Cote d'Ivoire Hosts Tribute Concert for Papa Wemba

The tribute concert was held in Abidjan.

Congo-Kinshasa: Papa Wemba Begins Final Journey Home

Hundreds of mourners yesterday welcomed the body of Papa Wemba, one Africa's best known singers, back to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It was flown into the capital, Kinshasa, from Ivory Coast, where he died on Sunday after collapsing on stage in Abidjan.

Ivorian fans attended an all-night concert held in his honour in the city. He is due to be buried on Tuesday after lying in state in a stadium in Kinshasa, on Monday.

After Papa Wemba's coffin left the airport it was taken to a morgue, reports the BBC's Poly Muzalia from Kinshasa.

Papa Wemba, who died at 66, was considered one of Africa's most influential musicians of his generation.

He pioneered modern Congolese soukous music, which spread through the continent.

Many of Africa's top musicians have paid tribute to Papa Wemba, including Cameroon's Manu Dibango, who described him as the "voice of Africa".

Ivory Coast's Culture Minister Maurice Bandaman said at a memorial service before the body left that "an artist never dies... Papa Wemba is dead, and now (he is) even greater than before," reports said.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the All Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA,has described the late singer as "a voice of Africa, an icon of African music and epitome of Africanness.

"His pride and commitment to African music and sense of dressing were part of the narratives of African culture. These are the African narratives we shared and are propagating across the world."

Congo-Kinshasa: President Kabila Offers Plane to Ferry the Body of Papa Wemba

DR Congo President Joseph Kabila has offered a plane to fly back from Cote d'Ivoire to Kinshasa on Thursday the body of Papa Wemba, who collapsed and died at a concert in Abidjan.

In a generous gesture of the recognition of the singer's contribution to the development of Congolese music and the entertainment industry, President Kabila has stepped in to assist the family to defray the expenses.

The aircraft will carry more than 50 people, including Papa Wemba's widow, Mama Marie-Luzolo Amazone, some family members, and his musicians, who were at the festival in Cote d'Ivoire with him.

Speaking to the Daily Nation from Kinshasa on Tuesday, musician Maika Munan said an entourage of top Congolese artistes led by veteran band leader Kiamuangana Mateta Verkys, would travel on the plane to go and collect their compatriot's body.

"We will be accompanied by some government officials and family members," he said.

Papa Wemba's widow is already in Abidjan, having arrived on Monday morning, accompanied by government officials.

FUNERAL PLANS

The body leaves Abdijan for Kinshasa on Thursday afternoon.

There is still no indication as to whether a post-mortem would be performed to ascertain the cause of the sudden death on the stage at the weekend.

Arrangements for public viewing of Wemba's body in Kinshasa and funeral service will be announced by Friday.

Meanwhile, former Wenge Musica singer Adolph Dominguez and some of his colleagues have already composed and recorded a tribute song to mourn their fallen idol.

"Ever since we learnt of his death we have been in the studio working on a special track to be used during the mourning period," the Wenge Tonya Tonya splinter group leader said.

Their fellow countrymen and women based in Europe are also working on tracks and have organised gatherings to pay tribute to Papa Wemba.

They include Paris-based mercurial singer and composer Nyboma Muandido.

Congolese Music Legend, Papa Wemba, Dies After Slumping On Stage

Congolese Music legend, Papa Wemba, died around 9:10 GMT in Abidjan, the Ivory Coast capital, his manager Marie Laure Yaone, has confirmed in a Facebook post.

The Soukous maestro, who was performing with his band at the FEMUA 9 musical concert, slumped on Stage at about 5:30 GMT on Sunday. His dancers and members of the Red Cross could not revive him on stage and subsequently rushed him to a hospital where he later died.

"I do not have the strength to put this information on Facebook," Ms. Yaone wrote in French."

She had published a post of how the musician slumped and was rushed to the hospital.

"Papa Wemba fell on stage at Anoumabo, Abidjan where he was performing at the Legislative Femua festival, organized by the Magic System. There's more scared than hurt. As a manager, I assure you on his state of health and beg you to not put false information.

"He was quickly taken over by the Red Coss and is resting in a hospital in the square. Malongiskin Cornely Malongi who's with him s take care of everything. Thank you Lord for your grace."

However, two hours later she posted a message that heavy with grieve: "You can't do this to us dad, no." with a Facebook emoticon that read: "feeling shocked."

Papa Wemba, whose real name was Jules Wembadio Kikumba, was born on June 14, 1949. He was one Africa's most popular musicians and perhaps the most influential Soukous performer. He was instrumental in making the genre of music popular worldwide.

In February 2003, he was convicted for involvement in the smuggling of illegal immigrants from Democratic Republic of Congo into France. He spent 3 months in prison and was released after paying a fine of €30,000.

Kenya Airways to Dismiss 600 Workers

The rationalisation plan is an attempt to cut down on the airline's running cost.

Pilot Deliberately Crashed Mozambican Plane - Report

A new report has concluded that the pilot, Herminio dos Santos Fernandes, deliberately crashed the plane in Namibia.

Rwandans in Zambia Seek Refuge At Embassy Following Reports of Attacks

Up to 20 Rwandans living in Zambia have approached the Rwandan High Commission in Lusaka for protection after reports suggested they are targets of xenophobic attacks.

According to the Abel Buhungu, the Charge d'Affaires at the High Commission of Rwanda in Zambia, over the last one month, there have been reports of people being killed, but there is confirmation that any of them is Rwandan.

"Since yesterday (Monday), we have heard of two deaths but so far there is no tangible evidence that any is Rwandan," Buhungu said.

He added: "We have, so far, 20 Rwandans taking refuge at the High Commission premises."

According to media reports, the attacks on Rwandans started after rumours linked a Rwandan to ritual murders.

"There have been about eight killings since mid March. Rumours that sparked targeting of Rwandans. They allege a Rwandan had been involved in these ritual murders but Police leadership had indicated it is a rumour that isn't confirmed at all, thus no justification," Buhungu told The New Times.

The attacks also targeted foreign owned shops in the capital Lusaka, but later spread out to other parts of the country where more shops were targeted.

The attacks started Monday morning in two sprawling shanty compounds over rumors that foreigners were behind a spate of suspected ritual killings that have occurred in recent weeks.

Zambia Police Spokesperson Charity Munganga Chanda earlier confirmed the looting of the shops to media.

Suspected ritual killings have reportedly rocked the Zambian capital in recent weeks.

Victims were found with their ears, genitals and hearts removed.

On Sunday, Zambian President Edgar Lungu said four people had been arrested in connection with the brutal ritual killings.

Afrophobia in Zambia

Foreign nationals, among them Zimbabweans, were forced to seek refuge at police stations in parts of the Zambian capital Lusaka following what was seen as an outbreak of afrophobic attacks on foreigners.

The attacks were sparked by reports that foreigners had been arrested in connection with alleged ritual killings.

Zimbabwean nationals resident in Lusaka sent distress calls to relatives back home saying they had sought refuge at various police posts in western parts of Lusaka.

Efforts to get a comment from the Zimbabwe Embassy in Zambia to establish the extent to which Zimbabwean nationals were affected were fruitless last night.

Boko Haram Abducted Women and Girls for Sex

Boko Haram may have abducted children and young women in Cameroon for sex exploitation and suicide bombing. Internally displaced persons were also vulnerable to human trafficking by militant groups.

Yazan Imra, 18, was abducted from the Nigeria-Cameroon border town of Gambarou and taken to one of the terrorists' hideouts. For two years, Imra was sexually abused and is now a mother of a 16 month-old baby. She doesn't know the father of her child.

Since the insurgency began in the early 2000, thousands of young girls and boys have been abducted by Boko Haram militants. Many have been forcefully recruited as suicide bombers, domestic workers and many as sex slaves. "Boys serve as domestic workers and also trained on the use of guns and explosives," Imra told DW. "Girls we were sexually exploited and we also worked as cooks for the fighters," she added.

Snow in Addis Ababa?

The picture shows what some describe as snow on the streets of Ethiopia's capital.

Tanzanian Govt Orders Repayment of Ghost-Worker Salaries

The government has paid over U.S.$3 million of taxpayers' money to 7,795 ghost workers in the local government since January, a Cabinet minister has revealed.

Rwanda: Reconciliation - When a Survivor and the Murderer Drink From the Same Cup

Laurencien Mukaremera, 56, is a widow who survived the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi with her two daughters. Her husband "went missing" the night Interahamwe militias begun a 'wild -like-hunt' for the Tusti in her locality in Mayange Sector, Bugesera district.

Little did Mukaremera's family know that her husband had been murdered, on that fateful night.

About 10 years later, it was found that Thasian Nkundiye, 60, a family friend and a close confidant of Mukaremera's family, had plotted the slaughter of his 'close friend'.

"I was involved in the attack that killed Felecien Murindabigwi the husband of Laurencien Mukaremera, among many other people that we killed on that day; you would say, I was one of the killers too during the Genocide against the Tusti," Nkundiye told The New Times, in an interview.

The 1994 Genocide against the Tusti claimed over one million lives in a span of 100 days. Nkundiye is among the over 800,000 perpetrators who committed the crime against Tutsi during the Genocide.

"We went and destroyed houses; removed the roof of Murindabigwi's house and took it. We killed six people from his family. It was such a big gang, you can't precisely say we were twenty or more; it was an entire village crew, we could go hunting Tutsi, as far as in farms. It's as if we were hunting animals.

"The Genocide was stimulated by hate and jealous. Hutus were considered poor and yet Tutsi had cows, their (Tutsi) houses had modern roofs for us we lived in grass-thatched houses and our dress code was shorts; Once you saw someone wearing trousers, you definitely judged they were Tusti and think, 'maybe if I kill them, I could take their cows, their houses and their clothes.

"We had such thoughts, mixed up with the history we learnt in school and our parents, who would say that Tutsi colonized Hutu while we were listening. It got instilled in us that Tutsi were our enemies indeed," Nkudiye narrates.

Murindabigwi was killed and buried in a trench near the family home.

"My husband walked out from home and from that time, we never saw him again. After a few days, I started to think he had been killed and I would be the next to die," Mukaremera says.

Mukaremera fled the country during the Genocide to Burundi, and returned after the Genocide.

"You see, culturally, when someone dies they are given descent sendoff, unfortunately we were not able to offer a decent sendoff to his (Murindabigwi) body," she talks of her husband.

After the Genocide, Nkundiye, just like many other genocide perpetrators, was arrested and taken to jail, where he spent 8 years and was later released, under the Presidential Pardon - the initiative that was extended to Genocide convicts who admitted their role in genocide and asked for forgiveness.

Nkundiye returned to his village in 2003, and was later reunited with the family of late Murindabigwi.

"When she returned to the village, I visited her family in 2005, and confessed what I did and asked her for forgiveness," Nkudiye says.

At first, Mukaremera found forgiveness rather a challenge; it felt as if he never deserved mercy at all. I was angry. I was so upset; I could not imagine someone who killed my beloved coming to me to seek forgiveness.

Moreover someone I considered a family friend?

"But due to Nkundiye's confession, I was also able to find a place where my husband's body was dumped and consequently accorded my husband a decent burial. It was from the confession that I got the courage to forgive him," she says.

Murindabigwi's remains are among other Genocide victims that are buried at Gashora Genocide memorial site.

Over the years, some of the perpetrators have reconciled with bereaved families and have since been reintegrated back in their villages living side-by-side with the Survivors.

"He told me everything without lies and explained that he did it under the influence of bad leadership. Then I realized that I had to forgive, who knows I might need mercies someday," Mukaremera adds.

Mukaremera and Nkundiye, are few of the genocide survivors and perpetrators who are living side by side in Rwanda. In fact, the two live in the area commonly known as Reconciliation village about 55 Kilometers away from Kigali, where 36 families, including both Genocide perpetrators and survivors live.

In a recent interview with The New Times, Bishop John Rucyahana, the Chairperson of Unity and Reconciliation Commission, said that, there are individuals who are still traumatised and have struggled to completely recover from the deep wounds caused by the Genocide.

He said total healing and reconciliation takes a long while.

"We're dealing with human emotions. We're dealing with human loss. We're dealing with the extermination of the families

"By any means unity and reconciliation are our choice as Rwandans and we have to achieve it. It will take time, but we will achieve it," Rucyahana said.

But for Mukaremera and majority of Rwandans, forgiveness and reconciliation was not simply a, " responsibility but rather a way to realise total healing against trauma and grief of my deceased husband," she says.

Nkundiye and Mukaremera, currently work together and help each other in all chores regardless of their past.

"We forgot it all and it feels good to forgive and move on. It gives you peace of mind," Mukaremera says.

On the other hand, Nkundiye, says that, "I do my best to fill the gap of her deceased husband; in whatever she will need, I am willing to help as much as I can - let it be money for school fees of her child or money to buy food.

We help each other in the farm too. The same applies to her, when she has the money she will help me to solve my problem. That kind life strengthens us and our relationship too."

Ethiopia: where are children adopted during 1984 famine now?

Thousands upon thousands of skinny, dusty, women and children clad in dirty rags, sitting on a barren land, (the scorching sun consuming what's left of them), barely able to muster the strength to bat away overzealous flies. The scent of death is all around as another shawl is wrapped around the lifeless body of yet another victim of starvation. Loud weeping from the parched throats of the unfortunate soul's parents, children or acquaintances breaks out as yet another life is cut short, a tragic scene which is repeated throughout the day again and again.

It's Ethiopia of 1984, a scene described by a BBC reporter who witnessed it as "the closest thing to hell on earth". The memories of the famine which claimed the lives of nearly a million Ethiopians are forever entrenched into the global mindset to the point that many today will still refer to that tragedy of Biblical proportions when talking about Ethiopia.

With the overwhelming majority of famine victims being children, a number of concerned citizens from around the world decided to go one step further than most and adopted an Ethiopian child (or two) to rescue them from what appeared to be a future of despair. With this, the trend of adopting Ethiopian children became a phenomenon. The relative simplicity of the process in Ethiopia also played a role in attracting baby hungry foreigners to turn their faces to Ethiopia looking for their future children.

Thousands of Ethiopian children have been adopted into families of foreigners principally from all across Western Europe and North America. Some of these children have assimilated quickly into their new surroundings. But many of them are seen struggling for the rest of their lives. Sadly, even after the famine, the adoption of Ethiopians by foreign parents has continued until today.

Undocumented

The lives of a generation of Ethiopian adoptees, many of whom are in their early thirties or younger, has never been documented as one might expect. Other than the rare cases of adoptees becoming celebrities, as is the case with Ethiopian Swedish celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson, the general progress and development of Ethiopian adoptees in their new homelands is somewhat unknown to the world and Ethiopians in general.

Nor has there been a focus on their wellbeing or a meaningful attempt to have them reconnect with their roots by either the Ethiopian government or Ethiopian Diaspora communities. There are several reasons for this. One of the widely held beliefs is the fact that Ethiopian adoptees have long been seen as culturally disconnected from their roots, with no real care or desire to discover their Ethiopian heritage. But this perception couldn't be farther from the reality. In the hearts and minds of so many of Ethiopia's sons and daughters, there's always a yearning to, at the very least, explore what makes Ethiopians different from other people.

Ethiopians taken abroad in their infancy will have - in most cases - no recollection whatsoever of their places of birth and most grow up not knowing who their biological parents are. Thanks to faulty documentation and poor records keeping, these Ethiopians have little to no way of one day tracking down their relatives.

But there are many Ethiopian adoptees, who having gone through the devastation of being deprived of their roots, stubbornly cling on to what's left of their Ethiopian identity. One among these Ethiopians by birth is 21 year old Selamawit Haile.

The third youngest of four children, Selamawit was born in Bahr Dar, 578 km north of Addis Abeba and the capital of the Amhara regional state. She asks me to refer to her by her Ethiopian name, and not Elisa, her French name given to her after adoption. At age nine, Selamawit lost both of her parents to tuberculosis. Without a legal guardian and with no means of supporting herself, her life was forever changed. Barely a month later Selamawit and her three year old younger sister Askalemariam were shipped off to an orphanage in the capital Addis Abeba.

"I had only just lost both of my parents, which is already hard for a child to deal with as it is," Selamawit explains. "But I had no one to share my pain with. At the orphanage they just grouped as all together, a bunch of crying, damaged children, mentally scarred from the experience of losing a parent or both. But there was no one present to help us deal with the heartache we were going thorugh."

In Addis Abeba, the shift from a loving, caring household to the depressing atmosphere of the orphanage was tough for the young Selamawit. Her younger sister, barely a toddler, was unable to comprehend the changes that were happening around her, but Selamawit was old enough to take everything in. Everything she had known had come crashing down in a couple of weeks. But if she thought that the adjustments she had made were already too much, just a couple of months, the new life she was to lead would nearly erase everything about her previous life.

Still reeling from the loss of two parents, Selamawit and her sister would be shipped off for adoption to a foreign land, new surroundings, to begin a new life. Just months after the tragic deaths of her two parents, nine year old Selamawit and her three year old sister Askalemariam had their documentation completed to be resettled in France.

Barely able to process the changes that had taken everything away from her, Selamawit, very conscious and alert as any nine year old would be, resisted. Her remaining relatives tried to console her telling her that they would remain in constant communication, giving her a list of phone numbers and family pictures before her departure.

"Upon arrival in France I had all my family's contact information and pictures taken away forever," explains Selamawit. "This is the norm. Adoption is also about changing you as a person and erasing your past."

Adoptees in several countries, most notably France, have similar stories which show a similar trend of forced assimilation. Many of them speak of being forbidden to speak in their native languages and getting scolded when they do. Material possessions from Ethiopia are normally disposed of immediately.

"Yes there is an effort to eliminate the original you!" Selamawit continues. "We are all given new French names once we arrive here. But we are also baptised as Catholics which is supposed to help us turn into authentic French children."

It is not different for other adoptees. Due to a desire to hasten the child's repudiation of his or her identity, there is rarely any effort made to understand issues and social norms of Ethiopian society. "I had no one. I never had anyone stand up for me. No one knows the hell I've been through," says Rahel Feleke, 25, and another adoptee.

Rahel left Ethiopia at age four for rural France. She was suffering from the Polio virus, which left her handicapped. The community she was adopted into had almost no immigrants or people of different ethnicities. She spoke of the difficulties of being the only black student from primary school to secondary school and throughout college, made far worse due to her disability.

"I've had to fight all my life. Fight ignorance, racism, loneliness. My entire school life was spent hearing incredibly hurtful racial slurs, and being taunted because of my disability. As a young girl I was always stared at, looked down upon, with no attempt at being discreet. I had no one."

Rahel says growing up her experiences have traumatized her and left her with self esteem problems she still suffers from. It seemed overwhelming that no one in the district school system would notice her plight.

"Nobody. My own parents would simply tell me that I should be happy and should consider myself lucky that I'm here and not in Ethiopia where there's nothing to eat. Nobody would share my sorrow," said Rahel. "I would later grow accustomed to the stares and being the only black kid at school. But I could never take the insults. The school principal never cared, the teachers never cared."

Into her teen years, Rahel turned against a community she held responsible for her miserable childhood. She would get into fights at school and made constant enemies among school authorities. She later left her village and now lives on her own in Paris.

Re-discovering the self

Recently Rahel made a huge personal discovery. Despite being told by her adoptive parents that she no longer had any living family members, she discovered that she has plenty of relatives based in Addis Abeba; she hopes to initiate contact with them soon. "My real family lives in Addis Abeba today. I want to write them, but after more than two decades of separation I wouldn't even know where to start. I need to get to know them first."

On the question of identity, Rahel is unwavering. "I have never been a Frenchwoman. They never let me feel like one anyways. I've always said I'm African and Ethiopian because I grew up hating all that is French and really felt a sense of attachment to African cultures."

Although most haven't left Ethiopia stricken by Polio like Rahel, growing up as adoptees still has endless challenges. For those adopted as infants, there are no memories of their previous lives, they'll tend to start confronting their adoptive parents with poignant questions about their identity, their skin color and their biological country towards their teen years, when they start becoming more and more self conscious.

But those who start new lives in foreign lands after having their lives in Ethiopia abruptly cut short go through an especially gutting journey.

"There is a very egoistic notion attached to the concept of adoption," Selamawit says. "Adoptive parents, especially those in France, feel better about themselves and flaunt their children to others to appear as humanitarians and thus better than the average human being. We went out to party after party, celebration after celebration, without anyone asking me for my personal input or what I thought. My sister was too young to comprehend what was going on but I was still in mourning. I wanted none of this. I wanted to be alone. Nobody would respect my wishes or even listen to me."

Many Ethiopian adoptees speak of a similar experience: growing up without having met a single Ethiopian in their lives. According to what most of the adoptee children I've spoken to for this article, adoptive parents have gone the extra mile to prevent their children from even mingling with thriving Ethiopian expat communities.

Journey to the root

Many adoptees speak of a desire to visit their country of birth for various reasons; to reconnect, to seek relatives long thought to be dead, to satisfy the burning feeling of belongingness. But as of the publishing of this article, there is little to no evidence at all that suggests Ethiopians abroad even know of the existence of a generation of their adopted countrymen and countrywomen, let alone attempt to bridge the gap and cushion the path to a future return.

Tragically, it was too late for Hana Alemu. Hana and her brother were adopted from Ethiopia by Carri and Larry Williams, a couple living in the Washington State area in 2008. Hana was eleven years old when she arrived in the U.S. The two children suffered unimaginable abuse at the hands of their adoptive parents. Deprived of food, proper clothing, frequently locked in a barn and beaten Hana died in 2011 aged only 13. She was cold, weak, and lying face down on a pile of snow in a cold winter outside the Williams' home. A coroner's report later declared that Hana died of hypothermia. Larry and Carri were later convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Hana's brother, born with hearing impairment, was rescued by state authorities. Thankfully, such cases are rare, but a diaspora based Ethiopian watchdog agency or even a registered group of concerned citizens who would check up on adoptees could have perhaps seen warning signs that may have saved Hana's life.

The plight of adoptees abroad and the failure of Ethiopian diaspora communities to make any serious attempt at engaging in dialogue or incorporating the former into Ethiopian diaspora society highlight the cultural problems which too many Ethiopians themselves are in denial about.

"Right now our biggest issue is visibility," Selamawit says. "We want to tell Ethiopians at home and abroad that we exist, we want to be involved and we want to participate. We aren't lost and gone forever."

Kassaye Berhanu, co-founder of the advocacy group, Ethiopian Adoptees of the Diaspora, believes that more resources need to be allocated to families so that they are not forced to relinquish their children.

"We should be focusing on keeping families together, not separating them. Adoption is an easy solution but it's not always done in the best interest of the children. Being raised in a white family and having a middle-class life in a Western country will never replace the loss of one's birth family, culture and language.

In Addition, Kassaye believes adoption agencies do very little to prepare adoptive parents for the challenges they will likely face, especially with raising children of color. "To make it even worse, there are barely any services or support systems for adoptees besides the internet where they can find others in similar struggles and share [their experiences]".

In 2005, after nearly a decade away from her country, Selamawit returned to Ethiopia against the wishes of her adoptive family. She was able to locate her birth family and discovered that unlike what she was told, her older siblings weren't dead and she still had aunts and uncles. Ever since then Selamawit has made several trips to Ethiopia and is making a stern attempt to learn Amharic language and get reacquainted with her Ethiopian side all over again. "I can travel around Bahir Dar by myself now," she says proudly. "I know the taxi routes, if anything I can call my brother as well."

Selamawit is personally determined to prove that there are alternatives to adoption. Recently she has taken steps to organize a central leadership for the community of Ethiopian adoptees in France so that adoptees can gather in numbers and have a collective voice. Like Kassaye, she is also fighting to gain that eagerly sought visibility for those in her shoes. In Bahir Dar Selamawit and a group of fellow adoptees have obtained land permits and are funding the construction of a building which will house orphans. They plan on "adopting" children without taking them away from everything they have known. Called the Anbessa Guest House, the building is located in the "Diaspora sefer" (Neighbourhood) of the city.

Kassaye, fellow co-founder of 'Ethiopian Adoptees of the Diaspora', Aselefech Evans and her mother, Maureen Evans, creator of the adoptee-centric website 'Light of Day Stories', have also decided to work on organising a collection of stories by Ethiopian adoptees. Their aim is to have the vast array of experiences published for public awareness.

One thing that they took notice of was that most Ethiopian adoptees tend to still feel connected to Ethiopia, and are proud to self identify as Ethiopians despite having lived outside of Ethiopia for many years and despite having been assimilated into their adopted country's culture and ways of life. The anthology, titled "Lions Roaring Far From Home" will feature the voices of adoptees ranging in age from children to adults, primarily from Canada, the U.S., France, Sweden, the Netherlands and Spain. Details on the eagerly awaited release are available on the 'Ethiopian Adoptees of the Diaspora' official page and on the 'Light of Day Stories' website.

Tanzanian President Cancels Union Day Celebrations

President John Magufuli has ordered that the money that was allocated for the Union celebration should be used to expand the Mwanza Airport road.

Tanzania: TCRA Queried Over Sh38 Billion Expenditure

Dar es Salaam — The Parliamentary Public Investment Committee yesterday censured the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) over Sh38 billion expenditure on administrative and operational costs instead of allocating more funds to development projects.

Members of the Parliamentary watchdog were concerned after reading from the 2013/2014 annual performance report of the TCRA showing that the latter had spent half of its income on administrative expenses.

According to chairperson of the committee, Ms Lolensia Bukwimba (Busanda-CCM), the report indicates that out of the Sh79 billion that the TCRA collected as revenue, Sh18 billion was spent on training, seminars, trips and publicity, and operarional expenses accounted for Sh20 billion.

"Being oversight committee on investments, we consider this an unduly huge amount that we urge the authority to reduce and channel more money to projects for the benefit of majority Tanzanians," she said when her committee met the authority's top officials.

Sikonge MP Joseph Kakunda remarked: "Are you comfortable with these priorities? Why don't you direct more resources to development projects?"

The TCRA's board chairman, Prof Haji Semboja, said given the nature of its operarations, the authority was compelled to spend much money on building capacity of its staff, because technology was always dynamic.

"We we need to be ahead in technology, and as such, regular courses and seminars are necessary for imparting new knowledge to our staff as new technologies emerge, This is the reason behind much money being spent on administrative and operational costs," said Prof Semboja.

Chief Executive Officer of TCRA, Dr Ally Simba, said the authority could not focus more on investing in project because it was not established for conducting business.

Titanic: A full moon may have caused the fatal iceberg to cross paths with the ship

Scientists recently arrived at a new theory that the full moon months before could be to blame for the collision, which killed about 1,500 people. Quoting astronomer Donald Olson of Texas State University-San Marcos, National Geographic's Richard A. Lovett wrote, "That full moon, on January 4, 1912, may have created unusually strong tides that sent a flotilla of icebergs southward—just in time for Titanic's maiden voyage." This wasn't a normal full moon, though: "It was the closest lunar approach, in fact, since A.D. 796, and Earth won't see its like again until 2257," wrote Lovett.

Choose Joy of Birth - Not Tragedy of Death

Nearly one million babies die the day they are born. A disproportionate number of those babies are African, and hundreds of thousands of African women die during pregnancy and childbirth each year. Most of those deaths can and must be prevented says Melinda Gates.  

A mother plays with her young son in the Kenyan village of Mwea.

Nigeria: Billionaire, Ifeanyi Ubah, Gets 10-Match Ban, N2.5 Million Fine for Slapping Goalkeeper

Nigeria's League Management Company has slammed a N2.5 million fine and a 10-match ban on billionaire businessman, Ifeanyi Ubah, who was caught on camera slapping Heartland FC goalkeeper, Ebele Obi.

The LMC toughened its punishment for Ubah after video evidence nailed him.

The regulator however said in a statement on Thursday that the billionaire businessman can appeal against the ruling if he deems so.

The statement read: "Chief Dr Ifeanyi Ubah, proprietor of FC Ifeanyi Ubah, is suspended from all NPFL match venues for the next 10 matches.

"He has now been fined N2.5m because LMC found him guilty of encroaching field of play & assaulting Heartland player Ebele Obi.

"The fabled billionaire is expected to offer a letter of apology & an undertaking to be a good ambassador of the NPFL.

"The LMC further bans all self- procured security services other than those sanctioned by the LMC from all NPFL match venues henceforth.

"Four of the 10-match NPFL ban is suspended for a probationary period till the end of the season.

"Ubah has up till 5pm on Saturday to appeal this decision if he objects the ruling," the statement concluded.