The News Review:

- Sierra Leone: Remembering the Days of Slavery
- Thousands flee in Kenya poll violence
- Kenya: Commonwealth’s Tejan Kabbah Mediates in Kenya Poll Crisis
- Nigeria: What’s Yar’Adua’s New Year Resolution?

Sierra Leone: Remembering the Days of Slavery
AllAfrica.com – Jan 1, 2008
Also recognized on that day was the mass grave (dumped hole), of the unfortunate African Slaves who lost their lives while in transit at Banana Island and, giving equipments and drugs to the poorly equipped lone Community Health center on the Island Vice Chair Person of the Carlton- Carew EP Foundation Cynthia Jarrett- Thorpe said she visited the Slave Island last year and felt the need to help the people of Banana Island. GA_googleFillSlot(“AllAfrica_Story_Inset”); Present at the ceremony were African -Americans whose ancestors happened to be slaves transported along the Atlantic Coast At the mass grave site (dumped hole), tears roll down as people especially the African-Americans felt equally the pains the ancestors went through in the hands of their slave masters. The old Slave Fort is to be preserved. So also were the cannons still found on the Island that were used to protect their slave business against other slave invaders The African- Americans led by Al Maader on board the symbolic Amistad Boat arrived in Sierra Leone recently to trace their origin, which they believed was Sierra Leone.

Thousands flee in Kenya poll violence
The Australian – Jan 2, 2008
"The immediate priority is to combine a sustained call from Kenya’s political leaders for the cessation of violence by their followers with an intensive political and legal process that can build a united and peaceful future for Kenya," the statement said. The mass circulation Daily Nation issued a stark warning in the form of an editorial demanding urgent action to stop the spiralling violence. "If no urgent step is taken to arrest the killings, Kenya is bound to sink into the abyss and join the ranks of war-torn countries like Cote d’Ivoire, Somalia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone and others which have experienced genocide on an unimaginable scale," the Daily Nation said. The newspaper also carried a full-page appeal entitled "Give Peace and Dialogue a Chance" and signed by two Kenyans, the diplomat who mediated Somali peace and the general who brokered Sudan’s north-south peace deal. With more than 110 people killed on Tuesday, 306 people have died in politically related-violence since polling day, according to a tally compiled by AFP. EU monitors said elections had "fallen short" of international standards and urged an independent audit of the results, increasing diplomatic pressure on Kibaki. The veteran statesman, who had been praised during his first five-year tenure for preserving Kenya’s stability and developing its economy, called for consultations between political party leaders.

Kenya: Commonwealth’s Tejan Kabbah Mediates in Kenya Poll Crisis
AllAfrica.com – Jan 2, 2008
GA_googleFillSlot(“AllAfrica_Story_Inset”); Dr Kabbah, who is also the former president of Sierra Leone, agreed to take up the role following requests by political leaders in Kenya in light of the violence that erupted in parts of the country after the presidential election results were announced on 30 December 2007. Dr Kabbah has met President Mwai Kibaki, Raila Odinga of the Orange Democratic Movement and Kalonzo Musyoka, of Orange Democratic Movement-Kenya, as well as senior diplomats in Nairobi. He is expected to be joined in these efforts by the Chairman of the African Union, Ghana’s President John Kufuor. In his mediation efforts, Dr Kabbah is stressing the need for political leaders to immediately meet and publicly call for calm and for the rule of law to be respected. Relevant Links East AfricaWest AfricaKenyaSierra Leone "At the moment, the priority is to stop the violence which has led to the loss of life and property.

Nigeria: What’s Yar’Adua’s New Year Resolution?
AllAfrica.com – Jan 1, 2008
We are often reminded by preachers and historians that no state in modern times has equaled Rome in size, fame and glory. But nations do not have to be as gigantic as Rome before exhibiting its disastrous tendencies particularly where leaders without wisdom, knowledge and conscience preside. What happened in Iraq, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Afghanistan and Ivory Coast of recent bore traces of Roman disease? And nations also do not have to be multi-ethnic or multi-religious before becoming atomistic. Somalia, a country in the horn of Africa, very close to the land of Judea or Middle East, the epicentre of the two world’s most powerful religion, is a living reminder by God, of how a small united nation can suddenly become a failed state. Nigeria with all its massive size, power, people and resources will this year enter its 48th year as an independent nation with nothing to show the modern world as its major contribution to human progress compared with its peers such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Ghana, Egypt, Thailand and to an older extent India and Brazil. Instead it has shown a tendency of becoming a failed state. Mind you a failed state does not have to lose political authority over its border as in Somali case.