This is the overall story that just doesn’t end. The on going war in the Congo is affecting children disproportionately as wars do in general. In my opinion, this is also the war that the world seems to have decided largely to ignore.

As usual, the United Nations has simply proven themselves to be relatively ineffective… to the extent that even the European Union has been thinking of sending in troops although now the British foreign secretary David Miliband and French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner downplayed this notion… And so the disaster in Congo continues….

I wonder when there will be an end to these sort of news stories;

On CNN online, there is a article on the newly released report on the rape of children (some as young as 3) in Afghanistan. According to the article, “Rapists are roaming around with impunity,” in some parts of the country and “…police and government authorities are either involved or they can’t handle the crimes” according to Shaima a member of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.

There are many such stories in Africa, most notably in the countries of the Congo, Darfur, Central African Republic and South Africa.

These kinds of stories really break my heart. They also make me wonder why there does not seem to be anyone, other then the women themselves, who are willing to do something to help these girls and women and give them the justice they deserve. These leaders just do not want to enforce the law they have sworn to protect. I really and truly hope that one day, these so called leaders would actually wake up and realize that if they truly want to call themselves leaders and men of honor, they need to do their jobs and protect their fellow citizens as is in accordance with their charge and responsibility.

Image Source: BBC Online

These past couple of weeks, interesting and strange news related to Africa. On the good news, bad news and no news front, we have the following;

Good news: The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo has asked their judges to issue an arrest warrent for Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir saying there’s evidence justifying 10 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes related to Darfur… but apparently, Mr Bashir is not worried as he makes a visit to Darfur as a show of defiance.

No News: Sudan has now agreed to set up special courts to deal with Darfur…. whatever that means I’m not sure

Good News: Zimbabweans are hailing the new deal that is to set the framework for a power sharing deal between Robert Mugabe, the current president and the opposition parties lead by Mr. Mr Tsvangirai. I really don’t know what the future holds for that country, but Zimbabwe needs peace and economic revival. I sincerely hope this is the beginning towards peace… but I think its still a little too early to tell…

No News: But of course inflation in Zimbabwe keeps climbing exponentially… well sort of… Now that the Zimbabwe’s central bank has issued the 100 billion Zimbabwe dollar note and with an inflation rate of 2.2 million percent, I think it must get to a point there there is no need to even continue printing money…

Bad News: Millions of people in Eastern Africa are at risk of starvation and destitution. War, poverty and drought are all contributing factors…

I just read this heart wrenching news article on the Times Online newspaper, where “A baby boy had both legs broken by supporters of President Robert Mugabe to punish his father for being an opposition councillor in Zimbabwe”.

I read this and I was truly shocked! These are not just thugs, these people are the lowest of the low where they can attack any living being, not matter how innocent, no matter how helpless, and brutalize them with such impunity, it really make one wonder what sort of people these are.

It also makes me wonder were that country is really headed. Now that the ‘election’ fraud results are to be announced on Sunday, and Mugabe will be declared victorious president tyrannical dictator, I really wonder if we are seeing the beginnings of a serious reign of terror to be visited on ordinary Zimbabweans over a longer period of time…

The African and the international community really needs to pressure that thug to retire, yet I also wonder if Mugabe has basically backed himself into a corner where he simply cannot retire and not expect to be held accountable for his crimes against humanity…

Zimbabwe certainly needs prayers, lots of prayer…

According to this article in the BBC’s online news website, Mugabe, President dictator of Zimbabwe has declared,

“The MDC will never be allowed to rule this country,” Mr Mugabe said at a rally in the city of Bulawayo.”

So here is the question many, including President Paul Kagame of Rwanda are asking… why is Mugabe even bothering to go on with the farce concerning the up coming run-off election? Why doesn’t he just declare himself supreme ruler dictator of Zimbabwe, cancel the election and continue to rule that country with an iron fist?

With some mixed feelings but certainly no regrets, I have finally come to the decision that I have been putting off for a number of years now. Nubian Underground, the African hip-hop website is changing its focus from African hip-hop music, to issues related to Africa especially in the area of human rights and general humanitarian issues. My heart simply has not been in pursing African hip-hop music as the sole focus of Nubian Underground as can be evidenced by the fact that I have not been regularly updating the site content, nor have I been accepting new content from writers and artists in Africa or Diaspora.

There are a number of reasons why I have decided to do this, but before I go into that, I must give you a bit of a background on why I started Nubian Underground in the first place.

I have always been a huge hip-hop music and rap fan starting with the Sugar Hill Gang, Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five. Then over the years, as the music became more violent and vulgar, I was at first shocked yet intrigued and I totally loved it. I am talking about groups like 2Live Crew, NWA, Ice-T and later, Mobb Deep, Wu Tang etc. But hip-hop was not really popular in Kenya till around the mid to late 80s during the break-dance craze and when the break-dance craze died down, so did the general interest in hip-hop. But I and a few still loved the music hip-hop and continued to collect the tapes. After I came to the US, boosted my collection of hip-hop and even hosted a hip-hop show on a collage radio station… I really loved my hip-hop!

So what changed? Why did I stop listening to hip-hop?

A number of different things happened. First, as I grew older and matured, I started getting less and less impressed by the language being used and the message behind the music. I grew tired of the negative messages and the corrosive language many rappers were using. At the same time, there was a lot of hip-hop coming out but a lot of it, strictly speaking from a musical point of view, a lot of the music was not that great nor memorable. Thirdly, I got introduced to electronica, and more specifically Drum and Bass. I started drifting towards artists like Goldie, Dom and Roland, Doc Scott, Andy C etc… Then finally, I decided that I needed to take my Christian faith more seriously and I dedicated my life to the Lord Jesus. All these, but especially becoming a believer, really made me not enjoy listening to hip-hop.

But then I started listening to African hip-hop and one thing that really struck me was the comment that was made by one of the member of the Dep-low-matz who talked about trying to make it in the rap business and how tough it was to get decent equipment, record deals, recognition etc. I realized that hip-hop was finally growing in Africa and for many; hip-hop represented a way for them to make an honest living. This is the reason I started Nubian Underground. The hope was that by featuring various artists and giving them publicity that their talent, skills and drive plus the internet would help give them the publicity they needed and that they would be recognized, African hip-hop could grow and that these struggling artists would be able to earn a living.

Yet, the same thing was also happening to African hip-hop as had happened to hip-hop. Many artists, who I would otherwise say were really talented, have moved in the same direction as their American counterparts. The more I listened to the music, the less I enjoyed it. I don’t really want to go into any specifics suffice it to say that I don’t listen to African hip-hop any more.

So what about Nubian Underground then? Should I simply shut down the site? This is what I have been struggling with over the last few years. On one hand, I sort of know what I want to do with the site. I want to make the site one that is socially relevant to the issues Africa is facing. By this I mean that I want turn the site into a ‘magazine’ for lack of a better word where I can feature news, information and articles related to the issues and problems Africa faces, be it poverty, tyranny, corruption, disease, at the same time, I am also interested in opening the site to bloggers and journalists who are interested in contributing related news and information articles and posts that are Africa related. In this way, Nubian Underground may be able to help change perceptions in and out of Africa about Africa. Hopefully Nubian Underground can get Africans thinking more about what they can do to help Africa and their fellow brothers and sisters instead of the tribalistic, clan based or self centered thinking that seems to be ingrained in Africans in general.

Hence going forth, Nubian Underground will no longer be featuring African hip-hop music exclusively. Certain artists, who fit the strict criteria with regards to their music and message will still continue to appear, but the focus of Nubian Underground will be much more socially conscious in general and will be constantly evolving as necessary to align with the overall goals and objectives of the Nubian Underground Foundation…

I think this is really odd that for a nation that suffered under the oppression of apartheid not that long ago, would at the very least understand and plight of their neighbors who have come to their country seeking refuge, be it economic.

Now these people, who Africa had supported during their time of struggle, are turning on foreigners with a vengeance. They are murdering foreigners, robbing them and looting their property. This is really sad and pathetic.

I think the South African government needs to come down strongly on the perpetrators of these crimes… yet to me, these types of stories are yet an indication of how far Africa as a whole still has to go… It just makes me really wonder what hope Africa really has…

In the mean time, I’ll be scratching South Africa from my travel wish list….

The BBC, in their continued coverage of the post election violent and campaign of terror in Zimbabwe is reporting that according to a trade union official, “some 40,000 farm-workers and their families have fled their homes in Zimbabwean election violence.”