Mzansi Afrika

Why is Africa poor?

Africa is economically poor. Some Afri-philes and some Africans sometimes blame colonialism as part of the reason why the continent is economically poor. Afri-phobes insist that after half a century of freedom from colonialism, that particular excuse is no longer valid, and that we need to look elsewhere. Some people suggest that Africa is poor because Africans are inferior to other races. This latter group goes further and cites inventors and skyscrapers: "Africa had none before the white man showed up," they say. If you mention black inventors, as I once did, you are quickly told that most of them were of mixed ancestry, "so we know where the entrepreneurial spirit came from, don't we?" So why is Africa, a rich continent, poor?

Colonialism, and slavery before it, served at least to put the brakes on local civilisations, so that the ways Africans were doing things before became obsolete and backward and therefore undesirable. That supposes that like children, Africans had to re-learn how to live, at the mercy of the coloniser. Take the case of language, for example: what the funk am I doing, writing in English and not in Sesotho, my mother tongue? A mother-tongue English speaker of course has a head-start on me, or at least on previous generations of Africans. Colonialism arrested our development in other ways, and one of the most devastating was the carving up of Africa. That act alone effectively destroyed natural nations and saw the birth of artificial countries. As I type this, war is raging on the continent, war that is a direct result of how the white man pulled out a knife carved Africa up.

Pitching the Luya and the Kikuyu and the Masaï and other tribes against each other could only end up in ethnic cleansing and tribalism, and the non-respect of government by people to whose tribe the authorities do not belong. The same thing happened in Yugoslavia and other parts of the world. See, I have to say that to keep Afri-phobes from saying that's how Africans are. Africa was meant to contain many more countries than it actually does, perhaps fifty more than the present fifty-two.

That, apart from eliminating the threat of tribalism, would also mean that African governments would be better able to build infrastructure, an especially expensive feat today when one considers the endless, hostile territory between towns in many countries. The hostility is from the land but also from rebel groups taking pot-shots at you.

Another result of colonialism is that African countries still trade with their colonial masters (at a loss) instead of with each other. "African countries are grappling to undo a legacy dominated by trade with their former colonial rulers rather than with each other. Senegal's biggest trading partner is France, while Gambia trades extensively with the UK. Although Senegal surrounds Gambia, trade between the two neighbours is minimal. The continent's railways and roads often lead towards the ports rather than link countries across regions. To fly from one African country to another, it is often easier to pass through Europe. [www.un.org]"

Africa is rich, rich in natural resources, a fact that can be another reason why it's poor. For one, think of the Liberian diamond quagmire. There are diamonds, but no industrial infrastructure to channel them through, and no real incentive to do so. The best way then is to tote a gun and keep the diamonds for oneself. That breeds war, and the rest is history. There are no real leaders. Two, if its rich, technologically more advanced populations are more prone to moving in and pillaging, which is what the scramble for Africa was all about.

Many of the reasons that insure Africa stays poor can be scrapped. One of those is the unfairness of the West when doing business with Africa. Economics experts can usually explain this better, but from what I understand, the West slaps high tariffs on African goods so that they're less competitive. Can't sell your goods? Why don't you borrow? Can't pay back that loan you took out? Why don't you borrow some more so that you can at least pay off the interest on the loan?

Africa is waking up, however, and I hope it does so in my lifetime. The present state of affairs has lasted long enough. It is time to swing things around. I urge you to visit Timbuktu Chronicles if you want to see just how Africa is waking up. As far as I’m concerned, the continent had to go through a period of realising its own worth, in order to be able to produce goods and do business in its own image and right, as only it knows how. First, Africa must

• Elect real leaders, or fall back to our pre-colonial system of government
• Get rich Occidental countries to start playing fair economic games
• Forget that... trade with your neighbour on the continent and cut each other some slack as far as trade tariffs are concerned
• Produce things that the world needs
• Stop fighting, full-stop. A country at war cannot build infrastructure, and it uses its resources instead on arming itself.
• Go all out to promote family planning values and the donning of the humble condom
• Realise that "efforts to alleviate poverty in Africa will fail unless urgent action is taken to halt climate change. [http://news.bbc.co.uk]"
• Bang on the heads of embezzlers and other corrupt officials; make authorities accountable
• Bend over backwards to make African brains want to stay in Africa
• Educate women and integrate them into the professionally active population.

Dear Mr & Ms Racist

Shock Treatment:
With reference to your behaviour in these past few years, I'd like to inform you that more and more people are waking up to the fact that the premise of your beliefs rests on scorn. For example, today more and more performing artists and others are spreading the message, and it seems to me that you're more isolated now than you've ever been. One of your complaints is the practice of affirmative action, usually observed in places where you have recently been, like America and South Africa. You say that qualified white people are not getting jobs while unqualified minorities are. In America, affirmative action "can call for an admissions officer faced with two similarly qualified applicants to choose the minority over the white, or for a manager to recruit and hire a qualified woman for a job instead of a man" [www.washingtonpost.com].

One thing that's clear is that as long as we're physically different, racism and discrimination will never leave our world. Unless something enormous happens. Something more threatening than an ominous cold war or a murderous hot one, something bigger than a natural catastrophe, something deadlier than any killer virus or monstrous organisms, more unthinkable than any evil you can imagine. Wars and viruses have so far not been able to right the world, and I doubt they ever will. We could bring up "religion" at this juncture as a possible solution but frankly, "religion" has been one of the bigger dividers of men and remains so, even as I type these words.

The truth is that humans and most other animals are conquerors. Dogs piss out a territory; humans kill or enslave those they find on a territory. Throughout their history, those humans with more advanced technology were able to travel wide, and wherever they did, they killed or conquered other humans they found there. It is amusing that as we plod onward as a species we're only just beginning to realise the value of protecting other species. Protect and feed the panda, but expose and starve Darfur.

In the face of adversity, folks have come together before. In Africa, villages would be foes and nations enemies; they would fight wars and struggle against one another until something big and unexpected came along, whether slavery, colonialism or apartheid. Then they'd suddenly come together as siblings, in Africa, America or the Carribean, one against a common enemy. That is why black people call one another "brother" or "blood". No one else that I know of does. European tribes fought amongst themselves, too. They have just never had to deal with unimaginable adversity. Too bad Hannibal failed to make it all the way across.

In order to realise and thus combat racism and discrimination, humans need an unimaginable shock, right here, right now, something to pit earthlings against a common enemy, preferably one with more firepower and with nasty,  malicious intent. Unfortunately for me I don't believe in flying saucers and little green men. Not today. So I don't think that kind of threat is on its way here. But I'm afraid it'll take nothing less to knock sense into humankind. For a few weeks the East Asian tsunami had the world acting as one, for the benefit of other fellow humans. At that time, there had just been danger that was unpredictable, that was far superior in strength to humans, and that could potentially have hit any other human. So we bunched together.

Similarity of Whites and Blacks:
So, if racism and discrimination will never leave the world, you're perhaps wondering what I am prattling about. Well, my potential friends, I happen to believe that all humans harbour discriminatory thoughts, drilled into them by culture and through other means. You're not the only ones. However, the question isn't whether or not to harbour such thoughts (all humans do, whether they like it or not), but how to overcome them. You're walking down the street and you see this Latino spitting. How could you not think or say, "Dirty Spic," like so many would? How could you be told by a black person that you smell bad and not think or say, "Fucking nigger. Needs to be put in his place," like so many would? How could you hear, "We don't serve your kind here, boy" and not think that "honkies" are all the same "fucking racists?" It's hard, yet humans need to see other humans as just that: humans -- and not as colour or as belonging to a group. People will always be outwardly different, which unfortunately puts other-feature humans in their vicinity on guard. With practice, this habit could go away, white ladies could stop switching their purse to the other side when approaching a black man.

There are more genetic similarities between blacks and whites than among whites themselves. Black people in one part of the world differ with those in another part in a significant way. And that gap is wider than it is between blacks and whites. Simply put, the criteria that you, Mr and Ms Racist, usually refer to when you distinguish race, are but skin deep. Is the place of origin sunny, snowy, windy or what? Is social life there calm, turbulent or what? These are what determines your criteria for distinguishing race.

"Race is a social concept, not a scientific one," said Dr. J. Craig Venter, head of the Celera Genomics Corporation in Rockville, Md. "We all evolved in the last 100,000 years from the same small number of tribes that migrated out of Africa and colonized the world." It is timely that scientists are now realizing what many indigenous people and our history have been saying to us. The scientists did not set out to prove the interconnectedness of us humans. They were searching for European greatness; they were searching for products to further exploit the sick, and this allowed for the unearthing of fundamental truths. www.trinicenter.com/sciencenews

Race is terribly relevant to life outcomes. The likelihood that toxic waste has been dumped in your neighborhood, your ability to get a home loan, the quality of your kid's education, connections to job opportunities, whether or not you're likely to be followed in a department store or pulled over by police, are all influenced by your race. Race does matter. Not race as genetics but race as lived experience, what sociologists call "social" race. Social race is an important variable for health researchers and epidemiologists. www.newsreel.org/guides/race

What Exactly is Racism?:
It is different things to different people. To see what I mean, think of the idea of terrorism. To one group it's fighting for freedom, to another it's terrorism. Racism is somewhat similar. Answers dot com says,

rac·ism (rā'sĭz'm) n. 1. The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others. 2. Discrimination or prejudice based on race. rac'ist  adj. & n. [www.answers.com]

Notice that the definition does not declare as racism acknowledging differences among people. You can't help that, and I know of no one who can. It is what you do with that acknowledgement that makes you a racist (or a non-racist, in other cases). An Arab job-candidate who thinks, "Uh-uh... white interviewer? Goodbye job" is a racist. No matter how many times white people have denied  Arabs jobs on the basis of colour, those white people were individuals as much as the present interviewer. No individual can act for a group, and it is wrong to see what an individual does and think that others with the same physical traits would act similarly.

Racism is the Ottoman massacre of Armenians, it is slavery, it is the holocaust, it is apartheid, insults, cruelty, lots of cruelty, stupidity, cruel stupidity, cruel insults, and blind opposition to laws like affirmative action. Clinton was probably right when he said of affirmative action, mend it, don't end it.  Following are some comments by various speakers on the subject of racism and discrimination. The aim of the passages here is to get you to see a variety of views, and to ponder the situation with a maximum of opinions before you.

"Black pride" is said to be a wonderful and worthy thing, but anything that could be construed as an expression of White pride is a form of hatred. It is perfectly natural for third-world immigrants to expect school instruction and driver's tests in their own languages, whereas for native Americans to ask them to learn English is racist. [www.stormfront.org]

Of the many sorry things about the contemporary United States that the Katrina catastrophe has exposed, perhaps none is more depressing than what it showed about the abiding divide in American thinking about race and racism. The televised and photographed spectacle of Katrina’s aftermath in New Orleans in particular revealed that the vast majority of those worst affected were black, in numbers disproportionate even to the large percentage of blacks within the city. [http://understandingkatrina.ssrc.org]

Today in the United States and most of the White world, as soon as a White child is old enough to understand language, he is told that he should feel guilt for the crimes of his ancestors. Guilt for finding, conquering, enslaving, and killing off non-Whites around the globe... and littering in the process. Guilt, not for his own crimes, but for the crimes of other people of the same race. But he is also told that he should feel no pride in the amazing achievements of his race. No pride in the pyramids and the Parthenon, no pride in the arch and the dome, no pride in White science and technology and medicine, no pride in the glories of European painting and sculpture and music, no pride in Plato and Shakespeare and Dostoevsky, no pride in the exploration of the globe and the conquest of space. Pride, not in his own achievements, but in the achievements of other people of the same race. [www.nationalvanguard.org]

You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction.You call me "Cracker", "Honkey", "Whitey" and you think it's OK. But when I call you, nigger, Kike, Towelhead, Sand-nigger, Camel Jockey, Beaner, Gook, or Chink you call me a racist. You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you, so why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live. You have the United Negro College Fund. You have Martin Luther King Day. You have Black History Month. You have Cesar Chavez Day. You have Yom Hashoah. You have Ma'uled Al-Nabi. You have the NAACP. You have BET. If we had WET(white entertainment television) we'd be racists. If we had a White Pride Day you would call us racists. If we had white history month, we'd be racists. If we had an organization for only whites to "advance" our lives, we'd be racists. If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships, you know we'd be racists. In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching for your race and rights. If we marched for our race and rights, you would call us racists. You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you're not afraid to announce it. But when we announce our white pride, you call us racists. You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us. But, when a white police officer shoots a black gang member or beats up a black drug-dealer running from the law and posing a threat to society, you call him a racist. I am white. I am proud. But, you call me a racist. Why is it that only whites can be racists? [www.snipeme.com]

In stark contrast to Martin Luther King’s advocacy of nonviolent resistance, the Black Panther Party believed in arming for self-defense against police brutality. While arming provided protection, it also led to incidents that ended in violent standoffs with the police. [http://afroamhistory.about.com]

I’m not standing here speaking to you as an American, or a patriot, or a flag-saluter, or a flag-waver--no, not I. I’m speaking as a victim of this American system. And I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don’t see any American dream; I see an American nightmare [www.socialistworker.org]

Former South African President Nelson Mandela, who Bush has praised as a hero of human rights, joined the chorus of critics by calling Bush arrogant and implying the president was racist for threatening to bypass the United Nations and attack Iraq. "Is it because the secretary-general of the United Nations is now a black man? They never did that when secretary-generals were white," Mandela said. Most pronouncements of racism I can at least understand, though usually not accept. This, though, makes very little sense to me. Why did Mandela choose to call Bush racist, instead of one of the many other possible pejoratives which would be at least a bit more relevant to the topic of discussion? I don't agree with most of the criticisms of Bush concerning Iraq, but if people are going to criticize him, I'd think they'd at least choose a criticism about Iraq. [www.discriminations.us]

France was Europe's fourth largest slave trader after Portugal, England and Spain and transported about 1.25 million slaves. France abolished slavery in 1794, after a successful revolt by slaves in the island colony of Haiti. This has already sparked debate about France's colonial past and immigrants from most of its former colonies. There is also a question of French citizens who are direct descendants of slaves who have felt they are being marginalised. However, these groups also feel that the commemoration is too little and too late. On 10 May 2001, France passed a law recognizing slavery as a crime against humanity. The law requires schools to include lessons about slavery as an important part of class curriculum. [www.andnetwork.com]

Today is the 10th of May. School children are not the only ones who need to learn about history. I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours Truly
Rethabile

The Male

The African male's obsession with masculinity is disconcerting. For one, it leads to war and strife. Most African men, most of the time, are in the process of showing somebody who's boss--usually their spouse, who's usually the literal homemaker. Without these women the blokes wouldn't know their left hands from their right feet. But it is precisely with those left hands that the women are slapped around and violated, and with those feet that their arses are kicked.

Most African men think they should screw every other woman -- excuse my French -- plus their spouse for good measure. This tends to belittle women in general and encourage the spread of VD and AIDS. The popular belief among such men is that donning a condom is being a sissy; few African men believe that dying from or transmitting the virus of death is being a sissy. Pity. They have probably never thought of it along those lines.

To be sure, the male can also be found elsewhere. The too-cool rapper or the red-necked hillbilly. Every continent has its share of the male. Africa just seems to have more than its share.

Music in the blood (Part 2)

This is the continuation of a previous post which began, "I've often heard, as I'm sure you have, that black people have 'music in their blood.' The idea is that they sing more often, sing better, listen to music more often, and jive better. The inevitable question arises, they do these things more often, and better, than who? If it is indeed the case, how and why is it so? And while we're at it, exactly what kind of music are we talking about? Does the saying hold true with reference to both hard-metal rock and hip-hop?" 

Naturally, the environment becomes a communal and family-inspired teacher. The United States Census Bureau tells us that there are 211,460,626 Americans of European origin and 34,658,190 Americans of African origin. A rough round-up yields 212 million European-Americans and 35 million African-Americans, or one black person for every six white people. But look at most general music charts of any period, and the ratio turns on its head. There are about 6 black artists to 1 white artist. Remain convinced with me, however, that what these statistics teach us is only that black people "do" more music than their white counterparts. The same is true for basketball, which African-Americans have in their blood, too. On the other hand, who couldn't say as much for ice-skating, or golf, or cricket, or classical music, all of which are "done" more by white folks? We can go ahead and coin it: white people have skiing in their blood. Given what we've been saying, nothing would be more normal. 

Another lesson we learn from this is that colour is more important than we dare admit. Our customs and mores   actually depend on colour, and there are few exceptions to the rule. At my alma mater, in America's deep south, each weekend party was dee-jayed by black students. They played dance music, funk and pre-modern rap material, as well as classic soul. One day some white students went to the Dean and complained that they wanted to dee-jay half the time, to play music that made them dance. The Dean acquiesced and and those students got to play rock. But one wonders why black students were the "logical" choice for dee-jays in the first place. I must add that they were also more natural, communicating with the throng and having a better feel for its mood (Everybody say ho! ho! All the ladies in the house say Oooow! Now somebody screeeeeam!). They sometimes reminded me of the African teaser-response style of singing.

They were more natural as dee-jays because it was something they'd done or seen done often. Practice makes perfect. They were in their element as much as anyone else doing what they control would be, as comfortable as inhabitants of the Appalachians square dancing. The varsity dee-jays happened to be black because in America colour tells us who we are. Central to that student confrontation was colour. In the long run, the kind of music one inherently prefers to dance to mattered but little.

Conventional wisdom holds that black folks originated many of the following, and there's no grounds to doubt that. For reasons that are slowly becoming evident as we advance, black people are, indeed, prolific when it comes to music. But so are white people, when life calls for it. Look at number four below to see what I mean. I've dug up a reference where possible, and of course these are in no particular order.   

   
1. Blues, Jazz and Gospel. "From blues music came great artists, such as Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, Bessie Smith, and others. But the blues might never have been created if it had not been for the influence of hollers, calls, and the changes that occurred in the lives of blacks. The evolution of the blues provides insight into the changes that took place in the lives of African Americans after slavery ended [Source]."   
2. R&B, Rock & Roll, Reggae and others. Apparently the "first rock and roll record, Ike Turner's Rocket 88, [was] released" in 1951, three years after "John Lee Hooker [recorded] Boogie Chillen' for Modern Records, a single, which topped the R&B charts," and a year before Little Richard's first record was released [Source].       
3. Break-dancing, hip-hop, rap and their derivatives (eg beat-matching, turntablism, dee-jaying, and South Africa's own Kwaito). "The roots of hip-hop music are in West-African and African-American music. Discussion of the roots of hip-hop (and rap) must mention the contributions of griots The Last Poets and Jalal Mansur Nuriddin, whose jazzy and poetic 'spiels' commented on 1960's culture. Hip-hop arose during the 1970s when block parties became common in New York City, especially in the Bronx. Block parties were usually accompanied by music, especially funk and soul music [Source]."       
4. Country and Western Music. "Country music has its beginnings in music styles brought over by the first European settlers. In medieval times, storytelling was a tradition that allowed history to be recorded when few were able to read and write. When the first British settlers came to America, they brought this tradition with them, along with songs they had learned in Europe. The people who settled in the Appalachian mountains and the West did not have an easy life and their music gave them an outlet to express their hardships [Source]." 

Why were the above-mentioned black students the "logical" choice for dee-jays? The answer is simple. Because that's what they're good at, and everybody knows that. If you were shown a photo of a black dee-jay and another of a white dee-jay, you already think you know what kind of music they'd play, don't you? A university bash is an event where students get together to drink and dance and have fun. They want to hear "Now somebody screeeeam!" to the background of a warm, thumping guitar string, a mature rhythm, berserk dancing, the whole culture of dance and hip-hop and using music to do what a bash is all about in the first place: having a ball. I realise that a lot of this has to do with packaging. Many of us buy Coke® more for the prestige that goes with its image, it's renown, its packaging, than for its taste. In other words, Coke® sells more than Pepsi®. Yet in blind taste tests Pepsi® beats its opponent flat out. But if you remember, when the latter was working on its image of a new generation, the gap was narrower.

Music in the blood (Part 1)

I've often heard, as I'm sure you have, that black people have "music in their blood." The idea is that they sing more often, sing better, listen to music more often, and jive better. The natural question arises, they do these things more often, and better, than who? If it is indeed the case, how and why is it so? And while we're at it, exactly what kind of music are we talking about? Does the saying hold true with reference to both hard-metal rock and hip-hop?

Mind you, I'm not interested in whether or not non-black people can or cannot sing and dance. I'm interested in finding out whether black people can, and if so, why? After all, the saying does refer to black people having music in their blood. So what conditions would favour such an ability? If non-blacks underwent the same conditions, could they too sing and dance (well)? In reality, do such conditions exist more for blacks and less for non-blacks?

The Center for Music Therapy Philosophy says that, "Music influences human behavior by affecting the brain and subsequently other bodily structures in ways that are observable, identifiable, measurable, and predictable, thereby providing the necessary foundation for therapeutic applications [Source]." For instance we know that

   
1. In South Africa, black people sing and dance at (politically sensitive) funerals. You may have actually witnessed this on the telly, whenever a prominent South African politician is laid to rest (Steve Biko, for example). But they also belt out songs at political rallies, using the question and response style in which the lead singer sings a teaser, and the rest grab it. If you've ever listened to Ladysmith Black Mambazo you know the style I'm referring to;
   
2. In southern Africa and elsewhere, workers sing or chant to coordinate effort and thus improve the yield. I was about twelve or so when I attended my first letsema (or communal labour), which means people helping each other out to get the job done faster. A house to build? The community pitches in. Harvest in? The community comes over to help. You provide the food and the beer. My first letsema concerned threshing sorghum. All the men, each with a knob-kerrie, gathered round the harvest. Chanting and singing in unison, we raised our knob-kerries to the rhythm of the chant and brought them crashing onto the plants, before raising them again to carry out the movement anew;
   
3. Musicians played an important role as griots and historians in 10th-20th century kingdoms in different parts of Africa. In Lesotho that job belongs more to poets than to anybody else. But of course there's a lot of music in poetry. The performer may or may not scribble reminders (dates, order of events, names, etc) somewhere on their hand. They use the same poetic techniques as other poets: alliteration, consonance, stress, intonation and rhyme, and may go on for quite some time, praising a warrior, a king, a clan or themselves;
   
4. In southern Africa, shepherds sometimes use flutes and other musical instruments to control the movement of cattle. I was a shepherd once, and I remain grateful for it. I learned how to stick-fight, for one, and I learned what wild roots to eat. Stick-fighting (lekallo) involves a lot of moves that are tantamount to dancing, as the fighters circle each other, or thrust stylishly, or block in a certain, imposing way. To see what I mean, think of the dance moves inherent in capoeira, or even in bull-fighting. Herd-people also play very simple musical instruments, like the lekolulo (Sotho flute), composed of a stick, a cord and a reed;
   
5. An African's life span is marked with musical events, from lullabies through play songs, initiation rite songs, weddings, to funerals. Every wedding in Lesotho sees two competing choirs, one from each of the partner's village. They actually wear distinguishing uniforms and just raise hell and dust to sing the other side down. [Some of the above comes from MSN Encarta]
 

Music, then, is serious matter in Africa. By extension, it is also serious matter to African-Americans, whose fore-parents brought it over as slaves, and maintained enough of it for future generations to "have it in their blood." In her 1899 article called The Survival of African Music in America, Jeanette Murphy says that

During my childhood my observations were centered upon a few very old negroes who came directly from Africa, and upon many others whose parents were African born, and I early came to the conclusion, based upon negro authority, that the greater part of the music, their methods, their scale, their type of thought, their dancing, their patting of feet, their clapping of hands, their grimaces and pantomime, and their gross superstitions came straight from Africa [Source]."

This is as far as I could get for now. I will continue to explore the question in parts 2 and 3 of this post, which will probably be less than a week apart (my fingers and my toes are crossed). There are many more angles to consider than I could have ever imagined. I'll try to dig into as many of them as I can.

Afmalesy

I have not yet identified the source of the strain in African leaders that makes them go awry, that makes them want to hang onto the reins of power despite evidence that they should not do so. This is often at the expense of their country and their country-people. I do not intend, however, to dedicate such behaviour only to African men, first because other continents have known the same fate, albeit to a much lesser degree, and secondly because African leaders have exclusively been men. Who knows how African women leaders would have turned out?

Here's a quick exercise to do right this minute. Get an atlas. We'll wait for you.

One theory I back is that the African family structure has seeped into politics. At home, the father is all powerful, and his word is carved in stone. The mother and the children are his subjects, literally. Let me quickly point out here that I in no way intend to dedicate this pathology to black, African male leaders only. The Afrikaner has it, too, although not of the same origin. His is tinted with religious overtures, whereas the black African male's has a traditional bent. But, indeed, the woman is treated not in a better way by the Afrikaner, and that fact shows in the way he handles politics.

Got that atlas now? Ok, open it to a political map of Africa. Shut your eyes. Place a finger on the map and move it about for the sake of randomness. Now, open your eyes. Your finger will rarely fall on a country that has not known the African Male Leader Syndrome. Call it AFMALESY for short, and for the fact that it sounds like the disease that it is. Alternatively, do this other exercise: listen to African news on the radio, as I did this morning. What do you hear? So what do you think gives?

Another theory is based on the fact that to date, African leaders have largely been freedom fighters. Put "freedom" in inverted commas for some of those. The result is that you end up with all these heads of government whose main skill is toting a machine-gun and rallying people to fight. In the long run that's exactly what most of them do as heads of government. The bush did not teach them about health insurance and about how to curb unemployment. It taught them how to subjugate others. No wonder they run their countries into the ground. Lech Walesa was a bad president because he was such a good something else, having learned and mastered the art of bugging a regime. President Lech Walesa had  absolutely no regime to bug.

I rather like the idea of having a charismatic freedom fighter run the country she's helped liberate, for a term or so. I rather liked seeing Nelson Mandela as president of South Africa for a while, and I liked seeing him leave the political arena to politicians. Okay, the country's free now, I can go back to doing what I do best. Who can I bug into submission? The same thing happended in Lesotho when Ntsu Mokhehle led the country for a term, following the first free elections in that country, then stepped down and handed the reins to more agile politicians.

Yesterday was Women's Day. It would be good if we used it to remember that there are only 11 female heads of government in the entire world, that Africa has just 1 (one out of 52 countries), and only since November 2005; that numbers for women approach 50% within badly paid sectors of the job market, but remain low in other sectors; that in the Arab world, Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Turkey, Venezuela, Argentina and other places, men still commit what they call honour crimes and killings.

New local blog

African Voices and Visions is a new South African blog with a focus on Africa. What makes this blog special is that the author is a young documentary and filmmaker with a passion for Africa, and she travels widely through the continent. Her content is original writing with lots of photo's, and she documents some of the fascinating people that she's come accross like the Voodoo Pope from Benin and other interesting characters. These are the untold stories of Africa, giving insight into the side of Africa that the mainstream media media ignores. I look forward to seeing lots more on this blog.

Jewish community in Uganda

This is very interesting - I had no idea that Uganda is home to a small ethnic Jewish community. They live in the  eastern Ugandan town of Mbale and are known as the Abayudaya, which is the Luganda word for Jews.The community was founded by a warrior called Kakungulu, who was used by the British to help conquer Uganda.

Kakungulu eventually fell out with the colonialists, settled down in Mbale and converted to Judaism in 1919, without ever having met a Jew. By the time he died, about ten years later he had around 2,000 followers.Through the years the community dwindled, but over recent years has experienced a revival, having grown from around 500 members in 2001 to more than 750 members today. The community has built Jewish schools which are currently also attended by Muslim and Christian scholars.

Urbanisation and more evictions in Nigeria

As we know, Africa has many problems. One issue not written about all that much is urbanisation on the continent. According to UN Habitat, urbanisation is one of the biggest challenges facing African countries. Currently two-thirds of Africa's urban population live in informal settlements without adequate sanitation, water, transport or health services. At current levels of urbanisation and with distinct variations across regions, an average of 70% of the urban population in subSaharan Africa has traded a rural lifestyle for life in the city.

More than half of Africa's estimated 750-million people will be living in cities within the next 20 years. The combined population of African cities will double in the next 14 to 18 years. At least 200-million additional people are expected to move to Africa's cities. An estimated 187 million Africans are accommodated in slums, just 19 percent have access to running water, and only 7.5 percent are connected to a sewerage system.

Not only is housing and service provision a problem, but the major African cities are also battling with inner city decay and generally trying to improve the state of city buildings. Concerning city betterment programmes, an unfortunate trend has started to emerge in many African countries including South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya. Municipalities decide to upgrade an area, and then evict thousands of people, often on short notice, without bothering to provide alternative housing.

Lagos in Nigeria, is the latest city to come under criticism from Amnesty International for carrying out such policies. Sapa has the story.

"Police broke down the gate of a huge housing complex to oust thousands of civil servants and their families last Friday in the latest mass eviction by a government struggling to gain control of its chaotic and crowded cities. Police officials were not available for comment on the evictions, but Umma Muhammed, a spokeswoman for tenants of 1 004 Residences, said the move followed a decision by the government to sell off several of its properties in a privatisation scheme. Authorities have not provided the estimated 8 000 residents with other accommodation."

Where was the line?

How did Apartheid South Africa deal with black foreigners? Did a black African from Swaziland, Lesotho, Senegal or Mali have to carry a pass? I suppose not, but one never knows. Were these foreigners treated in the same way as black South Africans were? If so, how about African Americans -- how were they treated? And if not, where was the line and on what basis was it drawn? Passport? Language? Something else?

Has there ever been a diplomatic tussle in relation with a black foreigner being at the receiving end of Apartheid?

UK water company to sue one of world's poorest countries

WORLD DEVELOPMENT MOVEMENT PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release: Thursday 1st December

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UK water company to sue one of world's poorest countries

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Campaigners today (Thursday 1st December 2005) condemned the UK Water company Biwater for suing Tanzania, one of the poorest countries in the world (1). News of the legal action has just been revealed. Earlier this year the Tanzanian Government kicked Biwater out, just two years into a $102 million ten year water privatisation contract, on the grounds that Biwater had failed to make even half the required investment or improve services in the Tanzania's biggest city Dar es Salaam. (2)

Benedict Southworth, Director of the World Development Movement (WDM) said: "This is an absolute disgrace, Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world, and now Tanzanian citizens are being punished for being the victims of a failed policy which they did not want. The privatisation, a condition of debt relief, seriously lacked legitimacy (3). Biwater failed to deliver, with people on the ground reporting that water delivery was getting worse in many areas, with empty taps and Biwater's use of bullying tactics which resulted in mass disconnections. (4)

"Biwater's involvement in the Dar es Salaam contract is insured by the UK Export Credit Guarantee Department (ECGD) so not only could the people of Tanzania but also the UK taxpayer end up footing the bill for this debacle! The UK Government bears a heavy responsibility as UK aid money was used to pay for pro-privatisation pop songs and pop videos in Tanzania, despite the overwhelming evidence exposing water privatisation in the developing world as an abject failure."

As activists in Tanzania mobilise in response to the news, WDM have today sent a letter to Biwater expressing their outrage at the legal action and have launched an online action.

Andrew Mushi from the Tanzania Association of Non-Governmental Organisations, today said:  "We are in full support of our government in cancelling the Biwater contract and we think it is very unfair of Biwater to sue our government because the burden of paying for this legal case will fall on the people of Tanzania. We are going to start up a campaign to oppose the privatisation of water supplies in our country and for an end to this legal case against us."

ENDS

Contact: Jo Kuper Press Officer 020 7274 7630 / 07939 245 864 - jo@wdm.org.uk

Notes for editors

1. The announcement was found on the website for ICSID - International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes: Biwater Gauff (Tanzania) Limited v. United Republic of Tanzania - Water and sewer services concession agreement. Registered November 02, 2005. 

2. According to the Government of Tanzania, City Water (the joint venture company involving Biwater) should have invested $8.5 million during the first two years, but as of May 2005, only $4.1 million had been invested. Announcing the decision (Friday 13 May 2005) Water Minister Edward Lowassa said: "The water supply services in Dar es Salaam and in the neighbouring places have deteriorated rather than improving since this firm took over some two years ago.The revocation was made following persistent complaints by city residents over incompetence of the firm."

3. Tanzania is one of the most heavily indebted countries in the world, its external debt stands at $7.5 billion (World Bank). From 1996 to 1999 privatisation of Dar es Salaam's water was a condition of the IMF's Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility and from 2000 to 2003 it was a condition of an IMF Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility. Continued restructuring and privatisation of public utilities was part of Tanazania's conditions for getting debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative.

4. For further details see ActionAid - Tanzania is the 164th poorest country in the world (out of 177). 60 per cent of the population live on less than $2 a day (UNDP Human Development Report 2005). At least 27 per cent (9.8 million people) of Tanzania's population do not have access to safe water. (World Bank) 40 per cent of children under five suffer from diarrhoea as a result of drinking unsafe (Unicef)

5. Biwater's contract was strongly supported by the UK's Department for International Development (DfID) who gave British consultancy Adam Smith International £273,000 of UK taxpayers aid money to produce public relations materials including a pro-privatisation pop song to persuade a sceptical public of the benefits of privatisation.

6. WDM have sent a letter to Larry Magor and launched an online email action 

7. There is no mention of the case on Biwater's website. According to ICSID where the case will be heard Biwater's papers were received in August 2005. This contradicts Biwater's statement in a letter to WDM (October 13 2005) that a reference to them suing on the Radio 4 programme, You and Yours (05 September 2005) was "speculation" and that they were "continuing to review our options but no final decisions have been taken as yet."

Vicky Cann
Campaigns Policy Officer
World Development Movement

25 Beehive Place
London SW9 7QR

Lesotho is first again... huh?

Yes... Lesotho has done it again... it is the first country to ever offer free and universal AIDS/HIV testing to its citizenry. King Moshoeshoe I would have been proud. Never mind that the move is a tad late, it is more than welcome and it is a brilliant initiative. People have been dying long enough. It was high time something drastic was undertaken. If you're wondering about what it is Lesotho has done again, it is being first, or being the only one, or the highest, smallest, poorest, proudest, ad lib, in the world.

One of the smartest things about the intended program is getting to the populace through village chiefs and traditional leaders: Under the scheme, local leaders will be consulted on how best to offer HIV tests to everyone [Source]. Projects that are introduced into the heart of Lesotho (or of Africa?) by foreigners do not take well and therefore do not last long. It sounds like the project manager involved did his or her homework well and carefully thought out how best to really get the tests to the people. I can only be enchanted.

In 2000, Lesotho's population was estimated at a little below 2.2 million. See the figures for 2000 here, those for 2002 here, and those for 2004 here. This year the population stands at 1,867,035, from 2000's 2,182,700. It is high time something significant was done, and this program looks like it's gonna be it.

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM)

The Commonwealth is made up of the following 53 countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Britain, Brunei, Cameroon, Canada, Cyprus, Dominica, Fiji, The Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and Grenadines, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu and Zambia. Don't let the name fool you, the wealth isn't common at all.

The Commonwealth met in Malta over the weekend and discussed trade, especially the fact that Europe needs to stop subsidising its farmers to give farmers from poorer nations a chance to compete.

The Commonwealth summit ended in Malta Sunday with members urging the European Union to reduce farm subsidies to make the world markets more accessible to the developing countries. Trade dominated the talks of the 53 heads of government attending the three-day Commonwealth summit in the Maltese capital Valletta. The issue was of particular importance, coming just weeks before crucial World Trade negotiations in Hong Kong. [Source]

Well and good. Fair farming practices and competitive trade are essential issues that do need to be sorted out. Handled right, such issues are probably what will pull poorer countries out of the spiral of poverty in which they find themselves. Poor countries do not need handouts, however much they may want them. I keep hearing that old adage, the one about teaching someone how to fish instead of giving them a fish.

The attendees also discussed climate change, migration issues and terrorism. Well and good, again. The problem is that human rights, democracy and political fairness are being danced upon by many of the poor countries in question. Bob immediately comes to mind. Commonwealth leaders, however, "set aside concerns about democracy in Uganda after the arrest of opposition leader Kizza Besigye, and decided they will hold their next summit in Uganda in 2007" [Source] anyway. Some time ago they did (actually Britain did) get Bob to yank his country from the organisation -- but was that enough? And if it was, why do other members keep going scot-free? What makes the Commonwealth so afraid that it prefers to spend money talking about benign issues like competitive trade, instead of capital matters like freedom and human rights, both of which are essential before any beneficial trade can go on?

If we're to have associations, if we're to belong to clubs, if we're to spend money getting together, then the agenda must be comprised of the true ills plaguing those represented by participants. That seems clear enough but is seldom the case, whether with the Commonwealth or with other abbreviations.

Continental abbreviations

The Pan African Parliament, or PAP, is meeting at this very moment in Midrand, South Africa, till 2 December 2005. SABC News reports that one of the issues on the table is the creation of an African Court of Justice, destined to handle continent-wide human rights violations. Members of the African Union will first need to ratify protocols that define and address human rights issues. To date, only eight have done so. The PAP was

established in March 2004, by Article 17 of The Constitutive Act of the African Union, as one of the nine Organs provided for in the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community signed in Abuja, Nigeria, in 1991. The establishment of the Pan-African Parliament is informed by a vision to provide a common platform for African peoples and their grass-roots organizations to be more involved in discussions and decision-making on the problems and challenges facing the continent. [Source]

Just at the time it was announced that the PAP would sit in South Africa, Fodder observed that "we're really starting to believe that the AU is actually going to work, it's slow going and often we seem to be taking as many steps backwards as we are forwards, but the bigger picture is looking rosy for the future of the AU." I want to believe that with all my might. Apart from a positive observation of the situation in Darfur, and a subsequent call to protect civilians as well, the PAP, and the AU, have been mainly lazying about.

For a good while now I've been intimately worried about the incessant creation of abbreviations on the continent. They cost money, and assure the comfort of only a few. Men and women, it may be true, who are dedicated to Africa and to Africans, but who remain caught in the system. It should be clear, one would think, that it is not abbreviations we need but the money that is being used to create them left, right and center. The quote above mentions nine organs, plus the PAP, plus the AU, plus the AEC, plus grass-roots organisations, and that is not nearly close to the actual number of past, present and future abbreviations on the continent.

A speech by Dr Gertrude I Mongella, President of the Pan African Parliament, states that PAP was created "to ensure the full participation of African peoples in the development and economic integration of the continent of Africa. [...] It is us who carry the aspirations of the peoples of Africa. [Source]" I want to believe that with all my might, too.

Mostly Africa has this article: African Union-- who pays?

DA takes important steps to build African democracy

Tony Leon, the leader of the Democratic Alliance, South Africa's official opposition party, and DA National Chairperson Joe Seremane have been in Mozambique for the past two days, to build ties with Renamo, the official opposition party of that country. The two opposition parties have agreed to sign a record of understanding in the new year. Sapa reports that in an attempt to to develop co-operation between opposition parties in the Southern African region, the DA also earlier today, met with a smaller Mozamibican political party, Mozambique's Party for Peace Democracy and Development (PPDD).

So far, the DA has already met with political parties from Namibia and Botswana and intends meeting opposition parties in Zambia and Tanzania in 2006.

"Addressing the Netherlands Institute of Multiparty Democracy in
Maputo on Monday, Leon advised Mozambique to avoid ruling party
dominance which loomed in neighbouring states. He said a ruling party could use its power and patronage to cut down and co-opt the opposition until it was no longer an effective political force. "That is why I believe it is necessary for us to build and improve co-operation among opposition parties-not just within our individual countries, where co-ordinated opposition is more effective opposition, but also across borders, by bringing together opposition parties from throughout the region and Africa as a whole," Leon said".

I think that Leon is taking an important and possibly even a historical step towards building democracy on the continent by trying to build bridges and improve co-operation between opposition parties. What better way to put pressure on strong man governments then by building up powerful opposition movements. This may only be a beginning, but I feel that it is a truly positive development. By working together, opposition parties can learn from one another and gain strength in unity, and by supporting one another. Politically, it's also a good move for Leon who stands to gain credibility from the black population back home by building ties with other African leaders. 

Oil Delta

Amnesty International has released a report about the ongoing violence in the Nigerian Oil Delta. As long as the oil keeps pumping, to hell with human rights and the environment. Don't you just love those Shell ads on TV showing how much Shell cares for the environment. It's enough to make you want to reach for the barf bag. According to Amnesty International:

"Nigerian security forces often gun down unarmed civilians while protecting foreign oil majors in the Niger Delta, rights group Amnesty International said in a just released report, calling on US and British firms to investigate two recent violent incidents.....Amnesty's report focuses on two recent incidents in which deadly force was used by troops after local communities had challenged the rights of two oil majors, Shell and the US giant Chevron, to operate in their area. On February 4, soldiers shot one protester dead and injured 30 more when villagers from the Ugborodo community invaded Chevron's Escravos oil terminal, the report alleges. Two weeks later, on February 19, at least 17 people were killed when soldiers from the same Joint Task Force, which has been deployed to protect the oil industry, raided Odioma, burning much of the town to the ground in a fruitless search for an armed vigilante group."

Africa - digital dumping ground

The Basel Action Network (BAN), a Seattle based environmental organisation has just released a report titled "The Digital Dump: Exporting Reuse and Abuse to Africa." BAN focuses "on confronting the excesses of unbridled free trade in the form of “Toxic Trade” (trade in toxic wastes, toxic products and toxic technologies) and its devastating impact on global environmental justice."

According to the report American and European  recycling firms donate useless equipment to developing nations as a way of getting around the expense of having to recycle it properly.

" A new investigation by the toxic trade watchdog organization, Basel Action Network (BAN), has revealed that large quantities of obsolete computers, televisions, mobile phones, and other used electronic equipment exported from USA and Europe to Lagos, Nigeria for “re-use and repair” are ending up gathering dust in warehouses or being dumped and burned near residences in empty lots, roadsides and in swamps creating serious health and environmental contamination from the toxic leachate and smoke.

The photo-documentary report entitled “The Digital Dump: Exporting High-Tech Re-use and Abuse to Africa,” exposes the ugly underbelly of what is thought to be an escalating global trade in toxic, obsolete, discarded computers and other e-scrap collected in North America and Europe and sent to developing countries by waste brokers and so-called recyclers.

In Lagos, while there is a legitimate robust market and ability to repair and refurbish old electronic equipment including computers, monitors, TVs and cell phones, the local experts complain that of the estimated 500 40-foot containers shipped to Lagos each month, as much as 75% of the imports are “junk” and are not economically repairable or marketable. Consequently, this e-waste, which is legally a hazardous waste is being discarded and routinely burned in what the environmentalists call yet “another “cyber-age nightmare now landing on the shores of developing countries.”

“Re-use is a good thing, bridging the digital divide is a good thing, but exporting loads of technotrash in the name of these lofty ideals and seriously damaging the environment and health of poor communities in developing countries is criminal,” said Jim Puckett, coordinator of BAN who led the field investigation."

Is Africa prepared for bird flu?

Bird flu - it's in all the newspapers, it's getting extreme media coverage, and we've had all the comparisons to the 1918/19 Spanish global flu outbreak when 50 million people died. The first case of bird flu has now been picked up in Greece, in a domestic turkey. The virus has also been detected in swans in Romania. Here is a summary of today's world headlines (sensationalist as always):

• 50 MILLION MASKS BEING DELIVERED TO FRENCH HOSPITALS TO PROTECT AGAINST BIRD FLU
• BRITONS BID FOR BIRD FLU MASKS ON EBAY
• REPORT: UP TO 1.6 MILLION CANADIANS COULD DIE FROM BIRD FLU
• BIRD FLU FEAR GRIPS ITALY DESPITE REASSURANCES
• EU NATIONS DECLARE BIRD FLU GLOBAL THREAT
• WORLD PREPARES FOR FEARED BIRD FLU EPIDEMIC

So would South Africa, and Africa be prepared in the case of an epidemic? Our health department says it's working closely with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to deal with a possible outbreak. Government says there is no immediate danger to South Africa, and officials have intensified detection control measures to prevent possible human exposure. Also, a scientist has been given the happy task of collecting bird poo from the Durban Harbour in order to test for the virus. Around 500 migratory birds, mainly sandpiper and plover, fly to Durban from northern Asia every year for the summer.

You might be interested to know however, that Tamiflu, the drug said to be most effective in the treatment of bird flu, has not yet been registered in South Africa by the Medicines Control Council (MCC). The MCC says not to worry, as they have made an urgent request to the health department to allow for the quick registration of the drug for use here. The only problem, as the Democratic Alliance have so aptly pointed out, is that government's actions may have come too late since the supply of Tamiflu has been severely delayed due to huge demands from all over the world.

What about the rest of Africa? The WHO has asked African countries to start monitoring for the virus - but I guess alot will depend on how much assistance they receive from the WHO and the international community, as most countries do not have the resourses to manage on their own. Sapa reports that so far the Republic of Congo, Kenya and Sudan have taken steps to prevent the spread of bird flu. The Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) has set up a surveillance network on the disease, and all three countries have introduced preventive measures, which means prohibiting imports of domestic and wild birds, as well as poultry products from countries where the virus has been detected. Millions of birds migrate to Africa each year from Europe, and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has issued "dire" warnings that the virus may reach the continent by December.

"Without international assistance, poverty-stricken African nations, whose populations are already at risk from hunger and suppressed immune systems, could be overwhelmed if the virus appears and jumps to humans, experts said. "If Europe, which has many means to stop the bird flu, wasn't able to prevent it, what will happen to us in Africa?" worried an official with the African Union's Nairobi-based Bureau of Inter-African Animal Resources".

In my opinion, if there is a global bird flu outbreak, I don't think it will be anything near as bad as the Spanish flu epidemic - we have better medicines, and better prevention,detection and control systems. However, in saying that, if there is a global outbreak of any serious proportion, it will be the first world that gets off lightly, while the developing countries, and Africa in particular bear the brunt of the disease. What's new?

Resources:
Bird flu: everything you need to know
Q&A: Bird flu

Housing-the struggle to deliver

Mavis Dlamini is 72 years old. She lives in a tin shack in the overcrowded Diepsloot informal settlement on the northwestern outskirts of Johannesburg. On her meager government pension of R700 a month she supports an aging cousin, her unemployed daughter, Nonhlanhla, and two young grandchildren. She also supports the three children of her eldest daughter who died of AIDS two years ago. Mavis gets an additional R180 a month in child support grants for three of the children, but two of them don’t have birth certificates and she has been battling to obtain these from the Department of Home Affairs. Mavis has been on the list for government housing for the past five years, and she is tired of waiting.

For a moment I am temporarily blinded, as I walk from the bright sunlight into the gloomy darkness of her shack. The windowless structure is tiny, and I am amazed that it manages to house eight people. Despite the hardships of grinding poverty, the shack is immaculately clean and tidy. Mavis boils water for tea on a small primus stove in the corner. A makeshift table, constructed from plastic crates and pieces of wooden planking is covered in a shiny oilcloth. Thin sponge mattresses rolled into coils are neatly stacked against a corrugated iron wall wallpapered with old newspapers and pages torn from magazines. A narrow bed, propped up on old paint tins seems to be Mavis’s only luxury, and unframed family photos are proudly displayed on the wall above her bed.

While Mavis, and her daughter and cousin drink from a motley selection of chipped mugs, I sip my sweet, milky tea from a white teacup taken from a cardboard box under the bed in my honour. I have also been told, in no uncertain terms to sit on the only chair, while the rest of the family perch on plastic crates.  Music blaring from a nearby shack competes with the loud voice of a radio news reader in another. Somewhere nearby someone is working on a car, and I can hear the sharp tatatatata of the engine being turned over, again and again. Somewhere else a dog is barking incessantly, and in the shack next door two people are conducting a shouting match. I find the noise of human beings living cheek by jowl overwhelming, but Mavis and her family seem oblivious.

I ask Mavis about the services available to her in this section of the settlement. “No electricity, we are having to use candles, and paraffin for cooking. In winter is too cold, we must always wash with cold water, and now is raining time of year, the rain is coming inside, the children is sick and there is no money, no money for the medicine.” As if to prove her point, a small boy appears in the doorway and gazes hesitantly at me. His breathing is laboured, and thick blobs of mucous crust his nostrils.

Diepsloot informal settlement is home to 80-thousand people, but it is estimated that there is a housing backlog of around 12.5 million people in South Africa. Researchers point out that this figure is probably a conservative estimate, and that the government does not really know how many people require housing. More than half of this number have no access to basic services like electricity, running water, sanitation and refuse removal.

Government has made remarkable strides in attempting to address the backlog having delivered around 1.8 million houses since the advent of democracy in 1994. However, as Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu explains, rapid urbanisation is causing the demand for housing to grow faster than government can deliver it. Briefing the media earlier this year, Sisulu admitted that despite the massive public spending on housing of R29.5-billion over the past ten years, the number of informal settlements has grown substantially. She acknowledged that budgetary constraints coupled with growing backlogs and rapid urbanisation could mean that in ten years time the country would be in exactly the same place with the same backlog of housing for the poor.

The housing situation is exacerbated by other problems. Due to South Africa’s porous borders, the populations of informal settlements are being swelled with immigrants mainly from neighbouring Zimbabwe and Mozambique, as well as Malawi. Maladministration and corruption in the running of housing projects is rife, causing development in parts of the country to stagnate. Developers take short cuts resulting in sub-standard houses that fall apart, and people complain of having to bribe officials in order to move up on the waiting lists. However, although Lindiwe Sisulu seems genuinely committed to sorting out her portfolio, the department as a whole is struggling to stamp out the corruption that has become another major obstacle to delivery.

In the meantime, South Africans are running out of patience. Towards the end of 2004 violent protests against the lack housing and basic service delivery broke out in the Free State province and soon spread to the rest of the country. These protests have continued to take place in different regions on an almost monthly basis ever since. While the official line has been to blame the violence on political instigators, and a lack of communication between government and communities, there is a very real sense of frustration on the ground.  Government seems to have taken note of this, and in recent months have announced a number of new programmes in an attempt to fast track the provision of housing and other services. Also, high level delegations including ministers of relevant departments have paid a series of visits to municipalities around South Africa in order to talk to communities and hear their complaints.

Back in Diepsloot, the sun is going down, and the air is so thick with smoke from the many cooking fires that I battle to breathe.  I ask Mavis if she thinks that the government is making a new effort to finally deliver on their promises. She shakes her head and smiles wryly, “ Yoh yoh yoh,  Mbeki he thinks we stupid, local elections is coming soon, now we see the government is telling us good things. I will believe when I am sleeping in my house”.

AIDS causing dramatic increase in school drop outs

Is South Africa's education system in crisis? Judging by some of the media reports ranging from learners still being taught under trees (especially in KwaZulu Natal), falling standards of education and teaching, and violence in schools, it seems difficult not to conclude, at the very least, that there is a very real and urgent problem.

The latest cause for concern, comes in the form of a Human Rights Watch report released today. According to the report millions of children in southern and eastern Africa are dropping out of school as a direct result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. I'm not sure what the exact figures are for South Africa, but according to Willie Madisha, president of the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) it numbers in the tens of thousands. Madisha said that 52% of all pupils reached Grade 12 while less than 88% reached Grade 5. Although I'm not sure that those numbers are all due to HIV/AIDS, I would imagine that the majority of drop outs are AIDS related.

According to the Human Rights Watch report, in South Africa, Kenya and Uganda, there are more than 12 million children orphaned by AIDS, and that excludes the millions of school age going children whose parents are terminally ill. The report goes on to say that when it comes to government AIDS programmes and the official response to AIDS, this consequence of response to the disease is being almost entirely overlooked and neglected.

Other experts on this issue have made the obvious observation that the effect of Aids in the classroom will have long term consequences by dampening economic growth across the continent. One of the solutions that springs to mind would be for government to provide special grants to orphaned children who can't afford uniforms and school fees, but researchers point out the downside:

"We remain unconvinced that special grants are the best policy response to the risks orphans face, at least with respect to their schooling. Our results suggest that cash given to orphans' care-givers is unlikely to close the gap in school achievement. We fear that any money given to caregivers would be disproportionately channelled towards other non-orphan children in the same household and that the orphans would not receive the full benefit".

People who support the capitalist system generally seem to think that it's okay to pay for education, books, uniforms etc. I think that particulary when we look at "African solutions", and especially, in better off countries like South Africa and Kenya, governments should at least ensure that primary and secondary education, as well as the accompanying necessities like books, uniforms and school feeding schemes, are free.

This week, the South African Human Rights Commission will be holding hearings on the right to basic education - and after all, isn't that what basic education should be - a human rights issue, something that we are all entitled to, not just just a privilegefor those who can afford to pay for it.

Xenophobia in South Africa

My apologies for the lack of blogging lately, sometimes life just gets hectic and blogging ends up taking the back seat. This is something I find frustrating, as there are things I want to blog about and I think it's important to have at least something new every day but......

Well, one story that's been huge in the news in South Africa has been the exposure of corrupt police extorting money from immigrants from other African countries. Black immigrants are targeted while white and Chinese immigrants are left alone. Basically, police at the Booysens police station, south of Johannesburg, have been rounding up groups of immigrants on a  daily basis and taking them back to the station - regardless of whether they are here illegally or if they do have the right papers. Then late at night, they allow the immigrants to contact friends or family who have to pay R300 to get them released or they risk being taken to the Lindela Repatriation Centre from where they are sent back to their countries of origin. According to the expose, broadcast initially on South African television, the Booysens case is not an isolated incident. This type of thing occurs at many other police stations around the country.

Lindela has a notorious reputation, and people often end up languishing there for months at a time. Micheal Neocosmos, a professor of sociology at the University of Pretoria is currently writing a book about Xenophobia in South Africa. He told me that immigrants in Lindela are subject to inhuman treatment which can sometimes even be classified as torture. This includes waking people up in the middle of the night and subjecting them to beatings. As far back as the year 2000, the South African Human Rights Commission conducted an inquiry with the following findings:

"The arbitrary and indiscriminate detention of undocumented migrants has become a commonplace, everyday occurrence. This practice flies in the face of the many universally recognized human rights that migrants are entitled to, whether they are documented or not. When asylum seekers are affected, such detention becomes a serious violation of their special right to international protection. Even ordinary South African citizens are not spared the humiliation of having to prove to arresting officers that their presence in the country is legal. What is more alarming are the dangerously high levels of xenophobia and the callous attitudes of officials during the arrest and detention procedures".

Despite this, as recently as last month, the Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula claimed to be outraged that she was not told about the deaths of two illegal immigrants at Lindela. The two immigrants from Zimbabwe were Alice Chumba, aged 22, who was pregnant, and died of complications on July 5, and Mcabangeli Mlambo, aged 18, who died the following day after vomiting blood. The minister's statement came hot on the heels of further South African Human Rights Commission hearings on xenophobia that took place towards the end of August. According to the hearings, South Africa is experiencing a growing hatred towards, and ignorance of, the rights of immigrants and asylum seekers. Also, troubling reports emerged about the conduct of South African police, even towards foreigners who had obtained documents allowing them to stay in the country legally. The hearings found that police routinely confiscate and destroy refugees' documents in order to justify arresting them.

One of the myths contributing to the rise of xenophobia, is that locals fear that immigrants are "stealing" their jobs. However Michael Neocosmos says that in fact, the opposite is often true. Many immigrants come to South Africa temporarily with the purpose of making money - they don't want to stay in the country forever. They set up small businesses and end up actually providing employment to South Africans.

Even if the majority of African immigrants and asylum seekers who come to South Africa are poor and vulnerable, I think it is important to bear in mind that they don't come here out of choice. They are driven here by war and poverty and repressive regimes, and come in search of a better life. They don't want to leave their family and friends and cultural references, or their homes, and I would imagine that most of them yearn to go back to their countries of origin. Refugees and immigrants have suffered enough and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. South Africans who suffered under the humiliation and indignities of apartheid should surely know better. Exiled South Africans were welcomed in other African countries during the apartheid years, the ANC's headquarters were in Zambia, and it is doubtful that without the help and support of these countries that the struggle for freedom would have been won. I think that the current situation is nothing less than a national disgrace.

African democracy

Outgoing Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa was recently quoted as saying that the African continent must discard the political systems it inherited from its colonial masters and develop a "home-grown"
democracy that would better reflect conditions on the continent.

Our political systems and institutions still mirror, to a large extent, systems and institutions of the former colonial powers. What most of us in leadership in Africa are has roots in this colonial past. We still believe that to be educated and to qualify for leadership, one must speak English, French or Portuguese. The posture of colonial administration, with the governor providing patronage, rank and money, was adopted by most former European colonies in Africa, leading to the advent of the so-called "big man" leader on the continent".

Mkapa went on to elaborate - "That Africa ended up with 'big men' at State House is not entirely unrelated to this colonial legacy. Colonialists did not prepare Africans for self-democratic rule," Mkapa said. He noted that many dictatorships in Africa had been bred from the influence of colonial legacy. He added that the "arbitrary borders" drawn for Africa at the Berlin Conference of 1884, along with what he described as the "divide and rule methods used by the colonial masters", explained why the continent, the world's poorest, was the platform for political conflicts and civil wars. "Africa has to bring to a close this sad chapter of conflict," he said. "Our former colonial masters must be courageous enough to accept part of the blame and support Africa as it seeks lasting solutions to these conflicts."

Mkapa makes some interesting points, but, these are my questions:

1. Sure, it's important to take cognisance of the colonialist system and how it negatively and destructively impacted on Africa - but when do we stop blaming the past and using it as an excuse for the lack of democracy on the continent? When do we start saying, ok, this is what happened in the past, and this is why certain things are the way they are now - but how do we use that understanding to move forward, to effect postive change? Or are we going to spend the next fifty years blaming Africa's ills on the legacy of colonialism?

2. Benjamin Mpaka, for all that he raises some thought provoking points, was one of the smarmiest and most obseqious African leaders kowtowing to the G8 at their latest summit when all Africa got was the promise of a few more scraps. Never mind the legacy of colonialism - when are the good African leaders going to realise the even more destructive reality of post-colonialism and stop pandering to western agenda's that don't genuinely want a powerful and successful African continent?

3. What exactly is a "home-grown" democracy that will better reflect conditions on the continent? This is something that Thabo Mbeki has also mentioned, as well as various African intellectuals. But they never somehow give meaningful substance to the concept of what is meant by a unique system of African democracy. I can understand the points of concentrating on African language, African culture, concepts like Ubuntu, African communal life, African history, African values - and this is a great and noble ideal - but at the end of the day, democracy is democracy, whether African or otherwise. It means free and fair elections in a multi-party system, free media, transparency in government, adherence to the letter of the law and the constitution, public participation, robust civil society, and no more corruption, no more leaders who use their power as a vehicle for cronyism and self-interest. It also means African leaders who have the courage to do what's best for the continent and not what's best for the west.

Refugees

A shocking story to come out of Uganda concerning refugees. The country's Catholic Church says that the number of suicides in refugee camps in the north of Uganda is rising alarmingly. According to Sapa 15 people have killed themselves in just one camp during the  last month, and in some camps there are almost daily suicides. The most common method of suicide is by means of ingesting poison.

About 90 per cent of the population in the north of Uganda are said to live in refugee camps.  People are not able to look after their land and livestock out of fear of attacks by the rebel Lords Resistance Army (LRA), as a result they have to depend on food aid provided by the United Nations.

Ugandan Archbishop John Baptist Odama  has said that the notion of suicide is completely at odds with the culture of  the Acholi people (in northern Uganda), and that an Acholi had to be in a very bad situation in order to  decide to kill himself.

In other news, refugees in camps in Darfur in Sudan have complained to the UN saying that they are more concerned about the lack of security in the areas surrounding their camps than by the lack of food. People have to leave the camps to look for firewood, and men are often killed, and women raped by roaming janjaweed. It is estimated that around 2 million people live in refugee camps in Darfur.

It is such a tragedy that people are forced to live this way. Can you imagine being forced to live in a tent for years at a time with nothing to do? You can't live a productive life and look after your fields, you basically exist in a state of limbo, not knowing if your life will ever return to normal.

There has to be a better way

"Even though global food output is adequate to feed the entire world's population, 800 million people are going hungry because they cannot afford to buy the food they or their families need." James Wolfensohn, Former World Bank President.

There is no shortage of food in the world. Hunger is the result of poverty - not having the land on which to grow food or not being able to afford to buy food. It is also the result of the fact that markets serve those who can pay, not those who cannot."
(Christian Aid)

Q: Where does food aid come from?

A: "Food can be bought in the country affected, in neighbouring countries, from overseas or directly donated. Buying food locally means that the locally economy is supported and food can arrive quicker."
(BBC)

"The United States may be the world's largest donor of food, but its donations are often designed as a backhanded subsidy for American farmers. Instead of dumping American cereal surpluses on hungry countries, America should buy local grain and distribute that, thus stimulating agriculture where it is most needed."
The Economist, July 5th 2003 (New Agriculturist)

"The biggest problem with U.S. food aid? Its main beneficiaries aren't the world's hungry, but American agribusiness and shipping companies that sell and transport mountains of grain and other foodstuffs across oceans. Also cashing in are America's private voluntary organizations, many of which sell U.S. food in hunger-struck countries to make money for their other aid work. So says a report entitled "U.S. Food Aid: Time to Get it Right," recently released by the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
(Trade Observatory)

"Of the nearly 3 million tons of food aid provided by the United States in 1996, almost one-quarter was in the form of PL 480 Title I sales, in which food is sold to third world governments on easy credit terms for resale to local livestock industries as feed, and to local food-processing companies who make pasta, bread, cooking oil, and other products for urban consumers. While the proceeds from these sales must generally be used for "development" purposes, which are specified by USAID, Title I has long been used as a primary tool to create new markets for U.S. grain exports. In practice, it functions as corporate welfare."
(Global Issues)

"Mr. Chairman, my name is Gary Martin. I serve as President and CEO of the North American Export Grain Association, (NAEGA). Thank you for the opportunity to participate in a review of US agricultural trade and international food assistance programs.

Established in 1912, NAEGA is a not-for-profit trade association comprised of private and publicly owned companies and farmer owned cooperatives involved in and providing service to the bulk grain and oilseed exporting industry. NAEGA member companies ship practically all of the bulk grains and oilseeds exported each year from the United States. The Association mission is to promote and sustain the development of commercial export of grain and oilseed trade from the United States.

The feeding of hungry people around the world through US food aid programs is a worthy and noble endeavor. US food aid has benefited millions of people throughout the world. Food Aid programs are a significant and very important component of the US bulk grain export market. Every year NAEGA member companies sell millions of tons of commodities, which are exported through the various food aid programs."
(US Senate agricultural hearings 2001)

"A new report from Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy states that artificially cheap food on the world market makes hungry people hungrier. "It’s ironic," said Kirsten Schwind, Policy Director at Food First and author of the report. "You would think cheap imported food would help alleviate hunger. But often it doesn’t. It devastates the livelihoods of local farmers, who then face the choice of migrating to cities to work in sweatshops." This migration actually drives down wages in urban areas and adds to the number of poor people in cities who cannot afford even cheap food."
(Food First)

"Several local organizations fear that the massive arrival of free food in Aceh [Indonesia] will trigger a price collapse, making it even more difficult for the local economy to recover completely and possibly threatening the agricultural capacity that has survived the [Tsunami]disaster.

Their concerns are justified. In Somalia in December 1992, for example, food aid poured into the country, despite the fact that the worst of the crisis was already over and there was a good local harvest. The imported food drove down the prices received by local Somali farmers by 75 percent, forcing many of them to abandon their land and join the queues for imported food handouts. Some farmers complained that relief agencies would not buy their food because the U.S. government only provided them with funds to buy food from U.S. companies."
(Indonesian embassy website/Netherlands)

"Huge bureaucracies are financed (with the aid money), corruption and complacency are promoted, Africans are taught to be beggars and not to be independent. In addition, development aid weakens the local markets everywhere and dampens the spirit of entrepreneurship that we so desperately need. As absurd as it may sound: Development aid is one of the reasons for Africa's problems. If the West were to cancel these payments, normal Africans wouldn't even notice. Only the functionaries would be hard hit. Which is why they maintain that the world would stop turning without this development aid."
(James Shikwati/Kenyan economics expert)

Perhaps I should just shut up and be grateful for all the help we get - and in a sense there is a part of me that is grateful. But, on the other hand, should Africans be grateful for a global economic system that perpetuates poverty and inequality in order to further elitist ambitions both African and western?  I can't help thinking that there has to be a better way.

SA/Zimbabwe loan

Fodder has  a post on the whole South Africa/Zimbabwe loan situation. In the comments section of this post, Shaun asks who Mugabe is talking about in the following quote, "I am aware that there are shrill calls from many quarters, including those which we expect to know better, for the so-called talks with the MDC," said Mugabe in a speech broadcast live on national radio and television.

I think I have a pretty good idea of what "those which we expect to know better" is referring to. I could of course be wrong, but is it quite interesting nevertheless. I had wanted to blog about it before, but because I wasn't able to verify anything I left it. It seemed like it could be ANC legend, myth, or conspiracy theory, but it also seemed very plausible and could have been true.

This is a story I heard one night at a party. I was chatting to some disillusioned, but strong supporters of the ANC who hold middle management positions in government, one in the treasury, and the other in the department of justice. This is what they explained to me. True or not, as I said, I didn't know at the time. The details are a little blurry because I heard the story some time go, but apparently....

Just before Zimbabwe became independent they negotiated a deal in 1979 with Britain called the Lancaster House agreement. Here my details are a bit vague, but roughly, according to this agreement the willing buyer willing seller model was in place, as well as several other severe restrictions on the Zim government in terms of land redistribution. In return Britain would help fund the land reform process. Zimbabwe was also supposed to get money from other international donors to assist