JSalt harvesting is a major economic activity in Gongoni, located in Kenya's north coast region. Despite the fact that the country's four major salt firms provide job opportunities for the local population, staff writers Hassan Masha and Clement Njoroge report of rampant use of children as young as seven harvesting salt with meagre payments and under harsh and unhealthy conditions. Meanwhile, a peaceful demonstration to protest against president Moi's plan to take the reform talks back to parliament turned chaotic as the notorious Jeshi La Mzee baton charged Rev. Timothy Njoya, a leading Presbyterian cleric, among others who were injured. Our correspondent Hashim Galana reports.
From Ghana, Amos Safo reports on the clash between Christians and traditionalists over the banning of drumming and merry-making in preparation of Homowo, a traditional festival, which literally means chasing hunger away. The ban, imposed by Ga traditional council, was defied by some Christian churches arguing that it denied them the freedom of worship and belief.
While the battle for influence rages on in resource-rich Congo, the people of Zimbabwe are crying foul, they do not see why their bankrupt nation should be spending over $1 million on 6,000 troops and heavy armour in the former Zaire to help defend President Laurent Kabila against rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda. Many questions arise, for instance, why are Zimbabwean troops in the Congo? Why is it that the war in the Congo is referred to as 'the war of dictators?' Our Correspondent Newton Sibanda interviewed Tirivati John Kangai, Zimbabwean High Commissioner to Zambia who tried to answer these and other pertinent questions.
The recent Hague Appeal for Peace in the Netherlands was an opportunity for Sudanese women to introduce their role in peace-making to a wide international audience and to present their suggestions for a sustainable peace. A delegation of 15 Sudanese women from the Northern and Southern Sudan participated in the Initiative to facilitate the participation of Sudanese women in the peace process. Our correspondent, Rebecca Joshua Okwaci reports on the need of the Sudanese women to effectively participate in the peace process.
In Tanzania, old women who cannot defend themselves are easy targets of what has become so rampant especially in Mwanza and Shinyanga region; witch hunting! With the brutal killing of two elderly women, Mhoja Bundabad and Bulekumana Ngesa, on suspicion that they are witches, Bernadine Mfumbusa was compelled to write about the circumstances surrounding these and other senseless killings. He says that the government has on one hand woefully failed to curb the problem while on the other, the age-old beliefs of the local people's understanding of the causes of death have equally contributed to this tragic situation
