If you live in Africa or have any ties to one of the prison systems in the country of Africa, please use this thread to introduce yourself to your fellow members here at PTO so they can identify who you are.

Thanks!
David

Keltria Orton I live in Durban. I hope that we can get as many SA members here as possible. I dont have anyone incarcerated in SA, but do have a b/f in the American Prison System.

:) Hi there - I live in Johannesburg and I am involved in working with/helping inmates in a fairly large ? (3,500) local prison here, for the last 5 years now. I am really so excited about this Africa section of PTO and I think this will be an excellent source of support for prisoners, their families, friends and even people working in the prisons. I have already mentioned this to one of the warders I work with in this particular prison; he thinks it is also an excellent idea and has agreed for us to get the word out to those concerned asap. I also hope we will soon have alot of members on the SA side, and all over Africa. Welcome to Africa, PTO - you are really welcome!!!:thumbsup:

hi there, my family are originally from MOROCCO & ALGERIA. i am keen to learn about prison related issues in Africa, esp Muslim countries where Sharia Law is applied. living conditions in the N.African prisons are terrible, plus hardship & abject poverty hit prisoners families very hard, there is no welfare system. i receive regular news letters from an elderly man who has done fantastic relief work in Ethiopian prisons, a lot of the funds were raised by various projects involving British prisoners, in the U.K . this is the sum of my knowledge, but as i never wish to leave the "learning curve" i am very keen to learn more on this wonderful new forum.:thumbsup:

Welcome to the Africa side of PTO. It is wonderful to have yet another from Africa here. Hopefully we will continue to grow. Please feel free to add to the Africa forum when ever you get a chance. Once again Welcome here.

Welcome Sahar - great to have you here. I'm sure we will have a wonderful forum. I'm really looking forward to watching it grow.

I think it is awesome that there is an African forum !!! :) :) :)

I wanted to stop by and say hello...while I no longer live in Africa I have seen the prison system there. As a young girl I lived in West Africa for several years. I am Canadian but my father's job and the WHO brought us there. Africa is very dear to my heart and I think it is a big part of who I am. It has left such an impact on my life...I MISS IT SO MUCH !!!

Many north americans take their freedom for granted and don't understand what it is really like to have NO rights...and NO freedom of speech...the issues in Africa are far different !!!!!

A friend of my father's...a German man was in love with an African woman...their interracial relationship was not widely accepted. As a foreigner he could not own property so everything was in her name...a lot of her friends thought he was using her...and sought revenge. A male friend of hers went to the police and said that the German man had called the president an a$$ h#$@. Well it wasn't long before the police were knocking down his door and carting him off to prison. It is illegal to say anything bad about the president...he went before the courts...and was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years behind bars!!!!!!!! It was a nightmare...!!!! I believe that he only served less than 2 years before things got sorted out...money talks !!!!

Whether he really said it or not it...all seemed very ridiculous. 10 years for that !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The prison was nothing like it is here....they have nothing....they are not fed...there were no beds...no nothing....it was up to my father and other friends to go to the prison and make sure that he had food daily as well as clothing to keep warm...and adequate water to drink. Having white skin made him stand out and he offered suffered beatings and harassment from other prisoners.

While it is a sad story it is far from the worst!!!

I also recall having a curfew. We had to be inside by 9 pm. At 9 pm there were children (14 year old males +) standing on the street corners with rifles...they had the order to shoot if they saw fit !!!!! I can only imagine the number of innocent people that were killed as a result !!!

As I said money talks...sad but true !!! My mom had an incident with our guardian. He was hired to watch the house...security. Well one night we had gone out for dinner at a friend's house...we were home well before 9...and it was dark...we walked through the gates and he was sleeping. My mom called out to him...no answer...she gently nudged his chair to stir him. He woke up and my mom asked why he was sleeping. He went off and was very threatening. My mom fired him...well it wasn't long before the police were at our door...and my mom was dragged off to the police station. Luckily a very dear friend to our family (he was like a father to my sister and I) followed them...and they were ready to charge my mom with battery...being African he was able to talk them out of it and advised my mom to just pay them off. Thank goodness it worked out !!!!

Whoa !! This post is way longer than I had planned. Anyways...I think it's fantastic that there is an African Forum. I look forward to reading all the posts and learning more about the African system.

IceBlueSparkle - thanks for popping in. To be honest a lot of people in other countries take their freedom for granted. In many places in Africa people still have no rights and no freedom of speech. They live in constant fear of their lives. Zimbabwians are not even allowed newspapers - Mugabe wont let reporters into the country, he has stopped all aid coming into the place too. If the people do not vote for him they get tortured and murdered. In other places - children are abducted and used as sex slaves. People like Bono and many others go in there to try and find these kids and buy them back for their families. The Hutu's and Rawandans kill each other on a daily basis. I read one day that over 10000 were slaughtered in a day. The people in Africa are subjected to such poverty and such restriction, it is so sad to see dying children in a place that is war torn and political to the bone. That aside they are now being ravishd with AIDS. I wonder when this will all stop if ever. We have only been a democracy for 10 years. I being white, am often targeted, but I only hope that people will one day realise, i never created apartheid, i was born into it. I never practiced it, and was glad when we abolished it. The Swazi people are another oppressed people, ruled by a king that does not care about his people. He has 33 wives now i believe. But, my main objective is to say thankyou for helping to shed light on the plight of the African justice system and it's atrocious implementation.

hey my name is Soraya and I live in Europe. I write with several inmates, most of them in the US. I do write with one in Italy. He's from Nigeria and tells me that there are a lot of Nigerians and other Africans in prison in Italy. I also have my own prison pen pal website and I'm looking for inmates from outside the US who would be interested in putting their ad for free on my website. so if you know anyone, let me kno

I've been with PTO almost since the beginning but been away for a long time. I'm planning to start visiting regularry again and am looking forward to meeting you

Hello all. I hope you do not mind me popping in but I am very interesting in Africa and I try to learn as much as possible. I have dreams of moving to Ghana for a few years so that my children can see first hand where our ancestors are from.


From the off spring to the motherland..... :wave:

Welcome hisotherhalf - hope we can bring you back to your roots here, Ghana - to be honest dont go there for a while, way too dangerous at the moment. :(

Wow, I thought Ghana was doing better with the tourism industry booming and everything. :confused:

I wanted to say peace and blessings to all. Iam African American,and I have always been interested in Africa. My first husband was from ( is from) the Ivory Coast. I am glad this forum is here.

Hello everyone! My husband is from Botswana (South Africa), he is currently in a Pa state prison. I really enjoy this Thread, I am very curious about how things are handled over in Africa. And we have friends from Ghana, Zimbabwea, ect. who live over here but inform me on things (like there laws) and what really gets me is how each country in Africa has its different laws...Its very interesting!!!

Hi there and welcome :) I am from South Africa. The reason for each place like Zimbabwe and Ghana etc having their own laws is because they are each seperate places and are run by seperate presidents, kings etc. It's like here in South Africa we have 11 official languages and Mozambiquians speak french, however Mozambique is only about 6 hours drive from where I live and you have to cross a border to get there. However the whole of South Africa itself is governed by the majority party namely the ANC, with a few other parties having parlimentary seats as opposition.

Hope this helps a little.

Thanks and that is what my husband explained to me..I am getting kind of anxious because the way things are looking I am going to be flying there sooner than I thought. I was scared at first but now I can not wait!!

"Mules" is a documentary about mules, women who transport drugs and what becomes of them.

The director, Joi Dickerson (joidickerson@yahoo.com), is looking for responses from other women who have been arrested for trafficking and funding to complete the project.

Hello,
I hope that it's all right for me to join this group. I have never been to Africa, but have a very dear friend who is incarcerated in the Mukobeko Maximum Security Prison in Zambia. I am trying to learn more about the prison and court system there, so that I may be a more effective advocate for my friend. I hope that he is released from prison some day, so that he may return home to care for his family.