Category Archives: Africa

Accountability?, Africa, Fire This Time, Ghana, Hard-Core Quaker, Jail & Incarceration, Justice?, Kenya, LGBTQ & Gender, Quakers, Religious Issues & Conflicts, Resistance, Signs of the Times, Uganda

What am I Missing? Some Burning Questions

March 14, 2024 Chuck Fager 1 Comment

[Note: These days, I don’t get out as much as I used to: age, ailments, etc. That means I don’t keep up well as I once did.

So I may be missing some stuff, and I hope somebody will catch me up.

This anti-LGBTQ news from Ghana and Burundi (and Kenya & Uganda) is really tough. And Quaker groups have connections there, and in that region, some long-running.

So, they’ve gotta be taking this on, right?

They must be working to protect LGBTQ Friends (& non-Quakes too), of course?

Good Samaritan and all that great Bible stuff? Don’t they still teach that all the time? Continue reading What am I Missing? Some Burning Questions →

Africa, Annals of Inequality, Evangelicals, Ghana, Jail & Incarceration, Justice?, LGBTQ & Gender, Prison, Quakers, Religious Issues & Conflicts, Trans, Uganda

Ghana Anti-Gay Bill almost Enacted

February 29, 2024 Chuck Fager 3 Comments

AP News: Ghana’s anti-LGBTQ+ bill draws international condemnation after it is passed by parliament

BY FRANCIS KOKUTSE — Feb. 29, 2024

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — A bill which criminalizes LGBTQ+ people in Ghana and their supporters drew international condemnation Thursday after it was passed by parliament, with the United Nations calling it “profoundly disturbing” and urging for it not to become law.

In a statement, Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner, said the bill broadens the scope of criminal sanctions against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people simply for being who they are, and threatens criminal penalties against those perceived as their allies.

“Consensual same–sex conduct should never be criminalized … The bill, if it becomes law, will be corrosive, and will have a negative impact on society as a whole,” she said.

Continue reading Ghana Anti-Gay Bill almost Enacted →

Accountability, Accountability?, Africa, Black & White & Other Colors, Brazil, Racism, Reparations, Resistance, Slavery, Torture & Human Rights

Brazil’s Slave History: Recognition & Talk of Reparations

January 30, 2024 Chuck Fager Leave a comment

BY ELÉONORE HUGHES

January 30, 2024

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) —

The executive manager for institutional relations at a Brazilian state bank took the microphone before roughly 150 people at a forum on slavery’s legacy in his country, which kidnapped more Africans for forced labor than any other nation.“Today’s Bank of Brazil asks Black people for forgiveness,” André Machado said to the mostly Black audience at the Portela samba school in Rio de Janeiro.

“Directly or indirectly, all of Brazilian society should apologize to Black people for that sad moment in our history,” he said, reading a statement to audience members who sat watching from plastic chairs, their eyes fixed upon him.

Brazil — where more than half the population self–identifies as Black or biracial — has long resisted reckoning with its past. That reluctance has started loosening.

Continue reading Brazil’s Slave History: Recognition & Talk of Reparations →

Africa, antisemitism, Arts: Drama, Bible Study, Books & Book Reviews, Cross-Generational Issues, Current Affairs, Divergent Friends, Ecumenical & Interfaith, Evangelicals, Fire This Time, Food, History, Islam & Muslims, Israel, Justice?, Keeping Warm, Mass killings, Nazis/Nazism, Oceans, Palestine, Quaker Education, Quaker History, Quaker Schools, Quaker Theology, Quakers, Religious Issues & Conflicts, Remarkable People, Signs of the Times, Women & Girls

A Cautionary Tale and an Inspiration? The “Life of Quaker Service” of Annice carter

November 5, 2023 Chuck Fager 3 Comments

Finishing the new book Annice Carter’s Life of Quaker Service, my first query was: What if Annice Carter had ever learned to make bagels? Could that have changed history in the Middle East?

She had the training and experience. With her college degree in Home Economics, cooking, including for large groups, was one of her many skills. And she was well aware of the implications of food for building community in diverse cultural settings.

Besides being a cook, Annice was a teacher, then Jill-of-(almost) all-trades, and later Principal of the Friends Girls School in Ramallah Palestine (started by New England Friends in the 1880s, and established as an elite school for Palestinian students).

Continue reading A Cautionary Tale and an Inspiration? The “Life of Quaker Service” of Annice carter →

Accountability, Africa, Arts: Blogging, Arts: Preaching, Behind Bars, Crime & Punishment, Current Affairs, Death & Dying, Divergent Friends, Hard-Core Quaker, Jail & Incarceration, Justice?, LGBTQ & Gender, Prison, Quaker Theology, Quakers, Religious Issues & Conflicts, Scandals, Signs of the Times, Torture & Human Rights, Trans, Uganda

FUM, John Muhanji, Uganda & “KILL The GAYS Laws: A Few Questions

October 3, 2023 Chuck Fager 5 Comments

October is Visitation & Board meeting month for Friends United Meeting (FUM). Besides board members from FUM’s shrinking but scattered territories, notable Friends will be gathering in and around its home turf of Richmond Indiana.

Among the most notable of these visitors is Kenyan Friend John Muhanji, who heads FUM’s African ministries. Besides official sessions, he’ll be visiting several Friends meetings & churches in the Midwest during the next few weeks.

No doubt the official agendas in these sessions will be full, and discussions lively. But if FUM’s record is any guide, some issues may have a hard time getting heard.

One in particular (unless I miss my guess), despite the fact it’s been in the news, on my mind, and even the pope has talked about it. But neither the pope nor I will be in Indiana this month.

So maybe some reader will pass along the following questions, not only in Indiana but to any other FUM-connected meeting or concerned Quakers: