Johansen.se

Natalie Elphicke is the third Conservative MP to defect to Labour since the last election – but the first Tory rightwinger. She had enthusiastically backed Brexit, and was a member of the eurosceptic European Research Group of Conservative MPs. She has attacked Labour’s “softness on immigration” and harshly criticised trade unions.

In short, on most issues – Elphicke’s specialist interest of housing being a notable exception – she has been an energetic advocate of rightwing politics.

All this is not to mention the unusual circumstances of her election as MP for Dover. She succeeded her then-husband, Charlie, who had at that point been suspended over accusations of sexual assault. She stood by him, including after he had been convicted.

The Labour leadership had anticipated some unease over its decision to lay out the welcome mat for Elphicke. Sources briefed from early on that she would not be fighting her seat at the next election, nor would she be offered a peerage or a job – though she might be invited to advise “informally” on housing policy.

The most negative reaction, of course, was from the left. For journalist Owen Jones, Elphicke’s admittance illustrated how “Starmerism” had become “a political project devoid of principle or, indeed, a soul”. Comparisons have been drawn with the fate of the leftwing MP Diane Abbott, left waiting in suspension over accusations of antisemitism for more than a year without knowing when she can expect a decision about her future to be made.

But concern extended well beyond the usual suspects. The Guardian reported that Starmer’s embrace of Elphicke had been met “with bafflement and consternation from his MPs, including some in the shadow cabinet and on the frontbench”. Former party leader Neil Kinnock pointed out that even a broad church still needs walls.

What they were thinking

As New Labour’s Alastair Campbell has revealed on his podcast The Rest Is Politics, potential defectors are carefully nurtured over a period of time and all the ramifications are thought through. There is nothing spontaneous about the process. Hence, the reasoning behind the decision to admit Elphicke affords us a glimpse of the mindset of the Starmer leadership.

The defection was plainly seen as a major embarrassment for Rishi Sunak. That Elphicke was a Tory rightwinger was not a hindrance but a bonus. None other than the hardline MP for Dover, the best-known point of arrival for asylum seekers crossing the English Channel, was berating Sunak for failing to protect the nation’s borders.

In a statement doubtless carefully crafted with Labour’s help, Elphicke emphasised how much Labour “had moved on from Jeremy Corbyn and now, under Keir Starmer, occupies the centre ground of British politics”. This has been Starmer’s central message since his election – his party has been utterly transformed.

Elphicke with the former leader of her former party at her soon-to-be-former constituency.
Alamy

Leftwingers might query how Elphicke but not Abbott can be a fit-and-proper person to be a Labour MP, but was this not precisely the point – that the party is no longer for erstwhile Corbynites, but instead for disaffected Tory voters?

This is essential to understanding the leadership’s view that Elphicke’s arrival is a coup. It had wrong-footed and outmanoeuvred the Tories. It had demonstrated that Labour is now led by hard-bitten and tough-minded realists, unwilling to allow those with tender consciences to hamper the march to victory.

As one shadow cabinet member reportedly commented: “We’ve got an election to win. The name of the game is beating the Tories. When an opportunity like this comes along, you can’t pass it up.”

But how much of an impression will this really make on the voters, many of whom struggle to name more than a handful of politicians at the best of times?

Labour’s leadership might reply that what matters most about the whole episode is what it conveys and symbolises – that Labour is serious about winning and, to achieve that, will do what it takes.

The question is: do voters need to be convinced of this? They may accept that Labour is now willing to tailor its principles to the pursuit of power, but are they reassured by this direction of travel?

A more pressing problem is arguably that so many voters see politicians (including Starmer) as “in it for themselves”, cherishing power and its perquisites above all else. Never to be trusted to stand by their principles, all too ready to blow with the wind.

Elphicke’s defection may be exciting, enthralling even, to Westminster insiders. But there’s a very real risk that Starmer is merely feeding into the perception that politics is all a bit of a game for those insiders, with voters merely the spectators. Läs mer…

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, addressed his countrymen on Monday as the country marked its 76th day of independence. His narrative was predictably defiant. He trotted out his usual line that the war would not stop “until the Hamas monsters are eradicated”.

But the war has entered its eighth month and events on the ground suggest that the complete destruction of Hamas is still a way off. Netanyahu has for weeks argued that Israel must destroy the “last” stronghold of Hamas in the southern city of Rafah, where Israeli operations are becoming more intense. However, Israeli troops are now being sent back into areas of central and northern Gaza that Israel claimed to have “cleared” of Hamas fighters months ago.

Given the current situation, why is Netanyahu pressing ahead with this strategy when it appears to risk perpetuating the war, at a time when pressure is mounting both within and outside of Israel to bring the fighting to an end?

According to Ben Soodavar and Rhiannon Emm of King’s College London, the answer lies in the psychological conditions that are governing Netanyahu’s war policy. They argue that he is locked in a “loss dilemma” whereby the actions taken to avoid one kind of loss (military failure in eradicating Hamas) create a new anxiety about suffering a new one (losing domestic political standing).

Read more:
Israel’s assault on Rafah risks making victory against Hamas more elusive

Failure to accomplish his grand claim of achieving a military victory in Gaza places Netanyahu’s political standing at risk of being undermined. Any sense that he is backtracking on his pledge to eradicate Hamas will make it difficult to remain in power.

Gaza Update is available as a fortnightly email newsletter. Click here to get our updates directly in your inbox.

As Ian Parmeter of the Australian National University writes, Netanyahu is facing pressure from all sides, with no good options. For example, the internal politics of Israel’s war coalition are preventing him from changing tack.

He is leading the most right-wing government in Israeli history. And his more extreme coalition partners, namely finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, and security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, have been clear they will walk out of the government and cause fresh elections should Hamas be offered any concessions. Given that a recent poll suggests that the majority of Israelis want Netanyahu to resign, he would almost certainly lose an election should it be held any time soon.

Read more:
Israel’s invasion of Rafah will not eliminate Hamas or end the war. So, what is Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan?

Soodavar and Emms say that the pressure being exerted by far-right members of Netenyahu’s coalition may be influencing him to commit his army to not only rid Gaza of Hamas fighters but to pursue a policy that sees an expansion of Israel’s borders. At a rally on May 14, Ben-Gvir called for the “voluntary emigration” of Palestinians from Gaza to make way for Israeli resettlement.

So, the war rages on, and to devastating effect at that. In Rafah, where more than 1 million displaced Palestinians are seeking refuge, Israeli tanks have advanced further into the eastern part of the city, reaching some residential districts.

The UN says almost 600,000 people have fled the area since the start of the Israeli ground operation there nine days ago, including 150,000 people in the past 48 hours. And the Palestinian death toll has risen to over 35,000 according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Palestinians walk among makeshift shelters at a new camp for displaced people, after the Israeli army asked them to evacuate the city of Rafah, May 15.
Mohammed Saber/EPA

Nevertheless, negotiations in Cairo aimed at bringing a halt to the war in Gaza continue. According to John Strawson of the University of East London, who has been writing and researching about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for several decades, the way Israel and Hamas judge their progress in the war tells us a lot about the prospects for the talks, which have stalled since the start of Israel’s offensive in Rafah.

Strawson writes that Netanyahu’s misguided claims that Israel is on the path to victory shape his belief that should be no permanent ceasefire, and the war on Gaza will continue. At the same time, the war has been a propaganda triumph for Hamas, drawing global attention to the Palestinian cause. Despite the destruction of Gaza and the tens of thousands of deaths, Hamas thinks the war is going well, he writes.

Read more:
Gaza: what ceasefire negotiations tell us about how each side judges its progress in the war

As a result, a resolution to the conflict remains distant (even more so after Israel’s assault on Rafah). The Israeli government lacks a realistic plan for Gaza’s future beyond maintaining a military presence there and establishing some unspecified Palestinian civil administration. According to Strawson, this approach would bring neither security to Israel nor peace for the Palestinians.

But the pressure to agree a ceasefire is rising. Israelis are taking to the streets daily to demand that the government strikes a deal with Hamas to bring the remaining hostages home. And as they flee from one conflict zone to another, Palestinian residents are losing hope.

Gaza Update is available as a fortnightly email newsletter. Click here to get our updates directly in your inbox.

Jonathan Este is on holiday. Läs mer…

The UK government has released new plans for relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) in primary and secondary schools in England. This would see age parameters introduced for key issues in sex education, with no education on sex at all for children under the age of nine.

A consultation on these plans has been launched. If adopted, this guidance will diminish years of progress in how young people are educated about sex and relationships – education that keeps them safe. The recommendations set out in the policy are in direct conflict with many years of research in this area of education.

The age limits in the new draft guidance set out that puberty should not be taught before year four, when pupils are aged eight and nine. Sex education, which should be in line with what children learn in science about conception and birth – the “factual description of conception in the science curriculum” – shouldn’t be taught before year five, when children are nine and ten.

Issues regarding sexual harassment shouldn’t be taught before year seven – the first year of secondary school, when children are 11 and 12. No direct references to suicide should be taught before year eight. No explicit discussion of sexual acts should take place before year nine, when children are aged 13 and 14.

Having strict parameters around the ages children can be taught specific information will restrict teachers from delivering potentially crucial education adapted to their pupils’ needs.

For instance, puberty may start any time from eight years old with some young people starting their periods at nine. Before this happens, incremental education to prepare children needs to have taken place.

The guidance states that there can be flexibility on what is taught at what age if there is a safeguarding risk to children – for instance, if pornographic material is circulating among children at a primary school.

But the problem is that children and young people may be experiencing something like this without the school knowing about it. Research with teenagers found that just 2% reported receiving an unwanted sexual image to their school.

A NSPCC survey found that one in 25 primary school children had been shown or sent a naked or semi-naked image by an adult. That’s the equivalent of one child in every class. But under this guidance, children wouldn’t learn about specifically sexual harassment like this until they are in secondary school.

A survey by the Children’s Commissioner for England found that 10% of children had seen pornography by age nine, and the average age children see pornography is age 13. This means many children will have seen footage of sexual acts before the age their school would be permitted to teach them about this.

Research has found that women who received inadequate sex education as children were more likely to have experienced childhood sexual abuse. And evidence suggests that children who have received education aimed at preventing sexual abuse may more likely to tell an adult if they experience abuse.

A great deal of research also tells us that young people are more likely to delay sex the more information that they have about it.

What’s more, there are clear conflicts between what the new draft guidance includes and what children and young people consistently say they want and need.

What young people want

I carried out research with children and young people to hear their views on sex and relationships education – research that the Department of Education wanted and welcomed, to help inform this draft guidance. The young people said they wanted more, not less, RSHE.

They stated that the education they already receive is too little, too late and that they are being taught things they already know. They want safe spaces to talk about the issues that surround them.

My findings echo a plethora of research in this area about what is needed in RSHE. Children and young people need more, better sex education to inform them and keep them safe.

The draft guidance also states that while young people should learn the law about gender reassignment, “schools should not teach about the broader concept of gender identity”. The result of this will be that young people receive less information about LGBTQ+ identities. Again, this conflicts with what young people say they want from RSHE.

Young people say that they want a more diverse RSHE education that encompasses differing identities and LGBTQ+ knowledge.

Research has found that all young people benefit from inclusive RSHE: comprehensive sex education improves the school environment for all students, making it welcoming and creating a better environment for learning.

Teaching RSHE is a challenge. It throws up moral issues that teachers may feel uncomfortable with, often as a result of our society’s perceptions about sexual development and what children should know about sex. This means that teaching staff and schools need more evidence-based training and resources on how to teach about sex and relationships, not guidance that may leave them fearful about doing or saying the wrong thing.

The new proposals conflict with many years of robust evidence in this field. In my view these guidelines are naive when considering access to the internet and current social contexts. When considering the wealth of evidence in the field they are nothing short of dangerous. This guidance poses a serious risk to the psychological and physical health and well-being of children and young people. Läs mer…

In one sense, Let It Be director Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 1970 film documenting The Beatles’ recording sessions of January 1969, and their famous concert on the rooftop of the Apple building, could be viewed as something of a coda to the main event.

At the time, both the film and the accompanying album of the same name reached the public a month after the band’s break up was announced. In the present day, its rerelease follows Peter Jackson’s epic Get Back docuseries, which drew on the 60 hours of raw footage of the same sessions to provide a more complete account of the recordings.

So, why the fuss? Rereleases and remasters are a standard feature of both the film and music industries, and The Beatles’ media and commercial juggernaut has arguably led the way in this for a long time. First, there’s the sheer length of time since the film was last generally available – more than 50 years.

The answer also partly lies in the distinctive way in which, beyond their huge financial success, the narrative of The Beatles as a band has been woven into popular music and wider history. Peter Jackson’s 2020 series in many respects superseded Hogg’s film, providing a fuller picture of the sessions, which also fed into the Abbey Road album, the band’s last recording (even though Let It Be was released afterwards).

Same events, different perspectives

A highlight of both the film and series was the concluding rooftop concert, but Jackson’s programme was widely acknowledged for adding context to the band’s closing chapter. The hours of jamming and studio high-jinks revealed moments of camaraderie and a less rancorous atmosphere than had previously been thought.

So, beyond the events themselves, there’s an element of historiography at play here – a concern with how history is written and constructed. Since Let It Be’s original release, The Beatles have become an increasingly important aspect of popular music, and wider social history. Beyond the mystique acquired by inaccessibility for so long, the film gains interest as a document of how the band’s last days as an active unit were framed, and experienced, at the time.

In purely functional terms, it’s obviously easier to give a more complete account of the recording sessions in the nearly eight hours afforded by Peter Jackson’s Get Back than the one and a half hours available to Lindsay-Hogg on Let It Be.

Moments of discord appear in both, notably the famous encounter between a taciturn George Harrison – who walked out during the sessions – telling a cajoling Paul McCartney, about a guitar part: “I’ll play, you know, whatever you want me to play. Or I won’t play at all, if you don’t want me to play.”

These are diluted in the long stretch of Get Back, but become part of the central narrative of Let It Be. Filmmakers’ editorial decisions shape their stories, but are informed by their own contexts. Lindsay-Hogg was editing the film at a time when the band had just split, and trying to salvage a viable product from a somewhat chaotic process, since he’d originally been taken on to produce a television documentary and concert broadcast.

Re-tooling it as a film was a response to the band dropping the idea of a major event, the now legendary rooftop performance only emerging as a process of back and forth compromise.

Conversely, one of the iconic elements of Jackson’s Get Back series shows Paul McCartney coming up with the bare bones of the song of the same name more or less impromptu, and the pleasure in seeing how it develops. But that relies on the more leisurely pacing of the long form allowed by primary release on a streaming platform, as opposed to the editorial constraints of a cinema (or even television) release.

The streaming format was, of course, a long way off in the future when Lindsay-Hogg was working with the band. Jackson’s series also works more profoundly because of the classic status Get Back (the song) has accrued over half a century. For Lindsay-Hogg filming in 1969, it was just another jam – albeit by the world’s most famous band. In 2020, much of the audience was witnessing the genesis of a song they’d known their whole lives.

Framing popular music history

Get Back reviews the longitudinal process of a band at work, and one whose working processes had influenced many of the acts that followed in their wake. The Beatles’ success helped to shape the very idea of a band combining multiple songwriters and friends into a social, creative and business unit.

Their split was big news, and mattered in a way that the re-combinations of musicians into new working units had not done previously. Let It Be was tied into that historical moment, and the presence in the room of Lindsay-Hogg’s cameras helped to define it.

Viewed at the arrival of the 1970s, as the preeminent band of the 1960s announced their demise, Let It Be told the story of an ending, enhanced by the technical fact that it was blown up from a 16mm print, for TV, to 35mm for the cinema, adding a dark, grainy patina to the proceedings, now alleviated in the remastering process.

Now in 2024, it’s a document in a wider archive of Beatles lore and helps to inform the process of how the history of popular music is written. Läs mer…

The assassination attempt on Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico on May 15 has sent a shockwave through Europe. Unfortunately political assassinations are not unheard of in this part of the world – indeed, Slovakia itself continues to reverberate from the 2018 assassination of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak, an act which led to the collapse of a previous Fico-led government.

However, attacks of this manner on politicians are rare (outside of post-Soviet countries). There has not been an attack on a figure as high-level as Fico in several decades. The suspect in the shooting has been arrested, but it remains far too early to speculate about a possible motive. With that said, it is virtually certain that this will have a massive impact on Slovak, and even European Union, politics.

Even before the events of May 15, the political atmosphere in Slovakia has been quite fraught. Fico and his Smer party have largely dominated the political scene in the country since the 2000s. Before his current term, which began in 2023, he led the government from 2006 to 2010, and from 2012 to 2018.

Fico is ostensibly a centre-left politician. But in many ways his populist and nationalist politics more closely resemble those of Viktor Orbán, the far-right authoritarian prime minister of Hungary. Smer is a member of the Party of European Socialists in the European Parliament but its membership was suspended in late 2023 because of its rightward drift.

Notably (again alike Orbán), Fico is considered one of the most pro-Russian political leaders in Europe. He ran his 2023 election campaign on a platform of ending Slovakia’s financial and military support for Ukraine.

Russian media outlets have immediately seized on this to accuse Ukraine of masterminding the assassination attempt against Fico. Margarita Simonyan, the editor of RT, claimed Ukraine “should be blamed” for the shooting. Importantly, no evidence has currently been uncovered linking Ukraine to the attack. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has personally condemned the attack and expressed his hope for Fico’s recovery – and solidarity with the people of Slovakia.

There are both domestic and regional implications in the wake of this attack. For Slovakia, it is likely that tensions in the country will be ratcheted up. Election campaigns have increasingly been fought in charged environments since the first time Fico came to power in 2006 in a coalition with two illiberal and nationalist parties, the Slovak National Party and the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia.

This was particularly the case in the 2023 elections, where the alignment of Slovakia on the Russia-Ukraine War was a principal concern. In a Eurobarometer survey around that time, the war was rated as the most important issue facing the country, but with nearly 50-50 splits in support for either providing or opposing assistance to Ukraine.

This polarisation has already begun to play out in the way politicians – both on the side of the government and in opposition – have responded to the attempted assassination.

Interior minister Matúš Šutaj-Eštok alleged that the attack was clearly “politically motivated” and that the country stood on the brink of “civil war”. Worryingly, in a country with a recent history of violence towards journalists, both Šutaj-Eštok and his colleague Lubos Blaha have blamed the country’s “liberal media” for sowing “hatred”.

Interior minister Matus Sutaj Estok and defence minister Robert Kalinak hold a press conference at the hospital where Fico is being treated.
AP/Alamy/Denes Erdos

Given these comments, and the parlous state of media freedom throughout the Visegrad region – which contains the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia – it would not be surprising to see some form of crackdown.

Before the attack, Fico was already rolling out plans to place the Slovak national broadcaster under governmental control, sparking protests from the public. There will also rightly be concerns about the potential for Slovak democracy to come under pressure. Again, here, Fico had been engaged in a war of words with the nation’s supreme court before the attack, and had warned that he was monitoring the body closely.

Outside of Slovakia, the attack is very likely to become another front in the ongoing information war between Russia on one side and the EU and Ukraine on the other.

The truth or accuracy of Russia’s accusations about Ukraine involvement may effectively prove to be irrelevant. In the contemporary atmosphere, disinformation has been proven to be stubbornly difficult to challenge and rebut.

Coming as it does amidst both a major Russian offensive in the east of Ukraine and the campaigns for European Parliament elections, the attack on Fico has the potential to add a greater sense of instability to an already contentious environment. Läs mer…

In all conflicts, the period preceding a ceasefire agreement is the most dangerous, as each side tries to gain the best military position before the fighting ends. The long, drawn out negotiations aimed at bringing a halt to the war in Gaza are no exception.

Hamas has renewed missile attacks on Israel and Israeli forces have been undertaking operations in Rafah, which Israel has portrayed as the last Hamas stronghold, and in Jabalia in northern Gaza. The ceasefire talks hosted in Cairo have in turn been buffeted by events on the ground.

The way Israel and Hamas judge their progress in the war tells us a lot about the prospects for the talks.

The past week has demonstrated that the war is not going well for Israel. Four months ago, Israel announced that it had “dismantled” Hamas battalions in northern Gaza. Now, its troops are back battling Hamas once more, not only in Jabalia but in several other places near Gaza City.

This underlines Israel’s failure to achieve a “total victory” over Hamas and highlights the weakness of the intelligence on which its battle plans have been based. It is evident that Israeli intelligence underestimated the extent and sophistication of the tunnels beneath Gaza and the tactical flexibility of Hamas.

Yet the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, frequently claims that Israel is on the road to victory. This colours his attitude towards the ceasefire negotiations – that there will be no permanent ceasefire, and the war on Gaza will continue.

Palestinians remove debris following an Israeli air strike in Al Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, on May 14 2024.
Mohammed Saber/EPA

On the other side, the war has been a propaganda triumph for Hamas. Pictures of the terrible suffering of the Palestinian people have been beamed across of the world.

Hamas also demonstrated its deft publicity skills when it announced that it had accepted a ceasefire agreement brokered by Egypt on May 6. In reality, Hamas had only accepted the framework and had made counter proposals on the critical details such as the release of Israeli hostages. Nonetheless, the message that Hamas had accepted the agreement became a news headline.

Read more:
Gaza war: success of Egypt’s peace deal would set blueprint for future of Middle East – expert Q&A

Despite the atrocities of October 7, Hamas delegations are welcome in Russia, Iran, Turkey and South Africa. And it appears to see the demonstrations and student protests across Europe and North America as weakening western resolve to support Israel. There is reason to believe that Hamas, rather cynically, thinks the war is going well, at least politically.

The group claims the war has brought the Palestine question to public attention around the world. Its attitude towards a ceasefire needs to be seen in this light. Hamas has made it clear that it only wants a ceasefire on its terms – one that would effectively mean it remaining in power in some form in Gaza.

A deal is still far off

Despite these factors, the negotiations continue. Assessing their progress is very difficult given the many layers of decision-making involved. The political leaderships are speaking through official teams of negotiators and the intelligence services of Qatar, Egypt, the US and Israel.

Hamas is divided between its internal leadership in Gaza and external leadership in Qatar. The group’s Qatar-based political leader, Ismael Haniyeh, is senior in the hierarchy, but its leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, also occupies a critical position.

They are not political rivals. But whereas Sinwar is on the ground – or more likely in his tunnel – Haniyeh is more exposed to international diplomacy. It also often takes around 48 hours for messages to be passed back and forth between the two.

In Israel, there is a sharp divide between those whose priority is crushing Hamas and those who prioritise the release of the hostages. The 132 remaining hostages have spent well over 200 days in captivity and daily demonstrations aim to pressure the government to reach a deal to bring them home. It is already too late for many who have died and the fear is that many more will succumb to the terrible conditions in which they are kept.

However, far-right members of Netenyahu’s coalition have all but rejected a ceasefire, while more moderate members want one. This has led to tensions with the opposition National Union party that is part of the emergency war cabinet.

People attend a protest in Tel Aviv, Israel, calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, on May 11 2024.
Atef Safadi / EPA

Hanging over the ceasefire negotiations is the question of what comes next for Gaza after the war. The current framework under discussion in Cairo is a 42-day ceasefire deal, with a discussion over a more permanent cessation of hostilities referred to as “sustainable calm”.

The Israeli government has no realistic plan for the “day after” other than an Israel military presence and some unspecified Palestinian civil administration. In other words, a return to the situation before the war but with an Israeli military occupation of Gaza. This is a recipe for recreating the conditions that led to the October 7 massacres. It would bring neither security to Israel nor peace for the Palestinians.

One of Israel’s former prime ministers, Ehud Olmert, has argued it is in Israel’s interests to set a new agenda for Israelis and Palestinians. For him, the Israeli hostages should be returned in exchange for an end to the war.

That should be followed with Israel withdrawing from the Gaza strip and being replaced by an international peacekeeping force that is preferably Arab-led. And in the longer-term, concrete steps must be taken towards establishing a Palestinian state.

Olmert understands that politics must determine military action. Unfortunately, the Israeli government and Hamas want military action to shape their politics. This is not to say there will not be a ceasefire in Gaza, but it does not bode well for future peace in the Middle East. Läs mer…

As I write these lines, I mourn the passing of Carlos Fernandes, a leading queer activist and organiser in Angola. Carlos was found dead in his home earlier this year under circumstances that are still being investigated.

For lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) people everywhere, there has commonly been a profound connection between remembrance and mourning. It’s not a coincidence, for example, that queer archives flourished in the 1980s and 1990s at a time when the HIV epidemic brought with it the lived experience of loss.

Since then, there have been a growing number of institutions committed to preserving the history of LGBTIQ+ people. In South Africa, the GALA Queer Archive was created in 1997. In 2013, Carlos became a co-founder of Angola’s first queer organisation, Associação Íris Angola. Back then, as now, remembering the past can be an act of building community and healing.

Read more:
Queer life in Africa is also full of joy – remembering the carnival in Mozambique

In 2019, Angola reformed its colonial-era penal code. The country decriminalised same-sex relations and made discrimination based on sexual orientation illegal. But despite this progress, economic exclusion, stigma and discrimination remain common experiences for many queer Angolans. This is especially true for transgender and gender-nonconforming people.

A couple of years ago, Carlos was an interlocutor in an oral history project on queer activism in Angola. This was a collaboration between GALA Queer Archive and the Arquivo de Identidade Angolano (Angolan Identity Archive), a women-led queer organisation. Led by myself, the research aimed to compile an archive of queer life in Angola.

Our main findings, published in a paper in Portuguese, shed light on the bodies, experiences and desires of people excluded from national history due to their sexual orientation and gender identity.

Based on life history interviews and archival research, it indicates that there is a place for sexual and gender diversity in Angola’s history. In doing so, it adds to the work already being done by activists and organisations, to whom this history belongs.

Before colonialism

Anti-queer discourse in Africa today tends to argue that homosexuality has no roots in the continent, that it was introduced by Europeans. As elsewhere, our research in Angola shows the precise opposite.

In the writings of missionaries, for instance, one finds references to Queen Nzinga (1583-1663). She resisted early Portuguese colonisation and was described as defying European gender roles and dressing codes.

Mural in Luanda portraying Angolan national icons Queen Nzinga (left) and former president Agostinho Neto.
Caio Simões de Araújo

In another example, as early as 1591, Francisco “Xica” Manicongo faced trial in Brazil for practising sodomy and refusing to dress like a man. Originally from Angola and trafficked to the Americas as a slave, Manicongo is today celebrated as one of the first queer icons of the South Atlantic.

Colonialism

Angola was colonised by Portugal from the late 1500s. At different points in time, the Portuguese introduced measures that imposed a binary gender system and regulated sexuality. This included anti-sodomy laws, a medical system that considered homosexuality a disease, and the censorship of materials considered “immoral”.

Colonial school textbooks used in Angola in the 1960s, for instance, worked to propagate gender roles. The ideal African girl was defined by the virtues of domesticity, such as completing house chores and caring for the family. A health pamphlet dating from 1965 identified “homosexualism” as a vector of venereal diseases. These materials set gender-nonconformity and same-sex desire as “deviant” and harmful to society.

Independence, civil war and democracy

Angola became independent in 1975. The country quickly fell into a civil war between the ruling party and the opposition. In 2002, the end of the conflict opened a path to national reconciliation and multiparty democracy.

Much has been written about the political and economic opening up of Angola in the 1990s and 2000s. Yet, LGBTIQ+ people have been largely left out of this history. Which is not to say, of course, that they did not exist.

Transgender pop star Titica.

In the late 1990s, in fact, a queer presence grew in the world of culture and entertainment. The Miss Angola beauty pageant, for example, relied heavily on the expertise of openly gay professionals such as hairdressers, make-up artists and fashion designers. For many, the late 2000s and early 2010s brought about a significant change in visibility and social life. Queer content and celebrities, such as the singer Titica, made it onto TV. Queer parties began to be held periodically in Luanda. This was, indeed, a “revolutionary phase” according to transgender activist Imanni da Silva.

LGBTIQ+ activism today

In southern Africa, the HIV and AIDS crisis directed unprecedented amounts of funding and public attention to matters of sexuality. This opened new opportunities for LGBTIQ+ activism, which developed a more structured outlook. Activists and their organisations gained the ability to enter into dialogue with the state and other strategic partners.

Queer activism in Angola has grown significantly in the last few years, embracing a multitude of areas of intervention. This includes various activities in support of visibility and community building, such as the iconic Festíris. Held for the first time in 2016, this LGBTIQ+ cultural festival celebrates the community and its allies by hosting social gatherings, cultural events and public discussions.

Various collectives are today advancing particular goals. Some have a specific focus on trans people (Movimento Eu Sou Trans and Movimento T), queer men (Diversidade Masculina), lesbian and bisexual women (Lesbianidade Consciente and Angolan Identity Archive) and queer media (Queer People) to name just a few.

Remembering the future

Created in 2017, Angolan Identity Archive is one of the organisations in Angola actively working on queer memory. As artivist Pamina Sebastião explained, going back to history allows us to make a more informed intervention in the present, but also helps shape a desired future:

The archive is the future … it is about being able to say that we exist.

An archive makes us remember. By remembering, we forge a path. By the time of his passing, Carlos Fernandes was working on a documentary to celebrate 10 years of LGBTIQ+ activism in Angola. I don’t know when the film will come out, but the need to remember remains strong. As Líria de Castro, current director of Angolan Identity Archive, says:

We need to create our own history … to learn where we were, where we are, where we want to go. Läs mer…

Every day, 750 million people around the world engage with Tiktok – the short-video sharing app. Kenyans are among its top users.

According to a Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2023, 54% of Kenyans sampled used TikTok for general purposes, the highest proportion among the countries in the survey. They also use TikTok to express themselves and connect with others. The app, launched in 2018, has become an integral part of social media culture, offering a space for creativity, entertainment and community interaction. It’s particularly known for its memetic videos, which often feature lip-syncing, dance routines and comedic skits.

But the Kenyan government, like others across the world, is considering various restrictions – from outright bans to more limited controls. The government has cited internal security threats for its stand, saying TikTok is increasingly being exploited in Kenya to spread propaganda, carry out fraud and distribute sexual content.

Based on my research as a scholar of literature, I believe that Kenya can do a lot of good as a country by looking for ways to make this app work more efficiently for local content creators instead of shrinking its use.

In my research, I have examined the positive uses of social media platforms in Kenya. In a paper published in 2021, I looked at how social media could help victims of crimes get justice. More recently, I published a paper in which I argued that TikTok is an embryonic component in a growing Africa and a crucial pointer to evaluating group dynamics.

By studying the audiences targeted by the TikTok content creators, especially what content they like, share and comment on, we can understand what Africans want or yearn for in the present and in future. Therefore, TikTok serves as a useful tool to understand what young people are interested in and how they behave.

In addition, Kenyans are increasingly using TikTok to challenge patriarchal and colonial narratives about Africa. Through their creative outputs shared on the platform, Kenyan TikTokers are greatly influencing the arts elsewhere.

A restriction of TikTok use would silence this success story prematurely. In my view, the government should be looking at ways of easing access to the platform to boost its use among Kenyans rather than restricting it.

Female Kenyan voices and TikTok

Across Africa, TikTok is opening up and delocalising indigenous knowledge hidden within the popular song genre. Through TikTok, this hidden knowledge is put out there, in the virtual space, for all to see. My paper found that the knowledge that local people have relied on for centuries is being relocated into online spaces. This deliberate re-situation of African popular knowledge in online spaces has placed African indigenous knowledge at the centre of discussions around the human question.

The paper showed how African female content creators have used TikTok’s space to dissolve epistemological (nature of knowledge) and ontological (view of reality) boundaries by creatively archiving and curating Black voices into what was the realm of Northern thought.

African women have introduced their voices and ideas to users elsewhere in the world. Two Kenyan TikTokers, Vivian Taabu (@Swiry-Nyar-Kano) and Azziad Nasenya (@azz_iad), for instance, use TikTok to debunk the dominant ideologies and structures that have shaped the lives and roles of women throughout history through the revival of particular “forgotten” African knowledge. It includes women as givers of life, through birth, and as healers who use particular herbs.

Through this revival on TikTok, African women content creators promote African life, histories and cultures. Women use the same space and tools to engender African music and dance for African renewal. This means that African music and dance holds a key to Africa recognising itself and its place among nations.

From my findings, I conclude that TikTok is the new canvas for visualising indigenous knowledge within popular literary meditations in Africa. It provides a space that has placed contemporary African art forms at the centre of transformative possibilities. Therefore, the contemporary art re-situated in the virtual space of TikTok is a new form of art – one in which the fundamental relationships between creator and consumer, product and platform, are radically renegotiated. The paper concludes that African music on TikTok is an epistemological tool that communicates context and community-specific knowledge.

What’s missing

Artists in Kenya are already raking in dollars from TikTok. This has mainly been through brand sponsorship, product selling and affiliate marketing. For artists, TikTok has given content creators a platform to show off their creativity and talents through short videos.

But Kenya’s government should be addressing the lack of a working policy governing TikTok use in the country. The platform needs to be properly regulated, not to control but to make its use more equitable in Kenya.

There are three areas that need particular attention.

Firstly, there is no TikTok Creator Fund in Kenya. TikTok Creator Fund is a TikTok loyalty programme that pays TikTok content creators according to the number of views their content attracts. The absence of the fund means TikTokers cannot be paid for their content directly by the app but through other means like brand sponsorship, selling products, or tips and donations. If this fund was operational, earning from content creation would motivate creators to produce high quality content.

Secondly, policies are needed to safeguard users while respecting their freedom of expression.

Thirdly, regulation is needed to protect underage children from harmful TikTok content. This can be done by restricting access to the target audience.

In conclusion, it is important to encourage the establishment and support of those spaces that share the African story with the world. Läs mer…

Every day, 750 million people around the world engage with Tiktok – the short-video sharing app. Kenyans are among its top users.

According to a Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2023, 54% of Kenyans sampled used TikTok for general purposes, the highest proportion among the countries in the survey. They also use TikTok to express themselves and connect with others. The app, launched in 2018, has become an integral part of social media culture, offering a space for creativity, entertainment and community interaction. It’s particularly known for its memetic videos, which often feature lip-syncing, dance routines and comedic skits.

But the Kenyan government, like others across the world, is considering various restrictions – from outright bans to more limited controls. The government has cited internal security threats for its stand, saying TikTok is increasingly being exploited in Kenya to spread propaganda, carry out fraud and distribute sexual content.

Based on my research as a scholar of literature, I believe that Kenya can do a lot of good as a country by looking for ways to make this app work more efficiently for local content creators instead of shrinking its use.

In my research, I have examined the positive uses of social media platforms in Kenya. In a paper published in 2021, I looked at how social media could help victims of crimes get justice. More recently, I published a paper in which I argued that TikTok is an embryonic component in a growing Africa and a crucial pointer to evaluating group dynamics.

By studying the audiences targeted by the TikTok content creators, especially what content they like, share and comment on, we can understand what Africans want or yearn for in the present and in future. Therefore, TikTok serves as a useful tool to understand what young people are interested in and how they behave.

In addition, Kenyans are increasingly using TikTok to challenge patriarchal and colonial narratives about Africa. Through their creative outputs shared on the platform, Kenyan TikTokers are greatly influencing the arts elsewhere.

A restriction of TikTok use would silence this success story prematurely. In my view, the government should be looking at ways of easing access to the platform to boost its use among Kenyans rather than restricting it.

Female Kenyan voices and TikTok

Across Africa, TikTok is opening up and delocalising indigenous knowledge hidden within the popular song genre. Through TikTok, this hidden knowledge is put out there, in the virtual space, for all to see. My paper found that the knowledge that local people have relied on for centuries is being relocated into online spaces. This deliberate re-situation of African popular knowledge in online spaces has placed African indigenous knowledge at the centre of discussions around the human question.

The paper showed how African female content creators have used TikTok’s space to dissolve epistemological (nature of knowledge) and ontological (view of reality) boundaries by creatively archiving and curating Black voices into what was the realm of Northern thought.

African women have introduced their voices and ideas to users elsewhere in the world. Two Kenyan TikTokers, Vivian Taabu (@Swiry-Nyar-Kano) and Azziad Nasenya (@azz_iad), for instance, use TikTok to debunk the dominant ideologies and structures that have shaped the lives and roles of women throughout history through the revival of particular “forgotten” African knowledge. It includes women as givers of life, through birth, and as healers who use particular herbs.

Through this revival on TikTok, African women content creators promote African life, histories and cultures. Women use the same space and tools to engender African music and dance for African renewal. This means that African music and dance holds a key to Africa recognising itself and its place among nations.

From my findings, I conclude that TikTok is the new canvas for visualising indigenous knowledge within popular literary meditations in Africa. It provides a space that has placed contemporary African art forms at the centre of transformative possibilities. Therefore, the contemporary art re-situated in the virtual space of TikTok is a new form of art – one in which the fundamental relationships between creator and consumer, product and platform, are radically renegotiated. The paper concludes that African music on TikTok is an epistemological tool that communicates context and community-specific knowledge.

What’s missing

Artists in Kenya are already raking in dollars from TikTok. This has mainly been through brand sponsorship, product selling and affiliate marketing. For artists, TikTok has given content creators a platform to show off their creativity and talents through short videos.

But Kenya’s government should be addressing the lack of a working policy governing TikTok use in the country. The platform needs to be properly regulated, not to control but to make its use more equitable in Kenya.

There are three areas that need particular attention.

Firstly, there is no TikTok Creator Fund in Kenya. TikTok Creator Fund is a TikTok loyalty programme that pays TikTok content creators according to the number of views their content attracts. The absence of the fund means TikTokers cannot be paid for their content directly by the app but through other means like brand sponsorship, selling products, or tips and donations. If this fund was operational, earning from content creation would motivate creators to produce high quality content.

Secondly, policies are needed to safeguard users while respecting their freedom of expression.

Thirdly, regulation is needed to protect underage children from harmful TikTok content. This can be done by restricting access to the target audience.

In conclusion, it is important to encourage the establishment and support of those spaces that share the African story with the world. Läs mer…

The World Health Organization recently announced an outbreak of hepatitis E in the eastern Ouaddai province of Chad. Between January and April 2024, 2,093 suspected hepatitis E cases were reported from two health districts. The Conversation Africa asked Kolawole Oluseyi Akande, a consultant gastroenterologist and hepatologist, to explain the causes, symptoms, spread and treatment of hepatitis E.

What is hepatitis and how many types are there?

Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver. It is the way the liver responds to various injuries or harmful agents.

Hepatitis is caused by a variety of infectious viruses and noninfectious agents, leading to a range of health problems, some of which can be fatal.

Common causes include viruses (viral hepatitis), excessive consumption of alcohol (alcohol hepatitis), excessive fat in the liver (steato-hepatitis), drugs and toxins (toxic hepatitis) and autoimmunity (autoimmune hepatitis).

There are also a number of types of the disease. The most common, especially in developing countries like Chad, are the viral hepatitides. There are five main viruses that cause viral hepatitides. They are hepatitis A, B, C, D and E viruses. They are not strains of the same virus but different viruses. The outbreak in Chad was of hepatitis E.

All the various types of hepatitis cause liver disease but differ in modes of transmission, severity of the illness, geographical distribution and prevention methods. An estimated 354 million people globally live with hepatitis B or C.

Globally, approximately 939 million (1 in 8) individuals have ever experienced hepatitis E infection. Fifteen million to 110 million individuals have recent or ongoing hepatitis E infection as at 2020. It is widespread with prevalence rates of 21.8%, 15.8%, 9.3%, 8.5% and 7.3% in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America respectively. Its presentation ranges from asymptomatic to severe acute failure which can lead to death.

How does hepatitis E spread?

Of the eight genotypes of hepatitis E virus, four are known to affect humans.

Genotypes 1 and 2 are spread by faeco-oral routes, especially through drinking contaminated water. This is why these types of hepatitis E are common in underdeveloped countries of Asia and Africa with poor sanitation, poor hygiene, and lack of safe drinking water.

They are the types that can affect large numbers of people in epidemics. Genotypes 3 and 4 are spread through ingestion of contaminated meat, especially swine, goats and cattle, and sometimes through contamination of water by faeces of animals.

So, these are diseases of animals that can spread to humans (zoonotic diseases) and therefore tend to affect people who deal with animals like farmers, butchers and veterinarians.

There is evidence that hepatitis E virus can be spread through blood transmission. A few developed countries, such as the Netherlands, United Kingdom, France and Japan, have incorporated hepatitis E RNA screening of blood donations before transfusion. The RNA screening is the most reliable way of detecting hepatitis E virus in the blood or stool.

What are the risks to humans?

Hepatitis E is a global health problem with about 20 million cases occurring annually, three million symptomatic cases and 60,000 deaths.

Hepatitis E can cause acute hepatitis without symptoms, or mildly symptomatic, or sometimes severely symptomatic illness. Pregnant women are more likely to experience severe illness. It could also be severe in people with already established liver diseases, the elderly, and those whose immunity is low (immunocompromised).

In a survey of 177 asymptomatic food handlers across 12 restaurants in Ibadan, south-west Nigeria, we found 9% had evidence of acute hepatitis E in their blood. Asymptomatic people with hepatitis E virus can transmit the virus if their blood is given to another person.

In pregnancy it can lead to severe disease or death of the mother and the baby. The mortality rate in pregnancy may be as high as 30%.

Symptoms of hepatitis include malaise, weakness, yellowness of the eyes, upper abdominal pain, dark urine and if there is liver failure, alteration in the level of consciousness and bleeding tendencies.

Hepatitis E is not distinguishable, based on symptoms and signs, from other forms of viral hepatitis. Hepatitis E is the most frequent cause of acute hepatitis globally. In certain circumstances, especially in organ transplant patients, hepatitis E can lead to chronic hepatitis (lasting for more than three months) and this can lead to liver cirrhosis. This is quite common in developed countries where there are many organ transplant patients who are on immunosuppressive medications.

Is it preventable?

Yes. What’s needed is adequate personal hygiene, proper waste disposal systems and the provision of safe and clean water. Another way to prevent hepatitis E is to avoid uncooked or undercooked meat.

A study suggests that heating food to 71°C for 20 minutes could inactivate hepatitis E virus.

There is also a vaccine against hepatitis E available in China, but this is not widespread yet.

Read more:
Why Nigeria must find everyone who has hepatitis and doesn’t know it

How is it controlled?

Treatment of hepatitis E when symptomatic includes bed rest and avoidance of drugs and substances that can further damage the liver.

Ribavirin and interferon alpha are drugs that are sometimes used, although not for pregnant women.

Those with acute liver failure or liver cirrhosis may need a liver transplant. Läs mer…