Taking Action on Climate Change

Taking Action on Climate Change

Department of Global Communications August - November 2019 www.un.org/africarenewal TAKING ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE Ugandan school where students turn waste to wealth Vera Songwe on Tourism in Morocco actualizing Africa’s gains momentum Free Trade Area CONTENTS August - November 2019 | Vol. 33 No. 2 4 SPECIAL FEATURE COVER STORY Taking action on climate change 6 Young Africans create green businesses 8 Uganda: students turn waste to wealth 10 Women pastoralists feel the heat of climate change in Kenya A Ghanaian woman shows off her locally made 12 Interview: Joyce Msuya, UN Environment Deputy Executive Director bamboo bracelets in Accra, Ghana. INBAR ALSO IN THIS ISSUE Acting Editor-in-Chief 3 Africa Watch: Morocco Tourism gains momentum Zipporah Musau 14 Interview: Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary, UNECA 16 Peace through jazz music Acting Managing Editor Kingsley Ighobor 18 Bringing hope to children with autism in Kenya 20 How I set up Liberia’s first school for autistic children Staff Writers 22 Interview: Christian Saunders, UN Assistant Secretary-General Franck Kuwonu Sharon Birch-Jeffrey 24 IEDs: tackling terrorists’ weapon of war 26 Profile: Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, South Africa’s defence minister Research & Media Liaison Pavithra Rao 28 Profile: Mohamed Orman Bangura, Sierra Leone’s youth minister 29 Profile: Benedict Faustine Kikove, human rights activist, Tanzania Design, Production & Distribution 34 Africa Wired: Artificial intelligence can offer great benefits for Africa Paddy D. Ilos, II Book Review 35 Administration 35 UN Appointments Dona Joseph Interns Cover photo: Man holding up a solar panel in Cape Town, South Africa. Gettyimages Hugo Bourhis Africa Renewal (ISSN 2517-9829) is published supporting organizations. Articles from this Pierre-Alain Wiayi Seya in English and French by the Strategic magazine may be freely reprinted, with attribution Communications Division of the United Nations to the author and to “United Nations Africa Department of Global Communications. Renewal,” and a copy of the reproduced article Africa Renewal is published by the United Its contents do not necessarily reflect the views would be appreciated. Copyrighted photos may Nations, New York, on recycled paper. of the United Nations or the publication’s not be reproduced. ©2019 Africa Renewal. All rights reserved. Subscribe to Africa Renewal ISBN: 978-92-1-101416-7 Africa Renewal offers free subscriptions to eISBN: 978-92-1-004479-0 individual readers. Please send your request to www.un.org/africarenewal Address correspondence to: Circulation at the address to the left or by e-mail to The Editor, Africa Renewal africarenewal@un.org. Institutional subscriptions are available for thirty-five US dollars, payable by Room S-1032 facebook.com/africarenewal international money order or a cheque in US dollars United Nations, NY 10017-2513, USA, drawn on a US bank, to the “United Nations” and Tel: (212) 963-6857, Fax: (212) 963-4556 sent to Circulation at the address to the left. twitter.com/africarenewal E-mail: africarenewal@un.org 2 AfricaRenewal August - November 2019 CULTURE Peace through jazz music The trumpet is a ‘cool’ instrument to unite people BY FRANCK KUWONU ach year, on 30 April, music of the city’s Orpheum Theatre hall and fill- lovers around the world celebrate ing the air with a celebratory, jolly mood, International Jazz Day to “honour in tow was a bouncing larger-than-life jazz and its enduring legacy, as well mascot of a smiling Louis Armstrong, also Eas its power to bring people together,” says known as Satchmo, the famous trumpeter Audrey Azoulay, the director-general of and jazz singer. the United Nations Education, Science and The procession evoked the image of a Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), which grinning Armstrong being feted in Léopol- works to promote global peace, justice and dville, now Kinshasa, in the Democratic rule of law. Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 1960. There Jazz events held each year in different he was triumphally carried into a stadium by countries around the globe culminate in the local fans ahead of a concert. International Jazz Day, a star-studded musi- Mr. Armstrong’s visit to the Congo was cal concert in a major city. This year it took one of his many to Africa and was part place in Melbourne, Australia. Other cities of the US government’s Jazz Ambassa- have hosted the event since 2012, when the dors programme, which was created in UN headquarters in New York City hosted 1956 at the height of the Cold War to pro- the inaugural. mote American values and culture abroad. In 2020 it will be the turn of Cape Town, Jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong, South Africa. While the selection could be Dizzy Gillespie and Duke Ellington were a recognition of a vibrant and creative local dispatched around the world as cultural jazz industry—the city has its own annual ambassadors. jazz festival—it is also a reminder of the role “The weapon that we will use is the cool music played in South Africans’ struggle for one,” Mr. Gillespie reportedly said, referring equal rights, as well as the enduring legacy of to his famous trumpet. jazz across Africa. The US jazz ambassadors might not have “In celebrating jazz, the world celebrates won any war on the continent, but still, from more than the music,” UNESCO’s Corine the banks of the Mississippi River to Afri- Dubois told Africa Renewal. “It also cele- can shores and beyond, jazz music made an Jazz patrons swing along slowly in their brates creativity, partnerships and collabo- enduring impact on politics, art and litera- chairs until the band plays “Fly Me to the rations as much as freedom of expression.” ture. To this day, jazz enthusiasts are many Moon,” and then almost everybody jumps According to Ms. Dubois, jazz “promotes in Africa. up. “Agbadza style,” Mr. Essa jokes, referring the Sustainable Development Goals…and to a traditional Ghanaian dance that is also fosters dialogue among cultures.” Jazz in Accra popular in Togo and Benin. But back in 2018, New Orleans, a histori- On a balmy Sunday evening in Accra, Ghana, cally and culturally renowned American city the 10-man acoustic group Takashi Band is Jazz and liberation struggles on the Mississippi River, was honoured by performing in an open jazz bar and grill. In South African jazz developed its own sounds, a special concert as the city celebrated its an eclectic mix that also features Ghanaian styles and expressions, distinguishing itself 300th anniversary. highlife numbers, they perform two well- from its American counterpart. The common Mitch Landrieu, the mayor at the time, known jazz standards, “What a Wonderful thread between the two is that the activism could barely contain his enthusiasm. “Oh World”. of South African jazz culture during the man! It is so nice to be here,” he exclaimed. Kojo Essa, the band leader, introduces apartheid era mirrors that of American jazz “You know where jazz was created? In New himself as “a banker in the day and a musi- culture in the fight for civil rights. Orleans. Right down the street, the only cian at night.” He renders the first standard In exile, during the apartheid period place in the world it could have been created.” in an unmistakable imitation of Louis Arm- and later back in South Africa, musicians As the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, a strong, recalling the early ’60s, when Mr. such as Mariam Makeba, trumpeter Hugh New Orleans group, ushered in the pro- Armstrong visited the city and performed Masekela (affectionally referred to as the ceedings, making its way around the inside with local artists. father of South African jazz) and pianist and 16 AfricaRenewal August - November 2019 composer Abdullah Ibrahim (also known as time.” He explained how, after the Soweto Musicians perform on the streets of Maputo, Dollar Brand or the king of South African uprising of 1976, in which more than 100 Mozambique, on International Jazz Day 2019. jazz) used their performances to express a antiapartheid demonstrators were killed, Mauro Vombe yearning for freedom and equal rights. the public “picked up the song, and it was More in South Africa than elsewhere, played and sung everywhere…and in some music was central to the struggle for free- regards, it has become almost like an unof- at Bryn Mawr, an American women’s liberal dom. The 2002 documentary Amandla! A ficial national anthem of South Africa.” arts college, in the introduction to his 2017 Revolution in Four-Part Harmony, chronicles According to Mr. Ibrahim, upon hearing essay Scoring Race: Jazz, Fiction, and Fran- the power of music in rallying people against the track in prison, Nelson Mandela once cophone Africa. the apartheid regime. said, “This is a sign that liberation is near.” Jazz et vin de palme (Jazz and Palm Wine) The documentary features the track by Emmanuel Dongala of Congo is frequently “Mannenberg” by Abudallah Ibrahim. Jazz and literature cited as an example of jazz in literature. First released in 1974 to protest the The influence of jazz in Africa is felt in areas Mirages de Paris (Mirages of Paris), pub- forced displacement of colored people in other than politics; just as in the US, it has lished in 1937 and authored by Ousmane Cape Town, “Mannenberg” would become inspired novelists and other writers, espe- Socé from Senegal, was the first novel to one of the most popular songs of the ’80s in cially in French-speaking African countries. feature jazz. Africa. “No other musical form has so consist- Other key literary works include Togo- In an interview with the Voice of America ently appeared in the Francophone African lese writer Kangni Alem’s Cola Cola Jazz in 2012, Mr. Ibrahim said, “We had captured [literary] tradition,” writes Pim Higginson, a the spirit and the mood of the nation at that professor of French and francophone studies see page 30 AfricaRenewal August - November 2019 17.

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