all the hopes of those who love that country, many of whom are exiled, seem to hang on the yet unresolved impasse of it’s internal corruption. The state corruption phenomenon is not unique to Guinea-Bissau. Other West African countries, despite their vast natural and human resources, and a progress made in the last decade toward the establishment of democratic culture and governing systems, continue to occupy the bottom ranks of a democratic development maturity.

Seychelles has sentenced 11 Somali pirates to a ten year jail term sentence each for attempting to hijack a coast guard patrol boat Topaz in December 2009. ‘The ruling by the Supreme Court in Victoria, the first of its kind in the Indian Ocean archipelago, was delivered on Monday’ said Andrew Mwangura, the East Africa Coordinator of Seafarers Assistance Program (SAP).

Asa

Asa (pronounced “Asha”) was born Bukola Elemide in Paris (France). Not much later she relocated to Nigeria where she spent her childhood and adolescence immersed in the music of the city.  In 2007 she set off to take flight with the release of her first single, Fire on the Mountain which had already received wide airplay on stations in Europe when her self-titled debut album hit stores that year. The result is a collection of provocative and savvy songs that are as personal as they are universal confirming the truth …

Their stories are numerous, some similar and others flavored by particular struggles in specific sites of discontent. Overall, their attitudes are of stubborn resilience, hope, and survival in environments desperate for their labor but resentful of their presence. Unlike their predecessors who went to European countries…