Free Republic

The precious, fragrant resin is the scent of the festive season and rising in popularity in the wellness industry – but its natural source is being decimated. Salaban Salad Muse has built his whole life around frankincense. Living the small town of Dayaha in the Sanaag region of Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia, he works as a seasoned harvester of the famously aromatic resin, obtained only from the Boswellia tree. Every year, Salad Muse camps for three to six months in a cave near the site he owns with these trees on it. Each day he heads out the...

An African practice of “ironing” a girl’s chest with a hot stone to delay breast formation is spreading in the UK, with anecdotal evidence of dozens of recent cases, a Guardian investigation has established. Community workers in London, Yorkshire, Essex and the West Midlands have told the Guardian of cases in which pre-teen girls from the diaspora of several African countries are subjected to the painful, abusive and ultimately futile practice. Margaret Nyuydzewira, head of the diaspora group the Came Women and Girls Development Organisation (Cawogido), estimated that at least 1,000 women and girls in the UK had been subjected...

Cameroonian-American physician Dr. Stella Immanuel recently talked about cures for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). She elaborated on these drugs used to treat COVID-19 during the Sept. 1 edition of The Dr. Stella Immanuel Show on Brighteon.TV. In addition, the Texas-based doctor also shared two key tips on preventing COVID-19 from worsening.Immanuel said: “People call me from the hospital all the time because they are sick and the hospital is refusing to give them the medication that they need.” She then shared a story of a COVID-19 patient she gave ivermectin (IVM) to and how she got into the crosshairs of...

Zimbabwe’s public health system is collapsing along with the economy, with some major hospitals suspending all non-emergency surgeries because painkillers are scarce. Some in this southern African country are turning to the growing number of peddlers of traditional medicines, many of them young men occupying street corners in the capital, Harare. “Faulty gear boxes, blown-out fuses. I can fix it all!” shouted Shepherd Mushore. He stood outside a now-closed garage, but he is no mechanic. He displayed tree barks, roots and leaves of all kinds. “Gear boxes and fuses” are his euphemisms for sexual matters. …

More rhinos were killed by poachers last year in Africa than ever before. In 2014 the dubious record looks set to be broken again. The black market price for rhino horn is now considerably higher than cocaine. Poachers from Mozambique's poorest villages sneak into South Africa, heavily armed under the cover of darkness. They are here to hunt rhinos. The money they make from just one rhino horn is enough to feed their families for months. It’s a payoff worth risking their lives for. Between 1990 and 2007 poachers killed on average 14 rhinos a year in South Africa. Last...