I (Okey) am excited to introduce you all to my friend Lindsay Branham. Lindsay lived in DR Congo and Rwanda for 18 months working as a writer and photographer for Food for the Hungry (FH). She has produced film and photography throughout Africa and her work on child soliders has been featured on CNN. Lindsay is currently co-directing a documentary film about child soliders in DR Congo. Click HERE to check out the amazing work she is doing.

WHISPERS by Lindsay Branham

Whispers of hope have settled into words. The rain fallen has not yet dried.

A sad maturity marked her face. Her provocative black, lacy clothing clung loosely to her constantly thinning frame. Her deep sultry voice and swanky gait, as she threw her hips around, reminded me of a little girl playing dress up.

But she wasn’t playing.

Aisha is a prostitute. A child prostitute. A former Mai-Mai child soldier, beginning when she was 13,

Click to read more ...

First of all apologies for my recent silence. After that introduction I (John!) went incommunicado. Let it be known that my 2010 new year resolution is to post more frequently! ;-)

Remember Ms Uzoma Okere? This was the high profile case last year during which a young lady in Lagos was physically assaulted by the men attached to a senior navy officer. Apparently the lady's crime was that she did not get out of the way quickly enough when their boss' (a navy Rear-Admiral) convoy passed her. They decided that solving the issue with her via dialogue was too complicated, so they beat up this young lady, ripped up her clothes and even tried to horsewhip her - in broad daylight, in the middle of a street.

Unbeknown to them, the whole incident was witnessed and filmed by someone with their mobile phone...and within days the assault had been posted around the world (see video clip above).

Ms Okere did not let the matter die, and has filed a lawsuit (judgment due January 27 2010). One thing to note though....this kind of incident happens all the time. There are lots of other people who get harassed, beaten up or even killed by security forces that we never hear about. The reason why Uzoma's case came to public attention is because her father (Colonel Emeka Okere) is the Sergeant-at-Arms of the National Assembly, and a retired army Colonel. Plus Uzoma is an educated lady who works for PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Lagos.

Had she been poor, uneducated and not from a "prominent family", we probably would not have heard about her case.

The parties have completed the arguments in her 100 million Naira lawsuit. Let us see how it pans out. This will be a major test and statement of whether the courts are serious about punishing cases of security forces mistreating civilians.

Okay, so I think its really cool that one of our good friends had the opportunity to be a speaker for TEDTALKS. So proud of you Ory, keep MAKING NOISE! Click HERE to learn more about Ory's work.

On Friday, October 30, 2009 YAP (Young African Professionals) and the Global Development Matters Meetup hosted an evening with Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie at the Center for Global Development in Washington DC. Being a big fan of Chimamanda's work, this event was the highlight of my weekend. The evening started with Chimamanda reading a few pages from her latest book, "The Thing Around Your Neck." Without a doubt, Chimamanda is a gifted storyteller with the ability to pull readers into the lives and experiences of the characters in her stories.

Click to read more ...

Sometimes when I sit in the clinic in between seeing patients, I like to remind myself of my “other life.” Not the girl that still fumbles as she’s learning how to draw blood, but the other side that is a diehard advocate- the girl that felt empowered to empower girls who’d been victimized and sold in some of the harshest conditions. In my mind I took myself back to my time in Italy, and thought of the girls who’d been sent back to Nigeria after being released from their madams who’d coerced them into sexual slavery. Okey and I have been pushing ourselves: “Don’t forget the girls we’re fighting for. Don’t forget we’re working to one day be able to help them.”

Click to read more ...

ALL STORIES ARE TRUE By: Jimmie Briggs Photos: Nabil Elderkin

On June 30, 1960, Patrice Emery Lumumba stood in sweltering heat before an enthralled crowd of millions in Kinshasa to make the first Independence Day speech in his country’s history. The Republic of Congo was newly free from colonization and Lumumba, an anti-colonial fighter, was its first legally elected president. He began in measured, reflected tones urging his countrymen and women to fulfill the realization of dreams they and their predecessors held for generations.

Click to read more ...