> China’s advantage in Africa lies in the policy tools at its disposal and structural incentives that have forced Beijing to prioritize Africa-China relations. In addition to direct government-to-government dealings, Beijing can lean on state-owned policy banks to lend money to Africa governments for projects on condition that they work with Chinese implementing firms. Chinese private firms and privateers, like Tecno Mobile or Huawei, have excelled in African markets by showing up and selling cheaper but reliable enough products. Finally, as a rising revisionist power, China has been hungrier for African support at the United Nations and other multilateral forums; and therefore made Africa a diplomatic priority. You see this not just in trade statistics but also in the manner in which Chinese officialdom treats their African counterparts at a personal level.
> Unguja is one of the earliest Swahili towns mentioned in external accounts, besides its identification as Lunjuya by al-Jāḥiẓ (d. 868), its also mentioned in the Arabic Book of Curiosities ca.1020 which contains a map showing the coasts of the Indian Ocean from China to eastern Africa where its included as ‘Unjuwa’ alongside ‘Qanbalu’ (Pemba island). 10
The elites of Unguja were also involved in long distance maritime travel. During Song dynasty china, the african envoy named Zengjiani who came from Zanzibar (rendered Cengtan in Chinese = Zangistân) and reached Guangzhou in 1071 and 1083, is likely to have come from Unguja.^11^
> The Kamiriithu Community Educational and Cultural Centre (KCECC) arose from a call from the community. It was formed when the villagers sought Ngugi wa Thiong’o to teach them.
The National Clothing Retail Federation of South Africa and the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union had filed formal complaints, in which both alleged that the company failed to pay import duties on orders made by its customers in the country.
> An Air Senegal delegation was in Dar es Salaam this past week for discussions with Air Tanzania officials on how best to take on Pratt & Whitney, the American aerospace company that produces the PW1524G-3 engines used by the planes.
>
> Both national carriers believe that the company is dragging its feet in resolving the longstanding issue of defective engines, leading to mounting losses for the airlines as their A220-300 fleets remain grounded.
When Kenya signed on to the China Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2017, the country expected to boost its economy. But now the move has increasingly come under criticism from Kenyan people over the country's public debt and China's growing influence on regional trade.
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- www.nordgen.org
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- 19d
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African countries with seed deposits:
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...
ILRI – Ethiopia
APGRC – Sudan
Institut d’Economie Rurale – Mali
AfricaRice – Ivory Coast
GRIGADEB – Benin
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> Over the past decade, ibogaine’s popularity has incentivized poachers to target shrubs in Gabon, one of the few places Tabernanthe iboga, the plant ibogaine is most commonly derived from, naturally propagates. Consumed in small doses, iboga root bark acts as a stimulant, often brewed into palm wine or chewed to curb hunger and fatigue. In larger doses, iboga has powerful psychoactive effects, which have been harnessed for centuries by the Fang, Mitsogo and Punu people of the Congo Basin, as part of the Bwiti religion. The ongoing poaching is depleting natural reserves of iboga in Gabon’s forests and cutting Gabonese people out of an industry that would not exist without their Indigenous knowledge.
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- www.aodl.org
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- 3M
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African Oral Narratives is a free, open access digital library containing 6 collections of oral and life histories, folklore, and songs from Ethiopia, Ghana, and South Africa. These audio and video resources capture the voices and experiences of ordinary men and women. In more than a half dozen African languages, these materials can be used for conducting historical research and to learn about many African cultures and languages.
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