Jamilah Conteh Speaks — Sunday, October 11, 2026. From Freetown, Sierra Leone: Ethiopia tells the UN Security Council it is acting in self-defence against Eritrea, while families in Tigray describe hunger and closed banks. Plus PLO Lumumba’s warning about a new scramble for Africa, Niger’s universities renamed for its own scholars, Burkina Faso’s Faso Mêbo roads, FOLA’s new album, Black beauty honoured in Atlanta, and girls who build on the Write About It shelf — ten minutes of SJOL News.
Today’s rundown
0:00 — News lead: a table, not a trench. According to the Associated Press, Ethiopia told the UN Security Council on Friday, 9 October, that it is taking measures in self-defence against Eritrea, accusing its neighbour of sending troops across the border and occupying parts of northern Ethiopia; the letter did not identify the occupied areas or provide evidence, and the AP could not independently verify the allegations. Per the AP, Eritrea’s reply accuses Ethiopia of seeking to forcibly acquire sovereign access to the Red Sea and asks the council to condemn what it calls a declaration of war. This follows, per Al Jazeera, Ethiopia’s expulsion of 10 Eritrean diplomats on 1 October, after which Eritrea severed all diplomatic ties. Per the AP, residents of Adigrat, Tigray’s second-largest city, describe hunger, closed banks and a lack of medical care; Teame Lemlem, displaced from the border town of Zalambesa, told the agency: “If peace prevails, it would bring us great hope.” In a statement of 1 October, the African Union Commission called on Ethiopia, Eritrea and Egypt to exercise maximum restraint and said it stands ready to support dialogue. Desk opinion: the Red Sea is wide enough for brothers — talk at the table, not in the trench.
1:30 — Platform support. In a week of war talk, a home built for peace and learning needs you. Donate, subscribe, and invite one friend across a border at Soul Journey of Life.
2:00 — Channel sparks (attributed, fair use — watch the originals).
- Africa Here and Now — a conversation with Kenyan lawyer Patrick “PLO” Lumumba (9 October). He describes a new scramble for Africa, with Chinese, Russian, Turkish, Emirati, American and European interests all present, while regional blocs sign separate bilateral deals instead of negotiating together; the episode title carries his warning that Africa will be eaten for breakfast. He also proposes proportional representation and rotating top offices to defuse ethnic politics.
- Zack Mwekassa — a video (10 October) on the stereotypes Africans aim at each other (South Africans called lazy, Zimbabweans criminals, Nigerians fraudsters). In the channel’s own description, “judging millions of people by the actions of a few can deepen prejudice and division across Africa.”
- Eugene from Kenya — a speech clip (11 October) by an American economics professor who argues that US mass imprisonment is about controlling part of the population rather than crime, and that a prison cell costs more each year than a decent job and an income.
- Sahel progress (Niger & Burkina Faso): Per the Niger Press Agency, the public universities of Agadez, Diffa and Dosso are now Jibril Oumar University (after the 18th-century Sufi scholar who mentored Usman dan Fodio), Hummay Salamna University (after the first sultan of Kanem-Bornu) and Maidanda Saidou University (after the first sultan of Dosso, who was Niger’s first pharmacist). Per Lefaso.net, Burkina Faso’s public works agency Faso Mêbo told citizens on 9 October that it has more than 3,000 employees, more than 2,300 machines and nine major active sites, and that the road serving the Tengandogo university hospital and its cancer centre is finished.
4:00 — Culture, tech & spirit. According to Afrobeats Wire, FOLA released his second album, “9,” on 9 October: 14 tracks with Davido, Ayra Starr, BNXN, Darkoo, Bella Shmurda and Zlatan; per Apple Music’s notes, the title nods to the striker’s number nine, the position he has played since childhood in Ibadan. Per The Fourth Plate, East Africa Foods, founded in Tanzania in 2013, has raised $40 million to grow the storage and logistics linking more than 28,000 smallholder farmers in Tanzania and Kenya to city retailers, and aims for 100,000 suppliers, 45% of them women. Per a Bronner Bros. release carried by The Citizen, the second annual Beauty Icon Awards were scheduled for Saturday, 10 October, at the Riverside EpiCenter in Atlanta, to honour Carol’s Daughter founder Lisa Price, Topicals founder Olamide Olowe, Design Essentials founder Cornell McBride Sr. and Spelman College’s Cosmetic Science Program, described as the first undergraduate program of its kind at an HBCU; in the words of executive producer Kelly Keith, “Black beauty has never been simply about how we look. It is innovation, entrepreneurship, artistry, identity and culture.” And per the Niger Press Agency, Zinder closed its Maouloud celebration of the Prophet’s birth on 10 October at the Laouali Balla grand mosque, after 100 days of Qur’an recitation and prayers for peace.
5:30 — Marketplace & education. Vendors, instructors, healers and makers: open your store and publish your course on Soul Journey of Life.
6:00 — Write About It + SJOL take. Fresh on the shelf for International Day of the Girl: Investing in Girls and Everyday Builders — Niamey’s first trade fair for young women entrepreneurs (112 young women from all eight of Niger’s regions, per ActuNiger), Koutiala’s women food processors, Malian schoolgirls asking for clean toilets (per Studio Tamani), and veterans in Ouagadougou trained in poultry and fish farming (per the Burkina Information Agency). Jamilah’s take (opinion): nations are not built in angry letters; they are built at market stalls, in fish ponds, and in classrooms where girls feel safe enough to stay.
8:00 — Closing opinion. To Ethiopia and Eritrea: you are kin who stopped talking, and kin can start again. Send negotiators before battalions, let the African Union and your neighbours hold the room, and keep foreign capitals out of the middle. Refuse the hate post; share the peace story. One table, many chairs. (Labeled opinion.)
Support the platform. Keep sourced, Pan-African news free — donate, subscribe, and invite a friend: souljourneyoflife.org
Sell and teach with us. Vendors, instructors, healers and makers — open your store and publish your course on Soul Journey of Life: souljourneyoflife.org
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.
Recommend0 recommendationsPublished in Perspective, Write About It
You must be logged in to post a comment.