African True Stories

        "Happiness is the meaning          and the purpose of life, the          whole aim and end of          human existence"                               - Aristotle.     Barely over thirty, yet the skin on his forehead is heavily furrowed, like a board occupied by jagged cigarette rolls; the eyes, never appearing to hold any light; the shoulders sagging, as if they had been reduced by the load they have had to carry for so long. Other times, he appears as one carrying a perpetual scowl on the face- everyone must know he has no time to fool around. Many of us are either becoming that or are already that way. We say, boys (or girls) are not smiling. Life is hard, the economy has never been good, things are messed up, so we forget that we are persons deserving of true happiness. We carry our worries, fears and anxieties everywhere like a jeweled cross, an amulet in fact. Yet most of us concede that happiness is our primary life goal, the reason we work so hard and go

As of now, Pierre Nkuruziza is the man who must champion a fractionalized kingdom posing as a democracy, which is what I think Burundi really is. This is a situation the man himself can be held responsible for. Nkuruziza's declaration of a third term bid, recognized as unconstitutional in May of this year had sparked nationwide protests, followed by an attempt to oust the President from power. While the leaders of the failed coup attempt were being prosecuted, the President went ahead to contest in an election many of the opposition leaders boycotted. Between May and July this year, resulting from clashes between Nkuruziza loyalists and his opponents, dozens have been killed and about 175, 000 of the nation's citizens forced to take up refugee status in neighbouring countries. Friday July 24th 2015, Nkuruziza has emerged as the winner of the Presidential elections, neatly beating his rivals. We can forward him congratulatory messages, can we not?        Seeing the huge oppos

Agreed, African scultural pieces look sinister. To laymen like me, they bear little resemblance to the natural elements they are intended to portray. Most of us would concur that African wood carvings for instance are fitting only in the dwelling places of traditional medicine men or practitioners of African Traditional Religion. Maybe it is our loyalty to Christianity or Islam, but these art works tend to conjure one strong concept in our minds- voodoo. Should one bring home a festival mask, a headress or a figurine, other persons around may be hard put to conceal their dislike for the piece, which they fear might come alive in the dead of night and carry out unimaginable ills, the way dolls do in American horror movies.        We only have to look beyond the over-large heads, the seemingly misshapen mouths, the unnaturally big eyes to see that African sculptures possess such sweetly intoxicating beauty. They are dedications to beauty, fertility, graciousness and goodness. The big

Do you like cycling? How would you like to pump the pedals of a bicycle that has parts made of bamboo? Winifred Selby is a Ghanaian youth (she is actually 19 year old) and the co-founder of a social enterpreneural venture that produces bikes made of bamboo. No, the wheels are not of bamboo, so they are perfectly safe, unless you do not do your cycling on land. For the benefit of those city lads and ladies who have probably never seen a bamboo (no offense meant here), the bamboo wood is pretty tough and durable. In places where they are available, builders use them to support storied structures and roofs. Selby and her colleagues, Bernice Dapaah and Kwame Kyei established the bamboo bike initiative in 2009 with the aim of providing affordable transportation for the poor, and to tackle the issue of unemployment among Ghana's youths and women, taking advantage of raw bamboo materials available in Ghana.        Since 2009, the enterprise which is youth-based has created employment f