United Nations' International Decade for People of African Descent 2015-2024

The United Nations' International Decade for People of African Descent, IDPAD [UN IDPADdoc A/RES/69/16] was launched in the Trusteeship Council Chamber of the United Nations in New York, USA, on the 10th of December, 2014.

"This Decade, for which the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) was designated as the lead agency, aims to strengthen actions and measures to ensure the full realisation of the economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights of people of African descent, and their full and equal participation in society.

Under the theme "Recognition, Justice and Development”, the Decade provides an operational framework to encourage States to eradicate social injustices inherited from history and to fight against racism, prejudice and racial discrimination to which people of African descent are still subjected."

The stated objectives of the International Decade for People of African Descent are to:

• Promote respect, protection and fulfilment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by people of African Descent, as recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
• Promote a greater knowledge of and respect for the diverse heritage, culture and contribution of people of African descent to the development of societies;
• Adopt and strengthen national, regional and international legal frameworks according to the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and to ensure their full and effective implementation.

The International Decade in Ireland

In Ireland, the lead agency responsible for the implementation of the International Decade is the Department of Justice & Equality's Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration, which held a Public Consultation in Dublin on the 3rd of April, 2019.

The International Decade presents a once in a lifetime opportunity for descendants of people of the African continent to be in charge of the narrative about Africa, tell their own stories to the rest of the world and hope to be listened to accordingly.

Over the coming weeks, this blog will examine and discuss the stated objectives of the International Decade in detail through the Programme of activities for the implementation of the International Decade as outlined in UN Resolution A/RES/69/16.

Please, see also:

International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024)

UN Launches International Decade for People of African Descent (for Buildup to the International Decade)

People of African Descent
Programme of Activities for the Implementation of the International Decade for People of African Descent
Statement by Flavia Pansieri, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights at Launch of the International Decade for People of African Descent, Geneva, PN Cinema Room XIV, 16 December 2014, 5 pm – 8 pm

Team Hope in Africa: Why Team Hope and Ireland AM Should Give Teachers (and Pupils) A Break!

Team Hope in Irish Classrooms: Where is the Learning Aspect?

On the 17^th of September, 2017, Team Hope launched its annual Christmas Shoebox Appeal, with TV3's Ireland AM as the media partner.

"Team Hope and Ireland AM are asking people to double their own impact this year by encouraging their friends, family members or colleagues to get involved and ensure that even more children experience the joy of receiving a gift.

Every shoebox counts, because every child counts and for these children (whose families typically live on less than €1 a day) this gift from Ireland may be the only present they will receive this Christmas." was how the appeal was carried on the Tv3 website on Friday, 20 October 2017.

So, basically, Team Hope (with the support of Ireland AM) thinks children in their selected countries are desperately in need of presents at Christmas and which it sets about to provide through the time and efforts of Irish schoolchildren.

Over the following two months, Team Hope have then gone into classrooms all over the country to ask the children to make up the shoe boxes and fill these with specified items to be sent to Team Hope, together with €4 in cash. These boxes are then sent to the selected named countries.

Source: Team Hope Stories-Pre-Schools

It might seem like the height of ingratitude, if not outright rudeness, to be seen to be critical of an action which is intended to be good or beneficial to the recipients.

However, uncomfortable questions need to be asked about the 'why' we decide to do something for someone and the 'how' we go about doing this, if we are to achieve the outcome which people from the target countries, especially those living in Ireland, would be happy with. "I don't recognise the country Team Hope is describing", was how a national from one of the recipient countries once remarked.

What should take place in classrooms?

The classroom is the place where learning (including, about other places and peoples) is expected to take place. So, how does Team Hope's Shoebox appeal contribute to learning about the world around us, and in particular, about the selected countries in Africa?

Does Team Hope's materials about the countries they work in offer and present new information about African countries or merely confirm old prejudices?

Here is Team Hope's information about the DR Congo prepared for Pre-School children:

So, Team Hope thinks the first thing four and five year-old Irish children should be taught about the DR Congo (if they can get their little minds around where DR Congo is in the first place) is that "people live in huts made of mud".
Looking at the materials and the narrative Team Hope uses to make the case and to gain the support of schools, one would have to question what its presence in schools is intended to achieve and for whose benefit.

Schools have to follow a defined curriculum detailing and specifying what pupils need to learn, and with teachers given the responsibility of delivering the contents of this curriculum.

Snowfall in Lesotho

Until quite recently, most Irish people's contacts with Africans have also been from a distance.

These days, Irish people live next door to Africans, work with them, while their children also sit and share lessons with children of African parentage in the same classrooms.

One wonders how the children of African parentage, like Professor Plastow's son, sitting in the same classrooms Team Hope goes into, are made to feel about the kind of information they are given portraying their parents' countries of origin.

St. Mark's Primary School, Mbabane. Founded in 1910

Perhaps, any person or organisation also intending to go into the classrooms might consider having a look at the Teacher Guidelines of the SESE Geography Curriculum and ask themselves if what they are offering fits in with the requirements of the curriculum, especially the unit People and Other Lands.

Demands on Teachers and the effects on some of the pupils in their care

Teachers have enough to cope with, without having to take on things which contribute nothing to the learning process or better understanding of the world out there. 
Not to mention, how to ensure that some of the pupils in their care are not left to feel like Professor Plastow's son.
Note: Professor Jane Plastow was in Galway in October, 2009 where she co-presented a paper: Africans Don't Use Mobile Phones with her colleague Richard Borowski at a conference organised by the Development Education and Research Network (DERN) at NUI, Galway.

African Cultural Project

How to Help Africa? Which Country?

First of all, the answers to the Name the Countries of Africa test.

No doubt, more than fifty per cent success rate was achieved by anyone who took the test.

Perhaps, it should be pointed out at this stage how the boundaries of these countries were drawn in the first place; please, go to this page to read about the Berlin West Africa Conference of 1884-85 (see map below as well).

Today, the political map of Africa looks like this

"I am going to Africa to help" is an all-too familiar and common statement one hears non-Africans make.

Well, even though Africans are proud of their 'continental' African identity, they have come to accept their new [post February 1885] country identities, as well as the post-independence countries they are striving to make successes of.

Intense rivalries, especially when it comes to sports, have also emerged and been developed, based on one's post-independence country identity.

So, as we discovered regarding the size of Africa and the number of countries on the continent, it can only be respectful to all concerned if one is to be more specific as to which country of destination the intended help is going to be offered.

Africans Don't Use Mobile Phones

Over the week-end of the 3rd and 4th of October 2009, a conference titled Critical Thinking for Development Education: Moving from Evaluation to Research, took place in NUI Galway.

Organised by the Development Education & Research Network (DERN) at NUI, Galway, one of the papers presented was by Richard Borowski and Jane Plastow from Leeds University Centre for African Studies (LUCAS).

The two researchers traced the background to the project; the summary of their findings of which is also presented as follows:

"African Voices is a project run by LUCAS that takes African postgraduate students studying any subject at the University of Leeds, trains them in relation to the British education system and to active learning methodologies and then sends them out into Leeds schools, years 5-8, to work in a range of modes to challenge negative ideas about the continent, to help make Africa 'real' to young people, and to seek to arouse their interest in different cultures.

Children's Negative Images of Africa

One of the main questions this project has caused us to debate is why children have such negative ideas about Africa. The evidence seems to be that there are two main sources of negative image making: the media and charity campaigns.

Images of Africa on Television

The images that children are exposed to in the media, and this we think would be primarily on the television, are of an Africa that is disaster ridden.

There is very little cultural or documentary material shown on British television relating to the continent; instead it appears mostly on the news and overwhelmingly then in relation to bad news stories.

When I did a trawl on the internet for this article to see what the BBC had been recently saying about the continent I quickly came to an Africa site that invited me to put in only the following keywords: civil war, elections, famine, human rights, peace negotiations, political parties and war. These are apparently for the BBC the things that primarily go on in Africa.

It is no wonder that young children see a largely undifferentiated continent of helplessness, danger and poverty: for that matter many of their parents and teachers probably see the same things. The only other image of Africa that is widely pedalled relates to the exotic.

Television Programmes

Wildlife programmes such as the BBCs Big Cat Diaries, or ITV's appalling wildlife drama, Wild at Heart, where Africans usually come with thick accents and a willingness to serve while white people nobly rescue beautiful animals, are standard fare; while occasional series and documentaries tend to feature brave and beautiful young white people going off to live - ostensibly alone (except of course for the TV crew) - with Africans of the noble savage variety - Massai and San bushmen are favourites here, demonstrating how 'aboriginal' peoples really do have cultures, but are of course usually being squeezed out of their peaceful lives by the incursions of such forces as corrupt governments, predatory farmers or foreign tourism.

The brave young white people always fall in love with these ‘aboriginals’, go through a spiritual experience, wear some weird clothes and eat something utterly disgusting before sadly saying goodbye to the accompaniment of a vibrant music track.

Given this highly selective and distorted imagery it is hardly surprising that primary school children in the UK believe that Africans don't use mobile phones, buses, computers, or iPods?

Or that they think most Africans live in mud huts whereas the latest statistics show that 38% of the continent is now urbanised, and Africa is experiencing the greatest growth in the use of mobile phones anywhere in the world.

Charity Campaigns on Television

The second source of popular information is undoubtedly charitable campaigning. Programmes such as the annual Comic Relief beano or Blue Peter appeal bombard us with pictures of cute children - often again outside mud huts, and on the major charity's websites one finds image after image of poverty and suffering.

Aid Agencies: their Presence and Campaigns in Schools

Within schools, charitable giving is often encouraged as being a good thing to promote compassion in children, but inevitably it is likely to further promote ideas of African helplessness and of the superiority of life in the West, not just in material terms, but arguably in terms of the West being better, kinder and necessary to the well-being of the world's helpless poor. At worst we would argue this is a breeding ground for racism."

"These people are so different, so useless, that we in the West just must be superior", Borowski & Plastow offered this assessment of pupils' views as a consequence of the type of information and images of Africa referred to above.

Any similarities with the situation here in Ireland?

Details of the links to the Conference Paper on Young People’s Perceptions of Africa can be found here.

Visit the LUCAS Schools Africa Project.

How to Help Africa?

Africa is the one continent in our world which is generally thought of as constantly in need of help from outsiders.

Going back in history (from around the 15th century), and continuing into the present day, individuals and institutions (statutory, voluntary or non-governmental), have made the spiritual, social, technical and economic responsibility of Africans their lifetime occupation.

In this instalment of writings, the objective is to start an ongoing discussion, asking searching questions about what it means when one talks about 'helping Africa'.

We might start with the size of the continent: thanks to The Times Atlas for the (entirely self-explanatory) Africa in Perspective map above.

From the most northerly point, Ras ben Sakka (37°21′ N) in Tunisia, to the most southerly point, Cape Agulhas (34°51′15″ S) in South Africa, is a distance of approximately 8,000 kilometres (5,000 miles).

From the Cap Vert Peninsula (17°33′22″ W) in Senegal, the westernmost point, to Ras Hafun (Raas Xaafuun, Cape Guardafui headland, 51°27′52″ E) in Somalia, the most easterly projection, is a distance (also approximately) of 7,400 kilometres (4,600 miles).

Image Source / Credit: https://africathistime.wordpress.com/

There are 54 recognised independent countries on the continent; forty-eight of these are located on the main landmass while the island nations are located off the coasts of West and Central Africa in the Atlantic Ocean, and off the East and Southern African coasts in the Indian Ocean.

Africa has an area of 30,368,609 square kilometres (11,725,385 square miles), including the island nations.

The largest country is Algeria, while Gambia is the smallest country on the continent's mainland.

A little exercise to test our knowledge of the continent might help to find out how many of the countries one can identify and name from the map below.

Map of Africa Exercise

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Info Box

Cradle of Humankind

Lucy (Dinkenesh)

In 1974, archaeologists working at Hadar in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar Depression came across a human skeleton which they named Lucy because the Beatles song, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was playing in the background. Her real name, however, is Dinkenesh, meaning 'you are blessed'.

This discovery has led to Ethiopia being referred to as the 'Cradle of Humankind'.

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Fellowship

The following piece by the Czech writer Franz Kafka (1883-1924) offers an interesting parable for modern Ireland to contemplate. Its theme of inclusion/exclusion has, obviously, more than one possible application. We print it in full, leaving the reader to decide which area(s) of Irish life it might currently serve to illuminate.

We are five friends, one day we came out of a house one after the other, first one came and placed himself beside the gate, then the second came, and placed himself near the first one, then came the third, then the fourth, then the fifth. Finally we all stood in a row.

People began to notice us, they pointed at us and said: Those five just came out of that house. Since then we have been living together; it would be a peaceful life if it weren’t for a sixth one continually trying to interfere. He doesn’t do us any harm, but he annoys us, and that is harm enough; why does he intrude where he is not wanted?

We don’t know him and don’t want him to join us. There was a time, of course, when the five of us did not know one another either; and it could be said that we still don’t know one another, but what is possible and can be tolerated by the five of us is not possible and cannot be tolerated with this sixth one.

In any case, we are five and don’t want to be six. And what is the point of this continual being together anyhow? It is also pointless for the five of us, but here we are together and will remain together; a new combination, however, we do not want, just because of our experiences. But how is one to make all this clear to the sixth one?

Long explanations would also amount to accepting him in our circle, so we prefer not to explain and not to accept him. No matter how he pouts his lips we push him away with our elbows, but however much we push away, back he comes.

Franz Kafka. from Description of a Struggle & Other Stories, Penguin, 1978/9.

Berlin West Africa Conference: 130 Years Later

"IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF the several plenipotentiaries have signed the present General Act and have affixed thereto their seals.
DONE at Berlin, the 26th day of February, 1885."

So concluded a three month long conference 130 years ago today.

Below, is a summary of that Conference as it appears in the Encyclopaedia Britannica:

"Berlin West Africa Conference, a series of negotiations (Nov. 15, 1884–Feb. 26, 1885) at Berlin, in which the major European nations met to decide all questions connected with the Congo River basin in Central Africa.

The conference, proposed by Portugal in pursuance of its special claim to control of the Congo estuary, was necessitated by the jealousy and suspicion with which the great European powers viewed one another’s attempts at colonial expansion in Africa. The general act of the Conference of Berlin declared the Congo River basin to be neutral (a fact that in no way deterred the Allies from extending the war into that area in World War I); guaranteed freedom for trade and shipping for all states in the basin; forbade slave trading; and rejected Portugal’s claims to the Congo River estuary—thereby making possible the founding of the independent Congo Free State, to which Great Britain, France, and Germany had already agreed in principle."

Another useful site for further details is: Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 to Divide Africa.

The consequences of this Conference are still being felt today and the debate continues.

An African Paradise in Ireland

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National Botanic Gardens, Dublin

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There is one place in Ireland where I enjoy visiting to spend some quiet and peaceful moments.

This place also happens to reflect Africa in a very particular way, and where the Story of Africa is told through its plants. It is also a place I consider to be my 'African Paradise in Ireland'.

This place is the National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin, Dublin.

My visit would usually begin / start in the central part of the Curvilinear Range glasshouse on the eastern side of the Garden where, perhaps the, arguably, most important plant to have made its way into human social life, can be found. I am, of course, referring to the coffee plant.

The Coffee Plant in the National Botanic Gardens, Dublin

Next to the coffee plant is another plant associated with a hot beverage, the tea plant. There are a few other plants, including the avocado, in the Curvilinear Range glasshouse which I associate with growing up in West Africa; I hope to say a bit more about these plants in subsequent instalments of my African Plant Tales from the Botanic Gardens.

The next stop during my visit is the Great Palm House. This is also the place where I experience a real tropical feeling - in the air I breathe and the feeling of the moisture on my skin.

As the name suggests, the palm tree is one of the main plants to be seen here: the oil palm and the coconut palm. Another coffee plant can be seen here.

Green and Red Berries on a Coffee Plant

One significant plant in the Great Palm House is the bamboo; a plant which also deserves a whole story to itself to be narrated at a later date. For the moment, let us just remark that the bamboo belongs to the grass family. A mention of the banana would be made before leaving the Great Palm House.

On one adjoining side of the Great Palm House is the Cactus and Succulent glasshouse. Here, one would see plants such as varieties of the cactus family which I would have come in contact with in parts of West Africa.

The National Botanic Gardens' Information on Coffee

My visit would be rounded off with some moments for reflection in the café which is located in the Visitor Centre, and where the friendly staff are always on hand to serve me, well, coffee; no doubt, perhaps Coffea Arabica from Ethiopia?

Indeed, after a visit to the National Botanic Gardens, and a homage to the coffee plant, one would look at the next cup of coffee in a completely new light, and even consider the taste of that cup of coffee as a totally new experience.

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National Botanic Gardens
Glasnevin
Dublin 9
Ireland.
Telephone No: + 353 1 804 03 19 / 857 09 09 (Visitor Centre)
Fax No: + 353 1 836 00 80
Website http://www.botanicgardens.ie

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Remembering The Late Justice Annie Jiagge

Today is the 95th anniversary of the birth of the Late Justice Mrs Annie Ruth Jiagge, the first woman in Ghana - and indeed, in the (British) Commonwealth - to be appointed a High Court judge.

In October 2008, an event to commemorate the 90th anniversary of her birth was held in Dublin. Below, we reproduce the piece written to mark that occasion.

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The Late Justice Annie Ruth Jiagge

Celebrating the Life and Memory of a Remarkable African Woman

She was well-known to former President Mary Robinson but the name Justice Annie Ruth Jiagge might not mean anything or much to people in Ireland; perhaps not even those involved in the Women’s Movement.

Yet, the late Justice Annie Jiagge, Ghana’s first woman High Court judge, was instrumental in the UN’s first document on Women’s Rights, the Draft Declaration on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, also referred to as CEDAW, which she co-authored and which was first adopted on 7 November, 1967, by the General Assembly.

Image Source: World Council of Churches

Born on the 7th of October, 1918, the late Justice Annie Ruth Jiagge (née Baeta) entered the legal profession after a career in education. She was appointed to the High Court on the 15th of September, 1961. Indeed, she was the first ever woman High Court judge appointed in the (British) Commonwealth.

Justice Annie Jiagge’s legal career progressed with her appointment to the Court of Appeal in 1969, becoming its president in 1980, a position she held until her retirement in 1983.

On the international scene, Justice Jiagge served on the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and chairing it in 1968. She was a member of Dr Boutros-Boutros Ghali’s advisory group appointed to plan the Fourth World Conference on Women.

She was a member of the World Council of Churches (WCC), which she served for over 44 years, becoming the first African woman President when she was elected by the 5th assembly at Nairobi in 1975. She was elected Moderator (Chair) of its Commission on the Programme to Combat Racism. Justice Jiagge was instrumental in shaping the WCC’s tough attitude against the injustice of apartheid in South Africa.

Justice Annie Jiagge was a founding member of the Women’s World Banking, an organisation aimed at granting women access to credit and which her fellow Ghanaian, the late Dr Esther Ocloo, was the first chair.

While a student in London, Annie Baeta had participated in the activities of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). She was made a Member of the Executive Committee of the World YWCA soon after joining it, and eventually Vice-President. In her own country in Ghana, she found time outside her legal career and was instrumental in founding the National Women’s Council and the YWCA.

Annie Jiagge also kept her interest in education. She served on the Council of the University of Ghana at Legon for twelve years and was a member of the Administrative and Management Committee of the Ghana Academy of Sciences.

The late Justice Annie Jiagge was only one of the many African women who have made their contributions in their own countries, as well as in the international domain.

Dr. Asha-Rose Migiro, who was appointed Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations in January, 2006, is the first woman Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation of the Republic of Tanzania.

Judge Akua Kuenyehia from Ghana is currently the First Vice-President, International Criminal Court in The Hague, while Former Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who was in Ireland earlier this year [2008], is now the Managing Director of the World Bank.

As we mark the 30th anniversary next year [2009] of the final adoption of CEDAW at the 34th Session of the General Assembly, perhaps highlighting the achievements and strengths of African women on the 90th anniversary of the late Justice Annie Jiagge’s birth would be appropriate?

It is also important that we continue to identify, acknowledge and celebrate other African women achievers by bringing their stories to the rest of the world.

Justice Mrs Annie Ruth Jiagge died on the 12th of June, 1996.

Remembering Chinua Achebe

One of Nigeria and Africa's major writers, Chinua Achebe, passed away on the 21st of March in Boston in the US.

Amy's story

Achebe's best-known novel, Things Fall Apart, claims two Irish connections: the title itself was from William Butler Yeats' poem, The Second Coming, while the motivation for the writing came from a response

Joyce Cary and Mister Johnson.

My own personal Chinua Achebe memory first happened when Things Fall Apart was one of the texts on