Jamilah Conteh Speaks — Saturday, October 24, 2026. From Freetown, Sierra Leone: Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama joins Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to open Ethiopia’s Megech irrigation dam and vows to revive Ghana’s stalled Pwalugu project; Feed Salone turns three with nearly three of every four cups of rice grown at home; AES justice ministers meet General Tiani in Niamey; the Obamas back a film about Nkrumah’s cameraman; Orchestra Baobab releases Made in Senegal; and two Write About It posts on passing on the word and keeping a calm head — ten minutes of SJOL News.
Today’s rundown
0:00 — News lead: water for Gondar, a promise for Ghana. Per the Ethiopian News Agency, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama inaugurated the Megech irrigation dam near Gondar on Friday 23 October; the dam has a storage capacity of 185 million cubic metres, is expected to irrigate more than 17,000 hectares, and will supply drinking water to Gondar. Per MyJoyOnline, the project began 18 years ago, stalled, and was revived by Prime Minister Abiy three years ago (the Ethiopian News Agency quotes Mahama putting the start at 19 years ago). Per the Ethiopian News Agency, Mahama said the dam inspires Ghana to revive its abandoned Pwalugu irrigation project, called Abiy and leaders like him “the kind of transformational leaders we need in Africa,” and said: “Our early leaders fought against colonial domination … It behooves on us, the leaders of today, to bring economic transformation and prosperity to our people.” Per MyJoyOnline, Mahama is also set to chair the 12th Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa in Bahir Dar. Home desk: Per the Satellite Newspaper and Sierraloaded, President Julius Maada Bio launched the Feed Salone third-year report on Friday 23 October, reporting that severe household food insecurity fell from 28% in September 2023 to 13% in July 2025 and that the initiative supported more than 22,000 direct and indirect jobs in its third year; in his words, “Today, nearly three of every four cups of rice on our tables come from our own soil.” Agriculture Minister Dr Henry Musa Kpaka said year four will focus on completing irrigation and rice-processing facilities at Tormabum and Gbondapi. AES progress: Per the Niger Press Agency (ANP) and Aconews, General Abdourahamane Tiani received Burkina Faso’s Justice Minister Edasso Rodrigue Bayala and Mali’s justice ministry representative in Niamey on Thursday 22 October; Bayala said they received instructions “to finalise these projects very quickly, so that within the Confederation of Sahel States we have the tools needed to support the quest for sovereignty and the restoration of the dignity of the peoples” (translated from French).
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2:00 — Channel sparks (attributed, fair use — watch the originals).
- Make Afrika Great — “Professor James Small SHOCKS Black Americans: Invest in AFRICA Before It’s Too Late” (title as published; “shocks” is the channel’s framing, and we could not confirm when or where the talk was recorded). Per his official biography, Professor James Small taught for more than fifteen years in the Department of Africana Studies at the City College of New York and leads business ventures in Ghana. Per the Ghana News Agency, the Diaspora Africa Forum (DAF) Embassy in Accra has launched a mobile app to connect Africans in the diaspora with opportunities in citizenship, tourism, business and networking; founder Dr Erieka Bennett described the diaspora as the sixth region of Africa.
- The Latest — “AFTER LIBYA, OBAMA ATTACHES HIMSELF TO NKRUMAH’S HISTORY” (title as published; the headline is the channel’s opinion). Per Chale News, citing the Dikan Center, The Eyes of Ghana, executive-produced by Barack and Michelle Obama, tells the story of Chris Hesse, Kwame Nkrumah’s personal cameraman, now 93, who had secretly preserved more than 1,300 reels when officials ordered his films destroyed after the 1966 coup; a free screening is set for the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park in Accra on Saturday 31 October at 6:30 pm (entry by registration; the Dikan Center now says online registration is full). The official film site lists one-night cinema showings in the US and Canada on 28 October.
- Eugene Docustories — “Trump left DESPERATE By Blacks as He BEGS Deported Immigrants to return Back to America’s Farm.” (title as published; we found no record of the President asking deported immigrants to return, so that claim is unconfirmed). On the record, per Ag Alert, the California Farm Bureau’s newspaper (21 October), an immigration enforcement surge in the Central Valley kept some farmworkers at home; fig grower Kevin Herman said about half of the roughly 100 workers hired for his harvest missed work for more than a week, and ICE arrests hit record highs in July, according to federal data analysed by the Deportation Data Project.
4:00 — Culture, tech & spirit. Per Strut Records and its Bandcamp page, Orchestra Baobab released Made in Senegal on 23 October 2026 with Madoky Music, their first new studio album since Tribute To Ndiouga Dieng in 2017, recorded entirely in Dakar; the band formed more than 50 years ago as the resident band of the Baobab Club, and Korka Dieng is the band’s first female lead singer. In bandleader Thierno Koité’s words: “We are like the tree we are named after. No matter what happens, the baobab stands firm.” Per Sierraloaded, Statistics Sierra Leone invited political representatives, development partners and the media to inspect the 29,000 tablets bought for the fully digital census, letting them select boxes at random for transparency. Per Broadcast Media Africa, diaspora participants from Suriname, the UK, the US and Nigeria joined local communities at the Nkyinkyim Museum in Nuhalenya-Ada, Ghana, to honour ancestors who suffered in the transatlantic slave trade; participant Norma-Jean Richardson said: “We need to keep the culture alive.” Spirit note (opinion): a band, a census and a libation all say we are still here.
5:30 — Marketplace & learning. Vendors and instructors who serve our people with dignity: sell your rice, cloth, music and art, and teach farming, recording, history or language. Build it, sell it, keep the value at home. Visit The Shoppes on Soul Journey of Life.
6:00 — Write About It + SJOL take. Fresh this morning: Passing On the Word (per UNESCO as cited, Mali’s national library service is preparing two items for the Memory of the World register; per Sahifa Media as cited, Hamza Mohamed Madobe of Nairobi won the whole-Qur’an category at Kenya’s National Qur’an Competition; per Daily Trust as cited, a Bauchi mosque committee removed an imam for campaigning from the pulpit, saying “the mosque belongs to the community”; per The Voice as cited, the Malik El Shabazz Award at London’s Black Muslim Awards went to Romain Muhammad; and Princeton University’s Muslim Life Program will reflect on Sister Clara Muhammad’s schools on 28 October). Also fresh: Keep Your Head, Use Your Heart (a Swahili folktale of the monkey and the shark, paired with Dr Marian Croak, who per the post helped develop voice over internet protocol, holds more than 200 patents, and patented the text-to-donate system that helped raise $43 million after the 2010 Haiti earthquake; in her words to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, “Inventors are usually people like you”). Jamilah’s take (opinion): knowledge lives only if someone carries it.
8:00 — Closing opinion. From Freetown: the hardest work in Africa is not starting, it is finishing. Megech stood stalled for years before Ethiopia finished it, and Ghana now wants to restart Pwalugu — good, but a ribbon is not a harvest; judge both dams by the farmers who eat from them in five years. At home, finish Tormabum and Gbondapi; three cups of rice in four is a beginning, not a finish line. Europe: per Hot Digital Online, President Mahama told the Financial Times Africa Summit in London on 21 October that Germany, France and others have approached Ghana to discuss reparations, including the return of cultural artefacts — talks are not a settlement. Black America: your elders built the bridge and Chris Hesse saved the film; walk through the open door with your capital and your children. Confederation of Sahel States: build institutions on law and dignity, and let the people see results. Young people: learn the old song, then write the next verse. Finish what we started. (Opinion.)
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Jamilah Conteh Speaks is SJOL News’ daily noon brief from Freetown, Sierra Leone. Every quote and factual claim is attributed on air; opinion segments are labeled. Full source list available on request.
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