There are lots of interesting things going on as part of the International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC.  The Cradle Project is an art installation that calls attention to the nearly 12 million children orphaned and made vulnerable by AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. While most of the cradles are now in private collections, twenty-one cradles are on display  at the Washington Studio School.  Take time to visit it.   These cradles are powerful images that evoke feelings of sadness at the loss of so many young lives to HIV/AIDS and of hope for those who will escape infection and live healthy lives.

Asha-Rose Migiro has been appointed as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa.  This dynamic women from Tanzania is a lawyer and has served as Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations.  Check out one of her presentations at the UN.

According to UNAIDS,  In sub-Saharan Africa, the number of people newly infected with HIV fell from 2.2 million [1.9 million–2.4 million] people in 2001 to 1.8 million [1.6 million–2.0 million] in 2009. And, in 22 countries of sub-Saharan Africa, the HIV incidence rate declined by more than 25% between 2001 and 2009.  But despite this good news,  women remain the hardest hit and in nearly all countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of people living with HIV are women, especially girls and women aged 15-24. In South Africa, HIV prevalence among women aged 20-24 is approximately 21%, compared to about 7% among men in the same age range. (source: UNAIDS Global Report)

The International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC next week will bring together many of the world’s leaders and activists with the theme “Turning the Tide Together.”  There is a lot going on at this historic and important event. i

If you can’t be there, you can check out the webcast.  For those working in philanthropy, Funders Concerned About AIDS has published  a “Funders Guide to AIDS 2012.”   Check it out.

These two article regarding India’s engagement with Africa caught my eye.  As we live in a more global world and the diaspora community expands, will more engagement by India into Africa mean more engagement of Indian philanthropy?

India targets $ 40 bn trade with West Africa by 2015
Economic Times -
ACCRA (GHANA): India looks to double the trade with West African nations to $ 40 billion by 2015, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said today. Sharma, who is leading a 200-member Ficci delegation here for ‘India Show’, said the West African …

The race to build in Africa
Business Standard ‎
Indian aid to Africa is mostly focused on capacity building and knowledge sharing. Total aid to Africa during 2011-2012 was Rs 150 crore ($27.5 million), quite a contrast to just Rs 10 crore in 1997-98. Trade between India and Africa has increased from …

Africa literature is so rich and diverse.  It was the Ambiguous Adventure written by the Senegalese author Cheikh Hamidou Kane, (I read the translation by Katherine Woods) that first captured my attention.  Soyinka, Okri, Ba, and Okorafor are some of my favorites.

Each year the Caine Prize for African Writing recognizes a writer.  This year Rotimi Babatunde won for his short story Bombay’s Republic, the story of a Nigeria soldier working in the Burma war of WWII.   You can download the story and read it.   I highly recommend it — and some of the previous winners as well.

If the music of Africa is part of your passion and you are looking for one place where you can explore and learn, then you have to bookmark the website of Afropop WorldWide. They have a new website with a great design.  Founder Sean Barlow, somehow magically makes all of this happen from his modest offices in Brooklyn, New York.

I can lose myself on the website very easily, checking out familiar artists as well as new ones.  The HIPDEEP project is a series of programs placing music in the broader context of culture as both reflecting culture and serving as its repository. And if you are lucky enough to live in New York, be sure to check out the opportunities to listen to African music live.

And for those in the Academy, the project includes interviews with scholars.  One of my favorites is “A Tango with Robert Farris Thompson,” the noted African scholar from Yale.  My copy of Thompson’ s 1964 book, Flash of the Spirit,  is falling apart from years of reading, highlighting, and notes in the margin.

AfoPop WorldWide can be heard weekly on National Public Radio.