“My personal secret”: Accessing family planning beyond religious boundaries in Zimbabwe - Minority Africa
Toluwani Omotesho
March 12, 2024
But first, in Sudan, where there has been an ongoing war for the last seven months, there’s fresh evidence of brutal ethnic killings in Darfur by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
On 4 November 2023, the RSF reportedly captured the Sudanese army headquarters in El-Geneina, the capital city of West Darfur, Sudan. However, following this, the RSF and other Arab militias have been accused of targeted attacks against ethnic Masalit people, including looting, raping, and murder. Chad has since received over 7,000 refugees, mostly women and children, fleeing from the large-scale violence against civilians.
Although the RSF denied these accusations, new evidence in videos, images, and eyewitness accounts prove otherwise. In the videos, members of the RSF and allied Arab militias appear to round up residents, shout racist slurs, whip, and shoot a man forced to run down the street.
People fleeing Darfur to Chad also reported to have seen the RSF forces targeting and killing non-Arabs in the region. On 5 November, the RSF raided an IDP camp at Ardamata and executed more than 30 men, according to witnesses interviewed by journalists. One witness, Mashaar Omar Ahmed, said that he had to deny being Masalit to avoid being taken away by RSF border guards.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), since the start of the war, over 4.5 million people have been displaced, and an estimated 1.2 million people have become refugees in neighboring countries. But despite interventions by the U.S. State Department and the African Union, the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have been unable to agree to a ceasefire.
Pre-colonial Africa comprised 10,000 states, each with its distinct language and customs. Some popular pre-colonial African states are the Mali Empire (13th – 16th centuries), Benin Kingdom (13th – 19th centuries) and the Nubian Kingdom (3500 BCE – 300 CE).
Members of the Johanne Marange Apostolic (JAMC) sect staunchly reject any form of medical treatment, even in the most critical instances of injury or illness. They firmly hold the belief that divine intervention, rooted in their unwavering faith, is the sole path to healing.
At 15, Catherine*, a member of the Johanne Marange Apostolic Sect (JMAC), one of an estimated 160 Apostolic sects in Zimbabwe, got married to her husband of the same faith.
Three years later, she welcomed her first child, beginning a pattern of almost yearly pregnancies.  Catherine, now 37 years old, refrained from seeking medical advice due to the gendered inequalities embedded in the doctrines of the JMAC regarding contraception.
The central tenet of the JMAC is encapsulated within their Apostolic text, known as “Umboo Utsva hwa Vapostori” (The New Revelation of the Apostles). The book is revered as a canonical addition to the Bible. According to their Apostolic book, the JMAC maintains a religious culture against the idea of contraception.
South Africa’s recognition of Sign language as an official language sets a progressive example, but across the continent, acknowledgement, training, and standards for sign language interpretation remain varied and insufficient even in countries where Sign language is officially recognised.
For 29-year-old Tapiwa Chishaka who was born deaf, his days follow the same routine. From sunrise to sunset, he walks from one bus to another on the highway, sharing laminated copies of a letter stating the bearer is deaf and therefore seeking any form of help.
He is often met with different reactions– from sympathetic to cold, and sometimes even harsh – by the bus crews and passengers. But at the end of the day, he gets something to take home.
In April 2020, Chishaka could no longer go out and could not understand why. The COVID-19 lockdown had begun, and in the ensuing panic and confusion, neither his mother nor community members could explain that the whole country had been put under a total lockdown to control the spread of the deadly virus.
Despite the July deal made between the European Union (E.U.) and Tunisia to curb illegal migration, more than 90,000 people have arrived in Italy through the Mediterranean Sea from Tunisia. Also, since the outbreak of the war in Sudan, more asylum seekers and migrants have entered Tunisia from Libya, hoping to register with the UNHCR for protection and assistance. However, these hopes are shattered as the asylum seekers are faced with registration delays and left to fend for themselves; the little aid that is provided comes from local volunteers.
Abdallah Abdallah, a 22-year-old who fled from Sudan to escape the ongoing conflict, shares that he spent three and a half years in Libya subjected to forced labor. Although he’s safer in Tunisia, his situation isn’t as different as he thought because he still has no shelter, money, or food.
Tunisia has no national asylum law or system, and thus instead allows the UNHCR to register and provide a refugee status card to asylum seekers. However, the absence of federal legislation prevents refugees from accessing work and other services, leaving them dependent on the United Nations agency, which cannot provide sustainable support.
Medical gaslighting refers to situations where medical practitioners wrongfully dismiss their patients’ complaints by convincing them their concerns aren’t valid. Unfortunately, this worsens the condition of the patients, sometimes leading to their deaths.
Unfortunately, women are disproportionately affected by this as their complaints are usually dismissed due to the gender bias that portrays women as dramatic and irrational.
Maimunah Abba has been struggling with heavy bleeding and cramps since 2019 due to an unclear diagnosis from doctors. Some of the doctors have even recommended surgery despite not knowing what’s causing her symptoms, which she declined. As a result, she has had to leave her legal practice to adjust to her health condition while still seeking the proper diagnosis and treatment.
The rise in digital transactions and instant payment platforms is helping marginalized communities, like transgender people in India, to manage their finances better and avoid discrimination.
In 2016, the Indian government began implementing policies like demonetization to boost digital transactions over cash. The 2020 pandemic helped encourage the adoption of online banking and has also spared trans people from the prejudice and discrimination they face from visiting banks.
Nonetheless, this isn’t a perfect solution as some trans people still can’t easily update their gender identity on existing bank accounts. Others find it difficult to open a new regular bank or digital payment account due to the invasive questions and cheap jokes they have to face when applying for a PAN or Aadhar card —a financial document needed to open accounts in India and for the compliance or know-your-customer (KYC) processes.
Rokhaya Diagne, a 25-year-old A.I. entrepreneur in Senegal, is part of Africa’s enormous youth population who is confident technology can solve the continent’s biggest problems.
In her early teens, Rokhaya Diagne would retreat to her brother’s room, where she played online computer games for hours daily until her mother finally got fed up. She threatened to send her to a psychiatrist if she didn’t stop with her addiction.
Her mother’s interventions worked. While Ms. Diagne’s passion for computers has, if anything, intensified, she has redirected her energies to higher pursuits than levelling up at Call of Duty. Now, her goals include using artificial intelligence to help the world eradicate malaria by 2030, a project she is focused on at her health start-up.
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