March, 2021 - The African Mirror

Mar

2021

In Myanmar, LGBT+ people join anti-coup protests with rainbow flags

GROWING up in rural Myanmar, Du Wun shunned the jewellery his mother pressed him to wear and dreaded ceremonies where he had to dress in a traditional htamein, a sarong-like garment for women. Du Wun, a transgender man, was bullied as a teenager and disowned by his parents. He only began to accept his gender identity when he connected with other LGBT+ people - a lifeline he fears is under threat following a Feb. 1 military coup. "I was intimidated and ashamed about my identity," said Du Wun, 26, who decided to quit his job as a teacher in 2016…

Mar

2021

By RACHEL SAVAGE and ENRIQUE ANARTE

LGBT+ Pride marches plan comeback as COVID-19 vaccinations gather pace

LGBT+

SOME of Europe's biggest LGBT+ Pride marches are being planned for later this year as mass COVID-19 vaccination drives raise hopes of a post-pandemic return to the streets, organisers have said. In Britain, where the government said a ban on big events would be lifted in June if cases fall sufficiently, Pride organisers in Birmingham, Manchester and London announced plans this week to stage their marches in August and September. Elsewhere, World Pride in Copenhagen hopes half a million people will attend in mid-August. "Nothing can replace that feeling that you get of being among your own people, taking over…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

How apartheid denied a Black golf champ

LITERATURE

BARRY COHEN SEWSUNKER “Papwa” Sewgolum began playing golf with a syringa stick but went on to win the Dutch Open and several South African tournaments before the apartheid government banned him. Papwa, the early days Papwa Sewgolum’s parents had come to South Africa in 1860 along with many other indentured Indians from North India via Calcutta to work in the sugarcane plantations on the Natal North Coast. They hoped to make a new life in the land of milk and honey, and prosper, and to get away from their grinding poverty and punishing colonial taxes (which would eventually lead to…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Botswana’s Kearoma sets her sights on fashion with Che’ri

BEAUTY AND FASHION

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER BOTSWANA jazz songbird Kearoma Rantao has made her move into the fashion world. Rantao sat down with The African Mirror on her new venture while managing her successful career during the coronavirus pandemic. She told us that her country going into lockdown along with other Southern African countries is what inspired her to start moving with her new brand Che’ri. “Covid-19 basically stopped all music performances because our lockdown didn’t allow for social gatherings at live performances, so I had to come up with another stream of income, and decided to push up my dream of starting…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Myanmar security forces shoot dead 13 anti-coup protesters

WORLD

MYANMAR security forces opened fire on protests against military rule yesterday, killing at least 13 people, witnesses and media reported, a day after neighbouring countries called for restraint and offered to help Myanmar resolve the crisis. The security forces resorted to live fire with little warning in several towns and cities, witnesses said, as the junta appeared more determined than ever to stamp out protests against the February 1 coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. "It's horrific, it's a massacre. No words can describe the situation and our feelings," youth activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi told…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Democrats urge Biden to revert to Obama-era Cuba detente

WORLD

SARAH MARSH EIGHTY U.S. House of Representatives Democrats urged President Joe Biden on Tuesday to repeal Donald Trump's "cruel" sanctions on Cuba and renew engagement, an early sign of support in Congress for easing the clamp-down on the Communist-run country. In a letter to Biden seen by Reuters they urged the Democratic president to sign an executive order "without delay" to end restrictions on travel and remittances, noting that well over half of Cubans depend on the latter. "With the stroke of a pen, you can assist struggling Cuban families and promote a more constructive approach," they said. The letter…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Grandmother (75) punches against Parkinson’s

WORLD

DONNING shiny gloves and purple sneakers, 75-year-old Nancy Van Der Stracten hops into the boxing ring and starts punching in a fight against severe symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Six years after her diagnosis, the Belgian woman who lives in Turkey discovered the benefits of non-contact boxing by chance while researching the disease. Ever since, she has been perfecting her punching by going to a gym three times a week. "It does not stop your Parkinson's. Parkinson's is a degenerative disease. It never stops but you can...slow it down," Van Der Stracten said at a gym in the Mediterranean province of…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Elephants or avocados: a Kenyan dilemma

ENVIRONMENT

JACKSON NJEHIA and NAZANINE MOSHIRI THE majestic sight of elephants roaming beneath Mount Kilimanjaro has long lured throngs of wildlife-lovers to Amboseli National Park on Kenya's border with Tanzania. Yet the free movement of some 2,000 Amboseli elephants, along with two dozen other wildlife species plus cows owned by local Maasai people, may be under threat - from avocados. Kenyan agricultural company KiliAvo Fresh Ltd, which has farms near Amboseli on nearly 175 acres of land, is building nurseries and preparing to grow the fruit, whose popularity is growing worldwide due to its high nutritional value. Conservationists are aghast. They…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Ethiopia frees workers with foreign media detained in Tigray

MEDIA FREEDOM

FOUR Ethiopians working with foreign journalists in the northern Tigray region have been released without charges, an official and media outlets have said. A reporter for the BBC's Tigrinya language service, Girmay Gebru, two translators with Agence France-Presse and the Financial Times, and a journalist working with the New York Times were detained in recent days, their outlets said. "All journalists and translators have been released without charges," Abebe Gebrehiwot Yihdego, deputy head of Tigray's interim administration, told Reuters. The BBC confirmed Girmay's release in a tweet, while AFP and the New York Times also confirmed in emails to Reuters…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Africa looks likely to continue relying on power from fossil fuels for some time

ENVIRONMENT

THE narratives of “leapfrogging” to new technologies are pervasive when it comes to development in Africa. One example is skipping cord phones and landlines to advance directly from limited phone coverage to wide mobile phone usage. Another that’s frequently discussed is Africa’s potential for a quick transition to renewable energy. GALINA ALOVA, Environmental Economist | Energy, Sustainable Finance and Machine Learning, University of Oxford PHILIPP TROTTER, Research Associate, Renewable Energy, University of Oxford This is important both from a climate change and an economic development perspective. Providing affordable clean energy is big on the UN Sustainable Development Agenda (Goal 7).…