AfricaResource The Place for Africa on the Net

In his piece CBN and Sharia Banking (The Guardian 16 June 2011), Lateef Adegbite abjectly misunderstands the meaning of secularism. Nigeria is a secular nation not a multi-religious one. And it is precisely because of its secularism that makes its multi-religious character possible. Think of it this way: no Muslim would want a church to be built on a land they have consecrated to be their holy ground even though the church is also a holy place. And no Christian would want traditional worshippers to practice in their church. The space which made it possible to build churches, mosques, shrines in their respective places without infringing on the other’s holy grounds is the secular space. The more secular a space is, the easier for religions to coexist. A completely multi-religious setting guarantees that one religion is always infringing on the space of the other.

Professor Cheikh Thiam of Department of African American and African Studies, and Department of French and Italian speaks about violence, Africa, and perception in preparation of the upcoming ISAPS conference (The International Society for African Philosophy and Studies) at Ohio State University on April 17-20, 2011.

By Ms. Isaboke M. Wilmah[1]

The right to health is a right provided in Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights that emphatically provides that, it is a right to which everyone is entitled to enjoy, and not just enjoying it but, it should be the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. This right however is pegged on the States abilities to take steps to necessitate its full realization. These steps may include but not limited to enacting policies that allow the practice of Traditional medicine alongside modern medicine in order to realize the prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other diseases. Usage of traditional medicine is what this paper intends to propound, that not only will it be a tool with which the Kenyan government can use as a method of realizing the highest attainable standard of health, but it can be used alongside modern medicine.

By Isaboke M. Wilmah[1]

This paper maintains that the Nubians are nationals of Kenya despite their contested position. By critically examining their legal position under the Laws of Kenya, this paper shall illustrates that indeed they are, have been and can be citizens of Kenya either under the former constitution or the current constitution and that the governments failure to recognize them has led not only to their discrimination but also, achieve those binding obligation stipulated in the Constitution, Regional and International treaties to which it’s a signatory.

By Damola Awoyokun

Knife murders, gang culture, drugs, jail, overrepresentation in sports and music, underrepresentation in Oxbridge or in top courses of other universities, substantial underachievement, general underperformance etc.A lot of these are blamed on black people’s dysfunctional attitude to family life and child-raising. But we who came from Africa know that it is not a black problem it is a Caribbean problem but we have only come to accept it as ours too because we are one black family. And once blacks from the two continents annul the flimsy complexes that stand strongly in the way of mutual cultural dialogue and learning from each other, many of these problems that have impaired black people’s positive contribution to the British society would sharply subside.