Guilty ruling in murder of Kenya LGBTQ activist sent
This week, we start in Kenya, where a photographer has been convicted for the murder of an LGBTQ activist. Next, we travel to Cape Town, South Africa, which has been chosen to host WorldPride in 2028. Finally, we stop in Nigeria, where the capital city is targeting blind beggars to hide poverty.
But first, in Namibia, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah (NNN) has made history as the country’s first elected female president. In a landmark election, she won 57% of the vote, with her closest rival getting 26%.
Born in 1952 in Onamutai, Nandi-Ndaitwah joined the Swapo liberation movement at just 14 to fight South Africa’s apartheid rule. Arrested while still in high school, she fled into exile, continuing her activism abroad and earning a degree in international relations before returning home after Namibia gained independence in 1990.
Since then, Nandi-Ndaitwah has been a vocal advocate for women’s rights. She was key in passing the Combating Domestic Violence Act in 2002 and has held various ministerial positions in foreign affairs, tourism, child welfare, and information.
Her win is not just a political milestone but a big step for gender equality, breaking barriers for women leaders in Namibia and southern Africa. While opposition parties dispute the results over ballot shortages and extended voting, her victory is a symbol of progress, resilience, and the growing importance of women in leadership.
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A Wa Nibi: Archiving the Queer Experience of the Past and Present for the Future
In the last few years, there has been an increase in films, books, and artworks telling the Nigerian queer experience. But despite telling Nigerian stories, they are often unavailable to consume in Nigeria, from films like Ife, which was censored in Nigeria, to bookshops not stocking queer books.
“I curated A Wa Nibi to give a home to queer arts that are often rejected and sent to Western communities where mostly White people consume them,” says Matthew Blaise, curator of A Wa Nibi, an archival project dedicated to preserving the Nigerian queer experience.
Organised by Òbòdò in collaboration with Kampabnagel, A Wa Nibi, which means “we are here in” Yoruba, comes at a time when a new wave of government-endorsed homophobia is spreading across the continent, as queerness is considered un-African.
From censorship in Cameroon to Uganda’s new legislation on LGBTQ+ rights, the misconception that queerness has no history or origin in Africa has been pushed as a fact often used by politicians and homophobes to justify oppression and violence against LGBTQ individuals.
An assistive speech software hopes to help thousands of Nigerians with visual impairment
Driving a technological innovation was never going to be a task of one person, neither is it a race with one track. It is building an ecosystem where creative minds support one another in making a difference.
For millions of Nigerians who struggle with visual impairment and little to no vision, Visis—a text-to-speech software application—has been designed to enable them to independently and conveniently carry out their activities.
Irrespective of the etiology and forms of visual challenges experienced by people, the Visis App designed by Vinsighte responds to problems of visual loss. Most often, eye conditions are evaluated by primary physicians to know if such conditions are repairable by surgery or management. However, the tech solution is used by all categories of visually-impaired persons. It also helps users read printed materials including the ones that are not available in braille among other various functions.
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Visually Impaired Beggars in Nigeria’s Capital Suffer in the City’s Attempt to Hide the Poor
In Kado, a suburb of Abuja, Nigeria, displacement and despair are evident due to terrorism and insurgency affecting around 3.3 million people. Many resort to begging, but a recent government crackdown has worsened their plight, particularly for those with disabilities, including Abdulrahman Yusuf, a 68-year-old visually impaired man.
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Taliban move to ban women training as nurses and midwives ‘an outrageous act of ignorance’
The Taliban’s ban on Afghan women attending nursing and midwife courses has been condemned as “an outrageous act of ignorance” by human rights organisations.
The official decree detailing the ban has not been shared publicly, but several media reports confirmed that the order was announced at a meeting of the Taliban public health ministry on Monday and communicated to training institutes soon after.
Nursing students and medical trainers from Kabul and the provinces confirmed to the Guardian that they had been informed by their institutes that their courses had been suspended.
“I was preparing for a test on Monday night when I received a message from my teacher about the closure of the institute,” said Sahar*, a 22-year-old nursing student.
“I couldn’t stop crying,” she said. “This was my last hope.”