AFRICAN AMERICAN (B)

South Sudan’s government Friday declined to sign an agreement on rules to facilitate discussion aimed at reviving the country’s collapsed 2015 peace deal.

The government’s delegates refused to approve the Declaration of Principles (DOP), intended to guide a second phase of high-level talks. They cited concerns over the document’s Article 28, which calls for taking punitive measures against individuals who block implementation of the revived peace deal.

The government’s delegates were not obligated to sign the guidelines, South Sudan’s information minister and spokesman Michael Makuei told reporters Friday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where the talks are taking place. He said mediators and facilitators had announced Thursday “that the signing of the DOP is optional. So it is up to each party to decide whether to sign.”

Makuei said the government delegation wants Article 28 removed from the declaration.

“There is no reason for us to sign such a document in which there is a provision which incriminates and which irrelevant and which is not a principle,’’ the information minister said.

Talks enter fifth day

Meanwhile, rebels of the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM IO), loyal to Riek Machar, issued a statement Friday affirming their commitment to ending violence in South Sudan.

They and other opposition groups strongly support Article 28.

The South Sudan parties signed an agreement in December on ceasing hostilities, protecting civilians and providing humanitarian access in South Sudan, but violated it within hours.

The talks entered their fifth day Friday, with the parties reaching another deadlock on the composition of the South Sudan’s transitional National Legislative Assembly. The various opposition groups would like the current assembly dissolved and reconstituted. But the government delegation insisted the assembly should be expanded to accommodate new groups.

Talks will continue

Rajab Mohandis, representing an umbrella group of South Sudan’s civil society at the talks, said negotiations would continue despite the setback by the government delegation.

“We are here to negotiate,” Mohandis said. “By not signing this document [DOP], it doesn’t signal any party pulling out from the process.”

Mohandis said the civil society stands ready to encourage good-faith negotiations.

“It our hope as the civil society that the parties, with the help of the mediators, will find a common ground” on Article 28 and “sign the document and continue with negotiations.”

The 2018 Winter Olympic Games have officially begun in Pyeongchang, South Korea, with a spectacular light show and the traditional parade of athletes entering the Olympic stadium.

This year, Nigeria has its first team in the Winter Games — a women’s bobsled team. They’ll be hurtling down the ice at speeds of 150 kilometers an hour.

Other athletes originally from Africa will be making history at the games.

Akwasi Frimpong will represent Ghana on the skeleton, a small sled that rockets down the icy course. Simidele Adeagbo will be Nigeria’s first female skeleton competitor. Eritrea has its first competitor, skier Shannon Ogbani Abeda, who was born in Canada to Eritrean immigrants.

And Maame Biney, who was born in Ghana, has become a darling of the U.S. speed skating team.

The Winter Games run through February 25.

Mosquito nets intended to prevent malaria are finding an unanticipated use as fishing nets all across the tropics, according to a new study.

These fine-meshed nets scoop up fish of all types and sizes indiscriminately. Experts are worried they are draining fish populations.

But the study’s authors say poverty is the main reason why the practice persists, and efforts to limit mosquito net fishing may end up hurting people who are just trying to get by.

‘Pretty much everywhere’

Insecticide-treated bed nets have been an extremely successful tool against malaria. Widespread distribution of these mosquito nets are a major reason why 60 percent fewer people died of the disease in 2015 than did in 2000, according to the World Health Organization. In 2015, health officials delivered more than 150 million nets to countries where malaria is found. Nets are usually given away free or subsidized.

Working on fisheries management in northern Mozambique, Imperial College London graduate student Rebecca Short saw people using them to fish.

“To the naked eye, it did seem to be going on a lot, in a lot of different places there,” she said.

Fishing this way takes little skill. And since the nets are often free, it takes no capital. Experts are concerned that it could increase the number of people catching the limited supply of fish.

Other development workers have seen mosquito net fishing elsewhere. But it wasn’t clear how common it was.

According to a new study in the journal PLOS ONE, it’s very common.

Short and colleagues took a “first quick-and-dirty look” at the scale of the issue with an online survey aimed at conservation, health and development workers worldwide.

Nearly 100 respondents, from Senegal to Samoa, reported seeing mosquito net fishing.

“I don’t think even we expected to get the result that we did,” Short said. “Pretty much everywhere that malaria’s a risk, there’s people fishing with these nets.”

Some of it was small scale — “a couple people dragging a net through the water,” Short said. That’s “probably nothing to worry about, especially given the benefits.” Small-scale fishing can be a good source of scarce protein and a bit of income, she added, especially for women, who are typically excluded from more profitable work.

On the other hand, there were cases like in Bangladesh, where fishermen blocked off entire rivers with mosquito nets. “Obviously, absolutely nothing gets through in those scenarios,” Short added.

Outlaws

Fishing with mosquito nets is illegal in many places, out of concern for the sustainability of the fishery. But Short isn’t sure that’s the best approach.

She says outlawing mosquito net fishing does nothing to address the reason it happens: poverty.

“There’s huge issues with enforcement,” she added. “Do you put a mother who’s trying to feed her kids in prison for three years just for using a mosquito net to fish with?”

But reef ecologist Tim McClanahan with the Wildlife Conservation Society questioned the benefits mosquito net fishers are gaining.

“There is an assumption that because the poor and women are doing it, it is improving their food security or incomes,” he said. According to his research, “This is not always the case.”

While many fisheries management approaches focus on catching larger, mature fish that have had time to reproduce, Short’s study discusses a controversial view known as balanced harvest. In that approach, fishers aim to catch fish of all sizes, proportional to their numbers in the population. Since mosquito nets catch everything, the authors note, they actually may be helping.

McClanahan disagrees.

“This assumption is somewhere between wrong and dangerous,” he said. The harvest from mosquito nets is not balanced. It’s indiscriminate.”

Short acknowledges that the issue needs a lot more study, including what actual impact mosquito net fishing is having on fish populations, and better local understanding of why people are doing it.

JACKSON, Tenn. – Gloria Sweet-Love, president of the Tennessee NAACP, and State Rep. Johnny Shaw, owner of Bolivar’s WOJG-FM Radio, will emcee the 17th Annual JEWEL Awards Banquet. Hosted by the Jackson Madison County African American Chamber of Commerce (JMCAACC), the annual Black business awards event will take place Friday, Feb. 23, 6:30 p.m. at Oman Arena, 179 Lane Ave. in Jackson.

This year’s fundraiser will feature two American Idols as the special guest entertainment. In addition, the event will recognized those arrested in the Nov. 8, 1960 Election Day March in Jackson.

The awards program includes presentations as well as live entertainment and a concert featuring American Idol contestants from Memphis Keia Johnson of Season 9 and Lil Rounds of Season 8. They will be backed by the Soulink Band, which features Jawaskia Lake as lead singer.

Tickets are $75 for dinner seating and $15 for arena seats (dinner not included). Tickets are available at Nell Huntspon Flower Box, the Carl Perkins Civic Center Box Office in Jackson, or online at Eventbrite.com. More details are available at http://jmcaacc.org/awards.html or by calling 731-424-2030.

During the awards ceremony, the African American Chamber will announce the winners of outstanding business awards in four categories: the Ruby Award for a new business of one to five years, Diamond Award for a business of six to 10 years, Emerald Award for a business of 11 to 20 years, and the Jewel Award for a business 20-plus years. Winners from 2017 have been invited to serve as presenters, including Ruby Award winner Loving Arms LLC, Diamond Award winner Futurlistic Beauty and Barber Shop, Emerald Award winner Sears Hometown Store in Milan owned by Garey and Lisa Jenkins, and Jewel Award winner John Forrest of F&B Auto Sales.

For more information on tickets, tables, booklet ads and sponsorships, contact the Jackson Madison County African American Chamber at 731.424-2030 or email fhoward@jmcaacc.org. The office is located at 351-C North Royal St., Jackson, TN 38301.

Louis Jones said that a collaboration between the 4A’s and the NNPA could lead to any number of business opportunities. (4A’s)

By Freddie Allen, Editor-In-Chief, NNPA Newswire

The American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) recently issued a “Fair Play Charter” to its members, in an effort to “to recommit to fair and equitable treatment of minority media owners,” according to a statement by the organization.

The Fair Play Charter was issued in response to perceived “no Hispanic”/“no urban” directives in the media-buying process, which “describe a practice in which agencies and the brands they represent make media-buying decisions that are non-inclusive of media owned by or targeted to African Americans or Latinos,” the statement said.

Louis Jones, the executive vice president of Media & Data for the 4A’s, said that Sherman Kizart, the managing director of Kizart Media Partners, and other industry insiders raised 4A’s awareness about the lack of clarity around some of the decision-making practices in the media buying process. Jones said that, as head of a media agency and as a member of the Media Leadership Council in 2011, he was familiar with the undercurrent of “no urban” dictates.

Jones said that these situations happen from time to time and that it was important for the 4A’s and its members to recommit to fairness in their business practices.

“It is important that we remain cognizant of unfair treatment and not let it affect industry practices or societal perception,” Jones said in a statement about the charter. “This is a great step toward raising the bar in the media community.”

Founded in 1917, the 4A’s is the leading authority representing the marketing communications agency business, according to the group’s website, and “it serves 740 member agencies across 1,400 offices that control more than 85 percent of the total U.S. advertising spend.”

In the statement about the charter, Kizart said that it was a privilege to work with the 4A’s executive leadership team and their Media Leadership Council to develop the Fair Play Charter and work toward creating equal opportunity access and equal consideration for all media.

“It’s an important step toward helping to create a level playing field in the trillion-dollar media landscape,” said Kizart.

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., the president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, said that the NNPA welcomed the announcement about the charter and 4A’s commitment to diversity and inclusion in the advertising industry.

“We believe that this can be a game changer for increasing awareness about the importance of fairness and equity in how advertising agencies conduct business,” said Chavis. “African American media companies play a major role in raising public awareness not only on the issues that affect the African American community, but also on those companies and products that affect the quality of life of 47 million African Americans.”

The NNPA is the oldest and largest trade group representing more than 200 African American-owned media companies that reach more than 20 million readers in print and online every week.

Jones said that a collaboration between 4A’s and the NNPA could lead to any number of business opportunities and added that engagement between 4A members and African American owners of media companies could be a great thing.

Chavis agreed.

“The NNPA is looking forward to the engagement that will be a fulfillment of the commitment announced by the 4As in the ‘Fair Play Charter,’” Chavis said.

A Kenyan attorney deported to Canada this week on charges of treason is challenging his removal in court, seeking a return to the African nation while insisting that its rightful leader is opposition figure Raila Odinga and not President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Miguna Miguna, who holds dual citizenship in Kenya and Canada, was sent to Toronto on Tuesday after participating in a mock presidential swearing-in ceremony for Odinga in Nairobi on January 30. Miguna also is one of Odinga’s attorneys.

“Today, my lawyers filed a petition seeking to invalidate the whimsical, illegal decision” to deport, Miguna said in a phone interview Friday with VOA’s Swahili service. He spoke from his home in a Toronto suburb.

Miguna was arrested last Friday at his home in Runda. On Tuesday, Kenyan authorities forced Miguna onto a late-night KLM flight from Nairobi to Toronto via Amsterdam. His removal flouted a Kenyan high court’s order that Miguna be presented to a Nairobi judge on Wednesday, five days after his arrest.

Kenya’s interior ministry contended in a Twitter post that Miguna had renounced his citizenship years ago and had become a Canadian citizen, after being granted political asylum in Canada while attending the University of Toronto and law school.

The Kenyan-born Miguna disputed the idea that he had forsworn his homeland, asking for evidence of a “document of renunciation. It does not exist, because I would never have done that.”

He added that his rights as a Kenyan citizen had been violated because “a court must be able to make the determination” both on the treason charge and on deportation. “I’ve not been convicted, so how do they put me in a plane?” Miguna said. ” … The fact is, the Kenyan authorities have acted rogue, have employed draconian measures against legitimate critics and opponents, and must be exposed.”

Election ruled invalid

Miguna and other Odinga supporters maintain that Kenyatta, who has governed the East African country of 47 million since 2013, used fraud to win a second term last August. The Supreme Court ruled that election invalid on procedural grounds; Odinga then boycotted an October rematch, saying Kenya’s electoral commission could not conduct a fair election. Kenyatta won 98 percent of the vote then.

Miguna has identified himself as a general in the National Resistance Movement (NRM), which Kenyatta’s government in January declared was a criminal group.

The lawyer rejected the criminal label, telling VOA, “Our objectives are not violent. … Our objectives are not illegal.”

He suggested his NRM affiliation was a factor in his deportation. “When they arrested or abducted me from home,” he said of authorities, “… why didn’t they take me to court if they believe that I had committed a criminal offense? … I’m a general in NRM Kenya, the movement, and I have no apologies to make about that.”

In the interview, Miguna called for new presidential elections “even before August. … Uhuru Kenyatta should not be the president of Kenya, and we should have a credible election held as soon as possible.”

Asked about Kenyan authorities’ move to temporarily halt transmissions from three Kenyan television stations that had covered Odinga’s mock inauguration, Miguna called it “a demonstration of desperation.”

“They are scared to death. They are desperate. They are fearful, and eventually they will have to be removed from power,” he said, adding that authorities didn’t want Kenyans to see “the multitude of people that attended our [Odinga] rally at Uhuru Park.”

Miguna also was asked about speculation that he might succeed Odinga in a presidential bid against Kenyatta.

“That’s not something I’ll comment on,” he responded. “It’s not up to me to decide who steps into whose shoes, who gets into what positions. That’s up to Kenyans to decide.”

The most significant revelation in “Black Fortunes,” the engaging profile of the first African Americans to become millionaires, is that these wealthy blacks managed to exist at all. African Americans of the antebellum era, when most of these success stories take place, have typically been portrayed as poor souls ground down by oppression, poverty and bigotry — too ignorant or too intimidated to amass a fortune. Millionaires? Yeah, only if you count a million broken hearts and shattered dreams.

[Black and privileged until Jim Crow came and crushed a sense of dignity]

But as journalist Shomari Wills demonstrates, that first generation of business superstars owed their fortunes to hard work and enterprise, to seeing opportunities and taking advantage of them, to being faster on the draw than the other guy. In short, they exemplified all the values driving any successful business person.

At the same time, they experienced extraordinary resistance because of their race. The men and women profiled in “Black Fortunes” dodged lynch mobs and assassins, and outwitted conspiracies to steal their fortunes by legislative fiat. And they fought back. When gunmen shot at them, they grabbed guns and fired back. Discriminated against, they marched into court and sued for justice.

“Black Fortunes,” by Shomari Wills (Amistad )

[The entrepreneur prototype is a young, white male. They want to change that.]

The first black millionaires also learned to keep a low profile. Elias often wore a veil at home so that her wealthy white neighbors in New York could not know she was black. Church and Pleasant used white proxies to expand their empires quietly, especially when trading in stocks or purchasing real estate.

Walker was one who did not keep a low profile. She “was not the first rich African American, but she was perhaps the first to be both brazenly wealthy and openly black,” Wills writes.

Locked in competition with Malone, Walker consciously sought notoriety to build her brand. She bought a 3.38-carat solitaire diamond set in platinum from Tiffany & Co. She built a $329,000 mansion ($5.3 million in today’s dollars) in upstate Irvington, N.Y. “The black society pages reported on Madam’s cars, houses, and jewelry,” Wills writes. “It made people wonder, how much money does she have?”

These early millionaires were pioneers pointing the way for future black success stories. “Today, as Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, and Robert Smith make up the first cohort of black billionaires, it’s important not to lose sight of the history and battles that were waged and are still being fought to make such achievement possible,” Wills writes.

“Black Fortunes” provides necessary context to those achievements and as such is a significant addition to our ever-evolving understanding of collective history.

Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega and two prominent opposition figures have refused to sign letters of pardon from the government, holding up their planned release from prison.

Eskinder and opposition leaders Andualem Arage and Abebe Kesto — all critics of the government — are among 746 prisoners set for release following an announcement Thursday by Ethiopia’s attorney general.

But Eskinder’s wife, Serkalem Facil, has told VOA’s Horn of Africa Service that her husband declined to sign the letter of pardon because it states he was a member of Ginbot 7, a political organization banned in Ethiopia.

“Eskinder, Andualem and others were summoned by prison officers. They were asked to sign a form saying they are members of the Ginbot 7 movement as a precondition for their release,” Serkalem said. “Eskinder refused to sign the form, saying that he is not a member of the organization. So, I know there is no deal.”

Fantu Aragie, the sister of Andualem Arage, said her brother and Abebe Kesto also refused to sign the pardon letter.

“The three of them refused to ask the government for a pardon. In fact, they informed them that the government should ask them for a pardon,” she said.

All three men remained in prison Friday.

The majority of the prisoners set to be freed were arrested on charges of terrorism, inciting violence or religious extremism. Human rights groups say the arrests were, in fact, aimed at silencing opponents and critics of Ethiopia’s de facto one-party state.

The planned release and other recent prisoner releases are aimed at reducing tensions in the Horn of Africa country following a wave of anti-government protests in 2015 and 2016, mainly in the southern Oromia region, that sparked a nationwide state of emergency and a government crackdown.

The attorney general said 417 of those to be released are convicted prisoners, while another 329 are suspects still awaiting trial.

The prisoners are to be freed after undergoing rehabilitation training and receiving approval from Ethiopia’s president, Mulatu Teshome.