Kassim Busuri was appointed by the Saint Paul City Council and Mayor Melvin Carter to represent that city's Sixth Ward after 22 year incumbent Dan Bostrom retired unexpectedly in December 2018. Busuri will serve through December 31, 2019. Photo: Kassim Busuri Facebook
Kassim Busuri was appointed by the Saint Paul City Council and Mayor Melvin Carter to represent that city's Sixth Ward after 22 year incumbent Dan Bostrom retired unexpectedly in December 2018. Busuri will serve through December 31, 2019. Photo: Kassim Busuri FacebookKassim Busuri was appointed by the Saint Paul City Council and Mayor Melvin Carter to represent that city’s Sixth Ward after 22 year incumbent Dan Bostrom retired unexpectedly in December 2018. Busuri will serve through December 31, 2019. Photo: Kassim Busuri Facebook
Minnesota’s capital city of Saint Paul now has an African-born person on its city council. That city’s council and mayor appointed Somali-American Kassim Busuri last week to take up a seat that opened up in December after the retirement of Dan Bostrom who had served for 22 years. Busuri will serve the remainder of Bostrom’s term which ends on December 31, 2019. He is the director of the Minnesota Dawah Institute and previously served as coordinator of the Community Ambassadors of the City of St. Paul Downtown. Additionally, he has served on the St. Paul chief of police advisory council.
Councilman Busuri is already in office as of the writing of this report but the official inauguration ceremony will take place on February 6 at City Hall on the 3rd floor. He is the first Somali-American to sit on the Saint Paul City Council.
Busuri will represent the Sixth Ward which is in Saint Paul’s East Side and includes the following neighborhoods; Frost Lake, Hayden Heights, Hazel Park, Payne/Phalen, Phalen Village and Prosperity.
A total of six finalists interviewed publicly for the position and eventually the council and mayor selected Busuri. Another Africa-born finalist was Eritrean-American Wintana Melekin, a former Minneapolis NAACP officer and African Awards winner.
Busuri has not indicated whether he will run for a full term when election time comes later this year but three people as of the writing of this report had already announced they will run for the seat when Bostrom announced his retirement and before Busuri was appointed.
Kassim Busuri Inauguration Ceremony
When: Wednesday, February 6, 2019 @ 9:00am
Where: Saint Paul City Hall, 3rd Floor
Address: 15 W Kellogg Blvd, St Paul, MN 55102
Oliver “Tuku” Mtukudzi (with guitar) of Zimbabwe, one of Africa’s greatest musicians, died of diabetes on Wednesday, January 23, 2019. Photo: Courtesy AfroPop Oliver “Tuku” Mtukudzi (with guitar) of Zimbabwe, one of Africa’s greatest musicians, died of diabetes on Wednesday, January 23, 2019.
The African music community was shocked yesterday to learn of the untimely death of one of the continent’s greatest musicians, Oliver “Tuku” Mtukudzi of Zimbabwe. In his 66 years, he produced as many albums, full of songs that deeply endeared him to all Zimbabweans and many others all over the world. He was also a businessman, cultural activist, human rights champion and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for Southern Africa.
Born in 1952, Tuku grew up in the crowded Highfield township of Harare during the final decades of Rhodesian rule. He was a contemporary of Thomas Mapfumo, and both came of age during the brutal independence struggle of the 1970s, as Zimbabweans fought hard for liberation from the oppressive, racist Rhodesian regime. The two singers briefly worked together in a band called Wagon Wheels, and spent the next four decades as champions of roots music, particularly drawing on the musical traditions of the Shona people. Mtukudzi’s distinctive blend of traditional rhythms—mbira, jerusarema, muchongoya and many others—with elements of South African mbaqanga, American gospel, soul and more, became universally recognized as “tuku music.” His lyrics were full of sage advice on good living—honesty, compassion for others, avoiding the scourges of alcohol and drug abuse and the maladies that accompany them. But he delivered these messages in a gentle, fatherly way. He exemplified the very qualities he celebrated.
Tuku was a soulful singer with a robust voice, ranging from silken to gravelly, but always bursting with passion and moral authority. Songs like “Neria,” a man’s comforting advice to a sister, and “Todi,” a lament about AIDS, will live on forever. His 1995 gospel romp “Hear Me Lord” was covered by Bonnie Raitt, who became a good friend of Tuku’s during the 1990s.
As political and economic conditions worsened in Zimbabwe, and many musicians, including Mapfumo, left the country, Tuku stayed with his people, deftly avoiding political controversies while offering profound support and comfort to those who suffered under the increasingly oppressive Mugabe regime. His lyrics were poetic, full of Shona folk wisdom, and often open to varying interpretations. Tuku used to say that once the song was written, it was up to the listener to interpret it. In interviews, he was always wary of offering his own interpretations of lyrics, beyond their literal meaning. In this way, he maintained stature and credibility with his vast audience without ever directly supporting the regime. It was a delicate balance he struck, but he continued it with mastery until the day he died.
Tuku’s band evolved over the years, always maintaining a fundamental integrity. In his late career, his sons performed with him. One son, Sam, was on his way to a promising solo career when he died in a car accident in 2010.
Afropop Worldwide first met Tuku in Harare in 1988 and he was our friend from that day forward, always warm, courteous and generous with his time, music and wisdom. He was inducted into the Afropop Hall of Fame in 2014, during a period when he was tirelessly touring the world. He awakened countless Americans to the beauty of Zimbabwean music and became a favorite in concert halls and festivals. We last saw Tuku in April 2018, when he participated in Thomas Mapfumo’s “return” concert in Harare after 14 years away. The two singers had their loyal followings, and were sometimes pitted as rivals, but as both explained at that historic concert, they have always been friends and have deep respect for each others’ art. At the concert, Tuku performed with vigor, even joining Mapfumo onstage to dance at one point, to the ecstatic joy of the 20,000-strong crowd. It is difficult to believe that a man so full of life so recently has now left us.
Tuku battled diabetes for many years, and finally succumbed to the disease on Jan. 23 of this year. Afropop Worldwide will produce an hour-long tribute program to this giant of African music later in 2019.
Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota's Fifth Congressional District, the first black person born in Africa to serve in the US Congress, has been appointed by Speaker Pelosi to the powerful Foreign Affairs Committee. Photo: Kristie Boyd/U.S. House Office of Photography
Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota's Fifth Congressional District, the first black person born in Africa to serve in the US Congress, has been appointed by Speaker Pelosi to the powerful Foreign Affairs Committee. Photo: Kristie Boyd/U.S. House Office of Photography
Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District, the first black person born in Africa to serve in the US Congress, has been appointed by Speaker Pelosi to the powerful Foreign Affairs Committee. Photo: Kristie Boyd/U.S. House Office of Photography
Speaker Nancy Pelosi in announcing committee assignments for the 116th Congress has appointed Representative Ilhan Omar to the powerful foreign affairs committee which oversees all foreign assistance, national security affecting the country’s foreign policy, treaties, peacekeeping and war powers.
Omar, one of two first Muslim women to serve in Congress and
the first black person born in Africa in Congress, will also sit in the
Education & Labor Committee. The latter oversees education programs from
pre-school to higher education—including Head Start, child nutrition programs,
higher education programs, and financial oversight of the U.S. Department of
Education. It also oversees labor initiatives—from job training to retirement
security, union rights, occupational health and safety, and the minimum wage.
On her appointment to the foreign affairs committee, Omar
said: “As someone who has seen firsthand the havoc wreaked by war, I am proud
to serve on the committee that is responsible for overseeing our country’s—and
this President’s—actions abroad,” Rep. Omar said. “This couldn’t come at a more
critical time. We need to use the committee’s human rights jurisdiction to hold
the President accountable for deaths in detention centers on his watch. We need
to investigate how foreign governments and their lobbyists have violated our
laws. And we need to reign in arms sales to human rights abusers like Saudi
Arabia. I look forward to working with
Chairman Engel and the committee to pursue these priorities.”
The first term congresswoman is on record as saying she will
focus on the burdensome student loans that Americans have. She said her appointment
to the education and labor committees should help towards that goal as its
activities play a big role in the everyday lives of Minnesotans.
“The Education
and Labor Committee is the committee that can transform these ideas into
legislation. I look forward to working with Chairman Scott and my fellow
committee members to accomplish these goals and hold the current administration
accountable for its efforts to stack the deck further in favor of the wealthy
few.”
Angelique Kidjo spoke to Mshale in advance of her February 19 concert at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis. Photo: Courtesy
Angelique Kidjo spoke to Mshale in advance of her February 19 concert at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis. Photo: Courtesy
Like a stone skimming across the surface of the waters, songstress of Benin and Africa, Angelique Kidjo, will skate across the City of Lakes as she tours the States from Los Angeles to Chicago and then Boston. Minnesota in the middle of winter still offers Kidjo what she seeks.
Speaking to Mshale by phone in early
January, three-time Grammy winner, Kidjo, described her first encounter with
Minnesota this way. “Sometimes you need air, you need space, Minnesota has all
this flat land, this space. [Contrast that to] New York, they have all the
buildings, there’s no room. I have a feeling of breathing that lifts me up in
Minnesota.”
Her performance includes many
languages from Africa and Europe. “When I’m on stage, you might not speak my
language, but you can hear the emotion. Sometimes we can’t understand every
single [word] but we are all on the sound wave, the vibration of the human
family,” she says to reassure her fans who might only be fluent in one
tongue.
Performing for more than twenty-five
years, Kidjo continues to embrace the value of music. “I cannot foresee the
world without music,” she says. “Without music, we lose everything.”
Kidjo performs with her band February 19th on stage at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis. Her current tour focuses on people in exile. Additionally, this tour, Remain in Light, naturally influenced by the polyphonic music of her continent, pays homage to the roots of modern Rock.
Brooklyn Park mayor, Jeff Lunde, right, administers the oath of office on Wynfred Russell to serve on the Brooklyn Park City Council on Monday, January 7, 2019 at the council's chambers. Russell who was born and raised in Liberia becomes the first black person to ever serve on the council. Photo: Bethel Gessesse/Mshale
Brooklyn Park mayor, Jeff Lunde, right, administers the oath of office on Wynfred Russell to serve on the Brooklyn Park City Council on Monday, January 7, 2019 at the council's chambers. Russell who was born and raised in Liberia becomes the first black person to ever serve on the council. Photo: Bethel Gessesse/Mshale
Dozens of Brooklyn Park residents last evening crammed into city council chambers to witness history being made in Minnesota’s sixth largest city, the swearing in of the city’s first black council member, Wynfred Russell, who was born and raised in Liberia.
Russell, a former instructor at the University of Minnesota, defeated former council member Bob Mata by garnering a convincing 55% of the vote in November’s midterm elections to make him the second person of color elected to the council after that of his now fellow council member, Susan Pha, two years ago. In 2012, Russell, who at the time served on the city’s planning commission, ran for a seat on the same council and lost by just five votes. This time, it was a joyous occasion as friends and family cheered and recorded the historic event.
Minnesota is home to the largest population of Liberians in the United States with Brooklyn Park home to most of them. Many of them were present last night to witness the brief yet monumental event as one of their own placed his hand on his late father’s bible to take the oath of office. The bible had been sent over from Liberia a few days ago in time for the swearing in.
In an interview with Mshale shortly after being elected in November, he said he looks forward to working with others to improve the economic well being of the city’s residents.
“I also intend to focus on the small businesses of which many are run by people of color and do not get the same tax breaks or incentives other big companies get from our city,” he said. “But if we can get some grants to support them, the small business is the backbone of the economy and it will benefit our city if they thrive.”
As a parent, you do everything you can to keep your child healthy. Keeping your child healthy starts before they are born by doing things to have a healthy pregnancy. You take vitamins, avoid things that can harm your unborn baby, and make sure you get exercise and plenty of rest. Getting the whooping cough vaccine (called Tdap) is also an important part of having a healthy pregnancy.
Pregnant women should get the whooping cough vaccine during
every pregnancy. When you get vaccinated, your body creates protection against
the disease. If you get vaccinated while pregnant, you can pass protection to
your baby. Newborn babies need this protection from their mothers because they
are not old enough to get their own vaccines yet. The vaccine is safe to get
during pregnancy. Women should get it as soon as their doctor recommends it to
make sure enough protection is passed to the baby before they are born.
Whooping cough (also called pertussis) is a lung disease
that causes violent coughing attacks that repeat for weeks or months. This
disease is common and spreads easily by coughing and sneezing. Whooping cough
can make babies very sick and can even be deadly. When young babies get
whooping cough they may stop breathing or cough so hard that they turn blue or
vomit. Babies can be in the hospital for a long time if they are struggling to
breathe because of the symptoms caused by whooping cough.
Whooping cough vaccination during pregnancy is the best way
to protect newborns from getting this dangerous disease. The protection a
newborn gets from their mother’s whooping cough vaccine does not last for a
long time. This is why it is important for babies to get their own vaccines so
their bodies can make their own protection. Whooping cough vaccines (called
DTaP) are recommended for babies beginning at 2 months once their mother’s
protection goes away.
If you are pregnant, ask your doctor about the vaccines you
need to keep you and your baby healthy. The whooping cough vaccine along with
other recommended vaccines should be covered by health insurance and included
in your prenatal care. Call the number on the back of your insurance card to
ask about vaccine cost. Uninsured adults and adults whose insurance does not
cover vaccines may receive them at low cost at a clinic enrolled in the
Uninsured and Underinsured Adult Vaccine program. Go to Vaccination Clinics
Serving Uninsured and Underinsured Adults: www.health.state.mn.us/uuavsearch.
US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar addressing supporters at a community celebration in McLean, Virginia hours after being sworn in to represent Minnesota's Fifth Congressional District. Photo: Tom Gitaa/Mshale
US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar addressing supporters at a community celebration in McLean, Virginia hours after being sworn in to represent Minnesota's Fifth Congressional District. Photo: Tom Gitaa/Mshale
Ilhan Omar who won Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District in the November midterms was sworn in yesterday to become the first black person born in the African continent to serve in the United States Congress.
Afterwards at a community celebration that featured K’naan, she gave the following powerful speech below. Her speech begins at 17:00.
A scene from The Boy Who Harvested the Wind that was shot in Malawi that has just been bought by Netflix as it puts its multi-billion dollar production to work in Africa. Photo: Courtesy
A scene from The Boy Who Harvested the Wind that was shot in Malawi that has just been bought by Netflix as it puts its multi-billion dollar production to work in Africa. Photo: Courtesy
Erik Barmack, Netflix’s vice president of international originals has announced that in 2019 the streaming giant will order original series from Africa to add to its international originals list that includes titles from Europe, Asia and Latin America.
More and more Netflix subscribers are watching non-English-language fare every month, he said.
“The big message we want to communicate to talent is you don’t have to leave home to get big audiences, and you don’t have to choose Hollywood versus your own country,” Barmack told a roomful of content makers and sellers in London. “You can do both, and that, we believe, will be able to carry their audiences to their shows regardless of the language they are speaking or where the production comes from.”
Barmack was speaking at December’s Content London conference where he said his team is in the process of “looking at opportunities in Africa. It’s definitely the case that we’ll commission some series there in…2019.”
Netflix has already bought the global rights to Chiwetel Ejiofor’s film The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind, based on a book of the same name by Malawian innovator William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer. The film was shot in Malawi and is set to premiere in 2019.
Signs of Netflix’s ambitions in Africa were emerged in September when they purchased the Lionheart movie by Nigerian director Genevieve Nnaji.
Mohamud Noor of Minnesota House District 60B (left) will be the vice-chair of the jobs and economic development finance committee while Hodan Hassan of District 62A will wield power as the Assistant Majority Leader in the 91st Minnesota legislature.
Mohamud Noor of Minnesota House District 60B (left) will be the vice-chair of the jobs and economic development finance committee while Hodan Hassan of District 62A will wield power as the Assistant Majority Leader in the 91st Minnesota legislature.
Minnesota legislators are getting ready for the 2019 legislative session referred to as the 2019-20 biennium. In the Minnesota House, the Democrats took control while the Senate, which was not on the ballot in November, remained in Republican hands by a one seat majority.
The convincing Democratic takeover of the Minnesota House
also saw a net gain for Somali-Americans as they doubled their number of legislators.
Outgoing Representative Ilhan Omar of 60B was the lone Somali-American in the
outgoing legislature. That number has now doubled as Mohamud Noor, who won
Omar’s seat, will be joined by another Somali-American, Hodan Hassan, who won
District 62A.
Speaker-elect Melissa Hortman released the committee assignments
for the new biennium last friday. She appointed Representative-elect Hassan to
five committees. They include Jobs and Economic Development Finance, Housing
Finance and Policy, Judiciary Finance and Civil Law, Commerce, Rules and
Legislative Administration
In a nod to the power and influence of Somali-Americans, the
speaker-designate appointed Mohamud Noor as the vice-chair of the Jobs and
Economic Development Finance committee. Noor will also serve in three other committees
which are Judiciary Finance and Civil Law, Health and Human Services Finance
and the powerful Way and Means committee.
Hassan will also have the added responsibility of being the Assistant
Majority Leader in the Minnesota House, a position that effectively puts her in
the leadership pipeline and possibly a sign of bigger things to come. Outgoing Ilhan
Omar was Assistant Minority Leader in the current legislature when her party
was not in control. Hassan however is assuming the position with her party in
effective control.
The Ninety-first Minnesota Legislature will convene on
January 8.
The Immigration Court backlog continues to rise. As of November 30, 2018, the number of pending cases on the court’s active docket topped eight-hundred thousand (809,041) cases. This is almost a fifty percent (49.1%) increase compared to the 542,411 cases pending at the end of January 2017 when President Trump took office. This figure does not include the additional 330,211 previously completed cases that former Attorney General Jeff Sessions placed back on the “pending” rolls that have not yet been put onto the active docket.
All states are witnessing an increase in Immigration Court backlogs. However, ten states account for the vast majority of the backlog. Four out of five pending cases in the country are before immigration judges in these ten states. The state of Maryland continues to lead the pack with the highest rate of increase in pending cases since the beginning of FY 2017. Pending caseloads in Maryland have increased by 107 percent, over double its caseload at the beginning of FY 2017. Of the top ten states, courts based in Illinois experienced the least amount of growth at 29 percent. Texas barely missed being in the bottom growth rate spot with a 30 percent increase.
In absolute terms, California has the largest Immigration Court backlog – 146,826 cases waiting decision, a number that has increased by 54 percent from its FY 2017 pending caseload level. These results are based upon proceeding-by-proceeding internal Immigration Court records obtained and analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University
Backlog increases in the first two months of FY 2019
Just in the last two months, the Immigration Court active backlog has grown by over 40 thousand cases, from 768,257 at the end of September to 809,041 at the end of November. Particularly high growth rates of 10 percent or higher were experienced at nine Immigration Courts.
The two courts with the highest rate of growth in their backlog were two courts at ICE detention facilities. The Eloy Immigration Court in Arizona saw its backlog increase by 144 percent, while the Conroe Immigration Court (Houston SPC) in Texas had an increase of 62 percent. These increases occurred even though the court assigns the highest priority to hearing detained cases.
Congresswoman-elect Ilhan Omar on Thursday announced her five-person leadership team for her Washington office and Minnesota District office. Last month’s midterms saw Omar become the first black person born in Africa to be elected to the US Congress.
Omar’s picks included that of chief of staff, local district
office director, local deputy district director, legislative director and a
communications director that will double up as a strategist.
Minnesota native Connor McNutt will serve as Omar’s chief of
staff. McNutt was her legislative assistant at the Minnesota House of
Representatives and has experience working for the congresswoman-elect. A
notable difference for both of them in their new roles will be the fact that,
while at the Minnesota House, Omar’s party was in the minority during her term.
At the US House, the Democrats took over the reins in convincing fashion last
month.
Omar’s congressional campaign treasurer, K. Davis Senseman,
will be her local district office director. Senseman was in the past the
supervisor of the Business Law Clinic at Mitchell Hamline School. He will be
assisted by Ali Isse who will serve as deputy district director. Isse has
served critical roles in Omar’s two successful campaigns as the field organizer
for her Minnesota House race and was the outreach director for the historic
congressional campaign.
Kelly Misselwitz, currently the vice president of government
at US Telecom was announced as the legislative director. Misselwitz will now
have another go at serving a history-making legislator. She previously worked
for U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New
Hampshire as a legislative assistant. Shaheen, the current senior US Senator
for New Hampshire was that state’s first female US senator and prior to that, the
state’s first female governor.
The Center for American Progress’s Jeremy Slevin will serve
as both communications director and strategist for Omar. Slevin’s current job
at the Center for American progress is that of Director of Antipoverty
Advocacy. He has experience with the Fifth District as he was Keith Ellison’s
communications director. Omar is succeeding Ellison who is now Minnesota’s
Attorney General-elect.
“I am excited about the talented team we’ve put together,”
said Omar “I believe in co-governance and we are all committed to working
closely with our constituents in the Fifth District to advance the progressive
agenda on which I was elected.”
Omar will be sworn in with the rest of the 116th Congress on
January 3.
