A New Book: The Morality of China in Africa

The Morality of China in Africa: The Middle Kingdom and the Dark Continent 

Stephen Chan

Zed Books 2013 

Edited with authority by the influential and respected Stephen Chan, this unique collection of essays gathers together for the first time both African and Chinese perspectives on China's place in Africa. The book starts with an excellent introductory essay from Stephen Chan, written in his usual elegant prose and featuring some very fresh insights organised with great clarity. Featuring useful historical context, this brave book analyses the 'moral' aspects of the policies and ensuing migration.

The book completely undermines existing assumptions concerning Sino-African relations, such as that Africa is of critical importance for China; that China sees no risk in its largesse towards Africa; and that there is a single Chinese profile/agenda. The resulting collection touches the issue of racism but is equally about moments of pure idealism and 'romance' in Sino-African history.

Table of Contents
Preface
Part1:
The Middle Kingdom and Dark Continent: An Essay on China, Africa, and many fault-lines - Stephen Chan
Part 2: Chinese Responses
Sino-African Cultural Relations: Soft Power, Cultural Statecraft and International Cultural Governance - Jerry C.Y. Liu
From Revolution to Business: China's Changing Discourses on Africa - Qing Cao
Zhuge Liang and Meng Huo: A Metaphor for Sino-African Relations? - L.H.M. Ling
Back to Basics: It could be anyone and, anyway, it's all hard work - Xiaoming Huang
Part 3: African Outlooks
China and Africa: An African View - Patrick Mazimhaka
Competition or Partnership? China, United States and Africa - An African View The African members of the Trilateral Dialogue on China, Africa and the United States - Lopo do Nascimento, William Lyakurwa, Patrick Mazimhaka, Greg Mills, Joe Molo, Sydney Mufamadi, Michael Spicer.
And what about India and Africa? The road ahead - Sumit Roy
The Future of China and Africa - Stephen Chan

Stephen Chan OBE is Professor of International Relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and was a member of the Trilateral Dialogue on China, Africa, and the United States.
www.stephen-chan.com

How China is educating Africa

– and what it means for the west  In an extract from a new book, China's aspirational approach to education and investment in Africa is distinguished from the west's focus on basic needs.

By Stephen Chan
The Guardian - May 12, 2013

The da xue (Mandarin: the big study, or the big reading) or dai ho(k) (Cantonese: the big learning) are Chinese terms for a university. In the romance of the "old days", learning was the only way to bypass the class system. China's annual imperial exams allowed even the poorest subject to step outside his poverty and feudal status to become an official. When, later, learning became concentrated in universities, the institutions became prestigious and symbolic. They were the portals of escape.

With this in mind, it is amazing that Chinese aid to Africa has not seized earlier upon the building of universities. The addition of universities was unremarked in the original Chinese proposal for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 2008. China pledged a $9bn loan, $3bn of which was to develop mines, over which China entered a 68/32% joint venture involving Sinohydro Corporation and DRC's previously almost defunct Gecamines; and $6bn was for infrastructure, with China Railway Engineering Corporation playing a major role.

The Chinese expected to gain 6.8m tonnes of copper and 620,000 tonnes of cobalt over a 25-year period. However, China would also build huge expanses of road and railway and, along those transport routes, a large number of clinics, schools and universities. It was an unheard-of proposal; it would have transformed development in the south of DRC, with provision for a huge increase in the national pool of trained personnel; and it thoroughly alarmed the west, which saw an exponential increase of Chinese influence in central Africa.

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Failure Has Many Fathers: The Coup in the Central African Republic

The Seleka rebels have taken control of Bangui. What does this mean for the future of the long-troubled central African country?

Think Africa Press
28 March 2013 

By Thierry Vircoulon

On Sunday, 24 March 2013, the Seleka rebel alliance in Central African Republic (CAR) took the capital Bangui. President François Bozizé fled to Cameroon. A number of South African troops in Bangui were killed in a fight with the rebels. Seleka leaders now claim to be in control of the government. One of its leaders, Michel Djotodia, reportedly declared himself president and said he would remain in that role for three years. The African Union imposed sanctions on the coup leaders and urged others to do the same.

What is Seleka?

The Seleka – which means alliance in the national language, Sango – is a coalition of several armed groups such as the Union of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR), the Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace (CPJP) and the Wa Kodro Salute Patriotic Convention (CPSK), joined by fighters coming from Chad and Darfur. This coalition came from the northeast of the Central African Republic and reached the doorstep of the capital city, Bangui, at the end of December 2012.

To continue reading.......

Africa and China: More than minerals

Chinese trade with Africa keeps growing; fears of neocolonialism are overdone

The Economist
Mar 23rd 2013 | NAIROBI

A GROUP of five tourists from Beijing passes low over Mount Kenya and into the Rift Valley in their private plane before landing on a dusty airstrip surrounded by the yellow trunks and mist-like branches of fever trees. They walk across a grassy opening where zebras and giraffes roam, snapping pictures while keeping an eye out for charging buffaloes. When they sit down at a table, they seem hungry but at ease. “Last year I went to the South Pole with some friends,” says one of two housewives, showing off iPhone pictures of a gaggle of penguins on permafrost.

Chinese are coming to Africa in ever greater numbers and finding it a comfortable place to visit, work in and trade. An estimated 1m are now resident in Africa, up from a few thousand a decade ago, and more keep arriving. Chinese are the fourth-most-numerous visitors to South Africa. Among them will be China’s new president, Xi Jinping, who is also going to Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo on his first foreign outing as leader.

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Review of Chinua Achebe's There Was a Country

Dear all,

you will find some reviews for Chinua Achebe's most recent book, There was a country below. This is an interesting and complicated book.

There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra by Chinua Achebe Allen Lane, 333 pp, £20.00, September 2012, ISBN 978 1 84614 576 6.



Things Left Unsaid

Reviewed by Chimamanda Adichie

London Review of Books
Vol. 34 No. 19 · 11 October 2012 pages 32-33

Nigeria, at independence from British rule in 1960, was called the Giant of Africa. With a large population, an educated elite and many natural resources, especially oil, Nigeria was supposed to fly the flag of democratic success. It did not, and it is clear now, in retrospect, that it could not possibly have done so. Colonial rule, as a government model, was closer to a dictatorship than a democracy. Nigeria was a young nation, created in 1914, as Nigerian children would learn in history class in the endlessly repeated sentence: ‘Lord Frederick Lugard amalgamated the northern and southern protectorates to form one country and his wife gave it the name Nigeria.’

To continue reading..... 

Chinua Achebe Died

A great African novelist, politician and academician, Chinua Achebe died on Friday. I read his famous novel, Things Fall Apart, several years ago  and was amazed at how he used a native African narrative in order to summarize the traditional relationship between people in a small African village and their struggle with colonialism. His most recent book, There was a Country, is a kind of biography of him, and was published in October 2012. I used this book in my African Studies class in the winter semester. However, I was a little surprised to see how he views the Nigerian-Biafran war separately from the colonial conditions of Nigeria. I think his Igbo background shaped his political and personal views. Therefore, he was criticized by many African intellectuals for being tribe-centric. However tribe-centrism is  to me, an outcome of the colonial conditions he wrote of. I recommend everyone to read his novels Things Fall Apart and There Was A County. We have lost a great African thinker, writer and intellectual.  

Best to all,

Tugrul


Prof Chinua Achebe is Dead By Idris Akinbajo All Africa22 March 2013

Nigeria's literary icon and publisher of several novels, Chinua Achebe, is dead.

Mr. Achebe, 82, died in the United States where he was said to have suffered from an undisclosed ailment.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt he died last night in a hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.

A source close to the family said the professor had been ill for a while and was hospitalised in an undisclosed hospital in Boston.

The source declined to provide further details, saying the family would issue a statement on the development later today.

Contacted, spokesperson for Brown University, where Mr. Achebe worked until he took ill, Darlene Trewcrist, is yet to respond to our enquiries on the professor's condition.

Until his death, the renowned author of Things Fall Apart was the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies at Brown.

The University described him as "known the world over for having played a seminal role in the founding and development of African literature."

"Achebe's global significance lies not only in his talent and recognition as a writer, but also as a critical thinker and essayist who has written extensively on questions of the role of culture in Africa and the social and political significance of aesthetics and analysis of the postcolonial state in Africa," Brown University writes of the literary icon.

Mr. Achebe was the author of Things Fall Apart, published in 1958, and considered the most widely read book in modern African Literature. The book sold over 12 million copies and has been translated to over 50 languages worldwide.

Many of his other novels, including Arrow of God, No Longer at Ease, Anthills of the Savannah, and A man of the People, were equally influential as well.

Prof Achebe was born in Ogidi, Anambra State, on November 16, 1930 and attended St Philips' Central School at the age of six. He moved away from his family to Nekede, four kilometres from Owerri, the capital of Imo State, at the age of 12 and registered at the Central School there.

He attended Government College Umuahia for his secondary school education. He was a pioneer student of the University College, now University of Ibadan in 1948. He was first admitted to study medicine but changed to English, history and theology after his first year.

While studying at Ibadan, Mr. Achebe began to become critical of European literature about Africa.  He eventually wrote his final papers in the University in 1953 and emerged with a second-class degree.

Prof Achebe taught for a while after graduation before joining the Nigeria Broadcasting Service in 1954 in Lagos.

While in Lagos with the Broadcast ing Service, Mr. Achebe met Christie Okoli, who later became his wife; they got married in 1961. The couple had four children.

He also played a major role during the Nigeria Civil War where he joined the Biafran Government as an ambassador.

His latest book, There Was a Country, was an autobiography on his experiences and views of the civil war. The book was probably the most criticised of his writings especially by Nigerians, with many arguing that the professor did not write a balanced account and wrote more as a Biafran than as a Nigerian.

Mr. Achebe was a consistent critic of various military dictators that ruled Nigeria and was a loud voice in denouncing the failure of governance in the country.

Twice, he rejected offers by the Nigerian government to grant him a national honour, citing the deplorable political situations in the country, particularly in his home state of Anambra, as reason.

Below is how Brown University profiled him on its website.

"Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe is known the world over for having played a seminal role in the founding and development of African literature. He continues to be considered among the most significant world writers. He is most well known for the groundbreaking 1958 novel Things Fall Apart, a novel still considered to be required reading the world over. It has sold over twelve million copies and has been translated into more than fifty languages.

"Achebe's global significance lies not only in his talent and recognition as a writer, but also as a critical thinker and essayist who has written extensively on questions of the role of culture in Africa and the social and political significance of aesthetics and analysis of the postcolonial state in Africa. He is renowned, for example, for "An Image of Africa," his trenchant and famous critique of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Today, this critique is recognized as one of the most generative interventions on Conrad; and one that opened the social study of literary texts, particularly the impact of power relations on 20th century literary imagination.

"In addition, Achebe is distinguished in his substantial and weighty investment in the building of literary arts institutions. His work as the founding editor of the Heinemann African Writers Series led to his editing over one hundred titles in it. Achebe also edited the University of Nsukka journal Nsukkascope, founded Okike: A Nigerian Journal of New Writingand assisted in the founding of a publishing house, Nwamife Books–an organization responsible for publishing other groundbreaking work by award-winning writers. He continues his long-standing work on the development of institutional spaces where writers can be published and develop creative and intellectual community."

Foreign Interference in Kenya’s Elections? By Abayomi Azikiwe

Foreign Interference in Kenya’s Elections? 
Uhuru Kenyatta wins while facing charges by the International Criminal Court 

By Abayomi Azikiwe 
Global Research 
March 11, 2013 
Pan-African News Wire

Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta has won the national presidential elections in the East African nation of Kenya. Kenyatta, the son of the first president of the country, Jomo Kenyatta, has come under fire from International Criminal Court (ICC) as well as the governments of the United States and Britain.
Kenyatta representing The National Alliance Party (TNA) won 50.07 percent of the vote eliminating the need for a run-off vote. His closest rival Raila Odinga, representing the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) and the son of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, a leader as well in the Kenyan liberation movement of the 1950s and 1970s, won 43.2 percent of the vote.
Voter turnout was over 86 percent illustrating the high-level of interest in the poll. Odinga rejected the outcome of the election results and is challenging the electoral commission’s tallies through the courts.
The atmosphere surrounding the elections in Kenya was relative peaceful. Five years ago in the aftermath of the voting, violence erupted between supporters of the run-off candidates Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki.
During the unrest in December 2007 and January 2008, some 1,200 people lost their lives. An international team of negotiators from the United Nations and the African Union flew into the country and led talks resulting in the formation of a unity government between Kibaki and Odinga.
This time around both leading candidates have pledged to maintain the peace. Odinga, although challenging the outcome, has said that his opposition to the official results will take place in the courts and not in the streets.
The ICC charges against Kenyatta stem from the unrest in the aftermath of the last election. He is accused of financing and organizing attacks on supporters of Raila Odinga.
The tabulation process for the voting was delayed due to problems associated with a new electronic system. The delay in the results fueled some tensions in the country.
Violence five years ago took on an ethnic character since the majority of supporters of Kibaki were Kikiyu and those of Odinga are Luo. In Kisumu, a stronghold of Odinga, where the violence erupted in December 2007, some began to shout “No Raila, No Peace.”
Nonetheless, Odinga was quoted as saying “Any violence now could destroy this nation forever, but it would not serve anyone interests.” However, he did say that the elections were marked by “rampant illegality” and the electoral process had placed “democracy on trial in Kenya.” ((Reuters, March 9)
Implications for Foreign Interference
Although the Kenyan Supreme Court has stated that it will handle any challenges to the elections fairly and swiftly, the U.S. and Britain have both been accused of using the indictments against Kenyatta and the election results as a leverage to intervene in the internal affairs of the country. Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, who was appointed in 2011, said that “We at the Supreme Court are prepared to hear any petition that  may be filed impartially, fairly, justly and without fear, ill-will, favor, prejudice or bias and in accordance with our constitution and our laws.” (Reuters, March 11)
Kenyatta and his running mate, William Ruto, are facing charges before the ICC. Both men have denied the allegations and say that they will work to clear their names.
The fact that the electorate in Kenya voted in favor of Kenyatta is an indication of the rejection of the ICC and the western imperialists’ attempts to influence the voting. Kenyatta accused the British government of trying to shape the outcome of the vote by warning that any contact with his administration would be at a distance.
The U.S. and other imperialist states indicated that a victory by Kenyatta would complicate relations even though Kenya has been a close ally of Washington and London in the neo-colonial war being waged in neighboring Somalia. Kenya has over 2,000 troops in Somalia participating with the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) which is largely financed by Washington and coordinated through the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM).
According to Alex Perry writing in world.time.com, “If the result withstands Odinga’s challenge, a win for Kenyatta would represent the most stunning articulation to date of a renewed mood of self-assertion in Africa. Half a century ago, Africa echoed with the sound of anticolonial liberation. Today, 10 years of dramatic and sustained economic growth and a growing political maturity coinciding with the economic meltdown in the West and political dysfunction in Washington and Europe have granted Africa’s leaders the authority and means to once again challenge intervention on the continent, whether it comes in the form of foreign diplomatic pressure, foreign aid, foreign rights monitors or even foreign correspondents.” (March 9)
Kenyatta said in his victory speech that “Today, we celebrate the triumph of democracy, the triumph of peace, the triumph of nationhood. We expect the international community to respect the sovereignty and democratic will of the people of Kenya. The Africa star is shining brightly and the destiny of Africa is now in our hands.” (March 9)
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson said prior to the Kenyan elections that “choices have consequences.” This was designed to influence the outcome of the vote.
The ICC has been severely criticized in Africa due to the fact that all of its indictments are centered on leaders and political figures targeted by the U.S. and other imperialist states. Kenyatta will be the second head of state facing indictments by the court based in The Hague.
Republic of Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has been under indictment by the ICC for several years. He, too, has rejected the indictments as a tool utilized by western powers against Sudan.
Most states in Africa and the Middle East have ignored the indictments against President Bashir along with the African Union and the Arab League. Bashir has traveled to numerous African and Arab states for international conferences in defiance of the ICC and the western imperialist states, some of whom, like the U.S., are not party to the Rome Statue which established the ICC.
In an editorial published by the Zimbabwe Sunday Mail entitled “Lessons From Kenya’s Elections,” it states that “All indications point to the fact that this election will have far-reaching implications—not just for relations between Kenya and Western governments but also for relations between Western governments and the rest of the African continent. “ (March 10)
This same article goes on to point out that although Oginga Odinga, Raila’s father, was a true patriot of Kenya and Africa, his son is quite different in regard to his political orientation. Raila Odinga has served as a mouthpiece for U.S. imperialist interests in Africa attacking Zimbabwe and other states targeted by Washington.
The Zimbabwe Sunday Mail observes that Odinga “has come across as a puppet of the West, a man not given to independent thinking. Despite enjoying the support of some Western powers and benefitting from the advantages of incumbency, Raila has once again flattered to deceive.”
Noting the significance of the developments in Kenya, The Sunday Mail stresses that “Uhuru Kenyatta’s victory sends a strong message to the bullies in Washington, London, Paris and Brussels that the people of Africa will no longer be intimidated by racist overlords. In spite of the International Criminal Court charges that dangled above his head like the proverbial sword of Damocles, Uhuru has gone on to win a tough election. It is a huge achievement.”
It will be very interesting to see how the Obama administration proceeds in regard to its relations with Kenya. The country’s strategic location and role within the region will continue to make it a focal point for Washington’s involvement.
Abayomi Azikiwe  Editor, Pan-African News Wire

Kenya vote count 'gives Kenyatta victory'

Provisional figures show deputy prime minister winning presidency with slim margin of 50.03 percent of votes cast.

Al-Jazeera
09 Mar 2013

Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya's deputy prime minister, has won Kenya's presidential election with a slim margin of 50.03 percent of votes cast, according to provisional figures announced by the election commission.

Kenyatta, 51, who faces international charges of crimes against humanity, secured 6,173,433 votes out of a total of 12,338,667 ballots cast, the commission announced on Saturday, indicating that he had secured the more than 50 percent of votes needed for a first round win.
The national election commission said it expected to announce the final result at 11am (08:00 GMT) on Saturday.

Senior advisors to Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who was placed second, have said he will take his case to court if Kenyatta is declared the winner.

To continue reading....

Zulu Song - Miriam Makeba

Zulu Song - Miriam Makeba 

French imperialism engulfs Mali

Abayomi Azikiwe

The Herald Online
February 18, 2013

French defence ministry officials have said that they are planning to make a withdrawal from Mali by April. Since January 11, when the French military began to bomb and launch a ground invasion into

this resource-rich country, the government in Paris has declared that its operations are limited and they were only there as a precursor to the intervention of a regional force from the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).
Although several thousand troops from various African states, including Chad, Nigeria as well as the national army of Mali, have entered the battle alongside the French, the former colonial power also made an appeal for the United Nations to take over the operations which are really designed to secure the resources of Mali for the benefit of Western industrialised states.
Earlier UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had publicly stated that direct intervention by the international body would jeopardise its personnel carrying out humanitarian work inside the country and throughout the region.
On February 10, in the northern city of Gao, armed combatants opened fire on Malian military forces in the downtown area. Soon French helicopters entered the fray firing into areas in the centre of the city in a battle that lasted well into the evening.
According to a report of the fierce battle published by the Associated Press, “The attack in Gao shows the Islamic fighters, many of them well-armed and with combat experience, are determined and daring and it foreshadows a protracted campaign by France and other nations to restore government control in this vast Saharan nation in north-west Africa.
“The Islamic radicals fought against the Malian army throughout the afternoon and were seen roaming the streets and on rooftops in the center of Gao, which has a population of 90 000. (Feb. 10)
“The fighters involved in this round of clashes were thought to be from the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA). Since the French were reported to have entered Gao on January 26, MOJWA has been firing on their military units from outside the city.” French General Bernard Barera claimed that the MOJWA combatants utilised small boats to cross the Niger River into Gao. On February 9 a bomb was detonated at a checkpoint near the entrance of the city.
Abdoul Abdoulaye Sidibe, a member of the Malian parliament based in the capital of Bamako in the south of the country, said that MOJWA had held Gao prior to the French intervention. In relationship to the battle that began on February 10, Sidibe said that, “There was a whole group of them who took up positions in front of the police station and started firing in all directions.” (Globe and Mail, Feb. 10). Just two days before on February 8, a reported suicide bomber driving a motorcycle detonated explosives at the same entrance to Gao. During the fighting on February 10, people remained in their homes to avoid injury and no civilian casualties have been officially acknowledged.
During the clashes on February 10, a police station was taken over by the MOJWA guerrillas. The next day, February 11, French combat helicopters bombed the station in an effort to drive out the fighters.
Journalists who observed the French military assault on the police station said that the building was destroyed and bodies were left lying in the rubble.
These clashes over a three-day period illustrate clearly that the previous claims by France that the targeted groups had been driven from the cities and towns of Konna, Gao, Sevare, Timbuktu and other areas must be viewed with skepticism. (Al Arabiya, Feb. 11)
French military spokesmen have also claimed that the Islamist groups have fled into the north-east mountainous region of Adrar des Ifoghas. Fighter jets have been carrying out bombing operations under the guise of destroying the bases of the fighters and disrupting their supply lines in the area.
The overall security situation in Gao has been deteriorating for several weeks. A number of Malian soldiers have been reported killed by landmine explosions on the main road leading further north.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS.

Abayomi Azikiwe is editor, Pan-African News Wire.

13th International African Studies Conference (Moscow, May 27-29, 2014)

Society and Politics in Africa: Traditional, Transitional, and New

13th International African Studies Conference

(Moscow, May 27-29, 2014)

First Announcement and Call for Panel Proposals

Dear Colleagues,

On May 27-29, 2014 in Moscow the Research Council for the Problems of African Countries and the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences hold the 13th African Studies Conference titled “Society and Politics in Africa: Traditional, Transitional, and New.” The Conference will take place at the Institute for African Studies and the Institute for Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The working languages are Russian and English.

The Organizing Committee would like to encourage you to submit panel proposals, focusing on any particular topics related to the Conference’s umbrella theme. The deadline for panel proposals submitting is April 1, 2013. The Organizing Committee will be glad to consider any panel proposals (within 500 words in English or both English and Russian) received by this date. The information to be submitted alongside with the proposal includes the proposed panel convenor (s)’ full name(s), title(s), institutional affiliation(s), full mail and e-mail addresses, telephone and fax #. The list of prospective papergivers with their particulars is desirable.

The Organizing Committee will inform the applicants about the results of their panel proposals’ consideration by April 15, 2013. Besides that, the Organizing Committee reserves the right to establish one or more Free Communication panels. The list of all the Conference participants is to become known by December 1, 2013 due to the activities of both the Organizing Committee and panel convenors.

None of the proposals may be accepted or rejected on the basis of its submitter(s)’ previous academic credentials, ethnic or national origin, sex, or otherwise, but only on the basis of the proposal’s relevance to, and importance for, the Conference’s general theme.

In the case the proposal is accepted, the Organizing Committee will send you in the beginning of 2014 the list of documents necessary to support your and your panel participants’ visa application process at the Russian Consulates or Embassies in the respective countries.

The conference registration fee in Russian rubles, equivalent to $150 ($75 in rubles for students) is to be paid in cash onsite upon arrival. The registration fee includes the visa application support (Official Invitation*), the Conference Book of Abstracts, stationary items, reception and coffee-breaks. The fee for an accompanying person, equivalent to $50 in rubles, includes the visa application support (Official Invitation) and reception.

The Organizing Committee can assist in booking accommodation, but independent reservation is encouraged. Please note that early hotel reservation in strongly recommended, as the Conference is to take place in tourist high season.

All the correspondence should be sent by e-mail for the Conference Organizing Committee, to the attention of Mrs. Natalia Bondar, Head, Center of Information and International Relations, Institute for African Studies (conf2014@gmail.com; tel.: + 7 495 690 2752) – prospective international participants, or to the attention of Dr. Natalia Zherlitsyna, Secretary, Research Council for the Problems of African Countries (ns_inafr@mail.ru; tel.: + 7 495 690 6025) – prospective Russian participants.

The Organizing Committee would appreciate your familiarizing the faculty of your research unit, as well as all interested persons, with the content of the present Announcement.

 

The Conference Website

The Centre for Chinese Studies (CCS) at Stellenbosch University

The Centre for Chinese Studies (CCS) at Stellenbosch University

The Centre for Chinese Studies (CCS) is the first institution devoted to the study of China in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Centre promotes the exchange of knowledge, ideas and experiences between China and Africa. As Africa’s interaction with China increases, the need for greater analysis and understanding between our two regions and peoples grows.

This involves evaluating China’s developmental role in Africa that is felt in various capacities ranging from trade and investment to humanitarian assistance. The Centre seeks to fulfil this role. The Centre conducts analysis of China-related research to stakeholders in Government, business, academia and NGO communities.

The Centre also delivers lectures to academic and business audiences at the Stellenbosch University and other local universities. The CCS hosts visiting academics within the China Forum that provides a platform for discussion and debate on China-Africa related subjects. China Forum events are most often organised in collaboration with other institutions.

The CCS has co-operative linkages with key Chinese universities and institutions pursuing both research collaboration and exchange undertakings. The CCS has exchange agreements in place with Xiamen University, the Institute of West Asian & African Studies within the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Shanghai Institute for International Studies and Development Research Council.

The Centre for Chinese Studies also maintains close ties to the Confucius Institute at Stellenbosch University,  the first of its kind in South Africa, housed in the Postgraduate and International Office.

How The ANC Betrayed Its Founding Principles

What was the fundamental objective of the African National Congress (ANC) when it was formed in 1912? Did ACN leaders, especially those from 1955 onwards, pursue the primary goal of the 1912 vision envisaged by the founding fathers? Does the present ANC have the same objectives as the 1912 ANC?

Dr Motsoko Pheko

New African
February 10, 2012

When opening the inaugural conference of the ANC (then called SANNC) on 8 January 1912, Dr Pixley ka Seme said: “Kings of the royal blood and gentlemen of our race, we have gathered here to consider and discuss a scheme my colleagues have decided to place before you... In the land of our birth, Africans are treated as hewers of wood and drawers of water. The whites have formed what is known as the Union of South Africa in which we have no voice.”

African kings had fought many wars of national resistance against colonialism for over 200 years until their spears succumbed to the guns of the colonial aggressors. All had their lands forcefully taken from them. Others, like King Hintsa, had fallen by the bullet of the foreign invader in battle defending the African country against rapacious colonial forces.

In 1952, Dr S. Moridi Molema, an ANC leader, described these colonialists as “men who are nothing else but robbers, villains and traitors to the highest and noblest teachings of Christianity which they so blatantly profess, men shockingly contemptuous of their conscience and now in a frenzy of self-adulation preparing to embrace each other and shake their bloody hands ... and ready to commence another evil era of rapine and oppression.”

The colonial laws that precipitated the formation of the ANC in 1912 were the Union of South Africa Act 1909 and the Native Land Act 1913. The British parliamentary Act enacting the Union of South Africa read as follows: “1. This Act may be cited as the South Africa Act 1909... The qualifications of a member of the House of Assembly shall be as follows: He must... be a British subject of European descent.”

There were five million Africans in South Africa in 1909 compared to 349,537 colonial settlers (according to the 1904 census). The five million indigenous Africans remained helpless spectators as the tragedy of their land dispossession unfolded before them.

The draconian British colonial law was followed by another one called the Native Land Act 1913. This colonial law allocated 93% of the African country to the 349,837 European settlers and 7% to five million Africans!

To continue reading.......

'Mali war will spill over to North and West Africa: Abayomi Azikiwe

Press TV

January 26, 2013

To watch the video: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/01/26/285665/mali-war-is-spreading-across-the-region/

 

A political analyst tells Press TV that the war in Mali is spreading throughout the entire region and many governments have called for the resumption of comprehensive peace talks in order to resolve the situation in Mali.

This is while the African Union has been seeking to increase the size of the African-led force in Mali as French and Malian troops push further towards northern parts of the West African country.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, to further discuss the issue. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: The UN Security Council blasted the coup leaders in Mali last year. Now most of the same powers that is, including France, have intervened in Mali based on an invitation from the same coup leaders. How is the intervention justified?

Azkiwe: The aggression is not justified. We have to understand that the United States had strong ties with the Malian military. In fact in today’s New York Times it indicates that some five hundred million dollars was spent over period of years in training some of the top officers in the Malian military and all of this training has been a complete disaster because when it came time for the Malian military to confront the separatists in the north of the country, they collapsed immediately and a lot of the military equipment and even some of the combatants took off their uniforms and blended into the population.

So France’s military intervention in Mali right now is exacerbating the human rights violations and humanitarian crisis that exists in northern Mali at this time.

Press TV: Mali had twenty years of democracy, a constitution and an elected government. Now their restoration is not on the French agenda in Mali. What do you make of that?

Azkiwe: I think that it should be on the agenda. Many governments throughout the region, many non-government organizations have called for the resumption of comprehensive peace talks in order to resolve the situation in Mali and the war of course is spreading.

We saw what happened last week at the In Amenas gas fields in Algeria and now France just announced today that they are deploying special forces units to guard the Areva uranium mines located in neighboring Niger.

These mines are very valuable to the Western Industrial Complex, so this war is not just being maintained within the internal borders of Mali but it is spreading throughout the entire region of North and West Africa.

So we very urgently call upon the African Union which is meeting right now in Ethiopia as well as the Economic Community of West African States to demand the France seizes military intervention in Mali and also bring about the comprehensive negotiation of a peace settlement inside the country.

Malian War: French Military Units Move Further Into Northern Region 

Abayomi Azikiwe

The 4th Wire
Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Special Forces deployed by Paris to Niger to “secure” uranium mines

Reports emanating from the West African state of Mali indicate that French grounds forces accompanied by the national army from the capital of Bamako–along with a small contingent of regional troops from Niger, Burkina Faso, Togo, Senegal, Benin, Chad and Nigeria–are moving towards the northern historic city of Timbuktu. Although there has been a media blockade by the French and Malian governments about the impact of the war, details of the conditions taking place inside the country are emerging.

In the northern city of Gao, French and Malian forces claim that they have taken the airport and are moving to occupy the city. A military press release from Paris stated that they were fired on by “Al-Qaeda linked terrorist elements who were destroyed.” (Associated Press, January 28)

Nonetheless, the ministry of defense in France has attempted to sanitize the actual situation in the contested areas. One report asserted that no civilians have been killed in the imperialist military operations, although other news agencies have contradicted these statements.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in a press release issued on January 22, stated that “As air bombing and fighting continue in Mali refugees are continuing to cross into neighboring countries. In Mauritania, 4,208 Malian refugees have arrived since January 11.” (UNHCR)

This same media advisory continues noting that “After being registered at the Fassala transit center, they are being transported further inland to the Mbera refugee camp which is already hosting 55,221 people from earlier displacements.” During the same time period 1,300 refugees have arrived in Niger and 1,829 entered Burkina Faso.

Malians arriving in these neighboring states say that they are fleeing air strikes being carried out by French fighter jets. They are complaining about shortages of food, fuel and water. Many new arrivals are traveling in vehicles, but others are on foot and donkeys.

The refugees are anticipating that other members of their families will be crossing the borders very soon. Since the escalation of fighting in the north of Mali in January 2012, which was largely the result of the U.S.-NATO war against Libya, some 147,000 refugees have fled the country.

Inside the country, the UNHCR reports that 229,000 people have been internally displaced mainly from the areas around Kidal, Timbuktu and Gao. The UN refugee agency is assisting by providing food, water and shelter for the internally displaced as well.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced recently that the international body would not directly participate or authorize the deployment of troops under its authority. Ki-moon cited the humanitarian work carried out by the UN agencies, saying that the organization’s direct involvement would jeopardize the safety and security of its personnel.

Meanwhile the United States military is providing C-17 air transport for the French troops and equipment entering Mali. The Obama administration has pledged its support to the invasion and occupation of Mali where the Pentagon has maintained close ties with the national army.

Other NATO states are also participating in the war including Britain, Canada, Denmark and Italy. The Italian government announced on January 28 that it could not continue its support for the French war in Mali without the support of the parliament.

War Spreading to Niger

France announced that it would also deploy Special Forces units to neighboring Niger to guard the Areva uranium mines. The mines provide up to 70 percent of the uranium utilized to power its nuclear power reactors in France.

The mines are located in the areas around the towns of Arlit and Imouraren. Areva maintains operations in Canada, Kazakhstan as well as Niger.

Areva is the second largest uranium mining producer in the world. The mines in Niger are critical to its operations globally.

Just last year in October, the Niger government complained to Areva about the slow pace of its operations aimed at uranium production at the Imouraren site. Several personnel working at the mines were kidnapped during 2010 creating a serious security problem for the firm.

Also there were labor disputes in early 2012 among the construction workers at the Imouraren mines. The delays strained relations with the Niger government which threatened to withdraw support if the firm could not meet its construction deadlines.

France, a former colonial power in Africa, still maintains troops in various states on the continent including Gabon, Ivory Coast, Central African Republic, Niger and others. The U.S., which is expanding its military presence in Africa with the deployment of an additional 3,500 troops to 35 states, is therefore a natural ally of France in the imperialist expansion in the region.

Africa is becoming even more important in the supply of strategic resources essential for the maintenance of the industrial status of the western states. Oil, natural gas, coltan, platinum and uranium exist in abundance throughout the continent.

In addition to these resources, new findings have taken place over the last year in regard to natural gas and oil in East Africa. Explorations are ongoing in Uganda, Tanzania and Somalia as well as offshore areas in the Indian Ocean.

New Attacks in Algeria

On January 27, there was an attack carried out at the Ain Chikh natural gas pipeline in the Djebahia region of northern Algeria, some 75 miles east of the capital of Algiers. Initial reports indicated that two security guards were killed and five others were wounded.

Algeria was the scene of the seizure of the In Amenas gas field by an Islamist armed group purportedly headed by Mohktar BelMohktar of the “Signatories of Blood.” Algerian military forces stormed the plant on two occasions releasing hundreds of workers but the seizure resulted in the deaths of at least 81 people.

The war initiated by France against Mali, purportedly designed to prevent “Islamist extremists” from taking control of the entire country, has worsened the security situation throughout the region. U.S. trained Malian military personnel staged a coup against the democratically elected government in Bamako on March 22, after the army failed to mount an effective counter-attack against the Tuareg fighters in the north.

Opposition Grows to the Imperialist War in West and North Africa

More organizations are coming out against the French bombing and occupation of Mali, the spreading of the war into neighboring states and the support being provided by various NATO states.  Workers World issued an editorial in its January 31 issue calling for the withdrawal of imperialist forces from the country.

Also Fightback! News, the website of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), published a statement opposing the intervention. A demonstration was held on January 23 in Minneapolis involving peace activists organized by the Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) chanting “No U.S. Drones to Mali, No U.S. Intervention in Mali!”

The United National Anti-War Coalition (UNAC), a broad-based coalition of various groups from around the U.S., had already issued a statement opposing intervention in Mali prior to the French bombing and ground invasion which began January 11. The organizations’ administrative committee and coordinating committee has held two national conference calls on the situation inside Mali and the region.

UNAC will be issuing another statement updating its position on the current crisis. Plans are also underway for a national tour featuring people from the U.S. and Pakistan who are opposing the Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) drone program that is devastating countries throughout Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.

Mr. Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor, Pan-African News Wire, is one of the frequent contributors for The 4th Media.

Mali crisis: 330 UK military personnel sent to West Africa

BBC

January 29, 2013

The UK is to deploy about 330 military personnel to Mali and West Africa to support French forces, No 10 has said.

This includes as many as 40 military advisers who will train soldiers in Mali, and 200 British soldiers to be sent to neighbouring African countries, also to help train the Malian army.

French-led forces are continuing their offensive against Islamist militants who seized northern Mali last year.

International donors have pledged $455.53m (£289m) to tackle militants.
The 330 military personnel comprise 200 soldiers going to West African nations, 40 military advisers to Mali, and 90 support crew for a C-17 transport aircraft and a Sentinel R1 surveillance plane. None will have a combat role.

To continue reading....

US signs deal with Niger to operate military drones in west African state

Mali Islamists' war reveals paucity of west's intelligence on Sahel and Sahara but Pentagon's move could backfire, analysts warn      

Paul Harris in New York and Afua Hirsch in Accra   

The Guardian
Tuesday 29 January 2013

The US government appears close to opening a new front in its fight against Islamist militants by planning a new base for surveillance drones in the west African country of Niger.

American forces are already assisting a French offensive in neighbouring Mali that is aimed at recapturing the country's northern desert territory from the hands of Islamist rebels. On Monday the US signed a military agreement with Niger that paves the way legally for US forces to operate on its soil, prompting a series of reports that the Pentagon was keen on opening a new drones base there.
That news appeared to be confirmed by Niger government sources, who said the US ambassador in Niamey, Bisa Williams, had asked Niger's president, Mahamadou Issoufou, for permission to use surveillance drones and had been granted it.

"Niger has given the green light to accepting American surveillance drones on its soil to improve the collection of intelligence on Islamist movements," a Niger government source told Reuters.
In Washington a diplomatic source told the Guardian that the recently signed deal, known as a "status of forces" agreement, was very broad. "There are no constraints to military-to-military co-operation within the agreement," the source said.

To continue reading......

Crisis In The Congo: Uncovering The Truth

Crisis In The Congo: Uncovering The Truth

Africa For Norway - New charity single out now! Official christmas video

Africa For Norway - New charity single out now! Official christmas video 

 

US AFRICOM Operation Underway in Mali.

“Keeping China out of Africa”

By Patrick Henningsen

Global Research, January 20, 2013 21st Century Wire

As we predicted this past week, the theatrical upheaval in Mali was merely a nudging exercise to move forward the stated objectives laid down in US AFRICOM policy.

With no debate or questioning in foreign policy circles, and with Obama’s coronation and ceremonial pop concert in Washington DC keeping American eyes and ears glued to the corporate media punditry, NATO allies, led by the US, are carefully carving out a comprehensive military footprint in Africa in order to further evict Chinese influence from the continent.

A convenient excuse in the short-term will be to ‘stop the spread of Islamic extremist, but as history has witnessed, this is merely a superficial justification for a comprehensive military and economic colonization of the region over the next two decades. Ironic that it would be America’s first ‘black’ President who would reside over the takeover of Africa. Expect more US bases to come in the near future, as well as more violent civil wars popping up regularly in the region.

To continue reading.....

Eritrea: What Really Happened At Asmara's Ministry of (dis)information ?

AllAfrica
January 24, 2013

The Eritrean capital, Asmara, saw an uprising on 21 January that was both unexpected and short-lived. Around 100 soldiers staged a mutiny and stormed the information ministry. The army responded by surrounding the building with tanks. After a 12-hour interruption, the state broadcast media resumed their normal programming, the mutineers withdrew and officials went home.
What really happened that day at the information ministry? Some information began to filter out the next day, and more has emerged since then. But it has not been easy to follow events as they happened. And establishing what this incident means and what it may bode for the future is even harder.

Eritrea is one of the world's most closed countries and has one of the last totalitarian dictatorships. The mystery surrounding the events of 21 January and the chorus of denials and contradictory comments on social networks are the logical consequence of a situation in which privately-owned media have been banned since 2001 and no foreign press correspondents have been permitted since 2010.

To continue reading.....

Mali, France, and chickens

As in: come home to roost

Conn Hallinan

Pambazuka News
2013-01-23, Issue 614

It appears the French had one of their wars going on thereabouts.’ -- Charlie Marlow from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The vision that Conrad's character Marlow describes is of a French frigate firing broadsides into a vast African jungle, in essence, bombarding a continent. That image came to mind this week when French Mirages and helicopter gunships went into action against a motley army of Islamic insurgents in Mali.

That there is a surge of instability in that land-locked and largely desert country should hardly come as a surprise to the French: they and their allies are largely the cause. And they were warned.

HISTORY IS IMPERATIVE

A little history. On 17 March 2011, the UN Security Council approved Resolution 1973 to ‘protect civilians’ in the Libyan civil war. Two days later, French Mirages began bombing runs on Muammar Gaddafi's armoured forces and airfields, thus igniting direct intervention by Britain, along with Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Resolution 1973 did not authorize NATO and its allies to choose sides in the Libyan civil war, just to protect civilians, and many of those who signed on-including Russia and China-assumed that Security Council action would follow standard practice and begin by first exploring a political solution. But the only kind of ‘solution’ that the anti-Gaddafi alliance was interested in was the kind delivered by 500-lb laser-guided bombs.

WESTERN ARROGANCE SIDESTEPS AU

The day after the French attack, the African Union (AU) held an emergency session in Mauritania in an effort to stop the fighting. The AU was deeply worried that, if Libya collapsed without a post- Gaddafi plan in place, it might destabilize other countries in the region. They were particularly concerned that Libya's vast arms storehouse might end up fuelling local wars in other parts of Africa.

However, no one in Washington, Paris or London paid the AU any mind, and seven months after France launched its attacks, Libya imploded into its current status as a failed state. Within two months, Tuaregs-armed with Gaddafi's weapons cache-rose up and drove the corrupt and ineffectual Malian army out of Northern Mali.

The Tuaregs are desert people, related to the Berbers that populate North Africa's Atlas mountain range. They have fought four wars with the Malian government since the country was freed from France in 1960, and many Tuaregs want to form their own country, ‘Azawad.’ But the simmering discontent in northern Mali is not limited to the Tuaregs. Other ethnic groups are angered over the south's studied neglect of all the people in the country's north. The Tuaregs are also currently fighting the French over uranium mining in Niger.

The Gaddafi government had long supported the Tuaregs’ demands for greater self-rule, and many Tuaregs served in the Libyan army. Is anyone surprised that those Tuaregs looted Libyan arms depots when the central government collapsed? And, once they had all that fancy fire power that they would put it to use in an effort to carve out a country of their own?

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At Davos, bankers close in on Africa

By Kelvin Soh and Alexander Smith 

DAVOS, Switzerland

Reuters
Fri Jan 25, 2013 

Jan 25 (Reuters) - Move over, China. The market that has got bankers attending the World Economic Forum at Davos this year excited is Africa.


"One market where we see plenty of opportunity is Africa," Peter Sands, Standard Chartered's chief executive, said during an interview. "It's a part of the world that doesn't get so much focus because everyone, quite rightly, is all excited about India and China and the whole ASEAN region."

Chinese banks were among the first to make their way into the continent, with ICBC, the world's biggest bank by market value, having bought a 20 percent stake in South Africa's Standard Bank in 2007.

Since then, other banks have started making their way into the region, mostly to facilitate trade between Africa and resource-hungry China. HSBC's chief executive for the Middle East and North Africa Simon Cooper called this "south-south trade."

"There's a lot of work facilitating companies from China that want to go to Africa and we expect such trade to continue to grow," Cooper said in an interview.

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African Film Festival: February 1 and March 2, 2013

Welcome to the 23^rd Cascade Festival of African Films“

Africa through African Lenses”

February 1 – March 2, 2013
Portland, Oregon

Free and open to the public on a first-come, first-seated basis

We are very pleased to present a variety of feature and documentary films from the African continent. The majority of films were made by African directors. The films celebrate Africa’s achievements, expose Africa’s failures, and reveal the possibilities for change and a more hopeful future. They show us pictures of Africa through the eyes of Africans, rather than a vision of Africa that is packaged primarily for western viewers. The films represent African concerns that are political, historical, and social. This year’s films cover a wide range of themes and topics, including: liberation, freedom and justice; elections and democracy; self-expression through the arts and music; education; sports; health and healing; the search for identity; family and community; and women’s independence.
We view film as a medium for artistic expression and illumination. These films were chosen on the basis of their quality as film and their ability to captivate and move audiences. We also chose them because they represent different countries and cultures and a range of lifestyles from pre-colonial to modern times, including both rural and urban settings. Although it is impossible to represent a whole continent with only a few films, it is our hope that through this annual film series we will encourage American viewers to become interested in African cultures and to study them further.
The 23^rd Festival is dedicated to the memory of Harold C. Williams, Sr. (March 18, 1943–July 1, 2012), a member of Portland Community College Board of Directors since 1990 and long-time beloved community leader. Harold was a dedicated champion of PCC’s Cascade Campus and believed strongly in the festival’s mission of connecting members of Portland’s African-American community with their African heritage. We will miss him deeply.
Construction on two new buildings and a new underground parking structure will limit parking availability during the festival, so please consider taking public transportation, carpooling, or using alternative transportation. For more information on parking, see the PCC Cascade Parking Guide.