You are watching Africa 54, your daily news and feature magazine-style program, from the Voice of America. Host Esther Githui-Ewart and a team of correspondents zero in on the big stories making news on the continent and around the world with context and analysis.
Top Stories:
Stranded for months because of the coronavirus pandemic, many cruise ship workers have been living in hotels since March. Some of them are immigrants who just want to return home.
European governments are preparing to reopen schools in the coming days for the new academic year, as health experts say it’s vital for children to resume education. Most students have not attended school for six months after COVID-19 lockdowns were imposed in March to contain the pandemic. As VOA reports, some teacher unions are voicing concerns for the safety of staff – as infection rates continue to rise.
Coup leaders in Mali have released ousted President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita from detention, according to a junta official speaking on Thursday.
Malawi has one of the highest rates of early marriage and teenage pregnancy in the world, with about half of girls marrying before the age of 18, according to government records. Aid groups say the coronavirus pandemic's closing of schools is only worsening the trend.
Since late 2019, parts of Kenya have been under siege by swarms of locusts. The number of flying insects is the highest in recent memory and the result of environmental factors. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has the story of farmers in an impoverished region struggling to shield crops from hungry locusts.
Pride Afrique, a three-day virtual extravaganza celebrating Africa’s diverse, colorful community of sexual minorities, was the first of its kind. But behind the glitz and glam, participants say, there is a very serious need to bring queer Africans into the light, as their lives are threatened on the continent every single day.
U.S. President Donald Trump concluded the final night of the Republican National Convention with an acceptance speech delivered in front a live audience of about 1500 people on the south lawn of the White House.
The march on Washington focusing on police violence is taking place in the U.S. capitol on Friday. The event comes 57 years after the historic “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” during which Martin Luther King Jr. Delivered his iconic “I Have A Dream” speech. This year’s march follows months of demonstrations denouncing police violence against black people. Those protests were triggered by the death in May of George Floyd, a black man, who died after a white police officer kept his knee on Floyd’s neck as he laid prone on a street in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Earlier this week, a police officer shot Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Blake is now paralyzed from the waist down. Friday’s event will begin on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and hours later demonstrators will march to the Martin Luther King Memorial.
A54 Entertainment: Host of Music Time in Africa, Heather Maxwell along with Kwame Ofori share for us the African song of the week, “One Trouser” by Nigerian artist Falz.
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