African

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Can a white be an African?The question is at the heart of a national debate here over what makes an African. Is it color of the skin, place of birth, or history and cultural background?The furor, filtered through newspaper columns and radio talk shows for the past three months, started when a prominent white journalist, Max du Preez, a white Afrikaner by birth, declared himself an African.He objected to the way politicians, including Nelson Mandela and his successor as president, Thabo Mbeki, talked of "whites, coloreds, Indians and Africans" in a context in which "Africans" was synonymous with "blacks."

Local entrepreneurs and interested individuals will be encouraged to keep Africa in mind when they consider trade and investment opportunities at a Saturdaytown meeting at Howard Community College in Columbia.The event, organized by the Constituency for Africa and the Institute of African Commerce and Culture, will introduce participants to business opportunities in Africa and discuss how to pursue them, said Melvin Foote, the constituency's executive director.Those who attend will learn how to improve the political environment for investment in Africa through contact with the U.S. and local governments, how to meet and communicate with contacts in Africa, and how to make use of federal agencies that have programs there.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- South Africa, in its first post-apartheid military intervention, yesterday sent troops to end political unrest in the South African-encircled mountain kingdom of Lesotho.Five South African soldiers were killed and 11 wounded as they met strong resistance while taking control of military bases in the independent country. Unconfirmed reports said 16 Lesotho soldiers were killed, with up to 50 civilians injured.About 700 South Africans troops secured the royal palace, home of King Letsie III, the parliamentary building, the central business district and the residential area favored by politicians and diplomats, according to the defense ministry in Pretoria.

SOWETO, South Africa -- This ramshackle black township is (( not much to look at, but it has an epic story to tell.It was in this crucible of change that today's democratic South Africa was forged. Here was where whites honed their expertise in repression, and blacks developed their will to resist. Here is where the advance and retreat of apartheid can be traced step by step. Here is where black culture found a haven and black consciousness took hold.Yet, for all the heroes, martyrs, visionaries, bloodshed and violence Soweto has known, it has had until now no formal history.

IN 1857, Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney, speaking for the majority in the Dred Scott case, wrote, "[Blacks] had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."All of America's people have come on a long and very painful journey of progress since that time. However, for African-Americans, echoes of that past remain as does an unfinished struggle to rescue and reconstruct our history and reaffirm and reclaim aspects of our culture, both in America and on the African continent, that were prohibited, lost and stolen.

OF ALL THE world's continents, Africa has the least-developed press and electronic media. That's why a 24-hour satellite television channel exclusively devoted to its news and development is such a breakthrough.So fragile is Africa's information infrastructure that in most cases even its own media rely on reporting from the large Western news agencies. In contrast, SABC Africa will have "Africans reporting Africa to Africa," editor Allister Sparks promises.Launched by the state-owned South African Broadcasting Corp.

His eyes shut, his feet pounding pavement, Baba Kwame Ishangi contorted his body and sang about the dead yesterday at the Inner Harbor.About 70 people on Pier 5 listened and echoed Ishangi's words in the African tongue of Yoruba. They pounded drums and jingled bells to remember their ancestors, who passed -- shackled -- through town. They were slaves."This is about healing," said Adeyemi Bandele, 47, of Davidsonville, who organized the two-day "Remembrance: A Tribute to Our Ancestors," which ended yesterday.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- South Africa's first post-apartheid military operation on foreign soil -- the intervention in neighboring Lesotho -- is proving a chastening one.The death toll stands at 66, with dozens more injured. Property damage amounts to millions of dollars. The political crisis that provoked the intervention is as grave as ever, with first the opposition, then the government, refusing to talk to each other.And South Africans now face the most difficult issue of all -- when and how to withdraw from a mess, in large part, of their own making.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Newly assertive South Africa is taking the lead in the tortuous search for peace in Zaire -- a role that the United States and other powers have hoped the South Africans would take in this and other conflicts.The government of President Nelson Mandela, acting on the warring factions' stated interest in peace negotiations, has offered to serve as host to talks in Johannesburg this week that could lead to a breakthrough in the civil war, during which the rebels have seized about a quarter of the country.

Everything feels different here in Ghana.That is part of the lure for a growing number of travelers to this West African nation.Dawn breaks with faint strains of drums, singing and traditional worship. The tropical air carries the perfume of palm leaves, a scent that soaks clothing, papers and every home.The beaches are vast, and the warm ocean feels like bath water. The pace is slow, and people seem incapable of worry.It is this otherworldly feel, coupled with Ghana's rich history, that draws an increasing number of vacationers each year.

Earlier this month, President Barack Obama made his first trip to the African continent as president, visiting Ghana, the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to gain its independence from Europe. The nation of about 20 million remains a democracy and has not been a victim of civil unrest, making it a peaceful destination for tourists. It also offers a range of attractions from beaches to game reserves to old European forts and castles. 1 Explore the National Museum: . Located in Accra, the nation's capital, it is the oldest museum that celebrates the rich culture of the region, offering art and historical objects, exhibits and films.

Whatever happens in their country during the foreboding days ahead, Zimbabweans know that an "after" is inevitable. An "after Mugabe" will come even if Robert G. Mugabe, the country's 84-year-old president, manages - through a campaign of violence or other means - to claim another term in office. Zimbabwe's political crisis did not begin with this disputed election. Its roots include long-standing limits on free speech, widespread human rights abuses, the failure to resolve issues of land distribution dating from colonial times, cataclysmic mismanagement of the economy, corruption on a gargantuan scale and, not least, the impunity of the wrongdoers.

I once knew a proud man. He was called "black" or "Negro" - or worse. This man worked long hours to provide for his wife and five children. Rain or shine, he rose early and went to his job at the docks. It was a tough job, a thankless job. He didn't mind because he knew he had to provide for his family. He didn't graduate from elementary school. However, he made his children stay in school because he knew an education would open doors for them that had been closed to him. He made sure he instilled in his kids a sense of values and good moral judgment.

FOURWAYS, South Africa -- Like many brides-to-be, Immaculate Lesetla has found herself consumed by her coming wedding. There are 200 guests to think about, a church ceremony, a hotel reception, a honeymoon cruise on the Mediterranean Sea. Even with a professional planner, the 31-year-old computer expert is swamped. At least one thing is done: Months ago, her fiance, Aubrey Modise, paid her family $2,700 as the negotiated lobola, or bride price. It means the two are already married according to southern African custom and ready for their "Western" wedding.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- The defendant in the courtroom is Jacob Zuma, who until eight months ago was South Africa's deputy president and who remains the No. 2 ranked official in the ruling African National Congress. The charge is rape. His trial, which is nearing the end of its first week, has exposed fault lines on the issue of sexual violence in a country where the rate of reported rapes is among the highest in the world, as well as tensions within the ruling ANC. Outside the Johannesburg High Court, Zuma's supporters have thrown stones at his accuser and burned her photograph while chanting that she, too, should be burned.

PRETORIA, South Africa - Saying he sees "real opportunity" to make aid to Africa work, new World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz wrapped up an initial four-nation visit to the continent yesterday with talks with South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has led a drive for better governance and greater investment across Africa. "There's real opportunity here. The more I have traveled through Africa ... the more I have felt that sense of opportunity and what I could call a `can-do' attitude," he told reporters after his meeting with Mbeki.

GAITHERSBURG - A drug specifically intended for use by African-Americans with congestive heart failure received a major boost yesterday when an advisory committee to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended unanimously that the agency approve it. If the FDA accepts the committee's advice, as it usually does, BiDil would become the first drug approved in the United States for use by a particular racial or ethnic group. FDA action on the application could come next week. Black medical experts in the audience cheered the committee's vote yesterday.

WASHINGTON -- Let me tell you where I come from. Born in Southern California, but that's not what I'm talking about. Both parents from Mississippi, but I'm not referring to that, either. I mean before that. Before Mr. James Crow laid down his law. Before raiders and slave traders dropped anchor in West Africa. I'm talking about where my family began. Let me tell you where I come from. If you had asked me before, maybe I'd have done like Dr. Rick Kittles, co-director of Molecular Genetics at the National Human Genome Center at Howard University.

Inside the sunlit courtyard of a sprawling 15th-century castle off the coast of Ghana, a handful of men and women are gathered in a circle, holding hands and preparing to pray. The waves of the Atlantic Ocean crash and rumble nearby, but one can almost hear a pin drop in the solemn hush that has fallen over this assembly of bronze, beige and ebony faces. A regal woman wearing colorful robes begins to speak. "For our ancestors," says Dr. Patricia Newton, a physician and president of Sebayit Tours, the Baltimore travel agency leading our small group of mostly Marylanders.

WHETHER Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe will honor his commitment to undo violent seizures of white-owned farms, and substitute an orderly compensated redistribution, remains to be seen. His temptation to foment unrest to help him win re-election next April to another six-year term as president will be great. Despite, or because of, his 20 years in power, few believe he could stave off opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's challenge in a fair and peaceful vote. But Zimbabwe agreed to the deal under pressure of other African members of the Commonwealth, the former British empire, who convened at Abuja, Nigeria's capital.