Black Panther Mellows in Tanzania

Apropos of our work this week on the colonization of eastern and southern Africa, here's a very hopeful article about an American out-law who's made a new life in the Tanzanian bush.

So as not to overwhelm you all as the semester gets more intense, I'm going to post on Tuesdays and Thursdays from now on instead of every weekday.

Nigeria Turns 50

There is a series of interesting articles on Nigeria in the Guardian today because it's the 50th anniversary of Nigeria's independence from Britain. This article about the traditional rulers that still exist in the country caught my attention.

The textbooks mention Ibn Battuta, who was a great traveler. He lived at about the time of Marco Polo, and covered many more miles than Polo. He was intent on visiting the entire Islamic world. Of course, that included West Africa and the Sahara from 1351-1353 CE. You can read about his trip to Sub-Saharan Africa here.

Another site has a very cool google map of his entire journey.

The African Faces of American Football

This one's for Will! Here's an article about three football players with close ties to Africa and a strong urge to make the world better.

I can cheer for that!

Here's an article about Nigerian pirates attacking an off-shore oil field and taking hostages. This short article really shows just how global the oil business is there. The hostages taken were French employees working in an off-shore oil field that is operated by a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned oil producer Sinopec Group. The pirates were armed with Russian Kalashnikov rifles. What really surprised me is that Nigeria is one of the main suppliers of oil to the USA.

Why are Nigerian guerrillas attacking and sabotaging oil production?

Did you know that Nigeria has had a worse oil disaster than the BP Gulf disaster?

Somalia and Identity

Here's an interesting article that describes a small town in Somalia. It points out that Somalia has been without a functioning government for 20 years and that, unlike most of the rest of the continent, Somalia is remarkably homogeneous with everyone speaking the same language, sharing an ethnic identity, and one single religion (Sunni Islam).

How can there be war when everyone is in the same group? Another article points out that Somalis are divided by clan, sub-clan, and sub-sub-clan identities.

Best Use of Distance Learning

There's an article in the NY Times about an excellent on-line MBA program that is giving 250 full scholarships to Africans with big plans to make a positive impact on their communities.

Could you or I do something really really useful with an MBA, something that would make the world better?