Month: December 2020

Osaremen Okolo | Biden Names Nigerian-American As COVID-19 Advisor – Sahel Standard

By Sahel Standard Magazine  

President-Elect of the United States, Joe Biden, has named a Nigerian-American, Osaremen Okolo as one of his COVID-19 policy advisor. Okolo was among 100 names announced as additional members of the White House staff by the Biden transition team.

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Let us now celebrate immigrants of color to Kentucky

On Jan. 20, 2021 Kamala Harris, the daughter of an Asian-American mother and father from Jamaica, will take the oath of office as the Vice President of the United States. Let us now celebrate immigrants of color. In 2013, we began to interview immigrants from African countries for what we titled “African Immigrants in the Bluegrass,” an oral history project at University of Kentucky’s Nunn Center for Oral History. We completed almost 50 interviews in 2017, just before President Trump’s infamous comment in 2018 about immigrants from “s—hole countries.”

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Rev. Moses Adekola | Nigerian pastor reflects on journey to Nova Scotia, life devoted to helping others

By Carole Morris-Underhill | Cape Breton Post

Rev. Moses Adekola smiles when he sees falling snow. The mere sight of snowflakes falling to the ground makes the Nigerian-born pastor grin from ear to ear.

“Winter is my favourite. I just love wintertime,” said Adekola, sipping on a hot chocolate while sitting inside a Tim Hortons restaurant.

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Ted Jaleta | Saskatchewan man fears for Ethiopian family displaced by violence

By Kendall Latimer | CBC News

Ted Jaleta, an accomplished Regina-based athlete, said he feels powerless to help his brothers who have lost their homes and livelihoods as ethnic violence grips Ethiopia.  The well-known running coach and community volunteer made the Saskatchewan capital his home after fleeing violence in the African country nearly 40 years ago. Now he fears for his family members and other ethnic minorities who are under threat. 

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COVID-19 Pandemic Alters Lifestyle Of Nigerians In U.S.

By News Agency of Nigeria

The Nigerian Diaspora Movement (NDM) says the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic truncated the annual social lifestyles for many Nigerians in the U.S. in 2020. The Chairman of NDM, Prof. Apollos Nwauwa, made this known in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) .

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Lost to COVID-19 | Ghanaian-born University of Akron professor hosted international students at his house every Thanksgiving

By Jennifer Pignolet | Akron Beacon Journal

Baffour Takyi knew what it was like to be far from home. The University of Akron professor was from Ghana, and he still had deep roots, including extended family, in the African nation. So every Thanksgiving, he and his wife invited Akron’s international students to their house for a meal. 

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Catherine Nakalembe | How Ugandan Nasa scientist uses satellites to boost farming in Africa

By Patience Atuhaire | BBC

As a keen badminton player Ugandan Catherine Nakalembe wanted to study sport science at university but a failure to get the required grades for a government grant set her on a path that led her to Nasa and winning a prestigious food research prize.

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Maryam Tsegaye | Teen’s Simple Explainer on Quantum Mechanics Just Won a $400k Global Prize

By PETER DOCKRILL | Science Alert

Maryam Tsegaye, a 17-year-old Ethiopean Canadian from Fort McMurray, Alberta has won a major scientific competition for an electrifying YouTube video in which she brilliantly simplifies the complicated concept of quantum tunnelling.

Continue reading “Maryam Tsegaye | Teen’s Simple Explainer on Quantum Mechanics Just Won a $400k Global Prize”

Adekunle Odunsi named new director of UChicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center

By Gretchen Rubin | UChicago Medicine

Nigerian-born Adekunle “Kunle” Odunsi, MD, PhD, FRCOG, FACOG, an expert in immunotherapy and vaccine therapy for cancer, has been appointed director of the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center effective March 1, 2021. Odunsi will also serve as Biological Sciences Division Dean for Oncology and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Chicago.

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Sudan presents “You Will Die at Twenty” for Oscars

By SAMY MAGDY | AP

Nearly two years after the overthrow of autocrat Omar al-Bashir, Sudan is taking steps to rejoin the international community from which it was long shunned. That includes its film industry. For the first time in its history, Sudan has a submission for the Academy Awards.

Continue reading “Sudan presents “You Will Die at Twenty” for Oscars”

Business Corridor in Washington DC Named Little Ethiopia

By Ethiopian News Agency

The 9th and U-Street business corridor located in the Shaw neighborhood in Washington DC is named after “Little Ethiopia,” according to the Embassy of Ethiopia in Washington DC. The Washington DC Council decided to name the 9th and U-Street business corridor “Little Ethiopia” after tireless efforts by members of Ethiopian community for over two decades.

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My auntie’s jollof rice, and other things Covid-19 stole from me

by S. Fambul | The Counter

We West Africans take our regional dish—and communal celebration—seriously. When I remember the days when an unmasked face at the bank did not frighten me, I cannot help but to think of the ways I have called my family outside of their names in the act of love.

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Family missing in Ethiopian civil war, Denver woman says her ‘mind is the hardest place to be’

By Susan Greene |  Sentinel Colorado

Millete Birhanemaskel, a refugee, long-time Denver resident and businesswoman, grappled with 2020 as many others have: She tried to protect her family, her employees, her tenants from COVID’s reach. She worried about the presidential election. And she managed to keep her coffee shop, the Whittier Cafe, from going under.

Continue reading “Family missing in Ethiopian civil war, Denver woman says her ‘mind is the hardest place to be’”

Jamaica welcomes historic flight from Nigeria

By Jamaica Information Service

ST JAMES, Jamaica — Jamaica has welcomed its first flight from West Africa. Nigerian Airline, Air Peace, made its historic direct flight from Lagos to the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, St. James, on Monday (December 21). It is the first non-stop flight to the island from Nigeria and is aimed at exploring the possibility of direct round-trip commercial airlift between the two destinations.

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Congo rejoins United States’ AGOA trade partnership

By Stanis Bujakera  and Hereward Holland  | Reuters

Democratic Republic of Congo has rejoined a trade partnership giving it duty-free access to U.S. markets, a sign of warming diplomatic ties since Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi came to power last year.

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DC’s Ethiopian Community Fears For Family Amid Civil War

By Mike Haack| DCist

With tears gathering on the upper rim of her mask and two young children in her arms, Bitsom explains how it’s felt not being able to contact her family in the Tigray region of Ethiopia since the war there began.

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Cyrille Nkontchou | The Harvard Business School trained Cameroonian who is the founder of a private schools business that operates across 9 countries

By Sven Hugo | How We Made It in Africa

Cameroonian businessman and investor Cyrille Nkontchou is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and is currently the Chairman of the HBS Africa Advisory Board. He is also the founder Enko Education, an African private schools business. Enko currently operates 14 schools across nine countries. Sven Hugo talked to Nkontchou about building the company, lessons learnt and some of the unexploited opportunities in Africa’s education sector.

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Rocky Mountain Welcome Center and East African Restaurants Team Up to Help Immigrants in Need


By MARK ANTONATION | Westword

Jennifer Gueddiche, chief operating officer for the Welcome Center, says it wasn’t enough to count on food banks and pantry donations to get food for the organization’s clients, since many of them come from cultures where American staples are either unfamiliar or unsuitable for their religious and cultural requirements. Orthodox Christians and Muslims from Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti and Eritrea form a large part of the Welcome Center’s clientele, so ensuring that halal meats, vegetarian meals and traditional ingredients made it to those in need played a critical role in temporarily switching from an education-based mission to focusing on food distribution.

Continue reading “Rocky Mountain Welcome Center and East African Restaurants Team Up to Help Immigrants in Need”

Nigerian American owned US-based Investment Company joins efforts to provide meals to 600,000 Nigerians

BY Gauranty Investment Company, Inc. | EIN Presswire

Riverside CA… Guaranty Investment Company, Inc. made history by becoming the very first organization to support and sponsor the initiatives between Nigerian American Public Affairs Foundation (NAPAC Foundation) and Sweet Sensations Confectionery Ltd., to feed Nigerians through the Sweet Sensation Food Security Initiative (SS-FOSI). The goal of NAPAC and SSFOSI is to feed 600,000 Nigerians this coming holidays.

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Chef Tunde Wey | Meet Nigerian-Born, American Culinary Expert.

By Modern Ghana

Akintunde Asuquo Osaigbuovo Ojo Wey, popularly known as Tunde Wey, is a New Orleans-based writer, activist-artist, and celebrity chef. Tunde was born in 1983 to a comfortably middle-class Yoruba family; his grandfather had been second-in-command during the military junta that ruled the country from 1966 to 1979. Tunde was born in Lagos, Nigeria, before moving to Detroit, Michigan at age 16 to complete his education.

Continue reading “Chef Tunde Wey | Meet Nigerian-Born, American Culinary Expert.”

Nigeria’s Kiakiaprint Expands into US and Canada

By TAGE KENE-OKAFOR | Techpoint Africa

Following its expansion to South Africa, Kiakiaprint, a Nigerian print-on-demand startup, is now live in the North American countries of Canada and the US. The expansion news coincided with the startup’s partnership with online design and publishing company, Canva.

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Wizkid and Tems Make Obama’s 2020 Playlist

By By Linorajj |Notjustok

As an annual tradition, 44th President of the United State of America, Barrack Obama has released his playlist consisting of his favourite songs of the year and Nigerian superstars, Wizkid and Tems made it to the playlist with their latest jam, ‘Essence’ off Wizkid’s album, ‘Made in Lagos’.

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NBA to award elite boarding school scholarships to two African female prospects

BY MARTENZIE JOHNSON | The Undefeated

The NBA has announced that it has awarded scholarships to two young African female athletes to attend the SEED Academy, a multidisciplinary boarding school in Senegal. The scholarship is a continuation of the partnership between the league and the SEED (Sports for Education and Economic Development) Project organization.

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Nigerian Ambassador To The U.S, Sylvanus Nsofor Dead

By Chike Olisah | Nairametrics.com

The outgoing Nigerian Ambassador to the United States of America, Justice Sylvanus Adiewere Nsofor, is dead. His death was confirmed in a statement which was issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the Nigerian President on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu, through a series of tweet posts on his official Twitter handle on Friday, December 11, 2020.

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Jacques Vambel Ilanga | From Congo to Camas to college

By Meg Wochnick | The Columbian

This is how many know Jacques Badolato-Birdsell: a Camas High School standout in football, wrestling and track and field who set two single-season school records in 2019 playing running back in the Papermakers’ undefeated football season. Who can forget the last football game he played? Last December’s Class 4A state championship win over Bothell — rushing for 207 yards and scoring three touchdowns — still brings a smile to his face in a memory-filled season.

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Strive Masiyiwa | Netflix appoints Zimbabwean billionaire its board of Directors

By Netfilx

Netflix has appointed Zimbabwean-born Strive Masiyiwa to its Board of Directors. Strive is the Chairman and founder of Econet Group, a telecommunications and technology group with operations and investments in 29 countries in Africa and Europe.

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3 Ghanaians Make History as Columbia Crew win MSL Cup

By onsitenewss | Opera News Ghana

Three Ghanaians were part of the celebrations as the Columbus Crew emerged as winners of the Majo League Soccer Cup for 2020. The team includes Jonathan Mensah, who is the first African captain to lead an MLS side to win the MLS Cup.

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US Rescinds Sudan’s Designation as State Sponsor of Terror

By Voice of America – English

The United States announced it was formally rescinding Sudan’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism as a result of its “historic democratic transition.” Sudan was designated as a state sponsor of terrorism in 1993 in part because of the policies of then-President Omar al-Bashir, who supported militant organizations such as Hamas, and harbored militants such as al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

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US-based Ghanaian community association donates to Nandom Hospital, in Ghana

By Severious Kale-Dery | Graphic Online

A Ghanaian community association in America, The Nandome Dagara Biir Association of North America (ANANDA) has donated a 40-footer container load of assorted medical equipment, hospital consumables and personal protective equipment (PPE) to the St Theresa’s Hospital at Nandom in the Upper West Region of Ghana. The donation was made in collaboration with some donor partners.

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Seattle Ethiopian community fears for loved ones impacted by country’s unrest

By Sebastian Robertson | king5.com

SEATTLE — Members of Seattle’s large Ethiopian community say they’re desperate to hear from loved ones impacted by an ongoing civil war in their native country.  Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Africa with nearly 115 million people, and at the northern most portion is the Tigray Region. For the past two years, tensions have been rising between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Ethiopian Federal Government.

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