Larry Bello reports on the final of the football competition that brought together teams of players of migrant origin living in Germany which took place recently in Frankfurt ‘Egyptian Hamburg’, ‘Balkan Boys’, ‘Sylli National Guinea’ and 9 other teams made of players with various migrant backgrounds  gathered in Frankfurt on a sunny summer afternoon,  coinciding with the round of 16 …

The inaugural version of the Nigerian Ambassador’s Cup Germany football tournament took place on 14 May in Berlin. The trophy was contested for by the chapters of the Nigerian Community Germany (NCG) e.V. Four teams – NCG Hamburg, NCG Wolfsburg, NCG Ausburg and NCG Berlin/Cottbus – participated in the final stages. The competition was organised by the national body of …

As part of the massive expansion of its operations in Germany, the global CEO of the worldwide operating money transfer provider MoneyGram, Alex Holmes, was in Frankfurt recently to open the company’s new head office in Germany. The occasion provided opportunity to talk about money transfer in a time of refugee crisis and the social responsibility of operators in the …

Ghana’s former President Jerry John Rawlings has called for a global campaign for the return of Nigeria’s stolen funds kept in developed countries. According to him, the international community should spearhead the initiative in a manner similar to that for the release of the kidnapped Chibok girls. Rawlings, who spoke to the Nigerian newspaper The Guardian in Accra recently on …

The UK Authorities charged with enforcing the EU timber regulations (EUTR), have taken action against 14 UK importers sourcing timber from Cameroon linked to illegal logging.[1] Green Peace Press Release This news was presented at a Chatham House meeting in London on June 16, following comparable action by the Netherlands in early March, demonstrating that timber from Cameroon is coming …

A new youth exchange scheme known as the German African Youth Initiative (Deutsch-Afrikanische Jugendinitiative – DAJ) was launched in Bonn on 1 July by German Development Minister Gerd Müller and the Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology at the African Union (AU) Martial De-Paul Ikounga. Dirke Köpp, head of DW’s French for Africa service, spoke to the minister about …

Stakeholders take stock of Equal Opportunity in Germany, ten years after the anti-discrimination law went into effect The General Act on Equal Treatment (Allgemeine Gleichbehandlungsgesetz or AGG), enacted for the purpose of preventing or stopping discrimination on the grounds of race or ethnic origin, gender, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation in Germany, went into force in August …

Nigeria’s Wole Soyinka received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. He was the first African writer to be honoured with the prestigious prize. Alexander Macbeth on how Soyinka’s Nobel has influenced the development of African literature 30 years on. From Negritude to Afrofuturism (via Tigritude and Afrocentricity), the empire continues to write back. Africa is constantly reshaping her own …

Remittance business undergoes silent revolution Before Western Union started offering money transfer services to Africa in 1995, the first company to do so, it used to take weeks if not months to find somebody travelling home to take the envelope along. And the brave ones among us who hid money in mails were often unlucky after post office workers in …

Because of unfavourable demographic developments, Germany is in dire need of foreign skilled workers. To persuade them to choose Germany over other countries, the Federal Republic is even reviewing its almost institutionalised reservations vis-à-vis migrants and foreigners. Migrants already living in Germany can get their professional certificates and degrees earned abroad recognised thanks to a special law, and the government …