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Blogging Africa
African Blogs: Ethiopia and Somalia, Lebanon, Slavery and Pidgin
Sokari Ekine
2006-07-26, Issue 265
http://pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/36187
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As we near the first democratic elections in nearly 40 years in the DRC, yet another self-serving conflict is brewing in Africa. This time it is between Somalia and Ethiopia.
Ethiopundit - Ethiopundit (http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2006/08/taken-for-ride.html) believes the present near conflict between the two countries serves the interests of both Meles Zenawi and the Somali religious warlords.
“Both have now acquired the 'worthy' opponents of their dreams (and everyone else's nightmares) to justify and excuse all of their myriad crimes - past, present and future - while they fortify and refortify their respective revolutions…No one else benefits except for the web of aggressive international mayhem that is attempting to hijack Islam (arms dealers and Swiss bankers too). Ethiopians and the donor patrons of Meles Inc. are, in turn, unwillingly and quite willingly being forced to go along for a ride that will end badly…”
Have US interests a part to play in this proposed conflict – Zenawi being backed by the US in yet another proxy war on their behalf against the Islamic forces they could not defeat via the old Somali warlords?
Nazret.com - Nazret.com (http://nazret.com/blog/index.php?title=20000_ethiopians_in_lebanon&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) points to an article that reports on some 2000 Ethiopians and other stranded migrant workers in Lebanon. Many governments of these nationals are unable to evacuate their citizens and are calling on the International Organisation on Migration to assist them. For example, Ghana has said it has at least 500 citizens in Beirut and more in Tripoli. Nigerians are also amongst the dead and displaced. Many other African nationals are in Lebanon, displaced and without the means to survive.
Egyptian bloggers, Manal and Alaa’s Bucket - Manal and Alaa's Bucket (http://www.manalaa.net/me-5th-columnist) address a short message to the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt, criticising them for their “lack of adventure”:
“We argue that sometimes staying safe is not an option, and that you have to sacrifice and pay the price of your adventure [rather] than pay the price of sitting idly and waiting…look at the state we live in, look at how hopeless we Egyptians have become; look at how the government cracks down on citizens even if they don't get involved in politics at all; look at how optimistic and proud HizbAllah's adventure made us. Yet you Muslim Brotherhood remain conservative in your actions and [are] moving slowly. Even the younger generations of the Muslim Brothers are cautious! Isn't it part of being young to be daring and a bit reckless? Don't you all burn inside with the need to act, the need to do something? The urge to engage in an ‘adventure’?”
Passion of the Present - Passion of the Present (http://platform.blogs.com/passionofthepresent/2006/07/jan_pronk_on_th.html) posts a piece by Jan Pronk on the lack of progress since the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement.
“Ten weeks after the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement the situation is still quite bleak… Violations of the agreement continue. Intra SLA fighting has not stopped. Two new movements have emerged. One is called the G19, a group which originally consisted of nineteen people, who were present in Abuja as members or advisors of the SLA delegation, but who increasingly disagreed with the leadership…A second new group is the New Redemption Front (NRF). They seem to have their base in the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), which had participated in the Abuja talks…”
Pronk explains the actions of the two groups and other factions over the past few weeks. He believes that peace cannot take place under the present conditions as most people do not have trust in those that signed the DPA. Added to that is the failure by Khartoum to disarm the Janjaweed who continue to carry out atrocities.
Nigerian blogger, Story of My Life Story of My Life (http://nijaoffspring.blogspot.com/2006/07/why-i-resent-white-people-pt-1.html) writes a piece on white people’s response to racism. She goes on to discuss slavery and the effect of the European invasion on Africa and the benefits to European countries of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
“The first act against Africa by Whites was a unilateral act of war, announced or unannounced. There were no African Kings or Queens in any of the European countries or in the US when ships set sail for Africa to capture slaves for profit. White people had already decided to raid for slaves. They didn't need the agreement of black people on that. Hence, the concept of ‘trade’ is a fallacy. The African so-called slave ‘trade’ was a demand-driven market out of Europe and America, not a supply-driven market out of Africa. Africans did not seek to sell captives to the white people as an original act.”
“As Britain developed into the world's first post-industrial nation, financial services became an increasingly important sector of its economy. Invisible financial exports, as mentioned, kept Britain out of the red, especially capital investments outside Europe, particularly to the developing and open markets in Africa and predominantly white settler colonies. In addition, surplus capital was often more profitably invested overseas, where cheap labour, limited competition, and abundant raw materials made a greater premium possible.”
The Cameroonian blogosphere is coming alive with yet another new blog – Martin Jumbam is a journalist and translator Martin Jumbam (http://www.martinjumbam.com/2006/07/interview_with_.html). He has a series of interviews with Professor Abioseh Michael Porter. In the first interview they discuss the use of pidgin or krio in literary expression. Porter says the response to writing in pidgin differs depending on who you talk to. The masses are very receptive and appreciative whilst the educated elite of Cameroon, Nigeria and Sierra Leone despise it’s use. In Cameroon there exists a hierarchy of language:
“At the top of the ladder, you have French, which by sheer number of speakers outranks the others, and then there is English, with Pidgin coming a distant third. There was the mistaken assumption that Pidgin would corrupt the speaker’s correct use of English. Linguistically that is, of course, not true because if you study Pidgin, or any other language, in and of itself and use it the way it is meant to be used, it would be difficult to confuse one with the other. Take the Romance languages of Europe, for example. They are morphologically quite similar but people don’t mix them up simply for that reason. What we have here is simply a kind of superiority complex, if you can excuse that term, European languages have in relation to Pidgin or Krio.”
A number of Nigeria writers have chosen to write in pidgin. Amos Tutola is probably the most famous and Ken Saro Wiwa’s “Sozaboy: A story in rotten English” is one of his best. However on the whole the use of pidgin has been marginalized even though it is used by all strata of society in day-to-day speech.
* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, www.blacklooks.org
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org
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