“Three hundred years ago, no African were to be found in this Western Hemisphere, we were to be found exclusively in Africa. Just about that time a large number of white people (called Colonists) settled in America. They desired laborers to help them in the country’s development. They turned to Asia and were unable to use the yellow man. At that time a man named John Hawkins (afterwards knighted) asked permission of Queen Elizabeth of England to take the blacks from Africa into her colonies of America and the West Indies and use them in their development. The Queen asked. .. “what consideration will you give them?” Hawkins said “They will be civilized and Christianized in the Colonies, for in their own country they are savages and barbarians.”read more
Ethiopians clash with police; 8 hurt
Sheera Claire Frenkel, THE JERUSALEM POST Nov. 6, 2006
What was meant to be a peaceful rally for Ethiopian rights turned violent Monday, when demonstrators clashed with police in front of the Health Ministry in Jerusalem, leaving 19 people injured.read more
Africa/South America Summit to Advance South-South Cooperation
By: Odeen Ishmael
The leaders of South America will meet with their African counterparts at their first summit on November 30-December 1 in Abuja, Nigeria. If all the 54 African and the 12 South American leaders attend this historic event, it will be one of the largest gatherings of world leaders at any single two-day event.Â
For this summit, preparatory meetings of coordinators from the two groupings have already taken place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in September and in Santiago, Chile, earlier this month. A final meeting will take place in Abuja a few days before the summit.read more
African culture gains popularity ahead of summitÂ
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Beijing Summit
BEIJING, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) — Traditional Chinese red lanterns and billboards featuring typical images of Africa. Posters proclaiming Sino-African “friendship, cooperation, development and peace” in English and French on major streets in downtown Beijing.read more
BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) — This year marks the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of diplomatic relations between China and African countries. Over the past 50 years, China and Africa have become all-weather friends, partners of sincere cooperation, and good brothers, with the two peoples forging a profound relationship, and bilateral ties achieving great successes.    The Beijing summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), scheduled for Nov. 3-5, will be the highest-level and the largest meeting between Chinese and African leaders since China and African countries started to forge cooperative ties in the 1950s.read more
From weapons of war to great coffee
By Amber Henshaw
BBC News, Mekele
In Biblical times they said “turn your swords into ploughshares”, now in northern Ethiopia a tradesman is bringing the saying into the 21st century.read more
Hemp for Victory is a black-and-white film produced in 1942 by the USDA outlining a plan to distribute 400,000 lbs. of cannabis seeds to American farmers with the goal of producing 350,000 acres of cannabis by 1943 — all for the war effort. The USDA even went as far as to urge 4-H clubs to grow at least half an acre, but preferably 2 acres of cannabis.read more
Rastafarian Views on Life, Politics and Social Issues