African leaders put ICC to task over Uhuru trial

By EDITH FORTUNATE

African Review | Monday, May 27  2013

African leaders on Sunday supported a petition calling on the International Criminal Court to drop crimes against humanity charges facing Kenyan President Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto.

The leaders want the trials sent back to the national courts.

However, an international human rights NGO was on Sunday pushing back, asking the African leaders to reject what they saw as an attempt to shield Kenyan leaders from justice. The motion for the petition was brought by Uganda and was said to have the support of 53 presidents.

Formal communiqué

Only the President of Botswana opposed it, arguing that the ICC should be allowed to handle the case in accordance with its mandate.

President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto are charged at the ICC in connection with the 2007 post-election violence in which more than 1,000 died and 600,000 others displaced.

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Mugabe says Mandela too soft on whites, in documentary

By AFP | Monday, May 27  2013

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe criticises Nelson Mandela for being too soft on whites, in a documentary giving a rare and intimate look into the family life of one of Africa's longest serving and most vilified leaders.

In a cosy lunch setting with his wife and children, the 89-year old speaks on a wide range of issues from his controversial hold on power, to his relationships with former British premiers Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher.

The two-and-a-half hour interview, described in detail by British and South African media ahead of its airing, shows the usually bellicose and sharp-tongued Mugabe as a loving family man.

Dali Tambo, the son of South African anti-apartheid hero Oliver Tambo, produced the documentary, which will be broadcast on South African public television next Sunday.

In the programme, Tambo dines with Mugabe's family at his wife Grace's dairy farm.

The interview comes just months before crucial general elections in the country which in recent decades has gone from being the breadbasket of southern Africa to its biggest problem child.

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AU at 50: Land issues plague Africa as states lease out community land to foreigners

By RAY NALUYAGA

Africa Review | Sunday, May 26   2013

This week the African Union celebrates its 50th anniversary. How far has the continent come in those fifty years?

For one thing, the land that Africans fought to reclaim from foreign colonisers is being once again taken away from them, this time not by force but through purchase — their leaders are literally selling it from under their feet.

This is perhaps the most urgent continent-wide issue the African Union needs to address.

More than 60 per cent of the African population lives in rural areas and depends on land for its survival. However, reports show that in 2010, up to 123.5 million acres of African land — double the size of Britain — had been grabbed from peasants with the help of their governments.

Also READ: Oxfam report raises red flag on land grabs in Africa

According to Human Rights Watch, as many as 70,000 people in western Gambela region in Ethiopia have been relocated, against their will, to new villages that “lack adequate food, farmland, healthcare and educational facilities.”

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Envoys welcome Turkey’s belated interest in Africa

SİNEM CENGİZ, ANKARA

Today Zaman - 26 May 2013 

African ambassadors in Ankara welcome Turkey’s belated engagement in Africa, lauding Turkey’s commitment to the continent as a strategic partner to the African Union since 2008.

In an exclusive interview with Sunday’s Zaman on the sidelines of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), now known as the African Union (AU), African ambassadors in Ankara shared their views on current Turkish-African relations. Over the past several years, Turkey has pursued a multidimensional and multilateral foreign policy towards the African continent.
The policy of opening up to the African continent, which was initiated in 2005, occupies a special place in Turkey’s foreign policy.
Aware of this policy, Ethiopian Ambassador to Turkey Mulatu Teshome Wirtu believes that all African countries consider Turkey a friendly state.
“Turkey opening up to Africa was indeed late, but better late than never. Now, we are compensating for this gap with increasing cooperation,” said Wirtu.
Wirtu maintained that there are excellent political, diplomatic and economic relations between Turkey and African countries. “Turkey interacts with the continent in many fields, including education. The number of students from African countries coming to Turkey for an education is increasing enormously,” said Wirtu.

Turkey has no hidden agenda for Africa.

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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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