CULTURE-SOUTH AFRICA: Helping Men Become Men
In the Nguni languages, which include Zulu and Xhosa, an “indlavini” is a violent and reckless man who disrespects elders and tradition. The indlavini emerged in the early twentieth century, when...
View ArticleHEALTH-UGANDA: HIV-Positive Movers and Shakers
The fragrance of ginger and paw paws from market stalls floats into the tiny room where Musisi Josephus Gavah shows visitors a thick ledger – the register of members of the Mukono District Network of...
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RIGHTS-SEYCHELLES: Problems In Paradise
Annette* is a small, lively woman in her early sixties. Married to an abusive husband – who once threw boiling water on her, landing her in hospital – she was not repeating the story with her alcoholic...
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DEVELOPMENT: Escaping the Poverty Trap
What do they have in common – the landless widow with a deaf son in Bangladesh, the 12-year-old miner in Kyrgyzstan, the Ugandan farming couple with 12 children and the South African domestic worker...
View ArticleAIDS-SOUTH AFRICA: Balancing Individual Rights Against Public Health
Public health and individual human rights are poor friends. What may be good for society may be bad for the individual, or the other way round. And nothing sharpens this tension as starkly as AIDS....
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WEST AFRICA: Female Genital Mutilation Knows No Borders
Laws against female genital mutilation are driving the practice underground and across borders, says UNIFEM. FGM -- no longer announced in the market, but still thriving. Credit: Mercedes Sayagues/IPS...
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Q&A: 'Just Give Money to the Poor'
Cash transfers are the new darlings of proponents of welfare programmes. Mexico, Brazil, Bangladesh, lately New York City, and about two dozen developing countries presently dole out money to poor...
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POVERTY-MOZAMBIQUE: Researchers Ponder Value of Cash Transfers
Their mud huts perch precariously on the eroded, high embankment of the Zambezi river, in the provincial capital of Tete, in central Mozambique. But watching their homes be washed away by erosion or...
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HEALTH: Go Away With Your Spray
Zinaldina dos Reus, Zizi for her friends, is washing clothes by a stream near the airport in São Tomé. Her toddler plays nearby. Zizi, 21, can't remember the last time she or her husband had malaria,...
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HEALTH-SAO TOME: The Forest is the Pharmacy
If you live in São Tomé, a good investment in your health is to plant a po-sabom tree (Dracaena aroborea) in your backyard. Leave space: it can grow up to 20 metres high, with sword-shaped leaves. Sum...
View ArticleHEALTH-MOZAMBIQUE: Some Traditions Hamper AIDS Education Progress
Mercedes SayaguesBy Mercedes SayaguesMAPUTO, May 2 2000 (IPS) Some traditional beliefs and practices run counter to HIV/AIDS campaigns hampering progress, say Mozambican researchers. Take the belief in...
View ArticleHEALTH-MOZAMBIQUE: Taking AIDS Education To The Playing Field
Mercedes SayaguesBy Mercedes SayaguesMAPUTO, May 9 2000 (IPS) The stadium is packed. The crowd cheers wildly. This is a key match for Mozambique’s first league soccer cup. The players emerge from the...
View ArticleHEALTH-ANGOLA: The Rich Fly to Lisbon, or Sao Paulo to Get Quality AIDs Care
Mercedes SayaguesBy Mercedes SayaguesLUNDA, Sep 6 2002 (IPS) Luisa Cruz* felt like she had won the lottery. She got her life back. But her windfall turned into a nightmare. Earlier this year, Cruz, 22,...
View ArticleHEALTH-BOTSWANA: Reaching Young People to Beat AIDS Pandemic
Mercedes SayaguesBy Mercedes SayaguesGABORONE, Sep 9 2002 (IPS) It is midnight on Saturday. Thick crowds pack the three bars in Kilimanjaro, a shabby shopping centre in the Gaborone township of...
View ArticleRIGHTS: South Africa Challenges World Rules on Intellectual Property
Mercedes SayaguesBy Mercedes SayaguesPRETORIA, South Africa, Sep 30 2002 (IPS) What does an anti-pimple cream have to do with the African Renaissance? How can a yellow fruit relished by elephants...
View ArticleRIGHTS: Reversing Worldwide History of Exploitation of Indigenous Peoples
Mercedes SayaguesBy Mercedes SayaguesANDRIESVALE, South Africa, Mar 28 2003 (IPS) It looks like an ordinary cactus – thin, thorny fingers growing less than a metre tall in the reddish sands of southern...
View ArticleRIGHTS: Reversing History of Exploitation of Indigenous Peoples
Mercedes SayaguesBy Mercedes SayaguesANDRIESVALE, South Africa, Mar 28 2003 (IPS) It might look like an ordinary cactus but the Hoodia Gordonii has become a symbol of efforts to reverse the worldwide...
View ArticleRIGHTS: Breaking the Silence about Gender-based Abuses in Zimbabwe
Mercedes SayaguesBy Mercedes SayaguesJOHANNESBURG, Apr 3 2003 (IPS) During the day, she hid in farms. At night, she slept in the bush or with goats in kraals. Plaxedes, a polling agent for the...
View ArticleHEALTH-SENEGAL: Cardinals and Khalifs Unite Against AIDS
Mercedes Sayagues*By Mercedes SayaguesDAKAR, Jul 8 2004 (IPS) It’s 13:30 in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, on Friday. Traffic stops around the Old Mosque. The sound of babouches shuffling on the...
View ArticleHEALTH-SENEGAL: Cardinals and Khalifs Unite Against AIDS
Mercedes Sayagues*By Mercedes SayaguesDAKAR, Jul 8 2004 (IPS) Traffic stops around the Old Mosque in the Senegalese capital. Thousands fill the streets, and when the muezzin calls, they kneel, bow and...
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