That's all from BBC Africa Live today. Keep up-to-date with what's happening across the continent by listening to the Africa Today podcast or check the BBC News website.

A reminder of today's wise words:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this image from our pictures of the week from Ghana's capital, Accra, where a woman is dressed up for the annual Chale Wote Street Art Festival.

Image source, AFP

See how Africa's population boom, driven by high birth rates, is shaping the world's future

A plastic bag ban is coming into effect in Kenya on Monday, but elsewhere across the continent plastic and other waste remains a huge problem.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur for toxic materials, Baskut Tuncak, has just spent two weeks in Sierra Leone.

Mr Tuncak told Focus on Africa that the dump in the capital, Freetown, poses an "invisible threat" to the health of thousands of people.

Ten civilians, including three children, have been killed in an attack by Somali forces in Lower Shabelle, according to a witness who spoke to the BBC's Somali service.

He added that they were killed "without provocation".

The government has denied this saying, in a statement, external, that the attack killed eight al-Shabab fighters.

"Our security forces go to great lengths to prevent civilian casualties during all of our activities. No civilians were harmed or killed in this operation," the government said in a statement.

It added that the attack was supported by "international partners" and a spokesperson from the US Africa Command (Africom) told the BBC that the US supplied limited tactical support.

Image source, AFP

South Africa's first online auction of rhino horn has ended today, reports the AFP news agency.

However there were no details of the sale available. AFP quotes a representative of the auctioneers as saying: "There is definitely no feedback today," and that a statement would be released on Monday.

According to AFP the auctioneers did not set an opening price for bids, but the bidders paid 100,000 rand ($7,626; £5,921) to register and it was only registered bidders who participated in the bidding process.

The three-day sale was organised by John Hume, who owns the world's largest rhino farm which is situated north of Johannesburg.

Image source, AFP

Chris Ewokor
BBC Africa

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has called for a responsible and vibrant opposition.

He tweeted his comments after hosting the leaders of both the governing All Progressives Congress and the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Since the president came to power in 2015, he has not had any strong opposition from the PDP.

The PDP, which governed for 16 years, has been weakened by internal wrangling following struggles over its leadership.

He has only faced vitriolic verbal assaults from the lone voice of Ekiti state's Governor Ayodele Fayose.

Governor Fayose, from the PDP, had been unrelenting in his criticisms of the president – sometimes, to the point of using abusive language.

However, with the PDP leadership crisis now sorted, there are indications it couldd now rise up to the challenge of providing the expected opposition that has been largely lacking for the past two years.

Senegalese-American singer Akon has revealed he wants to create a music streaming service in Africa that can challenge its global competitors.

The artist has announced he is purchasing 50% of the Senegalese company Musik Bi.

He spoke to BBC Africa about why young people needed to invest in the continent and his secrets on making it big

Zimbabwe First Lady Grace Mugabe has made her first public appearance since she left South Africa where she had been accused of assaulting a woman, Reuters news agency is reporting.

Mrs Mugabe was granted diplomatic immunity and left South Africa on Sunday.

According to Reuters, the Mugabes attended a farming fair in the capital, Harare, where the first lady was seen smiling and talking with exhibitors.

Mrs Mugabe, however, made no public comment. The Zimbabwean government has not yet made any official comment on the assault case.

A 20-year-old model, Gabriella Engels, accused Mrs Mugabe of hitting her with an electric cable and plug in a hotel room. The first lady was demanding to know where one of her sons was.

Image source, Reuters

Uganda's judges and magistrates have started a countrywide stay away from courtrooms following an announcement Thursday evening by their association's leadership, the privately owned Daily Monitor newspaper, external is reporting.

The newspaper quotes the president of the Uganda Judicial Officers Association (Ujoa) Godfrey Kaweesa, as saying that the judges have been forced to go on strike because the government has failed to come up with a clear plan to address their welfare issues as agreed a month ago.

According to the Monitor, about a month ago, judges from the Supreme Court down to the lower magistrates courts, met in the capital, Kampala, and voted to down their wigs and gowns by 23 August if their welfare issues were not addressed.

Today, the officials appear to have defied a plea from Chief Justice Bart Katureebe for his colleagues to be patient as the Judicial Service Commission tries to resolve their grievances.

The judicial officers want the highest ranking officer, the Chief Justice, to earn a monthly salary of 55m Uganda shillings ($15,000; £12,000) and the lowest ranking magistrate to get $3,000.

They also want vehicles for transportation, medical insurance and housing, the Daily Monitor reports.

Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina's seminal and sarcastic 2006 essay How to Write About Africa , externalhas not gone out of date, according to the Washington Post's Karen Attiah.

In this take down , externalof an essay in the New York Times by historian Maya Jasanoff, Attiah says that it uses all the well-known cliches that Wainaina warned about.

The historian was writing about the Congo and Joseph Conrad - author of the 19th Century novel Heart of Darkness.

Attiah quotes the first paragraph: "The smoked monkeys brought the point home. During my first day on a boat on the Congo River, I’d embraced the unfamiliar: how to bend under the rail to fill my wash bucket from the river, where to step around the tethered goat in the dark and the best way to prepare a pot of grubs."

You can watch Attiah here, external:

A Muslim group that had given the mainly Christian Igbo minority an ultimatum to leave northern Nigeria or face reprisals has backed down from its threat, reports the AFP news agency.

On 8 June the Arewa Youths had given all people from the Igbo ethnic group living in the north until 1 October to leave.

The warning was widely condemned.

AFP is reporting that late last night the Arewa Youths issued a statement renouncing their threat. And that the group admitted that they had come under pressure from concerned national, political, traditional, religious and cultural leaders.

On Monday, President Muhammadu Buhari, in his first address since returning from sick leave, called for unity.

The Arewa Youths' ultimatum was in response to calls by the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), a mainly Igbo group in the south-east, to secede from Nigeria, AFP says.

Image source, AFP

Angola is about to get its first new president for 38 years.

After Wednesday's general election President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who came to power in 1979, is due to step down. His party, the MPLA, now has an unassailable lead and Defence Minister Joao Lourenco is due to be the next president.

Image source, EPA

But who is he?

• Active in MPLA struggle against Portuguese colonial rule as a teenager.
• Part of first group of guerrillas to enter Angolan territory from Congo-Brazzaville
• Received military training and studied history from 1978 to 1982 in the former Soviet Union
• General in the Angolan Armed Forces in post-independence civil war
• Defence minister since 2014
• Said to be one of the few Angolan generals and politicians free of allegations of involvement in major corruption scandals
• Married to Ana Dias de Lourenco, a former World Bank official, who has held several positions in government as minister. They have six children
• His small white dog appears in his Facebook photos

Uganda's New Vision has tweeted that a maid, Jolly Tumuhirwe, who was convicted in December 2014 of torture for beating up a toddler has been released.

A recording of her acts went viral in East Africa and sparked outrage.

The human rights lawyer who represented her, Ladislaus Rwakafuzi, told the BBC that while he was not present at her release he had been aware that she would set free today.

Mr Rwakafuzi said he has spoken to her 10 days ago.

He said she was sorry for what she had done to the toddler.

He also said that Tumuhirwe had told him that she received counselling while in prison.

According to him, while on the one hand she wanted to personally say sorry to the parents of the toddler, she thought that they would not forgive her.

Mr Rwakufuzi said that the former maid planned to "lie low" up country, away from the city, for a long while.

The victim of the two white South African farmers who have now been found guilty of attempted murder has told the BBC that he is feeling "very good" after the verdict, adding that justice has been served.

Victor Mlotshwa, 27, was beaten and made him get into a coffin by Theo Martins Jackson and Willem Oosthuizen in August 2016.

They then threatened to set it alight.

Mr Mlotshwa said that the case will set an example for anyone who continues to be use racist violence.

He said he "was not referring to all whites" but those who still engage in these "racial activities".

Image source, AFP

BBC World Service

Kenya's High Court has rejected an attempt to stop a ban on plastic shopping bags, due to come into force on Monday.

Manufacturers of the bags argued that 80,000 jobs would be lost.

This is the third attempt in the past 10 years that Kenya has tried to ban plastic bags.

The environment ministry says anyone caught using the bags will be liable to a fine of at least $19,000 (£15,000) or a jail term of at least a year.

A number of other African countries have banned plastic bags, including Rwanda and Eritrea.

Image source, AFP

South Africans are discussing the guilty verdict handed to two white farmers on the charge of attempted murder and five other charges after they forced a black man into a coffin and threatened to set it alight.

Using the hashtag #CoffinAssault some are commenting on the decision to grant the two men bail until the sentencing in October:

Others are urging people to wait to October to see that justice is done:

Clare Spencer
BBC News, Luanda

Angola's state-owned radio station RNA reports that the group of election observers from the southern African regional group, Sadc, has criticised how Wednesday's general election was organised.

It adds that they said that more people should have been working in the polling stations.

RNA also reports that the observers said that additional electric power generators should have been provided.

The electoral commission says that the governing MPLA has an unassailable lead in the votes counted so far.

Image source, EPA

The two white farmers who have been found guilty of attempted murder after pushing a black man into a coffin and threatening to set it alight have been bailed until sentencing, the judge has ruled.

Sentencing is due on 23 October.

The state prosecutor argued that the two men should spend that time in jail, but this was rejected.

Image source, EPA

Angola's ruling MPLA party has won the country's parliamentary election, provisional results suggest.

The party received 61% of votes cast during Wednesday's ballot, the Angolan electoral commission said on Friday.

The opposition Unita party, which received 27%, disputes the commission's count. The commission said 98% of the country's votes had been counted.

This week's election marks the end of nearly four decades in power for President José Eduardo Dos Santos.

Voting in the election ends on Saturday 26 August due to delays in getting the ballot papers to more than a dozen polling stations in remote areas.

However, the governing MPLA party has taken such a commanding lead with the majority of votes counted that forthcoming ballots are unlikely to change the outcome.

Image source, Reuters

Lawyers are now debating whether the two white farmers found guilty of attempted murder should be out on bail until the sentencing.

The state prosecutor wants bail to be revoked but the lawyer for the farmers says that they will be unsafe in prison, as a South African journalist has been tweeting from the court: