African singers

I explored the Afropop website, reading information about all different kinds of African singers. Youssou n'Dour is one of the famous singers listed on webpage. He has traveled all over the world performing music from his culture and adding different sounds Youssou is a Goodwill ambassador of UNICEF and is involved with human rights.  Another singer, Oumou Sangare, is from Mali. She has a bluesy beat to her songs. Sangare is involved with female rights, you can recongize this by her lyrics.  Here is a link to Youssou's web page where you can learn more about him and listen to some of his music.  Also Sangare has a myspace page which you can listen to her music and learn more about her too.

Fighting Against AIDS

I thought I would do a blog about AIDs because it is so widely associated with Africa. Since people assume that people in Africa need help in dealing with the AIDs epdemiac I thought I would share some information i've learned while reading an article found on All Africa.com. I am not saying we shouldn't help, or that they don't need help. I am trying to show people that they are also aware of what's happening in their country and trying to do things to stop it. For instance the Kogi State government spent over 100 million on HIV/AIDS last year. The money they spent went directly to the people who need it the most. Those people are the ones living with AIDs they bought antiretroviral drugs, food and  training of people living with the disease. The rates of people living with HIV/AIDS have dropped, but people coming to counseling and testing programs for AIDs hasn't had much attendence. They are not sure about the number of people living with the disease in their state, but they encourage people to not be scared and come get tested for HIV.

I found this article to aviod the negative myths of Africa and show that it is a helping and intelligent country that wants to put an end to the AIDs epediamc in their country. They are doing things to stop this problem, but it is going to take time and the people in the country to step forward. I believe one step at a time Africa will get control over AIDs.

Fleeing Violence

I found an article on the webpage AllAfrica.com about citizens fleeing an area in Sudan called Abyei. Thousands have left because of a break out in violence. Sudan accused a unknown milita for burning a village. The Misseriya tribe threaten to invade Abyei. Leaving the town empty, the South Sudan police clash with the Misseriya tribe. Tensions with the confrontations grew as the Misseriya tribe search for pastures during the migration season. North and South Sudan agreed to hold a meeting to address insecurity in the area. The Kadugli agreement, agreed that the South Sudan police would leave Abyei and pass on the security in the area upon the joint integrated units. In previous years 100 peacekeepers where in the area to withhold the peace after the civil war between north and south Sudan. Abyei's status was supposed to be determined  in January on whether to maintain its current administrative status in the north or join the south. Unfortunately the vote on Abyei never took place. South Sudan officials said that militiamen allied with north Sudan burned a village in the area on Saturday. Chieftains of Misseriya tribe told north Sudan officials in a meeting seek peace with the south in order to reach a lasting solution to Abyei. Although the Misseriya tribe said the would enter Abyei in ten days if they weren't allowed to take there livestock to an area. North and south Sudan fought a civil war for nearly half a century. They finally signed a peace deal known as the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005.

I found this article interesting because of the violence among the different groups of people. With such a diverse country I think it would be very difficult to establish order. I take this into a lot of consideration because if you think of all the different beliefs the different tribes have you would never want to let go of those for a different group therefore trying to make peace and everyone feel like they are getting treated equal would be hard to do. Also since we learned about all the languages they speak communication would be a huge issue when trying to debate these issues. Lack of communication ruins relationships and makes it very difficult to understand others. I think this is a huge cause of the violence. Also it will be a very hard, long, process if ever fixed.