The News Review:
- Injury-hit Senegal call up Ba
- Villages renounce female circumcision
- Millions who risk death for a better life
- Does juju play a role in football?
- West African villagers renounce female circumcision
Injury-hit Senegal call up Ba
BBC News – May 28, 2007
Coach Henry Kasperczak invited the Excelsior Mouscron ace after injuries to two key strikers. The 22-year-old has been brought in to shore up Senegal’s attack in the absence of experienced strikers El Hadji Diouf of Bolton and Henri Camara of Wigan. Senegal need a victory in Saturday’s match in Dar es Salam to enhance their chances of reaching the Nations Cup to be held in Ghana next year. The Teranga Lions lead Group 7 with six points and are closely followed by Tanzania who are second with four points.
Villages renounce female circumcision
Independent nline – May 28, 2007
About 1 500 inhabitants from the 12 Gambian and 200 Senegalese villages gathered in Diamakouta in southern Senegal near the Gambian border for a ceremony led by Tostan a local Senegalese non-governmental organisation working to eradicate female circumcision. After witness accounts theatre pieces and dance performances aimed at showing the risks and misery caused by female circumcision and forcing children into wedlock the ceremony ended with a young girl reading a joint declaration in English French and several local languages vowing to halt the practices. ‘It was very difficult to begin with’Sunday marked the the 26th declaration in Senegal vowing to halt female circumcision since 1997… After witness accounts theatre pieces and dance performances aimed at showing the risks and misery caused by female circumcision and forcing children into wedlock the ceremony ended with a young girl reading a joint declaration in English French and several local languages vowing to halt the practices. ‘It was very difficult to begin with’Sunday marked the the 26th declaration in Senegal vowing to halt female circumcision since 1997. In all 2 299 villages or 45 percent of the 5 000 communities where the rite was still in practice 10 years ago have vowed to renounce the tradition according to Tostan. “It was very difficult to begin with. The villagers were very attached to their traditions. We had to get the religious and traditional leaders as well as women involved to convince the communities to renounce child marriages and female circumcision” Tostan national co-ordination Kalidou Sy said.
Millions who risk death for a better life
Independent – May 28, 2007
African migrants’ remittances are growing at a faster rate than official aid from foreign governments. Trafficking Africa’s migrants has become a lucrative business. Boats leave every night from the shores of Senegal in the west Libya in the north and Somalia in the east. But it is not only Senegalese Libyans and Somalis that make the trip. thers from across the continent will walk and hitch rides thousands of miles to reach the coast. The port town of Bossaso in Puntland a semi-autonomous region in northern Somalia is the centre of the Horn of Africa’s people-trafficking industry. Hundreds of Somalis Eritreans and Ethiopians arrive in Bossaso every day desperate to leave the poverty drought and war which blights the region.
Does juju play a role in football?
Joy nline – May 28, 2007
” Laloko was sent off before the start of the 2000 African Cup of Nations quarter-final between Nigeria and Senegal for removing what he believed to be a talisman that was near Senegal’s goal. “I had to pick whatever I found there and I left” he said. Although Laloko was sent off after being reported to Botswana’s Ashford Mamelodi who was the match commissioner he has no regrets for his controversial action five years on. “Before the match [the Senegalese] came onto the pitch and started performing some rituals. “An executive member of CAF then asked me if I was going to allow what was happening. “If I had not done what I did and we had lost journalists would have written all sorts of nonsense” Laloko told the BBC. Perhaps Laloko knows where he is coming from.
West African villagers renounce female circumcision
Mail & Guardian nline – May 28, 2007
Following witness accounts theatre pieces and dance performances aimed at showing the risks and misery caused by female circumcision and forcing children into wedlock the ceremony ended with a young girl reading a joint declaration in English French and several local languages vowing to halt the practices. Tostan which means “breakthrough” in Wolof the most widely spoken language in Senegal has been working for a decade to eradicate female circumcision in the country through local actions and education. Sunday marked the 26th declaration in Senegal vowing to halt female circumcision since 1997. In all 2 299 villages or 45% of the 5 000 communities where the rite was still in practice 10 years ago have vowed to renounce the tradition according to Tostan. “It was very difficult to begin with. The villagers were very attached to their traditions. We had to get the religious and traditional leaders as well as women involved to convince the communities to renounce child marriages and female circumcision” Tostan national coordination Kalidou Sy said.