🔅 Germany's Brutal Colonial Past Brought to the Big Screen
Plus: West African Forces Take On Pirates, The Marburg Virus in Equatorial Guinea, Uganda's LGBTQ Bill: What's at Stake?, Nigeria's Presidential Election Challenged in Court, And much more... ☕
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The Fed's Interest Rate Tightrope Act: The US Federal Reserve has been raising its key interest rate since last year, but this month’s two bank failures are making it think twice. After all, higher rates mean higher costs for borrowing, which could hurt economic growth. Despite the recent banking turmoil, the Fed still wants to fight inflation, which hit 6% in the 12 months to February. Fed chairman Jerome Powell called the bank failures an “outlier” in an otherwise strong financial system, and said the Fed remains focused on its inflation fight.
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GEOPOLITICS
Germany's Brutal Colonial Past Brought to the Big Screen
The German-Southwest African genocide of the 20th century is something rarely spoken of – let alone taught in schools.
But with a new feature film exploring the violence of Germany's colonial past in what is now Namibia, director Lars Kraume hopes to bring awareness to the calamitous episode.
The film is called Measures of Men.
What’s the film's plot?
Measures of Men follows Alexander Hoffman, a young, idealistic, and naive ethnologist.
He questions the evolutionist racial theories of the time – which argued that sizes and shapes of skulls determined intelligence — and takes an interest in Kezia Kambazemi, an interpreter of a delegation of Nama and Herero people who were shipped to Berlin to participate in the Kaiser’s “Völkerschau” — a human zoo exposition.
Kraume hoped the movie would show how those in power can ignore scientific facts and truth for political gain and in order to maintain the status quo.
He also wanted to draw attention to Germany’s failure to apologise for the genocide, as well as for the theft of human remains and cultural artefacts.
The film was mainly shot on location in Namibia using local crew and expertise. Hundreds of Namibians were involved in the project, including Girley Charlene Jazama, who plays the part of Kambazemi.
What does Jazama think about the movie?
Jazama hoped that the film would encourage the German authorities to facilitate the return of thousands of skulls of Africans murdered by Germans and shipped to Germany, where they still exist in museums across country.
She calls it “shameful” that they haven’t done so yet. She also urged Namibians to educate themselves on the facts of the colonisation.
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OTHER HEADLINES
Across the Continent
🏴☠️ West African Forces Taking On Pirates | Picture it: grappling hooks, guns held aloft, neck-high waves — it’s a scene straight out of a Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Except this is real life, and the “pirates” are West African troops in boats, taking part in the first-ever maritime exercises organised by the US military under its Flintlock programme. The aim? To bolster the skills of West African forces and help them cope with maritime threats such as piracy and illegal fishing. Unauthorised fishing is a big problem in the region, with illegal financial flows estimated to be costing the area around $9.4 billion a year. Fun fact: Most of the top 10 companies involved in IUU fishing in the region are Chinese, and a third of all vessels sport Chinese flags.
🇬🇶 The Marburg Virus: Unwelcome News from Equatorial Guinea | The country has confirmed eight new cases of Marburg, a highly virulent hemorrhagic fever with no authorised vaccine or treatment. Tanzania also recently reported eight cases of Marburg, including five deaths, one of which was a health worker. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are sequencing samples from both countries to see if the outbreaks are connected. Unlike the common cold, Marburg doesn’t spread through a sneeze or a handshake. Instead, it’s passed through contact with the bodily fluids of infected people or contaminated surfaces. It can be fatal in up to 88% of people who get it. The virus was first discovered in 1967 after an outbreak in two labs in Germany and Serbia, resulting in seven deaths. Since then, there have been individual cases and outbreaks in Angola, Congo, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, and Ghana.
🇺🇬 Uganda's LGBTQ Bill: What's at Stake? | Uganda’s legislature has passed a bill that would make it a crime punishable by death for some LGBTQ people to be, well, LGBTQ. This legislation has been met with support in the country, but criticism from the UN, the US, and LGBTQ rights groups. President Yoweri Museveni has the power to veto or sign it into law, and has indicated that he supports the bill. In the version approved by lawmakers, the offence of “aggravated homosexuality” now carries the death penalty. Aggravated homosexuality applies in cases of sex relations involving those infected with HIV. In the US, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said if the law were enacted, Washington would “have to take a look” at imposing economic sanctions on Uganda.
🇳🇬 Nigeria's Presidential Election | The votes are in, but it’s not over yet in Nigeria’s presidential election. A leading opposition party has gone to court to challenge Bola Tinubu’s victory, claiming that he didn’t meet the minimum educational requirements to run. Peter Obi, who finished third in the race, is asking the court to declare him the winner and nullify Tinubu’s win. If he can prove that the election was “heavily flawed” and that the electoral body didn’t follow the law, then his case might stand a chance. But overturning a presidential election result in Nigeria is no easy feat – in 2019, it took seven months for the court to reject a similar challenge. Now, the party will have to gather evidence in the coming months, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Proverb of the Day
“There are no shortcuts to the top of the palm tree.”
— Cameroonian Proverb.