Why a delegation to educate people on Ebola was brutally murdered in Republic of Guinea?

The Ebola virus

Ebola is spreading very fast, putting the lives of health workers also in danger. The outbreak in West Africa is rapidly claiming lives to date, prompting the World Health Organization to declare an international health emergency as over more than 2,100 people have died of the virus in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria this year.

The shocking death rate a few months after the outbreak and appeals from aid organizations, have prompted the American government to decide to assign 3,000 US military personnel to West Africa's Ebola-affected regions to supply medical equipment, support health workers and treat victims of the epidemic.

Ebola is a highly dangerous disease. Highly qualified doctors and health workers are at risk if they treat infectious people without proper precautions. Thus; the need for Obama’s administration to send military personnel to help is necessary.

Often desperate and frustrated people end up doing crazy things. In the village of Womme, outside the town of Nzerekore, in the southeast of Guinea, eight delegation members, including two journalists on a mission to educate the people about Ebola and show them how to prevent it, in a region where many lacks the education on Ebola encountered their untimely death.

Many Africans hold the idea that Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was purposely inflicted on Africa by Europeans to wipe out Africans. The villagers thought the same on the Ebola issue and furiously attacked the delegation killing them.

The origin of Aids documentary film

“In the 1950s, American and Belgian missionaries in the Belgian colonies of the Congo widely distributed polio vaccine to a million children in a bid to wipe out the crippling disease; however, evidence now suggests that Dr. Koprowski's oral vaccine may have been tainted and that the first instances of the disease may be linked to those inoculations.

Using interviews, newsreel footage, and documented research experiments, The Origin of AIDS examines how a combination of benevolence, careless lab procedures and the need of a desperate few to cover their tracks could have led to one of the most serious pandemics of the 20th century.” 

Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZs1V8mpcoY. Africans have lived with this theory for years.

“It's very sad and hard to believe, but they were killed in cold blood by the villagers,” government spokesman Albert Damantang Camara said, according to Agence France-Presse.  The delegation under the wrath of the villagers with stones and clubs fled into the bush after the attack, according to the Guinean radio, but they were pursued and killed.

It’s unfortunate that in the midst of such an epidemic, innocent workers could meet such a horrible death. Many health workers are now known to have fled their posts, afraid to work, especially at places where the disease has killed doctors, nurses, and hygienists. The killing of the delegation is now one of the setbacks to prevent health care workers from going to affected areas in Africa.

The impact of Ebola, picture: Courtesy of the World Health Organization.

ON WHAT DAY WERE YOU BORN?

In Ghana, children are named according to the day they were born

Ask any European his or her date of birth, the answer is given within a second, but go on further to ask, “On what day were you born?”  That’s really a tough question to answer because of a day of the week on which one is born, is less important to them.

In Africa, especially Ghana, traditionally, a day of the week determines the name given to a baby. We’ve heard often that a good name is better than riches. Many are given names of great people but for ages, Ghanaians follow the tradition of their ancestral to give names to babies.

A male child born on Sunday is given ‘Kwesi’, and ‘Akosua’ goes to a female child because Sunday in the Akan language is called ‘Kwesida.’ ‘Kodwo or Kojo’, goes to a male child born on Monday and ‘Adwoa or Ajoa’ goes to a female child because Monday is ‘Edzuda’. ‘Kobina’ is given to a male child born on Tuesday and ‘Abena’ to a female child, because Tuesday is ‘Ebenada.’

On Wednesday, a male child is named ‘Kweku or Kwaku’ and a female child is named ‘Akua’ because Wednesday is ‘Ikuda.’ ‘Yaw’ goes to a male child born on Thursday and ‘Yaa’ goes to a female child because Thursday is ‘Yawda, pronounced ‘Yauda.’ 

‘Kofi’ goes to a male child born on Friday and ‘Afua’ goes to a female child, because Friday is ‘Ifida.’ Finally ‘Ato, Kwame or Kwamena’, goes to a male child born on Saturday and ‘Ama’ goes to a female child because Saturday is ‘Miminda.’

In Ghana, a male child can be named ‘Mensah’ because he is the third child of his parents and ‘Mansa’ to a third female child. This tradition of naming babies has inspired many foreigners, including Europeans and Americans to give them themselves traditional names corresponding with the day they were born.