Namibia’s Himba Tribe, Rural Connectivity and Other Reports
Every week, Rural Reporters collate reports on development in rural Africa and its environs. The reports include some of our top picks from recent must-read research, interviews, reports, blogs and in-depth articles which have been carefully selected to help you keep up with global issues. Here are some of the updates you may have missed from the previous week .
These striking images show the very pervasive nature of globalisation, as an elegant tribeswoman in traditional dress and mud for sunscreen checks out deals on washing powder.
The woman, from the Himba tribe in Opuwo, Namibia, popped into her local grocery store to pick up a few of life’s essentials.
Himba tribespeople lead a very traditional lifestyle, but are often seen using services in their local villages and cities.
Facebook Is Launching Rural Internet Access Via Satellite for Africa
Facebook Inc. will launch a satellite later this week to extend internet access to rural parts of sub-Saharan Africa, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said.
The satellite will “beam down connectivity,” the CEO said in a presentation on Wednesday in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital. “We built these solar-powered drones that are basically like a cellphone tower in the sky. They can go over really remote rural locations and beam down connectivity to make sure networks spread and reach everyone.”. While internet-by-satellite is usually a costly option in the developing world, Zuckerberg said he planned to make accessing the network affordable.
Malawi and South Africa Pioneer Unused TV Frequencies for Rural Broadband
At Mulanje Secondary School, in Malawi’s verdant tea-growing district, something remarkable is happening: Students and teachers now have broadband access to the Internet for the first time, thanks to an over-the-air network that connects the school with a telecom provider in a nearby town. Installed last year, the network transmits signals over unused portions of the television spectrum—known as TV white spaces—from a high-gain antenna mounted atop the sturdy brick-and-stucco building to a radio tower owned by Malawi Telecommunications, 2.6 kilometers away.
Zimbabwe: Thousands Face Eviction From Farms
The Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement has issued a statement directing all people illegally settled on farms to move off immediately or face eviction.
In the warning, publicised last week in both the print and electronic media, Lands and Rural Resettlement Minister, Douglas Mombeshora said people in these illegal settlements should return to their original homes by Tuesday, September 6, or face prosecution.
Cheaper energy sources needed for rural dwellers
African governments have been urged to devise a more pragmatic approach towards making renewable energy sources, particularly solar, available and at a cheaper cost to rural areas.
Such a move would improve their quality of lives and ignite vibrant economic activities in all facets of life including agriculture to improve the livelihoods of the rural dwellers.
The Chief Executive Officer of Consistent Energy Limited, a renewable energy project financing firm in Lagos, Nigeria, Mr Segun Adaju, made the call in an interview in Saly, Senegal, on the sidelines of a two-day workshop on energy, water and food and how those resources can be harnessed to improve the lives of the rural areas and villages on the continent.
Water collection is colossal for females – UNICEF
UNICEF says the hours women and girls spend every day collecting water is a colossal waste of their valuable time.
A statement by UNICEF and copied to the Ghana News Agency said as World Water Week is underway in Stockholm and experts gather to try to improve the world’s access to water, the UN children’s agency stressed that the opportunity cost of lack of access to water disproportionately falls on women.
Nigeria: 12 Rural Women Empowered for Cocoa Yam Production in Imo
The ‘Offthehook Foundation For Rural Dwellers’, a non-governmental organisation in Imo State has empowered 12 rural women for the production of coco-yam.
The founder of the NGO and wife of the traditional ruler of Umueze-Chokoneze autonomous community in Ezinihitte Mbaise LGA of the state, Ugoeze Chigbo Nwamara, who presented cash grants of N50,000 each to the third batch of four women to start the production, encouraged them to take business seriously.
The women who included Mrs. Christiana Nwaiwu, Rachael Ikpeoha, Goodluck Nwaimo and Edina Ehiemere were selected from among the villages that make up Umueze-Chokoneze community.
Attacks on rural farmers threat to food security – CAN Chairman
The Northern Chapter of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has decried persistent attacks on rural farmers.
Its Chairman, Rev. Yakubu Pam, made the condemnation in Jos on Monday, saying that the situation could hamper the achievement of food security.
“Farmers are killed on the fields and this has forced them to abandon the farms; hunger is imminent in the country if nothing is done about this.”
Community Radios are a Tool for Development
The national coordinator of the Network of Community Radios The Gambia, Yusupha Bojang has said that the historical philosophy of community radio is to use the medium as a mouthpiece for the rural communities and generally as a tool for development.
He said that community radio is defined as having three aspects: non-profit making, community ownership and control, community participation.
Speaking recently in an interview with the Daily Observer on the importance of Community Radios, Bojang stressed that it should be made clear that community radio is not about doing something for the community, but is about the community doing something for itself, such as owning and controlling its own means of communication.
Liberia Must Learn To Honor Rights of Rural Residents to Manage Land
Liberia, the first African country to declare itself a republic and one of three African nations to take part in the establishment and adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, is on the brink of its own landmark achievement in human rights. Internal peace and security is within sight, an amazing vision after the recent Ebola epidemic devastated a country still scarred by decades of civil war.
But to get there, Liberia’s national legislature must overcome the bane of African politics everywhere — conflict caused by rapacious and uninhibited economic development and the ensuing human rights violations.
