Tag Archives: Africans

Lifestyle

Africa’s youngest leader divides opinion over Russia ties

Maravi Post Reporter

As news emerged this week about hundreds of Burkina Faso citizens killed separately by both jihadi groups and government forces, images of Burkina Faso’s junta leader Capt. Ibrahim Traore were plastered over Russian state media speaking about pan-Africanism and liberating the minds of the continent’s youths.

Traore, who was in Moscow for the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, is Africa’s youngest leader at 37, a strong appeal for the continent’s young population that is used to much older leaders.

Since coming to power in September 2022 after the country’s second coup that year, he has dwelt on a rhetoric of self-reliance and independence from the West, particularly former colonial ruler France — a message that often resonates with young Africans and the diaspora.

Why is Traore trending

The latest Traore frenzy reached a new peak late April with a solidarity march in the country’s capital, Ouagadougou, following an alleged coup attempt and comments by Gen. Michael Langley, the head of U.S. military in Africa, accusing the Burkina Faso leader of misusing the country’s gold reserves.

Following the 2022 coup that brought him to power, Traore promised to end the country’s decadeslong deadly security crisis and leverage its rich mineral resources for the benefit of its 24 million citizens.

Alongside the coup-hit nations of Niger and Mali, Burkina Faso has since severed ties with the regional bloc of ECOWAS — criticized by many young Africans as representing the interest of leaders and not the citizens — as well as longstanding Western allies such as France, whose military provided security support to the government for many years to help its security crisis.

Analysts and locals suggest that these factors, combined with his youth, have contributed to Traore’s appeal among young Africans.

“There is a growing consciousness among African youth at home and abroad that they need to do something about the continent’s lack of progress,” said Richard Alandu, a Ghanaian living near the border with Burkina Faso. “It appears Traore has become the face of that consciousness.”

How has Traore fared as Burkina Faso’s junta leader

The security crisis that Traore vowed to resolve has worsened instead, slowing the country’s overall economic development and preventing most citizens from benefiting from its mineral wealth, according to analysts and researchers’ data.

“There has been no real progress on the ground” in Burkina Faso, said Gbara Awanen, a professor of international relations and security studies at Nigeria’s Baze University, who specializes in West Africa. “A lot of it is just sleek propaganda.”

Data from the U.S.-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, or ACLED, shows that while 2,894 people were killed by both government and armed groups during the year before the 2022 coup, the number has more than doubled to at least 7,200 in the last year.

Analysts say the attacks have worsened to the point that Ouagadougou is now increasingly threatened, with more than 60% of the country outside of government control. At least 2.1 million people have lost their homes as a result of the violence, and almost 6.5 million need humanitarian aid to survive, conservative estimates show.

Propaganda rhythms

Babacar Ndiaye, a senior fellow at the Senegal-based Timbuktu Institute for Peace Studies, attributes the current frenzy surrounding Traore primarily to his popularity — and Russia-driven propaganda

Despite Burkina Faso’s worsening security crisis, Traore still has “so much resonance and interest simply because of propaganda,” Ndiaye said. “In Africa, there is deep frustration with the traditional leadership, so there is polarized anger towards a scapegoat that is the west.”

West Africa, meanwhile, has a history of young men seizing power as exemplified by John Jerry Rawlings in Ghana, Samuel Doe in Liberia and Thomas Sankara in Burkina Faso, all in the 1980s. That history, placed against the perceived failure of Western-style democracy in Africa, has helped to create conditions for idolizing the likes of Traore.

Still, allegations of propaganda do not adequately explain the excitement that has built up around Africa’s youngest ruler, according to Chidi Odinkalu, an Africa analyst and professor at Tufts University.

“Traore articulates a revolutionary message that is appealing to a young population frustrated by the thievery of what passes for ‘democracy’ in their own countries,” said Odinkalu.

Source: Africanews

Lifestyle

White South Africans welcomed in US not “refugees”, South African leaders and scholars say

Maravi Post Reporter

South African leaders and scholars dispute the qualification of “refugees” for white South Africans relocating to the United States, after US authorities welcomed a first group of Afrikaners on Monday.

The group, made of 49 people according to Associated Press and 59 according to Reuters, were granted refugee status under a relocation programme announced by the Trump administration in February. 

While obtaining for refugee status in the US can be a yearslong process, the US government fast-tracked applications from white South Africans, under the justification that they were the targets of persecution and racial discrimination in their homeland. 

US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that Afrikaners were victims of a genocide, echoing the far-right conspiracy theory supported by his South African-born adviser Elon Musk. 

In February, a South African court dismissed claims of a white genocide in the country as “clearly imagined and not real.”

South African authorities have also repeatedly disputed allegations of persecution and discrimination against this white minority group.

“A refugee is someone who has to leave their country out of fear of political persecution, religious persecution or economic persecution, and they don’t fit that bill”, South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa said during a conference in Abidjan on Monday.

“Those people who have fled are not being persecuted. They are not being hounded. They are not being treated badly. They are leaving ostensibly because they don’t want to embrace the changes that are taking place in our country, in accordance with our Constitution”, he added.

Afrikaners, who mainly descend from Dutch settlers, are among the “most economically privileged” in the country, South Africa’s government said in a February statement.

“Certainly, these individuals don’t fall in the category of refugee,and the reason why the South African government has to insist on this is because it ys going to then give credibility to the lie that indeed they are being persecuted, that indeed they are running away from some conflict, some white genocide and so forth”, said Dr. Oscar van Heerden, senior research fellow at the centre for African Diplomacy and Leadership at the University of Johannesburg.

Dr. van Heerden said the US had to call white South African “refugees” to justify the expenses necessary to their relocation.

“We traditionally over the last 30 years have been a receiver of refugees from all over the Southern African continent”, he said.

“And now because of this stunt that is being pulled by the Trump administration, they are trying to say to the world that we ourselves have now become a country where people are seeking refugee status.” 

In a phone conversation, South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa told Donald Trump he had received false information on Afrikaners’ situation.  

Trump told reporters he planned to address the issue with South African leadership in a meeting next week. 

The group of Afrikaners arrived at Dulles International Airport outside Washington DC on a private charter plane and were greeted by Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar. 

The US government has made the resettlement of white South Africans a priority, despite engaging in a wider crackdown on asylum seekers from other countries. 

On the same day that Afrikaners arrived in the US, the Trump administration revoked temporary deportation protections for Afghan people, citing “an improved security situation” and a “stabilising economy” in Afghanistan, which is ruled by the Taliban

Source: Africanews

https://video.euronews.com/mp4/ED/14/73/15/06/ED_PYR_1473156_20250513041239.mp4
Lifestyle

US admits White South African refugees amid controversy

Maravi Post Reporter

The Trump administration on Monday welcomed a small group of white South Africans as refugees, saying they face discrimination and violence at home, which the country’s government strongly denies. The decision to admit the 49 people also has raised questions from refugee advocates about why the group should be admitted when the Trump administration has suspended efforts to resettle people who are fleeing war and persecution and have gone through years of vetting before coming to the United States.

The group from South Africa, including children holding small American flags, arrived at Dulles International Airport outside Washington on a private charter plane and was greeted by Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar. “I want you all to know that you are really welcome here and that we respect what you have had to deal with these last few years,” Landau told the group in a hangar at the airport, many of them holding U.S. flags.

“We respect the long tradition of your people and what you have accomplished over the years.” President Donald Trump told reporters earlier Monday that he’s admitting them as refugees because of the “genocide that’s taking place.” He said that in post-apartheid South Africa, white farmers are “being killed” and he plans to address the issue with South African leadership next week.

That characterization is strongly denied by the South African government and has been disputed by experts in the country and even an Afrikaner group. South Africa’s government says the U.S. allegations that the white minority Afrikaners are being persecuted are “completely false,” the result of misinformation and an inaccurate view of its country.

It cited the fact that Afrikaners are among the richest and most successful people in the country and said they are among “the most economically privileged.” Afrikaners make up South Africa’s largest white group and were the leaders of the apartheid government, which brutally enforced racial segregation for nearly 50 years before ending it in 1994. While South Africa has been largely successful in reconciling its many races after apartheid ended, tensions between some Black political parties and some Afrikaner groups have remained. Trump has promoted the allegation that white farmers in South Africa are being killed on a large scale because of their race as far back as 2018 during his first term.

Conservative commentators have promoted the allegation about a genocide against white farmers in South Africa, and South African-born Trump ally Elon Musk has posted on social media that some politicians in the country are “actively promoting white genocide.”

Source: Africanews

https://video.euronews.com/mp4/ED/14/74/47/05/ED_PYR_1474475_20250513042708.mp4
Lifestyle

Experts call for AI skills development in Africa’s education sector

Maravi Post Reporter

Experts in emerging technologies have called for upskilling and reskilling in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) within academia in Africa. The call comes as the AI revolution is underway, with tremendous potential to transform digital economies, including those in the Global South.

Speaking at the Deep Tech Summit in the university town of Benguerir, Morocco, Khalid Badou, Chief of Staff and Director of Institutional Affairs at UM6P (Mohammed VI Polytechnic University), said that as AI becomes inevitable, it is important to adopt and adapt it to meet the needs of the education sector while establishing the necessary policies and regulations to ensure its ethical use.

According to Badou, UM6P has become the first university on the continent to adopt Openai’s ChatGPT and is already seeing the impact of using this transformative tool, once feared by many for its potential to disrupt academia and the education sector.

However, Badou believes that while UM6P is pioneering in this field, the African education sector as a whole has a significant opportunity to seize.

“Across the world, everyone is starting from the same point; everyone is discovering what AI can do, how to manage it, and trying to understand how it will impact our daily lives—in industry, in universities, and beyond.”

“Today, we’re all leapfrogging at the same time. This presents an opportunity not just for us, but for everyone,” he added.

AI innovation can be transformative for Africa

The summit, themed “Redefining Progress: How AI is Transforming Innovation in Deep Tech,” aimed to explore and encourage collaborative AI experiences through brainstorming sessions and the testing of new ideas.

Badou said that with the many benefits of deep tech, spanning health, fintech, and agriculture, AI can become a key driver of socio-economic development in Africa.

“Africa should not wait for others to draft a code of conduct on AI covering various aspects before embracing it; it must create its own,” he emphasised.

Many experts and analysts in the tech sector also pointed out that with the continent’s digitally savvy youth population, AI has the potential to be just as transformative for Africa as infrastructure investments, especially in areas like food security and healthcare.

Last year, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) estimated that AI is expected to contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030. However, only 10% of that contribution is expected to be felt in the Global South.

Jalal Charaf, Chief Digital and AI Officer at UM6P, believes this figure could be much higher if structural infrastructure gaps were addressed.

Governments and responsible organisations need to provide greater access to infrastructure. If more people have internet access, they already have a large part of the tech infrastructure needed to test and use AI,” he said.

Internet access and connectivity

According to the latest 2024 data from GSMA on the state of mobile internet connectivity, only 30% of Africans used mobile internet in 2023, while a mobile broadband network covered 59% of the continent’s population.

This makes Africa the continent with the largest usage gap and the largest coverage gap globally—15%—which, according to experts, must be addressed to unlock AI’s potential and adopt its solutions.

“We also need another kind of infrastructure: intellectual infrastructure. If African leaders do not understand AI, it will show. They are responsible, and they must educate and upskill themselves to drive results,” said Charaf.

At the institutional level, the African Union (AU) says it is working to build on the momentum generated so far in the emerging sector and sets standards for data sovereignty.

The continental AI strategy calls for unified national approaches among AU member states to navigate the complexities of AI-driven change.

Lavina Ramkissoon, AU Ambassador for AI, Ethics, and Digital Transformation, says that despite the growing momentum, more commitment and bolder political will are needed at the in-country levels to ensure effective implementation of AI policies.

“Africa must unite and define what AI means for the continent, just as we have seen in China, the US, and EU regions,” she said.

As outlined in its AI Plan of July 2024, the AU aims to “create a regional fund for the responsible development of AI by mobilising regional and international development funds, along with private and philanthropic investments.”

In April, around 52 nations signed a declaration announcing the creation of a $60 billion AI fund at the Global Summit on Artificial Intelligence for Africa, held in Kigali, Rwanda.

However, details about its governance, spending, and deployment are yet to be disclosed.

Source: Africanews

Lifestyle

49 white South Africans head to US under Trump refugee offer

Maravi Post Reporter

A group of 49 white South Africans departed their homeland Sunday for the United States on a private charter plane, having been offered refugee status by the Trump administration under a new program announced in February.

The group, which included families and small children, was due to arrive at Dulles International Airport outside Washington on Monday morning local time, according to Collen Msibi, a spokesperson for South Africa’s transport ministry.

They are the first Afrikaners — a white minority group in South Africa — to be relocated after U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Feb. 7, accusing South Africa’s Black-led government of racial discrimination against them and announcing a program to offer them relocation to America.

The South African government said it is “completely false” that Afrikaners are being persecuted.

The Trump administration has fast-tracked its applications while pausing other refugee programs, halting arrivals from Afghanistan, Iraq, most of sub-Saharan Africa and other countries in a move being challenged in court.

Refugee groups have questioned why the white South Africans are being prioritised ahead of people from countries wracked by war and natural disasters. Vetting for refugee status in the U.S. often takes years.

The Trump administration says the South African government is pursuing racist, anti-white policies through affirmative action laws and a new land expropriation law it says targets Afrikaners’ land. The government says those claims are based on misinformation and there is no racism against Afrikaners and no land has been expropriated, although the contentious law has been passed and is the focus of criticism in South Africa.

South Africa also denies U.S. claims that Afrikaners are being targeted in racially motivated attacks in some rural communities. Instead, the South African government said Afrikaners, who are the descendants of Dutch and French colonial settlers, are “amongst the most economically privileged” in the country.

The first Afrikaner refugees were traveling on a flight operated by the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based charter company Omni Air International, Msibi said. They would fly to Dakar, Senegal and stop there to refuel before heading for Dulles.

They departed from OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, where they were accompanied by police officers and airport officials when they checked in. Msibi said they would have to be vetted by police to ensure there were no criminal cases or outstanding warrants against them before being allowed to leave.

The South African government said there was no justification for them being relocated but said it wouldn’t stop them and respected their freedom of choice.

They are expected to be greeted at Dulles by a U.S. government delegation, including the deputy secretary of state and officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, whose refugee office has organised their resettlement.

The flight will be the first in a “much larger-scale relocation effort,” White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told reporters on Friday. Miller said that what was happening to Afrikaners in South Africa “fits the textbook definition of why the refugee program was created.”

“This is persecution based on a protected characteristic — in this case, race. This is race-based persecution,” he said.

The HHS Office for Refugee Resettlement was ready to offer them support, including with housing, furniture and other household items, and expenses like groceries, clothing, diapers and more, a document obtained by The Associated Press said. The document said the relocation of Afrikaners was “a stated priority of the Administration.”

There are around 2.7 million Afrikaners among South Africa’s population of 62 million, which is more than 80% Black. They are only one part of the country’s white minority.

Many in South Africa are puzzled by claims that Afrikaners are persecuted and meet the requirements to be relocated as refugees.

They are part of South Africa’s everyday multi-racial life, with many successful business leaders and some serving in government as Cabinet ministers and deputy ministers. Their language is widely spoken and recognised as an official language, and churches and other institutions reflecting Afrikaner culture hold prominence in almost every city and town.

The Trump administration has criticised South Africa on several fronts. Trump’s February executive order cut all U.S. funding to South Africa over what it said was its anti-white stance and also accused it of pursuing an anti-American foreign policy. It cited South Africa’s ties with Iran and its move to lodge a genocide case against U.S. ally Israel over the war in Gaza as examples of it taking “aggressive positions towards the United States.”

Source: Africanews

Lifestyle

Reports that first white South African ‘refugees’ due to arrive in US next week

Maravi Post Reporter

The first group of white Afrikaans-speaking South Africans is reportedly due to arrive in the United States early next week.

They claim to be persecuted in their home country and have been granted “refugee status” by President Donald Trump.

The US president in February signed an executive order halting all aid to South Africa, accusing the government of doing “terrible things” to Afrikaners.

He described them as the victims of “unjust racial discrimination” saying their land was being taken away from them.

Trump’s view appears to stem from a recent law that allows land expropriation without compensation in extremely rare cases.

South African officials say the policy is part of efforts to address land-ownership disparities that are one of the starkest legacies of apartheid.

A large percentage of the country’s private land is still white-owned and, in reality, not a single expropriation has taken place.

The Afrikaner ethnic group are mostly descendants of Dutch colonialists and have a long history in the agricultural sector.

They make up about 60 per cent of the country’s white minority, which itself makes up about 7.2 cent of the population.

Those that have applied to for refugee status in the United States also say they are hoping to move to escape crime, and particularly farm murders.

Police statistics show that out of 26,000 murders last year, just 44 were linked to farming communities. Crime researchers say the overwhelming majority of murder victims are black.

According to the SA Chamber of Commerce in the US, over 67,000 people have expressed interest in Trump’s offer.

The assertion that white South Africans are discriminated against has spread in far-right circles for years and been echoed by Trump’s white South African-born ally, Elon Musk.

Many prominent Afrikaners and other South Africans have shouted down the US president’s statements saying they are patently false.

Trump’s executive order came after he suspended all US refugees admissions, citing security and cost concerns.

Source: Africanews

https://video.euronews.com/mp4/ED/14/44/95/04/ED_PYR_1444954_20250509090835.mp4
Lifestyle

Is an African pope a priority for the upcoming conclave?

Maravi Post Reporter

Cardinals electing a new pope have some fundamental questions to weigh, beyond whether to give the Catholic Church its first Asian or African pontiff, or a conservative or progressive.

Although they come from 70 different countries, the 133 cardinals seem fundamentally united in finding a pope who will be able to make the 2,000-year-old church credible and relevant today, especially to young people.

It’s a tall task, given the sexual abuse and financials scandals that have harmed the church’s reputation and the secularizing trends in many parts of the world that are turning people away from organized religion.

Add to that the Holy See’s dire financial state and often dysfunctional bureaucracy, and the job of being pope in the 21st century seems almost impossible.

“We need a superman!” said Cardinal William Seng Chye Goh, the 67-year-old archbishop of Singapore.

The cardinals will begin trying to find him Wednesday afternoon, when those “princes of the church” walk solemnly into the Sistine Chapel to the meditative chant of the “Litany of the Saints.” They’ll take their oaths of secrecy under the daunting vision of heaven and hell in Michelangelo’s “Last Judgement,” hear a meditation from a senior cardinal, and then cast their first ballot.

Assuming no candidate secures the necessary two-thirds majority, or 89 votes, the cardinals will retire for the day and return on Thursday. They will have two ballots in the morning and then two in the afternoon, until a winner is found.

The church in Africa

According to Vatican statistics, Catholics represent 3.3% of the population in Asia, but their numbers are growing, especially in terms of seminarians, as they are in Africa, where Catholics represent about 20% of the population. Catholics are 64% of the population in the Americas, 40% of Europe’s population and 26% of Oceania’s population, according to Vatican statistics from 2023, the last available year.

Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, the archbishop of Kinshasa, Congo, said he is in Rome to elect a pope for the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

“I am not here for the Congo, I am not here for Africa, I am here for the universal church. That is our concern, the universal church,” he told reporters. “When we are done, I will return to Kinshasa and I will put back on my archbishop of Kinshasa hat and the struggle continues.”

Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, the chatty French-born archbishop of Algiers, Algeria, lamented last week that there hadn’t been enough time for the cardinals to get to know one another, since many of them had never met before and hail from 70 countries in the most geographically diverse conclave in history.

By this week, however, he said that any number of candidates were possible.

Voting blocs

Italy (17) has the most electors followed by the United States (10). Brazil (7), France and Spain (5 each) follow in third and fourth place respectively.

Argentina, Canada, India, Poland and Portugal have 4 electors each.

Here is a regional breakdown of the full 135 cardinal electors, according to Vatican statistics and following the Vatican’s geographic grouping.

Europe: 53. (An elector who says he’s skipping the conclave is from Spain, so the actual number of Europeans is expected to be 52.)

Asia (including the Middle East): 23

Africa: 18. (Another elector who says he’s skipping the conclave is from Kenya, so the number of Africans is expected to be 17.)

South America: 17

North America: 16 (of whom 10 are American, 4 are Canadian and 2 are Mexican)

Central America: 4

Oceania: 4 (1 each from Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Tonga)

Source: Africanews

Lifestyle

How many African cardinals are in the conclave to pick the next pope?

Maravi Post Reporter

There is no rule that cardinals electing a new pope vote a certain way according to their nationality or region. But understanding their makeup in geographic terms can help explain some of their priorities as they open the conclave Wednesday to choose a new leader of the 1.4-billion strong Catholic Church.

There are currently 135 cardinals who are under age 80 and eligible to vote in the conclave, hailing from 71 different countries in the most geographically diverse conclave in history. Already two have formally told the Holy See that they cannot attend for health reasons, bringing the number of men who will enter the Sistine Chapel down to 133.

A two-thirds majority is needed to be elected pope, meaning that if the number of electors holds at 133, the winner must secure 89 votes.

The countries with the most electors are: Italy (17), United States (10), Brazil (7), France and Spain (5), Argentina, Canada, India, Poland and Portugal (4).

Here is a regional breakdown of the full 135 cardinal electors, according to Vatican statistics and following the Vatican’s geographic grouping;

Africa: 18. (An elector who says he’s skipping the conclave is from Kenya, so the number of Africans is expected to be 17.)

Europe: 53. (Another elector who says he’s skipping the conclave is from Spain, so the actual number of Europeans is expected to be 52.)

Asia (including the Middle East): 23

South America: 17

North America: 16 (of whom 10 are American, 4 are Canadian and 2 are Mexican)

Central America: 4

Oceania: 4 (1 each from Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Tonga)

Source: Africanews

Lifestyle

Capoeira transforms lives in Nairobi’s Kibera

Maravi Post Reporter

The beat of the atabaque drum echoes through the streets of Kibera. It’s accompanied by the twang of the berimbau and is the soundtrack to this rhythmic dance display. Here in one of Africa’s largest slums, on the outskirts of Kenyan capital Nairobi, capoeira is taking root. The Afro-Brazilian martial art that blends elements of dance, music, acrobatics and combat. Inside the circle, two bodies sway, dodge and leap with power and grace.

The mestre leads with songs, others echo in vibrant chants and melodies. “The roots of capoeira come from Angola and Congo and it was established by the enslaved Africans who were brought from that region of central west Africa to Brazil,” explains Salim Rollins, the founder of Capoeira Angola Centre in Kibera. “It was a form of resistance of using martial forms that are from Africa as a form of resistance to the institution of slavery and the oppression that these different ethnic groups experienced.” Rollins, popularly known by his students as Mestre Salim, founded Capoeira Angola Centre in this area of Nairobi where he trains local children and adults.

Nasri Babu, a 25-year-old capoeirista, started learning in 2019. He says it’s a good way to manage the stresses in his life. “From the community I come from, there is a lot going on and capoeira has always played a big part like a therapy thing, it has always been like a therapy to me,” he says. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Brazilian authorities outlawed capoeira as it became associated with vagrancy and street gangs. In the 1930s, capoeira was developed into a structured system, called Capoeira Regional, which incorporated traditional movements with new techniques and emphasized self-defence, helping to legitimize Capoeira as a respected martial art.

“It has also helped me with self awareness, self discipline and it has also helped with self defence,” says Beckham Otieno, an 18-year-old capoeirista. “When somebody attacks me, I know how to use the capoeira moves. I can’t be damaged because capoeira helps me with those skills and I apply them in the streets,” In 2014, UNESCO declared Capoeira Circle an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, acknowledging its significance as a symbol of resistance, identity, cultural expression and unity.

“There’s also a ritual element that’s really important within capoeira,” adds Rollins. “You see, we practice in a circle, and you see there’s call-and-response songs. So, that’s the idea of creating an energy within that circle and also sort of feeding and contributing to the two practitioners.” Movement and discipline, being embraced by a new generation of Kenyans.

Source: Africanews

https://video.euronews.com/mp4/ED/13/89/82/00/ED_PYR_1389820_20250503132816.mp4
Lifestyle

Memorial held for the late Pope Francis in Johannesburg

Maravi Post Reporter

Catholic church members gathered at the Regina Mundi Catholic Church in Johannesburg South Africa on Wednesday for a mass to pay tribute to the late Pope Francis.

With May 1 considered a holiday in South Africa, members of the Catholic community came to pay their respects to the pontiff.

The memorial was followed by a series of speeches and tributes from Archbishops and members of the Catholic community.

A tree was also planted to honor and remember the late Pope Francis.

Dr. Sheila Leocádia Pires, communications officer for the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) said she hopes the next pontiff will continue the legacy of Pope Francis.

“Whether we have a Black pope or an Asian pope or a European pope, what we want is just somebody that will continue that legacy of Pope Francis of promoting peace,” she said.

Reverend Mzwandile Molo, General Secretary at the South African Council of Churches (SACC) said “His Holiness Pope Francis calls us together in this memorial to thank God for a life of love for the poor.”

“We choose to honor and remember Pope Francis because he is one given by God to challenge the church and reconnect the church to its mission.”

If the next pope is from sub-Saharan Africa, he would be the first in Catholic Church history.

Catholic Africans think it is a long shot, though some are cautiously optimistic that Pope Francis’ successor could be a Black cardinal from their continent.

The answer will come soon, as the cardinals eligible to elect the new pope open their conclave next Wednesday at the Sistine Chapel.

Additional sources • AP

Source: Africanews

https://video.euronews.com/mp4/ED/13/80/86/06/ED_PYR_1380866_20250502044327.mp4