By Charlotte Young

In two separate but equally terrifying incidents, tragedy stuck East Africa’s Tanzania and Kenya this past weekend.

First in Tanzania, IPPmedia.com reports that a marine accident in Zanzibar killed 240 people on Saturday, with the death toll continuing to rise as bodies are pulled out of the ocean. An MV Spice Islander boat capsized in the Nungwi area of Zanzibar after loading its passengers. The passenger’s manifest states that 610 passengers boarded the boat at Zanzibar port and 166 boarded at Dar es Salaam. The boat has the capacity to carry about 600 passengers.

The Director of Zanzibar Port Authority, Mustafa Aboud Jumbe has accepted no blame for the incident, claiming that the authority is not responsible for supervising marine transport services of passengers or cargo.

“This is the duty of the Surface and Marine Transport Regulatory Authority (SUMATRA), which was established by the law to oversee marine and surface transport sectors,” Jumbe told Tanzanian newspaper Nipashe.

Mussa Ali Mussa, the Zanzibar Police Commissioners announced the death toll on Sunday. Many of the unidentified dead have been buried in the Kama area–west district. Recovered bodies are being buried immediately, although records will be kept for relatives seeking their loved ones.

To assist with the rescue mission, the National Social Security Fund (NSSSF) has donated funds to assist the government and burial activities. The government will hold a special prayer on Monday at the Maisara grounds in honor of the people who died in the tragic incident.

In neighboring Kenya, a leaking gasoline pipeline in Nairobi exploded on Monday killing at least 61 people and leaving over 100 injured. According to the Associated Press the flames spread about 300 yards from the pipeline incinerating everything in its path, “leaving charred bodies and blacked bones in the charred homes.”

Policeman Wilfred Mbithi, who is in charge of operations in Nairobi, told the AP that he’d lost count of the number of bodies. Many people had jumped into the now oil soaked river in attempts to put out their flames.

Report says that Kenyatta National Hospital is urgently in need of blood donors and blankets. At least 112 burn victims have arrived at the hospital so far. Many of them are children with more than a third of their bodies burned, some are unrecognizable.

The cause of the explosion on Monday is still unknown.

For a long time, Brandi M. Green, 28, looked in the mirror and thought she was a black woman of a lighter complexion, even biracial. But the reality is that she is a person with albinism. As she has come to love her unique beauty and more are becoming aware of the attacks on people with albinism in East Africa, she wants to share her difficult but fulfilling journey.

By Brandi M. Green as told to Victoria Uwumarogie

I don’t know if it was a specific age, but I did notice early on that I was different. Around 8 or so I questioned things and thought, “What’s going on here?” But the answers that were given to me were never satisfactory. My relatives would say “Oh you know, we have white people in our family. ” Answers like that never satisfied me so I was always searching in a sense.

My mother told me I was just light skinned. Maybe she didn’t want to believe I had albinism. Parents don’t want their kids to suffer and I think it was that. She didn’t want me to be held back in any kind of way. She never really associated albinism with me, and she never wanted anyone else to associate that with me either. I think that’s ultimately what led to my identity crisis.

Business in Africa has been booming and the movement is being led by a new league of African businessmen. These men are building pan-African companies with regional and global presences. They are considered some of Africa’s most esteemed voices in the business and political spheres. Ultimately, they are helping to shape the economic future of the continent. Here are 10 of those bold and fearless leaders according to a recent list compiled by Forbes:

Cyril Ramaphosa

Chairman, Shanduka Group, MTN

Ramaphosa is considered one of South Africa’s most respected business and political figures. He is the founder and executive chairman of the Shanduka Group, a black owned and managed investment group with investments in resources, financial services, property, energy and beverages. Recently, his company acquired the South African operations of McDonalds.

Ramaphosa is committed to South Africa’s development in the areas of education and enterprise development. The Shanduka Foundation focuses on these areas through the initiatives of the Adopt a School program and the Shanduka Black Umbrellas.

(CNN) — A series of fiery blasts killed 20 people and injured dozens more at a military camp in Tanzania, authorities said early Thursday.

At least 184 others were wounded in the blasts at an army base in the main city of Dar es Salaam, said Nyancheghe Nanai, assistant director of disaster management.

Several arms and ammunition depots at the Gongola Mboto army base were destroyed, authorities said.

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(AP) — Five nations in East Africa implemented new economic rules Thursday to boost cross-border employment and trade. The new steps push forward a larger plan to integrate the economies of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, which together form the East African Community. When most African countries gained independence from European colonial powers in the 1950s and 1960s, Africa’s founding fathers wanted the entire continent to become one economy as a way of achieving self-reliance and better negotiating power in international markets.

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(Wall Street Journal) — Visitors come to this part of the world to watch wild animals roam the Serengeti, or glimpse the peaks of Kilimanjaro. Others come to visit another rarity: the American Black Panther.

For nearly four decades, Imbaseni has been home to two former American revolutionaries: Felix Lindsey O’Neal Jr., better known as Pete O’Neal, 69 years old, and his wife, Charlotte, 59. Mr. O’Neal is a fugitive from justice, having fled the U.S. in 1970 after a felony gun conviction. The couple are among the few surviving leaders of a radical movement that marked a tumultuous period in American history.

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