August 25, 2020

Muslim Songwriter Facing Death Penalty for Blasphemy Revives Bitter Debate in Nigeria

Anti-death penalty protestor

New York (TriceEdneyWire.com/GIN) – Death sentences are rare in northern Nigeria where Sharia law is implemented alongside secular law in most states.

But the recent sentence of a 22-year-old singer to die by hanging has revived an emotional debate in the West African nation. An upper Sharia court in the Hausawa Filin Hockey area of Kano state ruled on August 10 that Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, 22, should die by hanging for the crime of blasphemy for a song he circulated via WhatsApp in March.

Sharif-Aminu allegedly blasphemed the Prophet Muhammad in a song praising an imam to the extent that it elevated him above the Holy Prophet. The song had been viewed as completely acceptable by some fellow followers of the Tijaniya Muslim brotherhood.

Offended members of the community took to the streets and burned down the singer’s family home. Marching to Islamic police headquarters, known as the Hisbah, they demanded action against him.

Even the singer’s father, Aminu Sharif, disowned him. “Blasphemy is not my ideology, he said, “and I promise to arrest (my son) and hand him over to security agents whenever he is found.”

Not all Nigerians – Muslim or others – agree with the harsh sentence however and they filled the online pages of the Premium Times, a Nigerian news outlet, appealing for compassion and the rule of law.

“Lawyers in the house, please, under which section of the Penal Code will the guy be charged by police?” asked Unite2013. Added Blessing Ekpere Ogbu: “One country, two systems. What happens to those criminals who burnt the house of a citizen? What are the security agencies doing about that?”

And at the recent 6th Annual Legal Workshop organized by the Nigeria Association of Muslim Law Students, Lagos State University, guest speaker Akin Ibidapo-Obe, called for the abolition of death penalty in Nigeria, saying it was abused by the powers that be “to advance their hegemony over their enemies.”

More than 2,000 people sit on death row in Nigeria, according to Amnesty International. Sentences include stoning, shooting and lethal injection.

Governors must sign off on the executions, which happen behind closed doors. Some quietly disagree with the punishments or fear public backlash so they avoid the signatures, letting the accused exhaust their chance at an appeal and languish in prison for years.

Also sitting on death row is Maryam Sanda, a mother of three, for allegedly stabbing her husband over infidelity. A petition to reverse the sentence can be found on Change.org where over 800 have now signed.  

July 14, 2020

Noted Writer Confronts UK for Its Failure to Address Reparations

A. Hirsch (left) at book event

(GIN) - Noted writer Afua Hirsch doesn’t shy away from difficult questions and she recently posed one to a British cabinet minister.

“Why,” she asked the minister, “has England never apologized for the transatlantic slave trade?” Britain, she reminded him, had trafficked more enslaved Africans than almost any other – at least 3 million on British ships.  Yet the most the European country had to offer was “regret.”

“It’s a strange choice of words for playing a leading role in the greatest atrocity in human history,” she said to herself.

He explained: The UK cannot apologize because it might make England liable morally, ethically and legally. “In other words,” she concluded, “Britain won’t use the language of apology out of fear this might pave the way for reparations.”

And so the debate about reparations has, conveniently, been branded extreme and unrealistic by those who don’t want to pay them, Hirsch says pointedly. And when Prince Charles, heir to the throne, recently thanked members of the Caribbean community in Britain for their contributions to society, Hirsch rebuffed the thanks, saying what Britain owes is, in fact, a straight-up financial debt.

As the U.S. debate over reparations gathers steam, similar debates have been taking place on the European continent since the 18th century, she points out. Black people have stated the case in petitions, correspondences, pamphlets, public speeches, slave narratives and judicial claims – advocating in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

“As the French colonial writer Prince Marc Kojo Tovalou Houénou wrote of Benin, Black people ‘cry ‘Reparations!’ without ceasing’. That this cry was deliberately ignored for so long in the past cannot logically form the basis of a denial in the present.”

The Guardian article sparked over 1,000 letters starting with Mary Ruck of Manchester, who wrote:

“Afua Hirsch is right to challenge the shiftless response to the case for reparations. Her argument is fortified by the fact that within living memory Britain, as a colonial power, exploited the forced labor of those in captivity to gain economic advantage.” Ruck was counsel for Kenyans detained during the “Emergency” (also known as the Mau Mau Uprising) from 1952-1962. (Reparations in 2018 were denied because of the length of time elapsed and a three year time limit on such claims)

Hirsch, of Ghanaian heritage, writes for the Guardian newspaper where her article: “The case for British slavery reparations can no longer be brushed aside” appeared this month. An earlier article: “The Racism that killed George Floyd was built in Britain” was published in June. Her book, “On Race, Identity and Belonging” was published in 2018.  

GLOBAL INFORMATION NETWORK creates and distributes news and feature articles on current affairs in Africa to media outlets, scholars, students and activists in the U.S. and Canada. Our goal is to introduce important new voices on topics relevant to Americans, to increase the perspectives available to readers in North America and to bring into their view information about global issues that are overlooked or under-reported by mainstream media.

June 14, 2020

Capping Week of Protests, Slave Trader Statue Toppled by UK Activists

Empty Pedestal

(TriceEdneyWire.com/GIN) – Years of inaction over the fate of an 18 foot statue of Edward Colston, a 17th century slave trader with the Royal African Company (RAC) was decided this week with the toppling of Colston’s bronze statue in Bristol, England.

The statue was pulled down by protestors at a demonstration in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and George Floyd. The figure was dragged to the Bristol harbor and flung into the River Avon.

During Colston’s employ at the RAC between 1672 and 1689, some 80,000 men, women and children were trafficked of whom 19,000 died on voyages from West Africa to the Caribbean and the Americas. After retiring from slave trading, Colston turned to philanthropy, leaving a trail of schools, a concert hall, a highrise office building, a street and an avenue with his name.

Activists have argued for years that his connections with slavery meant his contribution to the city should be reassessed.

“He was a slave trader and a murderer,” declared David Adetayo Olusoga, a British-Nigerian history professor at the University of Manchester, prize-winning writer, broadcaster and filmmaker who supported the figure’s removal.

“Statues are not about remembering history,” he declared in a BBC interview. “They're about saying 'this man was a great man who did great things'. That's not true. He was involved in the Royal African Company, the company that trafficked more people into slavery than any in British history.”

Still, some government officials stood up for Colston’s statue and denounced its removal. “Utterly disgraceful,” said home secretary Priti Patel. “Sheer vandalism and disorder are completely unacceptable.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock claimed that the UK protests were fuelled by events in America "rather than here". But Shadow justice secretary David Lammy, a Black man, observed that racism and prejudice exist in the UK, as well as across the Atlantic, and that to suggest there is only a problem in the US "shows real ignorance".

Mr Lammy tweeted: "People in this country are not only showing solidarity with George Floyd and other African Americans. We must turn this moment into one of change and justice in the UK too."

A young Britisher caught on CNN echoed Lammy’s remarks: “This is not a trend. This is not a hashtag. We’re not here for a fashion. We’re here to change something. Racism cannot be tolerated in our society. We need to change this.”  

GLOBAL INFORMATION NETWORK creates and distributes news and feature articles on current affairs in Africa to media outlets, scholars, students and activists in the U.S. and Canada. Our goal is to introduce important new voices on topics relevant to Americans, to increase the perspectives available to readers in North America and to bring into their view information about global issues that are overlooked or under-reported by mainstream media.

Feb. 24, 2020

Red Card for Portugal Over Racist Abuse of Malian Soccer Star

M. Marega

(TriceEdneyWire.com/GIN) – Racism is rife in international soccer, with fans taking physical and verbal aim at players of the opposing team.

After the routine apologies of the coaches and local officials, what has really been done to end the frequent racist outbursts, often accompanied by flying chairs or banana peels? This week, star striker Moussa Marega of Mali brought the unpleasant behavior to world attention as he stalked off the field when his successful play scoring the winning goal sparked an avalanche of ugly chants and racist taunts.

Marega had just scored the second goal in a 2-1 win over team Guimaraes at the D Afonso Henriques Stadium when the insults rained down. A shoving match ensued as his own teammates and even opposition players tried to prevent him from leaving instead of supporting him.

It took Marega several minutes to leave the field when he was substituted.

Incidents such as the latest one in Portugal are emblematic of the rise of racism in professional and grassroots soccer according to Kick It Out, a leading UK organization that works to tackle discrimination and believes racism in the sport is "worse now than it was five years ago."

Sanjay Bhandari, the new chair of Kick it Out, says complacency from fans and governing bodies could allow football to regress even further. "So our challenge is we've got to avoid thinking: 'Don't worry, we can never do that' – because we could."

Portugal’s colonial history of racism is further downplayed or denied by the International Lusophone Movement which promotes cultural ties between Portuguese-speaking countries. “Anyone who knows anything about Europe has to agree that Portugal is probably... the least racist country in Europe”, said the head of the body of speakers of Portuguese.

This rosy picture has been clouded by studies suggesting discrimination in areas ranging from education to housing, employment to the justice system. There’s also a shortage of Black faces in politics, business and the media.

“Racism is deep-rooted, is systemic and it's structural,” said Beatriz Gomes Dias, president of Djass, an association of Afro-Portuguese citizens. “We have to admit that Portugal is as racist as other European countries.”

Portuguese is the spoken language in several countries in Africa – namely Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tome and Principe. 

GLOBAL INFORMATION NETWORK creates and distributes news and feature articles on current affairs in Africa to media outlets, scholars, students and activists in the U.S. and Canada. Our goal is to introduce important new voices on topics relevant to Americans, to increase the perspectives available to readers in North America and to bring into their view information about global issues that are overlooked or under-reported by mainstream media.