2017 NDNU African Studies

As we come to the celebrating the 20th anniversary of "The Lion King" on Broadway, I deem it appropriate to say how Broadway has changed the lives of many South Africans. " Over the last two decades, 263 South Africans, many with little formal training in singing or acting, have been dispatched all over the planet to “Lion King” productions staged in Dutch, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese and Spanish."  Back in the '90's when the production was being put into action, the president of Disney's theatrical division, Thomas Schumacher and Ms. Taymor, wanted to help persuade "Actor's Equity" to a allow a contingent of South African performers to keep the authenticity alive throughout the show.  Since then, every year, Disney teams visit Durban, Johannesburg, and Cape Town to cast more.  Ma. Taymor says that " it's like the spiritual foundation of The Lion King". https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/15/t

"In recent days we have all been horrified by images of African migrants being sold as 'goods' in Libya," said UN Secretary-General António Guterres said. Guterres, former head of the UN agency on refugees, added, "slavery and other such egregious abuses of human rights have no place in the 21st century." I'm gonna stand on my soapbox and rant for a little bit.  Why is slave trade still a thing in 2017? When looking up the definition of human trafficking, it says:  the action or practice of ILLEGALLY  transporting people from one country or area to another, typically for the purposes of forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation. It says illegally...why is this still happening? You would think that now that we are in the year 2017 that people would be able to look back on history you'd see that  this is something EVERYONE with a brain or soul is against. This should not be happening. No one should have to be in the middle of this.  No one shoul

US President Donald Trump as issued a bomb on Isis in Somalia.  I personally am not a fan of our president.  I find that he's the kind of man that just wants pure chaos to occur in a world around him.  I personally feel that he is not mentally fit to run a country. And as for bombing ISIS...i don't agree. I am the kind of person that wants to believe that we can solve issues peacefully.  I feel that bombing ISIS will only aggravate them even more and stir this situation at hand.  " Mr. Trump gave the military wider latitude this year to go after militants in Somalia, specifically those associated with the Shabab terrorist group. The head of Africa Command, Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser,waited months before exercising the authorities , citing the difficulty of striking militants mixed with a civilian population on the move in the midst of a regional famine."  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/world/africa/isis-bombed-somalia.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Faf

This article is about Joseph Duo, a man who was photographed during the final moments of Liberia's 14-year civil war.   He  "was photographed jumping in the air: his torso bare and muscle-carved, his face stretched with excitement after he fired a rocket-propelled grenade at rebels". More than 10 years after the war ended, Duo was encouraged to go back to school. He then studied criminal justice at the University of Monrovia. Now, this year, he is dipping his toes in the political pool.  “There is still war in this country, but this war is not by gun,” Mr. Duo said in an interview outside his house in Paynesville. “It’s economic war — economic war, because high-class people that are in position, they suppress the vast majority, and only they live better life.”  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/world/africa/joseph-duo-liberia-election.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fafrica&action=click&contentCollection=africa&region=stream&module=stream_un

This article is about the Travel Ban that Trump is imposing on Chad.  " Mr. Trump accepted the recommendation of Elaine C. Duke, his acting secretary of Homeland Security, to include Chad in the travel ban after she wrote in a classified report that the country had done too little to crack down on Islamic extremists." Trump's racism is ridiculous.  When the travel ban occurred earlier in the year there were riots.  So many protests happened just outside of so many airports going against Trump's administration.  I was one of those many activists that were at LAX saying that the ban was ridiculous and unfair.  Denying anyone access to this country is not what America is about.  We are a country founded on immigrants.  We are a country that accepts everyone for their race or religion or who they befriend.  Now saying that "Chad didn't do enough against the Islamic community" just isn't a reason to deny anyone access to this country.   https://www.n

As the United Nations General Assembly gathered this past week and the main issue discussed was nuclear weapons.  This was brought up literally a day after President Donald Trump "vowed to totally destroy North Korea if it threatened the United States or any of our allies".  " Leaders from around the globe began adding their signatures to a treaty that bans nuclear weapons  , although the world’s nine nuclear-armed countries declined to sign it and denounced it as dangerously naïve."  I don't know if would completely agree with the signing of the treaty is being  naïve, but the whole "totally destroying North Korea" is completely childish. It's basically Trump playing a taunting game with North Korea. Let's face it, our President is basically a child in a grown man's cheetopuff body and wants any reason to start a war because he thinks that's how one solves all the worlds problem. His statement full of taunt.  It's like a child sayi