#nigerian refugee

[africanrefugeeswelcome]

Nigeria🇳🇬+Armenia🇦🇲 couple

🇳🇬❤️🇦🇲

[zoobus]

District 9 is still a good movie and I definitely missed some obvious motifs when I first saw it but in retrospect it is like...very weirdly racist against Nigerians. Nigerians whom the aliens' oppression is based upon.

The existence of racism isn't weird but to make a movie about this marginalized and systematically set up for failure group, to get your fantasy racism moments by asking people on the street their opinions of Nigerians and ADR "prawns" over it later, then have all the Nigerians as irrelevant gangsters who wrongly believe in some mystical cannibal* bullshit and exist primarily to deus ex machina wikus out of one specific plot corner. Outside of that, the government, wikus' colleagues, and the general public are greater and better incorporated antagonists.

Anyway, I recommend rewatching stuff you had strong opinions on as a youth, both negative and positive! Fascinating to catch themes you didn't clock the first time, sometimes even find myself 180ing. It's still a great watch.

*cannibal applies to the consumption of any sentient creature, right? Like eating Legalos or Scooby Doo would be cannibalism?

[coochiequeens]

'A woman who falls through the cracks is falling with her children'   

Away from threat of Islamist violence or floods, health risks for pregnant women in Nigeria's refugee camps remain high 

By Adie Vanessa Offiong, CNN Photographs by Taibat Ajiboye for CNN

Editor’s note: This story is part of As Equals, CNN's ongoing series on gender inequality. For information about how the series is funded and more, check out our FAQs.

Abuja, Nigeria (CNN)Aisha Aliyu is eight-months pregnant and sprawled out on a mat in front of her house with four of her children spread around her feet. Two-year-old Hauwa and five-year-old Abba are both crying and tugging at their mother's coffee-colored hijab. She, in response, rolls her eyes and clicks her tongue at them. She looks tired. 

The child Aliyu is carrying is her tenth. The last four were delivered in the Durumi Camp, a place in Nigeria's capital city, Abuja, that she and an estimated more than 3,000 other internally displaced people call home. 

In 2013, Aliyu fled her home in the village of Wala in Nigeria's northeastern Borno State to its capital, Maiduguri. She said her village was attacked and much of it burned down by armed Islamist group, Boko Haram. Two years later, the militant group attacked Maiduguri, forcing Aliyu to again migrate, this time travelling over 856km south to Abuja with her husband and five children.

The now 39-year-old saw having many children as a way of replacing her relatives killed by the insurgents, but reveals she was done after her last pregnancy in 2021 and began using contraceptives. However, she became pregnant again this year. 

Having already borne children in Durumi camp (one of 264 communities for internally dispaced people (IDPs) known to exist across Nigeria as of September 2021), Aliyu was fearful, knowing of the limited resources she would have access to. The farmer's wife had been unable to afford the food and medication she needed to stay healthy, and antenatal services were limited.   

Aisha with five of her children

The space initially set up as a birthing suite at the camp was rudimentary and barely hygienic, explains Liyatu Ayuba, appointed the camp 's Women's Leader by the site's Chairman when she arrived in 2014. She has since handled issues regarding health, food or children on behalf the IDPs.  

"It was a tent that we swept, and I would put a mat or wrapper on the floor for the women to lie down on to give birth," says Ayuba, who for much of the camp's history has been its only birth attendant. Many of the displaced women refer to her as Mama. 

 Ayuba says the tent was a shanty built with corrugated roofing sheets and a sandy floor. If gloves were available, the birth attendant used them and if not, she explains that she covered her hands with polythene bags and cut umbilical cords with a razor blade. 

"I gave birth to three of [my children] with Mama's help on a mat under the shelter," Aliyu tells CNN, referring to the birthing tent. "Mama cut the umbilical cord and bathed the baby."  

In 2019, a non-governmental organization set up the camp's health post where Aliyu's ninth child, Hauwa, was delivered in 2021. The post is a small clinic located inside a repurposed 20ft shipping container, where wooden boards partition the space to create a delivery suite which looks more like a storage space and just about holds a bed, a baby cot, a drip stand, a broken chair, a trolley and empty containers that should contain water. The other half is the consultation room with a table, two chairs, a bed, and a cupboard where medicines and devices are kept.    

Though basic, the clinic at least provides a consultation space that women previously had to make do without and Ayuba is proud to say the camp has not recorded any deaths among mothers or babies under her watch. 

The makeshift delivery room partitioned in the shipping container used as the camp's health post

'No 'special arrangement' for those who are pregnant in Nigeria's camps

Aliyu is one of many internally displaced women bearing children in Nigeria's camps, with some grounds not even housing a health post or shelter for birth, instead needing women to go into labour in their own shelters or that of their birth attendant. 

A 2021 PhD thesis by Fatima Mahmood Jibirilla at Walden University, states that women living in IDP camps in Nigeria "have a higher risk of maternal death than women living in their homes." The author cited a range of factors increasing the risk of maternal and neonatal deaths in these settings, including inadequate prenatal care services and limited family planning programs.  

"There are no special arrangements for pregnant women in IDP and refugee camps [in Nigeria]. There are poor antenatal services that are inadequate to detect and address likely pregnancy-related complications and other signs of poor pregnancy outcomes," the author writes. While there have been no maternal or infant deaths at Durumi on her watch, according to Ayuba, multiple doctors volunteering there and across camps in Abuja corroborated the concerns highlighted in the study to CNN.  

In a country that has long had among the highest maternal mortality rates in the world and has the third highest number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Africa as of the end of 2022, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), the lack of adequate maternal healthcare provision in these camps is a significant concern, one of the doctors told CNN.

The 2022 IDMC figures also show that 4.5m Nigerians were classed as "internally displaced people" as a result of both conflict and natural disasters, with flooding outstripping protracted violence as the main source of displacement. 

The camp nurse, Isa Umar examines a pregnant woman during antenatal session

While there is no national breakdown of IDPs by sex or age, a 2023 report by the Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) Sector says there are 1,575,741 women and children in the Nigerian states of Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe alone, making up 74% of the 2,124,053 IDPs in those states. 

Nigeria's total IDP population relies largely on the graces of charitable organizations for its health care, Ayuba and the camp's nurse Isa Umar told CNN. 

'If it happens, I am dead.' The prohibitive costs of care   

Wednesdays are antenatal day in Durumi. When CNN visits, camp nurse Isa Umar, who himself was forced to leave his home due to the insurgency, is in the consultation room using a handheld ultrasound scanner to monitor a baby's growth and a fetoscope to monitor the heartbeat among the expectant mothers coming in. 

Umar measures each pregnant woman's stomach followed by her weight. After they've been seen, women compare notes while sitting on the clinic's veranda, discussing how any of the medicines Umar has prescribed will be paid for.   

The set up is far from adequate. Umar tells CNN: "We don't even have folic acid or anti-malarial medicine to give them. I have to write these for them to go and buy." Malaria is endemic in Nigeria and infections pose various risks during pregnancy, such as premature labour and miscarriage, and folic acid is recommended for those who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant, to reduce the risk of certain birth defects. 

But for most of the 64 women recorded in the camp's birth register this year, these costs are prohibitive. Folic acid, for example, costs ₦3,000 ($3.74) for 100 tablets and Aliyu tells CNN she could not possibly have afforded that cost for the duration of her pregnancy. She says she's only been able to take this vital supplement when NGOs have donated them free of charge. Back home in Wala, her N100 ($0.11) hospital card had entitled her to free folic acid as well as other resources while pregnant. 

Getting clean water at the camp is also a challenge, Aliyu shares, explaining that it's a time-consuming, strenuous task requiring her to make several trips daily and is one she can no longer do in the final weeks of her pregnancy. Instead, she now pays for it to be delivered. At its cheapest, enough water to make the family's breakfast of pap (porridge made from ground corn) and other domestic chores for a month costs ₦24,000 ($28.43). Costs can rise by 25% on days when there is no electricity and a generator is needed to work the pumps, or when water sellers must go farther to fetch it.  

With Aisha almost full term, she is no longer able to go to fetch water and now has to pay up to N500 daily for it to be delivered to her home

There are also the costs of giving birth in Abuja that Aliyu didn't have back home.   

To immunize her babies at the camp, the mother of nine has to take them to the nearest government hospital where nurses have certain expectations that fall to the mother, she tells CNN. These include making sure the baby is wearing diapers and bringing various items including cotton wool and baby lotion, which would cost money Aliyu says she doesn't have.  

"In Borno, it was not compulsory to use [diapers] when going to the hospital. We just used our wrappers (a piece of fabric women tied around their waist). But here, the nurses insist that (the babies) must wear diapers and (we must) have an extra one in our bag," Aliyu says. Multiple mothers shared similar concerns with CNN. 

Dr Charles Nzelu, Head of Special Duties at Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Health tells CNN he believes health workers are simply acting in the overall interests of the baby and that a lack of medical skill, experience, and communication is resulting in a lack of understanding about the women living in the IDP camps. "When you come to me as a doctor, I will give you medical advice the way it's supposed to be," he explains. "When you are more experienced, you are flexible (with) the way you relate with patients." He adds that this government, which came into power in May, will work to address issues like these.

"I can't afford treatment. If it happens, I'm dead"Pregnant resident of Durumi Camp in Abuja, Aisha Aliyu

In the meantime, Aliyu says she is struggling to meet all her needs and those of her children. To afford what she can, Aliyu makes and sells wigs and traditional caps worn by men, earning on average ₦10,000 ($12.49) a month.

Money is not her only concern. Aliyu worries about catching malaria and about not being able to produce enough breastmilk because of the poor quality of her diet. Her family survives on staples such as pasta and maize in different forms. 

"I can't afford the treatment" for malaria, says Aliyu. "If it happens, I am dead."

Difficulty fulfilling promises

The National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI) is responsible for Nigeria's growing number of displaced people. Its commissioner tells CNN that the organization, which was set up in 1989 and has a health budget of N250 million for 2024, has paid for midwives to visit IDP camps to assist in deliveries of babies as frequently as funds allow and has, in some instances, also paid off people's hospital bills. CNN was unable to verify this budget figure provided by the Commission which it said is not yet public.

However, some of the IDPs who have been in Durumi since the informal settlement formed in 2014, say that no midwives sent by the Commission have visited the camp during their time here and that in the past, it has been difficult to get it to fulfil promises they say the Commission made to the camp, such as furnishing the health post with an additional bed, scanning machine, gloves and other health equipment. 

CNN asked the NCFRMI about the services it provides to those in Durumi but did not receive a response prior to publication.

The nurse takes the weight of the pregnant women during antenatal

Within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), where Abuja is located, the Territory's Health and Environmental Services is responsible for all health matters including services provided to people in IDP camps, including reproductive care and sexual health services, such as birth control. Dr. Dolapo Fasawe, Mandate Secretary of the FCT Health and Environmental Services, tells CNN that IDP camps in the area have functional clinics supported by area council staff and partners from outside, explaining that they cannot build permanent structures because the camps are meant to be temporary. She adds her belief that "the issue with maternal care in such places is child spacing, not maternal mortality." Birth spacing helps to improve maternal health outcomes as becoming pregnant too soon after giving birth increases the risk of complications. Doctors CNN spoke to also highlighted this as a concern in the camps, and Nigeria more widely.

But many residents of the camp told CNN they had not heard of the FCT Health Services or seen them at the camp and explain that the provision of birth control is again handled by non-profits working in the camps. When Fasawe was informed of this by CNN, she said it was a wakeup call for her department to act promptly. This "has opened our eyes to the need to focus on them," Fasawe says. "We need to (conduct some) outreach asap."

Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Health oversees health for the country (including provisions provided by the Commission). In response to the concerns, the Ministry of Health's Nzelu tells CNN that maternal and child health is a very high priority for government but explains that the Ministry primarily provides policies and guidelines for states, local governments and government agencies to follow and does not typically intervene directly. He said: "As a government, we are still working to make sure that both the state and all these agencies of government that are charged with the direct implementation, do their best to make sure that those inhabitants of IDP camps are well taken care of."

A volunteer doctor brought his own kit to do blood tests at the Durumi camp

'A woman who falls through the cracks is falling with her children'   

African NGO, Pro Health International, has been sending volunteer medical professionals to provide free healthcare services for IDPs across Nigeria for over 12 years. They were last in Durumi in June and describe it as one of the most impoverished IDP camps within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), where Abuja is located. 

Pro Health International Founder and Executive Director Dr. Iko Ibanga shared that his team raised the issue of health challenges within IDP camps two years ago with the Minister of Health at the time, Dr. Osagie Ehanire. "We were told it would be looked into, but nothing was done," he says.

Ehanire did not directly respond to CNN about whether Pro Health International raised the issue of health challenges among internally displaced people with him, but the former health minister highlighted the NGO's work as a useful implementer of maternal health services in more recent years, and shared emergency response plans for IDPs that were put in place in the north-east of the country (where Boko Haram is most active) and go back to 2016. He tells CNN: "Women's Health services were prioritized and featured strongly in the programs designed to the needs of internally displaced women." This region does not include Abuja, however, where the Durumi camp is located.

Women at the Durumi IDP camp, sitting on the veranda of the makeshift health post

The 2023 health budget is ₦1.17 trillion ($2.2bn), which is a 42.6% increase since 2022 and the highest percent of the total budget allocated for health. But In Africa's largest economy, this is only 5.7% of the annual budget of ₦20.5 trillion, and is much lower than the 15% of annual budgets all African Union member nations, including Nigeria, pledged in 2001 to spend on "improvement of the health sector".    

According to the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, a health post, which is the most basic health care facility, should be able to cater to a population of 500 and have 34 items always available to serve that population. Durumi's health post serves more than 3000 people and has just 10 of these items: a waste bin, scissors, fetoscope, weighing scale, chair, tables, two beds, kidney dishes, and a cupboard, all provided by NGOs according to Ayuba and Umar who say they both manage the facility without a salary.

Nzelu shares that the Ministry of Health is currently conducting a health needs assessment in most of the IDP camps to learn what is and is not lacking to ensure adequate health care services. He tells CNN: "With the budget cycle currently on, it can inform some of the things we are able to get into the budget and hope that the National Assembly gives approval so that we can implement."

Pro-Health International's Ibanga is emphatic about the risks displaced people face during the perinatal period and beyond. "When [a woman] is ill, it affects everything tied to her and her children are the most important things tied to her," he says. "A woman who falls through the cracks is not falling by herself. She is falling with her children." 

This story was edited by Eliza Anyangwe and Meera Senthilingam

[specialagentartemis]

Black Women writing SFF

The post about Octavia Butler also made me think about the injustice we do both Butler, SFF readers, and Black women SFF writers by holding her up as the one Black Woman Writing Sci-Fi. She occupies an important place in the genre, for her creativity, the beauty and impact of her writing, and her prolific work... but she's still just one writer, and no one writer works for everybody.

So whether you liked Octavia Butler's books or didn't, here are some of the (many!!! this list is just the authors I've read and liked, or been recommended and been wanting to read) other Black women writing speculative fiction aimed at adults, who might be writing something within your interest:

N. K. Jemisin - a prolific powerhouse of modern sff. Will probably have something you'll like. Won three Hugo awards in a row for her Broken Earth trilogy. I’ve only read her book of short stories, How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? and it is absolutely story after story of bangers. Creative, chilling, beautifully written, make you think. They’re so good and I highly recommend the collection. Several of her novels have spun out of premises she first explored through these short stories, most recently “The City Born Great” giving rise to her novel The City We Became. Leans more fantasy than sci-fi, but has a lot of both, in various permutations. 

Nisi Shawl - EDIT: I have been informed that Nisi Shawl identifies as genderfluid, not as a woman. They primarily write short stories that lean literary. Their one novel that I’ve read, Everfair, is an alternate-history 19th century that asks, what if the Congo had fought off European colonization and became a free and independent African state? Told in vignettes spanning decades of political organization, political movements, war tactics, and social development, among an ensemble of local African people, Black Americans coming to the new country, white and mixed-race Brits, and Chinese immigrants who came as British laborers.

Nnedi Okorafor - American-Nigerian writer of Africanfuturism, sci-fi stories emphasizing life in present, future, and alternate-magical Africa. She has range! From Binti, a trilogy of novellas about a teenage girl in Namibia encountering aliens and balancing her newfound connection to space with expectations of her family; to Akata Witch, a middle-grade series about a Nigerian-American girl moving to Nigeria and learning to use magic powers she didn’t know she had; to Who Fears Death, a brutal depiction of magical-realism in a futuristic, post-war Sudan; to short stories like "Africanfuturism 419", about that poor Nigerian prince who’s desperately sending out those emails looking for help (but with a sci-fi twist), and "Mother of Invention" about a smart house taking care of its human and her baby… she’s done a little bit of everything, but always emphasizes the future, the science, and the magic of (usually western) Africa.

Karen Lord - an Afro-Caribbean author.  I actually didn’t particularly like the one novel by her I’ve read, The Best of All Possible Worlds, but Martha Wells did, so. Lord has more novels set in this world—a Star Trek-esque multicultural, multispecies spacefuture set on a planet that has welcomed immigrants and refugees for a long time, and become a vibrant multicultural planet. I find her stories rooted in near-future Caribbean socio-climatic concerns like "Haven" and "Cities of the Sun" and her folktale-fantasy style Redemption in Indigo more compelling.  And more short stories here.

Bethany C. Morrow - only has one novella (short novel?) for adults, Mem, but it was creative and fascinating and good and I’d be remiss not to shout it out. In an alternate-history 1920s Toronto, scientists have discovered how to extract specific memories from a person—but then those memories are embodied as physical, cloned manifestations of the person at the moment the memory was made. The main character is one such “Mem,” struggling to determine who she is if she was created from and defined by one single traumatic memory that her original-self wanted to remove. It’s mostly quiet, contemplative, and very interesting.  (Morrow has some YA novels too. I read one of them and thought it was okay.)

Rebecca Roanhorse - Afro-Indigenous, Black and "Spanish Indian" and married into Diné (Navajo). I’ve read her ongoing post-apocalyptic fantasy series starting with Trail of Lightning, and am liking it a lot; after a climate catastrophe, the spirits and magic of the Diné awakened to protect Dinetah (the Navajo Nation) from the onslaught; and now magic and monsters are part of life in this fundamentally changed world. Coyote is there and he is only sometimes helpful. She also has a more traditional second-world epic high fantasy, Black Sun, an elaborate fantasy world with quests and prophecies and seafaring adventure that draws inspiration from Indigenous cultures of the US and Mexico rather than Europe. She also has bitingly satirical and very incisive short stories like “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience” about virtual reality and cultural tourism, and the fantasy-horror "Harvest."

Micaiah Johnson - her multiverse-hopping novel The Space Between Worlds plays with alternate universes and alternate selves in a continuously creative and interesting way! The setup doesn’t take the easy premise that one universe is our own recognizable one that opens up onto strange alternate universes—even the main character’s home universe is wildly different in speculative ways, with the MC coming from a Mad Max-esque desert community abandoned to the elements, while working for the universe-travel company within the climate-controlled walled city where the rich and well-connected live and work. Also, it’s unabashedly gay. 

And if you like audiobooks and audio fiction (I listened to The Space Between Worlds as an audiobook, it’s good), then Jordan Cobb is someone you should check out. She does sci-fi/horror/thriller audio drama. Her works include Janus Descending, a lyrical and eerie sci-fi horror about a small research expedition to a distant planet and how it went so, so wrong; and Descendants, the sequel about its aftermath. She also has Primordial Deep, about a research expedition to the deep undersea, to investigate the apparent re-emergence of a lot of extinct prehistoric sea creatures. She’s a writer/producer I like, and always follow her new releases. Her detailed prose, minimal casts  (especially in Janus Descending), good audio quality, and full-series supercuts make these welcoming to audiobook fans. 

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Nalo Hopkinson - a writer who should be considered nearly as foundational as Octavia Butler, honestly. A novelist and short story writer with a wide variety of sci-fi, dystopian futures, fairy-tale horror, gods and epics, and space Carnival, drawing heavily from her Caribbean experiences and aesthetics.

Tananarive Due - fantastical/horror. Immortals, vampires, curses, altered reality, unnerving mystery. Also has written a lot of books.

Andrea Hairston - creative and otherworldly, weird and bisexual, with mindscapes and magic and aliens. 

Helen Oyeyemi - I haven’t read her work but she comes highly recommended by a friend. A novelist and short story writer, most of her work leans fairytale fantastical-horror. What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours is a collection of short fiction and recc’ed to me as her best work. White is for Witching is a well-regarded haunted house novel. 

Ashia Monet - indie author, writer of The Black Veins, pitched as “the no-love-interest, found family adventure you’ve been searching for.” Magic road trip! Possibly YA? I’m not positive. 

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This also doesn’t include Black non-binary sff authors I’ve read and liked like An Owomoyela, C. L. Polk, and Rivers Solomon. And this is specifically about adult sff books, so I didn’t include Black women YA sff authors like Kalynn Bayron, Tomi Adeyemi, Tracy Deonn, Justina Ireland, or Alechia Dow, though they’re writing fantasy and sci-fi in the YA world too.

And a lot of short stories are out there in the online magazine world, where so many up and coming authors get their start, and established ones explore offbeat and new ideas.  Pick up an issue (or a subscription!) of FIYAH magazine for the most current Black speculative writing.

[argyrocratie]

"In “Memory Voids and Role Reversals,” Palestinian political science professor Dana El Kurd writes of her jarring experience, hearing of the October 7th massacres by Hamas while visiting the Holocaust Tower at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. She notes the historic irony of Holocaust survivors seeking security from future oppression by expelling another people from their homeland by the hundreds of thousands, ghettoizing them in enclaves enforced by military checkpoints, and controlling them with collective punishment.

The irony of a state formed as the “antithesis” to the ghetto using ghettoization as a strategy of control is not lost on Palestinians. This infrastructure of coercion went hand in hand, of course, with ever-present physical violence — imprisonment, home demolitions, air strikes and more.

She quotes Aristide Zolberg’s observation that “formation of a new state can be a ‘refugee-generating process.’”

This is not only true of Palestinians. The Westphalian nation-state, which has been the normative component of the international system since the Treaty of Westphalia, necessarily entails (especially since the post-1789 identification of nationalism with the nation-state) the suppression of ethnic identity to a far greater extent than the expression of any such identity. Every constructed national identity associated with a “State of the X People” has necessarily involved the suppression and homogenization of countless ethnicities present in the territory claimed by that state. At the time of the French Revolution, barely half the “French” population spoke any of the many langue d’oil dialects of northern France, let alone the dialect of the Ile de France (the basis for the official “French” language). The rest spoke Occitan dialects like Provençal, or non-Romance languages like Breton (whose closest living relative is Welsh). The same is true of Catalan, Aragonese, Basque, and Galician in Spain, the low-German languages and now-extinct Wendish in Germany, the non-Javanese ethnicities of Indonesia, and so on. Heads of state issue sonorous pronouncements concerning the “Nigerian People” or “Zimbabwean People,” in reference to multi-ethnic populations whose entire “identity” centers on lines drawn on a map at the Berlin Conference.

When I say official national languages were established through the suppression of their rivals, I mean things like the residential schools of the United States and Canada punishing Native children for using their own languages. Or schools around the world shaming students with signs reading “I Spoke Welsh (or Breton, or Provencal, or Catalan, or Basque, or Ainu, or an African vernacular instead of the English, French, etc., lingua franca). And so on.

And when we consider the range of artificial national identities that were constructed by suppressing other real ethnicities, we can’t forget the “Jewish People” of Israel. Its construction occurred part and parcel with the suppression of diasporic Jewish ethnic identities all over Europe and the Middle East. The “New Jewish” identity constructed by modern Zionism was associated with the artificial revival of Hebrew, which had been almost entirely a liturgical language for 2300 years, as an official national language. And this, in turn, was associated with the suppression — both official and unofficial — of the actually existing Jewish ethnicities associated with the Yiddish, Ladino, and Arabic languages.

The centuries-old languages and cultures of actual Jewish ethnicities throughout Europe were treated as shameful relics of the past, to be submerged and amalgamated into a new artificially constructed Jewish identity centered on the Hebrew language. 

Yiddish, the language spoken by the Ashkenazi Jews of Europe — derived from an archaic German dialect and written in the Hebrew alphabet — was stigmatized by Zionist leaders in Palestine and by the early Israeli government. According to Max Weinreich’s History of the Yiddish Language, the “very making of Hebrew into a spoken language derives from the will to separate from the Diaspora.” Diasporic Jewish identities, as viewed by Zionist settlers, were “a cultural morass to be purged.” The “New Jew” was an idealized superhuman construct, almost completely divorced from centuries worth of culture and traditions of actual Jews: “Yiddish began to represent diaspora and feebleness, said linguist Ghil’ad Zuckermann. ‘And Zionists wanted to be Dionysian: wild, strong, muscular and independent.’” 

This “contempt for the Diaspora” was “manifested . . .  in the fierce campaign against Yiddish in Palestine, which led not only to the banning of Yiddish newspapers and theaters but even to physical attacks against Yiddish speakers.” From the 1920s on, anyone in Palestine with the temerity to publish in Yiddish risked having their printing press destroyed by organizations with names like the “Battalion of the Defenders of the Hebrew Language,” “Organization for the Enforcement of Hebrew,” and “Central Council for the Enforcement of Hebrew.” The showing of the Yiddish-language film Mayn Yidishe Mame (“My Yiddish Mama”), in Tel Aviv in 1930, provoked a riot led by the above-mentioned Battalion. After the foundation of Israel, “every immigrant was required to study Hebrew and often to adopt a Hebrew surname.” In its early days Israel legally prohibited plays and periodicals in the Yiddish language. A recent defender of the early suppression of Yiddish, in the Jerusalem Post, argued that Diasporic languages threatened to “undermine the Zionist project”; in other words, an admission that actually existing ethnic identities threatened an identity manufactured by a nationalist ideology.

If this is true of Yiddish — the native language of the Ashkenazi Jews who dominated the Zionist settlement of Palestine — it’s even more so of the suppression of Jewish ethnic identities outside the dominant Sephardic minority. Golda Meir once dismissed Jews of non-Ashkenazi or non-Yiddish descent as “not Jews.” 

Consider the roughly half of the Israeli population comprised of Mizrahi Jews from Middle Eastern communities (including those living in Palestine itself before European settlement). Although the Mizrahim are trotted out as worthy victims when they are convenient for purposes of Israeli propaganda — the majority of them were expelled from Arab countries like Iraq after 1948, in what was an undeniable atrocity — they are treated the rest of the time as an embarrassment or a joke, and have been heavily discriminated against, by the descendants of Ashkenazi settlers. For example former Prime Minister David Ben Gurion described Mizrahim 

as lacking even “the most elementary knowledge” and “without a trace of Jewish or human education.” Ben Gurion repeatedly expressed contempt for the culture of the Oriental Jews: “We do not want Israelis to become Arabs. We are in duty bound to fight against the spirit of the Levant, which corrupts individuals and societies, and preserve the authentic Jewish values as they crystallized in the Diaspora.”

Current Prime Minister Netanyahu once joked about a “Mizrahi gene” as his excuse for tardiness. And an Israeli realtor ran a commercial appealing to “there goes the neighborhood” sentiments by depicting a light-skinned family having their Passover celebration disrupted by uncouth Mizrahi neighbors.

Nationalism and the nation-state are the enemies of true ethnicity and culture, and built on their graves. There’s no better illustration of this principle than the Zionist project itself."

-Kevin Carson, "Zionism and the Nation-State: Palestinians Are Not the Only Victims"

[saintmeghanmarkle]

Meghan Markles Partner Charity Sued for Discrimination and Workplace Bullying by u/LilibuttDumbarton

Meghan Markle’s Partner Charity Sued for Discrimination and Workplace Bullying Meghan Markle's partner charity, Girls Inc., was sued for discrimination and workplace bullying. The foundation serves to empower underprivileged girls through various forms of social and educational support. Although the Worcester, Massachusetts chapter settled the case in 2023, the former POC employee, Gemelee DePasquale, alleged a toxic workplace. Claims included micromanaging based on the belief that she was a "diversity hire" and was less competent than her White predecessor. She was also screamed at for working on a project that was previously approved.An existing Change.Org petition to hold the board accountable is still active and has a list of victim testimonies. At least 30 instances of abuse by the chapter’s CEO and COO against staff and program participants are documented in detail and not only support the legal filing, but mimic Markle’s own bullying tactics. One person states:Black women and girls in this organization have been undervalued and used as props. Our images used to portray an image of Faux inclusivity.Quotes and statistics about black girls posted on the organization's social media and websites are all superficial, never really intended to be inclusive. If it wasn't related to some sort of press The CEO couldn't be bothered. The COO cruelty is calculated and intentional. I have never in my life met anybody so hellbent on being awful. She felt more like a Prison Warden than a COO. Most people's reactions to kids isn't to automatically assume the worst in them But here it is a culture.This is most especially true for the black kids.Girls Inc. Worcester is a place where bully culture and racism thrive. In no way will anyone working there or attending a program be empowered, emboldened or feel strong.The other testimony from staff and participants follow Markle's pattern of abuse: Pitting staff against each other, forcing them to take on too much work, forcing them to start their day early or end their day late, comments on physical appearance, high staff turnover, and more.The chapter CEO was forced to retire last year and the credible accusations were swept under the rug. Beyond the board reshuffling, no one was held responsible for the abuse inflicted on employees and participants. The Duchess of Sussex is a bully and this organization is the perfect fit for her. She failed to properly vet the collaborating organization and threw her weight behind them. In the past, Archewell associated with Jennifer Freed (of Aha! Santa Barbara), a child psychologist who lost her license for covering up SA, Safi Rauf (from the Human First Coalition) who misused funds intended for refugees, and Allen Onyema (Peace Air) who was indicted in the US for bank fraud, and Nigerian King Oba Abdulrasheed Adewale Akanbi, who was twice deported from the US and convicted of fraud. Petitionhttps://https://ift.tt/UBVTonZ https://ift.tt/xSJZACt testimonies archived from the petition https://ift.tt/PJQOyez settled https://ift.tt/ZszUmKv https://ift.tt/mHFfhaK about Gemelee’s complaint https://ift.tt/wzj1sIn https://ift.tt/D587IeJ CEO’s website claiming retirement after board position https://ift.tt/gL59KRi https://ift.tt/d6ATBC7 post link: https://ift.tt/r8ebLkX author: LilibuttDumbarton submitted: October 12, 2024 at 09:12AM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit disclaimer: all views + opinions expressed by the author of this post, as well as any comments and reblogs, are solely the author's own; they do not necessarily reflect the views of the administrator of this Tumblr blog. For entertainment only.

[spot-the-antisemitism]

Have you received this?

well well well you’ve heard of Nigerian Prince scams get ready for Kenya trans refugee scams.

Remember kids if it’s in your inbox it’s a scam. If they insist on not being a bot they’re a bot

Also if they’re at a refugee camp they people running the camp should be the ones asking for donations.

waiting to be accused of transmisoginoir for DARING to doubt some white person catfishing as a African trans woman

[queen-mabs-revenge]

and yeah no what the fuck '[the broken mirrors] serve as a reminder that not everything has to be perfect'

uh what???

i agree with keeping them there but they serve as a powerful reminder of a hate crime inspired by state-sponsored racism and the decision to come together in solidarity to defend the existence of a space for nigerian people and culture (and obv all immigrants & refugees) in the uk in the face of that.

like framing this as a lesson tied in with being nervous about mismatching cutlery is fucking bananas what the fuck???

[zvaigzdelasas]

Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants Nigeria to increase LNG supplies to Germany and is demanding that Nigerian refugees be accepted back swiftly. Scholz, who held talks on Sunday and Monday in Nigeria's capital Abuja and subsequently in its commercial capital Lagos, is thus continuing his efforts to increase LNG imports from African countries to replace Russian gas [...] The German government had repeatedly urged African countries to abandon fossil fuel extraction. While increasing deportation of Nigerians, Berlin – according to Scholz – is trying to lure more “talents” from the country to work for German companies –a contribution to the brain drain depriving developing countries of urgently needed and expensively trained skilled labor. In Nigeria, Scholz also held talks on the developments in Niger. Last summer, with Nigeria's help, the EU sought to overthrow the military government in Niger that previously had ousted a pro-Western president and is seeking to lead the country to genuine independence from the former colonial powers.

This is Chancellor Olaf Scholz's third trip to Africa and his second to West Africa. In May 2022, Scholz had traveled to Senegal and then on to Niger; where he visited the German troops deployed in that country, before going on to meet with pro-Western President Mohamed Bazoum. Bazoum has since been overthrown by putschists, who can rely on a widespread popular rejection of French dominance in West Africa.[1] This rejection is also growing in Senegal.[2] The two countries Scholz is visiting this time – Nigeria and Ghana – are, like Senegal and Niger, members of the West African regional organization ECOWAS, but they are not former French colonies. Their foreign relations are therefore less affected by the current anti-colonial wave in West Africa’s Francophonie. Moreover, both countries have been Germany’s long-standing cooperation partners of, albeit at a relatively modest level[...]

With his visit in Nigeria on Sunday and Monday, Scholz was seeking to expand bilateral economic relations with a focus on energy resources. German oil imports from Nigeria currently account for around half of the total trade volume. Now the German government also wants to import gas from the country – just as it did from Senegal, where Chancellor Scholz had also negotiated gas supplies in May 2022.[3] This had already raised some eyebrows at the time. Berlin had long been prominent in making the demand that the African continent should abandon its use of fossil fuels. However, subsequent to its decision to halt Russian oil and gas imports, it began to promote tapping new deposits in Africa, for example in Senegal, and is now seeking supplies from the new sources. [...] In 2021, with 14 percent of the EU’s imports, Nigeria was the EU's fourth largest supplier after the USA, Qatar and Russia, with most of it sold to Spain and Portugal.[4] Just before his trip, Scholz had already stated in an interview with the Nigerian newspaper Punch [linked here] that German corporations were also interested in LNG supplies from Nigeria.[5]

To accelerate the repatriation of Nigerians from Germany was Scholz’s second important objective on his visit to Nigeria. Nigerians are rarely granted asylum in Germany. Between January and September of this year, of the 1,850 persons who applied for asylum in Germany only 118 have been granted a reliable right to remain.[6] However, it is currently not easy for Berlin to deport Nigerians, whose bid for asylum has been rejected. The Nigerian authorities only allow those into the country, who have valid original documents. Substitute papers, provided by German authorities to those Nigerians, who have lost their passports, are not recognized in Abuja. That has resulted in around 14,000 Nigerians living in Germany, who, in principle are obliged to leave the country. This year only 262 have actually been deported. Scholz was insisting that Abuja make their repatriation easier. Only “talents from Nigeria,” needed in the labor market, should be allowed to come, says the chancellor.[7] This is Berlin’s admission to lure well, and expensively-trained personnel – the so-called brain drain that inflicts serious damage to developing countries and is regularly criticized by experts.

Scholz used his stay in Nigeria to also discuss the situation in Nigeria’s northern neighbor, Niger. Following the putsch in that country, Nigeria had been one of those countries, that had been particularly advocating for a military intervention in Niger, to restore the overthrown President Bazoum to power. For that purpose, several of the ECOWAS countries, besides Nigeria, for example both Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire wanted to provide the necessary troops. In addition, there was also the prospect of French military assistance. (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[8]) Ultimately the plan was abandoned – also due to the strong resistance from Northern Nigeria, which would have borne the brunt of the extensive damage in the case of a war with the neighboring country. Meanwhile, French troops have begun their withdrawal from Niger. Backing down from the threat of an intervention, supported by Paris and the EU, has cost ECOWAS credibility and weakened its position in West Africa, where it was already widely considered a French and Western lackey. In Abuja, Scholz met with ECOWAS Commission President, Omar Touray, exchanged views on the situation in Niger and praised ECOWAS – in a very odd choice of words – as “a powerful and functioning [!] organization.”[9]

Berlin’s attempt to expand cooperation with Nigeria under President Bola Tinubu is not free of risks. Tinubu came to power in late May – following a quite contested election, winning with around 37 percent of the votes, ahead of two strong opponents (Atiku Abubakar with 29 percent, and Peter Obi, 25 percent). Both opponents alleged the presidential election had been marred by irregularities and challenged the results, but lost their bid a few days ago before the country’s highest court.[10] However, Tinabu is still far from out of the woods. From the beginning of his administration, he imposed stringent austerity measures, such as halting the subventions on gasoline, meaning that many ordinary car owners no longer could afford to drive their cars, and with daily living costs skyrocketing. Whereas Tinubu is praised for his cuts in the West, Germany included – the government owned Germany Trade and Invest (gtai) foreign business agency speaks of “important reforms,”[11] – inside that country, there is great resentment. The number of Nigerians, forced to live on less than US $1/day, could grow from a current 83 million to 120 million and in the worst-case, to as many as 140 to 150 million in a population of 220 million, according to experts.[12] There are already warnings of possible unrest. The supporters of the defeated presidential candidate Obi, who feels cheated out of the victory, are are primarily young, rebellious Nigerians.

31 Oct 23

[f1ghtsoftly]

All The Women’s News You Missed This Week

10/14/24-10/21/24

Formal justice systems make headway on holding men accountable for violence against women in Bolivia, Malaysia, and Ivory Coast. An Indian researcher wins a prestigious grant for her work on Dalit (untouchable) women. A female politician heckles King Charles during his visit to Australia and Italy bans traveling abroad for surrogacy in another attempt to limit the ability of same-sex couples to have children.

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US Abortion Rights: 

Missouri abortion-rights campaign fundraising total at $22M one month before election

3 states renew their effort to reduce access to the abortion drug mifepristone

Male Violence Against Women and Children: 

Bolivian ex-leader's looming arrest warrant triggers protests

Ex-Louisville officer who fired shots in Breonna Taylor raid readies for 3rd trial

Woman dies 2 days after co-worker shot her at Santa Monica College, police say

K-pop star gives tearful testimony on harassment

S Korean striker sorry for filming secret sex videos

Arrests Hundreds More Over Child Abuse Claims

Why fight for justice isn't over in India's 'horrific' widow-burning case, 37 years on

Duchess shocked by sexual exploitation of refugees

Murder, rape and torture allegations hit Ivory Coast student union

Buses to become safe spaces for vulnerable women

Women In The News: 

Susan Smith is up for parole 30 years after drowning her kids in a South Carolina lake

Bangladesh issues arrest warrant for ex-leader Hasina

The 'genius' Indian who shattered caste barriers

I'm not stupid, I've chosen to speak, says catfish victim duped for nine years

I’ll stand for Russian president when Putin's gone, Navalny’s widow tells BBC

New York Liberty claim first WNBA title with overtime win

WATCH: Moment King Charles is heckled by Australian politician 

Women's program aims to combat violence in Chicago: "The police cannot do this alone"

Le Sserafim: The K-pop band who want to change the industry

LGBT: 

Missouri now requires proof of surgery or court order for gender changes on IDs

Trans socialite did serve her jail term, Nigerian panel finds

Italy bans couples from travelling abroad for surrogacy 

In New York, a constitutional amendment provides election fodder for the left and the right

Arts and Culture: 

Harris interview with Fox News showcases a change in strategy for Democrats with network

Movie Review: ‘Smile 2' nicely targets pop star fame with the terrific Naomi Scott

Movie Review: Strippers, oligarchs and a fairy tale gone sideways, ‘Anora’ is a wild ride

For once — a true crime story that isn't focused on the killer

WATCH: Dawn Richard found freedom, clarity while working on new album

Becky G says ‘Encuentros,’ her second album of regional Mexican music, is a celebration of culture

Book Review: 70-year-old psychiatrist takes to the road in Anna Montague’s beguiling new novel

Half a Century After Title IX, Universities Are Still Failing Survivors: The Ms. Q&A With Nicole Bedera 

As always, this is global and domestic news from a US perspective covering feminist issues and women in the news more generally. As of right now, I do not cover Women’s Sports. Published each Monday afternoon.

[celluloidrainbow]

A CIDADE DOS ABISMOS (2021) dir. Priscyla Bettim & Renato Coelho Maya is accompanied by Glória, her best friend, who promises that she will always be with her, into a clandestine appointment. Both trans women, Maya wants silicone, but a timely intervention leads her to change her mind. When they leave, it’s Christmas night and it’s pouring rain. They take refuge in a bar, owned by a Nigerian refugee named Kakule. Bia also takes refuge there, fed up with constant fights with her boyfriend. And so their paths cross. (link in title)

[clonerightsagenda]

#recently read May 24

Behold me at full power (off work for half the month).

Jumpnauts by Hao Jingfang. Four young adults come together to make contact with an alien spaceship before the world's warring alliances can start an unwinnable conflict. *By the author of Folding Beijing which is why I picked it up, but a lot lighter and more optimistic, feels like series setup.

Moon of the Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice. Sequel to Moon of the Crusted Snow. Post-apocalypse travel novel centering an Anishinaabe community.

Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko. Teenage Sasha is blackmailed into attending an institute where students struggle with incomprehensible and reality-bending lessons to unclear ends. *I definitely see this as a readalike to Library of Mount Char and greatly preferred it. Also shoutout to the goodreads review that's just 'would you still love me if I was a word'.

The Morningside by Téa Obreht. In a flood-ravaged near future, a young refugee fascinated by her aunt's folktales becomes dangerously obsessed with the mysterious woman living in her apartment building's penthouse.

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan. After she and her father move into an old house filled with eccentric tenants, Sana begins to uncover the tragic history of its original inhabitants.

The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft. A group of translators meet to translate an author's newest work, only to be set adrift unsure of their purpose after she disappears. The story is framed as one translator's account translated into English by one of her colleagues. *I enjoyed the meta concept and themes, although the book itself got messy.

Convergence Problems by Wole Talabi. A collection of speculative fiction featuring Nigerian characters and culture. I recognized "Comments on Your Provisional Patent Applications for an Eternal Spirit Core".

Synners by Pat Cadigan. A big corporation pushes out untested brain sockets, which goes about as well as you'd expect. *Early cyberpunk is so funny bc the authors have these wild ideas about the future but cannot comprehend wireless. Also I think a lot of the problems in cyberpunk could be avoided if everyone wasn't doing 10 drugs at once.

[afrotumble]

Tanitoluwa Emmanuel "Tani" Adewumi (born September 3, 2010) is a Nigerian-American chess player who currently holds the title of FIDE Master (FM). A chess prodigy, he won the 2019 K-3 New York State chess championship at the age of 8 after having played the game for only a year while living with his refugee family in a homeless shelter in Manhattan.

[jamesusilljournal]

The Lake Chad crisis. Orphaned children, mainly Nigerian refugees, live together as a group in Koran schools. During the day, they go begging, photography Marco Gualazzini, 2019

[tarisbackyard]

All those private fundraiser messages are getting out of hand, ffs. You can't tell me that most of these aren't scams. Alleged Gaza refugee is the new Nigerian prince at this point.