Female genital mutilation continues to threaten mothers in Benin
“…cultural norms that in part prohibit women from seeing male doctors and many prefer herbalists and practitioners of traditional medicine.
Sources:
Searchlight Centre for Democracy and Development, June 2010, pg 6:http://newsletters.clearsignals.org/CDD_June2010.pdf#page=6
Http://www.who.int/countryfocus/cooperation_strategy/ccsbrief_ben_en.pdf
Election Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa
The global north has in the last decade clung to elections, free and fair elections, as the number one marker of democratic progress. Problems however arise when categorizing an election as fair, and what happens when the fairly elected leader leads by patronage (that is placing the interests of his or her tribe or clan above everyone else's)?
Sources:
Center for Democracy and Development, Nov. 2010 pgs. 4-5:http://newsletters.clearsignals.org/CDD_Nov2010.pdf#page=4
Congo:
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/Africa-Monitor/2011/0214/Congo-may-be-poorer-than-Egypt-but-that-s-not-enough-to-turn-Kinshasa-into-Cairo
Gabon:
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/Africa-Monitor/2011/0212/Now-that-Egypt-s-Mubarak-is-out-could-Gabon-s-Bongo-be-next
"Ripeness":
Ripe for Resolution: Conflict and Intervention in Africa by William Zartman