Nafissatou Diallo: the most popular African Woman in 2011

Nafissatou Diallo

When the 32 year-old hotel maid told American authorities that she had been sexually assaulted by a 62 year-old gentleman inside Sofitel New York Hotel on 14th May 2010, she did not realise that she was bringing to an end the glittering career of a great Frenchman. The gentleman in question turned out to be Dominique Gaston Strauss-Kahn who by then was the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Guinean born Nafissatou Diallo became an instant celebrity as television and radio stations worked round the clock, providing minute by minute updates of the whole saga. This made Diallo the most popular African woman in the year just gone by.

DSK as the astute French economist, lawyer and politician is often referred to was arrested in holywood style at John F. Kennedy International Airport on a Paris bound plane just a few minutes before take off after being accused of sexual assault by Diallo. The accomplished chess player was charged with two criminal sexual acts and three misdemeanour offences. The rest as they say is history. Things turned full circle for the for DSK. He was forced to resign from the IMF and was detained without bail for almost two months in New York, USA.  His bid for the French presidency hit also hit a snag. The catalyst of all these misfortunes had been the 32 year old female asylum seeker from Guinea.

But while DSK was sailing through troubled waters on the other side of the coin, Nafissatou instantly shot to fame as her story was featured on every reputable television and radio station world wide. Overnight she became a much sought after client in media circles. Recently, a movie inspired by the DSK sex scandal has been produced by Abel Ferrara. The beautiful African American hotel made even disturbed French politics big time since the person she accused of sexually assaulting her had been gunning for the French presidency.

But Nafissatou Diallo's story was later on found to be false and lacking credibility. Although the sexual encounter appears to have taken place between the two, there is a high probability that it was with consent of the victim. Diallo then became a laughing stock despite making several attempts to rebuild her reputation through interviews to the print and electronic media. She was labelled a prostitute and gold digger in some circles. However, it was too late for the damage had already been done: DSK had already lost his job and his bid for French presidency besides denting strong his Curriculum Vitae. Ladies and Gentlemen, like her or hate her, Nafissatou Diallo is the probably the most popular African woman in the year 2011.

Welcome to the New Year!

Welcome to the new year,

Please, lend me your ear.

Welcome to the new year,

Hear me loud and clear.

Welcome to the new year,

Come closer and near.

Welcome to the new year,

Forget not your peer.

Welcome to the new year,

Feel loved and so dear.

Welcome to the new year,

be free and without fear.

Welcome to the new year,

be strong and shed no tear.

Welcome to the new year,

but make your vision clear.

Born to rule!

Franklin Roosevelt was related to eleven other presidents

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Genealogists have found that Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the former president of the United States of America was related to eleven other former presidents of his country. The Democrat Roosevelt was the 32nd President of the USA who ruled the country from 1933 to 1945. 

FDR as the "New Deal" guy was fondly called by the Americans was related to former presidents: George Washington (1st President), John Adams (2nd President), James Madison (4th President), John Quincy Adams (6th President), Martin Van Buren (8th President), William Henry Harrison (9th President), Zachary Taylor (12th President), Ulysses Simpson Grant (18th President), Benjamin Harrison (23rd President), Theodore Roosevelt (26th President) and William Howard Taft (27th President).

FDR was a fifth cousin of Theodore Roosevelt and fourth cousin of Grant and Taylor besides being a distant cousin to the other eight presidents mentioned above. Roosevelt even had some British connection for he was a seventh cousin of the popular British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill! Quite strange, isn't it?

Hard fact: Hastings Banda remains the world's oldest president in history!

Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda

Hastings Kamuzu Banda, the first president of the Republic of Malawi put his country on the map by becoming the oldest president in the world. Banda was 96 years old when he lost his presidency to a  51 year-old Bakili Muluzi in 1994. The "father and founder" of the Malawi nation died aged 99 in November 1997. The record he set has never been broken to date, 17 years after he left office.

Hastings Kamuzu Banda's date of birth remains a controversy because he was born at a time when there was no birth registration in his native Malawi. But the biographer, Philip Scot gives February 1898 as the most likely time of his birth. Officially Kamuzu Banda was said to have been born on 14th May 1906 and this date is even documented several biographical accounts. 

Hastings Banda ruled Malawi as a Prime Minister from 6th July 1964 to 6th July 1966. He then assumed the presidency of the landlocked country on 6th July 1966. He lost the presidency on 24th May 1994 in the country's  first post-colonial multiparty elections. Banda died on 25th November 1997.

Some Crazy Moments in History

Archimedes runs naked in Syracuse

A portrait of Archimedes

Archimedes (287 BC - 212 BC) was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor and austronomer. Besides being considered as one of the leading scientists in the classical antiquity, he is also considered as the greatest mathematician of antiquity and one of the greatest of all time. But Archimedes is also widely known for running naked in in jubilation in the streets of Syracuse after a very important discovery.

A story is told about how Archimedes invented a method of determining the volume of an object with an irregular shape. According to Vitruvus who narrated the story, a votive crown had been made for King Hierro II, who had supplied the pure gold to be used. The king then asked Archimedes to employ his mathematical genius to determine whether some silver had been substituted by the dishonest goldsmith.

Archimedes had to solve the problem without damaging the crown, hence he could not melt it down into a regularly shaped body in order to calculate its density. This problem gave the revered mathematician a headache for quite some time. But while taking a bath one day , he noticed that the level of the water in the bath tub rose as he got in. Archimedes realised that he could use this effect to determine the volume of the crown.

Archimedes knew that water is incompressible, so the submerged crown would displace an amount of water equal to its own volume. So by dividing the mass of the crown by the volume of the water displaced, the density of the crown could be calculated. This density would, therefore, be lower than that of the gold if cheaper and less dense metals had been added. The great mathematician had finally solved the problem.

Archimedes then took to the streets naked, crying on top of his voice "Eureka!" (meaning "I have found it!"). He was so excited by his discovery that he had even forgotten to dress. Archimedes conducted his test successfully, proving that silver had indeed been mixed in producing the crown.

Hard fact: Adolf Hitler descended from the Jews and Africans

Adolf Hitler

The Jews and Africans may not like this but the fact remains: Adolf Hitler descended from these two races if latest DNA tests are anything to go by. According to a Belgian news magazine, Knack, samples taken from relatives of the infamous Nazi leader show that he is biologically linked to the very "sub human" races he wanted to wipe out.

Journalist Jean-Paul Mulders and historian Marc Vermeeren used DNA samples to track  down thirty-nine of Adolf Hitler's relatives in 2010.  The DNA test carried out on samples of saliva taken from these people strongly indicates that Hitler did not posses the unpolluted aryan blood as he claimed. It is said that a chromosome called Haplopgroup E1b1b(Y-DNA) found in the samples of Hitler's relatives is rare in Germany and indeed western Europe.

Such chromosome, according to Mr. Vermeeren, is commonly found in the Berbers of Morrocco, Algeria, Libya and Tunisia as well as among the Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jew. This therefore makes Adolf Hitler a descendant of Africans and Jews. According to the researchers, the DNA was tested under stringent laboratory conditions to obtain the results.

This may not be the first time that Adolf Hitler has been linked to the Jewish race, which he despised the most. Historians have in the past suggested that the Fuhrer had a Jewish ancestry. It is alleged that his father, Alois, was an offspring of  a maid called Maria Schickelgruber and a nineteen year old Jewish man called Frankenberger. This made Adolf Hitler one quarter Jewish.

Upon being motivated to write a poem on Christmas

JESUS

He slept in a manger that night all alone,
Like a stranger in a world that was his own.

He slept in a manger that night all alone,
Like a stranger looked at with scorn.


NB: I was motivated to write this poem after attending a Christmas Church Service at Chitakale CCAP Church in Mulanje, Malawi.