FALLOUT OF THE ‘ARAB SPRING’
Algeria

At least 11 soldiers have been killed in an attack by Islamist militant gunmen west of Algeria’s capital. The ambush took place on the night of Thurs 16 July at the start of celebrations marking the end of Ramadan. Thursday night’s attack took place in a forest in Ain Defla, 240km (150 miles) from Algiers. The attack was reported by a security source and the local media, although they gave few other details.
Gunmen with links to al-Qaeda and Islamic State operate in parts of the country, mostly in remote mountain areas.

Burundi
Burundi is involved in the fallout of the Arab Spring on two fronts. Firstly, it is one of the major contributors to the African Union force stationed in Somalia and fighting Al-Shabab. On Fri 26 June, the same day as the recent Tunisian beach gun and grenade attack and the Kuwait mosque bombing, the African Union lost 30 soldiers in a combined bomb and gun attack in Somalia. Meanwhile, on the domestic front there is widespread concern about Burundi’s presidential election scheduled for 21 July. Public anger over President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for another five-year term led to violent protests in April and a failed coup attempt in May. The main private radio stations, African Public Radio (RPA), Bonesha FM and Radio Isanganiro, have remained off the air since they broadcast statements by the coup plotters in May. More than 70 people have already died and President Nkurunziza is partially blaming Islamist influences from those opposed to the intervention in Somalia for the unrest. It is often forgotten in the western media that there are large Muslim populations across much of central Afrika some of which are attracted to the Salafist / Wahhabi brand of Islam.

Under Burundi’s constitution, a president is limited to a maximum of two terms in office but Mr Nkurunziza insists that he is eligible to stand again, as his first term was by parliamentary appointment, not election, in 2005 and he has been backed by the constitutional court. The May coup plotters who escaped have vowed to create unrest until he steps down. The civil war that broke out in 1993 was triggered by elections that year with the war fought along ethnic lines with mostly Hutu rebels fighting against the politically dominant Tutsi minority. After years of negotiations, a landmark ceasefire deal set ethnic quotas for power-sharing in the military and other key areas in public service. The peace agreement has held for over 10 years and social cohesion is one of its dividends. The anti-government camp is generally multi-ethnic but media reports of hate speech hint at the lurking danger of splits along Hutu-Tutsi lines. The peace deal also paved the way for elections in 2005 and President Nkurunziza was appointed by parliament that year.

President Nkurunziza is representing the CNDD-FDD, (National Council for the Defence of Democracy-Forces for the Defence of Democracy), which he joined in 1995 as a Hutu rebel. None of the president’s seven challengers in the election seem to have made a significant impact. Mr Nkurunziza’s main rival is Agathon Rwasa who is registered as an independent as his faction of the FNL (Forces pour la Liberation Nationale) is not recognised by the government. Like Mr Nkurunziza, he is also a former Hutu rebel commander. The ruling party easily ‘won’ the parliamentary election at the start of the month which was boycotted by the main opposition parties.

Central African Republic
European timber companies have helped fund the war in the Central African Republic through lucrative deals with militia groups, campaign group Global Witness alleges in a new report. Timber companies from France, Lebanon and China paid more than $4m (£2.5m) to rebel groups accused of war crimes, mainly for ‘protection services’, the report says and it accuses the EU of failing to stop imports of illegal timber to Europe despite European regulations against illegal timber. Europe accounts for nearly two-thirds of timber exports from the CAR, and companies in France, Germany and Belgium have all been trading in the commodity.

Thousands of people have been killed in the conflict which followed a coup by the Muslim-majority Seleka rebel group in March 2013. Rebels on all sides of the conflict have been accused by the UN of mass murder, kidnappings, rapes and the forced recruitment of child soldiers. Former colonial ruler France deployed 1,600 troops to the country in 2013 in a bid to disarm the militias, and a 700-strong European peacekeeping mission to boost security in the capital Bangui ended in early 2015. Some 12,000 international troops are still based in the country as part of the UN mission in the CAR.

Egypt
Islamic State militants have said they were behind a deadly explosion that severely damaged the Italian consulate in Egypt’s capital, Cairo. At least one person died and several people were injured when a car bomb went off at the building. A tweet from a Twitter account linked to IS said Muslims should stay away from sites like the consulate, as they are “legitimate targets” for strikes. The main entrance of the building was almost totally destroyed, windows were shattered and the building was flooded after water-pipes ruptured. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi spoke to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi after the attack and promised the two countries would stand together “in the fight against terrorism and fanaticism”. Had it been a working day, the casualty numbers could have been much higher.

Militants linked to Islamic State say they have destroyed an Egyptian navy patrol ship with a rocket off the Sinai peninsula. The group, called Sinai Province, released images on Twitter which appear to show a rocket heading for a vessel and setting it on fire on impact with a large explosion engulfing most of the ship and black smoke rising from it afterwards. An Egyptian military spokesman said the vessel was set ablaze during an exchange of fire with “terrorists” on the shore. No one was killed, but security officials said a number of crew suffered minor burns. One witness, a fisherman from the nearby Gaza Strip, said the vessel was a gunboat and was about a mile offshore when it was hit by the rocket. Last year Sinai Province pledged loyalty to Islamic State, which controls large swathes of territory in Syria and northern Iraq and has a significant presence in neighbouring Libya. On Wed 1 July around 100 militants and at least 17 members of the security forces were killed in a single day of attacks claimed by Sinai Province.

Libya
Libya has remained the main departure port for thousands of people trying to escape the economic chaos and brutality of the civil war that has been ongoing since the western-backed assassination of Col Muammar Gaddafi. Migrants have horror stories of being jailed, tortured, raped and facing extortion to be able to leave on rickety ships in which woman, children and dark-skinned Afrikans are often locked in the holds. All dark-skinned Afrikans are considered to have been supporters of Col Gaddafi and thus face a particularly hazardous time just travelling and surviving in Libya. Their families have often been forced to sell land and all their belongings to pay for a berth and even then some of them remain in debt and will have to work that off under threat of further violence being meted out to them or their families whose numbers the traffickers demand access to.

Separate jihadist groups have emerged in recent years throughout the Sahara region, reinforced by weapons obtained through militias operating in neighbouring Libya which is a failed state, overrun by militias and with no real functioning government. The country is posing even bigger problems for its neighbours, serving as a pathway for weapons and Islamists intent on exporting terror further afield. It is a textbook example of western governments’ inability to solve a problem or their complacency in letting chaos reign in the hope that they can find rich pickings playing various political, religious, regional and ethnic factions off against each other.

Mali
French special forces have killed a militant Islamist in Mali who was said to have been freed in exchange for the release of Frenchman Serge Lazarevic. Ali Ag Wadossene, a senior member of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), was killed in northern Kidal city, a French army statement said. Two other militants were captured in the operation. France sent troops to Mali in January 2013 to prevent the militants from over-running the capital, Bamako. Mr Lazarevic was abducted by AQIM in 2011 and freed last December. Mr Wadossene and another militant, Heiba Ag Acherif, were jailed in Mali for allegedly being involved in his abduction. Mali’s government confirmed at the time that Mr Wadossene was one of four militants who had been freed in return for Mr Lazarevic’s release. The jihadist insurgency continues as French military action only dispersed but did not destroy the extremists.

Fourteen mausoleums in the city of Timbuktu in northern Mali have been rebuilt, three years after they were destroyed by Islamist extremists. The reconstruction was carried out by local stone masons using traditional building methods and cultural knowledge of the area in the year-long rebuilding project carried out under the auspices of the UN’s cultural organisation, Unesco. Unesco’s Irina Bokova, inaugurating the rebuilt mausoleums on Saturday, said the destruction of cultural heritage is considered a war crime under the UN’s 1954 Hague Convention. “Unesco has involved the International Criminal Court with the destruction of the mausoleums. Two months ago I met the prosecutor and I believe they are progressing rapidly, and I hope they will be ready to present the case to the ICC,” she said.

The entire city of Timbuktu is listed as a World Heritage Site by Unesco. The city was considered the centre of Islamic learning from the 13th to the 17th centuries, and at one time counted nearly 200 schools and universities that attracted thousands of students from across the Muslim world. The mausoleums were shrines to Timbuktu’s founding fathers, who had been venerated as saints by most of the city’s inhabitants. But this practice is considered blasphemous by fundamentalists who occupied the city along with much of northern Mali in 2012, until they were forced out by French forces in January 2013. During their occupation, the militants vandalised and destroyed mosques and mausoleums, and burnt tens of thousands of ancient manuscripts.

Nigeria

Despite Nigeria’s military alliance with neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger to fight against Boko Haram attacks have continued and intensified. Two bomb attacks on the central Nigerian city of Jos left at least 44 people dead. A restaurant and a mosque were targeted on the night of Sunday 5 July shortly after the Ramadan fast was broken, with both sites full of people. The blast at the Shagalinku restaurant was caused by a bomb that had been planted while the mosque was attacked by a suicide bomber and that explosion was preceded by gunfire. It is thought that the mosque’s imam, who was preaching at the time, may have been the target. Sheikh Muhammad Sani Yahya Jingir, who survived the attack, is known for preaching against Boko Haram and has written a book, which criticises the group, called Boko Halal (Western education is permitted - Boko Haram means Western education is forbidden). He has survived a previous assassination attempt at his home and is seen as one of the most influential clerics in Nigeria.

Of the 44 dead, 23 were killed at the restaurant and 21 at the mosque, Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) says. No-one has claimed responsibility but militant group Boko Haram has attacked Jos before, even though it is not in north-east Nigeria where the Islamists normally operate.
The blasts were the latest in a series of deadly attacks in recent days which have seen more than 200 people killed. In one week the following attacks were recorded: Sunday - Church attacked in Potiskum, in Yobe state, killing at least five; Friday - several suicide bombers kill scores of people in Zabarmari village, north-east Nigeria; Thursday - Two female suicide bombers attack another village in Borno state; Wednesday - More than 50 gunmen kill 97 people in the village of Kukawa, near Lake Chad; Tuesday - 48 men shot dead after prayers in two villages near the town of Monguno, Borno state.

At least nine people have died in explosions at prayers for the Muslim festival of Eid in the Nigerian town of Damaturu. The two female suicide bombers included a 10-year-old girl, said Nigerian army spokesman Col Sani Usman. There were two blasts at a venue where volunteers were waiting to screen worshippers, he said. The explosions were at an open-air praying area, known as Eid grounds, which were set aside for Muslims to gather to pray at the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan. Because of the threat of a Boko Haram attack, worshippers were being searched before they reached the Eid grounds - this is where the explosions happened. Four persons died in the first explosion and five died in the second explosion. Explosions targeting people shopping for Eid at a market in the north-eastern city of Gombe killed at least 49 people.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari described the recent attacks as “inhuman and barbaric”. In power now for just over a month, the president was elected on the pledge to defeat Boko Haram who took control of a large area of north-eastern Nigeria last year and declared a caliphate. Nigeria’s military, backed by troops from neighbouring countries, has recaptured some of the territory. Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin are all expected to provide troops for the 7,500-strong regional task force to tackle Boko Haram. The force will be led by Nigeria but have its headquarters in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena.

It is not unusual for there to be a heightened risk of jihadist attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Boko Haram may be trying to deepen its ties with the jihadists fighting in Iraq and Syria who had called for “a month of disasters for the infidels”. Many of the recent attacks have been by suicide bombers - often young women. Where the bombs are being made and where the bombers are being brainwashed is unclear but the Nigerian intelligence and security services need to do far more to stop the bloodshed. The Nigerian military has said it has arrested the mastermind behind two recent attacks on the northern towns of Jos and Zaria in which almost 70 people were killed.

President Buhari met those campaigning for the release of more than 200 girls abducted by Islamist Boko Haram militants last year. His predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, declined to meet the Bring Back Our Girls activists. Mr Buhari promised them that troops for a regional force to fight the militants would be in place by the end of July. The mass abduction sparked one of the biggest social media campaigns of 2014, with the Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls being used more than five million times. The Chibok schoolgirls have not been seen since last May when Boko Haram released a video of around 130 of them gathered together reciting the Koran. Amnesty International estimates that at least 2,000 women and girls have been abducted by Boko Haram since the start of 2014.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s government has vowed to shut down an illegal radio station operated by people sympathetic to the breakaway state of Biafra. The Ministry of Information said it has successfully jammed the signals of the station but it is still broadcasting. The station hosts phone-in programmes with listeners calling to talk about issues affecting their region and their desire for secession from Nigeria. Although the Biafra uprising ended in 1970, the Movement for the Actualisation of a Sovereign State of Biafra (Massob) has been attracting support from across the south east and are demanding independence. A northern Muslim ex-general and returning president was never going to go down well in large swathes of the Igbo south and several of Massob’s leaders and sympathisers have been detained by authorities and accused of treason.

Somalia
Somalia celebrated the 55th anniversary of its independence on July 1, and President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud gave an interview to Ventures Africa giving a candid appreciation of how he saw Somalia’s current political situation, the possibility of national elections in 2016, the state of the economy and the progress that the country has made more recently.

There were a lot of challenges in the federalization process, he said. One was the limited institutional memory of functioning state institutions. Those who were running such institutions 25 years ago had retired. The younger people managing the institutions now had no experience in running state institutions. He said “we have been in conflict for a long time so we are carrying the baggage of the past. We have a lot of scars.”

Asked whether Somalia would definitely hold elections in 2016, the President said this was a tricky question as it all depended upon the definition of elections. He said he did not rule out a one person, one vote election with ballot boxes across the country but this might be difficult. He said in Vision 2016 two principles were set out: enhancing the legitimacy of the current parliament; and transitioning to full democracy. He noted that the IMF had produced an economic performance report on Somalia for 2014, the first time in 25 years. Somalia was working with the International Monetary Fund to clear its debt arrears to donors amounting to almost $5 billion. The President underlined that one of the main challenges to the economy was international pressure on remittances which provided Somalia with more than $1.5billion per year. The flow of remittances has been restricted and that was proving to be an economic challenge to the country, he said. Another problem was the scarcity of the Somali shilling as this had “dollarized” the economy and this was causing some restraints. Last year alone, he said, Somalia exported 5 million head of livestock.

The Presidents of the Interim Administrations of South West and Jubaland states both visited Addis Ababa last month for discussions with Prime Minister Hailemariam of Ethiopia and Foreign Minister, Dr Tedros. During their visit, both Sharif Hassan and Ahmad Mohamed Islan ‘Madobe’ held discussions with the officers of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces on training and capacity building for their forces, and on joint operations with the Somali National Army and with AMISOM forces against Al-Shabaab.

The regional assembly of Jubaland was inaugurated in May 2015 but almost immediately disagreements emerged over the clan representation in the assembly between the Jubaland administration and South West state. Concerned about the negative impact that this might have on the cohesion created among Somali leaders earlier, the Government of Ethiopia invited Sharif Hassan, head of the South West Administration and Ahmed Mohamed Islan ‘Madobe’, head of the Jubaland Administration to meet in Addis Ababa so that any disagreements could be amicably resolved and would avoid giving Al-Shabaab any opportunity to exploit their differences. The formation of the regional state of Galmudug in Central Somalia is still in progress. The process needs to start in Hiiraan and Middle Shebelle regions.

Six candidates finally contested the election for the position of President of the Interim Galmudug Administration on Saturday (July 4). After three rounds of voting in the 89 member assembly, victory went to the former federal minister of the interior, Abdikarim Hussein Guleed with 49 votes followed by the former Director of the Intelligence Agency Ahmed Fiqi who secured 40 votes. Among the other defeated candidates were Abdi Hassan Qaybdid, previous President of Galmudug, and Ahmed Abdisalam, a former deputy Prime Minister (2007) and the current Somali Ambassador to Ethiopia. The election of the President was followed by the election of Mohamed Hashi Abdi as vice-president. Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud congratulated the newly appointed officials and welcomed the transparent and peaceful election process.

The designated capital for Galmudug is Dhusamereeb, but for the meantime it will remain Adaado. A rival conference has been taking place in Dhusamereeb with the similar objective of electing an assembly and a president for Galmudug. This conference was sponsored by the religious organization, Ahlu Sunna wal Jama’a which took over Dhusamereeb in early June. On Wednesday, last week (July 1), Ahlu Sunna and the Himan and Heeb administration elected the chairman of Ahlu Sunna wal Jama’a, Mohamed Shakir Ali Hassan, as president of the new state.

Speaking at a press conference in Puntland’s capital of Garowe on Sunday, the Puntland Minister of Information, Mohamed Hassan Soo’ade, said that the election in Adaado was a sham process and as a result Puntland will also not recognize the newly elected head of Galmudug State Abdikarim Hussein Guleed. The Minister said the Puntland government could only enter into negotiations or talks with another government and not with either a person or a state that it did not recognize. Earlier, Puntland President Abdiweli Mohamed Ali called Galmudug a ‘phantom’ intended to “destabilize peaceful regions.” He said the ongoing Adaado conference did not look like an effort to form a federal state, but was rather “a plot orchestrated from Mogadishu to undermine an existing and peaceful state.” The problem has arisen because currently the northern half of Mudug is part of Puntland, and the city of Galkayo is divided between the two administrations. The Galmudug constitution, however, places all of Mudug in Galmudug. Puntland has already said it rejects what it called an “illegal and illegitimate” Boundaries and Federation Commission.

At least five people were killed when militants in the Somali capital Mogadishu attacked two hotels.
A security operation has now ended at one of the hotels, near the parliament building. The two hotels - the Wehliya and Siyaad - were busy with people breaking their Ramadan fast when they were attacked at 18:10 local time (15:10 GMT). The Islamist militant group al-Shabab has said it was behind the attack.
There was also a mortar attack on a base of the African Union (AU) force in the city at the same time.

Two Kenyan officers abducted by al-Shabab militants more than two years ago were freed on 25 June. Kenya’s police chief Joseph Boinnet says the men are in “good health but traumatised”. The officers were taken in an attack by the Islamist militants in north-eastern Garissa county in May 2013, close to the border with Somalia. The two men were taken across the border to Somalia where they were repeatedly moved between different al-Shabab camps. An al-Shabab spokesman quoted in pro-al-Shabab media said the officers were released because they had converted to Islam.

The Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, in which 67 people were killed in an attack by al-Shabab militants, has reopened. In September 2013, gunmen entered the mall and fired on shoppers, leading to a siege over four days. About half the shops are opening again after an extensive refurbishment. The reopening comes a week before US President Barack Obama visits Nairobi - a sign, the city’s governor said, that the capital was safe. Somali Islamist group al-Shabab said it carried out the attack in response to Kenya’s military operations in Somalia. All four gunmen are believed to have died during the assault. Earlier this week, the US State Department issued a travel warning to its citizens that extremists could target a summit in Nairobi in late July, which will be attended by Mr Obama.

A Regional Conference on Countering Violent Extremism was held at the end of June in Nairobi under the theme: “Strengthening Cooperation to Counter Violent Extremism”. It was a follow-up to White House Summit to Counter Violent Extremism which was held in Washington in February this year. The conference looked at the full range of activities that constitute violent extremism, from the local dynamics of radicalization, the structure of extremist ideologies, recruitment, community engagement and social media and technology, as well as counter narratives and the creation of effective horizontal and vertical partnerships in countering violent extremism. It also considered these issues in the context of the continuing threats from groups such as the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, ISIS and other extremist networks.

The “De-legitimizing Violent Extremist Narratives” session underlined the importance of, and ways to promote and entrench pluralism, the defence of minority rights and constitutionalism in local, national and regional contexts. The conference, attended by delegates from over 40 countries, came up with a number of specific recommendations to counter violent extremism. Overall, conference delegates agreed the meeting strengthened capabilities, and increased awareness and collaboration, as well as generating an outcome that would provide a useful input into the Summit-level deliberations to be held on the side-lines of the 70th Session of the UN General Assembly in September.

Within the African Peace and Security Architecture, there is a continental and multi-disciplinary peacekeeping force, the African Standby Force (ASF) with military, police and civilian contingents. This is under the auspices of the African Union. To complement ASF peacekeeping operations, the Regional Economic Communities of the AU are also establishing regional standby forces, as part of the efforts to offset security challenges. The East African Standby Force, mandated to enhance peace and security in the East African region, has its military, police and civilian components and a mechanism to provide capacity for rapid deployment of forces to carry out preventive deployment, rapid intervention, peace support and peace enforcement. The East African Standby Force, the first to be ready, will be fully operational by the end of the year. The International Peace Support Training Center will have the ability to significantly increase the capacity of the efforts of the East African Standby Force and other regional forces in building up capacity to respond to security needs, using an integrated approach that will bring the military, civilian and police components together to train in peace support operations.

AMISOM’s mandate had, of course, evolved and expanded and it was now tasked with the responsibility of taking all necessary measures in coordination with the Somalia National Defense Forces, to reduce the threat posed by Al-Shabaab, as well as assisting on the consolidation and expansion of the control of the Federal Government of Somalia and establishing conditions for effective and legitimate governance across the country.

Sudan

Eight of the nine medics who travelled
in March to Syria from Sudan, where
they had studied

Sudan has become a major thoroughfare for jihadists wanting to go to the war zones and a British medic recruited at least 16 fellow students from the UK to join the Islamic State group. Mohammed Fakhri Al-Khabass, was said by his university to have played a major role in persuading two groups of Britons to head to Syria this year. The students were recruited in Sudan where Mr Fakhri had studied. They are the single largest UK group known to have joined IS militants.

Fakhri, a British Palestinian grew up in Middlesbrough, in north-east England, with his two older brothers and his father Fakhri Al-Khabass who worked as an NHS doctor and said his son had brought shame on the family. The younger Fakhri started his medical studies at the University of Medical Sciences and Technology (UMST) in Khartoum in 2008.By 2011 he was president of the University’s Islamic Cultural Association (ICA) which became much more radical under his leadership. Students and ex-students at UMST said Mr Fakhri used his role within the ICA to spread a highly-politicised version of Islam. He started dissuading people from pursuing careers in the West. Most of the British students at UMST were the children of British-Sudanese parents who are successful UK doctors. They had sent their children to Khartoum to study medicine because they wanted them to reconnect with their African and Islamic roots, before returning to work as doctors in Britain. Nine British-Sudanese students and recent graduates disappeared from Khartoum in March, flying to Turkey, and then crossing over to Syria. Seven more followed in June, although two were detained in Turkey and returned to Khartoum.

Mr Fakhri interrupted his studies to spend time in Syria but was able to resume his course when he returned. One senior student suggested Mr Fakhri had tricked the pupils. “He used to tell them that you will be serving as doctors on the Turkey-Syrian border and under the name of Islamic State. That’s what the students who came back said. Until they went and were brought back, they didn’t know they were going to any political side in the Syrian war. He used their good intentions.”

Two British students who returned - Zubieda Widaa and Ahmed Abdoun - were allowed to resume their studies but were later expelled. Many of ICA’s meetings were uncontroversial, but there are reports it held closed meetings off campus to show harrowing footage of victims of the Syrian regime’s bombing of civilians. Ahmed Sami Kheder was one of the Britons targeted. A former student of Wallington County Grammar School in south London and the son of a doctor, he finished his UMST medical degree in July 2014. Kheder appears in the IS recruitment video released in May, two months after he disappeared with his younger sister Nada. IS films usually show pictures of masked men posing with guns but this shows t a softly spoken man appealing for fellow UK doctors to join him in building a new society. Sitting behind a desk in a wood-panelled office with a stethoscope around his neck, Mr Kheder was serious and subdued. He said: “There is a really good medical service being provided here, lots of hospitals… paediatric hospitals, with specialised doctors.”

At this stage of his career he would normally be a junior doctor. In the film, which shows glossy wards, an MRI scanner and babies in incubators, he is seen teaching students. He finally addresses the camera, saying: “Dear brothers and sisters, we as Muslims and as doctors have a great responsibility.

All you are doing is sitting in the West in the comfort of your homes. Use your skills and come here.”

Just weeks after the video emerged, the second batch of British medical students left Khartoum for Syria. They include Mohammed and Ibrahim Ageed, whose father is an Accident and Emergency consultant in Leicestershire. UMST says it has worked hard to eliminate radicalisation on campus and says Mr Fakhri is now in Syria but one of his brothers has said he believes he is still in Sudan. UMST dean Dr Ahmed Babiker Mohamed Zein: “Mohammed Fakhri is in Syria and played a major role in recruiting the students who left to [go to] Turkey.”

Tunisia
Tunisia declared a state of emergency that can be renewed every 30 days a week after the mass killing of 38 people in Sousse on Fri 26 June. The state of emergency gives security forces more powers and limits the right of public assembly. An official from the prime minister’s office said several officials had been sacked in the wake of the attack, including the governor of Sousse. Tunisia’s President Beji Caid Essebsi blamed the poor security in neighbouring Libya for the country’s problems as it is believed the killer Seifeddine Rezgui was trained by Islamic State elements and was part of a cell that also attacked the Bardo Museum in Tunis killing 22 people in March. He said Tunisia was a target because it had a functioning, secular democracy and that terrorists posed an existential threat to the nation. It is recognition of the scale of the radical jihadist threat in countries, big and small, throughout the region.

Tunisia has announced plans to build a wall along its border with Libya to counter the threat from jihadist militants. It would stretch 160km (100 miles) inland from the coast, and be completed by the end of 2015, Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid told state TV. The Tunisian army would build the wall, which would have surveillance centres at certain points along it. Tunisians do not need a visa to travel to Libya. Over the last year, IS has set up bases in the east and west of the Libya, which shares a 459km border with Tunisia. Tunisia’s longest land border is with Algeria and militants have also reportedly been crossing there in recent years. Rezgui’s family insist he was brainwashed into carrying out the attack, but have not named any group or individual. His father Abdul-Hakim Rezgui said the gunman worked nights at a cafe to earn money so he could continue studying in France. “For four years he was studying at Kairouan University and was never absent. People say he spent two years training in Libya. How could he train in Libya? How was he able to do that? What about his university?”

Eight people have been arrested on suspicion of collaborating with Rezgui, and the government says it has uncovered the network behind the Sousse attack. Security forces in the country remain on high alert after the attacks and five Islamist militants were killed in clashes in the mountains near the central town of Gafsa. Authorities have also pledged to close some 80 mosques that were operating outside government control and accused of spreading extremism.

Thirty of the 38 victims in Sousse were British tourists and three were Irish. Both countries have pulled all their nationals out of Tunisia and there will be no holiday flights there until 31 Oct at the earliest. Individual travel is being discouraged and all travel insurance is invalidated now that the main airlines and holiday companies, Thomson and First Choice, have returned their clients and staff. Foreign tourism accounts for about 15% of Tunisian GDP and at least 4,000 jobs in Sousse alone. The British and Irish governments were criticised as when there is a terrorist atrocity in their countries they say ‘keep shopping, keep going to leisure activities, we won’t be beaten’ yet these western countries have denied other nations the right to produce and trade their way out of poverty keeping them as a holiday playground then when it suits them they pull the plug. This always backfires as it further impoverishes the people and makes many of them susceptible to the arguments of whichever rebels, Islamists, etc the western governments were trying to isolate or defeat. They will always be one day - or 500 years - too late and at least one idea short of a solution to whichever problem they encounter!!!

A leader of the terrorist group suspected of being behind the Tunisian beach massacre is living on benefits in Britain. Hani al-Sibai, is an al-Qaeda cleric who is understood to have close links to Tunisian terror group Ansar al-Sharia. He is cited at length in a 2013 report by the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism in The Hague, and is described as one of its key influencers. Security services are investigating links between al-Sibai and his influence on the west London terror network in which Mohammed Emwazi, the British ISIL fighter who has appeared in several of their execution videos beheading Western hostages, operated. He is also said to be one of the key influencers of the Islamists believed to have recruited and trained Seifeddine Rezgui. Emwazi and Rezgui were at the same training camp in Sabratha near the Tunisian border at the same time. In a court case last year, he was accused of having “provided material support to al-Qaeda and conspired to commit terrorist acts”, an allegation he denies. Egyptian-born al-Sibai, 54, is currently under investigation suspected of benefit fraud.

THE AFRIKAN DIASPORA
The fight against ISIL will be intensified with a sharp increase in SAS operations, drone missions and RAF strikes on militant forces in Iraq and Syria. It was revealed that British RAF personnel have already been conducting bombing missions in Syria both covertly and embedded in other countries’ forces, although a parliamentary vote two years ago forbade British military personnel from operating there and only sanctioned actions in Iraq. British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, who encouraged MPs to consider military action in Syria, has defended the British role saying it is standard operating practice.

At least 700 people from the UK have travelled to support or fight for jihadist organisations in Syria and Iraq, British police say. About half have since returned to Britain. Most of those who went to the conflict zone are thought to have joined the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). A British schoolgirl who fled to Syria to join Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has reportedly married an Australian-born jihadist who threatened to carry out attacks in Britain. Amira Abase, whose family come from Ethiopia, left the UK in February with two friends and was tracked down earlier this month to Raqqa. There, she has reportedly married Abdullah Elmir, one of the youngest Western fighters to have joined ISIL who has appeared in several ISIL propaganda videos. It appears he and Abase married in March. Communicating through the encrypted text message service Kik, Elmir also praised the gunman who killed 38 tourists, including 30 Britons, in Tunisia two weeks ago. “May Allah bless the man who slaughtered those filthy kuffar [infidels] and May Allah grant him the highest level in Jannah [Paradise],” he said.

One of the most serious threats the British authorities have been rehearsing for, ever since the Mumbai siege of 2008, is a “marauding attack” by heavily-armed gunmen targeting defenceless citizens in a crowded city centre. Powerful, automatic weapons are much harder to obtain in Britain than they are on the continent but that may not always be the case. Most of today’s would-be jihadist attackers are interested in a much simpler, cruder approach, one with minimal communications that can be intercepted, with as small as possible a circle of people in the know. Back in 2005 international terrorists communicated mainly by e-mail or mobile phone. Today the choice of methods at their disposal has ballooned, from easily encrypted messages to those hidden in online games. GCHQ has enormous and controversial powers to tap into communications but its operatives have to know what they are looking for. Only this week the Metropolitan Police, who take the lead as far as police responses to terrorism in Britain, advertised that it wanted to recruit people who spoke a variety of non-English languages to infiltrate, spy and engage with communities who traditionally they have criminalised, brutalised, racially abused and isolated.

Scotland Yard is investigating whether a man stopped by police outside the Houses of Parliament was draped in an Islamic State (IS) flag. Officers spoke to him on Saturday, but he was found not to be breaking any law and was not arrested. The black flag with a white shahada [Islamic creed] has been used by other militant groups before Islamic State but the Islamic State grouping has been proscribed in the UK since last year. This offence carries a prison sentence of up to six months and a fine. The police decided it was not an offence under Public Order Act 1986 or Terrorism Act 2000. But the latter does ban display of clothing showing someone is a supporter of a banned group. Their interpretation of the law is that: “Wearing, carrying or displaying of an emblem or flag, by itself, is not an offence unless the way in which, or the circumstance in which, the emblem is worn, carried or displayed is such as to cause reasonable suspicion that the person is a supporter or member of a proscribed organisation. While support of and membership of [IS] is unlawful it is not a criminal offence to advocate the creation of an independent state.”

They didn’t even know if the man was wearing an Islamic State symbol because they don’t know what it is or how to read it – ‘intelligence-led policing’, what a joke. Dude! It’s Arabic, find an Arabic speaker among the thousands of people you walk or drive past everyday and they’ll explain it to you or does your ‘canteen culture’ prevent you from exercising any level of joined-up, logical thinking. That’s what we’re wasting our taxes paying them for. How many conscious pan-Afrikan projects could we put together with the money they are wasting not doing their job properly and harassing the wrong people. It seems ‘driving while Black’, ‘glaring at an officer’, ‘waiting at a bus stop’ or ‘looking like’ whoever the police conjure as a suspect in their vast ‘intelligent’ minds are more worthy of police harassment.


CRIME SCENE UK
OFFICER CHARGED FOR PERJURY OVER SEAN RIGG EVIDENCE
An officer with the Metropolitan Police is to be charged with perjury over evidence given at the inquest of a man who died in custody in south London. Sean Rigg, 40, who had schizophrenia, suffered a cardiac arrest at Brixton police station on 21 August 2008. The inquest in 2012 found police used an unsuitable level of force with him. Sgt Paul White gave evidence at Mr Rigg’s inquest. The CPS said it had reviewed the case at the family’s request and would prosecute Mr White.

A second officer was originally referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) on suspicion of perjury and perverting the course of justice. Sue Hemming, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said she had considered the evidence against the second officer but concluded there was insufficient evidence to prosecute. Sgt White, who was based at Lambeth Borough at the time of Mr Rigg’s death, is due to appear before Westminster Magistrates Court on 8 September.

In a statement, Scotland Yard said it was aware of the CPS decision to prosecute an officer and the officer concerned was on restricted duties. It said it was also co-operating with two investigations by the IPCC following the death of Mr Rigg. The first is a re-investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death and the second is an investigation into the evidence given by Met officers at the inquest into Mr Rigg’s death. The musician had been arrested on suspicion of attacking a man in Balham, south London. The statement also said: “The Metropolitan Police Service would again like to emphasis our sympathy to Mr Rigg’s family and acknowledge their loss.”


SHEKU BAYOH UPDATE
The sister of Sheku Bayoh, 31, who died after being detained by police in Kirkcaldy on 3 May, has claimed that officers’ use of “excess force” was to blame for his death. His death is being investigated by the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (Pirc). Kadi Johnson accused officers of not following the appropriate protocols. Criticisms of the police by the family’s lawyer, Aamer Anwar, have previously been dismissed as completely inaccurate and misleading by the Scottish Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers. The federation said that police were responding to reports of a man armed with a knife at the time, with a female officer suffering “significant” injuries during a struggle. They do not say whether these injuries were self-inflicted, caused by Mr Bayoh, or other officers.

Officers involved took a full month before any of them even started to provide the relevant information to investigators – long enough for them to collude on their versions of their interactions with Mr Bayoh and dispose of any relevant forensic evidence. Ms Johnson said the officers present when her brother died should have been suspended while the investigation into the incident continues. And she said officers involved in such cases should be compelled to give witness statements straight after the event.

Mr Bayoh’s family have said they will not rest until they get answers about his death. Ms Johnson was initially told by officers that a passer-by found her brother in the street and that they were looking for two suspects. She said the family became “very angry” when they realised that he had died in custody and claimed relatives were given five different versions of events in a single day. Ms Johnson said that she did not recognise the way he was being portrayed. “It was totally out of character, it’s like a different person they were talking about.”

She went on: “If it was in any other situation, whoever was involved would have been suspended without prejudice, and they would have been made to give a statement there and then. So why is it different for the police force, for them not to give a statement on the very day it happened, you know? Why?”

POLICE RACISM
Below are just two examples of the racist prejudice and paranoia that many police officers carry around in their heads and that is tolerated by their confederates, superiors, friends and lovers.

A former policeman, who tries to pass himself off as a human rights campaigner, pushed an Afrikan, Souleymane Sylla, twice and refused to allow him on to a Paris Metro train as Chelsea fans chanted racist songs, a court heard. Richard Barklie, from Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, is one of four fans facing a football banning order over a racist confrontation filmed ahead of a Champions League game involving Chelsea in February. Mr Barklie denies being among a group of thugs filmed chanting: “We’re racist and that’s the way we like it.”

At the Magistrate’s court hearing Mr Barklie’s lawyer Nick Scott told the court his client had pushed him off the train because it was busy and there was not enough space. The film shows space in the train. Five people had got off in that carriage and it was only Mr Sylla trying to get on who was pushed off. Barklie, 50, admitted pushing Mr Sylla twice amid chants of “John Terry is a racist and that’s the way we like it”. But he insisted in court he had no “racist motive” and that the man pushed was the only one using aggression. There is no evidence of any aggression from Souleymane and it can only be Barklie’s racist paranoia and prejudice that enables him to conjure up notions of violent, thuggish Afrikan men when all rational and objective evidence points to the contrary. He still maintains he only pushed Mr Sylla off the train because it was “packed”. He said: “From what I’ve seen and what I’ve viewed he was aggressively forcing himself into a space where there was none.”

Talking through video footage played in court which appears to show him force Mr Sylla off the train, he said he put his hands up to protect himself. He said: “I think he had tried to get on first and then he tried to get on again, but by that stage he was shouting. It’s not clear here but I’ve seen other footage and it’s more clear he was shouting and there was spray coming from his mouth. I did push him, I put my hands up to stop him getting into the space where I was standing. From my perception there were others behind me trying to get towards Mr Sylla and I felt myself getting pushed forward by the momentum.”

Asked by his defence barrister Nick Scott if “there was any issue in relation to the colour of his skin”,
Barklie said: “None whatsoever.”

Barklie, who served as an officer with the notoriously murderous Royal Ulster Constabulary and is a director of something called the World Human Rights Forum. told the court he feared there could be “repercussions” if the Parisian managed to get on board the carriage because of the large number of Chelsea fans aboard. Earlier the court heard Jordan Munday, 20, who is also accused of being involved in the race row, said there was enough space for him to force his way through the carriage and see the aftermath. He said he was interested in seeing what the “commotion” was about, but he didn’t join in the race chants or see the altercation.

In addition to Mr Barklie, 50, of Victoria Street in Carrickfergus, Jordan Munday, 20, of Ellenborough Road, Sidcup, Kent; Josh Parsons, 20, of Woodhouse Place, Dorking, Surrey; and William Simpson, 26, of Hengrove Crescent in Ashford, Surrey, are challenging the ban. Scotland Yard confirmed another Chelsea supporter, Dean Callis, 32, of Liverpool Road, Islington, had received a five-year banning order ahead of the court hearing for a number of incidents, including the one in Paris.

PROBE INTO RACIST MET POLICE FACEBOOK TRAVELLER POSTS
Accusations that Metropolitan Police officers wrote racist comments about Travellers on Facebook are under investigation. Scotland Yard said its Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS) was looking into alleged remarks on the private I’ve Met The Met page. Concerns were raised in April and June by the Travelling community. In a statement, the force said: “The group administrators have set the privacy settings for the group as ‘secret’ but we understand it to include former and serving MPS [Metropolitan Police Service] officers among its members.

“DPS is assessing the information it has received to determine whether any serving MPS officer or staff may have committed any acts of misconduct and will also look to see if any criminal offences may have been committed.”

The Independent reported some of the comments were made during a discussion about the BBC Trust’s decision to clear Top Gear presenters of wrongdoing for their use of the word “pikey”, a derogatory term for travellers. Yvonne MacNamara, chief executive of the Traveller Movement, told the paper the alleged comments were “shocking” and “give us no confidence” in the Met’s ability to police those communities and protect its own staff from different backgrounds.

CRIME SCENE USA

SANDRA BLAND DEATH IN CUSTODY
The FBI is to investigate the case of an Afrikan-American woman found asphyxiated in a Texas jail cell. The police say Sandra Bland hanged herself but even the FBI find the ‘official version’ a bit unbelievable as it took them less than week to decide to get involved in the case instead of the usual 30 years after a custody death or gross civil rights violation. Family members were shocked by her death, unable to believe she would have killed herself.

Ms Bland was stopped by police for improperly signalling a lane change while driving on Fri 10 July. She is threatened with being Tasered by an officer saying, ‘I will light you up.” When she gets out of the car she and the officer move out of camera sight. A common tactic when police want to physically or sexually abuse a suspect. Ms Bland was arrested for allegedly kicking Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Brian Encinas after the traffic stop although the police video shows them slamming her into the ground and the police on top of her. She suffered a suspected broken arm for which there is no record of her receiving medical treatment although she was detained over a weekend. Her injuries make it less likely she would be in a position to harm herself. No record has as yet been released of any medical attention the officer requested or received for the alleged assault.

The FBI investigation follows the start of a separate inquiry by the Texas Rangers law enforcement agency. The 28-year-old Ms Bland had just moved to Texas from Illinois to start a new job at her alma mater of Prairie View A&M University - a position that would’ve started on 3 August. Her sister Shante Needham said Bland called her from jail, saying she did not know why she had been arrested and that an officer had possibly broken her arm. Bland died by asphyxiation using a plastic bag to hang herself in her cell, according to Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathias. Video footage did not show what happened inside Bland’s cell, but did suggest no one entered or left it until someone found her unconscious on the morning of Mon 13 July. Jail Sheriff Glen Smith said his staff checked on Bland less than an hour before she was found dead which seems to contradict the video and indicates the possibility of police tampering with video or logs even when incidents are meant to be recorded on film. Texas state senator Royce West asked the Texas Department of Public Safety to release video of the arrest and called her death “suspicious”. What has so far been released is full of continuity breaks and loops indicating it has been tampered with.

The social media community has picked up on the suspicious circumstances surrounding Ms Bland’s death and #SandraBland has almost 200,000 mentions on Twitter. The hashtags #JusticeforSandy and #SandySpeaks are also being widely used to share stories about a death that many say “doesn’t add up”. “Who goes on a job interview, gets hired, and commits suicide in a jail cell after being arrested [sic] for a routine traffic stop?” @stopbeingfamous tweeted. Ms Bland’s friend Bianca Davis said she was a productive citizen noting that Bland was passionate both about social justice and her Christian faith. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards cited the Waller County Jail three years ago for not checking all inmates once an hour. Another inmate hanged himself with a bed sheet in 2012.

SAMUEL DUBOSE SHOT IN HEAD
An unarmed Afrikan-American driver Samuel Dubose has died after being shot once in the head at point blank range by University of Cincinatti Police Department Officer Ray Tensing during a traffic stop in Ohio on Sunday. Mr Dubose was asked to stop for not having a front licence plate. The officer claims a struggle ensued at the car door when he asked Mr Dubose to step out of the vehicle. Mr Dubose drove off and Tensing shot him leaving Mr Dubose declared dead at the scene.

ERIC GARNER FAMILY PAYOUT
Meanwhile, the family of Eric Garner, who was asphyxiated by a police officer using an illegal chokehold last year have accepted $5m dollars from the New York State for a combination of wrongful death, excessive force and denial of human rights. Officers claimed Mr Garner was selling illegal cigarettes in his Staten Island neighbourhood. Mr Garner’s family are still pushing for the arrest and prosecution of the police and ambulance workers involved in the arrest and denying of medical care to a man who had been strangled and was lying prone on the ground after repeatedly indicating he had problems breathing.

SOUTH CAROLINA CONFEDERATE FLAG REMOVED
The Confederate flag has been removed from South Carolina capitol grounds in a ceremony attended by large crowds. It has stood in the state ground for 50 years first put up as a reaction to the gains of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. South Carolina’s leaders first flew the flag over the statehouse dome in 1961 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Civil War. Hundreds of people turned out to watch the event in Columbia on Friday morning. Some chanted “take it down” while they waited for the ceremony to begin. The banner was then handed to a state archivist to be transported to a nearby museum where Governor Haley said people “can honour it appropriately”. It will eventually be housed in a multimillion-dollar shrine that lawmakers promised to build as part of a deal to get the bill removing the flag passed.

The House of Representatives in South Carolina has voted to take down the Confederate flag from capitol grounds after a long and fractious debate. The state House approval, by 93-27, follows a similar move in the Senate. Several Senators said they had been inspired by the Christian forgiveness displayed by relatives of those who had died at the Emanuel AME Church on 17 June. The flag - used by the South in the American Civil War (1860-65) - is seen by some as an icon of slavery and racism while others say it symbolises US heritage and history. The debate over its use was reignited after Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old charged with killing nine Afrikan-Americans in an AME church on 17 June, was pictured flying the flag.

After the flag removal bill was signed the US college sport authority - the NCAA - said it was lifting its ban on holding championships in the state. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) also voted to lift its 15-year boycott of South Carolina. Large retailers like Walmart have also been clearing their shelves of any trace of the emblem. However, as with most things American there were still some people locked in their ‘manifest destiny worldview’ proudly waving Confederate flags to insult US President Barack Obama when he arrived at his hotel while visiting Oklahoma.


MAYOR SACKS POLICE CHIEF OVER BALTIMORE CUSTODY DEATH PROTESTS
Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said she was replacing Police Commissioner Anthony Batts with his deputy, Kevin Davis, for an interim period. saying his leadership had become a distraction from fighting a “crime surge”. The city was rocked by riots in April when an Afrikan-American man was killed after suffering injuries in police custody. Six officers were charged over the death of the 25-year-old, Freddie Gray. The city has seen a sharp increase in violence since Freddie Gray’s death on 19 April, with 155 homicides this year, a 48% increase over the same period last year. The police department announced that an outside organisation will review its response to the civil unrest that followed Mr Gray’s death. The US justice department is also conducting a civil rights review of the Baltimore force and Mr Batts has been criticised by the city’s police union. The union released its report into the police handling of the rioting saying officers had complained “that they lacked basic riot equipment, training, and, as events unfolded, direction from leadership”. The report also said “officers repeatedly expressed concern that the passive response to the civil unrest had allowed the disorder to grow into full scale rioting”. Not much about their in instigating the whole episode by deliberately using a vehicle as a weapon of torture.

Former US President Bill Clinton has admitted his “three strikes” crime bill introduced in the 1990s contributed to the problem of overpopulated prisons. Speaking to a civil rights group, he said: “I signed a bill that made the problem worse and I want to admit it.”

It put 100,000 more police officers on the streets but locked up “minor actors for way too long”, Mr Clinton said. President Barack Obama launched a renewed effort to reform the criminal justice system this week.

FORTHCOMING NUBIART PROFILES
NUBIART: Focus on arts, business, education, health, political developments and the media.

July Promos

~ ‘THE FUTURISTIC SOUNDS OF SUN RA ON PLANET EARTH 1914-2014’ – Sun Ra [Not Now Music – Out Now] This double CD was released to mark the centenary of the coming to earth of the cosmic power that was Sun Ra.

The albums here are the Sun Ra Arkestra’s second album ‘Super-Sonic Jazz’ from 1957 on their own Saturn label and the only album they did for Savoy Records and which gives this compilation its title - the 1961 release, ‘The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra’. As early as 1957 Sun Ra was an exponent of the electric piano and was given one of the first Minimoogs by its creator Bob Moog. The album’s themes reflect Sun Ra’s enduring interest in space travel and Afrikan cosmology. Musically, the tracks are not as far out as some would imagine and they bear more than a touch of the smoother grooves and more restrained melodic influences of his mentor Fletcher Henderson. ‘Sunology’, ‘Sunology Part II’ and ‘Kingdom of Not’ are straight out of the top drawer.

‘The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra’ CD features Marshall Allen, who has taken over the leadership of the Sun Ra Arkestra and continues to tour regularly. ‘Bassism’, ‘New Day’ and Looking Outward’ invoke strong Afro-Cuban influences. ‘The Beginning’, is a precursor to the long percussion jams the Arkestra would play ‘live’ over decades to come with a triple sax line-up of Marshall Allen, John Gilmore and Pat Patrick, While ‘Where Is Tomorrow’, and ‘Space Jazz Reverie’ will take you where you need to go. Although most of the music here are instrumentals ‘China Gates’ as made famous by Nat King Cole from the movie of the same name, here features the vocals of Ricky Murray.

Get this one if you want a great introduction to early Sun Ra. Swing, bop and free-jazz elements are ever present with hints of Latin and even 20th century chamber music here. The rhythms and textures of the music perfectly matches the outerspace / mythological imagery that Sun’s band was projecting. The remastering quality has kept the musical dynamics so that the album sounds fresh for eternity.


NUBIART LIBRARY – JULY MEDIA
We will only review books we have read and DVDs we have seen and that are available at reasonable prices online or in shops or libraries. However, given the nature and current state of Afrikan publishing and film production there may be books and films on this list that are worth the extra effort to track down.


~ ‘HEADSCARVES AND HYMENS: WHY THE MIDDLE EAST NEEDS A SEXUAL REVOLUTION’ – Mona Eltahawy [Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN: 000-0-000-00000-0]

“The notion of the strong woman at home is a myth we are encouraged to believe in order to keep in place an oppressive system, in order to deflect the question of injustice and inequality. The “strong woman” at home cannot advance herself if she has internalized patriarchy and its ills.” (p175)

We decided to give this book a read as we wanted an insight into some of the sexual and gender politics that have fed into the rulership of the countries of the Middle East and North Africa and as such underpinned aspects of what has become known in the last five years as the Arab Spring. Eltahawy is an Egyptian who lived in Saudi Arabia during her teenage years and also in America. She attended the 1995 UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing and has worked as a journalist in most of the countries of the Middle East.

Eltahawy was beaten and sexually abused by the Egyptian police during the protests in Tahrir Square and the surrounding streets that followed the ousting of the President Hosni Mubarak and for a period opened a window of hope that life would improve for the country’s 80 million citizens. Her left arm and right hand were broken in the clashes on Mohamed Mahmoud Street in Nov 2011. In response she wrote the incendiary ‘Why Do They Hate Us?’ in Foreign Policy magazine that caused a major reaction across the region for its exposure of daily systemic patriarchy practiced in the name of Islam and ‘honour’. One criticism was that she had written the article in English as if her detractors wanted it to remain an internal debate. There were large-scale sexual assaults on 8 Mar 2011 at a protest to promote women’s involvement in the revolution. At the next day’s protests against the abuse those arrested were sexually assaulted by the police in order that they could not make false claims of being sexually assaulted by the police!

Eltahawy is often dismissed by some Arab commentators who seem to believe no complaints are justified when it comes to the Middle East and the treatment of its female population but she has enough statistics, case studies and personal anecdotes to make you pause for thought. There is no country classed as Arab in the top 100 of the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report. In Egypt a woman beaten by her husband ‘with good intentions’ can receive no punitive damages. This includes if the beating is not ‘severe’ or directed at the face. “As risky as it is to speak publicly about street sexual harassment and assault, though, speaking out against sex abuse, speaking out against the crimes that go on in the home, is riskier. Home is where the hurt is, and home is where we must start to heal.” (p178)

A big issue is the Islamic and linguistic interpretation of terms as they are translated across time and by different commentators. For instance, hijab means ‘barrier’ or ‘partition’ in Arabic and is usually taken to mean a face or head covering but Fatima Mernissi said it meant the ‘curtain’ in the Prophet Muhammad’s house that was set up because he had guests who were staying for extended periods and he wanted to indicate the area of the house where he and his wife could have some privacy. The Wasa’il Hadith that is used to justify Sunna FGM is the same hadith that insists there should be foreplay before sex and both sexes should enjoy the encounter – you can bet that part is not always observed even by the most outwardly pious believers!!!

Eltahawy supported the niqab ban in public in many European societies. But it is a life of contradictions as in Tunisia under the rule of Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali women were banned from veiling in state-owned schools and institutions. Fatoum Alaswad from the Ennahda Party wore a beret to law school to observe hijab but continue her education. After Ben Ali was toppled Salafists forced more women to cover and they consider uncovered women as naked. According to UNICEF over 125 million females in MENA countries have undergone FGM. It was banned in Egypt in 2008 after the death of a girl during the operation in a clinic and both the Grand Mufti and the Coptic Pope have both said there is no religious edict advocating it. However, the practice continues and after another death in 2013 a father and doctor were on trial at the time Eltahawy was writing this book.

She is able to draw on ‘fictional’ literature written by Arab women which has been used to address issues in society going back to the days when Huda Shaarawi launched Egypt’s women rights movement when she removed her face veil in 1923 after returning from an international conference. Nearly a century later Thomson Reuters put Egypt at the bottom of a list of 22 MENA countries when it came to women’s rights. Writer and activist Nawal El-Saadawi pointed out in ‘The Hidden Face of Eve’ that Arab society considers an intact hymen as the most important part of a girl’s body ahead of her eyes, arms and legs or even her life. As such the hymen belongs to the girl’s family.

She highlights the campaign to decriminalise sex outside marriage in countries such as Morocco. This law means that an Arabic couple cannot book into a hotel room in their own country without first showing their marriage certificate. Ironically, this allows same-sex couples to share a room although in some countries there are also restrictions on two males sharing even if there is no sexual relationship between them but they are just trying to avoid paying the single supplement arbitrarily imposed by many hotels and travel agencies worldwide.

Much of the book covers examples of such abuse from across the MENA region. In a survey by the Egyptian Center for Women in 2008 over 80% of women said they had experienced sexual harassment and over 60% of men admitted harassing women. It highlights men’s sense of entitlement to the public space such that to avoid sexual assault it is women who have to stay indoors or be chaperoned rather than the curfews being imposed on the male perpetrators. It set us thinking about the phrase ‘the Arab street’ that is often used by western commentators to refer to public opinion or consultations with a particular racial group in the same way that terms such as ‘Black community’, ‘Asian business leaders’ or ‘religious leaders’ are bandied around without indicating how representative and inclusive are the opinions of those to whom the term is applied. A girl walking alone on an Algerian street can be arrested and taken to hospital for a virginity test. “The people who make our lives hell on the streets are men we know, men we are related to, and they should be the object of scrutiny instead of us.” (p83)

No comment on Islam and women would be complete without referring to the jaw-dropping madness that you encounter in Saudi Arabia, run by the House of Saud and its extended family of princes. A women has to get the permission of a male guardian for every aspect of life in the kingdom even if the male is younger, less qualified or of dubious moral character. Yet Saudi Arabia is rarely criticised or sanctioned in international forums or by the business community for three reasons – it has oil, spends its petrodollars on arms; and has control of the Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina. Eltahawy was repeatedly groped while she was circling the Ka’aba on Hajj, one of the Five Pillars of Islam and supposedly a time of high religious observance. The Saudi police know this is going on but do nothing to stop it and are often complicit with the perverts and paedophiles some of whom are considered influential within Islam.

Eltahawy highlights the rise of ‘modesty culture’ which includes ‘purity parties’ in the US where a girl promises her father she will remain a virgin until she is married. Eltahawy sees this as a perfect example of patriarchy where the promise is to one man and the woman’s life and sexuality will only be dominated by a series of men. That fundamentalism is as repugnant as the similar strictures in Islam.

The first regional conference on sexual harassment took place in 2009 and Eltahawy started a women’s support group when she returned to Egypt long-term in 2013. “This is our chance to dismantle an entire political and economic system that treats half of humanity like children at best. If not now, when?” (p5)

With hardline Wahhabi and Salafist brands of Islam spreading further across Afrika many of the issues raised by Eltahawy are having an increasingly destabilising influence in countries far from the Maghreb such as Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, South Africa and, in the case of Burundi and Uganda they have soldiers in Somalia fighting Al-Shabab as part of the African Union peacekeeping force. It would have been good if Eltahawy was able to compare examples of gender relations in more non-western societies as many commentators limit their analysis to western and Islamic patriarchy versus western feminism. This dichotomy is just as restrictive as when societies were judged and limited to where they stood on the Capitalism-Communism continuum and weren’t allowed to identify and express their own socio-economic policies. It seems with the collapse of the Berlin Wall commentators have entered another polarised debate where those who can see the bigger picture and could contribute a wealth of experience and analysis are shut out because it doesn’t fit a narrow template of discourse. This book still has much to offer those interested in Afrikan political dynamics, feminism, patriarchy, insights into religious structures and cultural relations.

Nubiart Diary

We welcome feedback on any event you have attended that was listed in Nubiart Diary. It helps us with the selection of future listings and is also info we can pass on to the event organisers where appropriate.

~ V&A MUSEUM PRESENTS ‘ART AND EXISTENCE: AFRICAN AND ASIAN DIASPORA EXPLAINED: 100 YEARS OF BLACK ENTERTAINMENT CULTURE IN BRITAIN 1900-2000’. With Leon Robinson, filmmaker, archivist and founder of Positive Steps Archive. On Thurs 23 July at 2.30pm at V&A Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL. Tel: 020 7942 2211. Web: vam.ac.uk/whatson

~ BRITISHBLACKMUSIC.COM/BLACK MUSIC CONGRESS PRESENTS ‘MOVING FORWARD BRITISH BLACK MUSIC ROUNDTABLE & NETWORKING’ SESSION. Part of British Black Music Month & British History 50:70.

- ‘City Showcase: Sessions BBMM2015‘. On Thurs 23 July at 7-8.30pm at the Apple Store, Covent Garden, London, WC2. A free songwriting masterclass which includes live performances with critiques by a panel including Orlando Gittens (manager and live promoter, Musical Theraphy Entertainment) and Gerad ‘SoundBwoy’ Logan (songwriter and producer, LoganBros), plus Q&A. Come and discover budding, new talent, and/or get some free industry advice.

- ‘Black Music Records & African Crafts Fair XII’. On Sat 25 July and Sat 8 Aug at 1-7pm at Harlesden Methodist Church. London, NW10. We’ve had a serious spring cleaning - we’ve got piles of records (vinyl, CDs tapes, including exclusive promo copies) and books, plus some posters, African clothes and craft, and bits and pieces that need a loving home. So swing over to Harlesden and grab a bargain, or just a chat with BBM/BMC’s Kwaku, who’ll be manning the stalls.

TALKING COPYRIGHT / CULTURETALKCLUB SEMINARS / COURSES
- ‘Making Sense Of Music Licensing IV Masterclass’. On Mon 27 July at 1-6pm at Harrow Mencap, 3 Jardine House, Bessborough Road, Harrow, Middlesex, HA1 3EX. Adm: £40 / £50. Booking: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/making-sense-of-music-licensing-iv-masterclass-tickets-17366014216 Music industry tutor Kwaku provides an overview of industry and copyright, veteran publisher Ivan Chandler covers all aspects of music licensing, which is now the key source of income generation.

- ‘CultureTalkClub Session 1: Curious Copyright Stories: Tracking Mbube’s The Lion Sleeps Tonight Multi-Millions To Would Pretty Woman Be Parody In UK?’ On Mon 27 July at 6.30-9pm Harrow Mencap, 3 Jardine House, Bessborough Road, Harrow, Middlesex, HA1 3EX. Adm: Free. Booking: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/culturetalkclub-session-1-curious-copyright-stories-tracking-mbubes-the-lion-sleeps-tonight-multi-tickets-17367317113 We kick off the first official CTC event with the exclusive screening of award-winning filmmaker François Verster’s ‘A Lion’s Trail’, which reveals how Zulu musician Solomon Linda never received a penny for his song ‘Mbube’, which went on to become a pop classic, which topped the charts, got hundreds of covers, and features in Disney’s ‘The Lion King’ film and stage musical. It naturally generated millions of dollars for Western companies and writers. A post-screening discussion will be around the moral aspects, music industry practice, contracts, and the “game” of copyright. The session will end with a short clip on the 2 Live Crew’s version of the Roy Orbison song that became ‘Pretty Woman’, which a US Supreme Court ruling declared a parody under US Copyright Act’s fair use doctrine. The question is, will the same apply in the UK, now that parody has been added to our copyright list of exceptions?

For all events e-mail: editor@BritishBlackMusic.com Web: www.BritishBlackMusic.com

~ 6TH YORUBA ARTS FESTIVAL. If you’re coming dress in traditional Afrikan garments. On Sat 25 July at 11am-7pm at Clissold Park, Green Lanes, London, Hackney, N16 9EJ.

~ SHUBBAK: A WINDOW ON CONTEMPORARY ARAB CULTURE. Burda - Asil Ensemble And Karima Skalli Featuring the music of Umm Kulthum and Mustafa Said; Exhibition & Visual Arts - see the first UK ‘calligraffiti’ commission by French / Tunisian artist eL Seed, and performances by Egyptian artist Nazir Tanbouli and Moroccan artist Radouan Mriziga at British Museum; Literature - Shubbak’s literature festival at the British Library presents visionary Egyptian writer Ahmed Khaled Towfik and multi-award-winning British/Egyptian performance poet Sabrina Mahfouz, amongst many others; Theatre - see a classic of modern Egyptian theatre in a new English translation of The Tree Climber; Performance & Music – ‘When Arabs Used To Dance’, by Tunisian choreographer Radhouane El Meddeb, and Shubbak’s music finale The Mix, with a performance by acclaimed Egyptian jazz-rock fusion band Massar Egbari, are among our performance highlights; and Film & Digital - see ‘The Season of Men’ by Tunisian / French director Moufida Tlatli, amongst others. Shubbak Festival runs until Sun 26 July. For full festival programme check: www.shubbak.co.uk

~ AFRICAN ODYSSEYS PRESENT ‘NJINGA, QUEEN OF ANGOLA’. Dir: Sergio Graciano. Epic drama
based on a true story set in 17th Century in Angola of the life and struggles of the warrior, diplomat and
leader Queen Njinga. On Sun 26 July at 2pm at Phoenix Cinema, 52 High Road, East Finchley, London,
N2 9PJ. Adm: £9.50. Tel: 020 8444 6789. Web: http://www.phoenixcinema.co.uk

~ KINETIC ROOT SERVICES PRESENT ‘MOVING FORWARD EMPOWERING YOU’ WORKSHOPS. These sessions are for Afrikan women who have endured traumatic experiences and need an outlet to heal and move forward from their painful encounters. On Wed 29 July at 7-9pm at the Calabash of Culture, 21 Sydenham Road, Sydenham, SE26 5EX. Adm: £10. Tel: 07746 260 258. E-mail: info@kineticrootservices.org FB: Kinetic Root Services page.

~ SHANTI-CHI PRESENTS ‘NNE AGWU AFRAKAN STORYTELLING FESTIVAL’. Come and experience the unique Nne Agwu (Mother of all Wisdom) Afrakan Storytelling Festival, a weekend camp retreat in the ancient woodland of Epping Forest. Storytelling at its finest! This festival is set up to promote, preserve and celebration the oral tradition of storytelling by creating a unique vibrant storytelling village on the landscape of Britain. With Griot Chinyere, Eli Anderson, Sandra Agard, Angie Amra, Usifu Jalloh, Amantha and Ashanti. Embrace this experience! From Fri 31 July at 2pm-Sun 2 Aug at 6pm at Debden Campsite and Centre, Green Lane, Loughton, IG10 2NZ. E-mail: info@shanti-chi.com Web: www.shanti-chi.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Africanstorytellingfestival.

~ ALKEBU-LAN REVIVALIST MOVEMENT PRESENT

- ‘Mosiah Lives’. On Fri 31 Jul at 7pm at Mama Afrika Kulcha Shap, 282 High Road Leyton, London, E10 5PW. Adm: £3. Marcus Mosiah Garvey was a man of action! Through the work of the UNIA-ACL he built a movement that had an army, nursing agency, steamship company, schools, manufacturing, distribution & retail Businesses, farms, churches, international newspaper and so much more. At this Nommo Session The A.R.M.Y. take a sharp & direct look at what the UNIA-ACL has to teach us about addressing issues of today such as stopping police brutality, building Afrikan schools, ending “Black on Black Violence”, strengthening Afrikan families, group economics etc...


- Mosiah Film Show: ‘A Great & Mighty Walk’. On Tues 4 Mosiah at 7pm at Mama Afrika Kulcha Shap, 282 High Road Leyton, London, E10 5PW. Adm: Free. Honouring the 100th year of the Garveyite Warrior Scholar & Grand Master Teacher Baba John Henrik Clarke. This film produced & narrated by Wesley Snipes charts over 5000 years of History through the life of one of the Afrikan world’s greatest historians – John Henrik Clarke. From ancient civilisation to Afrikan resistance to enslavement, the Master Teacher shares his insights. Then, his own life chronicles the story of the Revolutionary Pan-Afrikan Movement, as Baba Clarke give us 1st hand insights of everyone from Marcus Mosiah Garvey to Omowale Malcolm X, Kwame Nkrumah and beyond! ‘A Great & Mighty Walk’ is a must watch for every Afrikan.


- The ‘Mosiah Month Opening Ceremony’. On Fri 7 Mosiah at 6:30–10:30pm at Chestnuts Community Centre, St Ann’s Rd, London, N15 5BN. Keynote Address: ‘Mosiah – The Original Revolutionary Black God’ by Simba Mbandaka. Mosiah is 31 days of observance and celebration of the life and legacy of the Most Eminent Prophet & King His Excellency Marcus Mosiah Garvey. In 1998, The Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement under the leadership of Brother Leader Mbandaka renamed & designated the 8th Month of the year as Mosiah, coinciding with the Birth month of the prophet & the UNIA-ACL’s (Papa Garvey’s organisation) “International Convention of The Afrikan People of The World”. Marcus Mosiah Garvey led the largest and most comprehensive movement built in the name of Black Power, Afrikan Freedom and Self Reliance. All proud, strong and ambitious people celebrate the great events and great people of their history. We celebrate Mosiah not just for historical significance, but to ignite the spirit, mission and vision of this outstanding leader, in the hearts and minds of Afrikan (Black) people everywhere so that we may as the prophet said: ‘Rise You Mighty Race - You Can Accomplish What You Will!!!’ Garvey Lives!!! Mosiah Lives!!! The evening will include: MOSIAH Libation MOSIAH Readings Inauguration of UNIA UK Chapters. Performances By: Alkebu-Lan Children and Souljah MC.

For info on all events - Tel: 020 8539 2154 / 07908 814 152. E-mail: arm6227@yahoo.co.uk / info@alkebulan.org Web: www.alkebulan.org/mosiah


~ THE RASTAFARI MOVEMENT UK EMANCIPATION DAY RALLY. Consisting of speakers, community arts, crafts, performers, advice and celebration of Afrika International Day of Action - Emancipation Day - Reparation Now! Come and witness the Rastafari 1000 Drums for Reparation Chant! On Sat 1 Aug at 9am from Windrush Square, Brixton, London, SW2, before proceeding to Kennington Park, St Agnes Place, London, SE11 4JS. Rally from 12-8pm

~ AFRIKAN EMANCIPATION DAY REPARATIONS DAY MARCH TO PARLIAMENT. Support the Stop The Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide / Ecocide petition, which amongst its aims is the establishment of an All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry for Truth & Reparatory Justice to: acknowledge the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of the imposition of The Maangamizi (Afrikan Hellacaust of chattel, colonial and neo-colonial enslavement) within and beyond the British Empire. March on Sat 1 Aug at 11am from Windrush Square, Brixton, London, SW2.

~ PAN-AFRICAN WOMEN’S DAY (PAWD) 2015. PAWD is held annually across the world to celebrate the first Pan-African women’s conference and the creation of the Pan-African Women’s Organisation (PAWO) in 1962 in Tanzania. The theme for this year’s PAWD is ‘Black (African) Women Leading Change In Enterprise And Community’. The event, which includes workshops by the likes of Black History Studies CEO Charmaine Simpson, and performance by poetess Sister OneNess Sankara (Best Kept Secret) and singer Sister Olaide, also marks the heroic actions of the women of Azania (South Africa) who on the Aug. 9 1956 marched 20,000 strong against oppression. On Sat 8 Aug at 3-7pm at Park View School, West Green Road, Tottenham, London, N15 3QR. Donation: £3 / Children - free.

~ AFRICAN ODYSSEYS PRESENTS ‘WE LOVE CARNIVAL’. A day of drama, documentary, talks and discussion narrating the story of the steel pan. Films include: Jerome Guiot’s ‘Pan! Our Music Odyssey’ and Wyn Baptiste’s ‘Notting Hill Carnival, Who Started It?’ On Sat 8 Aug at NFT3 at 12-6pm. at BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XT. Adm: £10. Tel: 020 7928 3232. Web: bfi.org.uk/southbank

~ JENGBA MEETINGS. JENGbA campaigners can deliver lectures to Law, Criminology, Media, Sociology, Youth Studies departments as well as school children. On Tues 11 Aug at 7pm at Edward Woods Community Centre, London, W11 4TX. Tel: 07709 115793 / 07725 727520 (Media Enquiries). New office: Office A, Norland House, Queensdale Cresent, London, W11 4TL. E-mail: JointEnterpriseInfo@Gmail.com / JengbaMedia@Gmail.com


~ FREE WEST PAPUA MOVEMENT DEMONSTRATION. For West Papua independence and against exploitation and genocide. On Sat 15 Aug at 11am at Indonesian Embassy, 38 Grosvenor Square, London, W1K 2HW. Tele: 01865 403 202. Fax: 01865 403 217. Web: www.freewestpapua.org

~ TIWANI CONTEMPORARY PRESENTS ‘African Industrial Revolution: The Revolution Will Be Downloadable’. African Industrial Revolution (A.I.R) by e-studio Luanda an artist collective and studio complex founded in 2012 in the Angolan capital by Francisco Vidal, Rita GT, António Ole and Nelo Teixeira. A.I.R. will be the collective’s first exhibition in the UK, taking the form of an open studio within Tiwani Contemporary’s space and during the first week collective members will produce work in-situ. The overall aim of the project is to release a work of art directly into a system that depends on digital and analogue ideas around free reproduction and distribution, investigating how information is disseminated today. Exhibition runs until Sat 15 Aug on Tues-Fri at 11am-6pm and Sat at 12-5pm at Tiwani Contemporary, 16 Little Portland Street, W1. Adm: Free. E-mail: info@tiwani.co.uk Web: www.tiwani.co.uk Blog: http://africanindustrialrevolution.com/

~ BRITISH MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS

Nubian lyre made of
wood, skin, glass beads,
cowrie shells, coins, gut
and iron. Sudan, probably
late 19th century.

- ‘Music, Celebration And Healing: The Sudanese Lyre. Until Sun 16 Aug 2015 in Room 3. Adm: Free. This display features a magnificent 19th-century lyre from Nubia in northern Sudan, adorned with a diverse selection of coins, charms and beads. This stunning lyre, known as a kissar, was owned and played by a singer, minstrel and spirit healer in Nubia (northern Sudan) for weddings, and at Zar spirit healing ceremonies in Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt. In common with many African objects it is anthropomorphic, with eyes, nose and outstretched arms. The name kissar means ‘skull’ and refers to the bulbous resonator of the instrument.

Hula dancers from the Hālau Nā
Kipuʻupuʻu group, Kaʻauea, Hawaiʻi,
Hawaiian Islands, 2011.
Photography: Dino Morrow.

- ‘Shifting Patterns: Pacific Barkcloth Clothing’. Until 6 Dec 2015 at Room 91. Adm: Free. A selection of textiles from the Pacific used to wrap, drape and adorn the body in a myriad of styles and designs, these garments demonstrate the long history of barkcloth, and its ongoing relevance today. In the islands of the Pacific, cloth made from the inner bark of trees is a distinctive art tradition its designs reflect the histories of each island group and the creativity of the makers. Spanning the region from New Guinea in the west to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in the east, the exhibition will show a selection of 77 garments, headdresses, masks and body adornments from the Museum’s collection dating from the 1700s to 2014, including those worn as everyday items and ceremonial costumes linked to key life cycle events such as initiation and marriage. Barkcloth is generally made and decorated by women, but garments intended for ritual purposes may be made by men.

All exhibitions at the British Museum, Great Russell Street, London, WC2. Tel: 020 7323 8181.

~ THE GEORGE PADMORE INSTITUTE IN ASSOCIATION WITH ISLINGTON MUSEUMS AND LIBRARIES PRESENTS ‘DREAM TO CHANGE THE WORLD: THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF JOHN LA ROSE’. John La Rose (1927-2006) was a poet, essayist, publisher, film maker, trade unionist, cultural and political activist. He belonged to a Caribbean tradition of radical and revolutionary activism whose input has reverberated across continents. The exhibition includes photographs, leaflets, posters, letters, recordings and film clips plus a reconstruction of John’s kitchen table around which so much discussion and planning went on. John La Rose was passionately committed to racial and political justice, not just in Britain but internationally. The exhibition aims to draw out the lessons of John La Rose’s life - his methods and principles - both to tell visitors what he achieved but also to give them the inspiration and power to dream and achieve themselves. His truly was a Dream to Change the World. Until Sat 29 Aug at Islington Museum, 245 St John Street, London, EC1V 4NB. Adm: Free. E-mail: info@georgepadmoreinstitute.org / islington.museum@islington.gov.uk Web: www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org


Sukhi, Jambur, 2005
© Ketaki Sheth

~ ‘ON BELONGING: PHOTOGRAPHS OF INDIANS OF AFRICAN DESCENT’. One of India’s leading contemporary photographers, Ketaki Sheth has a long-standing interest in questions of identity and representation. In her most recent project she features the Sidi, a people of Afrikan descent living in India. With origins in historic trade routes, they have called India home since the 17th century, adopting many of the conventions of dress, food, and ceremony characteristic of the subcontinent. At the same time, they maintain a distinct identity and culture. There are currently about 70,000 Sidi living in India. Descended from sailors, traders, and slaves, some continue to think of Afrika as an ancestral homeland, but nearly all consider themselves Indian in every other way. Most live in the western state of Gujarat and the southern state of Karnataka. Until Mon 31 Aug in Room 33, National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place, London, WC2H 0HE. Adm: Free. Tel: 020 7306 0055.

~ AUTOGRAPH PRESENT ‘THE FIFTH PAN-AFRICAN CONGRESS’. Exhibition or rarely seen photographs by John Deakin documenting the influential 1945 Pan-African Congress that called for millions of Africans to be liberated from colonial rule. Until 12 Sep at Tues-Sat at 11am-6pm (9pm on Thurs) at Autograph, Rivington Street, London, EC2. Adm: Free. Tel: 020 7749 1240.

~ SERPENTINE GALLERIES PRESENT ‘LYNETTE YIADOM-BOAKYE: VERSES AFTER DUSK’. Showcase of the artist’s most recent paintings and etchings. Until Sun 13 Sep at Tues-Sun at 10am-6pm at Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, London, W2 3XA. Adm: Free. Tel: 020 7402 6075. E-mail: information@serpentinegalleries.org Web: www.serpentinegalleries.org


~ ‘IMAGES FROM 42 WOMEN OF SIERRA LEONE’. Selection of images from 42 Women of Sierra Leone, by British photographer Lee Karen Stow, paying tribute to the strength and resilience of the women of Sierra Leone. The featured images were taken in 2007, five years after Sierra Leone emerged from a brutal civil war. This was a time of immense hardship, with few economic opportunities and very poor access to education and healthcare, particularly for women and girls. 42 was the average life expectancy for women at the time. Women, such as many of those depicted here, have led this agenda in the search for a better future; as activists, working professionals, community leaders, farmers, teachers, nurses and mothers. Until Sat 27 Sep at the Balcony Gallery, Horniman Museum, 100 London Rd, London, SE23 3PQ. Tel: 020 8699 1872.

~ ‘AT HOME WITH VANLEY BURKE’. Exhibition of the photographic work, archive and the hoardings of the Vanley Burke with a special focus on life around the West Midlands. Until 27 Sep at Tues–Sun at 11am-5pm at the Ikon Gallery, 1 Oozells Square, Brindley Place, Birmingham, B1 2HS. Tel Ikon Gallery: 0121 248 0708


Ronald Moody
Midonz 1937

~ BP SPOTLIGHT EXHIBITION ‘SPACES OF BLACK MODERNISM: LONDON 1919–39’. In the inter-war period cosmopolitan networks of artists, activists, writers and artists’ models in London helped shape the cultural and political identity of the city. The studios, art colleges and social clubs of Chelsea, Bloomsbury and Soho became places of trans-national exchange. ‘Spaces of Black Modernism’ draws together paintings, sculpture, photographs and archival material from Tate’s collection with others loaned from public and private collections. It follows the interactions between artists such as John Banting, Edward Burra, Jacob Epstein, Barbara Ker-Seymer, Ronald Moody, Glyn Philpot and Matthew Smith with others including the writers Claude McKay and Una Marson, the poet and political activist Nancy Cunard, the model ‘Sunita’ (Amina Peerbhoy) and the singer Elisabeth Welch. The display is a collaboration between Tate Britain and the Equiano Centre at University College London and builds on research from the Arts & Humanities Research Council-funded project, ‘Drawing Over the Colour Line’.
Exhibition runs until 4 Oct 2015 at Tate Britain, Millbank, London, SW1. Adm: Free.

~ ‘NO COLUR BAR: BLACK BRITISH ART IN ACTION 1960-1990’. Exhibition of the archive of the Guyanese campaigners and publishers Eric and Jessica Huntley. Until 24 Jan 2016 at Mon-Sat at 10am-5pm and Sun 12-4pm at Guildhall Art Gallery, Guildhall Yard, London, EC2V 5AE. Adm: Free. Tel: 020 7332 3700.

~ BUNDU DIA KONGO (BDK). Afrikan cultural and spiritual group working towards the spiritual and psychological growth and development of Afrikans all over the world. Let us make a positive change now. Learn about Afrikan prophets, Afrikan history and Afrikan spiritual practices at our weekly Zikua.

- Sun at 1.30–4.30pm at PSCC, 1 Othello Close, Kennington, London, SE11 4RE. Tel: Makaba - 07951 059 853. E-mail: moyomakaba9@gmail.com

- Sun at 12.30–3.15pm at Malika House, 81 George Street, Lozells, Birmingham, B19 1Sl. Tel: Mbuta Mayala – 07404 789 329.

~ THE AUSAR AUSET SOCIETY GI GONG CLASSES. Every Monday at 7.30–9pm at Hazel Road Community Centre, Hazel Road, Kensal Green, London, NW10 5PP. Adm: £5 per class. Tel: 07951- 252-427. E-mail: Tauinetwork.europe@gmail.com

Contact: Kubara Zamani, Afrikan Quest International, PO Box 35165, London, SE5 8WU. Tel: 07811 494 969. E-mail: afrikanquest1@hotmail.com

Afrikan Quest International

External Links
Afrikan Quest International

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