Well-articulated stories on three African ladies

The journalists have published their stories from yesterday about three famous African ladies. As part of the fact-finding assignment, they have also provided links to the original sources. Many have also added pictures to their postings.

Here’s Rose Haji’s article about the life and achievements of the Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. Here’s another story about her by Hikloch Ogola.

Others chose to write about Dambisa Moyo, the Zambian economist who in her bestselling book Dead Aid suggests that Africa should stop receiving foreign aid altogether because it causes dependency, encourages corruption and damages local initiatives. The journalists were supposed explain the content of the book and also add their own comments.

Here’s a well-written and well-argued commentary by Bestina Magutu (who seems to somewhat support the ideas of Dambisa Moyo). And here’s another well-articulated story by Masembe Tambwe, who nevertheless says that in the case of Tanzania foreign aid could not be cut as then the whole country would just stagnate.

The third option was to write about Leila Lopes, the Angolan Miss Universe from last year. Here’s a text by Sylvia Mwehozi explaining many details about the beauty queen and also some allegations and rumours that could make her loose the crown. Here’s another story by Njonjo Mfaume who concludes that beauty contests are in fact exploitation and lead to a negative portrayal of women as leisure objects.