African News Roundup.

Zimbabwe. Mugabe condemns homosexuality as elections approaches

  Ahead of general elections tommorow july 31 2013, Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has renewed his attacks against homosexuals in his country and qualifies them as “worst than pigs, goats and birds”. The 89 year old Mugabe told a campaign rally “.“If you take men and lock them in a house for five years and tell them to come up with two children and they fail to do that, then we will chop off their heads.”

  He condemned western nations that were now linking aid to legalizing homosexuality especially in Africa.  He accused them of acting against the interest of Africans by asking “John to wed John”.

Elton is probably the second name he did not add to John. Since western nations cut off aid to Zimbabwe and stopped the annual European spending sprees of Mugabe’s wife and close cronies, the Zim leader  has metamorphosed into one of the most critical African presidents viz a viz Western nations. It sure hurts when a presidential wifey can no longer buy the exotic European shoes and designs their husbands crave.

Bill gates Challenges African journalists to tell a story

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have offered a $1 Million story telling competition for African journalists.

100 lucky winners will be encouraged to tell “innovative, multi media story telling that aims to improve the health and prosperity of Africans” according to the website www.africanstorychallenge.com.

The competition also aims to “inspire a bold form of journalism that seeks solutions and uses innovative, digital and data-driven storytelling tools and techniques”.

20 initial laureates have already been selected under  the “Agriculture and food security” theme of the competition. 80 other laureates will be selected on topics as diverse as “disease prevention and Treatment”, “My Africa 2063”, “Maternal and Child Health”, “Business and Technology.

Entries are expected on the second topic “disease prevention and treatment” this august.

Ghanaian Couple Lock up Children

Police in the Ghanaian capital Accra are still trying to establish if a couple  have mental health issues after they were alerted to their home where they rescued  three “imprisoned” children.

Sledge Mensah and wife Jane Mensah had kept their  children Isaiah Mensah 8, Isaaca Mensah 6 and Isaana Mensah 2 indoors since their birth. The children  spent their whole lives in a four bedroom house with three sheep and one chicken. They had no friends and only accompanied their father occasionally to town. The siblings never attended school and were taught english by their parents.

The Mensahs insist they did not want their children corrupted by evil influences of the world.

The domestic Violence and Victims support Unit of the Accra police seized the children and they are now in care.

African Italian Minister’s banana outrage

Italys first black minister born in Africa Dr Cecile Kyenge is still refusing to descend to the level of the racist who have been attacking her since here appointment. An unidentified member of the public threw a banana on stage while the Immigration minister was speaking at a rally of the Democratic Party over the weekend.

An anti immigration Northern league party official refused to resign earlier in the month when he compared Minister Kyenge to an Orangutan.

Other ministers and campaign groups took to twitter to condemn the persistent attacks  on Dr Kyenge. Some of her critics are opposed to her plans to get children born to foreign nationals in italy to get automatoic Italian citizenship at birth as is the case in most European countries.

With thousands of migrants arriving on italian shores annually from Africa and Asia, most italians are increasingly getting angry with migrants as its economy continues to stagnate.