Weekly Web Roundup (4/1/17)

Photo Credit: fazen

Here is a collection of items from around the web that caught my attention over this past week:

The LAUNCH Survey: Helpful and Hindering Factors for Launching into Long-Term Missions by  Megan R. Brown and John W. McVay (The Exchange)

"Clearly, relationships are key in journeying toward lifelong service in the Kingdom of God overseas. Nearly all of the respondents indicated that God’s guidance and call were essential to their successful pursuit of overseas work. Additionally, having a good support network, including friends and family, a mentor, long-term workers, and a good agency, team, or leader were remembered to be helpful in the process. This is congruent with studies completed in recent years (Matenga and Gold 2016). A 2013 qualitative study with missionaries from Australia found that 100% of the interviewees were influenced by other missionaries prior to launch (Hibbert, Hibbert, and Silberman 2015). Additionally, surveys completed by the Christian Community Health Fellowship found that 80% of students who did a rotation early in their training with a Christian physician who was practicing quality faith-based medicine, as well as attending a healthcare missions conference, chose a path to serve the poor through missional medicine (CCHF Follow-Up Survey)."

Here’s How Many Books You Can Expect to Read Before You Die (Mental Floss)

Ever wonder how many books you've read in your lifetime? Or how many you'll be able to read before the end of your life? This handy chart helps give you an idea of how your regular reading habits play out over the course of a lifetime.

Crux listens as Africans ask: Why isn't it big news when terrorists slaughter our people? by Terry Mattingly (Get Religion)

"Of course, as Pope Francis has noted (in the kind of statement that draws relatively little news coverage), there is more to ideological or cultural colonization than money and political power. There is the cultural power of elite media, especially entertainment media, and the causes favored by their leaders. Who typically receives more news coverage today, a YouTube sensation pop star or a Wall Street magnate whose decisions affect millions? But there is an even larger question here: Who do ordinary readers want to read about? In other words, does this problem have something to do with the values of the marketplace, in this age when power is measured in Twitter followers and mouse "clicks"? Which story would receive the most coverage in African media, the death of Beyonce or the latest massacre of a hundred Christians in Northern Nigeria by Boko Haram? I think I know the answer to that question, even though it makes me angry."

Check Your Privilege Obsession by Tish Harrison Warren (Christianity Today)

"At their worst, privilege enforcers descend into sheer cruelty. Bovy includes a story about online commenters blasting the “privilege” of a promising 22-year-old who tragically died. No longer able to gather around a common humanity with our shared frailty and pain, we are reduced to ruthlessly sorting between those who “deserve” our sympathy and those who don’t. I wonder if our privilege obsession arises in part from an epistemic problem: In a world that considers individual experience the primary arbiter of truth, how do we navigate the cacophony of conflicting reality-claims? One way is to create a hierarchy where some voices are valued more than others. Therefore, the “privilege” framework, like fundamentalism or certain forms of religious rhetoric, can demand unquestioning adherence."

America's Cult of Ignorance—And the Death of Expertise by Tom Nichols (The Daily Beast)

"These are dangerous times. Never have so many people had so much access to so much knowledge and yet have been so resistant to learning anything. In the United States and other developed nations, otherwise intelligent people denigrate intellectual achievement and reject the advice of experts. Not only do increasing numbers of lay people lack basic knowledge, they reject fundamental rules of evidence and refuse to learn how to make a logical argument. In doing so, they risk throwing away centuries of accumulated knowledge and undermining the practices and habits that allow us to develop new knowledge."

The African Roots of Christianity

Photo Credit: babasteve

From Ebony.com:

"According to a 2007 Pew Report, 78% of Blacks in America identify as Protestant while a 2011 report by Pew notes that nearly 24% of Christians live in Sub-Saharan Africa. Christianity’s explosion across Africa led many to call for the Vatican to select a successor to Pope Benedict from the Continent with Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson among the suggested shortlist. This said, many think of Christianity as "the White man's religion." 

The Christian faith occupies a complicated, often racialized place in the history of Blacks all over the globe because of how it was abused by White colonists and slave traders to subjugate Blacks. “Christianity was a double-edged sword [for African-Americans],” says Dr. Lawrence H. Mamiya, Professor of Religion and Africana Studies at Vassar College and co-author of The Black Church in the African American Experience. 

“On the one hand, well, Whites wanted to use Christianity to make slaves docile and obedient.  [On the other hand,] the Africans adapted Christianity for their survival and liberation.”
But long before colonialism and slavery, Africans were practicing Christianity. “We know that Christianity has had a long history in Africa itself, pre-dating any kind of European influence,” Mamiya says. 

Christianity reportedly arrived in North Africa in the latter part of 1st century AD/early part of the 2nd, while “the adoption of Christianity in Ethiopia dates to the fourth-century,” according to findings by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Bible also documents the conversion of an Ethiopian eunuch as the early church was forming. Likewise, Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta mentions Christians in Nubia (an area that covers present-day northern Sudan and southern Egypt) in his 14th century travelogue. But when Europeans penetrated Sub-Saharan Africa in the 16th Century, ultimately mining the region for Africans to enslave, the historical narrative shifts which is perhaps why many associate the religion most with Europeans to this day."

To read the complete Ebony article please click here.

To read a previous post I wrote entitled "The Presence of African Christians in History" please click here.

(h/t to TheRoot.com for the Ebony link.)

What The Kony 2012 Video Got Right

Photo Credit: k-ideas

A couple of weeks ago, most of us didn't know who Joseph Kony was, nor were we aware of all that has been going on in Uganda and the surrounding African countries in recent years. But due to a clever marketing effort and a well-made video, tens of millions of people were exposed to a campaign "to end Africa's longest-running armed conflict." (~ from Invisible Children)

The Kony 2012 video, which was uploaded to YouTube on March 5, 2012, has over 81,000,000 YouTube views as of this post. That is a staggering number for a video that has only been up for less than two weeks.

Since this video went viral, there has been a number of concerns raised about the Kony 2012 efforts. Questions have been brought forth concerning the veracity of the facts presented in the video, where the money is going that is raised and whether this approach is the best way to help the people of that region of Africa.

Since I don't know enough about Invisible Children or the current realities in the areas which Kony's reach has spread, I won't attempt to pontificate on this organization or the work being done in Uganda and nearby countries. I will leave that to those that are much more familiar with the situation than I am.

What I would like to do is draw out some principles from the video for those of that serve in the non-profit world and consider how those principles might apply to the work that we do.

Here is what I think the Kony 2012 video got right:

1. A need is exposed. People are being killed. Children are being enlisted to fight in the army at a young age. Terror is ravaging a country. These were the types of things that were highlighted in the video. We live in a world of injustice and sin and surfacing a specific need in a specific place for a specific people captures the heart of those that care about wrongs in the world. 

2. The need is personalized. Filmmaker Jason Russell, who narrated the film, introduces us to his son Gavin and shares some of the story through his eyes. He then lets us meet Jacob, a Ugandan young man whose family has been affected by Kony's army. For those of us on another continent, these brutalities may be too distant to really hit home for us. But realizing that it is children that are suffering and to be able to meet one of those children helps our hearts to become engaged in the story. 

3. A solution is offered. Stop Joseph Kony by letting everyone in the world know who he is and what he has done. The video tells us that if Kony (and others like him) can be stopped from the reigns of terror, than children will stop suffering and the world will be a better place for future generations.  

4. People of influence are invited to become part of the solution. Termed in the video as "Culture Makers" and "Policy Makers", key celebrities and politicians are targeted to use their influence to let the world know about the Kony 2012 campaign. By strategically targeting these influential people, the word spreads rapidly, seemingly overnight. 

5. WE are invited to become part of the solution. Buy an action kit and wear a bracelet. Tell some friends. Give a few bucks. Spread the word in your community. The video doesn't just expose the need and offer a solution, it tells us that we can play a part. It tells us that we can change the world if we all do what we can.

The effectiveness of the Kony 2012 campaign has yet to be determined. Mammoth amounts of YouTube views doesn't necessarily result in changing the world. Piano playing cats and double rainbows can tell us that. And the concerns about the video need to be addressed before many people will engage beyond watching the video or tweeting about the campaign.

However, there's much that can be learned with the approach that has been taken here as it relates to whatever cause we are each a part of. That doesn't necessarily mean that we all need to make a slick 30 minute video. But we can apply some of the principles contained in the video for the causes that we feel most passionately about.

The War On Christians That You Don't Know About

Photo Credit: Imagens Cristãs

With a significant amount of coverage in the news recently concerning claims of discrimination against Christians in the United States, one might think that American Christians have it pretty rough.

While it is true that many of us are rightly concerned about churches getting kicked out of NYC public schools, government requirements regarding health care and contraception, and campus groups losing their charters on college campuses because of their beliefs, we must also realize that many of our brothers and sisters in other places are facing far greater challenges.

Even with the appearance of the lack of concern for the rights of Christians in the U.S., the treatment of Christians in my home country is far from the worst in the world. In a recent Newsweek cover story, Ayaan Hirsi Ali sheds some light on what is happening to some Christians in other parts of the world:

"We hear so often about Muslims as victims of abuse in the West and combatants in the Arab Spring’s fight against tyranny. But, in fact, a wholly different kind of war is underway—an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives. Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm.

The portrayal of Muslims as victims or heroes is at best partially accurate. In recent years the violent oppression of Christian minorities has become the norm in Muslim-majority nations stretching from West Africa and the Middle East to South Asia and Oceania. In some countries it is governments and their agents that have burned churches and imprisoned parishioners. In others, rebel groups and vigilantes have taken matters into their own hands, murdering Christians and driving them from regions where their roots go back centuries. 

The media’s reticence on the subject no doubt has several sources. One may be fear of provoking additional violence. Another is most likely the influence of lobbying groups such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation—a kind of United Nations of Islam centered in Saudi Arabia—and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Over the past decade, these and similar groups have been remarkably successful in persuading leading public figures and journalists in the West to think of each and every example of perceived anti-Muslim discrimination as an expression of a systematic and sinister derangement called “Islamophobia”—a term that is meant to elicit the same moral disapproval as xenophobia or homophobia. 

But a fair-minded assessment of recent events and trends leads to the conclusion that the scale and severity of Islamophobia pales in comparison with the bloody Christophobia currently coursing through Muslim-majority nations from one end of the globe to the other. The conspiracy of silence surrounding this violent expression of religious intolerance has to stop. Nothing less than the fate of Christianity—and ultimately of all religious minorities—in the Islamic world is at stake."

While it is true that Christians should be concerned about the mistreatment of any persons no matter what faith they subscribe to, we mustn't minimize the very real suffering and persecution that Christians around the world face everyday -- whether the mainstream media covers it or not. Kudos to Newsweek for bringing further attention to this matter.

To read the rest of the article please click here.

A Lesson On Forgiveness From Rwanda

Photo Courtesy of Blessed Madugba

One of the greatest human tragedies of recent memory was the genocide that occurred in Rwanda. During a hundred day period in the spring and summer of 1994, an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 Rwandans were killed during a conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes. The number killed was a staggering 20% of the population of the country.

Amazingly, the tribal differences that led to the genocide of 1994 did not always exist. At one time, the members of these two tribes were actually considered the same people with a shared language, culture and values. During the Belgian colonialist period of the mid-1800's, the people of Rwanda were divided into two different tribes based on their personal wealth. Those with more became Tutsi and those with less became Hutu. This separation of one people into two separate peoples treated unequally led to a struggle for power over the years that eventually led to the mass killings that took place in the 1990's.

A friend of mine, Blessed Madugba, recently spent some time in Rwanda and met with survivors of the genocide with the hope of bringing some healing to this troubled country. Blessed is Nigerian and his own tribe, the Ibo, experienced a similar atrocity at the hands of Nigerian government in the late 1960's when millions were killed. Possessing an empathy that few of us possess, Blessed shares:

"The absolute highlight of my trip is the meeting I had with the local pastors and Christian leaders. There’s a serious lack of unity among the Christian leaders and pastors. This contributed greatly to instigate some Hutu pastors & priests in joining the mass killings of fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, including Tutsi members of their own churches.

Even after the genocide there’s still strong bitterness, hurt and distrust among them. But by God’s grace a number of them honored my invitation to meet, talk and dialogue. I patiently listened to them share their grievances, bitterness, frustrations and challenges, as well as their philosophy of ministry.

I admonished and exhorted them, and underscored the importance of unity among them and amongst the body of Christ for the work of God to advance and flourish in Rwanda. I challenged them to begin a Pastor’s Monthly Prayer Meeting, where they will take turns hosting it among their different Churches. They are to gather for prayer, fellowship, worship and sharing to encourage one another every month.

They all embraced the idea and immediately chose the next meeting date, time and location. I’ve talked with our Coordinator, Pastor Dennis, in Rwanda a number of times, and he excitedly told me that they have met three times and each time more pastors join as the word about their gathering spreads. I was told that a fresh fire and hunger for unity has been ignited among them, and they want to know when I’m coming back with a team. It was quite humbling to see how God touched and moved the hearts of these people and their willingness to come together, to eat and fellowship. The Lord worked through your prayers."

Even in the midst of massive injustice, as with what took place in Rwanda, forgiveness is the starting point for lasting healing and reconciliation. Our sins have lasting consequences that have the potential to affect generations to come. The people of Rwanda will continue to deal with the sins of their fathers, just as we in America continue to reap the consequences of the sins of our forefathers. But healing is possible and I'm grateful for those like Blessed that are helping that to take place in one portion of the world.

To learn more about Blessed's ministry, Hallomai International, click here.

To read more about the history of the conflict in Rwanda click here or check out the award-winning movie, Hotel Rwanda.

Africa Gives to Haiti

From Paul Shepherd of the Black Voices blog:

"When it comes to giving on the global scale, African nations are usually on the receiving end of international largess, but the harrowing images from earthquake-ravaged Haiti have several African nations pledging financial support for the relief effort.

While the pledge offers of $2.5 million from the Democratic Republic of Congo and $3 million from Ghana are a drop in the bucket compared to pledges made by the United States and most European nations, the pledges represent the first time in recent memory that African countries have pooled their meager financial resources to help a country outside of their continent.

Aside from the individual country pledges, a campaign called "Africa for Haiti" has been started online.

Other African countries that have pledged support, include Equatorial Guinea ($2 million), Namibia and Gabon ($1 million each), Sierra Leone ($100,000), and Senegal, which has pledged $1 million and land to any Haitian emigre.

To my thinking, the size of the pledge isn't as important as the notion among African leaders that they can help bring positive change to those who are worse off than they are."

The Presence of Africans in Christian History

In my ministry with African American college students over the years a question that has often come up is whether Christianity is just a religion for the white man and offers nothing for people of color. Remarkably, few people know about the presence of black people in the Bible and the rich history that those of African descent have played in the history of the Christian church.

St. Augustine, one of the most influential early Christian figures, was himself an African who had this to say:

"I repeat, if she who asks is the Church, which no one disputes, and they hear something about Africa; then she who asks is out of Africa; and because it is the Church, the Church is out of Africa"

Although that might seem like a fairly provocative statement, it really isn't when you begin to examine the presence of Africans and those that would be considered black by today's standards throughout church history. For example, Matthew and John Mark, authors of two of the gospel accounts of Jesus, journeyed to Africa and the gospel message spread rapidly through north Africa, primarily in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia. In fact, some of the first foreign missionaries after the apostles were Africans. The gospel took root on the continent of Africa in such a way that in the early part of the first millennium, most important questions of doctrine were settled under the leadership of African scholars.

Going back earlier, to the beginning of time, we know that the first people resided in Africa. In Before the Mayflower, historian Lerone Bennett states the following:

"Civilization started in the great river valleys of Africa and Asia, in the Fertile Crescent in the Near East and along the narrow ribbon of the Nile in Africa. Blacks, or people who would be considered black today, were among the first people to use tools, paint pictures, plant seeds, and worship gods."

Jumping forward to Noah and the Ark where Christians believe that God sent a great flood to the earth that destroyed all of humanity, save for Noah and his family. The earth was re-populated through Noah’s three sons and their wives:

1. Ham (dark or black) – Africans, Asians, and Indians
2. Shem (dusky or olive-colored) – Middle Eastern (Arabic) and Jews
3. Japheth (bright or fair) – Europeans

From Noah's son Ham came his sons: Cush (Ethiopians), Mizraim (Egyptians), Put (Libyans), and Canaan (Canaanites). Of these grandchildren of Noah came the darker skinned peoples of the earth and from these descendants of Noah eventually came the following selected influential figures in biblical history:

• Jethro – the Priest of Midian who became the father-in-law to Moses when his daughter, Zipporah (a Cushite), married him.
• Nimrod – was the ruler of the land of Shinar, the father of Assyrian and Babylonian Empires, and was the first great leader of a world civilization.
• Joshua – Joseph’s grandson came from the tribe of Ephraim and was a great leader of Israel.
• King David – one of the most well-known figures of the Old Testament whose great-grandmother was Rahab (a Canaanite), and mother was Ruth (a Moabite).
• King Solomon – was recognized as the wisest man ever. His father was David and mother was Bathsheba (daughter of Sheba).
• The Ethiopian Eunuch of Acts 8. The early disciple Philip encountered him, a man of great importance and influence. According to church history, this Ethiopian helped spread the gospel in Africa after becoming a Christian.
• Simon of Cyrene – was a man who helped Jesus carry his crossbar on the way to Golgotha. It's interesting to note that when Jesus needed help at his most vulnerable hour, an African man helped him.
• Jesus Christ. Although we can't be certain of the color of Jesus's skin, there were several women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1 (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba) that were of Hamitic descent.

Looking at early church history, we find a number of key African figures such as:

• Tertullian – a major contributor to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.
• St. Augustine – who wrote the seminal works "Confessions" & "City of God." He was regarded as the one of the first highly regarded theologians, was of African descent and was educated at an African university.
• Athanasius – attended the Council of Nicea in AD 325, in which Christian orthodoxy was defended against a heretic by the name of Arian. Athanasius wrote a letter in AD 367 which is the first evidence of all 27 books of the New Testament being included as the Scripture canon.
• Cyprian – was the Bishop of Carthage and became a martyr when he was beheaded in AD 258 for his faith. He is one of the most influential writers of the early Latin Church.

Some say Christianity is a slave religion and the Bible is a white man’s book. Leaders from the Nation of Islam assert that Islam is the true religion for black people. But look at the following facts on whether Christianity or Islam might be considered the "natural" religion for those of African descent:

1. Jesus was born in the 1st century whereas Muhammad was born in the 5th century.
2. Blacks in Africa had built churches on African soil before Muhammad was even born.
3. Arabic Muslims were the first to target Blacks exclusively for slavery and Europeans adopted this from them. This does does not excuse any white participants in the slave trade but it needs to be stated that it wasn't solely whites who took part.
4. Lamin Sanneh, a well-respected Ivy League professor, claims that Christianity reached West Africa prior to Africans being brought to the U.S. as slaves.

Lastly, when we think of the pivotal time in church history shortly after Christ's crucifixion, resurrection and ascension, Africans played a pivotal role. They were present at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell and they participated in sending Paul and Barnabas off on their missionary journeys. Africans were not only present, but were leaders in the Church from the earliest beginnings. So if you're of African descent and anyone ever challenges you on why you're a Christian, you might want to share a little history with them.

**Thank you to Pastor Dwight McKissic for his book, Beyond Roots, and to Pastor Bill Mitchell for his class, Out of Africa, that helped to shape the content of this post.**

Saddleback Members Making a Difference in Africa

Apart from Billy Graham, Rick Warren is perhaps the most well-known pastor in America. The church he pastors, Saddleback, is one of the nation's largest and his book, The Purpose Driven Life, has been read by tens of millions of people. But these days he is getting quite a bit of attention for the focus that he has placed on eliminating debt and addressing the HIV/AIDS problem on the continent of Africa.

Pastor Warren is nobly using the platform that he's been given to minister to Africans and help to meet their physical and spiritual needs. According to an article in USA Today, over 1,000 members of his church have traveled to the country of Rwanda (not to mention other countries) in the past three years to volunteer their time for days or months at a time.

However, some question the motives of the mostly middle-to-upper class, white members of Saddleback that have traveled to Rwanda:

"Outsiders professing good intentions are regarded with some suspicion on a continent that has seen its share of failed Western interventions: colonialism in the 19th century, exploitation of natural resources and Cold War meddling in the 20th. But many American programs are paying off with declines in AIDS deaths and poverty rates. African governments also are doing more to encourage peace and economic development.
Nowhere has the transformation been as dramatic as Rwanda, where in 1994 as many as 1 million people were killed in a horrific 100-day spree of ethnic violence. The economy is still recovering — the average wage is less than $1 a day — but visitors to the capital, Kigali, are often shocked by the strides Rwanda has made. The airport is orderly and clean; the streets are safe to walk; and a tourism boom has led to several restaurants opening.
Warren told USA TODAY he believes that, the way things are going, within a few decades, Rwanda could be an oasis of prosperity — "the next Singapore," he says."

Because of the complicated history of the countries of Africa, there will likely always be suspicion when it comes to outsiders traveling to the continent to "help." But this should not stop individuals and churches who desire to help from making themselves available to do so. But we should be mindful to examine our own hearts first and check to make sure that we are seeking to serve and not trying to push our agenda (no matter how good an agenda we may believe it to be) above the needs of those that we are seeking to serve.

There are those that like to knock individuals like Rick Warren who are seeking to make a real difference in the world. But I applaud him for his leadership and his attempts to help make an impact in a part of the world that much of the western Christian world has often neglected. He certainly will have misteps and make his share of mistakes (as we all will), but at least he is trying to influence his world for Christ and make a lasting eternal difference.

For those that fault Rev. Warren and his efforts, I can't help but think of one of my favorite quotes from Teddy Roosevelt:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

What are you doing to impact your world?

The Realities of South Africa

I can vividly recall back in middle school when I first learned of the system of racial segregation, Apartheid, that existed in the country of South Africa. Even as a young teenager, I recognized the historical similarities between this country and my own, the United States. Just as slavery has left a sad legacy in the U.S., South Africans are still seeking to overcome the stain of the racist system that they operated under for a good portion of the twentieth century.

As one that has always been intrigued by history, I've held an interest in South Africa for as long as I can remember. In fact, I even took a class on South Africa while in college. We learned about the history, people, languages, and culture of the people that live in this country on the southern tip of the African continent. Though separated by thousands of miles, the parallels between the United States and South Africa are eerily similar.

For some time, this was a country that I hoped to visit. In 2002, I got my wish as I joined a team of over fifty people with The Impact Movement as we spent seven weeks in Johannesburg, South Africa as a part of Operation Sunrise Africa. During our time there we exposed thousands to the gospel and saw over 700 indicate decisions to receive Christ. After over 15 years of walking with the Lord, this experience was (and still is) my greatest ministry highlight. This was just eight years after the wall of apartheid came down, but the remnants were still obvious. As we ministered in Soweto and other township areas, the deprived opportunities of black Africans was obvious.

And now fourteen years after the fall of apartheid, its after effects are still felt. Mark Galli writes of this reality in a recent Christianity Today article entitled, "Seige From Within: Day and Night in Johannesburg." Though this is a country with a real crime problem, just as the U.S., Christians have the opportunity to make a difference. South Africa is dealing with the consequences of years of racial oppression and hatred and the only answer to this kind of history is for individuals to visibily be the hands and feet of Christ.

For a great read and to learn more about South Africa under apartheid, check out Nelson Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom.

Technorati Tags: south africa, johannesburg, apartheid, the impact movement

Help Send our President to Africa

President and Mrs. Bush will be spending the next week on the continent of Africa as he seeks to continue to keep a focus on relief for the HIV/AIDS crisis on the continent. Richard Wolf is quoted in USA Today as saying,

"The United States has spent $18.8 billion from 2004 to 2008 to help reverse the scourge of HIV infection and AIDS in more than 100 countries. Most of the money has gone to 15 hard-hit nations, including 12 in Africa. With little fanfare, nearly 1.5 million people have received lifesaving treatment. Today, the president and first lady Laura Bush are scheduled to leave on a six-day trip to Africa intended to highlight the program as it comes up for renewal in Congress. The trip will focus attention on what some experts say is Bush's greatest achievement as president."

In order to keep Africa a priority, the ONE Campaign has started a petition that will sent to the 2008 U.S. presidential candidates urging them to commit to visiting Africa during their first term. I just signed the petition and encourage you to sign it as well here. Thanks!

Technorati Tags: president bush, africa, one campaign

What is Your Africa IQ?

**These questions were taken from the December 2007 issue of Ebony Magazine**

(Answers are at the bottom)


A. What 2006 Academy Award-winning movie became the first mainstream motion picture to be filmed entirely on location in Uganda?

1. Blood Diamond
2. Babel
3. Pirates of the Caribbean
4. The Last King of Scotland

B. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is the first democratically elected female president of what African country?

1. South Africa
2. Botswana
3. Mozambique
4. Liberia

C. What Africa country is completely surrounded by South Africa?

1. Zimbabwe
2. Namibia
3. Lesotho
4. Angola

D. What African country was founded by African Americans?

1. Congo
2. Ethiopia
3. Niger
4. Liberia

E. How much money did South African singer Solomon Linda make from creating "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," the hit song featured in Disney's hit The Lion King?

1. 10 shillings
2. $5,000
3. Zero
4. $2.3 million, plus rights for all future Broadway productions of The Lion King

F. Which of these cities is not in Africa?

1. Cairo
2. Dar Es Salaam
3. Tripoli
4. Pretoria
5. Mumbai

G. Mount Kilamanjaro is in what African country?

1. Tanzania
2. Kenya
3. Uganda
4. Ghana

H. What is the largest country in Africa?

1. Egypt
2. South Africa
3. Sudan
4. Nigeria

I. Which of the following countries is an island?

1. Ivory Coast
2. Madagascar
3. Cameroon
4. Libya

J. Darfur is the site of a brutal civil war that has claimed more than a million lives. But where in Africa is Darfur?

1. Rwanda
2. Sudan
3. Congo
4. Uganda

K. Haile Selassie, the father of Rastafarians, was from what country?

1. Jamaica
2. Somalia
3. Ethiopia
4. Egypt

L. To which country did Roots author Alex Haley trace his African ancestry?

1. Ghana
2. South Africa
3. Gambia
4. Ivory Coast

ANSWERS:
A. The Last King of Scotland
B. Liberia. She was elected in 2005
C. Lesotho
D. Liberia
E. Linda wrote the 1939 song, originally titled "Mbube" (or lion in Zulu) and licensed it for 10 shillings to a South African label. He died in 1962, his family poor and destitute. But the Linda family launched a copyright lawsuit and in 2006 won $1.6 million in royalities.
F. Mumbai is in India
G. Tanzania
H. Sudan
I. Madagascar
J. Sudan
K. Ethiopia
L. Gambia