One of the primary goals of the CIHA Blog is to highlight critical and religious voices in
order to challenge unequal power relations. Throughout March, the Blog did just that by 
engaging in a number of discussions on inequality and aid as well as the misuse of power. We continued to engage in critical discussions on the Blog’s October 2015 conference on religious and secular perspectives on the Biafra/Nigerian Civil War. Abena Kyere reflected on the book Destination Biafra, the difficult realities of war, and the lessons she took away from the conference. Further emphasizing the need to challenge unequal power relations, Christopher Merett reflected in our series of talks from South Africa on the actions of the philosopher, Richard Turner, who questioned power and inequality while advocating Utopian thinking.
Throughout the end of March and beginning of April, the CIHA Blog has also posted a number of “In the News” pieces to highlight articles on current events and dialogues occurring throughout the continent that we think need to be discussed. The first two pieces drew into question the language and media representation used in separate events that negatively impacted both situations. “In the News: Another Libyan Intervention?” presents and article by Abdelkader Abderrahmane who brings into questions the framing of the Libyan intervention and warns of the dangers of another intervention. In another post, similar concern is raised over the media’s mis-representation of the terrorist attack in Cote d’Ivoire as a “religious war.” In other news, the Blog brought to the readers recent news articles about the current humanitarian system, one bringing into question the role and motives of humanitarian aid in Liberian schools and the second highlighting the work of a Somali activist named Degan Ali who, along with many others, is creating a new Global Network for Southern NGOs to combat the “institutionalized racism” that characterizes the humanitarian sector’s tendency to prioritize funding North American and European groups instead of those in the Global South with the most knowledge and experience of conflicts.
While our ‘In the News’ pieces highlight articles and discourses that we find important, our ‘Track Changes’ series link to online content that we have found to be problematic in its assumptions, framing, or language. Focusing on mental illness, the first post of series title “Track Changes: Countering a Limited Perspective on Mental Illness” by Carrie Reiling challenges the author’s assumptions around the practices to care for people with mental illness in West Africa. Reiling argues for a broader understanding of the practices while critiquing the author’s failure to draw parallels with failures to care for the mentally ill in countries like the United States. Matthew Claeys from the University of Ghana further critiques the myopic views of presented in the New York Times articles on mental health. calling for a deeper understanding of how African traditional religious practitioners, as well as broader swaths of society in general, perceive and respond to mental illness.
In the upcoming weeks, we are looking forward to following up with the lectures advertised on the Blog over the past month, including “Does a bullet know a Christian from a Muslim” by Dr. Akosua Adomako Ampofo and The Inaugural Eudy Simelanelecture by Mmapaseka Steve Letsike and Justic Edwin Cameron. Additionally, we continue to post important Opportunities on the Blog with conference, study, and employment opportunities open to nationals from African countries. Please stay tuned for more exciting posts and as always, we appreciate your reflections, comments, and ideas on other critical investigations to post!
