Latest News
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AFJN’s First Empowerment and Advocacy for Just Governance Workshop
From October 8-10, 2014, we organized our first pilot workshop on Empowerment and Advocacy for Just Governance in Accra, Ghana. The workshop was organized in partnership with the Archdiocesan Office for Justice and Peace and Development Commission, The National Catholic Secretariat of Ghana’s Bishops Conference, the Symposium of the Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar…
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Campaign to Prevent Land Grabbing in Ghana’s Volta Region
Land Grabbing Research, Awareness and Prevention in Ghana’s Volta Region is a project of the Africa Faith and Justice Network (AFJN) funded by two Catholic religious congregations: The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and The Adorers of the Blood of Christ. The outstanding success of this project was in part made possible by our local…
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Preventing land-grabbing in Africa
As the international community joins hands to stop the threat of the Ebola virus, Bahati Jacques of Africa Faith and Justice Network, a Catholic advocacy organization based in Washington DC, would like to also shine some light, stop and prevent another serious and rapidly growing threat to Africa’s future: land grabbing. To ensure food security for a…
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AFJN signed on a joint statement to stop the World Bank from enabling land grabs
Though it is widely recognized today that land grabs are dispossessing and impoverishing rural communities across the globe, the World Bank is unwilling to change its approach. On the contrary, it is working to do more to favor investments by foreign corporations in developing countries’ agricultural sectors.
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Pushing for Internet Access
Cardinal Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace at the Vatican, has called for the extension of internet and other technological facilities to rural areas in order to improve upon the quality of education in villages and towns in West Africa. He said it was time internet facilities were made available in…
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AFJN publishes report titled “Land Grabbing in Africa: Herakles Farms’ Failed Venture in Brewaniase, Ghana”
On October 1st, 2014, AFJN authors and publishes a report titled “Land Grabbing in Africa: Herakles Farms’ Failed Venture in Brewaniase, Ghana” in the Land Portal Foundation.
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Kenya’s Ogiek Women Conquer Cultural Barriers to Support their Families
NAKURU COUNTY, Kenya, Sep 22 2014 (IPS) – Just two years ago, Mary Ondolo, a 50-year-old mother of nine from Kenya’s marginalized, hunter-gatherer community the Ogiek, used to live in a grass thatched, mud house. She’d been living there for decades. But thanks to a donation of livestock and equipment she has now been able…
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The Murder of Catholic Nuns in Burundi is a Violation of African Taboo
The weekend of Sunday, September 7, 2014 saw abominable acts in Burundi as three Italian Catholic nuns, members of the Xaverian Missionary Sisters of Mary were killed in cold blood. According to a press release from the US Xaverian Missionaries Provincial Superior Fr. Carl Chudy, SX, “the nuns were killed at two separate incidences in…
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Praise for Zambia’s Social Progress
United Kingdom Secretary of State for International Development Justine Greening visited Zambia in July. She said Zambia had enjoyed impressive economic growth and had seen 1.2 million more children in schools and 40 per cent reduction in child mortality. She commended Zambia’s commitment to scaling up social protection to those living in extreme poverty saying…
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Church Experience in Africa: Cheerful Offering
This is a typical Sunday mass at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church in Nkwanta/Jasikan Diocese. Dancing is one of many aspects of the adaptations of the faith experience (enculturation) of the Roman Catholic Church in Africa. The celebratory and musical feel of Sunday gatherings and other faith meetings stem from people’s faith in a God whose…
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Kenyan Javelin Thrower
Kenya is renowned for its distance runners who have won races all over the world. The Kenyans showed their prowess again recently at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, where they won 10 gold medals. Nine of the 10 gold came in running events, while Julius Yego made history as the first Kenyan to be…
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Transition to Glory: Rev. Thomas E. (Ted) Hayden, SMA (1932-2014)
Celebrating a life well lived, the Africa Faith & Justice Network (AFJN) announces the transition to eternal life of Society of African Missions (SMA) Father Thomas E. (Ted) Hayden, founding member and past Executive Director of AFJN. Born in the United States on January 31, 1932 in Milton, Massachusetts, Ted Hayden became a permanent member…
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AFJN In Solidarity With The Families Affected By The Ebola Outbreak
Barthelemy Bazemo Throughout history, there have been cases of outbreak of infectious diseases that have claimed thousands and in some cases millions of lives, such as the bubonic plaque that swept across Europe in the 14th century and claimed an estimated 25 million people. However, the case of Ebola virus disease (EVD) that is affecting…
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The New Theft of Africa: America’s Involvement in African Land Grabs
The ongoing massive lease of Africa’s most fertile land as a development approach risks the well-being of millions of people throughout Africa, especially traditional small farmers and pastoralists, who rely on the land as their sole means of survival. This is land grabbing in its worst form.
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The Africa Faith & Justice Network, TASSC International and Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur Justice & Peace Office Demand Good Governance and Human Rights on U.S.-Africa Policy Agenda
(WASHINGTON, D.C. August 6, 2014) – The Africa Faith & Justice Network (AFJN) and TASSC (Torture Abolition and Survivor Support Coalition) International call on the United States government to make Good Governance and Human Rights in Africa a priority in the U.S.-Africa policy agenda. The first U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit hosted by President Obama in Washington,…
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African Faith Leaders Unite for the Post-2015 Development Agenda
The year 2015 will mark the official end to the Millennium Development Goals campaign, an initiative launched by the United Nations in early 2000 to free humanity from extreme poverty and hunger, gender inequality and illiteracy, disease and environmental degradation. As the program draws to its close, African faith leaders representing 23 different faith organizations,…
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Mumemo Declaration: A New Pentecost for Africa
As many of our readers know, the second Africa Synod which was celebrated in Rome this past October was not an event, but a process. That process continues and we want to share with you the latest! The Mumemo Declaration is communique sent as a result of a meeting of African development and justice and…
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Congress has yet to believe that Africa’s main problem is not money, but governance
Western aid to Africa has absolutely generated dependency and is one of many methods used to influence internal African social, political and economic affairs. Ahead of the US-African Leaders’ Summit which will take place in Washington DC from August 4-6, Africa Faith and Justice Network (AFJN) met with the offices of Senators Barbara Boxer and…
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Letter to Congress: U.S. aid in the event of a coup d’état against a democratically elected government.
Dear Senators and Congresswomen: We are writing with regard to changes proposed to Section 7008 of the annual State Department, Foreign Operations, and other Programs (SFOPS) appropriations bill. This longstanding provision implements a bedrock principle of American values and U.S. foreign assistance: the suspension of U.S. aid in the event of a coup d’état against…
