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Africa | Kenya Culture - Arts | Society Beads - a showcase of Africa's heritage Misanet / IPS - The oldest known African bead is more than 12.000 years old and was found in the Kalahari Desert, but South African beads may be up to 75,000 years old. Almost equally old beads are found in Libya and Sudan. As a continental-wide cultural heritage, beads have served as fine jewellery, small pieces of art, haute couture, royal regalia, divine faience and even legal tender throughout the history of Africa. In Kenya, a handicraft-centre-turned-museum exposes this showcase of African heritage. Read more

Lesotho Society Lesotho's royal house - a world apart afrol News - In comes Prince Seeiso Seeiso, second in line to the throne in Lesotho. He just had his first born son and was terribly beaten by his villagers. "I'm terribly sorry I'm late for the interview," he says, coming directly from hospital. "And I have to apologise again, as I will have to leave immediately to go home and pick up some things for my wife." We agree to meet the next day. Read more

Africa Agriculture - Nutrition | Economy - Development | Human rights | Politics | Society Africa highlights 2004 by afrol News afrol News - Negative news often dominate the international coverage of Africa. 2004 however has seen much more than the crises in Darfur and Côte d'Ivoire. Peace has returned to many more countries, democracy and human rights are strengthening in Africa and the economy is booming in many countries. The link between democracy and development has been demonstrated and the outlook for 2005 is mostly positive. Read more

Somalia Gay - Lesbian | Society Soul mates: The price of being gay in Somalia afrol News - Afdhere Jama talks to a Somali gay couple that has staid together since their childhood in Mogadishu in the 1980s. Abdulle and Sakariye escaped the marriages arranged by their parents and sought freedom in the "liberal" town of Shalaamboot. But "freedom" came at a higher price than the young couple expected. Read more

Kenya Society | Culture - Arts German Wituland, a colonial rarity afrol News - It is common knowledge that the German colonial empire in Africa included only four short-lived colonies where colonial rule was harsh; Togo, Kamerun, South-West Africa (Namibia) and East Africa (Tanzania). This is however wrong. Even in the more short-lived German colony Wituland (now in Kenya), the local population rioted against the Germans in 1890 - because they were leaving. Read more

Rwanda Society | Human rights The Cross and the Genocide afrol News - The 1994 Rwandan genocide, killing an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, is made even more incomprehensible by the documented participation of many representatives of Rwandan church societies. How could God fearing nuns, and even a bishop, take part in the most cruel crimes against humanity committed on African soil? Even worse, several church societies allegedly were co-responsible for the growing hatred that led to the genocide. It remains an enormous contradiction to the Christian Message of Love. Read more

Algeria Human rights | Gay - Lesbian | Society Holy hatred: Homosexuality in Muslim countries afrol News - Anissa Helie, with Algerian and French background, analyses the rights situation of gays and lesbians in the Muslim world in this article previously published in the New Internationalist. Read more

Sudan Gender - Women | Society Josephine Bakhita - an African Saint afrol News - "If I was to meet those slave raiders that abducted me and those who tortured me, I'd kneel down to them to kiss their hands, because, if it had not have been for them, I would not have become a Christian and religious woman." A few years ago, Bakhita was the first person ever from Sudan to be canonized (made a Saint). She also is the first African to be canonized since the early centuries of Christianity and has become a symbol of faith and unity for Catholics in war-ravaged Sudan. Read more

Cameroon | Nigeria Society | Culture - Arts Rise and Fall of the Adamawa Emirate afrol News - The ancient Emirate of Adamawa was a part of the Sokoto Caliphate, the politically dominant empire of the Central Sudan in the 19th century. Adamawa was known as "The wild east" of the Caliphate, were Fulbe settlers occupied the vast highlands of Northern Cameroon and provided slaves for the empire from the neighboring areas. Read more