Friday, October 31, 2014
Burkina Faso: Ghost of 'Africa's Che Guevara'
In the weeks before violent protests, some Burkinabes' thoughts turned to slain leader Thomas Sankara for inspiration.
Kingsley Kobo
Al-Jazeera - 31 Oct 2014
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso - In the early hours of a
night in 1987, one of Africa’s youngest leaders, Thomas Sankara, was
murdered and quietly and quickly buried in a shallow grave.
Now, the man widely believed to be behind it, Burkina Faso's president, has watched as his parliament was set ablaze by furious protesters who want him gone.
Many of the protesters say the history of the slain 1980s leader partly inspired them to rise against Blaise Compaore, who has been in power for 27 years and was trying, by a vote in parliament, for another five.
Though some see Sankara as an autocrat who came to office by the power of the gun, and who ignored basic human rights in pursuit of his ideals, in recent years he has been cited as a revolutionary inspiration not only in Burkina Faso but in other countries across Africa.
In the weeks before the current chaos, Al Jazeera spoke to people in the capital, Ouagadougou, and found many who predicted that Sankara’s memory, and Compaore's attempt to seek another five-year term, may soon spark an uprising.
READ MORE....
Kingsley Kobo
Al-Jazeera - 31 Oct 2014
Now, the man widely believed to be behind it, Burkina Faso's president, has watched as his parliament was set ablaze by furious protesters who want him gone.
Many of the protesters say the history of the slain 1980s leader partly inspired them to rise against Blaise Compaore, who has been in power for 27 years and was trying, by a vote in parliament, for another five.
Though some see Sankara as an autocrat who came to office by the power of the gun, and who ignored basic human rights in pursuit of his ideals, in recent years he has been cited as a revolutionary inspiration not only in Burkina Faso but in other countries across Africa.
In the weeks before the current chaos, Al Jazeera spoke to people in the capital, Ouagadougou, and found many who predicted that Sankara’s memory, and Compaore's attempt to seek another five-year term, may soon spark an uprising.
READ MORE....
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Burkina Faso declares state of emergency
Government and parliament dissolved after tens of thousands take to streets and parliament set ablaze, army chief says.
The Al-Jazeera - 30 Oct 2014
Burkina Faso's president has declared a state of emergency, after tens of thousands of people took the streets, setting parliament ablaze in violence that left at least one person dead.
Army General Honore Traore, the joint chief of staff, also said that the government and parliament had been dissolved on Thursday.
Some of the protesters, who are opposed to constitutional amendments that would allow President Blaise Compaore to stay in power for another term, ransacked state television and tried to storm other state buildings.
"A state of emergency is declared across the national territory. The chief of the armed forces is in charge of implementing this decision which enters into effect today," said a statement from the president read by a presenter on Radio Omega FM.
The president also said he would open talks with the opposition.
READ MORE....
The Al-Jazeera - 30 Oct 2014
Burkina Faso's president has declared a state of emergency, after tens of thousands of people took the streets, setting parliament ablaze in violence that left at least one person dead.
Army General Honore Traore, the joint chief of staff, also said that the government and parliament had been dissolved on Thursday.
Some of the protesters, who are opposed to constitutional amendments that would allow President Blaise Compaore to stay in power for another term, ransacked state television and tried to storm other state buildings.
"A state of emergency is declared across the national territory. The chief of the armed forces is in charge of implementing this decision which enters into effect today," said a statement from the president read by a presenter on Radio Omega FM.
The president also said he would open talks with the opposition.
READ MORE....
Monday, October 27, 2014
Tanzania says construction of China-funded port to start in 2015
The Africa Report - Monday, 27 October 2014
By Fumbuka Ng'wanakilala in Dar Es Salaam
Tanzania aims to build a huge port at Bagamoyo, 75 km (47 miles) north of commercial capital Dar es Salaam, the site of the country's main port, where shippers complain of congestion and inefficiencies. A construction agreement for the port and associated zone was signed on Sunday and follows a framework deal signed last year. An official said a start date for building work had taken time to set because of other negotiations about infrastructure to link the port to national transport networks. The planned Bagamoyo port, new investment in Dar es Salaam and other spending on roads and railways are part of Tanzania's efforts to become a transport hub that could challenge the dominance of Mombasa in neighbouring Kenya. "The Tanzanian government signed a memorandum of understanding with two major international institutions ... to develop the Bagamoyo economic zone," Tanzania's presidency said in a statement, adding construction would start on July 1 next year.
READ MORE....
By Fumbuka Ng'wanakilala in Dar Es Salaam
Tanzania aims to build a huge port at Bagamoyo, 75 km (47 miles) north of commercial capital Dar es Salaam, the site of the country's main port, where shippers complain of congestion and inefficiencies. A construction agreement for the port and associated zone was signed on Sunday and follows a framework deal signed last year. An official said a start date for building work had taken time to set because of other negotiations about infrastructure to link the port to national transport networks. The planned Bagamoyo port, new investment in Dar es Salaam and other spending on roads and railways are part of Tanzania's efforts to become a transport hub that could challenge the dominance of Mombasa in neighbouring Kenya. "The Tanzanian government signed a memorandum of understanding with two major international institutions ... to develop the Bagamoyo economic zone," Tanzania's presidency said in a statement, adding construction would start on July 1 next year.
READ MORE....
Sunday, October 26, 2014
'Africa can learn from Zambia's unity', says Kenneth Kaunda, and he has no regrets
Lee Mwiti
Mail Guardian - 24 Oct 2014
Zambia on October 24 celebrates its 50th birthday as an independent nation, and to better appreciate the country’s journey, Mail & Guardian Africa dropped in on His Excellency Dr Kenneth Kaunda, its first president. Excerpts.
Mail & Guardian Africa: You have seen Africa though 50 years of post independence, longer than any of your peers—any founding father who was leading his nation at independence. What would you say is the secret to your long and rich life?
Kenneth Kaunda: When you look at the creation of wealth, God taught us to love God your creator, with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. He also taught us to love thy neighbour, as thou lovest thyself. Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.
These commandments are in my view what God made to guide us, and where these commandments are followed, there is genuine peace.
MGA: You were part of a golden generation of African independence leaders that quickened the end of colonisation in Africa, in the spirit of that song you like, Tiyendi Pamodzi (forward together). With the benefit of hindsight, would you have done anything differently during the struggle for independence?
KK: I cannot see how anyone could fail to identify the meaning of building a nation anywhere, any part of the world, because we need to move forward in one way, and think of certain things in our nations, especially in the meaning of development. Development can be in many forms and in various fields of human endeavour, its not just in one area. Your question becomes important even more when we realise man’s future is dependent on a number of things that he is required to do; if man doesn’t do these things in a necessary way, then what is there, it will all collapse, it will become nothing.
READ MORE.....
Mail Guardian - 24 Oct 2014
Zambia on October 24 celebrates its 50th birthday as an independent nation, and to better appreciate the country’s journey, Mail & Guardian Africa dropped in on His Excellency Dr Kenneth Kaunda, its first president. Excerpts.
Mail & Guardian Africa: You have seen Africa though 50 years of post independence, longer than any of your peers—any founding father who was leading his nation at independence. What would you say is the secret to your long and rich life?
Kenneth Kaunda: When you look at the creation of wealth, God taught us to love God your creator, with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. He also taught us to love thy neighbour, as thou lovest thyself. Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.
These commandments are in my view what God made to guide us, and where these commandments are followed, there is genuine peace.
MGA: You were part of a golden generation of African independence leaders that quickened the end of colonisation in Africa, in the spirit of that song you like, Tiyendi Pamodzi (forward together). With the benefit of hindsight, would you have done anything differently during the struggle for independence?
KK: I cannot see how anyone could fail to identify the meaning of building a nation anywhere, any part of the world, because we need to move forward in one way, and think of certain things in our nations, especially in the meaning of development. Development can be in many forms and in various fields of human endeavour, its not just in one area. Your question becomes important even more when we realise man’s future is dependent on a number of things that he is required to do; if man doesn’t do these things in a necessary way, then what is there, it will all collapse, it will become nothing.
READ MORE.....
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Ghana: Jamie’s Jollof rice recipe
By Jonny Garrett
June 21, 2014 | In Around the world, Foodie World Cup
It’s amazing how food can tell a story – how traces of it can be
found throughout a continent, showing the diaspora of people and the
spread of cultures across thousands of miles.
Jollof rice is more of a concept than a recipe, because it’s found in various guises all over West Africa. Its other name is Benachin, which means “one pot” in the language of the Wolof people who invented it – evidently throwing lots of lovely food in a pan and letting the heat do its thing has always been a popular cheat.
The Wolof ruled an empire from what is now known as Senegal between 1360 to 1549. For a while they were a powerful and wealthy kingdom, even trading with Europe before it fell apart through infighting among the different states. By the time it disintegrated though, its travels, trades and conquests had spread its people and cultures right throughout the area. So it’s no surprise that Jollof rice springs up in the list of favourite dishes for Ghana, about 2,000km from their homeland in Senegal. In fact, it springs up all even further east, in countries such as Nigeria and Cameroon. Because of this distance, and all the differences in culture and climate, the ingredients vary wildly, but the principle is that you cook your rice in a tomato sauce, so it soaks up all the flavours.
READ MORE.....
June 21, 2014 | In Around the world, Foodie World Cup
Jollof rice is more of a concept than a recipe, because it’s found in various guises all over West Africa. Its other name is Benachin, which means “one pot” in the language of the Wolof people who invented it – evidently throwing lots of lovely food in a pan and letting the heat do its thing has always been a popular cheat.
The Wolof ruled an empire from what is now known as Senegal between 1360 to 1549. For a while they were a powerful and wealthy kingdom, even trading with Europe before it fell apart through infighting among the different states. By the time it disintegrated though, its travels, trades and conquests had spread its people and cultures right throughout the area. So it’s no surprise that Jollof rice springs up in the list of favourite dishes for Ghana, about 2,000km from their homeland in Senegal. In fact, it springs up all even further east, in countries such as Nigeria and Cameroon. Because of this distance, and all the differences in culture and climate, the ingredients vary wildly, but the principle is that you cook your rice in a tomato sauce, so it soaks up all the flavours.
READ MORE.....
Friday, October 24, 2014
Special Issue on China in Africa - Journal of Contemporary China, Volume 23, Issue 90, 2014
China–Africa Cooperation: promises, practice and prospects
Sven Grimm
pages 993-1011
China in Africa: presence, perceptions and prospects
Fei-Ling Wang & Esi A. Elliot
pages 1012-1032
A Neo-Colonialist Predator or Development Partner? China's engagement and rebalance in Africa
Suisheng Zhao
pages 1033-1052
Workforce Localization among Chinese State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in Ghana
Antoine Kernen & Katy N. Lam
pages 1053-1072
Bashing ‘the Chinese’: contextualizing Zambia's Collum Coal Mine shooting
Barry Sautman & Yan Hairong
pages 1073-1092
China's Libya Evacuation Operation: a new diplomatic imperative—overseas citizen protection
Shaio H. Zerba
pages 1093-1112
China Goes to Africa: a strategic move?
Jianwei Wang & Jing Zou
pages 1113-1132
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
IMF warns African countries over Eurobond borrowing
The Africa Report - Tuesday, 21 October 2014
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned African countries against rushing to issue Eurobonds, saying they may face exchange rate risks and problems repaying debts.
African governments facing falling levels of foreign aid are on a borrowing spree to pay for new roads, power stations and other infrastructure, prompting concern from many analysts that this could raise debt levels and undermine growth.
"It comes with some risks," the director of the IMF's African Department, Antoinette Sayeh, told Reuters in an interview on Monday.
"Whereas what it costs the countries to issue these bonds can often look lower than what they would pay on domestic borrowing ... the real cost in the final analysis will also depend on the evolution of exchange rates in the course of the life of the bond issuance."
READ MORE....
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned African countries against rushing to issue Eurobonds, saying they may face exchange rate risks and problems repaying debts.
African governments facing falling levels of foreign aid are on a borrowing spree to pay for new roads, power stations and other infrastructure, prompting concern from many analysts that this could raise debt levels and undermine growth.
"It comes with some risks," the director of the IMF's African Department, Antoinette Sayeh, told Reuters in an interview on Monday.
"Whereas what it costs the countries to issue these bonds can often look lower than what they would pay on domestic borrowing ... the real cost in the final analysis will also depend on the evolution of exchange rates in the course of the life of the bond issuance."
READ MORE....
Uganda says oil revenue possible alternative to Chinese cash for railway
By Karin Strohecker in London
The Africa Report - Tuesday, 21 October 2014
Uganda could rely on income from future oil exports to finance an $8 billion railway if funding talks with China fail to bear fruit, its president said.
Yoweri Museveni confirmed that Uganda had started negotiations with China on building the line that would link to Kenya, speeding up freight transport in the region.
He gave no details about how far the talks had progressed. "But if they don't (offer financing), we shall fund it ourselves," Museveni told Reuters on Monday on the sidelines of an African investment conference in London.
"Remember we have our oil, which we shall start harvesting in 2017, and that money will deal with these projects - railway and electricity ... China or no China, we shall build that railway."
The new line would run from the Kenyan border to Kampala, then north to South Sudan and west to the oil fields.
It would supersede a narrow gauge line that now only operates to Kampala.
READ MORE.....
The Africa Report - Tuesday, 21 October 2014
Uganda could rely on income from future oil exports to finance an $8 billion railway if funding talks with China fail to bear fruit, its president said.
Yoweri Museveni confirmed that Uganda had started negotiations with China on building the line that would link to Kenya, speeding up freight transport in the region.
He gave no details about how far the talks had progressed. "But if they don't (offer financing), we shall fund it ourselves," Museveni told Reuters on Monday on the sidelines of an African investment conference in London.
"Remember we have our oil, which we shall start harvesting in 2017, and that money will deal with these projects - railway and electricity ... China or no China, we shall build that railway."
The new line would run from the Kenyan border to Kampala, then north to South Sudan and west to the oil fields.
It would supersede a narrow gauge line that now only operates to Kampala.
READ MORE.....
Zimbabwe mobile operators to slash rates
By Janet Shoko
The Africa Report - Tuesday, 21 October 2014
Zimbabwe's mobile regulatory authority – the Postal and Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) – has ordered all three mobile network operators to slash voice tariffs to 15 cents per minute with effect from December, down from 23 cents per minute.
A new pricing model, known as long run incremental cost (LRIC) is being implemented in favour of COSITU pricing framework.
This could be a relief for mobile users, who have complained that tariffs are too steep.
In an update, POTRAZ said it would, for now, leave data charges to be determined by market forces.
"The COSITU model that was used from 2004 to 2009 was designed for circuit switched circuits, has since been rendered obsolete due to technological and market developments in terms of newer services that are packet-based across the board," the authority said.
READ MORE.....
The Africa Report - Tuesday, 21 October 2014
Zimbabwe's mobile regulatory authority – the Postal and Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) – has ordered all three mobile network operators to slash voice tariffs to 15 cents per minute with effect from December, down from 23 cents per minute.
A new pricing model, known as long run incremental cost (LRIC) is being implemented in favour of COSITU pricing framework.
This could be a relief for mobile users, who have complained that tariffs are too steep.
In an update, POTRAZ said it would, for now, leave data charges to be determined by market forces.
"The COSITU model that was used from 2004 to 2009 was designed for circuit switched circuits, has since been rendered obsolete due to technological and market developments in terms of newer services that are packet-based across the board," the authority said.
READ MORE.....
Mining: End of Iron Age
By Honore Banda in Douala
The Africa Report - Tuesday, 21 October 2014
Low prices and high supplies are driving iron ore prices down. Analysts say large companies will survive the crunch but many smaller producers and explorers may be faced with tough decisions.
In a red and muddy clearing along Cameroon's densely forested border with the Republic of Congo, a fleet of diggers stands idle.
High above the canopy of trees, dark clouds start to gather. It is an ominous portent for an iron ore project billed as transformative for the country.
Three years ago, the Mbalam mining project, spearheaded by Australian explorer Sundance Resources, was hailed by Cameroon's President Paul Biya as a potential game changer for the Central African country.
Now, as Sundance courts fresh investors to shore up its dwindling cash reserves while iron prices fall, the prospects look bad for the construction of a $5bn railway needed to make the mine economical.
READ MORE.....
The Africa Report - Tuesday, 21 October 2014
Low prices and high supplies are driving iron ore prices down. Analysts say large companies will survive the crunch but many smaller producers and explorers may be faced with tough decisions.
In a red and muddy clearing along Cameroon's densely forested border with the Republic of Congo, a fleet of diggers stands idle.
High above the canopy of trees, dark clouds start to gather. It is an ominous portent for an iron ore project billed as transformative for the country.
Three years ago, the Mbalam mining project, spearheaded by Australian explorer Sundance Resources, was hailed by Cameroon's President Paul Biya as a potential game changer for the Central African country.
Now, as Sundance courts fresh investors to shore up its dwindling cash reserves while iron prices fall, the prospects look bad for the construction of a $5bn railway needed to make the mine economical.
READ MORE.....
A Gaddafi returns to Libyan politics
By Konye Obaji Ori
The African Report - Tuesday, 21 October 2014
hmed Gaddaf al-Dam, a cousin and former aide of Gaddafi has emerged to take part in proposed talks between Libya's warring parties.
Gaddaf is highly connected among Arab and African governments such as Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
He also has links with some European countries, and carries political authority among certain militant groups including factions run by former officers of the old regime.
Since uprisings brought an end to the 42 year reign of Gaddafi, rival armed groups in Libya have battled for power, raising fears of a full-blown civil war.
The fighting has prevented the internationally-recognised government from operating in the capital, Tripoli.
READ MORE....
The African Report - Tuesday, 21 October 2014
hmed Gaddaf al-Dam, a cousin and former aide of Gaddafi has emerged to take part in proposed talks between Libya's warring parties.
Gaddaf is highly connected among Arab and African governments such as Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
He also has links with some European countries, and carries political authority among certain militant groups including factions run by former officers of the old regime.
Since uprisings brought an end to the 42 year reign of Gaddafi, rival armed groups in Libya have battled for power, raising fears of a full-blown civil war.
The fighting has prevented the internationally-recognised government from operating in the capital, Tripoli.
READ MORE....
Monday, October 20, 2014
Culture:The beat goes on in Lagos, Nigeria
By Tolu Ogunlesi in Lagos
The Africa Report - 17 October 2014
Freedom Park, a former colonial prison, has become the symbol of an artistic renaissance in Lagos – a city of 21 million people that can itself sometimes feel like an overcrowded prison.
Where the prison's gallows once stood is an open-air stage that overlooks an art gallery named for Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka.
Terra Kulture is another popular arts venue, home to the annual Taruwa Festival of Performing Arts and a year-round schedule of visual arts exhibitions and theatre.
Alongside Freedom Park, it hosted a recent series of plays to commemorate Soyinka's 80th birthday.
Adenrele Sonariwo, a curator of arts events and founder of the Modern Day School of Arts, says: "There are really interesting things going on in the cultural space in Lagos, some superficial, some with a lot of depth. Either way, it takes a lot of courage to do anything in Lagos, so everyone deserves commendation."
READ MORE....
The Africa Report - 17 October 2014
Freedom Park, a former colonial prison, has become the symbol of an artistic renaissance in Lagos – a city of 21 million people that can itself sometimes feel like an overcrowded prison.
Where the prison's gallows once stood is an open-air stage that overlooks an art gallery named for Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka.
Terra Kulture is another popular arts venue, home to the annual Taruwa Festival of Performing Arts and a year-round schedule of visual arts exhibitions and theatre.
Alongside Freedom Park, it hosted a recent series of plays to commemorate Soyinka's 80th birthday.
Adenrele Sonariwo, a curator of arts events and founder of the Modern Day School of Arts, says: "There are really interesting things going on in the cultural space in Lagos, some superficial, some with a lot of depth. Either way, it takes a lot of courage to do anything in Lagos, so everyone deserves commendation."
READ MORE....
Mozambique President elect - Filipe Nyussi
The Africa Report - 20 October 2014
The rise of Filipe Nyussi as the presidential candidate of the ruling Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (FRELIMO) party in national elections on 15 October augured an historic change for the country.
Nyussi, who won a bitter succession battle in March, is the country's
first northern president after decades of southern domination. Backed
by FRELIMO's formidable election machinery, he took 61.7% of the vote.
Nyussi is a low-profile figure close to out-going president Armando Guebuza, who will step down after his two terms.
Aged 55 and representing a generational succession for FRELIMO as the first leader that did not fight in the country's civil war from 1977 to 1992, Nyussi has strong connections to the party's liberation aristocracy.
Both of his parents were FRELIMO members during the war for independence and he was raised in exile in Tanzania.
READ MORE.....
The rise of Filipe Nyussi as the presidential candidate of the ruling Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (FRELIMO) party in national elections on 15 October augured an historic change for the country.
Nyussi, who won a bitter succession battle in March, is the country's
first northern president after decades of southern domination. Backed
by FRELIMO's formidable election machinery, he took 61.7% of the vote.Nyussi is a low-profile figure close to out-going president Armando Guebuza, who will step down after his two terms.
Aged 55 and representing a generational succession for FRELIMO as the first leader that did not fight in the country's civil war from 1977 to 1992, Nyussi has strong connections to the party's liberation aristocracy.
Both of his parents were FRELIMO members during the war for independence and he was raised in exile in Tanzania.
READ MORE.....
‘There is no Ebola here’:
What Liberia teaches us about the failures of aid
By Sisonke Msimang
Africa is a country | October 19th, 2014
Professor Thandika Mkandawire is a development economist with a sharp mind and an even sharper tongue – one of Africa’s finest. Last week I moderated a discussion on health and governance in Africa at a conference in Cape Town in which he gave the keynote address. He demonstrated why he is such a celebrated public intellectual. In front of an audience of over one thousand scientists, doctors and health systems researchers, Mkandawire paraphrased Georges Clemenceau’s famous quip that war is too important to be left to generals, by suggesting that ‘health is too important to leave to health practitioners.’
In the midst of an Ebola outbreak, and at a conference taking place in Africa, the words – which were intended to be light-hearted – stung. In part I suspect that this was because they rang true.
While health professionals are crucial frontline responders, the Ebola crisis is indeed too important to be left to medical personnel. Like most responses to humanitarian disasters that are mounted by the international community, the Ebola response is focused too narrowly on the technical aspects of containing a problem, and too little on the underlying social and political reasons why the problem has been allowed to fester in the first place.
READ MORE....
By Sisonke Msimang
Africa is a country | October 19th, 2014
Professor Thandika Mkandawire is a development economist with a sharp mind and an even sharper tongue – one of Africa’s finest. Last week I moderated a discussion on health and governance in Africa at a conference in Cape Town in which he gave the keynote address. He demonstrated why he is such a celebrated public intellectual. In front of an audience of over one thousand scientists, doctors and health systems researchers, Mkandawire paraphrased Georges Clemenceau’s famous quip that war is too important to be left to generals, by suggesting that ‘health is too important to leave to health practitioners.’
In the midst of an Ebola outbreak, and at a conference taking place in Africa, the words – which were intended to be light-hearted – stung. In part I suspect that this was because they rang true.
While health professionals are crucial frontline responders, the Ebola crisis is indeed too important to be left to medical personnel. Like most responses to humanitarian disasters that are mounted by the international community, the Ebola response is focused too narrowly on the technical aspects of containing a problem, and too little on the underlying social and political reasons why the problem has been allowed to fester in the first place.
READ MORE....
Sunday, October 19, 2014
The long-term cure for Ebola: An investment in health systems
By Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
The Washington Post - October 19, 2014
As the Ebola nightmare continues in Liberia and as we battle to contain the epidemic, it is important to look beyond the immediate crisis. Many more lives will be lost before this dreadful outbreak is beaten, but to properly honor the memory of the victims we need to ask how it happened in the first place and, more pressingly, how we can prevent it from happening again. After 30 years of brutal civil and political unrest, Liberia was a nation reborn. We transformed our country from a failed state into a stable democracy, rebuilding its infrastructure and its education and health systems, and enjoying one of the most promising growth records in Africa. Then Ebola swept in, threatening to tear apart that progress. It is a terrifying reminder of the destructive power of infectious disease, one all the more devastating given how far Liberia has come.
READ MORE.....
The Washington Post - October 19, 2014
As the Ebola nightmare continues in Liberia and as we battle to contain the epidemic, it is important to look beyond the immediate crisis. Many more lives will be lost before this dreadful outbreak is beaten, but to properly honor the memory of the victims we need to ask how it happened in the first place and, more pressingly, how we can prevent it from happening again. After 30 years of brutal civil and political unrest, Liberia was a nation reborn. We transformed our country from a failed state into a stable democracy, rebuilding its infrastructure and its education and health systems, and enjoying one of the most promising growth records in Africa. Then Ebola swept in, threatening to tear apart that progress. It is a terrifying reminder of the destructive power of infectious disease, one all the more devastating given how far Liberia has come.
READ MORE.....
What's wrong with how the West talks about Ebola in one illustration
In West Africa, deaths from Ebola have now passed 4000, while in the US the death toll remains at one.
By Christopher Hooto
The Independent - Tuesday, October 14, 2014
The coverage of the outbreak has been largely disproportionate however, and while one death is obviously still tragic and cause for concern when there is the risk of it precipitating more, it suggests a disregard for the bleak situation in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and other countries.
Cartoonist André Carrilho, whose work has been published in the New York Times, Vanity Fair and more, focused on this disparity in an illustration he created back in August, which has since gone viral thanks to its moving depiction of death being ignored.
READ MORE.....
By Christopher Hooto
The Independent - Tuesday, October 14, 2014
The coverage of the outbreak has been largely disproportionate however, and while one death is obviously still tragic and cause for concern when there is the risk of it precipitating more, it suggests a disregard for the bleak situation in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and other countries.
Cartoonist André Carrilho, whose work has been published in the New York Times, Vanity Fair and more, focused on this disparity in an illustration he created back in August, which has since gone viral thanks to its moving depiction of death being ignored.
READ MORE.....
Saturday, October 18, 2014
China’s war for Africa’s hearts and minds
By Mark Varga
Foreign Policy | October 17th, 2014
China has made a badge of honor out of Zheng Bijian’s term coined in a seminal 2005 Foreign Affairs article, which described the Middle Kingdom’s path toward modernization as a “peaceful rise.” At the time, Bijian was trying to counter the dominant Western narrative that viewed Beijing’s ambitions and the country’s rapid growth with suspicion. The article ended with one of the most unexpected statements of intent coming from a country that had been the world’s foremost power for the better part of a millennium “(China) does not seek hegemony or predominance in world affairs.” A decade has passed since and China is still unsure of the part it should play on the international stage. Torn between its commitment not to intervene in the affairs of other countries and the growing demands of the West to use its growing clout to share some of the burden of shaping the world order, all eyes have turned to China’s budding soft power.
To find an answer to this conundrum, one must look no farther than Africa, where China is dovetailing its “peaceful rise” while also bringing new allies onto its side. Driven by the need to secure reliable sources of raw materials, Beijing has seen bilateral trade with the Dark Continent grow 20-fold in the past two decades, surpassing both the U.S and the EU. Many have argued that the process has been eminently a political one, amounting to little more than “check book diplomacy”, the practice of lending money to largely benefit China’s own construction groups, buying alliances and access to commodities. More than 2,000 Chinese companies now have assets in Africa, especially in South Africa, Zambia, Nigeria, Algeria and Angola, spanning all economic sectors. As a result, some 20,000 Chinese are currently involved in local projects, a number that will only go up in coming years. Moreover, in November 2013, the government announced plans to invest $1 trillion by 2025, thus turning Africa into the one-stop shop for Beijing’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs). But China’s cold and pragmatic approach has managed to drive a wedge between the West’s historical interests in Africa and China’s nascent world reach, leading to numerous muffled conflicts. Two cases studies show how the traditional Western relationship with the continent are increasingly strained by China’s desire to win over the hearts and minds of Africans.
READ MORE......
Foreign Policy | October 17th, 2014
China has made a badge of honor out of Zheng Bijian’s term coined in a seminal 2005 Foreign Affairs article, which described the Middle Kingdom’s path toward modernization as a “peaceful rise.” At the time, Bijian was trying to counter the dominant Western narrative that viewed Beijing’s ambitions and the country’s rapid growth with suspicion. The article ended with one of the most unexpected statements of intent coming from a country that had been the world’s foremost power for the better part of a millennium “(China) does not seek hegemony or predominance in world affairs.” A decade has passed since and China is still unsure of the part it should play on the international stage. Torn between its commitment not to intervene in the affairs of other countries and the growing demands of the West to use its growing clout to share some of the burden of shaping the world order, all eyes have turned to China’s budding soft power.
To find an answer to this conundrum, one must look no farther than Africa, where China is dovetailing its “peaceful rise” while also bringing new allies onto its side. Driven by the need to secure reliable sources of raw materials, Beijing has seen bilateral trade with the Dark Continent grow 20-fold in the past two decades, surpassing both the U.S and the EU. Many have argued that the process has been eminently a political one, amounting to little more than “check book diplomacy”, the practice of lending money to largely benefit China’s own construction groups, buying alliances and access to commodities. More than 2,000 Chinese companies now have assets in Africa, especially in South Africa, Zambia, Nigeria, Algeria and Angola, spanning all economic sectors. As a result, some 20,000 Chinese are currently involved in local projects, a number that will only go up in coming years. Moreover, in November 2013, the government announced plans to invest $1 trillion by 2025, thus turning Africa into the one-stop shop for Beijing’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs). But China’s cold and pragmatic approach has managed to drive a wedge between the West’s historical interests in Africa and China’s nascent world reach, leading to numerous muffled conflicts. Two cases studies show how the traditional Western relationship with the continent are increasingly strained by China’s desire to win over the hearts and minds of Africans.
READ MORE......
A New Article: Isiokwu – The Simulacra of the Simulacra: The Obscenity of Nollywood Films
International Journal of Baudrillard Studies
ISSN: 1705-6411 Volume 11, Number 3 (September 2014)
Isiokwu – The Simulacra of the Simulacra: The Obscenity of Nollywood Films
Dr. Biko Agozino
(Department of Sociology, Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA).
In honor of the Nollywood artists and producers who have popularized such common Igbo expressions as Chineke m eh! (Oh my God!), Igwee! (Chief!), and Kedu (Hello) among their teeming audiences in Africa and the Diaspora, I have followed the admirable style of Nwando Achebe (2011) in her Nollywood-like narrative of a female king in colonial Igboland, by using approximate Igbo translations in italics to start each sub-heading in this papyrus. I will also consistently use the word papyrus as a closer approximation of what ancient Africans had in mind when they invented writing as a serious discourse that was seen as a pharmakon or drug to be taken seriously lest the written drug is abused and the patient dies of the side-effects, according to Derrida(1968), quoting Socrates; unlike its European simulacrum that is mistaken for the original and quite unlike just any ordinary piece of ‘paper’.
This papyrus argues that films in general are not just pieces of communication but also attempts at simulation and that Nollywood represents efforts to simulate a simulation, making it obscene to a great extent. There is no attempt in this theoretical piece to review the contents of Nollywood films for the illustration of this thesis as is commonly the case in journalistic descriptions; rather the analysis will go beyond the structures of film narratives to radicalize the discourse by deconstructing the ideologies of deviance and social control in the enabling political economy, the cultural consequences of their propagation, the technological determinism of their sustainability, and their methodological challenges to scholarship and to the global film industry itself.
READ MORE.....
ISSN: 1705-6411 Volume 11, Number 3 (September 2014)
Isiokwu – The Simulacra of the Simulacra: The Obscenity of Nollywood Films
Dr. Biko Agozino
(Department of Sociology, Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA).
In honor of the Nollywood artists and producers who have popularized such common Igbo expressions as Chineke m eh! (Oh my God!), Igwee! (Chief!), and Kedu (Hello) among their teeming audiences in Africa and the Diaspora, I have followed the admirable style of Nwando Achebe (2011) in her Nollywood-like narrative of a female king in colonial Igboland, by using approximate Igbo translations in italics to start each sub-heading in this papyrus. I will also consistently use the word papyrus as a closer approximation of what ancient Africans had in mind when they invented writing as a serious discourse that was seen as a pharmakon or drug to be taken seriously lest the written drug is abused and the patient dies of the side-effects, according to Derrida(1968), quoting Socrates; unlike its European simulacrum that is mistaken for the original and quite unlike just any ordinary piece of ‘paper’.
This papyrus argues that films in general are not just pieces of communication but also attempts at simulation and that Nollywood represents efforts to simulate a simulation, making it obscene to a great extent. There is no attempt in this theoretical piece to review the contents of Nollywood films for the illustration of this thesis as is commonly the case in journalistic descriptions; rather the analysis will go beyond the structures of film narratives to radicalize the discourse by deconstructing the ideologies of deviance and social control in the enabling political economy, the cultural consequences of their propagation, the technological determinism of their sustainability, and their methodological challenges to scholarship and to the global film industry itself.
READ MORE.....
Friday, October 17, 2014
The long and ugly tradition of treating Africa as a dirty, diseased place
By Laura Seay and Kim Yi Dionne
The Washington Post - August 25, 2014
This week’s Newsweek magazine cover features an image of a chimpanzee behind the words, “A Back Door for Ebola: Smuggled Bushmeat Could Spark a U.S. Epidemic.” This cover story is problematic for a number of reasons, starting with the fact that there is virtually no chance that “bushmeat” smuggling could bring Ebola to America. (The term is a catchall for non-domesticated animals consumed as a protein source; anyone who hunts deer and then consumes their catch as venison in the United States is eating bushmeat without calling it that.) While eating bushmeat is fairly common in the Ebola zone, the vast majority of those who do consume it are not eating chimpanzees. Moreover, the current Ebola outbreak likely had nothing to do with bushmeat consumption.
Far from presenting a legitimate public health concern, the authors of the piece and the editorial decision to use chimpanzee imagery on the cover have placed Newsweek squarely in the center of a long and ugly tradition of treating Africans as savage animals and the African continent as a dirty, diseased place to be feared. What can social science tell us about why Newsweek’s cover story is so problematic?
READ MORE...
The Washington Post - August 25, 2014
This week’s Newsweek magazine cover features an image of a chimpanzee behind the words, “A Back Door for Ebola: Smuggled Bushmeat Could Spark a U.S. Epidemic.” This cover story is problematic for a number of reasons, starting with the fact that there is virtually no chance that “bushmeat” smuggling could bring Ebola to America. (The term is a catchall for non-domesticated animals consumed as a protein source; anyone who hunts deer and then consumes their catch as venison in the United States is eating bushmeat without calling it that.) While eating bushmeat is fairly common in the Ebola zone, the vast majority of those who do consume it are not eating chimpanzees. Moreover, the current Ebola outbreak likely had nothing to do with bushmeat consumption.
Far from presenting a legitimate public health concern, the authors of the piece and the editorial decision to use chimpanzee imagery on the cover have placed Newsweek squarely in the center of a long and ugly tradition of treating Africans as savage animals and the African continent as a dirty, diseased place to be feared. What can social science tell us about why Newsweek’s cover story is so problematic?
READ MORE...
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Deep Racism: The Forgotten History Of Human Zoos
Through the 1950s, Africans and Native Americans Were Kept In Zoos As Exhibit
By M.B. David
Political Blindspot, February 13, 2013
Throughout the early 20th century, Germany held what was termed a, “Peoples Show,” or Völkerschau. Africans were brought in as carnival or zoo exhibits for passers-by to gawk at.
Brussels, Belgium in 1958
Only decades before, in the late 1800′s, Europe had been filled with, “human zoos,” in cities like Paris, Hamburg, Antwerp, Barcelona, London, Milan, and Warsaw. New York too saw these popular exhibits continue into the 20th century. There was an average of 200,000 to 300,000 visitors who attended each exhibition in each city.
Carl Hagenbeck of Germany ran exhibits of what he called, “purely natural,” populations, usually East Asian Islanders, but in 1876, he also sent a collaborator to the Sudan to bring back, “wild beasts and Nubians.” The traveling Nubian exhibit was a huge success in cities like Paris, London, and Berlin.
The World’s Fair, in 1889 was visited by 28 million people, who lined up to see 400 indigenous people as the major attraction. The 1900 World’s Fair followed suit, as did the Colonial Exhibitions in Marseilles (1906 and 1922) and in Paris (1907 and 1931) which displayed naked or semi-naked humans in cages. Paris saw 34 million people attend their exhibition in six months alone.
Just four years shy of the 20th century, the Cincinnati Zoo kept one hundred Sioux Native Americans in a mock village at the zoo for three months.
READ MORE....
By M.B. David
Political Blindspot, February 13, 2013
Brussels, Belgium in 1958
Only decades before, in the late 1800′s, Europe had been filled with, “human zoos,” in cities like Paris, Hamburg, Antwerp, Barcelona, London, Milan, and Warsaw. New York too saw these popular exhibits continue into the 20th century. There was an average of 200,000 to 300,000 visitors who attended each exhibition in each city.
Carl Hagenbeck of Germany ran exhibits of what he called, “purely natural,” populations, usually East Asian Islanders, but in 1876, he also sent a collaborator to the Sudan to bring back, “wild beasts and Nubians.” The traveling Nubian exhibit was a huge success in cities like Paris, London, and Berlin.
The World’s Fair, in 1889 was visited by 28 million people, who lined up to see 400 indigenous people as the major attraction. The 1900 World’s Fair followed suit, as did the Colonial Exhibitions in Marseilles (1906 and 1922) and in Paris (1907 and 1931) which displayed naked or semi-naked humans in cages. Paris saw 34 million people attend their exhibition in six months alone.
Just four years shy of the 20th century, the Cincinnati Zoo kept one hundred Sioux Native Americans in a mock village at the zoo for three months.
READ MORE....
Monday, October 13, 2014
Mobile Money: Banks get ready to take on M-pesa
By Gilbert Nganga in Nairobi
THE AFRICA REPORT - 13 October 2014
Deep in sprawling Githurai, a low-income residential estate on the outskirts of Kenya's capital, Nairobi, a cashier sitting in a small cubicle at a cement outlet is busy counting a wad of cash as dozens of customers queue.
READ MORE....
THE AFRICA REPORT - 13 October 2014
Deep in sprawling Githurai, a low-income residential estate on the outskirts of Kenya's capital, Nairobi, a cashier sitting in a small cubicle at a cement outlet is busy counting a wad of cash as dozens of customers queue.
READ MORE....
Zimbabwe's indigenisation gets $3bn
By Janet Shoko
THE AFRICA REPORT - 13 October 2014
The transfer is over a four year period.
President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF party is championing the policy, using a 2008 law that requires all foreign firms, including mines and banks, to be majority-controlled by local blacks.
READ MORE...
THE AFRICA REPORT - 13 October 2014
The transfer is over a four year period.
President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF party is championing the policy, using a 2008 law that requires all foreign firms, including mines and banks, to be majority-controlled by local blacks.
READ MORE...
MegaChurches and Nigeria's economy
By Tim Cocks in Ota, Nigeria
The Africa Report - Monday, 13 October 2014
Hundreds of millions of dollars change hands each year in these popular Pentecostal houses of worship, which are modelled on their counterparts in the United States.
Some of the churches can hold more than 200,000 worshippers and, with their attendant business empires, they constitute a significant section of the economy, employing tens of thousands of people and raking in tourist dollars, as well as exporting Christianity globally. But exactly how much of Nigeria's $510 billion GDP they make up is difficult to assess, since the churches are, like the oil sector in Africa's top energy producer, largely opaque entities. "They don't submit accounts to anybody," says Bismarck Rewane, economist and CEO of Lagos consultancy Financial Derivatives. "At least six church leaders have private jets, so they have money. How much? No one really knows."
READ MORE....
The Africa Report - Monday, 13 October 2014
Hundreds of millions of dollars change hands each year in these popular Pentecostal houses of worship, which are modelled on their counterparts in the United States.
Some of the churches can hold more than 200,000 worshippers and, with their attendant business empires, they constitute a significant section of the economy, employing tens of thousands of people and raking in tourist dollars, as well as exporting Christianity globally. But exactly how much of Nigeria's $510 billion GDP they make up is difficult to assess, since the churches are, like the oil sector in Africa's top energy producer, largely opaque entities. "They don't submit accounts to anybody," says Bismarck Rewane, economist and CEO of Lagos consultancy Financial Derivatives. "At least six church leaders have private jets, so they have money. How much? No one really knows."
READ MORE....
China Understands What The West Doesn't: Africa Is Our Next Superpower
Forbes - 8/25/2014
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry
Not that “Africa” is a country, of course, but it helps to look at broad, continent-wide trends. People are reluctant to the idea of demographics as the great driver of history. In the general case, this might be true. But the 21st century will see an unprecedented situation: one where every continent will face large-scale aging and slowing demographic growth. Every continent, that is, except one: Africa (or, to be more specific, sub-Saharan Africa). Africa is young whereas the rest of the world is graying, and any strategic thinking about the 21st century must take this into account.
Add to this Africa’s steadily improving situation with regard to governance (there are still many problems, but steadily less war, steadily more free elections, and so on), and a technological landscape and future that will allow Africa to leapfrog many aspects of the rich life that the rich world takes for granted. And national resources are just icing on the cake.
As is frequently remarked upon, and as a book review in this week’s Economist touches upon, China has a very deliberate and ambitious strategy of investment in Africa. The old categories of “neocolonialism” miss the point. So does the remark that China is only interested in Africa’s natural resources in order to fuel its own manufacturing-driven growth and put its strategic eggs in more than one basket.
READ MORE....
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry
Not that “Africa” is a country, of course, but it helps to look at broad, continent-wide trends. People are reluctant to the idea of demographics as the great driver of history. In the general case, this might be true. But the 21st century will see an unprecedented situation: one where every continent will face large-scale aging and slowing demographic growth. Every continent, that is, except one: Africa (or, to be more specific, sub-Saharan Africa). Africa is young whereas the rest of the world is graying, and any strategic thinking about the 21st century must take this into account.
Add to this Africa’s steadily improving situation with regard to governance (there are still many problems, but steadily less war, steadily more free elections, and so on), and a technological landscape and future that will allow Africa to leapfrog many aspects of the rich life that the rich world takes for granted. And national resources are just icing on the cake.
As is frequently remarked upon, and as a book review in this week’s Economist touches upon, China has a very deliberate and ambitious strategy of investment in Africa. The old categories of “neocolonialism” miss the point. So does the remark that China is only interested in Africa’s natural resources in order to fuel its own manufacturing-driven growth and put its strategic eggs in more than one basket.
READ MORE....
Prof Ali Mazrui, renowned Kenyan scholar, dies in US
Daily Nation - Monday, October 13, 2014
Renowned Kenyan scholar Ali Alamin Mazrui passed away Monday morning in Binghamton, New York, in the United States.
Prof Mazrui passed away at the age of 81 and family members say he was unwell for several months.
Muslims for Human Rights (Muhuri) chairperson Mr Khelef Khalifa said the body of Prof Mazrui will be flown to Kenya for burial.
“His nephew, Alamin Mazrui, has confirmed that the professor’s wish was to be buried in Kenya,” he said.
Prof Mazrui was born on February 24, 1933, in Mombasa.
At the time of his death, he was a professor at Binghamton University in New York.
President
Uhuru Kenyatta sent his message of condolence to the family of the late
Mazrui, whom he described as a “a towering academician whose
intellectual contributions played a major role in shaping African
scholarship”.
The President said Prof Mazrui was one of the greatest scholars Kenya and the continent have ever produced.
“Am
deeply saddened by the passing on of the professor. Indeed, death has
robbed us of one of Kenya’s greatest scholars,” President Kenyatta said.
President
Kenyatta said Prof. Mazrui’s literary works, debates and relentless
cultivation of a global view of Africa have helped to tell the
continent’s story.
Prof Mazrui is a
renowned scholar worldwide, having lectured in five continents and
written 30 books. He once served as chancellor of Jomo Kenyatta
University of Agriculture and Technology.
He is survived by a wife and six children.
Friday, October 10, 2014
Chinese Yuan and US dollar compete in African markets
By Tonderayi Mukeredzi
The Africa Report - Friday, 10 October 2014
A number of African central banks are applying to the Chinese Central Bank for currency swaps, with Zimbabwe and Ghana already using the RMB as part of their reserve currency. Nigeria could also shift more of its foreign reserves into Chinese yuan from dollars as the RMB gains greater traction in global trade. In March this year Zimbabwe joined a growing list of countries in Africa and the world using the Chinese currency, yuan, also known as remnibi (RMB), as one of its official currencies after its central bank added the RMB, the Japanese yen, the Australia dollar and the Indian rupee to the existing basket of currencies. Zimbabwe abandoned its currency in 2009 when it was rendered worthless by excessive inflation. Since then, it has been using a basket of currencies dominated by the US dollar. In announcing the decision to adopt the yuan and other currencies, the then Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe acting governor, Charity Dhliwayo, said that the southern African country's trade and investment with China, India, Japan and Australia "had grown appreciably."
READ MORE.....
The Africa Report - Friday, 10 October 2014
A number of African central banks are applying to the Chinese Central Bank for currency swaps, with Zimbabwe and Ghana already using the RMB as part of their reserve currency. Nigeria could also shift more of its foreign reserves into Chinese yuan from dollars as the RMB gains greater traction in global trade. In March this year Zimbabwe joined a growing list of countries in Africa and the world using the Chinese currency, yuan, also known as remnibi (RMB), as one of its official currencies after its central bank added the RMB, the Japanese yen, the Australia dollar and the Indian rupee to the existing basket of currencies. Zimbabwe abandoned its currency in 2009 when it was rendered worthless by excessive inflation. Since then, it has been using a basket of currencies dominated by the US dollar. In announcing the decision to adopt the yuan and other currencies, the then Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe acting governor, Charity Dhliwayo, said that the southern African country's trade and investment with China, India, Japan and Australia "had grown appreciably."
READ MORE.....
Thursday, October 9, 2014
The Chinese Invade Africa
IAN JOHNSON
China File - 09.25.14
In early May, China’s premier, Li Keqiang, made a trip to Africa that raised a central question about China’s rise: What effect will it have on the world’s poorer countries? As a big third-world country that has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty in just a few decades—and has risen so fast that it’s easily the only serious challenger to the United States’ superpower status—China has enormous cachet, with lessons that many countries are eager to learn. But as the trip showed, those lessons are complex and ambiguous.
Premier Li visited four countries and the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa. He pledged billions of dollars in new aid, promised to share technology, and unveiled a series of much-publicized deals, including a nine-hundred-mile railway line in Nigeria and a research center to help link major African capitals by rail. Li urged African leaders and Chinese companies that China—already Africa’s largest trading partner—should double its trade with Africa by 2020 and quadruple its investment there.
READ MORE.....
China File - 09.25.14
In early May, China’s premier, Li Keqiang, made a trip to Africa that raised a central question about China’s rise: What effect will it have on the world’s poorer countries? As a big third-world country that has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty in just a few decades—and has risen so fast that it’s easily the only serious challenger to the United States’ superpower status—China has enormous cachet, with lessons that many countries are eager to learn. But as the trip showed, those lessons are complex and ambiguous.
Premier Li visited four countries and the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa. He pledged billions of dollars in new aid, promised to share technology, and unveiled a series of much-publicized deals, including a nine-hundred-mile railway line in Nigeria and a research center to help link major African capitals by rail. Li urged African leaders and Chinese companies that China—already Africa’s largest trading partner—should double its trade with Africa by 2020 and quadruple its investment there.
READ MORE.....
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Foreign investment is like slow poison
The Africa Report - 07 October 2014
The author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century has spurred an energetic debate about capitalism and inequality. Here, he talks to The Africa Report about democracy, markets and industrialisation. The Africa Report: What lessons on inequality are there for Africa from Europe's 20th century?
Thomas Piketty: It's important to think ahead about the kind of institutions, in particular progressive taxation and welfare states, that we gradually want to develop in order to ensure that this growth that will come [in Africa] can be distributed in a balanced manner and we don't get to the kind of extreme and excessive concentration of wealth and economic power that we had in Europe up until the First World War.
In France in 1914, people didn't want progressive taxation, even with a top rate of 2%. Then suddenly in 1920, the same political groups that refused the income tax with the 2% tax rate voted for an income tax with a top tax rate of 60%. This is largely due to the war-related shocks but also after the Bolshevik revolution in 1917.
Many rich people in France and in the West thought, after all, maybe it's better to have progressive taxation than to have expropriation.
READ MORE....
The author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century has spurred an energetic debate about capitalism and inequality. Here, he talks to The Africa Report about democracy, markets and industrialisation. The Africa Report: What lessons on inequality are there for Africa from Europe's 20th century?
Thomas Piketty: It's important to think ahead about the kind of institutions, in particular progressive taxation and welfare states, that we gradually want to develop in order to ensure that this growth that will come [in Africa] can be distributed in a balanced manner and we don't get to the kind of extreme and excessive concentration of wealth and economic power that we had in Europe up until the First World War.
In France in 1914, people didn't want progressive taxation, even with a top rate of 2%. Then suddenly in 1920, the same political groups that refused the income tax with the 2% tax rate voted for an income tax with a top tax rate of 60%. This is largely due to the war-related shocks but also after the Bolshevik revolution in 1917.
Many rich people in France and in the West thought, after all, maybe it's better to have progressive taxation than to have expropriation.
READ MORE....
Thursday, October 2, 2014
The Case for Reparations
Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Atlantic - May 21, 2014
And if thy brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee. And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty: thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress: of that wherewith the LORD thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing today.
— Deuteronomy 15: 12–15
Besides the crime which consists in violating the law, and varying from the right rule of reason, whereby a man so far becomes degenerate, and declares himself to quit the principles of human nature, and to be a noxious creature, there is commonly injury done to some person or other, and some other man receives damage by his transgression: in which case he who hath received any damage, has, besides the right of punishment common to him with other men, a particular right to seek reparation.
— John Locke, “Second Treatise”
By our unpaid labor and suffering, we have earned the right to the soil, many times over and over, and now we are determined to have it.
— Anonymous, 1861
I. “So That’s Just One Of My Losses”
Clyde Ross was born in 1923, the seventh of 13 children, near Clarksdale, Mississippi, the home of the blues. Ross’s parents owned and farmed a 40-acre tract of land, flush with cows, hogs, and mules. Ross’s mother would drive to Clarksdale to do her shopping in a horse and buggy, in which she invested all the pride one might place in a Cadillac. The family owned another horse, with a red coat, which they gave to Clyde. The Ross family wanted for little, save that which all black families in the Deep South then desperately desired—the protection of the law.
In the 1920s, Jim Crow Mississippi was, in all facets of society, a kleptocracy. The majority of the people in the state were perpetually robbed of the vote—a hijacking engineered through the trickery of the poll tax and the muscle of the lynch mob. Between 1882 and 1968, more black people were lynched in Mississippi than in any other state. “You and I know what’s the best way to keep the nigger from voting,” blustered Theodore Bilbo, a Mississippi senator and a proud Klansman. “You do it the night before the election.”
The state’s regime partnered robbery of the franchise with robbery of the purse. Many of Mississippi’s black farmers lived in debt peonage, under the sway of cotton kings who were at once their landlords, their employers, and their primary merchants. Tools and necessities were advanced against the return on the crop, which was determined by the employer. When farmers were deemed to be in debt—and they often were—the negative balance was then carried over to the next season. A man or woman who protested this arrangement did so at the risk of grave injury or death. Refusing to work meant arrest under vagrancy laws and forced labor under the state’s penal system.
READ MORE....
Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Atlantic - May 21, 2014
And if thy brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee. And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty: thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress: of that wherewith the LORD thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing today.
— Deuteronomy 15: 12–15
Besides the crime which consists in violating the law, and varying from the right rule of reason, whereby a man so far becomes degenerate, and declares himself to quit the principles of human nature, and to be a noxious creature, there is commonly injury done to some person or other, and some other man receives damage by his transgression: in which case he who hath received any damage, has, besides the right of punishment common to him with other men, a particular right to seek reparation.
— John Locke, “Second Treatise”
By our unpaid labor and suffering, we have earned the right to the soil, many times over and over, and now we are determined to have it.
— Anonymous, 1861
I. “So That’s Just One Of My Losses”
Clyde Ross was born in 1923, the seventh of 13 children, near Clarksdale, Mississippi, the home of the blues. Ross’s parents owned and farmed a 40-acre tract of land, flush with cows, hogs, and mules. Ross’s mother would drive to Clarksdale to do her shopping in a horse and buggy, in which she invested all the pride one might place in a Cadillac. The family owned another horse, with a red coat, which they gave to Clyde. The Ross family wanted for little, save that which all black families in the Deep South then desperately desired—the protection of the law.
In the 1920s, Jim Crow Mississippi was, in all facets of society, a kleptocracy. The majority of the people in the state were perpetually robbed of the vote—a hijacking engineered through the trickery of the poll tax and the muscle of the lynch mob. Between 1882 and 1968, more black people were lynched in Mississippi than in any other state. “You and I know what’s the best way to keep the nigger from voting,” blustered Theodore Bilbo, a Mississippi senator and a proud Klansman. “You do it the night before the election.”
The state’s regime partnered robbery of the franchise with robbery of the purse. Many of Mississippi’s black farmers lived in debt peonage, under the sway of cotton kings who were at once their landlords, their employers, and their primary merchants. Tools and necessities were advanced against the return on the crop, which was determined by the employer. When farmers were deemed to be in debt—and they often were—the negative balance was then carried over to the next season. A man or woman who protested this arrangement did so at the risk of grave injury or death. Refusing to work meant arrest under vagrancy laws and forced labor under the state’s penal system.
READ MORE....
AFRICAN STUDIES: Second Week October 6 - 10 - Readings, Newspaper Articles and Online Quiz-1
Dear all,
For the second week (October 6 - 10 ), you should read the following chapters:
Chapter 1. The Continent and Its People (The African Experience)
· Chapter 1 - Africa is a night flight away: Images and realities (Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles)
· Chapter 2 - Africa is different: Uganda I (Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles)
Documentary:
Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death - Peter Bate, Belgium, 2003 and
Stealing Africa
ONLINE QUIZ-1: You will take the online quiz-1 on Sunday Oct. 12 between 9 and 10 PM.
Also, I have created a website for this course please visit the website at the following homepage: http://sociologyofafrica.blogspot.com/
On the website, you will find recommended newspapers. Please use these newspapers for your article presentations.
A list of US and International think-tanks are also posted on the website.
As you will see, I post weekly variable news items from current events. If you would like to make comments, a comment section is available for each news item.
NEWSPAPER ARTICLE PRESENTATION: Please bring the newspaper articles every Monday. We will not have any newspaper article presentations on Wednesdays and I do not accept the newspaper articles by email.
FOR THIS WEEK, please bring newspaper articles related with Economic Life in Uganda and Senegal. Other subjects will not be accepted.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best to all,
--
Tugrul Keskin
333 East Hall
Office hours: Monday and Wednesday 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
For the second week (October 6 - 10 ), you should read the following chapters:
Chapter 1. The Continent and Its People (The African Experience)
· Chapter 1 - Africa is a night flight away: Images and realities (Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles)
· Chapter 2 - Africa is different: Uganda I (Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles)
Documentary:
Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death - Peter Bate, Belgium, 2003 and
Stealing Africa
ONLINE QUIZ-1: You will take the online quiz-1 on Sunday Oct. 12 between 9 and 10 PM.
Also, I have created a website for this course please visit the website at the following homepage: http://sociologyofafrica.blogspot.com/
On the website, you will find recommended newspapers. Please use these newspapers for your article presentations.
A list of US and International think-tanks are also posted on the website.
As you will see, I post weekly variable news items from current events. If you would like to make comments, a comment section is available for each news item.
NEWSPAPER ARTICLE PRESENTATION: Please bring the newspaper articles every Monday. We will not have any newspaper article presentations on Wednesdays and I do not accept the newspaper articles by email.
FOR THIS WEEK, please bring newspaper articles related with Economic Life in Uganda and Senegal. Other subjects will not be accepted.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best to all,
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Tugrul Keskin
333 East Hall
Office hours: Monday and Wednesday 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
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