WINNERS OF SAHARA GROUP’S PHOTO CONTEST EMERGE

The winner and first runner up of Sahara Group’s #TheGreenestLoveofAll Instagram based mobile photo contest have emerged amid fresh commitment by the leading African energy and infrastructure conglomerate to sustain conversations around environmental protection. 

                           Irene Ishengoma

 The winner, Irene Ishengoma, a teacher at St Anne Marie Academy in Dar-Es-.Salaam, Tanzania submitted a compelling piece about community led re-forestation aptly titled “Together We Can Overcome Environmental Destruction.” Temitope Otubusin a resident of Lagos, Nigeria came in second with an emotive submission titled “The Butterfly & The Eco-System”. During a telephone interview, Ishengoma the winner who teaches at St Anne Marie Academy in Da-Es-Salaam enthused: “I am so excited. I really want to thank the Sahara Group for giving me this creative experience. I feel more connected to matters concerning my natural environment than I ever have before. I’m also looking forward to using my brand new phone to keep the conversation on climate action alive!” 

Otubusin said the competition had inspired her to seek ways of championing the climate action cause through photography and advocacy. “I would like to commend Sahara Group for this initiative and believe that more private sector players, the government and civil society should also be part of this campaign. That is the only way we can deliver a sustainable and healthy environment to generations unborn,” she said. 

                             "The Butterfly 

Sahara Group harvested over 330 photos which were eventually shortlisted by top photographers to 10 of what were considered to be the most creative and thematically compelling entries.

 The top two pictures were selected after they garnered the most number of likes on @iamsaharagroup – Sahara Group’s Instagram platform – following a Vote by Liking contest which was open to members of the public. The top 10 entries accumulated a combination of over 8,500 in likes and comments on the Sahara’s Instagram handle Bethel Obioma, Head of Corporate Communications said: “We could never have anticipated the level of enthusiasm that greeted the competition. We received entries from different countries and the independent assessors commended the quality of the entries and the depth of the messages in the captions. 

Sahara Group is already exploring various initiatives to sustain global awareness and action. “ Obioma expressed delight at the unprecedented level of reach and engagement, which included a solidarity message from the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals Fund (SDGF). “Our partner Sahara Group is bringing attention to #SDG13 on Climate Action across Africa with a photo contest. You can put your creativity at the service of the #2030Agenda. You are invited to join the campaign,” the organisation tweeted from its handle, @SDGFund. 

“We intend to continue pulling all available levers which can help us broaden the climate change conversation and widen the audience of the people we engage. There is an urgent need for global sustainable collaboration towards saving the planet. The time to act is now,” Obioma added. The finale of #TheGreenestLoveofAll project will be held at the African Artists Foundation in Lagos this April where enlarged and framed versions of the winning photographs will be exhibited.



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MY FAMILY MEMBERS, FRIENDS IN ETHIOPIA NOW WEAR NIGERIAN DRESSES BECAUSE OF ME —ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES BOSS CONFESSES

Pretty and delectable Firiehiwot Mekonnen is the General Manager of Ethiopia Airlines in Nigeria.Before rising to her new position, the mother of one was head of traffic and sales in Abuja. Firiehiwot Mekonnen In the wake of the news of Ethiopia Airline powering with an all female crew of pilots, engineers and cabin crew members in an international   flight from Boles International Airport Addis Ababa to Lagos,   she speaks of the massive responsibility of managing   ET’s huge business of five daily flights to and from Nigeria   and her love for and relationship with the country. She also speaks about the new ET policy of empowering women to be the very best of what they could be and other issues. What was your first impression about Nigeria upon your arrival? My first impression about Nigeria was very nice and very beautiful.

 Nigerians are very enterprising people. They are very happy and bubbly with energy. I like that. They can start up a conversation with  you   even when they do not know you. Did you hear any stories about the country before your arrival? Yes I heard a lot about Nigeria before my posting that Nigeria is Africa’s giant with lots of blessed resources. I also heard some crazy stories about how Nigerians act. I have since found out that most of the stories are exaggerated. Yes to some outsiders, Nigerians are different but Nigerians are one of the most welcoming people I have met. Did your real impression fit into the stories you heard? In fact the impression I got once I came to Nigeria was different from what I heard. I came to really connect with Nigeria and Nigerians. I eat Nigerian food, dress in Nigerian attire, participate in different social gatherings. All these and others doubled my love for the country and its people who are really friendly. I cannot describe how it feels to attend Nigerian parties and events. It is so colorful. Are there Nigerian foods, culture and traditions including fashion that you connect with? I love Nigerian food. In fact, I go out with friends to Nigerian restaurants. I love the culture of friendship and family ties too. The attires are really different and I have quite a number of Nigerian national dresses because they are beautiful, colorful and graceful. I feel happy whenever I wear them. Even my family members and friends now have Nigerian dresses. I have been exposed to the richness of Nigerian culture and its people, Nigerian films (Nollywood) and the music. Do you know that Dangote has become a household name in Ethiopia since he built one of his factories in Ethiopia? There are very few women managing many big organizations including airlines like you; do you see this development as a change from the norm and a win for women in the world and especially in Africa? I see the world as continuously changing as to give more opportunity to women to become more leaders at the top of organizations and this is already proving itself by the way of increased productivity and improved efficiency Ethiopian Airline, the leading aviation group in Africa is taking the leading path in making this come true. One of the value statement of Ethiopian Airline is “ equal opportunity, employer committed to diversity and fairness” So you can see that this is happening already. 

ET has given women the chance to be pilots, engineers, ground handlers,   aviation instructors, regional and country managers. If you come and see the biggest aviation Academy in Africa is in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia you will see lots of women studying these fields from all over Africa countries. ET did an amazing thing recently when it launched an all women crew; do you see this as also one of the winning ways for African women? ET brought the all women operated flight to Lagos on December 16, 2017 to show that women can do anything and to show that Nigeria can be a leading country that empowers women. This all women operated international flight was the first in Africa and it got applause from all corners of the world. 

Again on March 8, 2018,  ET will do another all women operated flight to one of our new international destinations   Buenos Aires, Argentina. This is intended to inspire African girls. This very bold statement is very important. Could you make an assessment of ET business in Nigeria and Africa in general? ET the only SKYTRAX 4 star airline in Africa is now flying to five destinations in Nigeria everyday including to Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna, Kano and Enugu. It airlifted the highest number of international passengers out of Nigeria in 2017 according to NCAA analysis. 

This is history; that an African airline carried the highest number of passengers in another African country. We are happy that we were able to defend Africa in this rating. Even during the closure of Abuja airport, ET was the only international airline that agreed to fly Kaduna Already we are seeking partnerships with other African countries to strengthen their capacity to thrive like us. We are doing this in Togo, Malawi, Zambia, and more recently in Guinea. We fly to over 100 destinations worldwide with the most modern fleet of Boeing B787, Dreamliner B777 and Airbus A350. With our vision 2025 strategy, we are opening up more international routes in the next six months including to Geneva Switzerland, Buenos Aires Argentina, Nosybe Madagascar, and Kisangani DRC.





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GAMBIAN MODEL BAGS QUEEN OF AFRICA AT MISS GLAMOROUS WORLD

A young Gambian model, Aisha Riley of Latri Kunda Sabiji has been crowned Queen of Africa at a recent Miss Glamorous World 2018 contest held in Berlin, Germany.

William Brown made her participation at the international beauty showdown possible through iconic model agency- International Modeling Agency. She was accompanied with 3 other teammates.

Aisha was crowned Queen of Africa after going through vigorous stages performances and platforms where she put up enthralling talents. Similar to many beauty pageants, Miss Glamorous World stands for the activity in the field of modeling, fashion, dance and beauty contest.

After much participation at international beauty events, Glamourfaces.de launches its own beauty contest with a particular focus on the face with the international beauty contest- Miss Glamorfaces World and managed to establish itself worldwide through franchising and licenses.

The focus of the yearlong activity according to Guenter Weig, head of the agency, is to support young models at the start of their modeling business.

On her epic performances at the event, congratulatory messages have flooded social media, commending the young Gambian model for such a remarkable achievement at the world stage

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AFRICA'S POPULATION EXPLOSION A TICKING TIME BOMB, AfDB WARNS

The African Development Bank and its East and North African Governors have stressed the need for urgent measures to match the continent's growing population and youth unemployment, which they likened to a "ticking time bomb."

Africa is projected to have over 840 million youth by 2050 with the continent having the youngest population on earth.

The meeting described the continent's growing young population as a potential growth engine for the world.

"The good news is that the solution is within our reach and will require investments," AfDB, President, Akinwumi Adesina said.

At the end of a two-day consultation at the headquarters of the Bank in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, the Bank and the Governors discussed strategises for closing Africa's $170 billion infrastructure investment gap.

To bridge the investment gap, ensure inclusive growth, and create employment for the continent's population, the meeting endorsed the AfDB-led African Investment Forum and described it as a timely opportunity to catalyse investments into projects and attract social impact financing to Africa.

Tanzania's Minister for Finance and Planning, Isdor Mpango, called for closer involvement of the private sector in financing development on the continent.

Mpango said: "The African Development Bank is well positioned to advise and assist Governments and the private sector to come up with bankable projects."

He called for direct resources to provide budget support and investment opportunities."

Through the African Investment Forum, scheduled for November 7-9, 2018 in Johannesburg, South Africa, the Bank and its partners intend to showcase bankable projects, attract financing, and provide platforms for investing across Africa. The forum will bring together the AfDB and other global multilateral financial institutions to de-risk investments at scale.

"A uniqueness of the African Investment Forum is that there will be no speeches. The only speeches will be transactions," said Adesina.

Rwanda's Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Claver Gatete said: "The African Development Bank has already discussed the concept of the African Investment Forum with us. The Rwandan Government takes this Forum very seriously."

"Jobs will come from industrialisation. The new approach using the African Investment Forum to de-risk the sector and attract investors is the way to go," said Kenyan Finance Minister, Kiplagat Rotich.

13 per cent of the world's population is estimated to live in sub-Saharan Africa today. That number is projected to more than double by 2050. Four billion (or 36 per cent of the world's population) could live in the region by 2100, according to the UN Population Division. Africa is projected to have over 840 million youth by 2050 with the continent having the youngest population on earth.

According to Adesina, "We have 12 years left to the SDGs. It is an alarm bell because if Africa does not achieve the SDGs, the world won't achieve them. The African Development Bank is accelerating development across Africa through the High 5s. We are deepening our reforms. We deepened our disbursements to the highest levels ever last year and we are leveraging more resources for Africa."

Tunisia's Finance Minister Zied Ladhari recalled how the Bank's 11-year temporary relocation to his country helped strengthen the bonds between them. "We share the Bank's vision. Africa is the continent of the future. This is a great Africa moment with the Bank at the centre. Unleashing the potential of African economies is a task which the Bank must accomplish."

As part of the Bank's High 5 agenda, 13 million African women have benefitted from new electricity connections and 23 million from improvements in agriculture. Also, 10 million African women have benefited from investee projects

An analysis of the African Development Bank's impact from 2010-2017 indicates that 27 million Africans gained access to new electricity connections. 899,000 small businesses were provided with financial services. 35 million have benefitted from improved access to water and sanitation.

"With the Bank's support, Somalia has evolved from a failed to a fragile state," asserted Somalia's Finance Minister, Abdirahman Beileh. "The African Development Bank has been with us throughout. Together we can reach the bright light at the end of the tunnel."

Algeria's Finance Minister, Abderahmane Raouia, said "The biggest challenge for Africa today is job creation. It is a stake of stability and a lever to pull economic growth upwards. We must offer job opportunities for young people to convince them to stay here on the continent."

According to Simon Mizrahi, Director, Delivery, Performance Management and Results, the Bank needs to move from billions to trillions in its funding and leveraging effect.

Egypt's Ambassador to Côte d'Ivoire, Mohamed El-Hamzawi, who represented the Finance Minister, said the country has seen two revolutions in 2011 and 2014. He thanked the Bank for supporting the country's macroeconomic stabilization, financial reforms, infrastructure, and energy projects, among others.

Morocco's Economy and Finance Minister, Mohammed Boussaid, praised the Bank's ambition for Africa, and underscored its support for energy, agriculture and infrastructure projects. He said "a capital increase today is not a choice, it is a necessity. Today, the leading export sector in Morocco no longer belongs to traditional sectors, such as phosphates, but to the automotive industry. This generates jobs and adds value for sustainable and robust growth."

With a substantive capital increase, the African Development will be able to execute its robust pipeline of operations (15bn in 2018 alone), including infrastructure and regional integration projects. The prospects for 2018-2020 are bright, with 50.3 million people benefitting from improved access to transport compared to 14 million in 2017. Also, more than 35 million people are expected to benefit from new or improved electricity connections, in contrast to 4.4 million delivered in 2017.

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A TEACHER TELLS HIS CLASS NOT TO DATE AFRICAN-AMERICANS 'BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT WORTH IT'

A teacher tells his class not to date African-Americans 'because they are not worth it'

(CNN) A Florida teacher has been suspended after his school district concluded he repeatedly used the N-word in class, and told his 7th and 8th graders not to date African-Americans "because they are not worth it," among other violations. David Swinyar, who says he is white in his personnel, teaches math at Kernan Middle School in Jacksonville. The school has 1,148 students — 22.6 percent of whom are African-American.

Just after lunch on October 6, 2017, a student told a school board investigator that their teacher, Swinyar, and students were discussing relationships.

"If your boyfriend says bad things to you and/or treats you wrong, that means he's acting like a n-----," Swinyar said according to student testimony in a school district investigative report. "You all should not be dating all these different African-American boys because they are not worth it."

A separate incident

In what appears to be a separate incident covered in the investigative report, students said Swinyar made other racist remarks in August 2017.

According to the report, Swinyar used the N-word during an argument with a student.

"If my daughter was dating someone who used the 'f' word, I wouldn't have any respect for that n-----," a student recalled Swinyar saying, according to an investigative report. Another student then confronted Swinyar about using the racial slur; he denied using it.

The school counselor, quoting a student, reported that Swinyar said, "If [Swinyar's daughter] was dating someone and that 'n' said the 'f' word, I would beat him up."

After he was confronted by a student, other students said Swinyar said, "I would never say that, but if I did, I am sorry."

A 10-day suspension

Swinyar reportedly said he attended an African-American church, and students said he made fun of the preacher's preaching style. The district also concluded in the report that Swinyar made inappropriate comments to students, such as calling some of them "dumb."

CNN reached out to Swinyar for comment, but has not yet received a response.

Florida's teacher union, the Florida Education Association, declined to comment on the situation Thursday.

"One of the FEA's core values is to 'value and respect the diversity among all individuals,'" said FEA communications director Sharon Nesvig, when asked for the organization's general policy on racist language in the classroom. "So, clearly FEA is opposed to using racial slurs and derogatory language inside or outside the classroom."

Swinyar received a 10-day unpaid suspension for the behaviors documented in the district's investigation. CNN affiliate WFOX-WJAX reports Swinyar will also get a letter of reprimand and a mandatory referral to the Employee Assistance Program.

After this story was published, CNN was sent a letter Duval County Schools Superintendent Patricia Willis sent to the school board members on Thursday afternoon. That letter further outlined what the district plans to do with Swinyar.

"Following the employee's suspension without pay, he will be reassigned to an appropriate district position with no contact with students for the remainder of the year," said Willis. "As an annual contract employee, Mr. Swinyar's employment contract with the district expires June 30, 2018. In May, recommendations for contract renewals for all annual employees will be considered."

Records indicate Swinyar has taught in the Duval County school board system since 2012.

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'I'M THE BLACK WONDER WOMAN': 2018 SEES AFROFUTURISM GO INTO ORBIT

This time last year actor Daniel Kaluuya was on our cinema screens as the beleaguered hero of Get Out, a modestly budgeted horror-comedy that managed to shatter conventional Hollywood wisdom. Mainstream audiences don't relate to black protagonists, warned the naysayers.

But the $US4.5 million film went on to earn more than $US255 million worldwide, along with Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actor for Kaluuya himself.

Daniel Kaluuya, left, congratulates Jordan Peele, winner of the award for best original screenplay forGet Out at the Oscars last weekend.

Photo: AP

Twelve months on, and Kaluuya is back on screens in another film that's turning the industry upside-down. This time it's a supporting role in Marvel's Black Panther, which in a mere three weeks has made more than $US1 billion, enjoying the fifth-largest opening weekend of all time and raking in more in a week than many blockbusters make over their entire lifetime.

Get Out and Black Panther are both genre flicks that centre on black characters, but it's worth considering where they part ways. The former taps into the real fears of young black men within an oppressive white culture, while the latter offers a vision of an African utopia that was never touched by colonisation.

One warns: this is how bad things can get. The other promises: this is how good things could be.

Black Panther is largely set in the fictional African nation of Wakanda, a techno-paradise of unalloyed wonder. This fantastic world-building might seem par for the course for any Marvel superhero film, yet in science fiction and fantasy today you're more likely to encounter an apocalypse than an idyllic Eden. Marvel's last outing,Thor: Ragnarok, detailed the demolition of the Norse gods' home of Valhalla – heaven itself given the wrecking ball treatment. Black Panther's Wakanda, conversely, is what sets it apart from the usual Marvel fare.

Billion-dollar success: A scene from Black Panther.

Photo: AP

To make sense of the film's success, look to Afrofuturism. When cultural critic Mark Dery coined the term in the mid-90s, he was looking to those instances of pop culture that dared to imagine a future for the African diaspora as bright as the sun – think seminal jazz figure Sun Ra's radical self-reinvention as an alien from Saturn, or the elaborate “P-Funk mythology” constructed across George Clinton's entire career.

Celebrated African-American authors Samuel R. Delany and Octavia Butler employed their fictional time travellers and starfarers to reflect upon black history; more recently, the Afrofuturist visions of novelist N. K. Jemisin have seen her take home the Hugo Award for Best Novel the last two years running.

Afrofuturism might be most striking because science fiction has long been a notoriously unwelcoming space for people of colour. For Dery, simply writing the future through the lens of black experience is a political act: “Isn’t the unreal estate of the future already owned by thetechnocrats, futurologists, streamliners and set designers – white to a man – who have engineered our collective fantasies?”

Oprah Winfrey in a scene from A Wrinkle in Time.

Photo: AP

2018 may be the year Afrofuturism achieves orbit.Black Pantherwill soon be joined by A Wrinkle in Time, another blockbuster sci-fi film featuring a cast of colour including Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Oprah Winfrey, Mindy Kaling and Storm Reid, and Brown Girl Begins, an adaptation of Canadian Afrofuturist favouriteBrown Girl in the Ring.

The latest Star Trek series,Discovery, has promoted a black woman to the helm, while television adaptations of essential Afrofuturist literature including Octavia Butler'sDawn and Nnedi Okorafor's Who Fears Death are in the pipeline.

Singer Janelle Monae's visual persona has always been heavily weighted with afrofuturist imagery, but her upcoming album Dirty Computer will be accompanied by a feature-length film stuffed full of hovercars and neon-studded jumpsuits.

Ryan Griffen is the creator ofCleverman, the SBS sci-fi/superhero series that mashes up a dystopian future and old stories of the Dreaming. From the outset Griffen saw Cleverman as the kind of superhero who could empower his son (the fictional character and the 11-year-old share the same name, too).

Koen West, played by Hunter Page-Lochard, the hero of Ryan Griffen's Cleverman series.

Photo: Lisa Tomasetti

“It's just about making sure that we're getting those stories and those characters to be front and centre, and not just ones that are taking orders from a white general or as a sidekick," Griffen says. ''That they're a hero first and foremost.”

The dystopia of Cleverman might seem antithetical to Black Panther's African paradise, but Griffen says that even dystopias offer hope for change, especially when they're metaphors for the real experiences of people living right now.

“With dystopian futures, that's the world that black people have to live in today. Post-colonial settlement, their world was destroyed and they've a need to survive and to hope to bring our culture back to the forefront. Black Panther is obviously doing that on a grand scale for black people all over the world.”

A scene from Ryan Griffen's Cleverman.

Photo: Supplied

Genre conventions are one way of easing viewers into considering real world politics, he says.

“When you're creating a story and it has black content, the first thing you're going to find from a universal audience is that they get their backs up already. This is black politics and you find a lot of people get on the defensive. In allowing genres to bleed through your message or to help frame that content, it breaks a lot of those barriers down and allows your audience to go on this journey and hopefully learn something without them realising it. Otherwise they can tend to feel like they're being preached to.”

Griffen caught Black Panther on its opening weekend with his 11-year-old son Koen. “I've never seen my son react to a film like this before. He was constantly tapping me on the shoulder, saying 'that was cool, look at that!'. Just seeing all of these huge, strong black characters. It was the energy of it. That hip-hop vibe that I play in the car. You constantly knew you were watching a film made by a black man.”

Superhero stories might be written off as kid's stuff, but that only makes representation matter more. A 2011 study found that longer television viewing times for seven to 12-year-olds correlate with lower levels of self-esteem – unless you're a white boy, in which case “regardless of what show you're watching ... things in life are pretty good for you''. The white male characters populating these kid's viewing habits often succeeded without really trying.

Letitia Wright in a scene from Black Panther.

Photo: AP

Writer and performer Candy Bowers never identified as a blerd – black nerd – and found her white partner's geeky collection of Star Wars figures to be a source of amusement. In the wake of Black Panther, which she's seen three times already, she's had to make a confession to him: “I'm considering getting the figurines. Seriously. I'm thinking about the dolls, and not even for my nieces.”

When Bowers was growing up black in Australia, pop culture didn't offer her a lot of options when it came to costume parties.

“As a kid you grow up playing dress-ups and people would say 'who are you meant to be?' And you'd say 'I'm the black Wonder Woman'. I'm the black whatever. Now, suddenly, you can be the character. Even with Star Wars, now there are characters that girls and people of colour can be from the last few years of filmmaking.”

Candy Bowers (left) and her co-star Nancy Denis in their new show One the Bear.

Photo: Hana Schlesinger

Bowers' most recent show is One the Bear, an afropunk fable for teens. “It's totally Afrofuturism, hip-hop from beginning to end,” she says.

One performance in Brisbane last year was attended by “a hundred 12-year-olds, lots of girls of colour, and there's this one feminist moment where the girls couldn't stop screaming and clapping. It was my rock star moment. Then one of the teachers said 'it's not really fair that this is the first play they see, because they may never see a play like this again'.

The students of University Prep Academy High School in Detroit are told they are all going to a screening of Black Panther.

Photo: AP

"But there's this movement going on. They'll see Black Panther. There's stuff for them, finally. And that's the kind of thing that's really different to how it was for me growing up in Australia.

“Even hearing J.K. Rowling saying that if she had her time again she would have cast Hermione as a black girl, that would have changed everything.”

The world of Black Panther is one in which black is the default. There are only two white characters with more than a few lines, and even their inclusion feels tokenistic. Bowers jokes that Halloween this year will pose a dilemma for many of the film's fans: “if you're white there are only two characters you're allowed to play.”

'There's this movement going on': Candy Bowers.

Photo: Hana Schlesinger

Don't expect the current surge of Afrofuturism to wane any time soon. Later this year an animatedSpiderman film will introduce Afro-Latino Miles Morales in the webslinger suit, while Donald Glover's upcoming turn as Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars spin-off Solo has many betting he'll be given his own standalone film in the near future.

And Black Panther's box office success is virtually guaranteed to deliver sequels – the character's comic series has already attracted the likes of literary celebrities Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay in the writer's chair.

Bowers has already heard friends and trolls alike denying that Black Panther's Afrofuturist politics are an element of its success. “Racism is really f---ing hard to deal with. Not seeing yourself is really hard to deal with. Then when a film like this comes along and people want to say 'it's not about colour', yes it is. And my personal experience in this instance is more important than yours. It just is.”

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