Africa | Burundi | Crimes

Merck Wants To ‘Empower’ Infertile Women In Africa. Can Music Videos Help?

In June, an unusual email arrived in the inbox of an NPR global health correspondent. The headline was: "Merck Foundation together with First Lady of Burundi release 'Plus Qu'une Mere' an empowering French Song as courtesy to all infertile women in Burundi and Africa." The email had a link to a video of a performance with an all-female choir. Wearing traditional African clothing printed with the Merck Foundation's logo, they sing a song with lyrics that encourage people not to blame women for infertility. They're performing before an audience of maybe a hundred people, most of them in

Africa | Nigeria | Ethics

Oops: Nigerian First Lady Wrong to Claim 70 Percent of Ministers Are Women

Source: AllAfrica

Nigeria's first lady Patience Jonathan, trying to drum up support for her husband's re-election campaign, told a women's rally of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) in Kogi state earlier this month that 70% of the ministers in her husband's cabinet are women. At another rally in Sokoto, where Jonathan was represented by women's affairs minister Zainab Maina, local press reported her speech stated that 13 women - less than half of the total - served in the 31-member Nigerian cabinet. Of course, both cannot be right and Africa Check decided to investigate. According to the 2015