PAMLOMO-SAUTI YA JAMII

Dan Roberts in Washington A ferocious week of attacks on Donald Trump appeared to loosen his grip on the Republican presidential race on “ Super Saturday ”, while Bernie Sanders showed there may also be some life left in the Democratic race. Conservative champion Ted Cruz won heavily in the Republican caucus in Kansas and won by a similar margin in Maine, before Trump underlined his national advantage with victories in Louisiana and Kentucky. With 47 delegates up for grabs, Louisiana was the biggest prize of the night and the only state using a primary rather than caucus system. Trump has tended to do better in primaries, where his support among first-time voters and independents can overwhelm the more determined activists who back Cruz. Trump’s victories – by 4.4% in Louisiana and 3.6% in Kentucky – were by smaller margins than Cruz won his states, meaning the Texan took more delegates on the night. The results suggested neither may reach the 1,237 delegates neede...

Katika hali isiyo ya kawaida Wanafunzi 275 wa darasa la kwanza katika shule ya msingi Itete wilayani Mbozi mkoani Songwe wanalazimika kukaa chini wakati wa masomo kutokana na uhaba wa madawati shuleni hapo. Kwa mujibu wa Mwalimu mkuu wa shule hiyo Grace Mkoloma, darasa la kwanza lenye wanafunzi 278 lina dawati moja pekee lililopelekwa shuleni hapo na mzazi wa mwanafunzi mmoja ambaye hakutaka mtoto wake akae chini. Uwepo wa dawati hilo moja unatoa fursa kwa mtoto wa mzazi huyo kuteua rafiki zake wengine wawili kukalia dawati hilo wakati wa masomo hivyo wanafunzi wengine 275 hulazimika kukaa chini. Mwalimu Mkoloma amebainisha hayo kwenye mkutano wa wazazi na wadau wa elimu shuleni hapo uliofanyika jana ukiwa na lengo la kuelimisha jamii juu ya dhana ya Sera ya Elimu bure pamoja na kujadili changamoto inayoikabili shule hiyo ikiwemo mlundikano wa wanafunzi madarasani pamoja na uhaba wa madawati. Amesema shule hiyo ina jumla ya wanafunzi 2000 wa kuanzia darasa la awali ha...

Troops during the Angolan civil war. (Reuters/Wendy Schwegmann) Over nearly 30 years, Angola’s brutal civil war resulted in the loss of around half a million civilian lives. Although it ended in 2002, the tanks, scrap metal, and guns strewn across the country serve as reminders of the strife. Now, a local business is doing something smart with all that metal. Luanda-based K2L Capital launched the ADA steel mill—the largest in the country—at a cost of $300 million in December.  According to a CNN report , the mill, based in Barra de Dande, in the north of the country, will use scrap metal and guns left behind from the brutal civil war as its primary source of raw material. The ADA steel mill is a significant investment for the oil-reliant country. Given the  recent fall in oil prices , Angola, like other petro-states, is urgently trying diversify its economy away from energy. “ADA is part of the road to economic diversification as it will bring...

A statue of Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah is seen at his memorial park in Accra . (Reuters/Sahra Abdi) Ghana, the first sub-Saharan country to gain independence, celebrates the 59th anniversary of its freedom from British rule this year. According to Nelson Mandela Ghana’s independence on March 6, 1957, provided much strength and great inspiration to African liberation movements. This article is a foundation essay. These are longer than usual and take a wider look at a key issue affecting society Ghana was to become the testing ground for Arthur Lewis’ ideas on economic development. The excitement surrounding Ghana’s independence in 1957 as tropical Africa’s first decolonized territory captivated Lewis as thoroughly as it did African nationalists and Afrophiles around the world. Lewis, a St Lucian, went on to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1979. A veritable who’s who of intellectuals of African descent living in the Americas flocked to Accra. T...

The airport will generate energy through photo-voltaic technology. (Reuters/Enrique De La Osa) South Africa has opened the continent’s first solar-powered airport in the Western Cape. George Airport, which serves over 600,000 passengers annually, has launched a clean energy project which, during its first phase, will contribute around  40% of the airport’s electricity needs . Once completed, the airport is expected to be totally independent of the national grid. The airport will generate its electricity by harnessing energy from sun tapped through photo-voltaic panels which were installed at the cost of almost a million dollars. Airports Company South Africa, which runs the airport, hopes George Airport will be the first of nine airports under its control to run on solar energy as it chases the lofty goal of running airports fully on renewable energy. During the launch, Dipuo Peters, South Africa’s minister of transport, described the solar airport project ...

The state of a South African maize field in mid-January. (Reuters Photo/Siphiwe Sibeko) In April, harvest season begins in Southern Africa. An ongoing drought means the season will yield a historically poor crop. Countries including Malawi, South Africa, and Zimbabwe will have major shortfalls of grain. By one count, more than 20 million people in the region already have limited access to food— notwithstanding the drought . Without intervention, the next year will put those people and millions more at risk of malnutrition or even starvation. But knowing all this makes intervention more possible than ever. Famines are a powerful illustration of how suddenly nature can undercut a poor or poorly prepared society. We have paid dearly for our failure to respond to them efficiently. Economist Stephen Devereux has estimated  70 million people  (pdf) were killed by famine in the 20th century alone. Today, analysts employing new sources of information, better techn...