In his last Encyclical, “Fratelli Tutti”, (“Brothers [and Sisters] All”), Pope Francis is calling for a new world society, characterised by fraternity and social friendship. Africa has much to contribute to the shaping of the future of humanity. The African sense of fraternity begins with motherhood. In most African societies, all grown up women are…
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Long, long ago, Giraffe did not have the long, elegant neck that he has now. In those days his neck was short and squat, resembling Rhinoceros’s powerful neck. It was a time of drought and famine. The waterholes had dried up, the land had been scorched by the sun and the grazing was threadbare. The…
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The Russians are the ones who, having taken a direct military role alongside Damascus in 2015, have done most to defeat ISIS and perhaps, more importantly, the other rebel forces. The Turks will want to ensure that they can maintain a military presence in northern Syria to watch over Kurdish separatist ambitions. Israel keeps the…
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A Sunday with Father Anthony Assebiah, Parish Priest of Beyin in Kengen, Southern Ghana. As soon as we reached the pier, we boarded an old rowing boat. Rowing powerfully and confidently, Stephen, the young catechist, brought us to the Island of Nzulezo in Lake Tandane. The voyage lasted almost an hour. As we approached the…
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The pandemic forced it to close just a week after it was officially opened and did not allow it to reopen until last August. The people’s district of Abobo hosts the first Ivorian museum of contemporary art. The democratisation of art was taken into consideration when the famous Ivorian architect Issa Diabaté was charged with…
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The difficult journey of the Ethiopians of Jewish origin towards complete integration. Unifying music may help avoid discrimination. Hidden among the Semien mountains in the north of Ethiopia, north-east of Gondar in the Amhara region, the Beta Israel or Falashas – as Ethiopian Jews were known – remained hidden from the rest of the Jewish…
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On 6 March 2011, a group of teenagers wrote anti-government graffiti on a school wall in Dara’a, a Sunni-majority city in the south of the country, suffering from a long drought and poor harvests. During the following days, the regime reacted with arrests and one of the students was found dead. But instead of fear,…
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Holy Week in Taxco involves one of the most moving and impressive liturgical ceremonies to be found in Mexico. A fascinating and creative religious syncretism. The crowd observed total silence as they waited for the imminent arrival of the procession. The frightening, uneasy silence was gradually broken by an impressive staccato noise. In the distance,…
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